Cardinals on the way back to KMOX?

[Viva Medias B's]

St. Louis Post-Dispatch media columnist Dan Caesar is reporting (http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/columnists.nsf/dancaesar/story/E027E14A009646068625773100009627?OpenDocument) today that the Cardinals' return to KMOX-AM (1120) starting next season is a bpossibility. After the 2005 season, the Redbirds left KMOX and moved their radio broadcasts to KTRS-AM (550) and purchased an interest in the latter. This spawned neverending angst in Cardinal Nation because KRTS' nighttime signal is much weaker than KMOX's. Here in Chicago, KMOX can usually be heard clear as a bell at night. That is not the case with KTRS at all.

The Cardinals have an exit clause option in their contract with KTRS next season. If the Redbirds leave, they would probably divest their interest in KTRS. Another possibility is to stay on KTRS and simulcast games on WXOS-FM (101.1) which is a sports talk station in St. Louis. Caesar says WXOS has a strong signal that fills KTRS games, but I cannot see how an FM station could fill the land mass that KMOX does.

Baseball does not belong on weak-powered AM stations like KTRS or WMVP-AM (1000). Baseball does not belong on FM stations like WXOS or WLUP-FM (97.9). Baseball belongs on 50,000-watt clear channel powerhouses like KMOX, WSCR-AM (670), and WGN-AM (720). That is how our game has grown and continues to grow. Today, there are still boys and girls from afar who listen to ballgames at night in their beds. These boys and girls will later support their teams as adults.

[tebman]

I hope this works out. Big-signal AM stations are best for baseball for all the reasons VMB spelled out. I know there's a school of thought that AM radio is a dead technology like 8-track tapes, but there are some things like this that it does very well.

I just read an interesting article (http://www.radioworld.com/article/100872) in Radio World magazine about a proposal formally made to the FCC that would allow AM broadcasters to increase their power levels by at least a factor of four. The point made by the petitioner, who's a broadcast technical consultant, is that the current power limits (50,000 watts for the big stations, 1,000-5,000 watts for locals) were established way back when there was virtually no electrical interference. Now there are light dimmers, computers, power supplies, high-rate data signals radiating from telephone wires, and other racket that makes AM sound the way it does.

As a radio geek I think it would be very cool. Nighttime long-distance broadcast is what AM does best, and those thousand-mile signals are the perfect vehicle for a leisurely baseball game.

[Fenway]

The Red Sox have built a network in New England that is amazing.

http://www.weei.com/weei/shows-schedules/red-sox-radio-network

The BoSox have NEVER used clear channel WBZ and since WW2 have been mainly on 850 (50000) watts but the station can not beam west as to protect KOA in Denver. (However they do use WTIC in Hartford which does beam west)

In the late 70's Haywood Sullivan gave the contract to a golfing buddy who owned an AM-FM in Plymouth (40 miles from Boston) and you couldn't hear the games at night at Fenway.

Still like many here I would listen to Yankees, Mets, Orioles, Phillies, Pirates, Tigers, White Sox etc and it was great.

Still CBS seems to be moving in the direction of FM. In Boston the Pats and Bruins are on WBZ-FM and that could happen to the White Sox next year.

[Medford Bobby]

And it doesn't hurt MLB's pockets if you buy an online package or XM subscription too.....:(: