San Diego Fox affiliate to forego Chargers and air LA Rams preseason games

With the Chargers now calling Los Angeles home, its former city of San Diego is now free to pick up other teams to broadcast into the market. In what was unthinkable even a year ago, the market’s Fox affiliate has announced it will pick up the preseason games of the Los Angeles Rams for the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

KSWB (Fox 5) will air three Rams preseason games in August:

• August 12 — vs. Dallas
• Date TBD — at Oakland
• August 31 — at Green Bay

The Rams game against the Chargers on August 26 will be aired nationally by CBS so that will not be part of the local schedule.

For their part, the Rams were happy to expand their base out of Los Angeles and into San Diego:

“As we look forward to our second season back home in Southern California, we are excited to partner with FOX 5 San Diego to bring Rams football to their viewers and our fans across the region,” said LA Rams COO Kevin Demoff.

And Scott Heath, President and General Manager of KSWB was thrilled to have the Rams on his station starting in August:

“…we are thrilled to add the Los Angeles Rams pre-season football games to our current NFL football schedule. Our two-year partnership kicks off in mid-August where we will air the first of three pre-season football games of the 2017 season.”

With the upheaval in NFL teams, it leaves the cities that were once the home markets now sorely lacking for football. In San Diego’s case, it can now air the LA Rams games.

There’s no word if one of the local stations will elect to carry the Chargers’ preseason games. CBS affiliate KFMB used to carry the Chargers games, but that ended with the 2016 season. There’s still bitterness among fans and the media about the Chargers’ departure so unless one station elects to look beyond the vitriol, it’s likely that their preseason games won’t be seen in San Diego.

[Tribune Media]