Time to change the dial. The Yankees appear bound for FM radio.
Local sports radio is on the precipice of radical change as ESPN, according to a strong wind blowing from the radio industry, is nearing the completion of a long-sought deal with an FM channel to give it a clear, full and far-reaching nighttime signal — something 1050 ESPN could not provide.
The deal, upon completion — and that could be by the end of this week — would give ESPN long-term programming rights on the FM station, allowing the sports network to chase — and hard — Yankees rights.
The Yankees, heard on WCBS-AM 880 since 2002, are radio free-agents after this season.
It’s also fully anticipated that Knicks’ and Rangers’ nighttime radio broadcasts would switch from 1050 to ESPN’s new FM spot.
ESPN, reached late yesterday afternoon, declined to comment.
It’s highly unlikely that ESPN, if it lands the Yankees — especially attached to a big price tag — would be bound to retain the team’s current longtime broadcast duo of John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman. Sterling has been calling Yankees radiocasts since 1989 and been partnered with Waldman since 1999.
WCBS currently pays the Yankees about $14 million per season for rights. It is a big money-loser for the station and the CBS Radio Network, which also owns WFAN.
WFAN’s deal with the Mets, in the neighborhood of $7 million per year, expires after this season, thus, once ESPN puts the finish to its FM deal, it’s inconceivable that ESPN’s FM side won’t start next year as the radio home of the Yankees, its first preference, or the Mets.
No word, yet, on which FM channel ESPN is close to signing on with, but a source claims that one of its options last July, renamed WEMP 101.9 (from WRXP), is no longer in the picture.
The Yankees always have been listened to locally on AM radio, beginning in 1939 on WABC.
Over the last 73 years they have been heard on seven different AM stations, including WCBS, WABC (770), WOR (710), and WINS (1010).
phil.mushnick@nypost.com