Entercom changed 95.7’s format from country music to sports talk all the way back in 2011, and as 2020 drew to a close, executives there have to wonder if they’ll ever be able to upend KNBR, or at least make it so the two stations are on equal footing. Because for their station, known as “The Game,” the year that just concluded signaled a step backward. This was once again evident in the Fall ratings book (Sept. 10 to Dec. 2, men ages 25-54).
| KNBR 680 & 104.5 | 95.7 The Game | |
|---|---|---|
Mon-Sun (6 a.m. to midnight) | 4.7 (5th) | 2.6 (16th) |
Mon-Fri (6 a.m. to 7 p.m.) | 5.4 (3rd) | 3.1 (13th) |
Weekdays (6 a.m. to 10 a.m.) | 7.2 (1st) | 2.5 (13th) |
Weekdays (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) | 5.5 (3rd) | 2.9 (14th) |
Weekdays (2 p.m. to 6 p.m.) | 4.4 (6th) | 3.6 (9th) |
Weekdays (6 p.m. to 10 p.m.) | 3.8 (6th) | 1.9 (18th) |
Entercom can point to some unfortunate circumstances for 95.7’s ratings decline — and it’s clearly been a decline, since the station appeared to be inching closer to KNBR in the 2018 and 2019 ratings. After previously serving as the flagship for all three teams that play or played in Oakland, the station and the A’s severed ties and the Raiders headed to Las Vegas, leaving the Warriors as the only team left to provide content in the form of live events. Which Entercom was and is totally fine with, by the way. The station saw how KNBR centered its programming on the Giants, and the executives figured that putting everything behind the Warriors was the smartest play, given the amount of inventory provided by a full NBA regular season and playoffs, along with the Warriors’ dynastic run and 2019 move to San Francisco.
Advertisement
Then the Warriors had a disastrous 2019-20 season, followed by a nine-month pandemic hiatus. Not good, but that was out of Entercom’s control.
Greg Papa leaving the station in the summer of 2019 didn’t help, either, although his move seemed to have a delayed effect. The return of “Papa & Lund,” albeit on a different station, didn’t lead to much initial change in ratings numbers. But as 2020 progressed, KNBR’s morning show (“Murph & Mac”) became the dominant show from a ratings perspective, and Papa’s show with John Lund steadily increased its listenership as well.
Then there are the environmental disadvantages that 95.7 can’t quite seem to get past. First, the station is going up against a station that essentially ran unopposed in the Bay Area for the better part of two decades. Second, KNBR’s 50,000-watt signal strength dwarfs 95.7’s frequency, which doesn’t branch out beyond the Bay Area at night like KNBR’s and is spotty in certain areas of the South Bay throughout the day.
So what’s the solution for 95.7’s executives? Signal strength is something they can’t just boost, even though they surely wouldn’t mind doing so, due to FCC regulations. They tried poaching Tom Tolbert from KNBR, but Tolbert utilized that as leverage for a contract extension and never had any interest in leaving, anyway. They’ve also attempted several different marketing ploys. They attempted to position themselves as the younger station compared to “old and busted” KNBR, which was 95.7’s claim in a series of ridiculous commercials in 2011 and 2012. They also sought to be the voice of the East Bay, an idea that faltered in two distinct ways: They soon realized that focusing on the A’s and Raiders was a losing proposition, and after they made a hard pivot toward the San Francisco teams in response, they alienated a small yet vocal portion of the sports listening audience that still complains about being ignored to this day.
Advertisement
I don’t have the answers for 95.7 as it looks toward a hopefully better 2021 (the Warriors improving and making a playoff run certainly would help). But it seems like the template was given to us by Tony Salvadore in the early 1990s when he gave a nasally, high-pitched sports update person named Ralph Barbieri his own show and told him to be himself. That started it all for KNBR, even though Salvadore’s gamble made zero sense on paper at the time. Taking that kind of risk is what it’s going to take to alter the balance of sports talk power in the Bay Area, and it’ll mean figuring out which larger-than-life personality is out there who’ll make 95.7 appointment listening and lift the rest of the station’s programming. Finding that person (or people) is an incredibly difficult challenge. But in a changing world that now also includes podcasts, that’s what Entercom needs to do if they want this decade-long experiment to succeed.
Media morsels
• I’ve had some people ask in the comments on previous columns about the whereabouts of Garry St. Jean, and a spokesperson from NBC Sports Bay Area provided the answer via email this week.
“As we continually evaluate our cross-platform programming and talent roster, we made the difficult decision to part ways with Garry. We thank Garry for his contributions and insight over the years and wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavors.”
That means Chris Mullin is the lone holdover from the Warriors pregame and postgame roster NBCSBA had last year (other than Jennifer Azzi, who will again make occasional appearances). Bonta Hill replaced Papa as the lead host, with Papa set to host the Giants studio shows in 2021. Brian Shaw became the head coach for G League Ignite in Walnut Creek, and in his spot is Dorell Wright.
• Raiders fans in the Bay Area had been able to watch every game this season with their standard cable packages … but that changes in Week 17. KTVU and KPIX will each air two games on Sunday, but CBS decided to show the Cardinals-Rams game here in the afternoon window instead of Raiders-Broncos.
The decision was probably an easy one from the perspective of CBS, since the game they chose for this market and most of the country has playoff implications and the Raiders were eliminated when they lost that wild game to the Dolphins last Saturday. Though many around here have said good riddance to the Raiders and feel like the Bay Area shouldn’t be forced to watch their entire slate of games as if they were still in Oakland, this is a tough blow for many Northern California Raiders fans who’ve stuck with the team.
Advertisement
If you can even order “NFL Sunday Ticket” (which is only available on DirecTV), it makes no sense to pay for the service just for one game between two teams that are 7-8 and 5-10. Catching the game at a sports bar isn’t an option due to the pandemic. The NFL Network’s “RedZone” probably won’t be of much service either, since there are eight afternoon games on Sunday and each of the other seven include at least one playoff-bound team.
What will this mean for next season? My guess is we’ll see the Raiders’ Week 1 game shown locally, but then it’s up in the air. CBS indicated this week that the network doesn’t feel obligated to air Raiders games in the Bay Area. If the Raiders win next season, we’ll probably get the bulk of their games on local television. But if they falter, we could see more scenarios like this weekend in 2021 and beyond.
Those curious about the coverage maps for Sunday’s games can check them out here. Raiders-Broncos will only be available to about 80 percent of Nevada and a small sliver of northeastern California, along with most of Colorado and Wyoming and a small section of Nebraska.
• KPIX sports director Dennis O’Donnell said via text that they’ll focus on the Raiders game on “The 5th Quarter,” which will air after the Cardinals-Rams game.
“Since fans won’t get the Raiders game, we’ll have extended highlights and analyze what went wrong and where they go from here. The rest of the 5th Quarter content will depend on the length of the show,” O’Donnell wrote. “But with a 1:25 start time, those shows tend to be fairly abbreviated.”
• Bay Area residents were able to watch the 49ers’ win over the Cardinals on Saturday on NBC Bay Area (KNTV), but anyone outside this region or the Phoenix area needed to stream the game on Amazon Prime, Twitch or one of the NFL’s or Verizon’s mobile properties if they were interested in watching it. And by the looks of the streaming numbers, this is something we’re going to see a lot more of in the future.
According to the NFL, a total of 11.2 million viewers caught at least part of the game on Amazon Prime or Twitch, and the average minute audience (the average number of viewers during any 60-second segment of a broadcast) was 4.8 million, which the NFL says is the highest digital AMA for a regular-season NFL game. Toss in the viewership from TV simulcasts here and in Phoenix (KSAZ) and the AMA was 5.9 million.
Advertisement
The broadcast on KNTV seemed like a normal one to me, but I saw some people wondering if the broadcast had a full camera crew. I’m just wondering when broadcasters will get the memo that 49ers fans really don’t appreciate it when they say, “And that’s a first down for San Fran.”
• Speaking of questionable broadcasting choices, the Seahawks-49ers game will feature Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma on the call. Vilma didn’t just say “San Fran” repeatedly during the 49ers’ Week 2 win over the Jets; he called Kendrick Bourne “Kevin” (a semi-understandable error) and Kyle Juszczyk “Justin” (yikes).
In case this is relevant to anyone, the broadcasters for Raiders-Broncos will be Beth Mowins and Tiki Barber.
• To update a story we were following earlier in the year, over the past few months some of us (including yours truly and The Athletic Bay Area managing editor Jimmy Durkin) were alerted by Comcast that we’d be receiving a “courtesy adjustment.”
“Many sporting events and broadcasts were put on hold this year from April through July. We have been working hard to recover the fees regional sports networks charged us during the hiatus. This adjustment reflects what has been committed to us by the regional sports networks in your area. We will continue to work to recover additional funds where possible. We are committed to giving customers 100% of what we receive, now and in the future,” the company stated in an email to customers.
• A tweet thread from our own Dan Brown brought us one of the more heartwarming stories of the year, and it got picked up by CBS13 in Sacramento. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, and that everyone reading has a great 2021.
(Photo: Rey Josue II / NBAE via Getty Images)
ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57kWtwbWlpbHxzfJFqZmlpX2V%2BcLnEnaCaZZOkuba5zWZwbmVnYrWisIyaZKunpZy1bn6Pa2dmn5Gnv7p50q1ko52Ro3qqv4ynpmakn6O0pr6MqKVmppKYwKOtjg%3D%3D