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What's been *your* MLB team's flagship station(s) over the years?

I

ixnay

Is there a site where you can look up a Major League Baseball team's list of radio stations that took turns as the flagship of that team's radio network over the years?

While waiting for the answer, I'll turn to the gist of the thread, by inviting baseball fans of Radio-Info land to list, based on memory (or whatever) the stations that have served as your team's flagship over the years. Or list an affiliate of that team's network in your hometown.

I'll start. I'm a Phillies fan and a Delaware Valley native who started following baseball (and the Phils) in 1971. That year their flagship was WCAU-1210, which, I've read, had acquired the Phillies in 1969. Here's the succession of Phillies flagship stations in the years I've followed baseball...

1971-1975: WCAU-1210
1976: WIBG-990
1977-1981: KYW-1060
1982-2001: WCAU-1210 (became WOGL[-AM] in midseason 1990; became WGMP during spring training 1994; became WPTS [briefly] then WPHT in midseason 1996)
2002-2004: WPEN-950
2005-present: WPHT-1210

This is the thirty-sixth season I've followed Phillies baseball and they have been on the 1210 am frequency in 27 of those seasons.

And during this whole time, their Wilmington, DE affiliate has been WDEL-1150 (well, Wilmington doesn't offer as wide a choice of potential affiliates :) ).

Ok, fans, your turn.

ixnay

P.S. Now that the Cardinals have left KMOX, what station has had the longest current tenure as the flagship of the same MLB team? Reds on WLW? Pirates on KDKA?
 
San Francisco Giants: 49 seasons, on two stations:
KSFO (1958-1978)
KNBR(since 1979)
KNBR is a part-owner of the Giants.

Oakland A's: A little unclear on the exact years, but their games aired on KNBR during their first year(1968) in the Bay Area. Subsequently, they were heard on KNEW. In 1977, when notorious cheapskate owner Charlie Finley didn't bother negotiating a new contract, their games were heard on KALX, the FM station at UC-Berkeley, which could barely be heard off the university's campus!
Not sure about the last two years of the decade, but by 1980, the A's games were on KFYI, 1310 AM(KDIA with a temporary 'all-news' format).
In 1981, no longer under Finley's ownership, began producing and selling their own broadcasts. They started a long association with KSFO, and the famous partnership of Bill King and Lon Simmons began.
The A's stayed with KSFO through two changes in ownership, and moved to KNEW for a year(1993), then the next five(1994-98) at KFRC.
In 1999, they switched to KABL, returned to KFRC in 2003, and are now on KYCY.
 
Here are the stations that have carried the Chicago White Sox
From this site.
http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/cws/history/broadcasters.jsp
From 1924-43, multiple radio stations broadcast White Sox games, including:
WMAQ (1924-34),
WGN (1927-43),
WCFL (1929-31, 1935-43),
WIBO (1930-32), WENR (1931),
WJKS (1932),
WIND (1933-39, 1941-44),
WBBM (1935-40)
WJJD (1937-43).
Bob Elson broadcast White Sox games on WGN from 1930-42, while Jack Brickhouse worked Sox games from 1940-43.
Exclusive radio rights to Sox games began in 1944.

Here's the list of stations taken from the above site. The site also lists the broadcast crews for each station and the years they called the games. It also lists the tv stations and crews.

WSCR THE SCORE AM 670 2006

WMVP ESPN Radio 1000 1996-2005

WMAQ AM 670 1982-95

WBBM AM 780 1980- 1981

WMAQ AM 670 1973-79

WTAQ/WEAW 1971-72 I think thease were suburban stations with week signals. not sure of their frequencies. I'm curious to know how they maneged to get the rights away from the big sticks.

WMAQ AM 6701967-70

WCFL AM 1000 1952- 1966


WJJD AM 1160 1945-51

WIND AM 560 1944
 
Here are 2 of the 3 Southern California MLB teams flagship history:

The Los Angeles Dodgers - KFI (640) from 1958-1973;
KABC (790) from 1973-1997;
KXTA (now KTLK 1150) from 1998-2001;
KFWB (980) - 2002-current.

The Anaheim Angels (!) - KMPC (710) from 1961-1997;
KLAC (570) from 1998-2002;
KSPN (710) from 2003-current.
 
Tampa Bay Devil Rays

970 WFLA: 1998-2004 (Paul Olden and Charlie Slowes)
1250 WHNZ: 2005-present (Dave Wills, Andy Freed, & Rich Herrera)

;D
 
zman said:
WTAQ/WEAW 1971-72 I think thease were suburban stations with week signals. not sure of their frequencies. I'm curious to know how they maneged to get the rights away from the big sticks.
Click to expand...

WTAQ was on 1300, licensed to LaGrange. WEAW-FM was on 105.1 and licensed to Evanston. Those stations are now WRDZ (Radio Disney) and WOJO (Spanish-language), respectively. I'll guess that the better signal was 105.1 since it was on the Hancock Building by that time.

IIRC, the reason WMAQ dropped them was due to their lousy record, ownership problems, and the possibility of the team moving (they played 20 games in Milwaukee in 1968 & '69 and almost moved to Seattle in '76). WMAQ got them back in '73.
 
A few corrections to a prevous post. The Dodgers were on KXTA in 2002 and Angels were on KRLA for one season, 1998. It was part of a package deal that included the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. KRLA is not picked up well in Orange County at night and both teams opted out of the deal. The Angels went to KLAC in 1999 and the Ducks went to XETRA.

Here are the San Diego Padres flagship stations:

KOGO 1969 to 1976
KFMB 1977 to 1999
KOGO 2000 to 2003
XEPRS 2004 to present

Also I remember the A's being on 990 KKIS in the early 70s, i think. Outside the KSFO years, the A's have never had a stable flagship station in their years in Oakland.
 
Oh, yeah, another addition. The Dodgers were on KMPC in 1958, and moved to KFI for the 1959 season.

There's more: Gene Autry, the owner of KMPC went to the Baseball Winter Meetings in 1960, looking to get the radio contract for the proposed Los Angeles AL team. He ended up owning the team and the radio contract.
 
Florida Marlins
  • English Radio Flagship: 560 WQAM (1993-Present)
  • Spanish Radio Flagship: 1140 WQBA (1998-Present), 1210 WCMQ (1993-1997)
  • TV Partners: FSN Florida (1997-Present), Sun Sports (1993-1997, 2006-Present), WBFS-TV 33 (1993-1998), WAMI-TV 69 (1999-2001), WPXM-TV 35/WPXP-TV 67 (2002-2005)

  • Manolo Alvarez, Spanish Radio Play-by-Play, 1993-1998
  • Joe Angel, Radio Play-by-Play, 1993-1996; TV/Radio Play-by-Play, 1997-2000*
  • Allen "Roxy" Bernstein, Radio Play-by-Play, 2005-Present
  • Gary Carter, TV Analyst, 1993-1996
  • Jesus "Chu" Diaz, Spanish Radio Play-by-Play, 1999
  • Tommy Hutton, TV Analyst, 1997-Present
  • Len Kasper, TV Play-by-Play, 2002-2004
  • Craig Minervini, TV Pre-Game Host/In-Game Reporter, 2002-Present
  • Dave O'Brien, Radio Play-by-Play, 1993-1996; TV/Radio Play-by-Play, 1997-2000*; TV Play-by-Play, 2001
  • Luis "Yiky" Quintana, Spanish Radio Play-by-Play, 2002-Present
  • Felo Ramirez, Spanish Radio Play-by-Play, 1993-Present
  • Jay Randolph, TV Play-by-Play, 1993-1996; TV Pre/Post Game, 1997-2000
  • Angel "Tito" Rodriguez, Spanish Radio Play-by-Play, 2000-2001
  • Jon "Boog" Sciambi, Radio Play-by-Play/Pre & Post Game, 1999-2000; Radio Play-by-Play, 2001-2004
  • Dave Van Horne, Radio Play-by-Play, 2001-Present
  • Rich Waltz, TV Play-by-Play, 2005-Present
* Angel & O'Brien split innings doing Play-by-Play between radio and television for four seasons
 
Boston Red Sox: info from WRKO site (next year's flagship station though some games will still be on WEEI)
I will fill in frequencies if I know them.

>>The history of Red Sox English broadcasts in Boston on the radio follows:


1926 WNAC AM (Opening Day)

1927-38 WNAC AM 1230 (eventually)

1939-42 WAAB AM 1410

1942-46 WNAC AM 1260

1947-75 WHDH AM 850

1976-77 WMEX AM (1510)

1978-82 WITS AM (1510)

1983-94 WRKO AM (680)

1995-2006 WEEI AM (850)

2007-on: WRKO (680) and WEEI (850)
 
steve90031 said:
Oh, yeah, another addition. The Dodgers were on KMPC in 1958, and moved to KFI for the 1959 season.

There's more: Gene Autry, the owner of KMPC went to the Baseball Winter Meetings in 1960, looking to get the radio contract for the proposed Los Angeles AL team. He ended up owning the team and the radio contract.
Click to expand...

It would have been so nice to Mr. Autry to have been with us during the 2002 season in which the Angel franchise won their 1st World Series, but I'm sure he was smiling proudly from above. He was a true gentleman at all times, & KMPC & KTLA were run professionally during his ownership.
 
Houston Astros

1962-1980 KPRC (950)
1981-1984 KENR/KRBE (1070)
1985-1990 KTRH (740)
1991-1995 KPRC (950)
1996-1998 KILT (610)
1999-2006 KTRH (740)

Note: Corpus Christi affiliate, KSIX (1230) has been an Astros affilliate since day 1 in 1962 (45 seasons)

Radio Announcers:
Gene Elston 1962-85 (Congrats Gene on your induction into the Baseball Hall Of Fame-Ford C. Frick Award!)
Loel Passe 1962-76
Al Helfer 1962
Mickey Herskowitz 1963
Harry Kalas 1965-70
Bob Prince 1976
Dewayne Staats 1977-84
Mike Elliott 1984
Milo Hamilton 1985-2006 (home games only beginning in 2006)
Jerry Trupiano 1986
Larry Dierker 1986-96
Dave Hofferth 1986
Bill Brown 1987-96 (Brown moved to TV only in 1997 and is still there)
Bruce Gietzen 1988-90
Vince Cotroneo 1991-98
Enos Cabell 1992
Alan Ashby 1998-2005 (this guy got a raw deal by the Astros after last season)
Jim Deshaies 1999-2000 (does TV only now)
Brett Dolan 2006
Dave Raymond 2006
 
the golden boy said:
The Cubs have been on WGN-AM seemingly forever.
Click to expand...

They've spent most of their radio existence on WGN, although like the Sox, they had several stations at once carrying their games prior to World War II.

In fact, their first radio outlet was WMAQ in the '20s with Hal Totten as announcer, although by the early '30s they were also on WGN. Bob Elson handled the play-by-play, with Jack Brickhouse being added in the early '40s (they also did Sox games on WGN at the time). They were on WIND for a few years in the '50s before returning to WGN (where they've been ever since).
 
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