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Oakland A's ditching radio,, move to streaming only

Hey, some of us like to talk about happenings in other areas of the country, too. Here's the place to do it.
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SolarMax
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Oakland A's ditching radio,, move to streaming only

Post by SolarMax » Tue Feb 18, 2020 3:04 pm

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/02/18/ ... st-stream/

CAUTION: if you visit this site, make sure you have ad blockers on, Full Shields up!
The most pop-up, ad-ridden site I’ve seen in ages.

The tl;dr is that the Oakland Athletics team is discontinuing radio broadcasts of its games, moving audio full time to a new "A's Cast" streaming feed.
As expected, fans are outraged.
As expected, won’t matter.



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rugratsonline
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Re: Oakland A's ditching radio,, move to streaming only

Post by rugratsonline » Tue Feb 18, 2020 10:57 pm

It's only in the immediate Bay Area, as it will still be heard on the radio in other parts of Northern and Central California.

Also, it affects only the English broadcasts -- KIQI in San Francisco will still broadcast the Spanish language coverage.



80sTalkRadioFan
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Re: Oakland A's ditching radio,, move to streaming only

Post by 80sTalkRadioFan » Wed Feb 19, 2020 7:02 am

The Oakland A's were on Salem's "860-AM The Answer" KTRB San Francisco, a conservative/Christian talker last season. After reading this article, it sounds like the station manager was surprised and disappointed that the A's chose not to renew with KTRB for a second season. The A's may have been the most popular broadcast on that station, which has little to know local programming or news, it's mostly Salem's network shows like Mike Gallagher, Dennis Prager, etc. Like most talk stations they have a lot of infomercials nights and weekends.



fuzzpower
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Re: Oakland A's ditching radio,, move to streaming only

Post by fuzzpower » Wed Feb 19, 2020 8:30 pm

Weren’t they on a 10 watt college station back in the 70s?



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rugratsonline
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Re: Oakland A's ditching radio,, move to streaming only

Post by rugratsonline » Wed Feb 19, 2020 11:13 pm

80sTalkRadioFan wrote:
Wed Feb 19, 2020 7:02 am
The Oakland A's were on Salem's "860-AM The Answer" KTRB San Francisco, a conservative/Christian talker last season. After reading this article, it sounds like the station manager was surprised and disappointed that the A's chose not to renew with KTRB for a second season.
I think the nature of KTRB's programming had led to the A's abandoning the station, and that they were unable to find another station in time for the upcoming season.



80sTalkRadioFan
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Re: Oakland A's ditching radio,, move to streaming only

Post by 80sTalkRadioFan » Thu Feb 20, 2020 1:50 am

That's probably true. Wonder if the A's tried to get a deal with iHeart, for either KKSF-AM "Real Talk 910" a progressive/liberal talker or KNEW-AM 960 Bloomberg radio. I think both of those stations list Oakland as their city of license.



Inundated
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Re: Oakland A's ditching radio,, move to streaming only

Post by Inundated » Thu Mar 05, 2020 3:32 am

rugratsonline wrote:
80sTalkRadioFan wrote:
Wed Feb 19, 2020 7:02 am
The Oakland A's were on Salem's "860-AM The Answer" KTRB San Francisco, a conservative/Christian talker last season. After reading this article, it sounds like the station manager was surprised and disappointed that the A's chose not to renew with KTRB for a second season.
I think the nature of KTRB's programming had led to the A's abandoning the station, and that they were unable to find another station in time for the upcoming season.
I think that the station was charging the team for the airtime (after all, that's what Salem talkers do), and the team decided to not renew...biting the bullet and going without an over-air flagship, positioning themselves as "forward thinking" going digital.

Uh, sure. In the real world, the A's - by far the Bay Area's least popular professional team - have zero other on-air options. And they have a bad previous history with stations...ask 95.7 about that!



TomSanders
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Re: Oakland A's ditching radio,, move to streaming only

Post by TomSanders » Fri Mar 06, 2020 12:22 pm

fuzzpower wrote:
Wed Feb 19, 2020 8:30 pm
Weren’t they on a 10 watt college station back in the 70s?
The first 16 games of 1978 were on KALX (90.7 U-C Berkeley. 10 watts at the time). Curt Flood was the radio analyst. MC Hammer, Stanley Burrell at the time, was on the broadcast production crew.



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MWmetalhead
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Re: Oakland A's ditching radio,, move to streaming only

Post by MWmetalhead » Sat Mar 07, 2020 8:12 pm

I think that the station was charging the team for the airtime (after all, that's what Salem talkers do), and the team decided to not renew...biting the bullet and going without an over-air flagship, positioning themselves as "forward thinking" going digital.

Uh, sure. In the real world, the A's - by far the Bay Area's least popular professional team - have zero other on-air options. And they have a bad previous history with stations...ask 95.7 about that!
The above is the correct answer.

90% of baseball fans in the Bay Area root for the Giants. The A's are second class citizens who play in one of the worst ballparks in Major League Baseball.



JackAttack FM
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Re: Oakland A's ditching radio,, move to streaming only

Post by JackAttack FM » Mon Mar 09, 2020 11:26 pm

Inundated wrote:
Thu Mar 05, 2020 3:32 am
Uh, sure. In the real world, the A's - by far the Bay Area's least popular professional team - have zero other on-air options. And they have a bad previous history with stations...ask 95.7 about that!
Exactly!
The A's brought this on themselves. They claimed they pulled out of sports talk 95.7 because the hosts talked more about the Giants then the A's. (Win more then one world series in 30 years and maybe you'll draw more airtime.)
The only other sports talker in town, KNBR, was tied to the Giants so the A's got stuck with brokered time on a weak conservative talker.
Now they're relegated to smartphones in their home market.

And you can't compare this to when the Expos couldn't get a radio deal in Montreal. That was for a deal for on an English language station.

The A's tried to move to San Jose but, got push back from the Giants. The A's should just follow the Raiders to Vegas. Maybe Nashville, Indianapolis or Charlotte could be other options. I supposed they'd get push back from the Reds, Braves, Cubs, Sox and maybe the Nationals if they tried going to the latter three cities.



fuzzpower
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Re: Oakland A's ditching radio,, move to streaming only

Post by fuzzpower » Tue Mar 10, 2020 8:30 pm

What about Sacramento? Is that still encroaching on the Giants?

Indianapolis would need a new stadium, unless they make Lucas Oil double for baseball (unlikely). The Triple-A stadium, while beautiful, is too small and really can’t be expanded unless streets are closed off.

I know Nashville and Charlotte have NFL teams and fairly new Triple-A stadiums, but I’m not sure if there are other facilities they could play, even temporarily.

Las Vegas has a new Triple-A stadium away from the city, in Summerlin I believe. I don’t know enough about it and if it could be expanded.

A wild card city could be Monterrey, Mexico.



Inundated
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Re: Oakland A's ditching radio,, move to streaming only

Post by Inundated » Sun Mar 15, 2020 12:00 am

A Sacramento sports figure (same guy who owned the WLAF Sacramento Surge/CFL Sacramento Gold Miners) actually started building a baseball stadium out by Arco Arena...the presumed goal was to make a run at the A's.

It sat unfinished for years, until it was filled in.

Over in West Sacramento, a bridge away from downtown Sacramento, they built a AAA ballpark called Raley Field.

There was talk it could be expanded into a major league park, though I can't remember how feasible that would actually be. The local assumption has always been that any such effort would be to attract the A's.

The Sacramento River Cats still play there today. They started life as the A's AAA affiliate, but switched to the Giants at some point.



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