Local radio station finalizes deal to air Dodgers games

Tom Humm grew up in Las Vegas listening with his father to legendary announcer Vin Scully call Los Angeles Dodgers games on the radio.

This season, for the first time in more than 40 years here, Dodgers games haven't been broadcast on the radio in Southern Nevada.

But Humm, the market manager for the Beasley Broadcast Group, helped change that Wednesday when he finalized a two-year deal for KBET-AM (790) to carry all Dodgers games for the rest of this season and next -- including the playoffs, World Series and weekend spring training games.

The station, which is changing its format from country legends to sports radio, will air Friday's game in a test run before broadcasting all Dodgers games in their entirety, including a 10-minute pregame and postgame show, starting Monday.

"The Dodgers are definitely the cornerstone to launching our sports station, especially with their large following in Las Vegas," Humm said. "We're extremely excited to get these guys."

Dodgers games were first broadcast here on KBAD-AM (920), formerly KORK-AM, from the mid-1960s through 1979. KDWN-AM (720), another Beasley station, carried them through 2000, and KSFN-AM (1140) aired the games from 2001 to 2008 before switching to kids programming this year, leaving the Dodgers without a partner in Las Vegas.

The team had reached an agreement with KWWN-AM (1100), the local ESPN Radio affiliate, to air one game per week this season before Beasley agreed to carry all the games, nullifying the other deal.

"Our goal was to carry all the games in Las Vegas," said Lauryn Lukin, the Dodgers' vice president of broadcasting. "We're really excited to have (KBET) on board. It's very important to us that our fans will be able to hear all the Dodgers games in Las Vegas."

During the regular season, Scully will be simulcast for the first three innings, with Charley Steiner and Rick Monday calling the rest of the game. During the playoffs, Scully will be simulcast for the entire game.

On Tuesday, KBET started airing the "Serious Sports Talk" show hosted by Carmine (Pat Casale) and Jimmy (Jimmy Tuma), from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. Humm said it could take a couple of months before the station completes its transition to sports programming.

"We're looking at about a 60-day process to see what we want to add to the station," he said. "As we continue to transition to all sports over the next 30 to 60 days, we'll continue to play country music in between our sports programming."

Humm said he's considering broadcasting NFL, NHL, NBA and college football and basketball games on the station.

"There's just a tremendous amount of opportunity out there," he said. "A lot of franchises want to get into (the) Las Vegas (market)."