Oakland A's games will not be on local radio for 2020 season

Groundskeepers for the Oakland A's convert the field of the Oakland Coliseum from a baseball to a football field. Groundskeepers for the Oakland A's convert the field of the Oakland Coliseum from a baseball to a football field. Photo: Douglas Zimmerman/SFGate Photo: Douglas Zimmerman/SFGate Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Oakland A's games will not be on local radio for 2020 season 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

Oakland Athletics games will stream on the free app TuneIn exclusively for the 2020 season, the team announced in a statement issued to the San Francisco Chronicle on Tuesday.

That means, for the first time in franchise history, no Bay Area radio station will air A's games. According to East Bay Times, this is the first time an MLB team will rely exclusively on a streaming platform to broadcast locally.

"The primary motivation for this endeavor is around fan development, marketing, and really understanding how a deeper understanding of that can acquire new fans," A's president Dave Kaval told the Mercury News. "I think this is the direction of the future — we’ve always been an innovative organization.”

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According to the Chronicle, the closest terrestrial radio station airing A's games will be 1140 AM in Sacramento.

In 2018, the A's ended their longtime partnership with 95.7 The Game in acrimonious fashion, announcing their split with a dismissive goodbye tweet. Their 2019 affiliation with conservative AM station KTRB was not renewed. (The Chronicle's Susan Slusser wrote that the station "drew numerous complaints from the fanbase for its non-baseball programming.)

"I always think we’re being responsive to fans concerns about our different partners,” Kaval told the Chronicle. “We’re really always trying to put together the best possible package and take in all the input we get. But the primary drive was the accessibility and the expanded digital content available on the TuneIn app, including A’s Cast.”

Ken Korach and Vince Cotroneo, the team's longtime radio announcers, will remain on the TuneIn broadcast.

Michael Rosen is an SFGATE digital editor. Email: michael.rosen@sfgate.com.