Taylor Zarzour Returns to the Air… Sort of…

Taylor Zarzour who hosted the “Morning Sports Drive” on the now defunct Triangle Sports Talk 1090 now hosts the “Sports Drive” from 3-5 pm on Spring Lake’s ESPN Radio WCIE 1450-AM. Don’t go searching the dial in the Triangle area to find this station. When conditions are just right, the station can barely be heard at my home about 18 miles southeast of Fayetteville. Your best bet to hear Zarzour is via the web at www.ncespn.com.

This should familiar to listeners of Triangle Sports Talk 1090… According to the Fayetteville Observer, The station manager at WCIE reports that one of their main priorities is to improve their signal strength. Many of you will recall that 1090 was a daytime only station with limited coverage into Raleigh. Triangle Sports Talk did purchase WDUR 1490 to improve their coverage into Durham and North Raleigh, but Zarzour did his last Morning Sports Drive the day after the Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup. I sort of had the feeling they were waiting until the hockey season was over to pull the plug.

Although it was short-lived, Triangle Sports Talk did reshape sports talk in the Triangle. Prior to the Morning Sports Drive, there was no morning sports talk in the market. The presence of the Morning Sports Drive forced WRBZ’s parent company, McClatchey Broadcasting to start a morning show. Not wanting to drop Imus in the Morning, McClatchey acquired a broadcast agreement for WDNC and started the Morning MoJo in the 6-10 am slot. As a result, 620 the Bull and 850 the Buzz now hold a monopoly over sports talk in the Triangle. Between to 2 stations, there are now 10 hours a day of locally originated spots talk.