By: Liz Farmer

Baltimore’s WVIE 1370-AM (Fox Sports Radio) is broadcasting 10 Washington Capitals games this year and all playoff games. The sports station aired the Caps’ playoff games last season.

Station manager Bob Pettit said Tuesday his young station (1370 launched in September 2008) is seeking to fill the niches left by other stations that cover Baltimore’s major league sports. (WBAL 1090-AM broadcasts Ravens games and 105.7-FM “The Fan” airs Orioles games.)

“We have to flank the other stations right now,” Pettit said. “We don’t have Orioles games and we don’t have the Ravens. So we look at the next best … professional franchises. They’re a very good team that provides good entertainment and they sell out a lot of games. They are a good franchise to have.”

WVIE’s sports broadcasts also include University of Maryland, Baltimore County, basketball; Notre Dame football; Washington Wizards basketball and some local high school games.

The sports talker launched three weeks before 105.7 “The Fan” announced it was flipping to an all sports station. That move gave Baltimore four sports talk radio stations — a large number for any market, but especially one the size of Baltimore. (The other two stations are WJZ 1300-AM and WNST 1570-AM.)

At a broadcast power of 50,000 watts during the day (about the same as WBAL), Pettit said WVIE can compete as a regional station with lively hosts and programming that picks up where the mainstream Baltimore sports coverage stops. He sees 105.7 “The Fan” as WVIE’s main competitor.

“We think there’s definitely room for a second sports station so can fill that void,” he said. “But I do not think there’s room for four sports stations. We have to hang in there and beat the other two.”