A’s scrambling to find a 2019 radio station
The Oakland A’s needs this winter extend beyond adding an entire pitching rotation. They’re still without a radio deal after a bitter breakup with their broadcast partner, potentially leaving listeners in the lurch come spring training.
With few ideal options in the Bay Area, which has only a handful of stations with signals strong enough to cover the entire region, the A’s are exploring some unusual avenues because they are committed to a strong radio presence for their fans, according to Chief Operating Officer Chris Giles.
“One of our goals is to have the broadest reach possible,” Giles said. “Our strategy and vision for radio has not changed moving forward.”
One thing is all but assured: For the first time since Cal’s student station paid $1 to briefly step in to broadcast A’s games in 1978, Oakland is unlikely to receive any money for the rights to air the games.
“Most teams are still commanding rights fees. The A’s aren’t in that spot,” said Jason Barrett, a former program director for 95.7 The Game
(KGMZ) who now writes and consults about sports radio.
The A’s are looking into purchasing their own station or paying for their airtime. The former isn’t unique; the Angels own their flagship station, which has broadcast games since 2008. It’s not a simple proposition, however: While several local stations are potentially for sale, given bankruptcy problems in the industry, none are currently geared toward sports, and the team would need to learn a new business on the fly in time for spring training. Even getting a sale done in time for Oakland’s first weekend exhibition game, Feb. 23, would be a push.
“We are considering it,” Giles said. “But there are some challenges from a timing standpoint.”
Complicating matters: the A’s acrimonious departure from The Game in October. The team’s issues with its former flagship were well known. The station, citing ratings and metrics, did little to promote the A’s (or the Raiders) on daily talk shows, which became particularly glaring when Oakland raced into contention and eventually a playoff spot. Apart from the broadcasts, there was almost no A’s talk on The Game until the wild-card playoff in October.
The next week, the A’s official Twitter account published video of a cart of A’s gear wheeling away from 95.7 with the caption, “It’s not us, it’s you.”
That did not sit well with the tight-knit Bay Area radio community. “Juvenile and arrogant,” said a longtime AM executive.
Making matters worse, The Game is owned by Entercom, which holds several other properties that might have had interest in A’s broadcasts. “Good luck getting anything done in that building ever again,” one Bay Area program director said. “It’s problematic.”
“That was a big middle finger to their media partner — no one in this industry liked that,” another executive said. “It’s confounding to think they’d do something that brazen without a bird in hand for another outlet.”
Barrett was with 95.7 The Game during the A’s inaugural season with the station, in 2011. He said had he not left in 2015, he would have urged The Game to get out of business with the team, largely because of poor ratings and the fact that game broadcasts are often during drive time, taking away listenership from the station’s top hosts. The team’s swipe at 95.7 only reaffirmed his feeling.
“Don’t stoop to that level, be above it,” Barrett said. “The only way to operate in this business is to keep the door open at all times. If you want to find a home for your product, it just doesn’t make sense. You would never see the Yankees do that. You would never see the Giants do that. It’s not a good look.”
Maury Brown, a sports business reporter for Forbes, called the A’s parting shot “crazy.”
“That’s the sort of thing that might be done behind closed doors, but you would never do that publicly,” Brown said.
Asked about the breakup tweet directed at The Game, Giles declined to comment. The team is not aware of any backlash as a result, however.
“There is a lot of interest out there,” he said. “We’re still exploring a variety of options.”
Which local station might be available for purchase, would cover the entire region and provide the A’s a recognizable brand? KGO-AM, whose parent company, Cumulus Media, is emerging from bankruptcy and might be willing to unload the station cheap.
More likely, though, is that the A’s purchase airtime on KGO or another station with a debt-ridden parent. Buying airtime isn’t the norm in the pro sports world — the heavy hitters in the major leagues still command millions in radio rights fees. Others in smaller markets or with ratings-challenged clubs have to get creative, sometimes swapping advertising inventories for in-stadium marketing opportunities as a means to make deals work. The Marlins are such a club, and like the A’s, they are currently without a radio contract and struggling to find a decent flagship arrangement.
“Certainly, radio has been diminished the last couple of years,” Brown said. “But the one thing that remains constant is that sports is still popular and provides valuable content, and radio is an important consideration for any sports franchise as part of the fan experience and for fan expectations.”
If a team were to outright buy the time for 162 games, plus pre- and postgame shows and some spring training games, the cost could run over a million dollars, depending on the station’s signal strength. Two radio executives in the Bay Area estimated that 750800 hours of programming would cost $1.5 million to $2 million, but that would be offset by ad sales. One executive said if Oakland were to enjoy another strong season, commercials could bring in more than $2 million. “That might not be a bad way for the A’s to go,” he said.
Some college teams, including Stanford men’s basketball, have gone to an onlinestreaming solution, and a few NHL teams are using a hybrid approach with their own streaming service and a local radio station (the Washington Capitals) or partnering with a streaming app that has a terrestrial component, such as iHeartRadio (Los Angeles Kings).
The A’s do not envision streaming games themselves for the coming season, but as the format evolves, that possibility might exist down the line.
“That is not our plan,” Giles said. “I don’t think the market is there for baseball yet. I know it’s an interesting option, but based on conversations I’ve had with fans, that’s not something they’re interested in.”
A station entirely off the table is 1050 AM, KNBR’s sister station, because of KNBR 680’s Giants commitment. The A’s have had six radio homes in the past 18 years, including KFRC twice, and one local industry expert suggested the former 610 AM dial spot occupied by KFRC (now KEAR) as a possibility.
“Money talks and the A’s story last year was one of the most compelling around,” Barrett said. “If they’re paying, someone’s listening. When The Game launched, no one saw the A’s moving there. But there’s always someone waiting in the weeds.”