97.5 The Fanatic is the new home of Union game radio broadcasts
The Union are also launching a weekly TV show that will air Thursday nights on PHL17, the station that used to televise the team's games.
Radio broadcasts of Union games will be heard on 97.5 The Fanatic this season, the biggest radio platform the team has had in its 14-year history.
The FM station will broadcast games whenever there aren’t scheduling conflicts with the 76ers and Flyers, and every game will be available on The Fanatic’s website and mobile app.
The deal is just for this year. Scheduling conflicts could happen often in the spring and fall, since almost every Union game will be played on Saturday nights. Indeed, the Union’s first two games will be bumped off the radio by the Sixers.
But it will still be an increase in exposure, and the Apple streaming platform will provide even more of it. Union home games will be available as an audio overlay on Apple’s game broadcasts, through a drop-down selection on the screen.
» READ MORE: How to watch Union games in the new Apple MLS Season Pass streaming package
Only broadcasts of home games will be on the Apple platform for now, because Apple’s technicians need the broadcasters to be in the stadium to sync the audio with the video. Hopefully down the road, Apple will add radio broadcasts of away games.
Dave Leno will continue as the Union’s radio play-by-play voice, with former Union player Sheanon Williams as the lead analyst. Other contributors will include former Union player Sébastien Le Toux, longtime MLS broadcaster Jonathan Yardley, Philadelphia-based CBS NWSL broadcaster Lisa Roman, and the Union’s head of content Adam Cann.
Le Toux will also be a game analyst for Apple’s French-language broadcasts of Canadian teams’ games, and Roman will continue her work with CBS.
From the summer of 2020 through last year, radio broadcasts of Union games were on Fox Sports The Gambler, which has low-power broadcasts on 1480 AM and 102.5 FM. Before then, the team hadn’t had a traditional radio partner for games since a one-year deal with WIP in 2012 that put games on 610 AM, after the station had moved its flagship content to 94.1 FM.
Otherwise, when radio broadcasts have existed, they’ve been only online.
» READ MORE: Mikael Uhre aims for a 20-goal season in his second year with the Union
New weekly TV show on PHL17
Though Union games won’t be televised on PHL17 anymore, the team has struck a deal with the station to air a weekly half-hour TV show on Thursdays at 9 p.m.
The show will include highlights, analysis, interviews, and a preview of each week’s upcoming game. Marisa Pilla, a longtime host of PHL17′s pregame and postgame coverage, will host the weekly show with analysts, including Le Toux and Williams.
MLS Season Pass free for T-Mobile phone users
If you have T-Mobile for your cellphone service, you can get Apple’s MLS Season Pass streaming package for free, from now until March 14.
The promotion is available through the T-Mobile Tuesdays app, which is on Apple and Android phone. You have to have an Apple ID as well as the app. If you have an Android phone, you can create an Apple ID through a web browser at appleid.apple.com.
» READ MORE: We know what MLS wants from Apple. What does Apple want from MLS?