I-70 Baseball Radio and WWPM MediaNet Reach Agreement

In July of 2010, BaseballDigest.com would announce its second affiliate site, i70baseball.com, as well as the accompanying Monday night broadcast of I-70 Baseball Radio. Since then, I-70 Baseball Radio has come to you live every Monday night at 10 p.m. Central Time with host Bill Ivie and co-host Matt Kelsey as they bring you Cardinals and Royals news. They are joined every week by writers, bloggers, and authors who are experts on the teams that the Cardinals and Royals will be playing that week.

WWPM MediaNet is exploring the third launch in a history of attempts to bring mainstream radio content to fans across the internet. A company that encompasses an internet radio station and two former over the air broadcast radio stations in Paducah, Kentucky and Burlington, Iowa.

Recently, the United Cardinal Blogger Radio Hour, a show occasionally hosted by Bill Ivie, was approached for rebroadcast rights on WWPM Media radio during the weekend time slots. Due to relationships formed by the founder of the UCB Radio Hour, Daniel Shoptaw, and Bill Ivie, the UCB Radio Hour and I-70 Baseball Radio Hour were recommended to Jake Leonard, president and CEO of WWPM Holdings Corporation.

When asked about the reach of WWPM MediaNet, Jake Leonard proudly stated “With current shows hailing from Philadelphia (PA), Chicago (IL), Memphis (TN), Hot Springs (AR), Springfield (MO & IL) and Des Moines (IA), we’re slowly gaining a national audience. We have been glad to say that in our current attempt, we have been glad to know that about 150 of our armed forces have tuned in while in Afghanistan and Iraq. To current date, we have about 8,000 listeners and that slowly increases by the day.”

Jake also talked about the growth of WWPM MediaNet and had this to say:

We intend to broadcast online longer than the past two attempts we did before. However, despite the lack thereof of advertising support and not enough budget allotted by our parent company WWPM Holdings Corporation, we are in serious need of listener support. We are a listener-supported commercial Internet station, so financial assistance for grants will be more difficult for us as compared to non-commercial Internet and AM/FM stations who are non-profit organizations. We just implemented a Members Club program that you can check out on our website at http://www.wwpmmedianet.info. We’re already in need of upgrading some equipment, including purchasing a full edition of SAM Broadcaster, which we utilize for all programming on our station.

Knowing that our markets are HUGE on baseball and sports overall, they expect that there will be programming that will satisfy their needs. First through the gate was Philadelphia’s Sickness Radio. Knowing our prior relationship on BlogTalkRadio, general manager Tommy Heinsinger was anything but reluctant at the suggestion of syndication on another radio network. No sooner I got that show arranged and scheduled, Eric Lamb from Chicago Baseball Week In Review emailed me within the debut week about being aired (which was discussed even as early as May, before the station relaunched). All of a sudden, my schedule slowly fills up, with definite appreciation from Ray Kluever from “Living With Sportz”, Daniel Shoptaw (a vital part of United Cardinal Bloggers), Vance Media Corporation (“AgriTalk: The Voice of Rural America”) and last but not least, Bill Ivie from i70baseball. With our schedule slowly filling up, WWPM MediaNet will be a force to reckoned with – it is becoming a hit on Facebook (and even though it seems unconventional, ReverbNation).

I-70 Baseball Radio, which can be heard every Monday night on BlogTalkRadio.com, is thrilled to join the WWPM MediaNet family on Tuesday evenings at 5 pm central time with a rebroadcast of our Monday Night show.

The first show will air September 7th and can be heard at WWPM MediaNet’s website by clicking here.