Good news for radio listeners in the Cleveland-area market. The Cleveland Gladiators will have their games broadcast by ESPN 850 -- WKNR.

CLEVELAND – The Cleveland Gladiators and Good Karma Broadcasting, LLC, are pleased to announce that ESPN 850 WKNR will be the official radio home of the Gladiators for the 2008 season. The announcement was made by Gladiators President and CEO BERNIE KOSAR and Good Karma Broadcasting President CRAIG KARMAZIN. ESPN 850 WKNR is a part of the Good Karma Broadcasting family.
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ESPN 850 WKNR and Cleveland’s AM 1540 KNR2 will air the Gladiators regular season games in 2008. The station will also air a short pre-game and post-game show during each broadcast. The Gladiators have not yet named an official broadcast team for the season.

Three articles caught my eye today, all focusing on positive developments for the business side of Arena Football. The first confirmed that Mitsubishi has extended advertising programs targeted to Arena Football:

"We are focusing on brand awareness and familiarity and we've had great success with the sports programs that we do," said Mendez. "We have re-upped with the Arena Football League, we are doing NCAA, NBA, and we like the exclusivity we get when we do ESPN."

The next story is an annoucement of strong agreement between ESPN and MobiTV to broadcast AFL games:

ESPN Mobile TV will offer full-length live events including college football and basketball, NBA, NASCAR, Major League Soccer, Arena Football League, Major League Lacrosse and more. It will also present Mike & Mike in the Morning, First Take, Pardon the Interruption, Rome is Burning and Around the Horn, plus new mobile-specific shows such as ESPN ReSet, ScoreCenter and Fantasy Football Now.

It is great to see this support for broadcasting AFL games through this new medium.