Austin Astros Radio

[Bench]

What's the deal? I drove through Austin during the games on Friday and Sunday and spent the entire time flipping my AM dial to find nothing but the Rangers game. Is there really no Astros radio in our capital?

[matadorph]

I think KVET has a contract with UT that trumps its contract with the Houston Astros.

[Fredia]

i know i am so glad when the ut season is over. sometimes if its just right you can get 740 out of houston

[MRaup]

You can get the Temple station that carries the Astros sometimes, too. 1080 I think.

[matadorph]

Astros baseball is on the air Monday night in Austin!

Of course, you'll miss the first hour of the game if your radio dial is tuned to 1300 because the 7 o'clock hour belongs to the Austin Wranglers Coach's Show. Yes, those Austin Wranglers. Of the Arena Football League.

KVET 1300 The Zone is a fucking joke. The Astros should find an Austin affiliate that gives a shit about the organization and its Austin-area fans.

[loganck]

1010am works sometimes.  Usually if it isn't on 1300, then 740 is your best bet. 

[JimR]

i know i am so glad when the ut season is over. sometimes if its just right you can get 740 out of houston

watch it on TV.

[Waldo]

1300's Astros coverage has always been terrible, but at least they always had decent programming during the day.  Now they've pretty much scuttled the entire station.  Makes me miss the days of 1490 before it went espanol.

[JimR]

1300's Astros coverage has always been terrible, but at least they always had decent programming during the day.  Now they've pretty much scuttled the entire station.  Makes me miss the days of 1490 before it went espanol.

only 2 losses in the "scuttling," imo: Erin Hogan and Chad Hastings.

KVET is the flagship station for all UT sports. it must and should give preference to that contract.

[remy]

1300's Astros coverage has always been terrible, but at least they always had decent programming during the day.  Now they've pretty much scuttled the entire station. 

In high school, I'd come home from school and do homework whilst being entertained by Bill Schoening and Jeff Ward on KVET.  At least I think it was KVET.  Anyhow, damn good show.  Almost made me want to go into radio.  The shit on 1300 nowadays is just godawful.  As for the collegiate programming, well... I can't say I am a UT fan at all (alumni of another Big XII school).  Regardless, I can understand preempting Astros baseball on 1300 with certain UT events, but what kills me is when they do it even though the same goddamn thing is on 98.1.  Oh oh, and UT softball or "The Mack Brown Show."  That is when I start having convulsions.  It has been years since there was any sort of reliable Astros radio coverage in Austin.

[Gizzmonic]

San Antonio's "affiliate", 760 AM has shown time and again that it would rather play repeats of syndicated shows or minor league hockey.  Thank goodness for XM radio...

[JimR]

Jeff Ward has never been on KVET. that was KLBJ when it had the UT contract.

1300(AM), not 98.1(the FM station,) is UT's flagship. it should and must honor that contract.

[ValpoCory]

Astros baseball is on the air Monday night in Austin!

Of course, you'll miss the first hour of the game if your radio dial is tuned to 1300 because the 7 o'clock hour belongs to the Austin Wranglers Coach's Show. Yes, those Austin Wranglers. Of the Arena Football League.

No no no, they were kicked out of the Arena Football League.   They are now in the Arena Football League Development League.

[remy]

1010am works sometimes.  Usually if it isn't on 1300, then 740 is your best bet. 

1010 comes in pretty well in the car ususally.  And depending on what part of Austin you're in, so does 740.

[ValpoCory]

KVET is the flagship station for all UT sports. it must and should give preference to that contract.

I agree.  It's just that when the Austin Toros NBADL, Austin Wranglers AFLDL, Austin Wranglers AFLDL head coach call in show, weekday afternoon normal programming, Rick Barnes call in shows, Texas football practices, etc., take precedence, it shows they care very little about the Astros.

[ValpoCory]

1010 comes in pretty well in the car ususally.  And depending on what part of Austin you're in, so does 740.

Yep, I'm a 1010 KBW fan in the car.  That's one of my presets during the baseball season.

[ValpoCory]

Jeff Ward has never been on KVET. that was KLBJ when it had the UT contract.

Jeff Ward came to KLBJ in 1997.  Before that, he was on KVET with Bill Schoening.

[remy]

Jeff Ward came to KLBJ in 1997.  Before that, he was on KVET with Bill Schoening.

Yeah, I was pretty sure of that.  1300 was a totally different beast 13 years ago.

[Duke]

only 2 losses in the "scuttling," imo: Erin Hogan and Chad Hastings.

KVET is the flagship station for all UT sports. it must and should give preference to that contract.

E Hogan is on 1560am in the morning now.   Beats the crap out of Bob Cole and Bucky on 1300.

I like him even if he is an Ohio State homer.

[Waldo]

only 2 losses in the "scuttling," imo: Erin Hogan and Chad Hastings.

Bucky being paired with Bob Cole is pretty terrible.  Plus, E. Hogan was a pretty big loss.

KVET is the flagship station for all UT sports. it must and should give preference to that contract.

I won't argue that, but I will argue why 1300 is an Astros affiliate when it obviously cannot commit to airing every game.  I mean, seriously, the Austin Wranglers preempt the Astros?  Who cares about the Wranglers?

[Gizzmonic]

I wonder if anyone with experience in the broadcasting industry could tell us more about the affiliate program and how it works.

Do stations pay a certain amount per game or is it a flat fee per-season?

I wonder about it because as we've already stated in this thread, station managers will elect to air less popular programming (Austin Wranglers, syndicated programming) instead of the Astros.  Is this to save money?  To fulfill contractual obligations?  Do the station managers geniunely believe the programming they choose will reach a bigger audience than an Astros game?

[Duman]

I wonder if anyone with experience in the broadcasting industry could tell us more about the affiliate program and how it works.

Do stations pay a certain amount per game or is it a flat fee per-season?

I wonder about it because as we've already stated in this thread, station managers will elect to air less popular programming (Austin Wranglers, syndicated programming) instead of the Astros.  Is this to save money?  To fulfill contractual obligations?  Do the station managers geniunely believe the programming they choose will reach a bigger audience than an Astros game?

They pay for full seasons.  Sometimes contracts state the pecking order of what get's played.  Often though this is driving by revenue dollars.  A game/show with the most local revenue will trump the one with less. Therefore local minor league sports/college related show will often be played over regional sports team.  With the Wranglers, more of the commercials that are played are local revenue.  The Astros have their network ads that play and cut down on local ad time.

[matadorph]

E Hogan is on 1560am in the morning now.   

And Hastings is on the afternoon drive show.

Which reminds me of something I forgot to do....I was listening to Hastings and that other dude (Jeff somebody) one day last week. For some reason Hastings is rather fond of Will Carroll, so they had him on the show to talk baseball. Towards the end of the interview they asked Carroll about the Astros, at which point predictably dumb comments came spilling out of his mouth about the changes Wade made in the offseason ("turning the Astros from a 70-win team to a 71-win team) and how the Astros farm system is terrible. I've heard Carroll on Hastings' former show repeatedly and he ALWAYS trashes the Astros organization. He's a fantasy hack on par with ESPN's Matthew Berry, yet Hastings thinks he's some sorta expert on Astros baseball.

I meant to send them an email with an idea: next time they wanna talk Astros baseball, contact Noe in Austin or HH or Prav or JimR or any of the OWA SnS Popes instead of Cub fan Will Carroll, because Carroll is dogshit.

[drew corleone]

You can get the Temple station that carries the Astros sometimes, too. 1080 I think.

1400. I usually have much better luck with 790, though, unless I'm north of Jarrell.

I don't mind Texas sports trumping the Astros in April and May -- that's just the way it's going to be unless another station decides to carry the broadcasts. But it's annoying to not get day games.

[JimR]

agree re Carroll. BP BS.

[Arky Vaughan]

I wonder what the Astros ever did to become such a target of scorn for the BP crowd. I thought the Astros were one of the craftier and more forward-looking teams, especially under Hunsicker, which was borne out by the stream of first and second place finishes from 1994 to 2006 (sans 2000), but even during that period, BP just bitched, bitched, bitched about the Astros every edition. Strange.

[Noe]

Jeff Ward has never been on KVET. that was KLBJ when it had the UT contract.

1300(AM), not 98.1(the FM station,) is UT's flagship. it should and must honor that contract.

Eggszactly.  It's on the Houston Astros, not KVET, that they signed a contract with the flagship for all things UT.  Horrible move by the 'stros.

[juliogotay]

What's the deal? I drove through Austin during the games on Friday and Sunday and spent the entire time flipping my AM dial to find nothing but the Rangers game. Is there really no Astros radio in our capital?

I just checked astros.com for a radio affiliates lists. That I did not find one is amazing to me. I know they had that when the Astros really operated their own site rather than this templated MLB site.

[Bench]

I just checked astros.com for a radio affiliates lists. That I did not find one is amazing to me. I know they had that when the Astros really operated their own site rather than this templated MLB site.

http://houston.astros.mlb.com/hou/schedule/radio_affiliates.jsp

Not updated for 2008.

[mihoba]

 You would think a decent FM station would broadcast Astros games. My hometown of Rockdale had an FM station years ago that covered all games, but I assume that was axed. I could not get any games over the airwaves here in East Texas for the past 15+ years, but my new car has satellite radio so I may be back in business. Not that I miss Milo that much, but I do miss several innings on my normal commute.

[Ty in Tampa]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Astros/MLB wanted to make it hard for everyone outside the Houston market to listen. Get 'em to pony up for the internet broadcasts.

[Gizzmonic]

I'm not sure.  You'd think they'd want to grow their fanbase, but considering the unbelievably stupid blackout rules MLB is still honoring I wouldn't put it past them.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Astros/MLB wanted to make it hard for everyone outside the Houston market to listen. Get 'em to pony up for the internet broadcasts.

[Taras Bulba]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Astros/MLB wanted to make it hard for everyone outside the Houston market to listen. Get 'em to pony up for the internet broadcasts.

Maybe they're in the process of ceding it to the Rangers.

[Lefty]

I wonder what the Astros ever did to become such a target of scorn for the BP crowd.

Ausmus & AE, I'd imagine, topped off with a shot of "Drayton is cheap".

[JimR]

Ausmus & AE, I'd imagine, topped off with a shot of "Drayton is cheap".

they HATED the Bagwell, Biggio, Viz and Ausmus deals. every year it was the same blah, blah, blah.

[kevwun]

I'm in the Austin market and have Dish Network.  So far this season, just about every Rangers game that was on at the same time as the Astros has been shown on the main FSN channel.  It's kept me from watching in HD a couple of times because the alternate channel was only available in standard definition.  It could just be coincidence, but I don't remember it happening this frequently.

[Taras Bulba]

I'm in the Austin market and have Dish Network.  So far this season, just about every Rangers game that was on at the same time as the Astros has been shown on the main FSN channel.  It's kept me from watching in HD a couple of times because the alternate channel was only available in standard definition.  It could just be coincidence, but I don't remember it happening this frequently.

It's their bidness and whatever the case, the Astros have not appeared to be real concerned about media issues in Central and South Texas and stamping their brand on these parts of the state.  It maybe gets in the way of attending a conference somewhere.

[Gizzmonic]

I wonder if we can get together as a group and bother them.

Who should we write/phone/email/firebomb about this problem?  The Astros' front office?  FSN affiliates in the affected cities?

Here are the problems:

1)Astros games being pre-empted or not airing on radio affiliates in Austin, San Antonio, etc (add your own city here).

2) List of radio affiliates not up-to-date (?), hard to find on Astros website.

3)FSN in Austin, San Antonio etc opting to show Rangers games over Astros games.

4)In San Antonio, FSN will not run live sports if the Spurs are playing on another channel.

I'd be happy to write up some boilerplate for the Astros, Time Warner, FSN Southwest, etc.  What does everyone say to a grassroots mail-in campaign ?  (Real letters, please, email is too easy to ignore).

It's their bidness and whatever the case, the Astros have not appeared to be real concerned about media issues in Central and South Texas and stamping their brand on these parts of the state.  It maybe gets in the way of attending a conference somewhere.

[JimR]

I wonder if we can get together as a group and bother them.

Who should we write/phone/email/firebomb about this problem?  The Astros' front office?  FSN affiliates in the affected cities?

Here are the problems:

1)Astros games being pre-empted or not airing on radio affiliates in Austin, San Antonio, etc (add your own city here).

2) List of radio affiliates not up-to-date (?), hard to find on Astros website.

3)FSN in Austin, San Antonio etc opting to show Rangers games over Astros games.

4)In San Antonio, FSN will not run live sports if the Spurs are playing on another channel.

I'd be happy to write up some boilerplate for the Astros, Time Warner, FSN Southwest, etc.  What does everyone say to a grassroots mail-in campaign ?  (Real letters, please, email is too easy to ignore).

once again, KVET's first obligation is to UT. that is not pre-emption.

[Taras Bulba]

I wonder if we can get together as a group and bother them.

Who should we write/phone/email/firebomb about this problem?  The Astros' front office?  FSN affiliates in the affected cities?

Here are the problems:

1)Astros games being pre-empted or not airing on radio affiliates in Austin, San Antonio, etc (add your own city here).

2) List of radio affiliates not up-to-date (?), hard to find on Astros website.

3)FSN in Austin, San Antonio etc opting to show Rangers games over Astros games.

4)In San Antonio, FSN will not run live sports if the Spurs are playing on another channel.

I'd be happy to write up some boilerplate for the Astros, Time Warner, FSN Southwest, etc.  What does everyone say to a grassroots mail-in campaign ?  (Real letters, please, email is too easy to ignore).

I've spoken with Time Warner, FSN, and the Astros.  Short version: Time Warner and FSN are mostly clueless and pass the buck around.  There doesn't appear to be a concerted effort to keep the Astros off and the Rangers on--they often times are simply not focused on who is pushing the buttons.  I found that somewhat amazing, but there you have it.  The Astros just simply didn't care.  My conclusion was that they have decided that whatever revenues are driven by showing the Astros in Austin or San Antonio versus the Rangers is not worth their time.  It was at this point that the old AA mantra became operative in this situation and I focused my time and energy instead on good barbecue and bowel movements.

[ValpoCory]

Which reminds me of something I forgot to do....I was listening to Hastings and that other dude (Jeff somebody) one day last week. For some reason Hastings is rather fond of Will Carroll, so they had him on the show to talk baseball. Towards the end of the interview they asked Carroll about the Astros, at which point predictably dumb comments came spilling out of his mouth about the changes Wade made in the offseason ("turning the Astros from a 70-win team to a 71-win team) and how the Astros farm system is terrible. I've heard Carroll on Hastings' former show repeatedly and he ALWAYS trashes the Astros organization. He's a fantasy hack on par with ESPN's Matthew Berry, yet Hastings thinks he's some sorta expert on Astros baseball.

That's because Chad Hastings is a typical Dallasite.  He has stated numerous times that he hates all things Houston.  Every thing that comes out of his mouth about Houston is so biased I completely ignore it. 

[ValpoCory]

once again, KVET's first obligation is to UT. that is not pre-emption.

Most understand that.  It's the AFLDL coaches callin shows that bug most people.  That and Toros games.

[ValpoCory]

I wonder if we can get together as a group and bother them.

Who should we write/phone/email/firebomb about this problem?  The Astros' front office?  FSN affiliates in the affected cities?

Here are the problems:

1)Astros games being pre-empted or not airing on radio affiliates in Austin, San Antonio, etc (add your own city here).

2) List of radio affiliates not up-to-date (?), hard to find on Astros website.

3)FSN in Austin, San Antonio etc opting to show Rangers games over Astros games.

4)In San Antonio, FSN will not run live sports if the Spurs are playing on another channel.

I'd be happy to write up some boilerplate for the Astros, Time Warner, FSN Southwest, etc.  What does everyone say to a grassroots mail-in campaign ?  (Real letters, please, email is too easy to ignore).

Just tell yourself that the Astros affiliate in Austin is AM 1010 KBW. They air every single Astros game except weekday day games.  I know of no better Astros affiliate.

[loganck]

Most understand that.  It's the AFLDL coaches callin shows that bug most people.  That and Toros games.

and Jim Rome

[Lefty]

they HATED the Bagwell, Biggio, Viz and Ausmus deals. every year it was the same blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, I totally forgot about Viz. Bagwell, of course, didn't become an issue to them until after the shoulder broke down. 

[Col. Sphinx Drummond]

I fucking hate sports radio in Austin. The only thing you can count on is UT on KVET 1300 AM. I remember listening to the Astros during the day up until they started airing the Jim Rome Show. Their contract with Rome preempts all events except Longhorn sports. When a station decides that talking about sports is better than sports--FUCK THEM.

[juliogotay]

I've spoken with Time Warner, FSN, and the Astros.  Short version: Time Warner and FSN are mostly clueless and pass the buck around.  There doesn't appear to be a concerted effort to keep the Astros off and the Rangers on--they often times are simply not focused on who is pushing the buttons.  I found that somewhat amazing, but there you have it.  The Astros just simply didn't care.  My conclusion was that they have decided that whatever revenues are driven by showing the Astros in Austin or San Antonio versus the Rangers is not worth their time.  It was at this point that the old AA mantra became operative in this situation and I focused my time and energy instead on good barbecue and bowel movements.

I have Direct TV for one reason. I can get every Astro game that FSN carries on the FSN Houston channel. Have even been able to get the My20 games on the same channel or on one of the MLB channels which I didn't expect.

[rambo2]

Try 1420 in New Braunfels.  They usually have all of the games.

[Gizzmonic]

I might have to look into that.  I was all set to watch the Astros in gorgeous HD last night-and instead FSN was showing nationally syndicated sports talk crap.  Time Warner San Antonio won't put anything on against the Spurs.  Yet another reason to hate them.

I have Direct TV for one reason. I can get every Astro game that FSN carries on the FSN Houston channel. Have even been able to get the My20 games on the same channel or on one of the MLB channels which I didn't expect.