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A's abandon over-the-air radio broadcasts

DaveBayArea said:
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.
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You would *think* that might make sense, but even tho' it's a separate station, The Giants do NOT like to share.
 
I remember at the beginning of the 1980 season, the A's games were not on any station. Then in May of that year, KDIA picked up the games for the remainder of that season, with Red Rush and Don Valentino calling the games.
 
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.
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KESP 970 cannot be heard in the bay area because of KNEW Bloomberg Radio 960 AM.
 
RadioPatrol said:
https://radioinsight.com/headlines/184536/tunein-becomes-oakland-athletics-flagship-broadcaster/

Now Confirmed



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.
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Baseball's median audience is aged 57, though. I would think they're trying to target younger demos, but they are also pushing away their main demos in the process if they are cutting out OTA radio. My main question is if they plan on streaming, it's to who? The younger demos do not apparently love baseball all that much.
 
boombox4 said:
Baseball's median audience is aged 57, though. I would think they're trying to target younger demos, but they are also pushing away their main demos in the process if they are cutting out OTA radio. My main question is if they plan on streaming, it's to who? The younger demos do not apparently love baseball all that much.
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Follow where the growing demand for baseball is located?? but apparently the evidence we have for now does not exist given the latest study showed 57 as the median age. I knew in the past the MLB tried to get attention in places like Japan and the Dominican Republic as a ploy to expand the sport, make the league diverse and lower the demos at the time though. Not sure if thats still true today though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_in_Japan


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippon_Professional_Baseball


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Professional_Baseball_League

https://theculturetrip.com/asia/jap...baseball-is-different-from-american-baseball/
 
If a playoff team cannot even generate enough interest to be a radio partner, I'm surprised the A's don't seek to decamp the market. Certainly there had to be some station interested that could cover Oakland at least.
 
umfan said:
If a playoff team cannot even generate enough interest to be a radio partner, I'm surprised the A's don't seek to decamp the market. Certainly there had to be some station interested that could cover Oakland at least.
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But the A's was considering moving to San Jose where Levi's stadium is now located. at the time the area near the current Levis stadium was under debate when the A's wanted to move to the South Bay though.
 
RadioPatrol said:
But the A's were considering moving to San Jose where Levi's stadium is now located. at the time the area near the current Levis stadium was under debate when the A's wanted to move to the South Bay though.
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No, the A's were considering a site at Diridon Station in San Jose, not too far away from the SAP Center.
 
CTListener said:
Hasn't MLB decided that San Jose is Giants territory and forbidden the A's from even exploring stadium possibilities in that area?
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Yes, and that's the reason why they abandoned plans to look at San Jose and are now focusing on building back in Oakland. Somewhat off topic, but the A's actually granted the Giants the territorial rights to Santa Clara County in 1990 so that the Giants could explore building a stadium in Santa Clara. A measure was put up to vote and it failed, so the Giants' owner decided shortly thereafter to move to St. Petersburg. But a local ownership group came in and bought the Giants, keeping them in the Bay Area, and then built what is now Oracle Park in 2000. When the A's asked the Giants for the rights back to Santa Clara County a few years ago, the Giants refused, MLB agreed, and that was the end of the A's dalliance with San Jose.

Bringing it back to radio, one of the owners of the Giants is KNBR radio (now owned by Cumulus), and the ownership share has survived all the corporate radio owners throughout the years. This is one of the reasons why the A's can't find a radio deal, because Cumulus also owns very good radio signals in the Bay Area, including KSFO, KGO, and KTCT (branded as "KNBR 1050"). There's no chance at all that the A's would wind up on any of those stations because of Cumulus' ownership share in the Giants, so that locks the A's out of several options.
 
VMan said:
Yes, and that's the reason why they abandoned plans to look at San Jose and are now focusing on building back in Oakland. Somewhat off topic, but the A's actually granted the Giants the territorial rights to Santa Clara County in 1990 so that the Giants could explore building a stadium in Santa Clara. A measure was put up to vote and it failed, so the Giants' owner decided shortly thereafter to move to St. Petersburg. But a local ownership group came in and bought the Giants, keeping them in the Bay Area, and then built what is now Oracle Park in 2000. When the A's asked the Giants for the rights back to Santa Clara County a few years ago, the Giants refused, MLB agreed, and that was the end of the A's dalliance with San Jose.
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Would the Cubs and White Sox face a similar situation if either should explore moving into a new ballpark outside Chicago proper? Is there a "Cubs territory" that's off limits to the White Sox and a "White Sox territory" that's off limits to the Cubs? Or is the fact that SF and Oakland, while separated only by a bridge, are separate municipalities the key factor here? If that's the case, are the Angels and Dodgers subject to geographical limitations on new facilities?
 
CTListener said:
Would the Cubs and White Sox face a similar situation if either should explore moving into a new ballpark outside Chicago proper? Is there a "Cubs territory" that's off limits to the White Sox and a "White Sox territory" that's off limits to the Cubs?
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No way is either team leaving the city, let alone the metro (which is a 70 mile radius from downtown in any direction other than to the north and northwest, where the Wisconsin border is the limit, about 50-60 miles away).

Traditionally the Cubs are the north side team and the Sox are the south side team, but each team's fans are all over the metro now. I was one of many, many Sox fans in the northwest suburbs, while my family from NW Indiana was Cubs fans going back to at least WW1. Lots of Cubs fans in Sox territory and vice versa, both in the city and the suburbs.
 
VMan said:
Yes, and that's the reason why they abandoned plans to look at San Jose and are now focusing on building back in Oakland. Somewhat off topic, but the A's actually granted the Giants the territorial rights to Santa Clara County in 1990 so that the Giants could explore building a stadium in Santa Clara. A measure was put up to vote and it failed, so the Giants' owner decided shortly thereafter to move to St. Petersburg. But a local ownership group came in and bought the Giants, keeping them in the Bay Area, and then built what is now Oracle Park in 2000. When the A's asked the Giants for the rights back to Santa Clara County a few years ago, the Giants refused, MLB agreed, and that was the end of the A's dalliance with San Jose.

Bringing it back to radio, one of the owners of the Giants is KNBR radio (now owned by Cumulus), and the ownership share has survived all the corporate radio owners throughout the years. This is one of the reasons why the A's can't find a radio deal, because Cumulus also owns very good radio signals in the Bay Area, including KSFO, KGO, and KTCT (branded as "KNBR 1050"). There's no chance at all that the A's would wind up on any of those stations because of Cumulus' ownership share in the Giants, so that locks the A's out of several options.
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St. Petersburg that was a bargaining chip city until MLB announced that the Tampa Bay Rays would be in the St. Petersburg area and this was some time after the Giants moved to South of Market District, (Back in the 1990's was known as China Basin)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampa_Bay_Rays
 
Not clear there was a Bay Area station that was willing to pay the A's to broadcast the games. There might have been a few (maybe KTRB?) that would do it if the A's paid the station. I believe the San Jose Sharks pay KFOX to cover their games...really more about marketing the team (so like buying advertising vs. providing content for which the station then sells ads for). Unfortunately, usually these disruptive trends start in the more progressive areas like the Bay Area. Could be a portent of the future for Baseball on the radio in several markets.
 
VMan said:
Yes, and that's the reason why they abandoned plans to look at San Jose and are now focusing on building back in Oakland. Somewhat off topic, but the A's actually granted the Giants the territorial rights to Santa Clara County in 1990 so that the Giants could explore building a stadium in Santa Clara. A measure was put up to vote and it failed, so the Giants' owner decided shortly thereafter to move to St. Petersburg. But a local ownership group came in and bought the Giants, keeping them in the Bay Area, and then built what is now Oracle Park in 2000. When the A's asked the Giants for the rights back to Santa Clara County a few years ago, the Giants refused, MLB agreed, and that was the end of the A's dalliance with San Jose.

Bringing it back to radio, one of the owners of the Giants is KNBR radio (now owned by Cumulus), and the ownership share has survived all the corporate radio owners throughout the years. This is one of the reasons why the A's can't find a radio deal, because Cumulus also owns very good radio signals in the Bay Area, including KSFO, KGO, and KTCT (branded as "KNBR 1050"). There's no chance at all that the A's would wind up on any of those stations because of Cumulus' ownership share in the Giants, so that locks the A's out of several options.
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I still think the A's should at least consider KYLD(WiLD 94-9), 910 KKSF or even 960 KNEW airing the games. I recall the games being aired in the past on 910AM and 960AM!
 
Wonder with the opening day for baseball just around the corner and as Corona Virus concerns are peaking. There might be some reconsideration of Over-the-air Radio to bring the games to people that will avoid stadium crowds. Something to consider now that was not on the table when the original decision was made. On the other hand if they stay off the air locally it may drive up the online numbers.
 
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