The Hamilton Tiger-Cats do not have an equity stake in the city's new all-sports radio station.

But given the success and hunger of the franchise's young business staff over the past few years, we'd better add the qualifier, "at least, not yet."

"It is owned by Bell Media," Robert Gray, national program director for TSN told The Spectator Thursday, adding that "as of this moment" the Cats don't have any formal ownership in what will be known as TSN1150, but that "that's one of the many different partnership possibilities."

As reported earlier by The Spectator, the Tiger-Cats, national sports network TSN and its parent company Bell Media announced Thursday afternoon that they had entered into a multi-year partnership to launch the city's first all-sports station.

Ticat games, broadcast over rival station CHML for many years, now move slightly up the dial to be carried by Bell-owned CKOC, starting with the June 8 exhibition game against Ottawa. The station will retain its Classic Hits format until a full TSN rebranding and relaunch which likely take place around Labour Day, or a bit later.

"We are partners," is all Scott Mitchell, the Ticats' CEO, would say of any potential ownership. "It's an impressive and integrated partnership, and we'll see what evolves over time."

Gray said the football team is an ideal anchor tenant around which to build a station, and said TSN would work with the Cats on community events, local sports and other projects.

The Ticats consider themselves a regional team, especially after playing their 2013 home schedule in Guelph, and that was among the major reasons they were attracted to TSN, which is the sole television partner of the Canadian Football League.

"You've seen some larger growth in CFL radio rights over the last few years," says Mitchell, who would not reveal the dollar value of the radio rights. "But what really appealed to us was the integration with TSN and Bell Media, and all of their platforms. We are very much a regional team and 'regional' speaks to radio."

Bell owns other radio stations and a TV station in the large catchment area — that includes the Niagara Peninsula, Kitchener-Waterloo and Guelph — in which the Ticats have endeavoured to establish a distinct branding and following over the past half-decade.

"It's been something Bob (Young, team owner) and I have been talking about for a long time," Mitchell said of the new channel on the horizon. "We were on a series of one-year contracts with Corus (CHML's owners) and CHML, and they've been great partners over the years.

"But radio has changed and the growth of Bell's media division was great timing and an opportunity for us."

Both TSN and the Ticats say that the makeup of the on-air broadcast team, which for the past few years has been Rick Zamperin, CHML's sport director, with former Tiger-Cats coach John Salavanis, would be "flexible." Gray said an announcement on broadcast personnel would be made "in the coming days."

Mitchell said the establishment of a sports-talk station in town was overdue and pointed out that the format tends to be labour-intensive, and should provide more media jobs in the city.

"This is obviously hugely significant," he told The Spec. "We are a major city in the country that, let's face it, is in the shadow of a larger one and that didn't have its own sports radio station. So we tend to be grabbed up by the media there.

"This will change the landscape to allow us to engage in and discuss sports in our own community."

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Insiders of Canada's football community credit TSN — which then overpaid for broadcast rights — with essentially saving the CFL during its financial struggles and uphill battle for marketplace legitimacy in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

But with the increased stability and popularity of the CFL, the network is benefitting as well. And TSN has the majority of the individual CFL teams' radio broadcast rights.