# (Sacramento) Kings and KMAX are now divorced



## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

*Kings and KMAX are now divorced*
Broadcasts will move to News10 after a ruling negates a pact

Turnover, KMAX. An arbitrator has voided the Kings' contract with UPN-31 (KMAX), agreeing with the team's claim that the station committed a technical foul during last season's playoffs.
The interim ruling, issued Tuesday and expected to be finalized over the next few weeks, brings an immediate and ignominious end to the station's relationship with the Kings, whose games it has broadcast since 1988.

The Kings now move down the dial to a new over-the-air home: News10 (KXTV), which could reap a ratings bonanza by adding the popular team to its programming roster.

As an ABC affiliate, News10 had to receive special permission from the network to preempt some of its prime-time programs in favor of the Kings' telecasts.

It didn't hurt that ABC and its cable cousin, ESPN, are in the first year of a multibillion-dollar deal with the NBA. But still, News10 president Postell said getting the network to sign off was no slam dunk.

A separate deal with Fox Sports Network's regional cable channel is unaffected by the ruling.

FULL AND COMPLETE ARTICLE HERE

*KFBK makes 'surprising' offer to wrest Kings from radio home*

Could the radio station that claims its call letters stand for "Home of the Kings" soon have a major vacancy?

KHTK (1140 AM), the Kings' radio residence for the past nine seasons, faces serious competition from an old rival in its critical quest to retain the team's broadcast rights.

The current contract expires at the end of the NBA season, and at one point last year, KHTK had exclusive renegotiating rights, sources say.

But when that period passed, KFBK -- the market's top-rated station, which is owned by Clear Channel Radio -- submitted what a source calls "a substantial and surprising offer" to Maloof Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Kings.

(This article repeats some of the same information of the above article)

FULL ARTICLE HERE


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