With live sports suspended indefinitely, Good Karma Brands is using stations in multiple markets as destinations to keep listeners informed about the COVID-19 pandemic. 540 ESPN in Milwaukee was the first station to make the flip. On Tuesday, 1540 AM in Cleveland announced that it would air the same programming.
Tuesday through Saturday, WAUK 540 ESPN is picking up SiriusXM’s Coronavirus Radio channel 121, which airs highlights from Doctor Radio. Sunday and Monday, WAUK will air SiriusXM’s Doctor Radio channel 110 in its entirety.
1540 ESPN Cleveland will begin airing the same programming on Wednesday, April 22. The Cleveland station will also carry Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s daily press briefing at 2 pm.
While WAUK flips its focus to COVID-19, regularly produced local sports programming will continue to air on sister station 94.5 ESPN WKTI. Local programming in Cleveland will continue to air on 850 AM.
“We can’t wait for live sports to resume and for the threat of the coronavirus to subside, but in the meantime, believe the health and well-being of our community is the top priority, as well as delivering relevant information to our audience,” said Steve Wexler, Good Karma Brands VP and Milwaukee Market Manager.
“We felt it was important to provide relevant information to help support the health of our community during this time,” ESPN Cleveland Director of Content, Matt Fishman added. “Doctor Radio, in collaboration with NYU Langone Health, is a place where listeners can turn to hear from medical experts during this pandemic, and we’re proud to offer this to our community commercial-free during this time.”
There isn’t much precedent for satellite radio being offered by terrestrial stations, but interestingly, Good Karma’s founder Craig Karmazin is the son of former SiriusXM CEO Mel Karmazin.