The Game, located at 95.5 FM, plans to find out May 12 when it converts from urban music to 24-hour sports programming. It becomes the first full-time all-sports FM radio station on the West Coast, and locally, will be a direct competitor of The Fan, KFXX AM (1080), an all sports operation since 1991.

KXL AM (750) will move most of its sports programming to The Game, as both stations are properties of the Paul Allen-owned Rose City Radio.

The Game takes over as the flagship station for the Portland Trail Blazers, and will also carry play-by-play from University of Oregon football and basketball and the Seattle Seahawks.

Most of The Game’s programming, however, involves sports talk. Seven hours of locally-based shows are planned weekdays. The lineup of local shows include “The Morning Sports Page with Kenny and Katy,” co-hosted by Ken Vance and Katy Brown from 6-9 a.m., “The Bald-Faced Truth,” hosted by Oregonian columnist John Canzano from 3-6 p.m., and “Overtime with Gavin Dawson” from 6-7 p.m.

The Game has also acquired nationally-syndicated “The Jim Rome Show,” which airs from 9 a.m.-noon. It plans to use Fox Sports national programming to fill out the evening and early morning hours and most of the weekend.

“Our intention is to win,” The Game program director James Derby said. “The guys down the street (KFXX) have done a good job for 15 years, but we think we can do it better.”

Derby said the station has seriously considered making this move for six months. He believes offering high-interest play-by-play of the Blazers, Ducks and Seahawks combined with a significant dose of local programming will win over the affluent male demographic it targets.

The Blazers appear happy with the move. Chief operating officer Mike Golub said moving from the news-talk based KXL to an all-sports station “is good for us, because presumably, they’ll be talking about the Blazers and basketball during the day. We like being part of an all-sports environment.”

Golub believes there are a handful of NBA teams that air their games on FM, including Dallas and Denver. He said the timing is good, because the Blazers have the summer and most of the fall to promote the move to 95.5 FM.

One of The Game’s local hosts lives in Vancouver. Vance, a former Columbian sports writer, co-hosted a sports talk show on The Fan from 1997-2002.

Vance said his new show, co-hosted with Brown, KATU’s television sports anchor, will emphasize the station’s franchise teams, the Blazers, Ducks and Seahawks.

“When you’re on the air in morning drive, it can’t be dry sports talk. You have to entertain people,” Vance said.