With Yankees and Mets radio rights set to expire in October, the smart money had long been on the market’s two sports stations — WFAN and ESPN — to land one or the other of the highly coveted properties.
But a new player has emerged, and it looks as if it’s playing for keeps.
Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, which owns WOR Radio, has made a recent bid in excess of the $14 million currently paid by CBS for the rights to the Yankees’ broadcasts, sources told The Post.
CBS, which owns WFAN as well as WCBS, has owned the Yankees rights since 2002. Now, with two spots on the radio dial that are dedicated to its sports station — WFAN can be heard at 660 AM and 101.9 FM — it seems unlikely CBS will let the rights go without a fight.
If Clear Channel grabs the Yankees, it would mean the Mets are alive with both WFAN, the franchise’s radio home since the station went on the air in 1987, and ESPN. The team, which receives between $6 million and $7 million a year under its current deal, could even find itself the object of a bidding war.
Clear Channel declined to comment.
ESPN had been expected to go hard after one of the teams.