I too was thrilled to hear about the agreement with a 50,000 station and flabbergasted to tune in to a staticky signal in the Berkeley hills.

I do recall discussion of impending coverage expansion but don’t remember the details. Does anyone know what is ahead for KTRB in terms of signal clarity/coverage area, and how it will impact reception in the East Bay? This is sad.

For me reception on a cheap radio at work in East Oakland is fine, also fine in my car. At home (near Lake Merritt) it’s just ok – but I have lots of problems with AM at home in part due to interference from 13 ATT antennas on the roof of the tallest building on my block. (The landlord of that building leases the roof to ATT.)

What I have noticed, though, are technical problems both with Marty Lurie’s show and with the A’s broadcast, the likes of which seem worse than they were with 1550 AM. For example, Thursday during Marty’s show there seemed to be a tug of war between the beginning of his show and the show that 860 has one right before it. Sometimes one would win, sometimes the other…it was really weird. Then today there was some bad static (sounded different from the microwave interference I get from ATT) degraded the quality of the broadcast for a couple of innings.

I haven’t tried listening to the station with my portable radio (which I often take to games), so I can’t report on that. It would be interesting to see other listeners’ experience as well.

I’ve had mediocre to moderately okay reception, depending on where I am. The reception in my apartment in Adam’s point is considerably more static-y and I’m in the east East Bay today (Concord) and it got considerably worse on the way here. Boo.

In Vallejo/Fairfield/Vacaville —almost impossible to listen to (although I’ve only tried to get night games) … today driving through Pleasanton, the reception was perfect.

I’m afraid most, if not all, of the night games will be too staticky for me out here … looks like I’ll have to renew my XM subscription. Very disappointed.

the KTRB transmitter is located in the Diablo Range east of Sunol. I mention that just for anyone who might be curious. I looked it up because I can’t get KTRB in my apartment in the North Berkeley Hills, but I can see Sutro Tower, so if their signal were coming from Sutro I would be terribly confused. Though I have worked in radio for more than thirty years, I am not at all up on the transmission end of things, but I do have some idea that line of sight means something.
I was listening to the game driving around Berkeley and North Oakland today and was very unimpressed with the signal on 860. It faded out when I was under the BART tracks, it faded out when I was next to a tall building, it picked up interference from my turn signals. On my way home from work the other day I noticed that the signal was okay in the edge of the Mission, picked up some interference as I got closer to South of Market, and disappeared completely on the lower deck of the Bay Bridge, but that’s pretty usual for AM.
Also, the non-baseball programming on KTRB seems to involve angry people yelling, which I don’t care to hear. So I’m going to be careful to tune back before I get out of the car.

Dammit!

Sometimes it’s pretty good, sometimes it’s awful.

I’m very thankful that XM radio carries the broadcasts. They are fantastic, if delayed a few seconds.

I listened last weekend while driving from my home in Richmond to a soccer game in San Francisco. Richmond (by the water) was staticky, it cleaned up a bit near Costco, was okay along I-80 and across the bridge and in San Francisco.

Driving around Cal is pretty staticky, and my office (Cal – huge windows facing North) is pretty bad. North Berkeley (Solano Avenue area) has been awful so far.

Clear as a bell

but still it’s a much better signal than last year…so I am not going to complain any.

I’ve been able to get The Score as far away as Louisiana.

Has the Sacramento affiliate had any of the spring games on, and if so, how did they grade out?

more specifically, in my shower.

At least in my car – I haven’t tried listening inside my house, but don’t expect any trouble.

Basically unlistenable at my home in Berkeley (gourmet ghetto area).
Slightly better, but still staticky, on the drive to work in Pt. Richmond.
I guess the hills are enough to block the signal from Mt. Diablo.

Last year’s station (the FM one) was much better. Oh well. I’m not about to spring for satellite radio, but I’ll consider that MLB at bat app for my ipod touch.

the reception was OK in my car but at my parents house with the liitle boom box radio it is REALLY bad. Two weeks ago there was a loud high pitched squeal that made it impossible to listen. Yesterday the squeal was gone but but there was a lot of loud static that made it hard to heard the announcer.

I live in Novato but I haven’t tried listening in the car yet. Gameday audio works great from my office computer, sound wise. But I also have notice lots of technical problems in the pre-game stuff as well. Once it was playing the pre-game even though the game had already started. A lot of the times it jumps back and forth in the interviews and commericals.

Also, just now Buan was doing a game recap and the replays were not playing correctly and it sounded like he thought they were.

(though not as crisp as I would have thought given the close proximity of the tower). However, heading south on 680 Sunday, I had to turn off the broadcast when we hit Milpitas b/c the static was really bad. I didn’t notice the problem heading north through the same area ~4pm the same day.

At home in Redwood City, at my mom’s house in Redwood City, in my car between SF and SJ. Even in the parking garage at 4th & San Fernando in SJ (but not at 4th & San Salvador, so I don’t know what’s up with that).

and I have 80% static with a little bit of Ken and Ray sprinkled in the background.
Seems weird considering it is an SF based station. Maybe i need a better radio.

It was a good signal except for a few seconds on Richmond Parkway and on the bridge.