Tag: latest washington news

Commanders hire social media influencer as team correspondent

Katie Feeney has over 10 million social media followers and will serve as the “Commanders Social Media Correspondent.”

The Washington Commanders made another significant move Wednesday in their ongoing rebrand. Washington announced the hiring of social media influencer Katie Feeney as the team’s “Commanders Social Media Correspondent.”

The move is thought to be the first of its kind in the NFL.

Feeney is a TikTok and YouTube star with more than 10 million social media followers. A Maryland native and longtime Commanders fan, Feeney is a freshman at Penn State. Feeney has more than 6.8 million followers on TikTok, 2.2 million subscribers on YouTube and more than 800,000 followers on Instagram and Snapchat.

Feeney worked with the Penn State football team to provide social media content in the fall. She has also worked with the school’s other sports, too.

Washington Chief Creative & Digital Officer Will Misselbrook released the following statement:

We are excited to welcome Katie Feeney into our Burgundy & Gold family, as our first ever Commanders Social Media Correspondent. We are lucky to be joining forces as she becomes an extension of the Commanders social media team. Katie provides a youthful perspective that will reach new eyes and ears and help cultivate the next generation of fans as we enter the inaugural season of the Washington Commanders.

Feeney also released a statement via the team:

Growing up in Maryland, my family and I have always been massive Washington football fans. I am so excited to become part of the Commanders’ family. This opportunity allows me to create content which combines my passion for storytelling and broadcast sports journalism. I can’t wait to get started.

Feeney begins her work with the Commanders at the team’s annual draft-day party on Thursday, April 28, at FedEx Field.

Commanders will have a new radio partner in 2022

Washington Commanders games will no longer be on the Team 980 in 2022.

The Washington Commanders will have a new radio broadcast partner in 2022, Kevin Sheehan of Team 980, announced Wednesday morning.

The announcement means Commanders games will not be carried on Team 980, 106.7 The Fan, or 910 The Fan in Richmond, Virginia. Audacy owns all three stations.

Sheehan made the following announcement on his show, “The Kevin Sheehan Show,” per Ben Krimmel of Audacy.com:

The Commanders and Audacy “disagreed on the value of the broadcasts [and] it is also very important for us as a sports talk station, even as a long-time flagship station for the team, it was important for us to continue to be able to provide honest, objective information and analysis about the [Commanders] on our talk shows,” Sheehan said.

The Team 980 has broadcast Washington’s games for years and was once owned by Commanders’ owner Daniel Snyder.

The Commanders released a statement, via Nicki Jhabvala of The Washington Post:

We initiated a formal RFP [request for proposal] process last fall for the Washington Commanders Radio Broadcast Agreement, which concluded last week. Multiple companies submitted bids as part of this process, including Audacy who was an active and aggressive participant and submitted multiple partnership proposals for the next three years of increased value over our previous deal. Based on the evaluation process, we selected a new partner who will bring a significantly larger deal, as well as new creativity and broader reach and scale, to programming. We shared with Audacy last week that we would not be moving forward as partners.

Sheehan noted that while the Team 980 would no longer broadcast Washington games, the station would have plenty of gameday content, such as up to four hours of pregame coverage, an in-game talk show focused on fan reactions, etc.

Julie Donaldson, Bram Weinstein and former Washington star DeAngelo Hall are the Commanders’ gameday broadcast team.