Prep football in the metro area has a second radio carrier

High school football in the metro area has a new media partner.

Starting later this month, a combined 10 Cleveland and Rio Rancho games will be broadcast on local radio. Eight of the games will be in Rio Rancho.

The first half of the season, select home games for the Storm and Rams can be heard on KTBL-AM (1050) and simulcast on 94.5 FM “The Pit.”

Once the Albuquerque Isotopes are finished with their season, Storm and Rams games will switch to KNML-AM (610), and simulcast on 95.9 FM.

“We used to do high school football, but we kind of abandoned that over the years,” said Brandon Vogt, the program director at KNML. “We just started this year, and we’ll see how it goes.”

Five Rio Rancho games and five Cleveland games (including their annual matchup against one another) are scheduled to be broadcast, starting with the Aug. 22 season opener in Rio Rancho between the Rams and Atrisco Heritage.

KTBL also has the Aug. 29 game featuring the Rams and Clovis. KTBL is doing two Cleveland home games in the first month of the season: Clovis on Sept. 5 and Las Cruces on Sept. 12.

KNML begins doing games in October. The schedule is Cibola-Rio Rancho on Oct. 3 (this is the one game not in Rio Rancho; it will be at Nusenda Community Stadium), Cibola-Cleveland on Oct. 10, Piedra Vista-Cleveland on Oct. 17, Farmington-Rio Rancho on Oct. 24, and then the huge Rio Rancho-Cleveland showdown on Halloween night.

All are Friday night contests.

Vogt said the elite status of both programs was certainly a lure to partner with Rio Rancho Public Schools.

“Wouldn’t it be great if we could get something with them and kind of alternate … and follow both of them throughout the season?” Vogt said.

A majority of larger schools outside the metro area already have games broadcast on a local station.

But not Rio Rancho.

“Honestly, when I started thinking about it, I couldn’t believe they didn’t have a radio home,” Vogt said. “I felt pretty lucky that nobody had done this before.”

Another local radio station, 101.7 FM “The Team” is the flagship station for Albuquerque Public Schools, and in fact they will be doing the season opener on Aug. 21 between La Cueva and Volcano Vista at Wilson Stadium.

And it is possible both stations might be at the same game, as there is no contractual language that would prohibit that.

But now Rio Rancho, which already has video broadcast partners for home games — ProView Networks for Rio Rancho, Sports Primo for Cleveland — can expand the audience.

“We think it’s a great way to celebrate our programs,” said Rio Rancho district athletic director Todd Resch. “We have a promising start with a radio affiliate.”

J.J. Buck, who is the play-by-play voice for UNM women’s basketball, will be one of several voices handling game broadcast duties for Cleveland and Rio Rancho, Vogt said.