Atlanta's Star 94 and 790 The Zone Get Falcons Football

The NFL Atlanta Falcons have signed a four-year deal with Lincoln Financial Media to make “Sports Radio 790 The Zone” WQXI and hot AC “Star 94” WSTR its new radio flagship stations.  The games had been heard on CBS Radio’s adult alternative “92.9 Dave FM” WZGC.  Play-by-play announcer Wes Durham and color analyst and former Iowa State Cyclone Dave Archer will make the move as well.

As part of the agreement, both stations will simulcast all Falcons regular and pre-season games starting the fall 2011.   While it may be unusual for a pop music station to air football play by play, program director Scott Lindy sees it as a good fit.   “Falcons families are Star 94 families,” Lindy says.  “Our 100,000 watt reach, combined with the Falcons’ huge popularity, makes this a great move for both brands."

The agreement marks a homecoming of sorts for the Falcons. The franchise's first season in 1966 was broadcast on WQXI and WKXI-FM – which is today WSTR.   The relationship continued into the mid-1970s.

While CBS Radio lost the rights, its sister WGCL-TV remains the television home for the Falcons in Atlanta.   “Lincoln Financial Media and CBS Atlanta are solid media companies who are committed to providing Falcons fans with the most innovative, complete, and comprehensive coverage both from a radio and television prospective,” team president Rich McKay says.

Crazy Belgian Radio DJ's Prank Call Rafael Nadal

It appears disc jockeys in the United States aren't the only form of life that likes to resort to prank phone calls for cheap radio bit.

I guess you could call this the Belgain version of the "Howard Stern Show".

World No. 1 Rafael Nadal was awakened Monday morning by a prank call that got through the front desk to reach his hotel room.

Nadal is staying in Charleroi where he and team Spain will play Davis Cup later in the week against Belgium. Local media celebrity Maria del Rio is the offending party in this one. In the call, she tells the hotel operator that she’s Rafa’s mother, and it worked!  I have to wonder if the guy at the hotel front desk currently has a job.

What is amazing to me, is Rafa really in unflapable.  By putting my high school and college Spanish to good use I could tell once he realized he was getting pranked he was a pretty good sport about it and didn't get rattled.  Kudos to Rafa.  He probably also realizes this Belgian tie is nothing but a little warm up for the Spanish Armada that is his Davis Cup team.

Here's the video of the prank:

Phil Collin's Music Career: He May Be 'Throwing it All Away'

Former Genesis drummer and frontman Phil Collins is coming to the realiation his music making days may be over,

The 60-year-old has hearing problems and nerve damage in his hands, and says in an interview, "I don't think anyone's going to miss me… I look at the MTV Music Awards and I think, 'I can't be in the same business as this.'" Collins has expressed this disinterest in making new music before: in October, he told Billboard, "I'm not anticipating doing anything else. If I do write songs...I don't know about putting them out on an album or anything like that. I don't really have the desire to do that now."

Oh, think twice, it's just another day for
For you and me in paradise
Oh, think twice, it's just another day
For you, you and me in paradise
Just think about it

ESPN Radio Adds a Station in the Bahamas

ESPN is living up to it's nickname as "The Worldwide Leader".

In its first affiliate deal in the Caribbean, ESPN Radio signed Navetter Broadcasting Company’s “SportsRadio103” ZSR-FM in the Bahamian capital of Nassau on the Bahamas most populous island of New Providence. The Bahamas’ rabid American sports fan base will now have access to daily special features and overnight programs, as well as “SportsCenter” and other weekend shows.

ESPN Caribbean and Maritime Media VP Bernard Stewart says, “This is another step in ESPN’s goal to deliver to sports fans in the Caribbean top quality sports entertainment wherever they are.”

Navetter Broadcasting GM Vann Ferguson adds, “Bahamians are as fanatical about the NBA, NFL and NCAA as Americans and enthusiastically follow sports on TV. Our carrying ESPN programming on radio is an added treat for fans to stay informed and hear games when they are unable to catch them on TV.”