Tag: Radio

So the Oakland A’s Dropped Their Radio Broadcast Partner and Will Stream All Their Games Now

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FrontOfficeSports – In the best-selling “Moneyball,” author Michael Lewis portrayed the Oakland A’s as famously willing to abandon old ways of doing business. The A’s are at it again, becoming the first MLB club to ditch terrestrial radio in favor of internet streaming audio.

The A’s made headlines last week announcing they’ll exclusively stream all of their games in the Oakland/San Francisco market for free on TuneIn this season – while cutting ties with local radio station KTRB. “Fans are consuming media differently and we have to adapt to meet those needs,” A’s President Dave Kaval said in a statement.

The A’s and TuneIn launched a 24/7 channel dubbed “A’s Cast” last season. It grew into MLB’s No. 1 team podcast, with 650,000 downloads, and marked the first time the A’s boasted the league’s most popular and downloaded property.

During the off-season, TuneIn met with the ballclub to discuss testing exclusive streams of A’s games this season. The two sides were so impressed by the 2019 results they agreed to bypass the test phase – and name TuneIn the club’s exclusive audio distributor for the 2020 season.

This is a fascinating move by the A’s and to be perfectly frank it’s about time they did something radical because you can only lean on “Moneyball” as your sole contribution to society for so many years.

This will be a challenge for older fans who don’t know their ass from their elbow when it comes to technology, but if baseball is going to avoid the fate of prize fighting and horse racing it’s going to have to start adopting radical new ideas.

For anyone under the age of 40 though this is not that crazy of a change at all. You know how often I listen to a Red Sox game on the radio? Almost never except for when I’m sitting in traffic. I don’t even own an actual radio so anytime I’m listening to sports talk outside of my car is either on my iPhone or streaming over my Google Home at my house. A free streaming service is long overdue for baseball because if you don’t actually own a radio like me you’re shit out of luck unless you’re in front of the TV, in your car, or a paying MLB.TV subscriber. There is always the workaround of streaming on your laptop through your TV provider, but thats not exactly easy to access for anyone let alone a digital nomad.

If you’re a cynic you could argue this frees the A’s up from any local contractual obligations aside from their dump of a stadium, which could make it even easier for them to leave town. It’s like someone cutting the cord and signing up for YouTube TV as their main cable provider. No contracts and take it with you anywhere you go. Fair point.

The money they lose from licensing their broadcast rights to a radio station is a valid argument, but I’m sure TuneIn isn’t getting this for free so that’s not a huge deal. If your argument is the team will lose visibility and awareness because they’re no longer on terrestrial radio, well then pardon my french but you’re fucking out to lunch. I would say more than half of the time I’m in my car I’m listening to music or a podcast on my phone. Add in the fact that we are all constantly connected via text, twitter, Instagram, Facebook, ESPN push notifications etc. and there is almost nothing I become aware of because of the radio. The A’s will do just fine without being on an AM dial.

Not to mention the broadcast quality is going to sound world’s better. I was kind of joking about how the A’s will be fine not being on the AM dial, but their former radio broadcast partner KTRB is literally 860 AM in Oakland. That is preposterous in 2020. WEEI in Boston made the jump from 850 AM to 93.7 FM back in 2013 and the improvement in audio quality was titanic. AM signals usually sound like you’re broadcasting from a truck stop bathroom so digital streaming will be a slight upgrade over that.

The A’s could once again be paving the way for other teams to take their idea and achieve much greater success running with it if Moneyball is any indication. So I applaud the A’s for trying something new in a sport so averse to change.

Kirk Minihane Moving to RADIO.COM

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Earlier this week, Kirk Minihane teased that a big announcement regarding his future was coming. He’d been off the air for about two months, and there had been lots of speculation online about when (and where) he would return to the air. Just hours before his highly-anticipated appearance on the the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch dropped, WEEI announced that Kirk will be leaving the “Kirk and Callahan” morning show on WEEI to start his own show on RADIO.COM in early 2019.

There was a lot of speculation online that Minihane was headed for Barstool Sports. Minihane would be a perfect fit for Barstool and Barstool Radio but as he pointed out on Deitsch’s podcast, he’s got a contract with Entercom (parent company of WEEI and RADIO.COM) that runs through 2021. Still, his new position at RADIO.COM sounds awfully Barstool-esque:

Kirk Minihane will launch a new radio show, podcast and column on RADIO.COM, the fastest growing digital audio app in the United States.

Selfishly, I’m glad he’s not going to Barstool Radio (yet). If Minihane went to satellite radio that would be another $20 a month out of my pocket because he is must-listen radio. Love him or hate him, you can’t deny that he’s been the most interesting sports-radio personality in Boston the last few years.

Far too often sports-talk radio has fallen to the level of mindless DJ banter, an endless exchange of radio clichés.

What’s worse than that is when hosts discuss topics they obviously have no real interest in. I turn off 98.5 when I hear Mazz breaking down the Bruins third line. At least Minihane doesn’t bullshit listeners into thinking he cares about the Bruins third line or production out of the Celtics bench. For the most part, Minihane covers the topics listeners find interesting.

Minihane made the argument on Deitsch’s podcast that sports-talk radio has reached its ceiling. Recaps, previews, controversies, repeat. If you watch any of the Mike Francesa  clips posted on Twitter by Ƒunhouse, or remember listening to WEEI between the time 98.5 launched and when Minihane joined “Dennis and Callahan,” it’s hard to counter that argument.

By his own admission, Minihane moving to RADIO.COM isn’t quite like Howard Stern moving to Sirius in 2006. It will still be interesting, though, to follow Minihane as he works to shake up the sports-talk radio format in a new setting. This is not going to be another “Big Show Unfiltered.” He might not have the same number of listeners he had on WEEI, but Kirk Minihane unfiltered will undoubtedly still have an impact on the dialogue of Boston sports fans.

Sports Pope Coming Back

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New York Daily News – Unless there is a last-minute snag in the negotiations, Mike (Sports Pope) Francesa will soon return to WFAN, the Daily News has learned.

Francesa will be back in the 3 p.m.-7 p.m. slot, according to well-embedded Hudson Street (FAN Headquarters) rats…

Sources did not know Francesa’s exact starting date, but said it would be soon.

Francesa “retired” from WFAN four months ago. During his “farewell” tour, he repeatedly said “no more FAN.”

I don’t live in New York, I’m not from New York and I’m not a New York sports fan but this is good news.  This is good news for for anyone who consumes sports radio or sports media in general. There are so few people or programs in the sports media that matter any more. Look at ESPN, they couldn’t get anyone to watch SC6 with Michael and Jemele and Get Up! looks to be on the same path. Mike may have lost a little off his fastball, but at least he still matters. You don’t need to be a New Yorker to recognize that.

Is it a little awkward to go on an 18 month farewell tour, just to come back five months later? You bet, but let’s not pretend like this is unprecedented. Johnny Carson is the gold standard of retirement. He signed off at age 66 in 1992 and was on screen for less than 90 seconds the rest of his life. He’s also the exception. Michael Jordan and Brett Favre each made multiple comebacks. Jay Leno (in)famously returned to The Tonight Show. Francesa will be in a similar situation as Leno. If you didn’t like him before, this will be another thing to jab him about. Otherwise, what’s the big deal?

Underrated in all of this may be the fact that Francesa is coming back almost entirely out of spite. Here’s what he said to the New York Post:

“This is for those who started this campaign in recent days. I didn’t decide to go back to WFAN until I was told I better not go back,” Francesa told the paper. “For those behind it, that was the moment I decided to return.

I love a good grudge. Makes for must-listen radio, too.

RIP Gil Santos

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Sad news last night with the passing of Gil Santos. It’s hard to believe his last season in the broadcast booth was 2012. It doesn’t feel that long ago that Gil and Gino were calling the action from high above Gillette Stadium.

Gil Santos was the best Boston sports radio play-by-play man of my lifetime. Even with all of the success Boston sports teams have enjoyed over the past 17 years, it is Santos’s call of the tuck rule review (and reversal) that remains one of my favorites.

The Super Bowl that year wasn’t bad either.

We’ll miss you, Gil.

WEEI to Get the Jon Taffer Treatment Friday

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It’s been a rough couple of weeks at WEEI. After Alex Reimer’s “pissant” comment late last month and Christian Fauria’s racist impression of Don Yee last week, the station has been getting all sorts of bad press and hemorrhaging advertisers. Something had to be done to address this situation, and it now appears that WEEI will shut down for the day on Friday to host mandatory sensitivity training for all employees.

The fact that WEEI’s sensitivity training will probably resemble Dunder Mifflin’s sensitivity training is irrelevant. Something had to be done. If nothing else this station, and its parent company, had to do something to show that it was taking these incidents seriously. They’ve had enough incidents lately for it to become a full-blow situation over there.

And based on the timing, right before the start of spring training, I wouldn’t be surprised if WEEI wanted to show the Boston Red Sox in particular that it was taking this situation seriously and handling it appropriately. Even with deals in place for years to come, I can’t imagine John Henry would want the logo of an embattled radio station all over his ballpark all summer. Especially since his club has plenty of its own marketing issues to worry about.

Friday seems as good a time as any for the station to take a much needed timeout. It should give everyone a chance to discuss, reflect and reset. As was written about in the Herald earlier today, WEEI needs to get back to basics, and fast. I don’t want WEEI to turn into some bland midwest “Sports Animal” sports talk station. Its brash style is what has made WEEI wildly funny and entertaining in the past. But if it can’t get back to basics, I don’t want to listen as it continues to spiral out of control.