Tag: KSTP

Minnesota Twins radio “Dark Ages” finally over

The Minnesota Twins announced today that their radio broadcast have returned to WCCO, 830 on your AM radio dial after an 11 year absence. The 50,000 watt WCCO was the radio home of the Minnesota Twins from the time they moved to Minnesota in 1961 through the 2006 season. The Midwest “Good Neighbor” was outbid for the rights to Twins games after the 2006 season and the Twins switched to KSTP 1500 AM where they stayed for six seasons. KSTP had a decent signal but the station seemed to have no clue on how to promote Minnesota Twins baseball and their in-house broadcasters for pre and post game shows sounded like a bunch of clowns doing rookie league baseball.

The Pohlad family then switched the Twins radio broadcasts to a FM station at 96.3 (that the family bought back in 2007) starting with the 2013 baseball season. Switching MLB broadcasts from AM to FM seemed to be a hot trend at the time. The greedy Pohlads jumped on the bandwagon and figured that they could make more money from ad revenue rather than by selling the rights to Twins radio broadcasts. The Pohlad owned radio station changed call signs over the next few years more often than Paul Molitor brought in relief pitchers and their promotion of Twins games was non-existent on a station that features alternative rock music when the Twins weren’t playing. If the Twins were not playing, there was no baseball talk on the station. The station signal was so weak you had to almost stand next to the radio station itself to get a signal. It was almost as if the Minnesota Twins had no radio outlet at all. 

The wheels in the Minnesota Twins organization turn ever so slowly and the rights to their radio broadcasts seem to fit right in, it took the organization 11 years to correct their original mistake and make things right again. When the Twins left WCCO it was like their team had lost its major league status and was sent to the minors. Eleven seasons of bush league baseball and now the Minnesota Twins have been upgraded to the major leagues once again, it’s about time. The Minnesota Twins radio “Dark Ages” have finally ended.

WCCO is expected to retain the current Twins broadcasting team of Cory Provus and Dan Gladden who are actually Minnesota Twins employees.

Happy New Year! Really?

2013-new-yearHappy New Year! The temperature here in Minneapolis got down to a minus 8 degrees early this morning but as the calendar turns to a new month and a new year I know that spring training is not that far away. I wish I could be more optimistic about the upcoming Minnesota Twins 2013 season but I find it very hard to do so with the moves or the lack of moves the club has made so far.

The starting pitching is not much to crow about even after the Twins have traded for starters Vance Worley and signed  free agent starters Kevin Correia, Mike Pelfrey, and Rich Harden. I don’t think Harden will start more than a handful of games and will pitch primarily out of the bullpen when he happens to be healthy, which his history indicates will be rare. I have very little faith in Pelfrey being much of an improvement over what Nick Blackburn has shown us the last few years plus I am not sure he will even be ready when the season opens. I actually like Correia in the back-end of the rotation and he won’t always be pretty to watch but he has shown that he can win some games having won 10 or more games each of the last 4 years pitching for the San Diego Padres and Pittsburgh Pirates. Worley is an unknown to me but he could turn into the best pitcher on the staff if he is healthy. I was disappointed to hear that Scott Diamond has under gone clean-up elbow surgery and I was really frustrated that the Twins did not resign Scott Baker.

I expect Justin Morneau who is still only 31 to have a very good year, not a MVP type season but back to the numbers that he is capable of putting up and showing a lot of Twins fans that he belongs in Minnesota. The rest of the infield is shaky at best, I am hoping that Brian Dozier can take over and play second base day in and day out. At third base Trevor Plouffe is not the answer either as he has shown he can neither field the position nor can he hit on a consistent basis although he does have some pop in his bat. Todate Plouffe has a career minor league batting average of .257 and with the Twins he is hitting .231 so there is not too much hope there. At shortstop I know that Pedro Florimon has not shown much with his bat but he has a good glove and I think the Twins can live with his stick if they are going to play Plouffe and Dozier in the same infield. The outfield is interesting with no center fielder and I would be surprised if Joe Benson himself coming off a very forgettable 2012 season is not the Twins center fielder when the season opens. Willingham is dismal in left field but the Twins need his power and will be forced to keep him in the line-up. I sure wish they could have traded Willingham coming off his career year but that did not happen. Chris Parmelee will take over right and he is young with a good bat and I think he can become at least an average right fielder. Aaron Hicks and Oswaldo Arcia are hopefully going to be pounding on the outfield door as the season moves along to keep everyone on their toes and that gives me some hope. Doumit is perfect for the DH role although I know that makes Gardy nervous when he has his back-up catcher at DH but realistically, how often will that really be an issue? The Twins might carry a third catcher anyway. You have Joe Mauer catching and your main utility guys are Jamey Carroll, Darin Mastroianni and probably Eduardo Escobar. I am big on experience and when you look at the Twins you don’t see a lot here, only Mauer catching, Morneau at 1B, Willingham in left and Doumit at DH and that usually makes for bad baseball.

I guess that the core of the 2013 Twins is in place and spring training will have a few battles for the open positions but I just find it hard to get really enthused about this bunch of players. To me it seems like the Twins are afraid to pick a side, either go young or get some better experienced players and try to field a competitive team. I feel bad that Ron Gardenhire finds himself in the position he does but life is not always fair and this team could easily end Gardy’s reign as a Twins manager and I think that will be a bad thing for both the team and the fans. There has been speculation that Paul Molitor is waiting in the wings to take over as the Twins new skipper but I for one hope that does not happen. Molitor has no managerial experience and does not seem to be the least bit interested in earning a manager’s job by working his way up the minor league chain but instead appears to send a message that his hall of fame playing career qualifies him to be the Twins next manager. I don’t see Molitor as a great communicator or even a great teacher for that matter. What has Molitor done over the years to qualify for the job? Nothing and I think hiring Molitor to manage the Twins would set this franchise back for years to come.

In spite of their new ballpark and the 2014 All-Star game on the horizon the Twins are dropping like a rock in the eyes of many Minnesota fans with the basketball Timbewolves moving up, the Vikings making the playoffs, and maybe even the NHL players and owners will agree to a new deal soon and the Wild will once again be relevant. There are only so many entertainment dollars to go around and if the Minnesota Twins don’t put a decent product on the field they will be left in the dust. Todays Twins fans are not the Twins fans of the past and will not tolerate the bad play of past Twins teams, they will simply find another place to spend their money and it will not be fun to watch the Twins play to a meager fan base with a lot of empty seats in Target Field. Twins management seems to have forgotten the old business axiom that it is easier to keep your existing customers than it is to get new customers.

Even their August 2012 announced move to the Pohlad owned FM station KTWN 96.3 station in 2013 seems like a slap in the face to Twins fans. Many baseball fans listen to Twins games on the radio and now even that access may be harder to find. In July of 2012 KTWN did not even make the Twins Cities top 20 radio stations with a measly 1.4%  share of the listening public. Both of the previous stations that carried the Twins games since the team moved to Minnesota back in 1961 WCCO from 1961-2007 and KSTP from 2007-2012 had an AM transmitter power rating of 50,ooo watts and while the Twins new home at KTWN is an FM signal, its transmitter power is a paltry 19,000 watts. The WCCO signal was rated to extend about 90 miles, the KSTP signal was rated for 60 miles during the day and 30 miles at night and the Twins new home at KTWN is rated for 20 miles.

KTWN FM signal coverageI know all this sounds depressing but that is the sad and sorry state of the Twins as they prepare for the 2013 season. The team has done nothing that I can see to get the fan base excited about the up-coming baseball season and that disappoints me. I will follow the Twins in 2013 but sadly, many former Twins fans will not. Hard as I try, I don’t see the Twins finishing anywhere except in the AL Central division basement once again this coming season.

Super Bowl is history, it is time for baseball

February 2, 2009 – I arrived in the Ft. Myers area yesterday and will stay here for the next two months soaking up the sun, playing a little golf, doing some fishing, and hanging out at Hammond Stadium watching the Twins as they go through yet another spring training. It is always fun to see baseball again after a long and cold winter and I hope to get some good pictures and maybe provide a little of my insight on how the Twins are doing.

Like many others, I watched the Super Bowl on TV last night and although I was disappointed that the Cardinals did not win, I thought that it was the best Super Bowl game that I can remember. Did you catch that new Twins ad that debuted during the Super Bowl? I did not see it here in Florida since it was local ad but if you missed it, you can see it right here. After the ad is complete it shows some of the “out-takes” that did not make the final ad.

Several days ago, KSTP the Twins radio home and the Minnesota Twins announced that the KSTP will broadcast 25 Twins spring training games this season beginning with the February 25th Twins Grapefruit opener against the Red Sox. Some of the games supposedly will have a unique format with possible interviews with uniformed personnel and others may take calls from the listeners. It is nice to hear that Twins fans will be able to listen to the boys of summer as they prepare for their final season at the Metrodome.

As far as I am concerned, baseball and radio go together but I don’t think that KSTP is the radio station that should be broadcasting the Twins games this year or any year for that matter. WCCO did a great job for the Twins for so many years and I am still disgusted that the Twins left the “Good Neighbor”. Why do I dislike KSTP? I have two main complaints about KSTP, first is the lack of range, I live less than 12 miles from the Metrodome and unless I point my radio in just the right direction I can’t get the game, when I do get it, the signal usually fades in and out. Dang, it is so irritating to hear Gordo say “and here comes the pitch, Morneau swings and it is a long fly ball to……………..static! How frustrating is that? I can usually be found walking and enjoying the Luce Line trail on summer evenings, before KSTP came along I could listen to the Twins on WCCO on my little arm band radio, but not since the Twins moved to KSTP. My second reason for my problem with KSTP is their pre-game show, up until the time they hand it off to the John Gordon and Dan Gladden team and their post game show. These shows are boring and so unprofessional I seldom if ever listen. The shows are more of a venting and a blood-letting then they are a good honest look at the team and its management. I can’t wait for the Twins/KSTP contract to run out and I hope that the Twins move Minnesota Twins baseball back to WCCO where it belongs. I am not the only Twins fans out here that feels this way, maybe it is time for the Twins to do a serious study and survey of their fans to determine where on the radio dial they want to find Twins baseball and if it should be returned to “830” where it rightfully belongs.