This may be a first: a southern New Jersey radio station will be airing all 162 Los Angeles Angels games this year because of the local popularity of Mike Trout. Via USA Today:
"WSNJ-AM 1240 will broadcast all 162 Los Angeles Angels games after reaching an agreement with Major League Baseball and the Angels to re-broadcast KLAA-AM's feed from Anaheim. The station will air a 30-minute pregame show, the entire game and a 15-minute postgame show.
WSNJ also broadcasts in Salem County, southern Gloucester County, southwestern Atlantic County, the northern shore of Delaware and the southeast corner of Pennsylvania."
The only other example like this I can recall is ESPN Radio in Los Angeles broadcasting New York Jets games one year because of USC alum and Orange County native Mark Sanchez. That's worked well. (And a reader passed along a North Dakota station doing the same for Darrin Erstad of all people for the Angels once again.)
But the daily regimen of 162 baseball games is much different than 3 hours every Sunday. One player, after a dynamic rookie season, is causing a radio station to dedicate 3-4 hours a day to broadcasting the games of a team 2700 miles away. You don't see any Las Vegas radio stations broadcasting Washington Nationals games, or any radio stations in Georgia (where Buster Posey grew up) or Tallahassee (where he went to school at Florida State) airing Giants games.
And when you consider an area like South Jersey where fans have the Phillies, Mets, and Yankees all close by, I'd be interested to know just how many listeners Trout and the Angels will draw. If Trout struggles or gets hurt, it could be a disaster. But if he continues the incredible start to his career and people in South Jersey listen, it could represent a trend of featuring local professional stars going forward.
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