Ho hum.
This is really much ado about nothing. For all parties. To wit:
1. Unless you're the Lakers, the Knicks, the Bulls, and a few others, the NBA on radio is not a ratings grabber. Maybe in the old days, but pro basketball is not like baseball. It doesn't work well on the dial. When the Warriors were winning and Bill King was alive, that was another story. Ditto Chick Hearn. But that was then and this is now.
2. 'The Game', despite its chest-bumping and high fives still have a major problem with their signal. Or lack thereof. Until Entercom either pumps up the power at 95.7 or, (as a story makes the rounds), they move up to 102. 9, (the old 'Quiet Storm, which has a significantly stronger signal), they'll always be the little sister of the poor.
3. The Warriors, in the end, bit their tongue and stayed with KNBR. Really, they had no choice. And under an in-house arrangement they're lucky they got even that choice. As for being peeved at being the third team behind the Giants and 49ers, well, sorry, they really had no leverage. (I'd love to be in the lunch room at The Game today and hear all the sniveling.)
KNBR has, if nothing else, dial position and signal strength. 50,000 watts and a clear signal with massive in-house slapping and promo propping never hurts. And its that entity that KNBR and, more to the point, Cumulus, makes it bread on. As I've said a few times, outside of the afternoon show, KNBR makes it moolah with its sports clients. Period, end of story. Without them, they're mush. And everyone knows it outside the booster club.
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