Twins Close to Extension with WCCO for Radio Rights, Despite Other Alluring Possibilities (2024)

As reported by Dan Hayes on Friday night, the Twins are looking to secure a radio contract with WCCO that would likely take them into the next decade. The deal comes at a nervous, even perilous time for broadcast rights,in which the Twins will once again face a fight to secure a future for the team’s television and streaming rights. Moreover, while last season put the wind in their sails, now they face a tougher battle (including flat in-person attendance, after projections suggested a major increase) in terms of securing an audience.

Radio might seem quaint in the age of in-your-pocket high-definition streaming video, but it remains surprisingly vital for sports audiences. About80% of Americans still listen to radio each week. Plus, given the recent kerfuffle with Comcast over the summer, radio became one of the few ways Twins fans who managed to care could listen during what was a banner season--at least for those summer months.

The radio deal comes at a time in which the Twins had numerous options, as Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic reported early this season. The team looked at bids from not just their partner for most of the team’s 64-year existence, but also from KFAN and SKOR North (aka ESPN 1500).

Breaking with WCCO would not be unprecedented—the Twins formerly joined SKOR North from 2007 to 2012, before the Pohlad family used their own broadcast media empire to create a dedicated station under KTWN. Eventually, the Twins returned to WCCO in 2017. Nor would any change necessarily result in a change to the in-game announcer team of Kris Atteberry and Dan Gladden, as the two are employed by the team.

Continuity is an option, in all aspects, but Twins leadership is also looking to grow the fanbase, and changing lanes might be the best (or only) way to do so. Joining KFAN would have given the Twins a space for dedicated sports listening, which has been pulling around double the amount of listeners WCCO gets. Given the non-Twins content on each station, a change also would have meant taking on a younger set of listeners--the kind that comes with the FM territory and the sports-centered programming, as opposed to news.

However, KFAN also has deals with almost every other team in the market, including the Vikings, Wolves, Lynx, Wild, and Gophers. The station just announced a long-term extensionwith the Vikings, while the twobasketball teams came overjust last season.

All that shared real estate would probably mean only a fraction of the games in a given season airing on KFAN itself, while others would be forced onto secondary stations like KFAN+ (96.7) and possibly even further down the line. That kind of back and forth (“switch to this station for this day and that station for the next”) might not be preferable for most fans and is never preferable for the team trying to help them find the product, even if there are many listeners using digital apps. (To solve for this, KFAN’s parent company iHeart Radio made a dedicated streaming platform just for Wolves and Lynx games with much more content, and they would likely do the same for the Twins.)

Furthermore, KFAN’s coverage has been much more critical of the Twins on their main talk shows than has the sports coverage on WCCO. Moving to a new home, then, might mean not just playing stepchild while joining a bigger family, but being picked on and poked by a new family of choice. Within the organization, parties differ on the relative value of getting positive, safe coverage and a warm (if dim) spotlight--the package on offer from their familiar partners at WCCO--and of widening that spotlight and reaching for more fans, even if it comes with second-class citizenship.

SKOR North would be the most experimental option; the station has a minimal market share, but has pushed hard toward streaming and YouTube. That pursuit of new consumers in fledgling spaces (at least for this type of content) might allow the Hubbard-owned station to stand out in their own way. It would also likely mean more productions outside of Twins coverage.

On the business side, iHeart has been stronger in recent yearsthan WCCO corporate owners Audacy, which has spent years trying to recover from bankruptcy. While iHeart has also seen profits drop as it grows its podcast business, it is recovering alongside the ad market.

If reports are correct, the Twins will stay with the familiar and safe side and stick with WCCO. Whether or not it's the best choice will be for fans' ears to decide.

Would you prefer to see a new radio partner for the Twins or to remain with WCCO? Sound off in the comments.