and WEGQ (now WEEI-FM), as well as KSD and KLOU in St. Louis and WOCT in Baltimore, as a condition of its approval of the merger. In August 1998, Entercom announced plans to acquire the four Boston-area stations, along with WWTM (now WVEI), from CBS for $140 million. WEEI again lost the Celtics broadcast rights in 2001, this time to WWZN. Entercom reacquired the rights to the broadcasts in 2005; initially heard on WRKO, Celtics games moved back to WEEI in 2007 (though Celtics coaches and players appeared on WEEI regularly during WRKO's time as flagship). In April 2005, WEEI began streaming its broadcasts live online by way of a free membership at its official website; a previous stream was offered from 1997 until 2002. The exception is for Red Sox and Celtics games, as these are streamed only through the team and league websites as part of subscription packages. Around the same time, the station again lost ESPN Radio programming when the affiliation was acquired by WAMG and WLLH; the station then expanded an affiliation with Fox Sports Radio that began in 2002. WEEI was awarded its first Marconi Award in September 2006 for sports station of the year. WEEI was also named large market station of the year. The station had an ongoing feud with The Boston Globe. In 1999, the Globe's executive sports editor, Don Skwar, banned the newspaper's sports writers from appearing on the station's afternoon The Big Show after columnist Ron Borges used a racial slur while on the air in reference to New York Yankees pitcher Hideki Irabu. Two weeks later, the ban was extended to WEEI's Dennis and Callahan morning show. WEEI retaliated by banning Globe staffers from all its shows. Nevertheless, WEEI host Michael Holley is a former Globe columnist. The ban came to an end on August 4, 2009, when Bob Ryan appeared on The Big Show, with host Glenn Ordway stating that "we have all come to our senses." ESPN on WEEI In September 2009, The Boston Globe reported that ESPN Radio was in negotiations to clear some of its night and weekend programming on WEEI, with speculation suggesting that WEEI could subsequently move to one of Entercom's properties on the FM dial (such as the 93.7 FM facility then occupied by WMKK), with the AM 850 signal switching to ESPN Radio. The report followed WAMG's decision to end its