No news on KTRB yet. Sorry.
There is other news on sports-related radio. South Bay rock station KUFX-FM (er, KFOX 98.5) was sold to industry giant Entercom for $9 million. The station was held in a trust as Clear Channel had to divest itself of three stations after it made acquisitions of its own (FCC rules). This apparently set off a chain of events which led to USF-owned classical station KUSF being sold to a nonprofit controlled by USC. Yes, that USC. They also bought KDFC and moved the station to 89.9 and 90.3, eliminating KUSF from the airwaves in the process. The 102.1 slot will serve for now as simulcast for KUFX.
Simulcasting on 102.1 will definitely help KUFX because of the new station’s 33,000 watt signal from San Francisco. Coupled with the much weaker 10,000 watt San Jose station, Bay Area coverage should be good. However, there is a question as to how much KUFX’s South Bay identity will be lost in the process since the studio will move from San Jose to San Francisco. The Sharks reportedly have a five-year broadcast deal which ends with the 2014-15 NHL season, but we A’s fans are well accustomed to long-term agreements not being worth the paper they’re printed on. Stations change formats on a whim, though KUFX’s typical 4.5+ rating in the South Bay is good reason for things not to change much.
If KUFX does a format change or streamlines and drops the Sharks at some point, here’s to hoping that an A’s-owned KTRB provides a soft landing spot. December ratings are out, and KTRB’s status in receivership limbo has not helped. Ratings below with number of households in parentheses.
- San Francisco: October – 0.3 (114,100), November – 0.1 (59,000), December – 0.1 (55,300)
- San Jose: October – 0.2 (26,600), November – 0.1 (15,800), December – 0.1 (11,000)
Buy that station!!! Please???
newballpark.org 
agreed a’s need to buy the station. i don’t even know what is gonna feel like if the bay area radio landscape is only knbr programming. funny that i heard of the news yesterday that byrnes was taking over for fp at night time. guess those with the power within the station want a bunch of former jocks who don’t want to say anything bad about the team which is the opposite of how the previous two hosts who weren’t former players in krueger and bruce operated and maybe a reason why they were eventually fired/replaced in the case of bruce.
if that sj station went for 9 million, where would that put the price on ktrb? if i remember right the rumored price for 860 would be would be around 12 million and the supposed bidders other than the a’s would go extra that amount to buy the station. lieberman as it was pointed out a while ago that the a’s wouldnt go all out to buy 860 due to all it’s drawbacks but then slusser a week or so later posted that she thinks the a’s will indeed buy 860. hopefully the later source comes true.
the sj station has broadcasted sharks games ever since the franchise’s inception so i don’t know if they’d break off around a 20 year relationship. does anybody know what the ratings are for the sharks on radio? in the last year i think they were 4th behind sf, a’s, and even w’s in terms of ratings on csn. but if the sharks did move off their station and hopefully the a’s do buy 860, that they would welcome them to the station. frankly if the a’s do buy 860, they should go after a fall-winter sports teams to fill in the scheduling post baseball season with either the raiders or sharks. raiders would be ideal because other than maybe 8 or so games max from AUG/SEP there wouldnt’ be a scheduling conflict between the two teams while both nba/nhl seasons go well into the baseball season.
always wondered and mentioned it many times before if a sports team has ever bought the entire rights to a radio station. i know many teams do so with their tv partners like with what the nyy have with YES and to a certain degree sf has with csnba. also wondered why couldn’t the a’s and raiders work something out. i don’t know if they ever discussed anything regards to both helping to buy and run 860. sharing a single sports staton would make sense due to the majority of their fan bases pretty much rooting for those two teams, there are the exceptions as i’d include myself as one being an a’s/niners fan. add to that at this point knbr basically ignores both teams on a conistent basis and really only mention them when any major news happens but other than that, not much banter about either the a’s or raiders on either knbr stations, i’m not sure why neither team wouldn’t want a solid and stable radio home for their fans to talk about their teams.
course who knows if even the raiders would want to share a station with the a’s. raiders maybe the hardest team to get a read on and can you imagine trying to work out a business relationship with them on a radio station. not surprised 860’s ratings have dipped in recent monts from what was an all time high in sep i think of an 0.4 in sf and oak markets with also an 0.7 ratings in sj. there’s no a’s baseball which garnered it’s highest ratings and really the station only has imo 2 or 3 at the most listenable shows. ditto’s show from 9-10 in the morning, tittle from 10-12 mid morning, jj and mouth from 12-3. not a real listener of barr’s show which pretty much runs thru out the day be it the live show or the taped show from the previous day. if 860 were to be bought by 860 and they improve the signal and actually add some local programming, think the station could be a legit alternative to knbr. now i’ve said that before, probably dating back to when 860 changed to an all sports format back in the early 09 baseball season. but 860 will never challenge what 680 does not even if all things go right from signal, better porgramming, heck even if they add the raiders onboard but at least we east bay sports fans will finally have a home if the a’s do buy the station and even if they move to the sj eventually, it’ll still be the home for east bay fans for the most part as most east bay fans of the a’s will still remain loyal to the franchise.
does anybody know what site to go to that would break the news on whether the a’s bought 860 or not?
i know for the past few weeks when i thought the news would be broken either way in either the first or second week of the new year i’ve been logging on to this site, lieberman’s, and slusser’s to see if any news was let out on 860’s fate.
$9 mill for KFOX? Jeez, that seems like such a small amount for a radio station out here. I got that station saved in both my car decks cuz I enjoy their music, along with the Band (103.7) and KFOG (104.5). Don’t follow the Sharks though.