Asking this questions sincerely (not sarcastically)... what is the value of baseball on the radio currently?

I grew-up listening to the Jays on the radio, but that was when games were on broadcast TV and you just couldn't catch everything on video. But now we live in a world of cable, DVRs, streaming, MLB.TV, etc., so unless I'm driving in the car there's no real need to listen to a game on the radio. Even if I'm too busy to watch the game on TV live, I know I can just watch later when I do have time.

I listen to a lot of radio baseball, sometimes while doing other things and sometimes while not quite napping. Compared to TV the ratio of game to banter is far better since there's no picture to carry that burden, and the internet is always there for the moments when something unusual pops up. Let's face it, most "fastball down and away" plays don't need video if you know what the players look like. And sure, a great player, weird delivery or other new thing is worth seeing, but quite a lot of baseball is very familiar to most fans.

I listen on radio (streaming through my phone) a fair bit, either doing stuff around the house or working in the yard. I actually prefer it to TV a lot of the time, it's a lot easier to multi-task while listening to the radio broadcast. Edit: And I agree with Howarth, doing games remotely is NOT the same experience for either the announcers or for the listener/watcher. Terrible decision by Sportsnet.

Is there an issue for Toronto with customs going back and forth? I don't know how the rules for travel between the US and Canada are working right now and if Canada is in a different place from the US on COVID protocols. That's the only reason that isn't "saving the owners some money" I can think of.

Asking this questions sincerely (not sarcastically)... what is the value of baseball on the radio currently?

Driving in a car (which you noted)
In the office.

I grew-up listening to the Jays on the radio, but that was when games were on broadcast TV and you just couldn't catch everything on video. But now we live in a world of cable, DVRs, streaming, MLB.TV, etc.,

I don't have cable, won't pay for MLB.tv, but do have satellite radio -- why shouldn't I listen to it on the radio?

Is there an issue for Toronto with customs going back and forth?

As of my trip to Montreal last summer, you had to use a kind of annoying app on top of just showing your passport, but I suspect that's nothing some admin person at Rogers couldn't handle if it's even still in place.

Asking this questions sincerely (not sarcastically)... what is the value of baseball on the radio currently?

I suspect it's highly variable between markets - Boston could probably get themselves a nice little bidding war if they wanted to, while Oakland apparently couldn't give theirs away last time it was in the news. There's probably much less money in it than there was twenty years ago, especially considering that more radio stations are owned by big media companies that are just as happy to play network/syndicated content as opposed to maintaining a local production staff.

It sounds like the Blue Jays are probably one of the few cases where the team and the radio partner are owned by the same parent company, and thus the radio guys can be pushed to cut expenses to the bone with no real pushback from the team. I'd be shocked if the amount they're cutting is that much, but if it's greater than zero, some executive is going to try and shrink it.

Asking this questions sincerely (not sarcastically)... what is the value of baseball on the radio currently?

Another value, which is highly team-specific, is that if the radio guys are pretty good and the TV guys are hot garbage, then a fan may hypothetically choose to consume a Reds game via radio only. Hypothetically.

Can't be covid must be the cost of food and hotel

Is there an issue for Toronto with customs going back and forth? I don't know how the rules for travel between the US and Canada are working right now and if Canada is in a different place from the US on COVID protocols. That's the only reason that isn't "saving the owners some money" I can think of.

Canada has lifted restrctions (aside from the app Jay mentions) but the U.S. (AFAIK) still requires vaccination for non-citizens. Weird the article doesn't seem to mention this. I suspect this is a cost thing though.

what is the value of baseball on the radio currently?

I am also in the 'won't pay for cable' camp so my consumption of baseball is mostly through radio and highlights on the internet.

This reverts back to the early days of baseball on the radio, when many road broadcasts were studio re-creations taken off Western Union tapes. And during the 50's and early 60's, the Dodgers had a national broadcast network that featured re-creations from an Arlington, VA studio by Nat Allbright. Scully was only heard within the range of his local Los Angeles station and some affiliated stations in the West.

i prefer baseball on the radio. maybe it's because the announcers have a compelling reason to have to talk, since their audience can't see what's happening, and if said announcers are good at their job, there are also the rhythm, pace, nuance, and all those old-timey notions.

and i like to read a lot.

How much does it cost a team to fly an announcing team, a producer, and maybe one or two other production people around for the season? Also I wonder if the RSN implosion has anything to do with this.

13 - I tried to guesstimate it, figuring 4 people (2 announcers, producer, engineer, though maybe you leave the producer home) x 85 nights x $400 per hotel room is $136,000, then those 4 people x 25 first class flights x $600 = $60,000, so $200,000 total, before realizing that I don't really know what some of these things really cost, since I always fly coach and stay at modest hotels when I travel. Feels like it should be something a Rogers SportsNet could afford, though, even if we're talking about a million.

But, you get promoted in one of those companies by finding savings, and I suspect "reducing the travel budget by 90%" looks pretty good.

The issue with budgets is quite simple. When travel and conference spending went to zero during the pandemic, this was a cost savings for all the companies. When you try to add it back the next year this is "increased costs". It's very hard to get back budget if it doesn't get spent in the prior year. It's particularly acute for govt jobs and spending. If you don't use it, you lose it. In public companies, it's a huge EPS issue. Outside of tech, very few companies add costs or stay even. It's a relentless path down.

I live in a place where the conf center is one of the biggest draws of my town - it's been dead all year again - nobody has budget for this stuff anymore

i prefer baseball on the radio. maybe it's because the announcers have a compelling reason to have to talk, since their audience can't see what's happening, and if said announcers are good at their job, there are also the rhythm, pace, nuance, and all those old-timey notions.

For me it depends on who the announcers are. With Kay, Cone and O'Neill on YES compared to Sterling and Waldman on the radio, then TV is the obvious choice. But when Chuck Thompson and Jon Miller were the radio voices of the Orioles, it was an easy decision to turn on the radio, even with the game on the TV screen.

DL from MN Posted: February 17, 2023 at 03:19 PM (#6117650)

I am also in the 'won't pay for cable' camp so my consumption of baseball is mostly through radio and highlights on the internet.

Pretty much the same. Plus, I keep getting MLB.tv for free since T-Mobile has been giving it to its subscribers for a few years now while they've been an MLB sponsor. The radio broadcasts serve me well when I'm at work, and since the MLB app gives all games and both team's feed, I just pick whatever game interests me and whichever feed I prefer. And when it comes to occasionally viewing highlight online, the baseball.theater website can't be beat—all the same clips as MLB.com or the MLB app, cleanly laid out by game, and zero pre-highlight ads.

Rogers is probably having bean counters looking at it and going 'OK, I get blowing millions on Kikuchi, but tens of thousands on flights/hotels for a guy to broadcast on the radio? That is excessive'. Sigh. At least they will be on the radio and not just simulcasting the TV crew on the radio as they did during COVID.

I'm not sure if this happened in other stadiums, but when Scully was announcing full time, you'd go to a Dodger game and 20% or more people would actually have a radio with them to listen to his radio broadcast.

what is the value of baseball on the radio currently?

Baseball on the radio, when broadcast well, is and continues to be a sublime experience, for myself at least.

I like baseball on the radio for all the reasons mentioned, though I think it's become talkier over the years, with more pointless unconnected factoids thrown in.

If you watch the TV feed muted, with the radio on, you'll notice that the radio announcers themselves watch the feed much of the time and not the field. The value of having them in the park may be limited.

I like baseball on the radio for all the reasons mentioned, though I think it's become talkier over the years, with more pointless unconnected factoids thrown in.

The pitch clock should alleviate this. Hopefully.

I didn't see any of the 2022 baseball postseason - not by choice; my cable line got cut by a road crew, and it took the cable company a month to get me up and running again. I listened to the playoffs and World Series on the radio, and I enjoyed it. I worked on my model airplanes, re-organized the books in my library, and got quite a bit of housework done while listening to the games. Maybe it was making lemonade out of lemons, but I didn't miss the TV that much at all.

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for games on radio.

I used to listen to a lot of sports on the radio when I was young, some 60 years ago. Not just baseball -- I remember particularly Marv Alpert calling Knicks basketball and Rangers hockey games. I used to love listening to the games on the radio before falling asleep.

I also remember my father would run an extension cord out the window to the back yard, and have the TV and a Radio on a small table. He would sit in a lawn chair and watch the Yankee game while listening to the Mets game.

And also in the car. One game I still remember was the one where Rocky Colavito came in to pitch for Yankees. They weren't even that far down, but it was fairly early in the game. Then the Yanks came back and took the lead, and he got the win.

I'm not sure if this happened in other stadiums, but when Scully was announcing full time, you'd go to a Dodger game and 20% or more people would actually have a radio with them to listen to his radio broadcast.

The percentage was a lot higher than 20% during the 4 years that the Dodgers were in the Coliseum, where many of the seats were far away from the field, and when the newly miniaturized transistor radio was almost as ubiquitous as phones are today.

Vin Scully, Dodgers fans and the transistor radio: How an unbreakable bond was formed

The transistor radio went mainstream at about the same time the Dodgers arrived in Los Angeles in 1958, timing so fortuitous that Scully called it “one of the biggest breaks” the team and its broadcasters could get.

For their first four seasons in Los Angeles, the Dodgers played in the cavernous Coliseum, with some fans so far removed from the action they needed Scully to let them know what was happening. You might have been sitting high above one end zone, with home plate near the other end zone.

And, although locals had enjoyed the Los Angeles Angels and Hollywood Stars in the Pacific Coast League, the Dodgers brought the major leagues to Southland fans.

“They knew about Willie Mays and Stan Musial, but they didn’t know the rank-and-file players,” Scully told his social media audience two years ago.

The Dodgers, brought to you by Scully. ...

In 1960, just for fun, Scully made a request that demonstrated his reach and power. On the broadcast one night, he asked fans at the game to await his count to three, then shout “Happy Birthday, Frank!” to umpire Frank Secory.

If fans at the game were not listening in any great numbers, Scully could have been embarrassed. Instead, Secory was startled by the loud greeting.

“That was the night I realized that, if I used it very carefully, the transistor radio could be a great bridge between me and the fans,” Scully said. ...

One game I still remember was the one where Rocky Colavito came in to pitch for Yankees. They weren't even that far down, but it was fairly early in the game. Then the Yanks came back and took the lead, and he got the win.game.

I also remember that game, although from TV. It was the 1st game of an August 25, 1968 doubleheader against the Tigers, which probably explains going to Colavito down 5-0 with 1 out in the 4th and runners on 1st & 2nd. The Yankees won both games of the doubleheader by 1 run, though the Tigers won the pennant by a dozen games that year, and went on to win the World Series, while the Yankees finished 20 games back. That day might have been the highlight of the season, other than the games in which Mantle homered.