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Orioles on D.C. radio

schmave

schmave

Star Participant
Just got back from a long weekend in the D.C.-Baltimore region, including a visit to the Cubs-Orioles game on Saturday night (I'm a Cubs fan). Driving back to Ohio today I noticed neither 570 nor 980 was carrying the Orioles pre-game, at least when I checked in, and I found a stronger station up the road on which I could listen to the game.
My question is, what is the rhyme or reason as to how 570 and 980 carry Orioles games? Both are advertised within Camden Yards itself as the D.C. affiliates, a rare thing in my experience (usually only flagship stations get a nod), which surprised me all the more today that neither station was carrying network programming when I tuned in.
 
TheBigA said:
Might be a holdover from the days when DC's only local baseball team was the Orioles. There still a lot of Os fans in DC.
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AFAIK, there are no restrictions on radio coverage inside other MLB markets, unlike TV. Especially when considering that Baltimore and Washington are only 35 miles apart.
 
KeithE4 said:
AFAIK, there are no restrictions on radio coverage inside other MLB markets, unlike TV. Especially when considering that Baltimore and Washington are only 35 miles apart.
Click to expand...

However, I think the OP is correct that it's rare for a station other than the flagship to be advertised w/in the ballpark.

Another factor may be that WBAL 1090, the flagship's night time signal, barely reaches the DC border.
 
KeithE4 said:
AFAIK, there are no restrictions on radio coverage inside other MLB markets, unlike TV. Especially when considering that Baltimore and Washington are only 35 miles apart.
Click to expand...

Correct. The Dodgers have a very far-flung radio network today, ranging from Honolulu to the U.S. Virgin Islands, and including Oklahoma City (which is claimed for TV purposes by the Royals, Cardinals, Rangers, and Astros).
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
Correct. The Dodgers have a very far-flung radio network today, ranging from Honolulu to the U.S. Virgin Islands, and including Oklahoma City (which is claimed for TV purposes by the Royals, Cardinals, Rangers, and Astros).
Click to expand...

The Dodgers' top farm club is in Oklahoma City, which probably explains their presence on OKC radio. Their Class AA team, oddly enough, is also in Oklahoma -- Tulsa. I don't suppose there's a Dodgers affiliate there, though. I wonder how many other major league teams have radio outposts in cities that host their minor league teams. A Twins affiliate in Rochester? A Mets affiliate in Las Vegas? A White Sox affiliate in Charlotte?
 
Appreciate the responses folks. Thanks!
My question was more about the rotation between the stations themselves than why the Orioles are carried at all in D.C. (I think they absolutely should be given the large number of fans in the market). Where I stay with my buddy in Gaithersburg, there are many areas where you can barely hear flagship 105.7 out of Baltimore, and when I have visited and know the Orioles are playing it's a gamble as to which D.C. station is playing the game. Almost every time I have tried, it's been on 570 even though 980 is more advertised as the affiliate.
 
CTListener said:
The Dodgers' top farm club is in Oklahoma City, which probably explains their presence on OKC radio. Their Class AA team, oddly enough, is also in Oklahoma -- Tulsa. I don't suppose there's a Dodgers affiliate there, though. I wonder how many other major league teams have radio outposts in cities that host their minor league teams. A Twins affiliate in Rochester? A Mets affiliate in Las Vegas? A White Sox affiliate in Charlotte?
Click to expand...

Doing some digging, I have found a few MLB teams with affiliates outside their typical home area.
NY Yankees : Honolulu and Tampa for their Spring Training home and Single A affiliate.
Cubs: Omaha, Las Vegas and Vermillion, SD
Red Sox: Albuquerque and Jackson, WY
Angels: Salt Lake City (AAA Affiliate)
Dodgers: Gallup, NM, OKC, Albuquerque.
 
FYI, WBAL is not the flagship station and does not broadcast the Orioles games. They are on 105.7 WJZ-FM in Baltimore.
 
vacuum tube said:
FYI, WBAL is not the flagship station and does not broadcast the Orioles games. They are on 105.7 WJZ-FM in Baltimore.
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Didn't know about the change. Here's the chronology from Wikipedia:

WBAL carried Orioles games every season from 1987 to 2006 (after which the team's games were broadcast on crosstown rival WJZ-FM "105.7 The Fan"), and resumed that status from 2011 to 2014 before the team returned to WJZ-FM in 2015. Ravens games have been broadcast on WBAL and WIYY since the 2006 season.
 
CTListener said:
The Dodgers' top farm club is in Oklahoma City, which probably explains their presence on OKC radio. Their Class AA team, oddly enough, is also in Oklahoma -- Tulsa. I don't suppose there's a Dodgers affiliate there, though. I wonder how many other major league teams have radio outposts in cities that host their minor league teams. A Twins affiliate in Rochester? A Mets affiliate in Las Vegas? A White Sox affiliate in Charlotte?
Click to expand...

I think it's more common for a team to have an out-of-region affiliate in the hometown of a star player. When Harmon Killebrew was on the Minnesota Twins, his old friends and neighbors could listen to games on KYET in Payette, Idaho, a station that is apparently now defunct. The Phillies' network reached Keyser WV when John Kruk was on the team. A few years ago the Angels' network stretched all the way to WSNJ Bridgeton NJ, in Mike Trout's native area.
 
deepstblu said:
I think it's more common for a team to have an out-of-region affiliate in the hometown of a star player.
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However, in the case of Washington DC, the reason the Orioles are viewed as a home team is because for about 30 years (1972-2005), the city didn't have a baseball team. After the Senators left DC for the second time (the first was to Minnesota, the second for Dallas), the closest team was Baltimore. So the Orioles became a home team for the much-larger District of Columbia. Finally after many years of petitioning, and after many challenges and battles with the Orioles ownership, DC finally got it's own baseball team. But there are still a ton of people who grew up with no other team to root for other than the Orioles.
 
Nathan O'Dan said:
Red Sox: Albuquerque and Jackson, WY
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Is that the Wyoming affiliation that was initiated when Curt Gowdy was doing play-by-play for the Sox, in the '60s? Or is there some other, more logical, reason that the team, long after the end of Gowdy's employment (and his life), still has a radio presence in Wyoming? And what's the deal with Albuquerque?
 
Nathan O'Dan said:
Doing some digging, I have found a few MLB teams with affiliates outside their typical home area.
NY Yankees : Honolulu and Tampa for their Spring Training home and Single A affiliate.
Cubs: Omaha, Las Vegas and Vermillion, SD
Red Sox: Albuquerque and Jackson, WY
Angels: Salt Lake City (AAA Affiliate)
Dodgers: Gallup, NM, OKC, Albuquerque.
Click to expand...

For many years the Pittsburgh Pirates maintained a radio affiliate in
Bradenton, Florida, where the team holds spring training, and where many
Pittsburgh expats have settled as a result.

No Bradenton affiliate currently listed on their website though.
 
TheBigA said:
Didn't know about the change. Here's the chronology from Wikipedia:

WBAL carried Orioles games every season from 1987 to 2006 (after which the team's games were broadcast on crosstown rival WJZ-FM "105.7 The Fan"), and resumed that status from 2011 to 2014 before the team returned to WJZ-FM in 2015. Ravens games have been broadcast on WBAL and WIYY since the 2006 season.
Click to expand...

Do you have the link?

ixnay

PS TheBigA, check your PM.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
Correct. The Dodgers have a very far-flung radio network today, ranging from Honolulu to the U.S. Virgin Islands, and including Oklahoma City (which is claimed for TV purposes by the Royals, Cardinals, Rangers, and Astros).
Click to expand...

Besides, who wouldn't want Vin Scully on their radio station.
 
I seem to recall that the Cardinals had (maybe still have) an affiliate near Rockford, IL, which is not far from Chicago, home of the Cubs. I found it odd that a National League team would have an affiliate station so close to another National League team's city. I would not have thought this, had the closest team been (only) an American League team.
 
WLUV AM in Rockford is still listed on the Cardinals Radio Network. 500 Watts on 1520 don't go real far though.
 
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