Oakland A’s add radio station after all

The Oakland A’s are back on the local AM airwaves.

The A’s made a bold choice last winter to enter the 2020 season without a terrestrial radio station in the Bay Area. For the first time, local fans would not be able to tune in on their traditional radio dials for audio broadcasts of A’s games, instead using the team’s online streaming serving A’s Cast.

However, they have changed course on the matter, and on Thursday the team announced that the rest of the games on the 2020 regular season schedule will be broadcast on Bay Area radio after all. Fans can tune in to 960 AM to hear Ken Korach and Vince Cotroneo call the action, beginning immediately on Friday night, July 31. The feed will be be simulcast on the HD2 subchannel of 103.7 FM (KOSF-HD2).

Online streaming will still be available on A’s Cast, but it has moved away from the TuneIn service and can now be found at iHeartRadio. You can also listen directly on the A’s website. For instructions on how to use A’s Cast in the Bay Area, the team has a helpful tutorial — it’s so easy, even Chris Bassitt can do it.

The last couple years have been a particularly dramatic episode in the A’s rocky radio history, including a high-profile split with 95.7 The Game. They had difficulty finding a new affiliate after that, and spent only one season with their next partner, KTRB 860 AM.

Initially the A’s chose to roll with the punches and eschew terrestrial radio entirely, but they decided to give it another go in late June and have now found a home. KNEW 960 is a business talk station owned by iHeartMedia, and it’s part of the Bloomberg Radio network.

This news figures to be well-received by Athletics Nation, as the community was critical of the A’s choice to leave the radio in the first place. Many fans still prefer using that medium to consume games, including (but not limited to) in the car while commuting to and from work or other responsibilities. One criticism was the potential need to fiddle with the phone to access the streams, which is not safe to do while driving.

Regarding the online stream, Susan Slusser of the S.F. Chronicle reports that “TuneIn had had an exclusive relationship with Major League Baseball, but MLB and TuneIn allowed the A’s to add a local station and make the move to iHeartRadio.”

How to listen to A’s games in 2020

Bay Area radio

• AM: 960 (KNEW)
• FM-HD2: 103.7 (KOSF-HD2)

Online stream

• iHeartRadio
• A’s website

Out of market radio

• Auburn: 104.5 FM/950 AM (KAHI)
• Eureka: 1340 AM (KATA)
• Red Bluff: 1490 AM (KBLF)
• Ft. Bragg: 1230 AM (KDAC)
• Modesto: 970 AM (KESP)
• Fresno: 790 AM (KFPT)
• Sacramento: 1140 AM (KHTK
• Marysville: 1410 AM (KMYC)
• Redding: 1400 AM/103.9 FM (KNRO)
• Crescent City: 1240 AM/106.7 FM (KPOD)
• King City: KRKC 1490 AM (KRKC)
• Lakeport: 1270 AM (KXBX)
• Ukiah: 1400 AM/103.3 FM (KUKI)

Spanish language

• San Francisco: 1010 AM (KIQI)
• Pittsburg/Antioch: 990 AM (KATD)