WTSO-AM/1070 mornings: An unlikely combo

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: Cap Times' Lucas, Lepay to join 1070 morning show : Dan Patrick, Jim Rome return to station's lineup : Longtime Capital Times columnist Mike Lucas and local broadcasting veteran Matt Lepay will form WTSO-AM/1070's new weekday morning show, the station announced Monday afternoon. : Lucas and Lepay, who have formed the broadcast team for University of Wisconsin football and men's basketball games since 1994, will be on the air Monday through Friday from 6-8 a.m. starting on Jan. 5. : In addition to their game broadcasts, Lucas and Lepay currently host a weekly sports talk show that airs Monday nights on WTSO's sister station, WIBA-AM/1310. The duo also worked together on a TV show, "Let's Talk Sports," in the early '90s. : "We'll just kind of do what we've been doing," Lepay said as the announcement was made on the "Heller and Murphy" afternoon program. "Only five days a week instead of Monday nights, and just have a little fun." : WTSO is ending its relationship with ESPN Radio as of Jan. 1, as previously reported by The Capital Times. : WTLX-FM/100.5 will pick up ESPN's programming at that time. : The station also announced that the Dan Patrick Show will air from 8-11 a.m., and the Jim Rome Show will air from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. "On Wisconsin," an hour-long report on University of Wisconsin sports hosted by Brian Posick, will remain in the 2-3 p.m. slot. Mike Heller and Owen Murphy's afternoon program will remain in the afternoon drive slot from 3-6 p.m. : The addition of Lucas and Lepay gives WTSO a local morning drive team after the station carried ESPN's "Mike and Mike in the Morning" for several years. : "Lucas and Lepay are a brand themselves and we knew that if we were going to go local we had to get the best," WTSO Operations Manager Tim Scott said in a statement on the station's Web site. "We feel that with Lucas and Lepay, Dan Patrick, Jim Rome, and Heller and Murphy we have assembled the strongest sports talk lineup in Madison if not the state!" : Both Patrick and Rome are returning to the WTSO airwaves after spending time elsewhere on the dial. Rome's program previously aired on WTSO from 2001 through 2006. The station began airing Patrick's show in 1999 � the year it began its affiliation with ESPN Radio � until the multi-faceted host parted company with the sports giant in August 2007. : Rome, whose program originally aired in the Madison market on WHIT-AM/1550, and Patrick have both been affiliated recently with WTLX, who will now carry several hours of programming currently available on WTSO. "Mike and Mike in the Morning," "The Herd" with Colin Cowherd, the "Mike Tirico Show" and the "Scott Van Pelt Show" will all move to the FM dial. : During their appearance on "Heller and Murphy" Monday afternoon, Lucas and Lepay both downplayed the spectre of going head to head with Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic's morning show. : "We're not competing against them, we're competing with them," Lucas said. "And there's an audience out there for us." : Lepay said the local focus is what will set their show apart from the ESPN Radio programming. : "The one thing that Luke and I can do that's been missing in this market for a long, long time is, you know, the Badgers are on the road on a Wednesday night in East Lansing or whatever. We're back the next morning six o'clock to talk about it," Lepay said. "That's top of mind with all sports fans in this area. Instead of hearing about who the Yankees are going to sign in free agency on a national show at 6:05, you can hear Luke and I talk about what happened last night." : At the same time, the duo took pains to emphasize that they will cover more than just UW athletics. : "Let's make this perfectly clear, this is not a Badger show. It's all-encompassing," Lucas said. "We're affiliated with the Badgers; obviously that's our name recognition. But we're also going to talk about the Packers and the Brewers and the Bucks, and everything that's pertinent." : The station also announced that it will begin airing rebroadcasts of "classic" UW games from time to time. : (Jason Mcmahon, badgerbeat)

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