Two Big Administrative Announcements: Fowler Gets Extension, Radio Switches to 101.5FM

Campus News General Media NC State Administration99

One good announcement; one bad announcement.

First, the good news. NC State has entered the 21st century of FM radio coverage.

NC State officials announced today that an agreement has been reached involving its rights holder, Wolfpack Sports Marketing, and Capitol Broadcasting Corporation to partner with CBC station Mix 101.5 WRAL-FM. The agreement moves Wolfpack sports programming to the FM side of the dial and solidifies NC State’s flagship radio partnership through the 2016-2017 seasons.

Mix 101.5 WRAL FM is one of the most powerful (100,000 watt) and popular stations in the Triangle and surrounding areas. Radio broadcasts for the Football and Men’s Basketball season will move to Mix 101.5 starting with the NC State vs. Central Florida football match-up on Sept. 1. “Our relationship with NC State has been a great one over the years and we are extremely excited about expanding our affiliation with the University through this radio broadcast agreement,” Jim Goodmon, President of CBC said.

WCMC 99.9-FM will carry the weekly Tom O’Brien and Sidney Lowe coach’s call-in shows on Monday nights. The first Tom O’Brien show will debut on Monday, August 26, 2007. The Wolfpack Sports Network’s coverage of the ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament will also be carried on WCMC-FM, with the exception of NC State games broadcast on Mix 101.5 WRAL FM.

Now, the horrible news.

Lee Fowler, N.C. State’s athletics director since 2000, has signed a contract extension through 2013.

Wow.

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99 Responses to Two Big Administrative Announcements: Fowler Gets Extension, Radio Switches to 101.5FM

  1. Pack1998 04/25/2007 at 10:08 PM #

    A little surprised Fowler gets the extension this early . . . but what really differentiates in the A.D. space?

    – The basketball search was a negative against him, even if we ended up with a solid coach. (Grade C+)
    – The football firing is a neutral b/c I don’t think he would have fired Amato. (No grade)
    – The football hiring was a positive for him, nobody saw that coming (Grade A)
    – Non-revenue sports have done nothing special due to his management decisions, evidenced by the prior post (Grade C+).
    – Financial backing is due to the WPC and in large part, the success of the major sports, and in larger part due to natural cycles of spending on facilities (Grade C+)
    – Managing the Title IX stuff has been a positive (Grade B+)

    From an outsiders point of view his grade is in the B- range. Like I said, I don’t know what differentiates in this space. Maybe that is better than what you can get going external.

    I’ve got to think the weighting of the Grade A in hiring the football coach outweighed the other areas. Additionally, the fact that basketball had some level of success last year also helped.

    Coincidentally . . . if he is not pressured to fired Amato last year you gotta believe he would not have gotten this extension b/c then he would have never hired O’Brien, which really is his saving grace. I don’t think he could have stood on just the hiring of Lowe alone.

  2. RAWFS 04/25/2007 at 10:20 PM #

    While I am at it, let me add this: if there is a key member of the good ship “NC State Sports” that should put their belongings in a box and turn in their office key to HR, it’s not Lee Fowler. It’s Annabelle Myers. Say what you will, but Myers has a bad reputation with a good number of sportswriters and others in the media, and is legendary for being quite difficult. I personally think it reflects on what’s written about NC State, because let’s be honest — even the most even-keeled sportswriter out there will at least subconsciously reflect his or her frustrations with the Sports Information Department if they’ve been short-shrifted or slighted.

    And make no mistake whatsoever: Myers would be delighted if Statefans Nation and probably RAWFS would disappear. She’d positively giggle if the Pack Pride message boards disappeared (though I have to admit she may have a bit of a point where some posters there are concerned.) For example, do you think for one second she’d give press credentials to anyone from SFN?

    Think she’d give me a sideline photo pass even though I am a published and verifiably professional photographer? I don’t, although I would LOVE to post a photo gallery from each State football or basketball game, for free for fans. I run RAWFS for the love of my school, and nothing more. She certainly can’t quibble about the quality of my photo work. But I think that Annabelle would rather RAWFS not exist, nor SFN, because we will ask difficult questions from time to time. But that’s just little ole us.

    Let me say this without naming names, because I promised I never would — there are a handful of sports media folks who wouldn’t cry if she were replaced.

    SFN: Couldn’t agree with you more. But, doesn’t she report to Lee Fowler? Isn’t she his responsibility?

  3. primacyone 04/25/2007 at 10:56 PM #

    I’m really glad to move to FM with the expanded signal and potential stream, but losing 680 AM and that AM sound is really losing a piece of my childhood that I enjoyed hanging onto. I’ll miss it.

    Kind of like all of those older folks who used to tell the story about getting around the radio and listening to the Grand Ole Opery. I’ll tell my grandkids about the 680, they will not care, they will be picking up the broadcast on their new internet radio playing sun glasses or something like that.

    But hey, when that time comes, I’ll blame Lee Fowler and all will be good!

  4. wufpaxno1 04/25/2007 at 11:35 PM #

    II have to admit I fall in line with kbstokes09 and RAWFS, I don’t think that Lee Fowler has done that bad a job at all. I was at state in the early eighties so I have lived through the Todd Turner, Jim Valvano, and Les Robinson years. Robinson was an alumni whose claims to fame were Mike O’Cain and Herb Sendek. Jim Valvano, may God rest his sole, left the program with a black eye no matter how much we all love him and would like to deny it. And nothing needs to be said of Todd Turner, nothing good can be said.

    SFN: What a high standard you use!

    Under Fowler’s stewardship we have entered a new era. The facilities are, or are in the process of becoming, top notch. I get chills every time I enter Carter Finley looking at it now and remembering back to what it was before. Yes the money came from big donors and the WPC, but someone had to organize the drive to get us there, and someone has to be the public figure who draws in the publics attention. Unfortunately that also means that he operates under a microscope and takes heat as well. It takes the right kind of person to absorb all of the criticism that comes with the job, continue to do the job, and achieve positive results; and we are pointed in the right direction.

    It does not really matter if he stumbled back into getting Sidney Lowe, got pushed into firing Chuck Amato, and had help in signing Tom O’Brien; it is still the end results that matter. And I’d say that all in all they are looking far more positive then negative.

    SFN: Why does it not matter that Lee Fowler tried to hire Lon Kruger, Steve Lavin and John Belien instead of Sidney Lowe?

    RAWFS congrats on selling your home and welcome to the neighborhood, well sort of. We have something in common, a dream house in Eagle Ridge, except I am selling my dream house in Eagle Ridge. Oh well, my new house will not be finished until December so maybe we can still get in a couple of rounds of golf before I sell.

    Finally, we are all Wolfpack fans and know matter what we think of Lee Fowler it could be worse, we could be wearing baby blue and have Dick Badour as an AD!

  5. kbstokes09 04/26/2007 at 1:09 AM #

    Thanks for the comments wufpax… I agree. I’m not saying Lee is the best AD in the country, because who wouldn’t love to have Florida’s AD right now? But he is a great businessman and a really straight-forward, down-to-earth person who really is a pleasure to talk to and learn from… unlike that crook Baddour. At least Fowler didn’t hold a press conference with Chuck sitting right beside him.

  6. packfanstk 04/26/2007 at 7:03 AM #

    Oh and I forgot to mention… nearly everyone who works in the Athletics Department at State absolutely love their job because of him.

    Well no friggin’ kiddin’. I’d love my job too if I got to perform at a sub-lousy level and never have to worry about being held accountable.

  7. StateFans 04/26/2007 at 7:08 AM #

    kbstokes,

    I was getting ready to call you an idiot…and then I realized how young you were. I wish that NC State was cranking out better critical thinkers, but I understand what is like to have such a limited perspective of the world. You may grow up one day. Anyway, thank you for sharing your thoughts.

    I don’t know how the ACC Titles that we won this year have changed anything…but, prior to this season Lee Fowler’s Athletic Department had won the FEWEST ACC TITLES of any ACC school since his arrival in late 1999 and has won the fewest ACC Titles in any seven year period in NC State’s history.

    But, you guys keep swallowing the kool-aid that all we need are new facilities – which the Wolfpack Club (NOT Lee Fowler) raised money for – and things will get better.

    ANYTHING to continue to deflect ownership and responsibility to something and someone else.

  8. BoKnowsNCS71 04/26/2007 at 7:29 AM #

    KB – you from Ceder Grove? Just askin’

  9. BoKnowsNCS71 04/26/2007 at 7:36 AM #

    Milkman — You can listen to the ACC games and WP FB on XM radio. 192 or thereabouts.

    WV Wolf – How did our (last years) National Championship Bass Fishing Team do this year? Did not see it on the list.

  10. RAWFS 04/26/2007 at 7:38 AM #

    wufpaxno1 – you’ll have to stop by before you move. We’re off the 17th green.

  11. PapaJohn 04/26/2007 at 8:13 AM #

    ^^^^ Wow SFN, pretty harsh

  12. Pack84 04/26/2007 at 8:17 AM #

    “When will Lee Fowler critics realize that he is a great AD?”

    You completely lost me after this sentence.

  13. slim 04/26/2007 at 8:30 AM #

    The following link is to a finance professional magazine, detailing the financial performance for major universities in the 2004-2005 school year. NCSU had the 10th worst performance financially.

    http://www.cfomagazine.com/article.cfm/7239613/6/c_7242823?f=search

  14. BJD95 04/26/2007 at 8:31 AM #

    Anyone who thinks it was Lee Fowler’s decision to fire Chuck Amato needs their head examined. In fact, Fowler himself was in trouble with a certain critical faction of folks due to his reticence re Amato.

    I firmly believe that if Fowler had refused to fire Amato, he would have been overruled and fired himself. If there’s one thing Lee Fowler is keen on, it’s self-preservation. So, he fired Amato.

    This would be really awful news if Coach Lowe and Coach O’Brien weren’t here. Fowler won’t need to make any revenue sport hires before 2013, thank God.

  15. tvp 04/26/2007 at 8:34 AM #

    NC State: Where below-mediocre performance is embraced like a warm, comfy blanket.

  16. noah 04/26/2007 at 8:35 AM #

    Can anyone remember the last time we fired an AD? Ever?

  17. joe 04/26/2007 at 8:37 AM #

    Why should I listen to people who don’t like the job Fower is doing?

    These are the EXACT same people who just a few short years ago thought Sendek was the next John Wooden, and Amato was the next Bear Bryant!

  18. primacyone 04/26/2007 at 8:38 AM #

    This needs repeating:

    “prior to this season Lee Fowler’s Athletic Department had won the FEWEST ACC TITLES of any ACC school since his arrival in late 1999 and has won the fewest ACC Titles in any seven year period in NC State’s history.”

    And we are not even close to the top. Surly you don’t think our atheltic results are accetpable in compairson to others in the league. I find it unaceptable that we don’t rank much higher. We have everthing – support, money, facilities, everything tangilbe that we could possbily want. The only think lacking it seems to be a driven leader. He may be a great administrator, but come on. Florida is a football school. Wisconsin is in freaking Wisconsin. “the fewest ACC Titles in any seven year period in NC State’s history”. You find that acceptable?

  19. RedTerror29 04/26/2007 at 8:41 AM #

    I’ll put it this way – I won’t shed any tears if Lee rides off into the sunset to an SEC AD job. Hopefully the success of Sid and TOB will convince some non-critical thinking boosters that Lee is a good hire *cough* *cough* *Arkansas* (he wouldn’t be nearly as wrong calling their fans crazy). He burnt his bridges with me regarding derogatory comments about the fans.

    I do agree Amato would’ve done worse. It still amazes me that people think the solution to someone being unable to perform in their current job is to promote them.

    I know he loves State, but eventually we’ll lose Bobby Purcell to a big-time athletics program if we don’t offer him the AD spot. Our athletic department has excelled at fundraised and struggled on the court/field/etc. So who deserves the praise and who deserves the blame? If Fowler leaves we can have another, BETTER AD tomorrow, and we won’t have any trouble filling the head spot for one of the better booster organizations in the country. (And for all you MAF lovers out there – she chose Fowler over Purcell.)

  20. statered 04/26/2007 at 8:41 AM #

    What a friggin joke. “Lee is such a warm, sensitive person. He has so much to offer.” barf

  21. primacyone 04/26/2007 at 8:44 AM #

    ^Unfortunatly Lee will never ride off into the sunset for a SEC AD job. Nobody in the SEC will hire him.

  22. BJD95 04/26/2007 at 8:54 AM #

    Amato would be the worst AD in the history of mankind. His personnel management skills leave much to be desired.

  23. RedTerror29 04/26/2007 at 9:00 AM #

    “Unfortunatly Lee will never ride off into the sunset for a SEC AD job. Nobody in the SEC will hire him.”

    Arkansas may have a hard time finding someone to replace Broyles after Las Cronicas Locas De Boss Hawg.

    http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/?cat=77

  24. highstick 04/26/2007 at 9:08 AM #

    SEC job? You’ve got to be kidding! I almost threw up in my car when I heard he’d gotten an extension.

    Looks like our University is still being “hijacked” by an incompetent! I don’t think those in power are ever going learn until the roof caves in on their heads!

    Question though. What kind of salary increased did he get or was it just an extension of his contract? Any other guarantees other than the time extension???

  25. WV Wolf 04/26/2007 at 9:17 AM #

    BoKnowsNCS71–#1 bass fishing is not an ACC sport, I only looked at sports in which we compete in the ACC (because theacc.com has media guide info to look up these things). That is why I didn’t list sports like gymnastics and rifle. And #2, if I recall the bass fishing team is a club sport and doesn’t get any funding from the athletic dept, although I could be wrong about that.

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