• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

A's abandon over-the-air radio broadcasts

X

xkxrx

Looks like they couldn't find anyone to carry them and will "A's Cast" on TuneIn. They now have the distinction of being the only major league baseball team that isn't carried over-the-air by a local station. Very sad.

They'll still have a network of 12 other stations. San Francisco's KIQI will carry a spanish language broadcast.
 
xkxrx said:
Looks like they couldn't find anyone to carry them and will "A's Cast" on TuneIn. They now have the distinction of being the only major league baseball team that isn't carried over-the-air by a local station. Very sad.

They'll still have a network of 12 other stations. San Francisco's KIQI will carry a spanish language broadcast.
Click to expand...

Will one of the other stations be designated a flagship, and do any of the others have any sort of usable (that is, capable of being received indoors) signal in Oakland, San Jose or San Francisco?
 
CTListener said:
Will one of the other stations be designated a flagship, and do any of the others have any sort of usable (that is, capable of being received indoors) signal in Oakland, San Jose or San Francisco?
Click to expand...

also remember that the SanFrancisco Nielsen market extends from Santa Rosa to the North to Gilroy to the South. Few stations cover the whole metro.
 
https://radioinsight.com/headlines/184536/tunein-becomes-oakland-athletics-flagship-broadcaster/

Now Confirmed

The Oakland Athletics are moving their game broadcasts to their “A’s Cast” 24/7 streaming channel on TuneIn.

The franchise becomes the first MLB franchise to move to a completely streaming audio platform after spending the 2019 season on Salem Media Conservative Talk “860 The Answer” KTRB San Francisco. The games will be available for free in most of Northern California and as part of TuneIn’s premium service elsewhere in the country. The franchise will also continue to operate an eleven station network based at Bonneville’s 1140 KHTK Sacramento.

A’s Cast will also feature one commercial-free game per homestand and multiple shows and podcasts dedicated to the team including the pre and post-game A’s Cast Live hosted by Chris Townsend. Ken Korach and Vince Cotroneo will continue to served as the the play-by-play broadcasters for the A’s games.
Click to expand...

Also I remember there have been talks for some time that the MLB has been emphasizing on streaming deals as a ploy to go after the target demos. I know Facebook and Amazon Prime has been named at one point to carry some of the MLB games to lower the median demos though. AM Radio on average has 60 and above though.
 
DavidEduardo said:
also remember that the SanFrancisco Nielsen market extends from Santa Rosa to the North to Gilroy to the South. Few stations cover the whole metro.
Click to expand...

Not germane to the question I was asking. What I want to know is if any of the 12 "other stations" puts a city-grade, or anything near a city-grade, signal into the market's three major cities, especially Oakland, where the team plays, and San Francisco, where many of the team's fans either work, live or both. The nominal "flagship" in Sacramento obviously doesn't.
 
xkxrx said:
San Francisco's KIQI will carry a spanish language broadcast.
Click to expand...

The release says only weekend games will be on KIQI. The other games will be on Tune In only.

I imagine the As know that their games last year on KTRB had precious few listeners, and they could not find a better partner. I suspect KTRB would have renewed, but the As had no interest.
 
Could this be a trend? With AM listening down, is this just the first of many MLB teams to come for stopping radio broadcasts, even just at the local city level? I mean Rick Rizzs can only announce the predictable sucking Mariners, 650 miles north of Oakland, for so long.
 
Don CT said:
Is the team staying in Oakland or could they be moving to Vegas?
Click to expand...



Only the Raiders are leaving Oakland for Las Vegas on the Football side.

Oakland A's initially talked about having a stadium in Santa Clara, CA a decade back in the site that is now known as Levi's Stadium where the 49ers are located now. But at the time that was shot down.
 
crainbebo said:
Could this be a trend? With AM listening down, is this just the first of many MLB teams to come for stopping radio broadcasts, even just at the local city level?
Click to expand...

Yes. It will be. 30 years ago baseball on radio was the only way to follow the game. Today, with every game televised, the radio station gets a lot less audience and the partnership is much less valuable.

The problem is especially acute for the secondary teams in a two-team market (Mets, As, White Sox, Orioles) where they are always going to get the second-best offers compared to the more popular clubs in their cities/regions.

Some of the signs have already been shown. Cumulus erased some of its sports rights, including the White Sox IIRC, in its bankruptcy, saying they were money losers. The Mets eliminated their radio network, and now only air on 880 WCBS, leaving Mets fans outside the boroughs high and dry. And now the As won't air in their home market.
 
I assume this will not cause any problems at SiriusXM. MLB wouldn't allow any of its clubs to sell exclusive streaming access to TuneIn or any other entity, right? SXM is MLB's only satellite partner, but it also streams games online.
 
Also consider the MLB talking about broadcasting their games on Amazon Prime, and Facebook Live. The MLB is under pressure to lower the median age. In the most recent study 55-58 was the median age for the MLB. In contrast the NBA is tied with MLS for having a lowest median age at 40-42 in term of the median ages buying tickets and the demos watching the games on TV (Cable and Internet) .

The Oakland A's is just the first known case for now to air their games only on TuneIn. We will have to wait for other teams to consider the same thing within this decade.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
The problem is especially acute for the secondary teams in a two-team market (Mets, As, White Sox, Orioles) where they are always going to get the second-best offers compared to the more popular clubs in their cities/regions.
Click to expand...

What's being ignored in this discussion is the A's were on The Game until they got pissed off at the station's talk hosts, as well as pre-emptions by stronger sports. So rather than being put on a crappy AM station, they've chosen no station at all. That's a different situation than saying the MLB doesn't value radio.

But you're right about secondary teams, and when it comes to the Bay area, the only team that matters is The Giants. This will be like a tree falling in an empty forest.
 
It does seem a bit odd that not a single Bay Area station would want A's games. Bill King and Lon Simmons were outstanding announcers during the A's heyday in the 80s.
The end of an era...
 
CTListener said:
Will one of the other stations be designated a flagship, and do any of the others have any sort of usable (that is, capable of being received indoors) signal in Oakland, San Jose or San Francisco?
Click to expand...

Indoors? Maybe in a house with no compact fluorescent lights, no LED's and nothing with a switching power supply. Not real likely tho. Best chances are KESP (970) from Modesto and KHTK (1140) from Sacramento. Give them a try and see what you get, but I'm not optimistic.

Dave B.
 
DaveBayArea said:
Indoors? Maybe in a house with no compact fluorescent lights, no LED's and nothing with a switching power supply. Not real likely tho. Best chances are KESP (970) from Modesto and KHTK (1140) from Sacramento. Give them a try and see what you get, but I'm not optimistic.

Dave B.
Click to expand...

Maybe the A's should consider KYLD(Wild 94-9) to become their flagship station. Good coverage.
 
Kind of the second time for them.

I recall back when Charley Finley owned the team he put the games on a
13-watt student station, just as a way of flipping the bird to MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn.
 
HenryOchs said:
Maybe the A's should consider KYLD(Wild 94-9) to become their flagship station. Good coverage.
Click to expand...

It's been discussed here before, but although music stations sometimes air football games that's only disruption once a week. Baseball is a whole 'nother story - with games generally 5 or 6 days a week. Not likely something a highly-rated music station would want to do in a major market - or anywhere else for that matter. But I can't see why the 2nd KNBR channel (1050) wouldn't be interested.

Dave B.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom