Photo by Photography by Jennifer Kucharski

SCRANTON – Two northeastern Pennsylvania media organizations with a history of covering high school sports have joined forces.

As football teams around the Lackawanna Football Conference and Wyoming Valley Conference begin official preparations, Sports Radio WEJL and NEPAFootball.com are announcing a partnership to increase coverage in the upcoming season.

Through the combined efforts of the two outlets, fans are expected to have access to audio broadcasts of approximately 100 games played by District 2 teams. There will also be Internet video of selected games; written and photographic coverage; and the re-introduction of a live Friday night scoreboard show.

“Over the past 15 years, NPF has become the premier online presence for coverage of District 2 football,” NEPAFootball.com owner and founder Chris Kucharski said.

“We continue to explore options to grow and enhance our coverage by offering more professional broadcasts and content.”

Collaborating with WEJL is another step in that direction.

“You combine the strengths of everyone together,” WEJL station manager Terry Deitz said in explaining the agreement. “The folks at NPF have always been very good at delivering up-to-date scores and keeping the editorial end intact, whereas we are extremely blessed and have a talent pool in place where we do extremely well with live, play-by-play sports.”

NPF already includes the (Valley View) Cougars Sports Network, (Old Forge) Blue Devils Football Network, Dunmore Football Network and Lackawanna Trail Football Network under the brand’s umbrella. Existing partnerships also provide games involving Berwick, Delaware Valley and Wyoming Area to be among those accessed for free through the website. There is also a WVC and LFC Game of the Week.

Adding games from WEJL and its sister station FUZZ FM gives even more options for viewers or listeners to access games.

WEJL, which can be found at 630 AM, 94.1 FM and 102.7 FM, primarily broadcasts games involving teams from the LFC. FUZZ, found at 96.1 FM, adds more broadcasts that often feature WVC teams.

Following the completion of the WEJL live game broadcast each Friday night, the Friday Night Football Highlight Show show will wrap up the night’s action on the radio station and simulcast on the Internet at NEPAFootball.com.

“Coaches interviews, recaps of games and expanding the pool of people we have covering games in all of District 2, this makes sense as a way for people to get the information they want, especially when they’re on the go or they’re not sitting in front of a television at 11 o’clock at night,” Deitz said.

Kucharski will host the show with Jake Yanoski and rely on the pool of broadcasters and reporters covering games for NPF and WEJL.

“We’re reviving the scoreboard show, which was extremely popular in the past and allows us to report scores, get game reports and interview coaches,” Kucharski said.

The show will then be available on demand, along with game broadcast recordings on NEPAFootball.com, and will also re-air Saturday mornings on WEJL. Deitz said those details are being finalized.

The fans and families that make high school football an event that many NEPA communities rally around each weekend will benefit from the increased access to information on their sport.

“Joining with WEJL, which has been broadcasting games for decades and is the No. 1 sports presence on the radio in the area, we feel we can use the partnership to cover more games by cutting out duplication, cross-promoting all content and giving people easy access to more football broadcasts in the area,” Kucharski said.

Deitz concurred.

“This whole collaboration between NPF and us is designed to do one thing,” he said. “It’s about supporting local high school sports and doing it the right way in a professional manner with award-winning coverage of sports in the area.”

“Fans can expect a more concise and immediate response. Our plan with this is really to highlight the local sport community and ensure that people out there listening and reading can get timely scores and things they need to get. At the same time, they get access to information that is a lot easier to find than it has been in recent years.”

“Through just straight-forward reporting of the kids playing high school sports, we’re giving parents, grandparents and everybody in the area a chance to tune in and follow their favorite schools and know what is going on in the high school community.”