What's going on with Sacramento's "Left Channel"?

Radio listeners in Sacramento are obviously a bit confused as to what's going on with KCTC ("The Left Channel"). And some rumors are pointing to a flip to sports.

Two of the station's highest profile local hosts, the morning team of Scott and Sims and afternoon talker Enid Goldstein have both been off the station since Monday.

Entercom management, in particular GM John Geary, aren't talking, and they certainly have been keeping a low profile since the "Hold Your Wee For A Wii" fiasco at KCTC's sister station, KDND, last month. The station and the company have gotten extremely bad publicity (and deservedly so) resulting from a morning show water-drinking contest that went horribly wrong, resulting in the death of Jennifer Strange, a 28-year old mother of three. The family is suing Entercom, and the FCC is even looking into the incident.

Rumors have been pretty hot about a possible flip of the station to the hot format du jour, sports talk, picking up the affiliation of ESPN Radio. This change could possibly happen as soon as next week. Another sports station in town, KHTK, has recently stopped carrying ESPN programming.

Likely, this change will be rather abrupt, and kept as mum as possible, ala the WAVZ thing. Entercom has been keeping very quiet as of late, trying to ride out the KDND thing. Nonetheless, the tragic death of Jennifer Strange and station management's subsequent handling of it will likely give left-leaning listeners added ammo should KCTC drop Air America Radio from the Sacramento airwaves.

In the most recent ratings book, KCTC had a 0.8 overall ratings share, besting liberal talk rival KSAC's 0.4. KSAC originally carried Air America programming, until it was lured away by the newly reformatted KCTC in October, 2005. In the event KCTC flips to sports, don't hold your breath waiting for Air America to return to KSAC. The station's owner is still bitter about her dealings with Air America, and claims the network owes her money.

UPDATE 2/15: It's official. KCTC will flip to ESPN Radio on Monday February 26. All local personalities have been let go. The station has also posted a message on their website.