SPRINGFIELD, Vt. (AP) – Red Sox fans in the area are no longer striking out when it comes to radio coverage. After about five seasons without local broadcasts of Red Sox games, baseball fans have something to cheer about.

Sister radio stations in the area – WNBX 1480 AM and WNTK 99.7 FM and 1020 AM – started broadcasting Sox games this season.

Workers at the station have heard a lot of positive feedback about the broadcasts. “For our region, there was a void. There was nobody carrying it and that’s all been changed just from our coverage,” said Lee Johndrow, the general manager of WNBX.

The stations, owned by Robert Vinikoor, cover an area ranging from Bradford to Brattleboro and Manchester, N.H., to Manchester, Vt., Johndrow said.

The area stations signed a three-year deal to broadcast the games. They’ve picked up new sponsors because of the broadcasts.

Although it’s hard to measure the audience for the games, it’s clear that people are listening, Johndrow said. “I assure you if we go off the air for any reason my phone rings,” he said.

Robert Flint, former operations manager at WCFR – the last local radio station to broadcast the Red Sox in 1998 – believes the games have been missed. Flint, 41, is a lifetime Red Sox fan who now heads up the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce.

He said he often heard from disappointed radio listeners when WCFR stopped broadcasting games. “I think there’s a very loyal Red Sox audience,” he said. “When CFR ceased to be that was one of the most common questions I was asked: ‘Where are the Red Sox?”‘

AP-ES-06-20-03 1222EDT