There may yet be a future for the A’s and KTRB together. Chronicle beat writer Susan Slusser has the tasty news from the dead tree edition:
— According to two team officials, the A’s are deep in negotiations to buy radio station KTRB, which is in receivership. KTRB is expected to continue to carry A’s games, whatever the outcome of the sale.
and in The Drumbeat…
Also in today’s paper, I had a little snippet about the A’s quest to buy KTRB. I’m told that some progress has been made, and personally, I think it’s likely to happen, although it sounds as if the process of purchasing a radio station that is in receivership is an odd one. In fact, it sounds a lot like the Japanese posting process: from what I understand, bidders don’t know who they’re bidding against or what the other bids might be. We could know within a week. Let’s hope this goes better than the Hisashi Iwakuma business.
Even though it’s not a done deal, it sounds a lot better than what Rich Lieberman was reporting before Christmas. Crossing my fingers.
P.S. Compare the A’s plight to that of the NFL, which is close to a renewal of ESPN’s television rights for Monday Night Football, the NFL Draft, etc. The deal is potentially worth a whopping $2 Billion per year for up to a decade. Think about that. Each team would get around $60 million per year just from ESPN, which broadcasts only 17 games every season. The A’s 2010 payroll on Opening Day was just a shade over $58 million. Good luck to Roger Goodell on his quest to convince the public that the league is in financial peril.
newballpark.org 
whoever buys KTRB – and I hope it’s the A’s – will need to upgrade the evening transmitter, or we won’t be able to listen to the games.
good news regarding the a’s and 860. from what read over the past month and especially recent weeks it was as good as gone with either a spanish or religious group as favs.
as for the transmitter, the reports were previous owner was about to improve the signal issues that had been plaguing the a’s especially at night but then the station basically went down under and reception the last month of the season really became an issue with a couple of games being in audible during the mid way points in the game. so hopefully if the a’s are gonna buy the station can do what the previous owner was about to accomplish. still don’t think the signal will be clear for every a’s fan at night but regardless if the a’s can buy 860 and keep it as their home for the long term along with continuing to provide programs like tittle for east bay sports fans to have an outlet for, it’s still a win win compared to going to yet another AM station every other year it seems for the past dozen or so seasons.
KTRB definitely could use more content. All the minutia of a baseball team can supply that, I just hope enough people tune in and listen. I’m assuming the A’s would be looking at an annual loss over the first couple years (if not more). It’s not my money, so I don’t care. I think it’s a good sign that the Fisher/Wolff group is concerned with strengthening the A’s brand at the risk of hemorrhaging cash.
Grooveshark. REM. KTRB owned by the A’s…. It is the little things.
I grew up in Georgia and not so far from Athens around the time REM were moving from IRS to WB. At that point, there was nothing going on in the Peach State… nothing. Needless to say, REM were the bee’s knees in their homestate. Oh yeah, there was Dale Murphy. Yeah, not a whole lot got GA to cheer for back then.
if the a’s buy the staton i don’t know how much new programming will be added.
assuming they keep ditto, tittle, and jj-mouth shows that covers 9 AM to 3 PM and possibly 7-10 if they keep barr’s show. that leaves really only a morning show and or an afternoon show in between jj-mouth and barr shows.
i’m sure it won’t cost a lot for the a’s to hire a host or two for a legit local show instead of using sportsbyline programming to make up at this time most of it’s sports programming and before hand nationally syndicated shows other than ditto’s one hour show in the morning.
I’m more or less satisfied with their current schedule. I wouldn’t mind seeing JJ and the Mouth getting pulled but it’s not a big deal. I’d like to see Chris Townsend getting a co-host. I think Townsend does a great job, but he needs someone to play off of. He really earned his paycheck at times this year when there weren’t many callers and the A’s were neither good or bad enough to really carry a good radio rant. He handled it very well and kept things flowing. I called in a few times and always go on air within 10 or so minutes of calling (and that includes commercial time.). I took that as a sign there weren’t many callers on the queue.
townsend and kruger at the 3-7 slot or taking over for jj-mouth? probably afternoon slot.
they worked years ago probably in the late 90s on knbr on weekends. kruger already has filled in for jj-mouth during the holiday stretch. he’d be instant credibility as he a very well known bay area host and who at this time i don’t think has a radio job.
Even though we’re just riffing off the specter of hope the A’s can purchase KTRB and establish a stronger radio presense, the A’s don’t really have a good track record for self promotion. I really think they would have to do something drastic to pull in a sizeable number of listeners.
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I mean this in all seriousness. Give Jose Canseco a show. If you don’t follow his Twitter, I highly suggest you check it out from time to time.
speaking canseco, he tweeted that FORMER knbr host fp got kicked out of the playboy mansion over the new years holiday.
yes fp is leaving the bay area sports scene and is going to dc to be their color man. fp was freaking terrible on radio and basically was useless once baseball season was over imo.
Regarding F.P. Santangelo: Too bad for the Giants. They can’t even hold on to a retired utility infielder.
I’d like to see FP wear an old Expos jersey his first week on the air.
i’d guess lurie would take over sportsphone? pretty good doing baseball but doubt he has the sports knowledge as a whole to talk nfl, nba and other sports.
Ralph & Tom get by pretty well with little to no sports knowledge. If Lurie hits a topic he’s not comfortable with, he can make like The Razor and Mr. T and riff on last night’s episode of Dancing with the Stars until Mark DeRosa calls in and gives us an update on his wrist injury.
I like JJ and the Mouth. I also would like to see the A’s get Marty Lurie back in the fold. Not sure about Canseco, but i would love a former A’s player on the air. Ron Barr, bores me to tears. Let’s get the Raiders and make a huge move by getting CAL sports.
lurie, been there done that, he’s entriched himself with sfg so i doubt he comes back to the a’s.
imo a’s got a better talent in townsend whos by himself i’d rather have than the duo he basically replaced in lurie/buan.
really surprised that the a’s would’ve stayed on the station regardless of a format change. thought for sure they’d move to another radio station. hopefully a’s just buy the station up and don’t have to worry about where the a’s can be heard for the next decade plus.
Hope it happens and it makes sense. They just need to seriously work on transmitter in the evening, to receive a much stronger signal.
Hope they have shows, that will be able to talk both A’s baseball and Raider football. They need to keep Rick Tittle also!
Heeeeeeey Tittle!
Speaking as an adult, I’m cautious (though not opposed) to the A’s acquiring KTRB. Though as just a fan, I’d love to have more variety in sports radio– esspecially if that means getting to hear A’s minutia. If the A’s had a devoted radio station, I don’t know how much we’d hear about the ballpark saga or the CBA discussion at the GM/Owners meeting now, but I suspect it’d be more than we hear about it on KNBR. I’m not bashing the Giants because everyone’s got their own agenda, but A’s related news needs a proper wide-spread forum for discussion. It’d be great if Athletics Nation could get a radio show.
the bay area needs another sports radio outlet especially for east bay fans. i just can’t stand knbr programming right now that if not for 860, you wouldn’t even hear about the a’s or raiders and i’m a niners fan but i feel every team’s fans should have a radio home to talk with. still don’t understand why the raiders aren’t on this purchase, dont’ know if two sports teams have ever worked together and bought up a radio station but it’d make sense for both the a’s and raiders to do so.
860 isn’t perfect even if they improve the signal some a’s fans will always have issues as they had even before the station went under the last the month of the season. still in terms of 860’s signal, i don’t know if you’re gonna get a better station to be on anytime soon, unlikely the bigger am stations are gonna want the a’s and most importantly once again, it gives a outlet to a’s and raiders fans for most of the day especially if a local show or two are added which is something they wouldn’t have even if they went to another radio station which according to reports they won’t regardless of who buys the station.
hopefully the news comes out soon, was hoping this week but doesn’t look like it’ll be the case.