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Oakland As Return To Bay Area Radio On Bloomberg 960

“The club’s newly announced partnership with Bloomberg 960 will also see a digital shift for the organization, with A’s Cast moving from TuneIn to a larger platform in iHeart.”

Brandon Contes

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Major League Baseball is back and the Oakland Athletics are again available to fans on terrestrial radio in the Bay Area. 

Since February, the A’s were planning to forgo a traditional radio partner for the 2020 season, but on Thursday, the club announced a return to the terrestrial airwaves in the form of iHeart’s Bloomberg 960 AM KNEW. Beginning Friday, July 31, the financial and business news station licensed in Oakland will carry the A’s remaining 54 games of the season. 

During the 2019 season, Oakland Athletics games were heard locally on 860 The Answer, but the team also launched their streaming platform A’s Cast through an exclusive partnership with TuneIn. The club’s newly announced partnership with Bloomberg 960 will also see a digital shift for the organization, with A’s Cast moving from TuneIn to a larger platform in iHeart. 

When the club announced in February that their radio broadcast would be on A’s Cast only, the decision was met with a lot of criticism by fans. 

“We’ve always prided ourselves in listening to our fans,” A’s team president Dave Kaval told Shayna Rubin of The Mercury News. “And I think for a lot of fans, this was something that was important for them. We wanted to find an option that worked.”

In addition to listening to the fans, COVID-19 likely played a significant role as to why the A’s flipped on their digital-only plans just six games into the season. Local radio stations may have been more eager to pick up the adjusted 50-60 game shortened baseball schedule, than the 162 broadcasts the A’s were trying to sell in the winter. 

“One of the biggest challenges we always had is the radio station, they just didn’t have the time to either sell us or partner with us for our games,” Kaval added when speaking with The Mercury News. “So, they’d say, ‘Oh, we’ll take 20 games or 40 games,’ but that doesn’t work. You can’t be on seven different channels.”

While fans now have a new way of consuming the games, not much changes for the A’s radio broadcasters. Announcers Ken Korach and Vince Cotroneo were already heard on A’s Cast and a dozen smaller stations outside the Bay Area, the new partnership with Bloomberg 960 will simply better serve their local fan base.

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KNBR’s Brian Murphy Speaks for First Time After Paul McCaffrey Laid Off

“Paulie Mac is my guy, will forever be my guy. The best thing I could ever wish anyone is that you get to work with someone as loyal, energetic, funny, consistent as the guy his Jersey buddies call ‘Smack’.”

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A photo of Paul McCaffrey and Brian Murphy
(Photo: KNBR)

Earlier this week, KNBR underwent a round of layoffs, affecting a pair of programs on the Bay Area sports station, including the departure of longtime morning host Paul McCaffrey. His longtime partner — Brian Murphy — has taken to X to share his thoughts.

In a thread to X, Murphy shared his admiration for McCaffrey, whom he hosted Murph and Mac with for 18 years.

“Paulie Mac is my guy, will forever be my guy. The best thing I could ever wish anyone is that you get to work with someone as loyal, energetic, funny, consistent as the guy his Jersey buddies call ‘Smack’,” wrote Murphy. “So much love.”

He then shared that everything listeners and fans of the program have shared on social media has been read by the duo, and thanked them for the outpouring of love and support.

Finally, Murphy addressed his future. Fill-in host Dieter Kurtenbach shared on Thursday he did not have a definitive answer about Murphy’s future with the Cumulus-owned station.

However, Brian Murphy has shared he will return to the airwaves on Monday morning.

“I’ll be back Monday morning on KNBR with our guy Markus (Waterboy) Boucher,” Murphy wrote. “Come on. It’s Niners-Eagles. Wouldn’t miss it. As Paulie Mac’s board itself would say: The show goes on.”

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Mike Mulligan: Sports Radio is More Difficult Than Other Formats Think

He shared that he has worked with people on morning shows that he has seen come to a station fully hungover who play music and proceed to sit on the couch.

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Mike Mulligan
Courtesy: Illinois Entertainer

On Friday morning’s edition of Mully & Haugh on 670 The Score in Chicago, co-host Mike Mulligan outlined the difference with music radio that hosts are not continuously talking to the audience, instead taking mic breaks and then interspersing commentary with different songs.

Filling in for David Haugh on Friday’s edition of the program was Gabe Ramirez, who used to work in the format with B96 as the host of its morning show. Mulligan’s assertion about the differences between the two formats resulted in a conversation about the differences between the grenres, with Ramirez explaining the difficulties that music radio hosts face on the air.

“The music station’s still creating content,” Ramirez said. “You get to have a guest – since I am going to defend my music stations – you get to have a guest and toss them a softball question and listen to them rant for five minutes.”

Mulligan disagreed with this perspective, conveying that he does not feel their program provides guests with easy questions. Additionally, he shared that he has worked with people on morning shows that he has seen come to a station fully hungover who play music and proceed to sit on the couch.

“As a former sportswriter, we sit around and we talk about sports,” Mulligan said. “We talk about the sports we cover and we talk about other sports.”

“You have to talk about Justin Fields seven days in a row,” Ramirez replied. “As a morning show for music, you have to come up with new content every day.”

Rather than taking umbrage towards the response, Mike Mulligan explained that the key to effectively performing his job is being able to discuss important stories of the day even when they are not the headlines. Furthermore, he expounded on the commitment that it takes to watch the amount of sporting events and to be properly informed on the action so he is able to take the air.

“That I will agree with,” Ramirez said. “I’ve told people this – they ask me, ‘What’s the biggest difference?’ The prep, without question, is way more difficult in sports radio because everyone that’s listening to you already knows the answers and you have to be equally if not more informed in all of those things.”

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Minnesota Twins Set to Tab Cory Provus as New TV Voice, Kris Atteberry as Lead Radio Announcer

Provus has been the radio voice of the Minnesota Twins since 2012.

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Minnesota Twins

After Dick Bremer exited the Minnesota Twins TV booth in October, the search began for his replacement. The MLB franchise didn’t have to look far, though.

Twins radio voice Cory Provus is reportedly set to become the new TV play-by-play broadcaster for the club, according to a report from Dan Hayes of The Athletic.

Provus has been the radio voice of the Minnesota Twins since 2012. Many immediately tabbed him as the club’s replacement for Bremer, who retired after 40 seasons as the lead television voice of the American League club. Before joining the team in 2012, Provus worked for the Milwaukee Brewers as the number two broadcaster after spending two seasons as the radio pregame host for the Chicago Cubs.

Meanwhile, Kris Atteberry has been signaled as the person set to replace Provus inside the franchise’s radio booth. He has served as the pregame and postgame host for the Minnesota Twins Radio Network since 2007. Atteberry joined the club after spending five years calling games for the then-Independent St. Paul Saints from 2002-2006.

While the television and radio broadcast crews appear set, questions remain about where the team will televise its games in 2024. The club’s contract with Bally Sports North has reportedly expired, and it has yet to sign an agreement with the bankruptcy-laden RSN, or with a local over-the-air television station.

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