Tag: 95.7 fm The Game

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: A’s Radio History, Can It Repeat Itself in 2019?

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By: Amaury Pi-Gonzalez

In 1978, A’s owner Charlie O Finley gave the broadcast rights for free to the UC Berkeley campus radio station, KALX 90.7 FM, with Larry Baer and Bob Kozberg at the microphone, calling the action. That same season I was calling the weekend games in Spanish for the old KBRG 105.3 FM San Francisco, with studios in the Merchandise Mart in Market Street. Carl Finley asked me to give the score every half inning in English because our signal was covering the Bay Area and the UC Berkeley campus station could not be heard at the Oakland Coliseum parking lot. By the way, if the name Larry Baer sounds familiar; yes, he is the same Larry Baer running the San Francisco Giants today.

The A’s ended their partnership in 2018 with 95.7 FM The Game, and as of today, there’s less than one month until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in Arizona, and the team has not signed a new flagship station. Could it be that the A’s will not have a radio station to carry their games? How can they find sponsors if they might just go into Spring Training with no radio signal? They could even be broadcasting the games on the A’s website, but no commercial over-the-air radio station? Can history repeat itself from 1978?

Of course, the A’s will have full coverage of all their games on television, but if they cannot secure a local radio signal, that would be news that they are not looking forward to announce. At this time last year, the A’s were already advertising their Fanfest at Jack London Square. But today just a week and days away (their Fanfest is on January 26th at Jack London Square) and that fan favorite is not advertised on a their radio station because they simply do not have a carrier.

Unfortunately, it’s embarrassing and ridiculous, but these are the times we are living these days, radio is not the medium that it once was back in the day. With the advent of social media (Facebook has done live MLB games in recent years) and local team television, the absence of local radio in 2019 is very possible. The A’s have their network station aligned, but no local flagship station to provide the coverage

Welcome to 2019!

The A’s need to look to the Dodgers as a model to solve their radio problems

Published on by Charlie O. MalloneeLeave a comment

 

By Charlie O. Mallonee

The Oakland Athletics and their president–David Kaval–have not made any secret about being unhappy with their flagship radio station 95.7 FM The Game and their parent corporation Entercom Communications. The A’s major complaint has been that 95.7 FM  The Game spends more time covering the Giants and 49ers than they do the A’s.

By the way, without belaboring the point and going in-depth on the historical reasons why it is a logical editorial move for the station, the A’s complaint has some real validity to it.

Unlike the Giants, the A’s have been the nomadic professional sports team on the Bay Area airwaves. They have been heard on 50,000 watt powerhouse radio station KNBR and tiny college FM station KALX (it’s a long story that also involves the Giants’, Larry Baer). In total, the A’s have been heard on 14 different radio stations in the Bay Area including three different stations in one year back in 2011.

In 60 years, the Giants have been on two stations. Originally, they were heard on 560 AM KSFO before moving to 680 AM KNBR.

Kaval obviously wants to have the kind of relationship with a radio station like Giants have with KNBR. Here is the problem Kaval has in establishing that kind of bond, KNBR/Cumulus Media are also part owners of the Giants. When KNBR promotes and sells the Giants, they are promoting and selling themselves. It’s a perfect business synergy.

It is totally understandable as to why Kaval wants that kind of broadcast relationship for his baseball team. The ongoing conversation about the team and its players help to gin up excitement among the fans year around. That has to be helpful to a team’s bottom line. The problem is the A’s do not have an investor that owns a radio station.

The Dodgers and Angels ran into a very similar situation in Los Angeles and took matters into their own hands. In this writer’s opinion, the Dodgers have done a better job of handling the situation.

The Dodgers established a partnership and purchased their own radio station with iHeart Radio. Together, they operate AM 570 LA Sports–Home of Dodgers Radio & Los Angeles sports. AM 570 LA Sports is also the radio home of the Chargers, Clippers, Fox Sports Radio, and several locally produced sports talk shows, but make no mistake–it is “Dodger Radio.”

The Dodgers control their broadcast situation and create their own profit center from their efforts. Not only do they have a 24 X 7 X 365 self-promotion channel but they have a sports-related broadcast business profit center for the team as well.

The Angels have done the same thing with AM 830 in Orange County, which they call Angels Radio. They are also the home of the Anaheim Ducks, USC Basketball, multiple play-by-play syndicated feeds plus some ESPN network programming and a locally produced talk show.

AM 570 LA Sports does much better in Nielsen Radio Ratings than does Angels Radio AM 830, which means they can charge more for their commercials. They also have the sales and marketing force of iHeart Radio to work with to sell their product. Not that the Angels are losing money, but the assumption would be the Dodgers are making more money with their venture at this point.

If the A’s want to establish stability on the radio and have some control over their broadcast product, then they must put some “skin” in the game. The team is going to have to invest in their own product by finding a broadcast partner to help them build a radio station from the ground up. It will cost some money, but the team will have their choice of Entercom, Cumulus, iHeart, Bonneville, Salem and even possibly Disney to become their broadcasting business partner.

There is plenty of room in the sports broadcasting segment in the Bay Area for more programming. Think “Green & Gold AM 610 ESPN Radio.” There is no full-time ESPN Radio, Fox Sports Radio or CBS Sports Radio affiliate in the Bay Area. Take the programming from one of those outstanding networks, add a killer local afternoon talk show to go with specialty programming for the A’s to enhance the play-by-play and you have the foundation of a strong sports station. Add to the baseball programming play-by-play coverage of pro and college sports from around the nation plus Bay Area college basketball and you have a station worth listening to if you are a sports fan.

The A’s will need to select the right partner and then buy the correct radio station or stations to make the plan come together, but it can happen? More importantly, as the Dodgers and other professional teams have proved, it can work very successfully.