Radio broadcasters Audacy and SiriusXM have signed a licensing agreement that will bring dozens of Audacy’s sports talk and news stations to SiriusXM’s traditional satellite radio and streaming platforms in September.
The agreement covers stations from 29 markets across the country. Twenty-three sports stations will launch September 1, just in time for the start of the National Football League’s (NFL) regular season, while 19 news and talk outlets will become available later this year. (SiriusXM is the exclusive national distributor of audio simulcasts from NFL games, which are available in most of its core packages.)
Nine sports stations will be offered through SiriusXM’s satellite service in vehicles and through its streaming application, including sports talk outlets from New York City, Dallas, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Other stations from Los Angeles, Sacramento, Houston, Washington, Atlanta, Miami and Milwaukee will be available on the SiriusXM app and on SiriusXM’s 360L tuners in connected cars and homes, the company said.
Scott Greenstein, President and Chief Content Officer of SiriusXM, said the agreement complements the company’s national sports channels, league programming and live game coverage with local discussion from major markets.
“By adding Audacy’s extensive lineup of sports stations, we’re making those trusted hometown voices available to fans wherever they are across North America,” Greenstein said.
Kelli Turner, the President and CEO of Audacy, said the arrangement gives the company’s local stations additional national distribution while providing audiences with more ways to access their programming.
“Audacy’s sports brands are deeply connected to the cities, teams and fan communities they serve, and being able to extend our reach nationally through SiriusXM is a natural fit, ” Turner said in a statement. “We look forward to working together with SiriusXM to bring our outstanding talent and content to sports fans and news and talk listeners wherever they are, providing our audiences with more ways to stay connected to the conversations that matter most to them.”
The pact is the first involving a traditional terrestrial radio broadcaster and SiriusXM in several years. The company previously offered audio simulcasts of music, news and talk stations from Clear Channel, later iHeart Media, after that company agreed to financially invest in XM Satellite Radio early in its development. Some stations moved over to SiriusXM after it acquired XM in 2009.
The audio simulcasts of iHeartRadio were dropped from SiriusXM in 2022, as reported by The Desk at the time.
The arrangement between Audacy and SiriusXM is non-exclusive: Audacy’s stations remain available for free through the Audacy app, and the company also has a licensing arragement with Stingray’s TuneIn to offer streaming simulcasts through that platform as well.
But the deal extends the reach of Audacy’s sports and news stations on a platform that has more than 30 million national subscribers, which could allow Audacy to increase the amount of national advertising it brings to those stations. SiriusXM will be allowed an opportunity to swap out some of Audacy’s local station breaks with its own national advertising as well, the companies affirmed.
Financial terms of the deal were otherwise not disclosed.
The stations that are part of the initial launch are:
- WFAN (660 AM, 101.9 FM) in New York
- WSCR and WBMX (670 AM, 104.3 FM) in Chicago
- KRLD-FM (105.3 FM) in Dallas
- KGMZ-FM (95.7 FM) in San Francisco
- WIP-FM (94.1 FM) in Philadelphia
- WEEI-FM (93.7 FM) in Boston
- WXYT-FM (97.1 FM) in Detroit
- KDKA-FM (93.7 FM) in Pittsburgh
- WKRK-FM (92.3 FM) in Cleveland
Stations that will be available on SiriusXM 360L connected tuners and via the SiriusXM app are:
- KNX-FM (97.1 FM) in Los Angeles
- KILT (610 AM) in Houston
- WJFK-FM (106.7 FM) in Washington, D.C.
- WTEM (980 AM) in Washington, D.C.
- WZGC (92.9 FM) in Atlanta
- WQAM (560 AM, 104.3 FM) in Miami
- KWFN (97.3 FM) in San Diego
- WJZ-FM (105.7 FM) in Baltimore
- KRSK and KRSK-FM (1080 AM, 105.1 FM) in Portland
- KIFM (1320 AM) in Sacramento
- KFNZ-FM (96.5 FM) in Kansas City
- WSSP (1250 AM, 105.7 FM) in Milwaukee
- WMFS-FM (92.9 FM) in Memphis
- WGR (550 AM) in Buffalo
Other stations that are launching on SiriusXM 360L and the SiriusXM app later in the year include:
- WINS and WINS-FM (1010 AM, 92.3 FM) in New York
- KNX (1070 AM) in Los Angeles
- WBBM and WCFS-FM (780 AM, 105.9 FM) in Chicago
- KCBS and KFRC-FM (740 AM, 106.9 FM) in San Francisco
- KRLD (1080 AM) in Dallas
- KYW and WPHI-FM (1060 AM, 103.9 FM) in Philadelphia
- WPHT (1210 AM) in Philadelphia
- WWJ (950 AM) in Detroit
- WAOK (1380 AM) in Atlanta
- WCCO (830 AM) in Minneapolis
- KMOX and KMOX-FM (1120 AM, 104.1 FM) in St. Louis
- KDKA and W261AX (1020 AM, 100.1 FM) in Pittsburgh
- KMBZ-FM (98.1 FM) in Kansas City
- WWL and WWL-FM (870 AM, 105.3 FM) in New Orleans
- WTIC (1080 AM) in Hartford
- WBEN (930 AM) in Buffalo
- WRVA and W241AP (1140 AM, 96.1 FM) in Richmond
- WORD-FM (98.9 FM) in Greenville
- WILK-FM (103.1 FM) in Wilkes-Barre and Scranton
A total of 42 Audacy stations are part of the arrangement. None of Audacy’s music channels are moving over, though SiriusXM has its own collection of commercial-free music channels from a wide variety of genres.
