The Oakland A’s have (mostly) ditched the radio for the internet
Video killed the radio star, and then the internet killed video — and the internet wasn’t satisfied so now it’s after radio, too. The Oakland Athletics baseball team launched a 24/7 digital audio station on TuneIn last May called A’s Cast. It was such a success that on Tuesday, the team announced that they are moving all of their audio content there — including live game broadcasts in Oakland and the surrounding San Francisco Bay Area, which previously aired on KTRB 860 AM.
As The Mercury News points out, the move to internet broadcasting comes after the A’s declined to renew their local radio deal. (KTRB is the 12th station on which the A’s have broadcast their games since 1968, as they’ve kept hopping around.) Vince Cotroneo, a longtime radio announcer for the A’s who’s staying on through the move, told the Merc that the new setup would be frustrating to some because it’s a little harder than just tuning in to a radio station. If you don’t have the TuneIn app, you’ll generally have to first download that and then subscribe to A’s Cast. You can also listen online here.
You can be sure that more MLB teams will make a move like this in the near future, though obviously, that’s up to the franchises themselves. It is sad, though. It remains to be seen whether A’s fans in Oakland will care much about the move, though I can only assume they will. Either way, the internet hasn’t quite killed radio yet: if you live in Northern California, you’ll be able to hear live A’s games everywhere from Fresno to Sacramento.
Video killed the radio star, and then the internet killed video — and the internet wasn’t satisfied so now it’s after radio, too. The Oakland Athletics baseball team launched a 24/7 digital audio station on TuneIn last May called A’s Cast. It was such a success that on Tuesday, the…
