BATON ROUGE — When the LSU football team opens the 2007 season against Mississippi State on Thursday night in Starkville, Jim Hawthorne’s call of the action will be heard on the LSU Sports Radio Network in more cities and states than ever before.
The LSU Sports Radio Network now has affiliates in five states, including Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Florida and Texas. Most recently, the LSU Sports Network added affiliates in Houston (1560 AM-KILE) and Dallas (KFCD 990 AM) giving the Tigers more of a presence in Texas than ever before. The Houston affiliate will carry all LSU programming in 2007-08, while the Dallas station will carry selected events.
“Our network is one of the most powerful in all of collegiate athletics,” said the Voice of the Tigers Jim Hawthorne, who enters his 25th season of calling the action for LSU football games. “At night, we reach 36 states. That’s a lot of power and that’s a lot of people listening to LSU athletics.
“I can’t ever remember our radio network having affiliates in five different states.”
In addition to its affiliates in Texas, the LSU Sports Radio Network has three affiliates in Mississippi, one in Crossett, Ark., and one in Pensacola, Fla.
Two of the biggest reasons for the sheer power of the LSU Sports Radio Network are the 50,000-watt affiliates in WWL 870 AM in New Orleans and KWKH 1130 AM in Shreveport.
All LSU football games in 2007, with the exception of the season-opener against Mississippi State, can be heard on WWL Radio. Due to a conflict with the Saints game that night, LSU’s game against Mississippi State will be broadcast in the New Orleans area on WKBU 95.7 FM on Thursday night.
“You’d be hard pressed to find an area that you can’t hear the Tigers on the radio along the Gulf Coast,” said Ward Wyatt, who serves as general manager for LSU Sports Properties. “By adding Houston and Dallas to our list of affiliates, to go along with WWL and KWKH, we have solidified the LSU Sports Radio Network as one of the most powerful in college sports.”
The LSU Sports Radio Network has a total of 22 affiliates on board for the 2007-08 season, 16 of which are in the state of Louisiana.
In addition to reaching fans by radio, fans from across the country, and even across the world, can listen to Hawthorne’s call of LSU’s sporting events on LSUsports.net.
“The presence of LSU athletics is worldwide,” Hawthorne said. “No matter where you are, if you have access to either a radio or a computer, you can listen to the Tigers in action.”