ABILENE, Texas - Radio Abilene decided to drop its ESPN Programming for financial reasons, which became effective Wednesday at 6 p.m. CST. KZQQ 1560 AM carried the nationally-syndicated sports-talk radio shows for a little more than two years, but the station became “The Zoo,” a classic-rock station, on Wednesday.

KZQQ carries McMurry's football, basketball and baseball programming locally as well as Abilene High School's sports programming, and all 162 regular season games for the Texas Rangers. Parker Cannan, the President of Radio Abilene, said that KZQQ will continue to carry these events on its local station.

However, Al Pickett, a local sports personality, will move his daily “Let's Talk Sports” show to KWKC 1340 AM, a station also operated by Radio Abilene. In addition, the fall McMurry football show “Sports Overtime” will move to KWKC 1340 AM if the show resumes for the 2010 season.

ESPN's popular morning shows, “Mike and Mike” and “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” as well as afternoon shows such as “The Scott Van Pelt Show” and “ESPN Game Night” will no longer be found locally on the air.

Cannan said that ESPN Radio had been pressuring the smaller markets that carried the popular sports programming to pay for the nationally-syndicated broadcasts rather than play the programming for free in exchange for ESPN's sponsor commercials to run on the respective stations.

However, Cannan wanted to emphasize the importance of maintaining the local sports programming on KZQQ 1560 AM.

“We value our local sports relationships with McMurry and Abilene High, and it is a priority of ours to keep that local connection with the station,” he said.

KZQQ airs more than 60 McMurry sporting events per school year. In addition, McMurry fans have been able to take advantage of audio and video broadcasts on its athletics web site, mcmurrysports.com.