According to the inimitable Rich Lieberman, KTRB just laid off its staff, leaving behind only A’s baseball, Chris Townsend’s pre and postgame shows, and Michael Savage. Head on over to AN for discussion. Who will the next station owner be? More to come.
Update 10:00 PM – According to Carl Steward, Savage has also been dropped.The station has gone into receivership, and the bank will continue to honor existing contracts with the A’s and Stanford football. Chris Townsend will become an employee of the A’s, not the radio station.
Update 9/11 11:08 PM – Susan Slusser is reporting that the auction price may be lower than that fetched via a private sale, which could make KTRB an enticing opportunity for the team to jump in and buy the station. Let’s cross our fingers, shall we?
newballpark.org 
is 860 really the long term home of the a’s even when they move to sj? how is the signal down there? would the a’s jump to a more power station once the move is complete especially if 860 continues to have issues with their reception thru out the bay area as it’s been since the a’s moved to that radio station at the start of 09?
they signed a 10 year extension after last season. the signal has been weaker for me personally this season when compared to last season.
860 does give the a’s a place to talk a’s baseball with townsend on post games and compared to buan’s decade long stint, it’s a much improvement. also tittle usually takes a lot of a’s calls on his show from 10am to noon on weekdays. but other than that, not much i listen to on that station. i can barely listen to the jt the brick show at nights anymore due to the reception.
“when” should be changed to “if”
some at AN are talking about the a’s themselves buying up 860? how much would that cost?
although a member there posted that stl bought up a “small” radio station a few years ago moving their radio games there. it was a mediocre station and compared to the signal they had before, it wasn’t close and they’re supposedly moving back to their previous radio station in 2011. don’t know what will happen to the station they bought.
i know the laa did the same thing, they bought up a small station down in la to broadcast their games on radio but i don’t know if that’s exactly panned out either.
wonder if the a’s and sharks could work out on something in terms of a joint radio station? sharks i think have been on the same fm station since they were created back nearly two decades ago. a’s have been on countless of radio stations over the past 15 or so years. probably as many as half a dozen?
860, 1550, 610, 106.9, 1220?
I doubt the Sharks would move to another station. They’ve got it really good with 98.5. Seems to be a really good synergy between the two, and anyway, that signal is far better than 860’s. So unless the KTRB signal was made to be stronger, that’d be a real step backward for them. There is also the problem of who gets the airwaves when they both play at the same time on either end of their seasons. One consolation when the A’s aren’t on TV is that at least they are on the radio. I don’t see that as possible with both teams.
yeah the a’s are screwed with the radio situation they’re in.
860 signal during the a’s is pretty good, too bad it craps out during the time where we’re right in the middle of an a’s game, who is supposedly they’re trying to build the station around yet they get the short end of the stick with the reception.
i remember when the a’s were on 106.9 FM back in 08 i think, the thought was the fm dial was gonna be the home of the a’s long term and then last year they went to 860AM, before it changed to an all sports station.
whoever the new owner is, if they dont’ improve the signal especially at night, then i don’t see how the a’s can stay on 860 long term.
I like that Mike Savage. He makes sense. Go A’s
I’m not a big fan of KTRB. I’ve either gotten curt responses from them or no response at all to various questions I’ve had for them. Chris Townsend’s top notch though. He responds to email and does a great job of getting to phone calls. He’s taken two of mine this season and it was a lot of fun.
PS: Love or hate him, Michael Savage’s subject matter is a buzz kill before A’s games. I know he’s big money for them, but his two daily time slots occupy times I’d like to hear A’s minutia.
http://www.mercurynews.com/sports-headlines/ci_16046861?nclick_check=1
Well EVERYBODY is GONE.
Townsend will be paid by the A’s, not by the station anymore.
so with savage gone, that leaves 7 hours of open programming on the schedule of weekdays now, 8 if you include ditto’s show gone. 5 AM to 10 AM and now 3 PM to 5 PM.
does this mean that the sports by line programming is still around? tittle, jj/mouth and barr? does 860 go full time back to all sports?
do they go back to fsr or snr programming to fill those slots?
correction it’ll be 7 hours of opening programming with savage and ditto’s shows off the schedule, not 8.
well townsend is being optimistic saying that there will be many who will want to buy this radio station and this partnership between the a’s and 860 will remain.
although don’t know what he can say and he even said he knows something but doesn’t want to say anything.
also when a caller from AN mentioned ditto and whether his show being still on air, townsend didn’t say the show was cancelled like the articles have said it will be. he know something we don’t?
@letsgoas – What I think it means is all of the Sports Byline USA programming is gone. It’s syndicated on other stations across the country and AFR, but not KTRB.
it’s gone? does that mean little, jj/mouth won’t be airing when monday comes around?
the article above said that 860 will continue it’s 24 hour spots programming so why would they get rid of it? also does 860 have to pay to broadcast programs from sports byline or an espn, fox sports radio, or sporting news radio? or is it the other way around where those companies pay for stations like 860 and those around the country to air their programming. or is there no payments made from either side?
is there any chance espn buys 860? they have so many espn radio affiliates around the country. nyc, chi, lad, dal, sea, la and etc but none in the 5th largest market in the country? seems as espn is doing very well even in this economy that they could afford to make 860 an espn bay area affiliate right? that would help in terms of them actually filling in the schedule and maybe create a local call in shows. course knbr does have a lot of espn’s programming from mike/mike, colin, jsmith and the weekend programming. don’t know if espn would want to severe their relationship with one of the most powerful radio stations on the west coast and move to 860 which almost seems 2nd or 3rd tier with the way it’s run. although 860 does get equal ratings to that of 1050 which actually syndicates maybe the biggest national sports show in rome and they have bruno another big name at night, also has bruce a local call in show during the midday.
but at this rate, unless the new owners pumps some serious money into 860, don’t see how the a’s can remain on that station especially when they move south where you’d think with a new park and all the new corporate sponsors they’ll have, they’d actually want as close to a first rate radio network backing then which 860 hasn’t been and who knows if they’ll ever be one.
860 got a 0.7 ratings in sj according to arb AUG. previously they had 0.3 and 0.4 in JUN and July.
they get better ratings in sj than they do in sf/oak market.
1050 in SJ got a 0.2. Did get a 0.6 and 0.7 in previous months but that was probably due to the world cup being aired on that station.
sf/oak market. 860 got an 0.4. 1050 got a 0.3.
still neither compares to 680 which got a 3.8 in sf and 3.3 in sj. heck even 680 even beats out both of sacramento’s two sports radio stations.
i doubt the a’s with 860 or any radio station will ever reach what 680 does but i do like it that 860 is making a case to be at least the #2 sports station here locally in the bay area according to the ratings. still i think most mlb teams and the station they air on at least get into the 1s and most in the 2s and 3s. what will it take for the a’s to ever reach even in the 2s?
Jeez, I remember in the A’s first 5-6 years in Oakland they were on KNBR. In the late 70’s, they were briefly on some 15 watt station based out of Cal. Signal barely reached the Coli.
@letsgoas, it takes time and good programming.
My personal opinion… 860 ESPN Radio is in order. Get Dan Patrick’s show on in the morning, fill it in with low cost local shows. I think the idea of an “Atheltics Nation Radio Program” would be amazing. Of course, all of us who write for an have real jobs so it is a tad unrealistic, as well.
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I really, really like Ron Barr’s show. The others… JJ and the Mouth is alright. Rick Tittle, not so much. Kind of a boring show.
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I can’t stomach political talk radio in any form. It is some guy spinning the truth to you for 3 hours at a time. If I wanted to get dumber I would watch reality tv before listening to some conservative, or liberal, jerk spout half truths and outright lies.
Soapbox: so much of the unrealistic nature of today’s political environment can be traced back to the beginning of Conservative Talk Radio in the early 80’s. The same would be true if Liberal Talk Radio started int he early 80’s. It is all vitriol with no solutions and, while venting is okay, outright lying about issues and misrepresenting facts has done nothing but make us a dumber nation driven by emotion rather than real, workable policy.
/soapbox
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So, whatever happens with 860, I hope doesn’t include a single political talk show.
Dan Patrick and ESPN are uh, mutually exclusive. You’d get Colin Cowherd in the mornings, like we do here in Las Vegas (ESPN Radio 1100). Dan & The Danettes are on the Fox Sports Radio station here (KENO 920), with Jim Rome at 9 a.m. KENO broadcasts the 51s games.
Lotus Broadcasting Company owns both. Why has KNBR’s ownership never purchased a station and made it A’s-centric? I can’t believe there isn’t space in the market for such a beast.
Man I love Rick Tittle…He’s actually my favorite radio show…I hope they find a way to keep him on in the future
@Jeffrey–I can’t believe the popularity of conservative talk radio–even here in the fairly liberal bay area. These guys make me sick. Savage is whacked. We do have the liberal Green960, which I enjoy, but most markets outside of here just carry the Con/hate radio, and outnumber liberal markets like 10-1. 600 stations to 60. Insane. Bill Press at 3am-6am and Thom Hartmann from 9am-12p are my faves. Tune into Mike Malloy at 6p-9p on Green960 if you want to here vitriol on the lib side. Too much for me, like Ray Taliaferro on KGO late night. Pat Thurston’s good on late night weekends on KGO.
Please refrain from the political talk.
Like it or not, conservative talk radio has become a staple of AM radio. But the fact that even in a year like this only the major hosts seem to be doing well speaks volumes about the state of the economy. I still think KTRB’s the place for them to stay. The inconsistency of their radio home has been an ongoing problem and provided the station doesn’t go religious or foreign language the A’s really need to tough this one out. I don’t think Lew Wolff wants any part of buying a station until the stadium situation is settled, if ever.
In a normal world KNBR would pick up the A’s for 1050. It would really cement their position as a “sports leader” and because it’s far weaker than 680 the Giants really shouldn’t have an issue with it. But this is not a normal world, and this proves my point even further that the Giants just want the A’s gone. To give the A’s more than 5 minutes even on 1050 would be unacceptable to them.
Sorry for opening that can of worms guys. I have real disdain for politics in general. Not liberals, not conservatives, but politics. Poli= many, tics= blood sucking leeches.
ML, political talk is not TOTALLY irrelevant here. As far as I can tell from 10 years of running A’s boards, most Oakland-only fans are, like JK, very liberal and dislike business in general. They don’t believe that market forces should rule, hence their dislike that Wolff is pursuing what’s obviously the best market option in San Jose. There are very few talk-radio type conservatives in the Bay Area under the age of 60, but there are a lot of techie-libertarians, and the San Jose/anywhere in the Bay A’s fans might fall more into that group.
funny thing is there is some a’s talk on 680 and 1050 on occasion. i’ve heard commercials for the a’s aired on both stations in previous years. 1050? bruce talks up the a’s more so than any hosts on 680, that’s a fact. 680? morning guys and radnich could care less unless something “special” happens like braden’s perfecto. ftiz actually is on the pro a’s to sj movement. brooks is pretty meh. forget about ralph and his anti oakland or sf is just so much better mentality. tolbert is alright especially if he’s hosting the show himself even though he’s an angels fan. fp? he’s too much wrapped into sf even though he’s not totally anti a’s since he was part of the a’s org back in 2001 and has nothing bad to say about the team really.
tittle i hope stays, he’s really the only true a’s fan on the air here who’ll take a’s calls and will actually know a bit of the team.
jj/mouth have a’s beat writers on but doubt they know a ton about the team. roxy is on with them now and i know a lot of a’s fans would’ve loved to seen him take over the tv play by play duties for years now.
860 def needs to add a local show or two in the future. will they have what 680 has which is local shows from morning to near midnight, doubtful. but least a show geared for both a’s and raiders fans which is something that 860 said was a goal of theirs. why not hire somebody like jt the brick to do a local show, he had one near a decade ago on 1050. he’s already on 860 at nights and everybody knows he’s probably the biggest raiders homer on the air nationally. but with 860’s financial issues, doubt they could pay him to do a local show. always wondered why they couldn’t hire some newspaper guys to host a show? newhouse actually hosted sportsphone on 680 very early so he has experience although he doesn’t write about sports anymore and probably would rip into the a’s owners every day. how about somebody like poole from the trib?
@LeAndre, I agree about Rick Tittle, its become pretty much wall to wall A’s and Raiders on that show, lots of callers too. If anyone here hasn’t listened in a while, its gotten better in my opinion. I hope he is there Monday.
I listened to Tittle last week. It was pretty much all Raiders. I am not a Raiders fan, and thus, it didn’t do much for me.
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I am 35 years old, which means in my formative football fan years (age 10-18), the Bay Area was a one team market. The Raiders had already dumped Oakland, before ruining my favorite baseball stadium upon return. They were LA’s team.
@letsgoas… I ignore Poole on a regular basis. He is like Ray Ratto. Not entirely illogical, but usually way wrong and not worth reading. Id he had a show, I’d probably never listen.
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Maybe Gary Peterson? Or Carl Seward? I’d listen if ML had a show 🙂
ratto when he fills in for radnich is actually good. actually prefer ratto over radnich himself.
yes in recent weeks since the exhibition season started for football, there have been a lot more raiders fans who call in to tittle than a’s fans. still at least tittle’s show gives you an open forum to talking east bay sports, aka a’s or raiders, which you never really had before.
i’m not a raider fan either but i think all sports fans deserve a place to talk about their teams on radio and with tittle and to a certain extent jj/mouth, east bay sports fans have that now.
just hope that it isn’t taken away from us so soon.
if 860 is doing better than 1050 ratings wise both in the sf/oak and sj markets, you’d think somebody would want to buy the station. neither will catch 680 in the ratings but being the #2 rated sports station in the market isn’t a bad spot.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/11/SPLP1FCB39.DTL
auction price for station could be lower than what it could’ve fetched in a private sale?
time for the a’s to jump on a cheap sale price. article also mentioned that the reception is strong in south bay making it well suited for the a’s if they do make the move to sj. is the signal strong down south during night games, 8 or 8:30 PM because i know a lot of a’s fans who say the signal dies during that time of the day. course things may change if more money is put into the station.
860 is the #2 sports radio station here locally, still very far behind 680 but still it has a lot of potential imo if they could actually fix the reception issue many are having and if you add in a couple of local/live call in shows.
NO MICHAEL SAVAGE, screw this station im boycotting it
860 Sounds great on Highway 85, from Blossom Hill San Jose to De Anza Blvd Cupertino. Bring Savage back for a real independent voice. Because of Savage I often listened to their other shows, such as JJ and the Mouth.
@Joe
I’d rather have Randy Savage. That dude could spend an afternoon talking about sorting laundry and it’d still be the best thing on the radio.
ooooooohhhhhh yeah!