Brett Sports, Kxly Team Up On Three-Year Deal Chiefs, Indians Will Leave Kga; Internet Access A Key To Move

The owner of Spokane’s hockey and baseball properties is looking forward to expanded coverage on a global scale following an agreement with the KXLY broadcast group announced Monday.

Chiefs hockey, Indians baseball, Spokane Shadow soccer and Greater Spokane League sports will be tied into one broadcast organization under a three-year partnership between KXLY and Brett Sports and Entertainment.

Bobby Brett, his brothers and partners own the Chiefs, Indians and Shadow, and control broadcast rights to GSL football and basketball.

Chiefs games will remain on 1510 KGA through the Memorial Cup May 9-17. Next season, the Chiefs will be carried on KXLY 920.

The baseball Indians go to 970 The Score. KKPL 630 gets the Shadow.

Dave Pier, Brett Sports vice president, said the agreement opens new opportunities.

Play-by-play coverage of Chiefs games starting next fall will be heard on the internet, he said. Brett’s other franchises will also be available on the net. That will allow, for example, parents of a Chiefs hockey player in Canada to pick up a clear signal of the games anywhere in Canada.

The same opportunity would apply to high school games.

“Say you’ve got a son playing GSL basketball, his game is on the radio and you’re on a business trip in London,” Pier said. “You’ll be able to get the game on the net.”

With both a TV station and sports talk radio, KXLY offers possibilities not available with Citadel Broadcasting, which owns KGA and KJRB, which have carried the Chiefs and Indians. Those include a coach’s show, a Chiefs TV highlights program or hockey specials, said Brian Paul, operations manager of the KXLY broadcast group.

Brett is happy with the deal.

“Radio is changing rapidly,” he said. “The whole landscape could be completely different in three years. It was important to us to tie into a family of stations for three years. Three years is a long-term agreement these days.

“Signal-wise, what we lose on KGA we pick up with the new technology.”

The move doesn’t affect broadcast assignments, Pier said. Craig West does play-by-play in hockey and baseball. Jay Stewart handles the Shadow, and provides color and occasional play-by-play on hockey broadcasts.

West’s mornings slot on KGA will, however, end when the station’s contract with the Chiefs expires.

The Chiefs were on KGA when Brett bought the club in 1990.

Scheduling conflicts will require flexibility, Brett said. The Seattle Mariners, who are also on KXLY 920, may be in the American League playoffs when the Chiefs get into their regular season. If they’re on at the same time, the Chiefs would go to 970 The Score, which powers down in the evenings. That would cut into local radio coverage.

If the Chiefs are in the playoffs in April and May, and game times conflict with the Mariners, baseball would move to 970, Paul said.

With Chiefs games to be available on the internet, and with conflicts seen as few and far between, the move to KXLY will pay off in added promotion and exposure, Pier said.

Unlike major league sports, no rights fees were exchanged. The Chiefs and Indians sell their own sponsorship time.

One factor in the decision, Pier said, was that Citadel is still “trying to position KJRB in the market.

“Compare KJRB to The Score,” Pier said. “KJRB is not as well-defined. To us it makes sense to have sports entities on a sports station.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: All-Stars on air The WHL All-Star Game Wednesday will be carried on 1510 KGA at 5:05 p.m.