CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – University of Illinois fans living in the greater St. Louis area can hear all 12 football game broadcasts for the upcoming 2013-14 season on 101ESPN radio via an agreement with Learfield Sports’ Fighting Illini Sports Properties, multimedia rights holder for Illini Athletics.
WXOS-FM 101.1, owned by Hubbard Radio, is known as St. Louis’ sports station. The 100,000-watt station will carry the Saturday football game-day broadcasts in their entirety, as well as the weekly Tim Beckman Show, the popular program with Illini’s head football coach hosted by Brian Barnhart.
Fighting Illini Sports Properties oversees all aspects of the 44-station Illini Sports Radio Network. The property negotiated the new affiliate relationship with 101ESPN on behalf of the university.
Vice President and Hubbard St. Louis Market Manager John Kijowski said, “We are very pleased about this opportunity to broadcast Illinois football on the 101ESPN airwaves. As the leading source for sports radio in the metro St. Louis area, we feel it is very important be able to bring NCAA college football action to the St. Louis listening audience.”
“101ESPN is a reputable station with a loyal following, and we’re glad to introduce them as our football radio partner for St. Louis fans, who can get their Illini fix on Saturdays on top of the sports coverage they’ve come to expect throughout the week,” said Fighting Illini Sports Properties’ General Manager Chris Andrews.
Program Director Chris “Hoss” Neupert added, “101ESPN couldn’t be more excited about this broadcast partnership with the University of Illinois’ football program, particularly since many of our listeners are college football fanatics.”
In addition to Illinois, Learfield Sports manages the multimedia rights for more than 50 collegiate institutions and associations and titles the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup with NACDA and USA Today. Its exclusive sports programming reaches more than 50 million television households nationally and delivers nearly 17,000 hours of radio programming on more than 1,100 radio stations. For more about the company’s 40-year history and comprehensive collegiate portfolio, visit www.learfieldsports.com.