Media column: Warriors re-up with 95.7 The Game, ex-KNBR hosts land new gigs

June 11, 2024

The Golden State Warriors will remain on 95.7 The Game (KGMZ) after signing another multiyear extension with the San Francisco-based sports-talk station in a deal announced Wednesday. There are no details on how long the Warriors’ contractual relationship with the Audacy property will last (or how much money the Warriors will receive as a result), but the two parties agreed to their first three-year extension in 2019, which was three years after the Warriors jumped from KNBR to 95.7.

95.7 The Game and the Warriors have agreed to a multiyear contract extension! 🙌https://t.co/dYkqcpn1aZ

— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) September 21, 2022

This means the Warriors will remain with the radio station that, back in 2016, often struggled to compete with KNBR, which was the only sports-talk station in the Bay Area for decades. That is until Audacy changed 95.7’s format from country music to sports in 2011.

The Warriors switched flagship stations six years ago mostly due to KNBR’s affiliation with the San Francisco Giants, the team which was — and remains — KNBR’s top priority. KNBR often pushed Warriors games to other stations, like KNBR 1050 or KGO 810, to allow every Giants game to air on KNBR 680. This took place even when the Warriors rose from the doldrums to become a perennial contender in the mid-2010s. KNBR aired at least one regular-season Giants game on its main frequency when it coincided with NBA Finals games featuring the Warriors and Cavaliers. There were also instances when KNBR aired Giants spring training exhibitions instead of regular-season Warriors games.

KNBR’s Tom Tolbert will continue as the Warriors’ radio color analyst for home games with longtime radio play-by-play voice Tim Roye. Jim Barnett, an enormously popular analyst during his years calling games on the TV side with Bob Fitzgerald, will continue to work with Roye when the Warriors are on the road.

The Warriors have maintained a relationship with their former flagship in other ways. KNBR’s weekday talk shows frequently feature guests from the Warriors, including weekly segments with Steve Kerr during KNBR’s afternoon show, which is hosted by Kerr’s former college teammate (Tolbert), along with Adam Copeland. Those appearances usually occur immediately after Kerr calls into 95.7’s drive-time show featuring Damon Bruce and Ray Ratto, however.

KGMZ features Warriors-affiliated guests more frequently, and its weekday shows include more segments in which the hosts discuss and take calls about the defending NBA champions than KNBR’s programs do. This is most noticeable during the regular season and offseason.

Also, 95.7 produces shows that are specifically about NBA basketball and the Warriors. That isn’t the case with KNBR, which airs lengthy Giants-centric shows on weekends and “hot stove” shows during baseball’s offseason. KNBR also recently brought back former Nationals color analyst F.P. Santangelo to host a show full-time on weeknights. Santangelo played for the Giants in 1999 and doesn’t discuss other local teams very often.

KNBR still has a bridge to the Warriors in Tolbert, who played for the team for three seasons. But 95.7 got a boost of its own when Bonta Hill replaced Greg Papa as NBC Sports Bay Area’s studio host before and after Warriors games in 2020. Hill, who hosts 95.7’s “The Morning Roast” with Joe Shasky, used to work for KNBR until he became Papa’s co-host on 95.7 in 2016 when John Lund left for KNBR. Papa and Lund now work together on KNBR.

Media morsels

• As you can probably tell, or have noticed again and again in recent years, there’s been a ton of back and forth between the two local sports-talk stations. And that continues with the ever-increasing presence of Larry Krueger on 95.7. He started appearing as a regular guest and fill-in host a few months ago and now co-hosts the station’s 49ers pregame show.

Who’s ready for some football?!

We’re excited to announce our Pregame Show with @sportslarryk & @LorenzoNeal for the 2022/23 season 🏈🔥 pic.twitter.com/E15sHgERB6

— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) August 5, 2022

It’s a pretty remarkable comeback for Krueger, even if he isn’t hosting a weekday show permanently (yet, anyway), as KNBR replaced Krueger and Rod Brooks with Copeland in February. It’s also an interesting move for 95.7, considering what Krueger said about the station when KNBR signed Papa away from KGMZ and fired Gary Radnich and Fitzgerald in 2019.

“This is bittersweet. Greg’s a huge talent and he’s going to kick ass in our lineup,” Krueger said. “And he’s going to put the other side out of business.”

• NBCSBA replaced Papa with Laura Britt as the station’s studio host for Giants pregame and postgame shows. So who will be in studio before and after 49ers games, now that Britt is handling baseball duties?

Ready for 49ers football 🤩 Check out the coverage lineup for this season on NBC Sports Bay Area ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/mQc3vmqRsC

— 49ers on NBCS (@NBCS49ers) September 6, 2022

That’s right, Brooks also landed a 49ers-related gig. That’s not the only change from last season, as Carlos Ramírez — who gets more airtime on NBCSBA than anyone these days, by far — is handling 49ers studio duties along with Donte Whitner. We knew NBCSBA moved Britt off of the 49ers when she started hosting Giants studio shows and stopped appearing on Matt Maiocco’s podcast, but the network is also without two former 49ers who were on 49ers pregame and postgame shows last season: Joe Staley and Takeo Spikes.

“I had to move on to other pastures,” Staley said on KNBR’s Papa & Lund. “I did the TV thing for a year. I figured that it wasn’t for me. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed everybody over at NBC Sports Bay Area, but it wasn’t going to be a long-term thing for me. So I’m now working with a sports agency and doing a lot of that stuff with training, recruiting, scouting, and I think the long-term play for me is hopefully in a front-office role somewhere.”

• Whitner also works for CBS Sports as a college football color analyst, and he sounded strong during Oregon State’s close victory over Fresno State on Sept. 10. He might interrupt his current and future play-by-play partners a little too often for their liking, and we’ll see if anyone coaches him out of saying “Woo!” during exciting plays, but he brings plenty of energy and can quickly describe plays after they occur (and even correctly predict what’s about to happen from time to time).

• While we’re on the subject of color analysts with bright futures, Jerry Blevins was outstanding during the A’s-White Sox series in late July, especially for someone with little to no broadcasting experience. Blevins, who pitched for Oakland during the first seven seasons of his 13-year big-league career, was measured in his analysis but brought a sense of humor and fresh insight. The A’s are happy with Dallas Braden as their full-time TV analyst, and NBC Sports California utilizes a few fill-in analysts each season, including Shooty Babitt and Bip Roberts. But Blevins could make a career out of this if he wants to pursue it.

• Everyone was saying the same about Brandon Belt after he recently joined the Giants’ radio and TV broadcasts, but Belt has made over $100 million during his playing career. Then again, Hunter Pence’s career earnings are even higher than Belt’s and Pence has been doing games for Apple TV all season.

“(Belt) was great,” Duane Kuiper said on the Giants Talk podcast. “I mean, he’s another guy that if he wanted to jump to the broadcast booth, he could do it. But the problem is those guys, when they retire, they don’t need the money. They don’t want to be away from their family. The case for us when we started out, we needed the job. And we were doing 140 to 150 games back then. And guys just don’t want to do that anymore.”

(Photo of Tom Tolbert and the Tim Roye: Courtesy R.C. Davis and the Warriors)

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