NorthEast Radio Watch 5/18/2026: Bills Find New Home

In this week’s issue… Cumulus lands Bills deal – Salem goes private – FCC to auction new FMs – Bath loses local mornings – Philly’s Fanatic loses local nights

By SCOTT FYBUSH

*This might not be this week’s lead story for most other columns, but this column and its guaranteed-human editor are very proudly based in western NEW YORK, where Buffalo sports are a religion even in the worst of seasons.

In this particular season, when the Bills are preparing to open a glitzy new stadium and the Sabres are, remarkably, still alive in the Stanley Cup playoffs (!), then, the announcement of a new broadcast home for the Bills is something pretty close to front page news even for audiences that usually aren’t paying much attention to radio sports.

And with the end of the longtime deal that had both teams as fixtures on Audacy’s top-rated sports station, WGR (550/107.7), it’s a big deal that Cumulus has signed up to replace Audacy as the flagship station for the Bills starting this fall, returning the team to WGRF (97 Rock), which had been the Bills’ flagship from 1998 until 2011.

As alert NERW readers (and Buffalo sports fans) already knew, the Bills and Sabres have taken their radio rights in house, working with sports powerhouse Good Karma Brands, which is handling production and distribution for the games, which means WGRF’s new role will really be that of a high-profile affiliate, taking the game broadcasts that come from Good Karma and the team. Chris Brown and color analyst Eric Wood will stay in place in the booth, with Bills legend Steve Tasker joining the team as the new sideline reporter to replace WGR’s Sal Capaccio.

There are still plenty of questions yet to be answered about the new Bills Radio Network – while we also know it will air in Syracuse on Cumulus’ WSKO (The Score 1260), we don’t yet know what the rest of the network will look like, including the likelihood of a new Rochester outlet to replace Audacy’s WROC (WGR Rochester 950/95.7) and WCMF (96.5), as well as talk of an expanded Canadian network across the border.

There’s also no announcement yet about the Sabres, since the current Audacy deal continues for as long as the team stays alive in the playoffs – and here’s hoping that’s a bit of news we don’t get to report for a few weeks yet. (Apologies to our readers in Montreal…)

Whatever shakes out, it’s going to mean more choices for Buffalo sports fans; even without the play-by-play rights, WGR will still be talking Bills and Sabres nonstop, likely with a bit more edge as a completely independent voice – and will Cumulus counter with its own full-time sports signal in town? We’ll be listening.