Thread: Where will we be listening to the Twins next year?

Whoever writes for Sid lately posted this:
http://www.startribune.com/sports/tw...6.html?refer=y

"The decision isn't final, according to Twins officials, but odds are strong that KTWN, the FM radio station the Pohlad family bought for $28 million in 2007 and has been trying to sell, will carry Twins broadcasts next year and beyond. The word at Hubbard Broadcasting, owner of KSTP, is that it is unlikely 1500-AM will carry Twins broadcasts beyond this season."

I thought that was interesting since in 2010 I thought they had locked that up for 6 or 7 years, but doing some googling it looks like it was only 2.
http://www.minnpost.com/braublog/2010/08/1500-espn-retains-twins-broadcast-rights-through-2012
http://www.startribune.com/entertain...9.html?refer=y

Any thoughts on what, if anything, that might change other than your dial and frequency?


also... sure hope that 2014 All Star Game announcement is made soon

what is the station the Pohlads bought

Originally Posted by BrentMpls

Whoever writes for Sid lately posted this:
http://www.startribune.com/sports/tw...6.html?refer=y

"The decision isn't final, according to Twins officials, but odds are strong that KTWN, the FM radio station the Pohlad family bought for $28 million in 2007 and has been trying to sell, will carry Twins broadcasts next year and beyond. The word at Hubbard Broadcasting, owner of KSTP, is that it is unlikely 1500-AM will carry Twins broadcasts beyond this season."

I thought that was interesting since in 2010 I thought they had locked that up for 6 or 7 years, but doing some googling it looks like it was only 2.
http://www.minnpost.com/braublog/2010/08/1500-espn-retains-twins-broadcast-rights-through-2012
http://www.startribune.com/entertain...9.html?refer=y

Any thoughts on what, if anything, that might change other than your dial and frequency?


also... sure hope that 2014 All Star Game announcement is made soon

Interesting.

As far as the All-Star game goes, they won't announce that until some time next year. I think it happens in the May time frame. They didn't announce the 2013 ASG until May 16th. Most people knew where it was going to be already. In the announcement for the 2013 game, they even mentioned that the 2014 ASG will most likely be held at Target Field.

It appears to be 96.3 FM... used to be hip hop, now modern adult contemporary music.

Interesting nugget.

Seems kind of strange they bought a radio station and it took them 6 years to decide to give the station the broadcasting rights considering shortly after, they tried to start their own television station to have exclusive broadcasting rights to the Twins.

Originally Posted by James

As far as the All-Star game goes, they won't announce that until some time next year. I think it happens in the May time frame. They didn't announce the 2013 ASG until May 16th. Most people knew where it was going to be already.

Normally yeah, but the media has been creating buzz that it will be announced this year. Selig when in town recently for the RBI was a possible time (didn't happen) but he did say "soon".

And FWIW DStP was saying 2013 was a possibility despite that being a National League year during 2010 and 2011, and even in early 2012 around Twins Fest time.


*shrug* I just want to know its going to be here so I can feel less bad about keeping my season tickets going :P

I don't care who airs the broadcasts as long as it is not on 1500. It might be good if you live in the metro area but it sucked compare to WCCO on range of signal.

Originally Posted by nicksaviking

Seems kind of strange they bought a radio station and it took them 6 years to decide to give the station the broadcasting rights considering shortly after, they tried to start their own television station to have exclusive broadcasting rights to the Twins.

Yeah, it should be interesting to see what happens. KFAN was making hints that the Twins will go to a FM radio home when they switched to FM not too long ago.

KFAN currently has Vikes, Wild and Gopher Football. WCCO has TWolves.

KSTP is ESPN'd but it will be interesting to see if it can survive with just Gopher Basketball & Gopher Hockey. Also if they will dump their local programming and go all ESPN national or not.

Originally Posted by darin617

I don't care who airs the broadcasts as long as it is not on 1500. It might be good if you live in the metro area but it sucked compare to WCCO on range of signal.

It is pretty bad compared to WCCO, even in downtown Minneapolis.

But it could affect other things, like programming before and after the broadcast. I don't think it would affect the during broadcast personalities, but I guess I don't know. And of course it could affect the local shows that are on 1500, if you care about any of that.

Originally Posted by Jeremy Nygaard

It appears to be 96.3 FM... used to be hip hop, now modern adult contemporary music.

Interesting nugget.

http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenois...n_laid_off.php

"What I read into that is that the whole radio station's ratings aren't moving and they needed to start doing something."

Of course Sid says that Hubbard won't broadcast Twins games. He's been sour ever since they left the old neighbor.

96.3 isn't much better than 1500 in terms of range.

Originally Posted by TheLeviathan

96.3 isn't much better than 1500 in terms of range.

High frequency AM sucks in a metro area. I can't get it half the time between Eden Prairie and Shakopee. This would be a huge improvement for the local area, and everyone else is on the radio network anyway, so it wouldn't make a difference to them.

Originally Posted by jctwins

High frequency AM sucks in a metro area. I can't get it half the time between Eden Prairie and Shakopee. This would be a huge improvement for the local area, and everyone else is on the radio network anyway, so it wouldn't make a difference to them.

See I can't get 96.3 on the east side of the metro since I think they broadcast out of Shakopee.

Originally Posted by TheLeviathan

See I can't get 96.3 on the east side of the metro since I think they broadcast out of Shakopee.

That sucks. This team can be so Bush League sometimes.

What is this "radio" thing everybody keeps talking about in this thread?

Originally Posted by rocketpig

What is this "radio" thing everybody keeps talking about in this thread?

It's what they redirect to stream to the MLB app on a smartphone.

I've been paying attention to this for obvious reasons. Here is my take, fwiw, which is not much.

If i remember right, the deal signed last year extends through next season so we're talking about the 2014 season. Last time around, I think KFAN, WCCO and KSTP all bid. KSTP won because they pay the Twins $1M for the rights and get NONE of the in-game advertising revenue, which the Twins market and sell too. So KSTP is essentially paying $1M (a lot in radio land) for the bounce effect of having listeners end up on their dial every night. I assume ESPN is involved somehow, but don't know enough to know who is paying who.

BTW that $1M price tag is why the Twins left WCCO. Or it might have been that along with the Twins switching to the model where they get the in-game revenue. I don't think any other station has really been nearly as aggressive as KSTP in that regard. When the stations bid, it isn't just about that money. It's also about how much they'll focus on the team during the day (which is essentially like advertising them), what they will commit to the pregame/postgame show, etc. And often, it isn't the radio station paying the teams. In the Wolves case, I'm almost sure they were paying the radio stations to broadcast their games.

As for 2014, I really think KSTP will again be the most aggressive financially. They have to be. WCCO doesn't seem to be able to be that aggressive financially any more. KFAN doesn't need to be that aggressive - they're #1 virtually from morning to night in their key demographic. They'll likely try to convince the Twins that their reach and coverage will benenfit the Twins (and their advertisers) more than KSTP and that makes up for the $1M. That's not a bad argument. But one sticking point might be that there will be conflicts in September with Vikings/Gophers games.


As for KTWN, I thnk it is typically brilliant Pohlad maneuvering. They buy a station, try to operate it so it doesn't lose money, but a good chunk of its value comes as leverage for their radio contract. I'm sure the Twins will claim that it will be nice to have their own all-day coverage which they can control. (And I don't doubt they believe it. They very much like to control their message.) They also have established this Treasure Island Baseball Network, and they could build that out. Finally, if the Twins move to KTWN, they would develop an asset for the Pohlads. But I just can't believe they'll actually moving to a fairly small FM station.

So ultimately, I think they'll end up on KSTP again. They can't afford to let them go. (And I think the Twins know that, which is why they float this KTWN thing.) Somehow the ESPN partnership will help them out. But if KFAN really wanted to try and deliver a death blow, they could commit to go strong and get it and see if it knocks KSTP out of the sports radio biz.

(Actually, that's another good point for the Twins staying with KSTP. Going to KFAN might mean no real competition - other than KTWN - at the next round of negotiations.)

Originally Posted by John Bonnes

I've been paying attention to this for obvious reasons. Here is my take, fwiw, which is not much.

Serious question. Do they know who can hear the games where? I literally can't pick up the game or pre/post game for that matter in my house because of the interference at that frequency. As I said I lose it half the time driving around in the SW suburbs, too. It's seems unreal to me that a local baseball team would be on a frequency that is that unreliable in a metro area. As was pointed out before, this was a huge benefit to the low frequency WCCO frequency back in the day.

I can't get KFAN up north on my boat so screw them, NTM no regulars on that stations know jack-sh*t about baseball.

Hope they stay with 1500, it's been that way since I was little and I ****ing hate change.