To say the Oakland A’s have had a contentious relationship with radio might be putting it lightly. Generally, teams with a fantastic relationship with a flagship radio station don’t launch streaming audio services like the A’s Cast.
I don’t know of a professional sports team with a more sordid history with terrestrial radio over the past 10-15 years than the Oakland A’s.
From the infamous “It’s not us, it’s you” breakup tweet with 95.7 The Game, to their games airing on an ultra-conservative station that led to a fan revolt, to now being heard on BLOOMBERG 960 (which, as I type this, is the lowest-rated radio station in both the San Francisco and San Jose markets), the A’s have placed heavy reliance on the digital audio home.
And they can claim their investment into A’s Cast is about the future of digital audio, and they can shout until they’re blue in the face that the reason they are driving their fans to listen to their games on a stream is that that’s how fans are listening anyway, but the inconvenient truth is it was created because of the extreme uncertainty of their radio future in the Bay Area.
I’m not dumb enough to believe that the club is picking up and moving to Vegas because the radio climate is better for them there than it is in the Bay Area, but it also would be ignoring the reality of the situation.
On paper, the A’s Cast is a really smart idea. Create audio that your fans are craving, including live games, all in one place. The barrier to entry on a product like that is insanely low, and truthfully, more professional sports franchises should consider that avenue. But not as the sole provider for their audio broadcasts.
Traditional, terrestrial, over-the-air radio is still far and away the best option for a professional sports team, and any club that suggests otherwise is lying. Am I really supposed to believe that the Anaheim Ducks would rather have their games broadcast on the Ducks cast rather than AM 570 LA Sports, 710 ESPN LA, Angels Radio AM 830, or any other terrestrial radio station? I was born at night, but not last night.
I check MLB.tv every day to get a glimpse of what the MLB schedule looks like that day, what the free game of the day is, etc…every team in the big leagues is accompanied by the call letters or station brands for its radio broadcasts. MLB.tv shows you how to listen to each team’s games, and some even show the Spanish-language broadcast options. But not the A’s.
Even though their games air on BLOOMBERG 930 — which isn’t the name of a radio station in one of those bad Hallmark Channel Christmas movies where the insanely attractive corporate big-wig comes home from the big city to her small hometown to visit her parents around the holiday and ends up falling in love with the morning host who gives relationship advice on the small market station — the club still lists their broadcast home as the A’s Cast.
Why?
The A’s Cast was built out of necessity. The complete apathy and indifference the franchise built in the Bay Area, bled into the same feelings to the media outlets, especially radio stations, in the market.
Admittedly, the radio options on the market were limited. KNBR was never going to give up the San Francisco Giants. Obviously, 95.7 The Game was no longer an option for the A’s. The news/talk stations in the market weren’t going to give up hours of airtime nearly every day for 7 months out of the year to the second-rate professional sports team in the area, and the same is likely true for classic rock stations in the market.
Now, luckily for the franchise, it will get a fresh start in a new city. The Las Vegas radio scene is, in all likelihood, going to be much more welcoming than the radio stations in San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose.
Heck, there are four sports radio stations in Sin City owned by Lotus Communications alone. Now, I have a hard time believing — with the A’s history — that they’d welcome the chance to air on Raiders Nationa Radio 920. But there are several options for the A’s to move to Las Vegas and see a real, tangible, radio home.
So, when that day comes in a few years, we’ll see just how committed the A’s are to the A’s Cast, or if it was actually what they claimed it was: the next wave of the future in the way their fans consumed audio content for the club.
The cynic in me thinks we’ll see a different answer, however.
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
