A’s announce deals with radio stations, and live audio stream

Here’s how to listen to A’s games in 2019.

The Oakland A’s made a long-awaited announcement Friday morning, regarding the audio broadcasts of their games in 2019. Here is the full press release from the team, with a couple bits highlighted by me for emphasis:

The Oakland A’s today announced a new radio broadcast agreement with KTRB 860 AM and an expanded partnership with KHTK–AM 1140 in Sacramento. The dual stations, along with 17 additional radio network affiliates, will provide the largest coverage map ever for A’s baseball.

The Club also announced a partnership with TuneIn, the leading global live audio streaming service. In addition to free live streaming of all A’s games in-territory, TuneIn will launch a 24/7 A’s channel. The A’s TuneIn channel will air exclusive team content, including special programming and podcasts.

”Our new partnerships with KTRB 860, KHTK-AM 1140, and TuneIn significantly amplify our coverage and reach, ensuring that every Spring Training and regular season game will be available throughout Northern California. These partnerships will allow us to reach A’s fans from as far north as Butte and Mendocino Counties across the Bay Area and down to Fresno and Monterey, with both terrestrial and free streaming broadcasts,” said A’s COO Chris Giles. “We are also thrilled to launch a 24/7 A’s channel on TuneIn and deliver exclusive content and unprecedented coverage throughout the season.”

Ken Korach will return for his 24th season with the A’s and his 14th as the team’s lead radio announcer, pairing with Vince Cotroneo, who will begin his 14th season with the Club. Ray Fosse will also make special appearances in the booth throughout the season. The team will debut expanded pre and postgame shows – A’s Total Access and A’s Clubhouse – hosted by Chris Townsend.

KIQI (1010 AM, San Francisco) and KATD (990 AM, Pittsburg) will serve as the Spanish-language home of Oakland A’s baseball, broadcasting 72 games. Amaury Pi-González, will return for his 26th season with the A’s and 36th season overall in MLB. González will be joined by Manolo Hernández-Douen, who will begin his 11th season as an A’s analyst.

KTRB 860 AM will air every A’s game, and KHTK-AM will air every game, minus Sacramento Kings game conflicts. The A’s TuneIn channel can be accessed at tunein.com/athletics.com.

The A’s have partnered with KTRB 860 before in the past, from 2009-10, and even tried to purchase the station a decade ago. Instead they switched to KGMZ 95.7 from 2011-18, before the two sides split after last season. Now the team has its largest coverage map ever for audio broadcasts.

To summarize, A’s games will now be on the radio at 860 AM (The Answer) in the Bay Area, and they will never be bumped from there for a Warriors game. Or you can listen online at TuneIn. All the same on-air voices will be back. This is a good day, and another crucial task checked off the winter/spring to-do list.