Well, on the TV front, we know that Bill Brown, Alan Ashby, and Geoff Blum will be part of the TV crew. And that it makes no difference to 60% of Houston. The radio situation has been even more muddled. Today, the Astros announced that they will be moving the flagship station from KTRH (740) to KBME (790). Here are their respective coverage maps. In addition.... there's still no radio team in place. Except for former UH quarterback Crawford Jones. Wayne Hagin and Robert Ford have emerged as candidates for the play-by-play job, with Steve Sparks rumored to be the color commentator.
That sucks. I get a pretty strong signal from 740 here in Round Rock. I'm not sure I've ever heard 790 before. With 1300 am in Austin being hit or miss as to when they'll broadcast games, I was reliant on 740. Now, if UT decides to broadcast a co-ed intramural water polo game, the Astros will get preempted.
I barely get 790 in Katy. The current Astros regime, aside from the uniform change, is not very good at this.
If they had a sellable product, they would still be on 740. It is too powerful a signal to not maximize the monetization. The only other offer in the market was 1560 which doesn't have any other stations that would give the type of promotional support that Clearchannel has to offer. Clearchannel can make 3 times the ad revenue on its own product on KTRH than they can on 100+ loss Astros. It's just smart business.
It wouldn't be so bad - at least in the Houston area - if they put the day games on 790 and the night games on 740. Surely Mark Levin and Ground Zero (or whatever that crazy show is called) ain't that popular. At any rate, I can't get 790 at home at night, and I only live about 25 miles from MMP. The Astros descent in to total irrelevance is nearly complete.
How long is this deal for with 790. Seems pretty short-sighted to suggest the deal is done or not done because of how a team is playing right now. So down years they'll be on 790...but when they're good again we'll flip 'em right back to 740. I'm glad it's on 790 because it should feed regular Luhnow appearances similar to Morey's appearances on your show. Assuming Astro Line will be on 790 as well ultimately.
I don't know much about Robert Ford, other than the fact that he used to work in KC. Hagin, on the other hand, I listened to when he was the Cardinals radio voice. He's a pro. You may remember him as the guy that hinted that Todd Helton was using PEDs in an interview he did while he was the Rockies radio guy. He was very vague about it even during the interview, so I honestly don't think he meant to throw Helton under the bus, but the story had legs because this was back when everyone was super sensitive to these types of stories.
Wow, I live off of HWY 6 and Katy Freeway, and at night the 790 signal is weak even this close. I really, really, really want to continue to care about the Astros, but no television coverage and now poor/spotty radio coverage makes me want to just purchase the mlb package and root for the Rangers. This is really awful the way that Les and Jim have treated the fan base of this city. And if you are a kid, and do not live right here in the city and have comcast, you basically have no chance at all of growing up as an Astros or Rockets fan now
When the Astros were good, the deal made sense on KTRH. The last 4 seasons, the station has missed out on an exorbitant amount of revenue that they regularly receive during non Astro parts of the year during the same time slot. The Astros have next to no promotional value to a station right now. Who's tuning in to watch a 100+ loss team? No one, that's who. KTRH is a 50,000 watt blow torch. It is one of the most powerful signals in America. It made zero sense to continue to tie it down to a product that was not sellable. If the Astros were making the station $, they would still be on it.
It's extremely short sighted. And it's bad business...especially on the Astros part. I don't know how you can call purposely shrinking the number of people that have access to your product "good business". It's the same damn thing with the Texans. You make no effort at all to grow your fan base...to sell your product...outside of a small radius and then you wonder why fans are flocking to the other teams in the state. The people who listen to baseball on the radio are the same people that will listen to a 100-loss team on the radio. My wife will call herself an Astros fan....but she's not listening to the team on the radio if I'm not driving no matter if they're a 100-loss or a 100-win team. By the way The Beard...you don't have to purchase the MLB package to get the Rangers. They'll be on Fox Sports.
I'm with you..that's why I'm asking how long the commitment is to have 790 broadcast their games. In my lifetime, the Astros have been miserable and they've been very good. I think I can say that about every franchise in baseball. Haven't seen the trend of "well when they're good, we'll put them on this station...but when they're bad we'll put them on this station" before.
