The Arizona Interscholastic Association announced Monday a new radio partner.

Below is a press release on the announcement. 

PHOENIX, AZ (February 20, 2017) – The Arizona Interscholastic Association’s now has one radio home to showcase the state’s high school athletes thanks to a new all-sports voice in Arizona.

The Fanatic (KQFN-AM), which launched on Feb. 13 on 99.3 FM and 99.1 FM in the Valley and 1580 AM state-wide, will soon begin to air the AIA’s high school shows and games it produces with its staff at azpreps365.com. In addition, a new AIA Friday Night Pregame Show on The Fanatic will run from August-May.  

“This move is great for the AIA and high school sports,” said Dr. Harold Slemmer, Executive Director of the AIA. “It gives us one home, one identity and truly is going to allow the AIA to enhance the opportunities it has been afforded since we began the radio venture in 2005.”

Besides the pregame show, The Fanatic also will broadcast Friday night football and basketball games of the week, state championship games and the popular AZPreps365 Friday Night Football Wrap-Up and Saturday morning shows. 

The AZPreps365 Friday Night Football Wrap-Up Show started in 2005 and has been heard on KTAR for the last two years, which also broadcasted the Saturday morning show, beginning in 2011.  

“KTAR has been a great partner and helped us to get the Saturday morning show up and running,” Slemmer said. “We’ve enjoyed much success and thank them for giving us the opportunity to make the show what it is today.”

On The Fanatic, a couple of Valley sports veterans are joining the Wrap-Up and Saturday morning shows.

Paul Coro, an award-winning sports journalist, is the new host of the AZPreps365 Saturday show. Coro will be paired with co-host Jose Garcia of AZPreps365, and James Mello will continue to be the show’s executive producer. 

The Saturday show will now air from 7-9 a.m. on The Fanatic. Before becoming one of the NBA’s top beat reporters while covering the Phoenix Suns for 12 years, Coro was known for his passion for high school sports when he was the lead high school sports writer for The Arizona Republic. 

Coro began covering prep sports for newspapers while at Arizona State and later became a full-time prep sports writer for three years in Kansas City and five years in Phoenix before moving to college and pro beats. He also has raised two multi-sport daughters who have played five high school sports and one club sport. Coro graduated from Apollo High School.

The Fanatic’s Mike Grose will be the host of the AIA’s Friday Football Wrap-Up and Friday Pregame Shows. He is also known for his fervor for high school sports. 

Grose has worked in radio in the Valley since 2002 and also raised two multi-sport daughters who have played high school sports. 

“We’re thrilled to partner with the AIA,” said Mike Muraco, who along long-time Valley broadcasting veteran Ron Cohen of CRC Broadcasting started The Fanatic. “Our shows and play-by-play broadcasts will continue to connect with our community and increase the exposure to our incredible student athletes."

About 1580 AM The Fanatic and CRC Broadcasting Company

1580 AM The Fanatic is the local provider for CBS Sports Radio and SB Nation (formerly Yahoo Sports and Sporting News Radio). CBS Sports Radio continually provides listeners with incredible national sports talk and the best sports programming from all over the country significantly impacting Phoenix’s sports radio landscape.

Long-time Valley broadcasting veteran Ron Cohen started CRC Broadcasting with his Phoenix station 1510 KFNN in 1988 as the nation's first radio station programmed exclusively for business, economic, and investment related topics. Now in its 28th year, the Phoenix area’s longest locally owned and operated radio station changed its name in 2010 to "Money Radio," rebranding the station to mirror its acquisition of the domain name moneyradio.com.

1580 The Fanatic is joining the rankings with top broadcasting outlets in the Valley, including Hubbard, Bonneville and iHeart Radio. Local radio show host Mike “Roc” Muraco, VP of Sales for CRC’s Sports Radio division, partnered with Cohen to create The Fanatic.

About Arizona Interscholastic Association

The AIA is a voluntary association of public and private Arizona high schools. Since 1913, the organization has created and sustained interscholastic activities that encourage maximum student participation by providing AIA member schools with an even playing field to ensure fair and equitable competition. The AIA believes that providing interscholastic activities for Arizona high school students creates personal development opportunities with a balanced focus on academics and extracurricular activities.

Through its Arizona member schools, the AIA reaches more than 100,000 participants in high school activity programs. The organization hosts 5,000 championship contests and maintains officiating for more than 45,000 regular season games. For more information, visit www.aiaonline.org and www.azpreps365.com.

AIA Media Contact: Brian Bolitho; Director of Business Media; bbolitho@aiaonline.org; 602-385-3822