Sports Radio: Cost Friendly Choice in a World of Streaming

While fans obviously won't be able to see what's going on, they'll get a mental picture, plus first-hand fan reactions, to games in an instant!

Listening to sports radio may be the least considered choice in a world of streaming. Given how visual we've become, there is a benefit, mystique and some bonuses that come with radio. Better yet, for the most part, sports radio is usually free and readily available. What's wrong with something that's free? You don't have to be in your car to listen, as these radio stations are available on apps ready for download to your smart devices, or can be accessed via the station's website. All you need is an internet connection and you're good to go, so what are you waiting for?

Our Experience and "Forgotten" Love for Sports Radio

Personally, I've tuned into sports radio as early as 1996; I was 9 years old. I would tune in listening to both the Lakers and Clippers games, and because of insanity I've underwent during my elementary school days, an entertainment medium like sports radio made my Friday nights much calmer and cozy—a mental cure from the crap I lived and dealt with in school. It wasn't until 2016, then onto 2020, that I wanted this cozy feeling again, having remembered getting it from sports radio, even if this meant listening to sports talk shows in general from Mason & Ireland to The Stephen A. Smith Show. As the lockdowns were in place, and gotten furloughed then laid off from my job that time, there wasn't much else to do other than watch...wait, no, listen to, in this case, NBA games on the radio as they continued their season via the bubble.



With so much free time, having to "stay home and save lives," I took the effort to familiarize myself with searching up radio schedules, radio shows, radio hosts, and, painstakingly, remembering radio stations and which apps sports games are often aired. Anyway, the experience is immersive but laid back, as I would listen to as much as I could, allowing me to do other things. Suddenly, this routine stuck and have gradually did away from ever wanting to stream, let alone subscribe to a service, ever again (I have subscribed to YouTube TV and Sling TV until they both started raising their prices). Yes, tuning into the radio made me feel like I'm living in the fifties before TV, but as mentioned before, this has saved me a lot of money. Plus, because radio is hanging on and doing their best to attract more listeners, it's time we recognize these choices available to us, both for cost reasons and choices that are free, while being able to access and tune in to our desired broadcasts, whether it's the live games or even the daily/weekly sports shows.

Anything and Everything is Possible on the Radio

If there were anything good we got from the lockdowns of 2020-2021, it's that we rekindled our love for sports radio. I expanded my tastes into hockey, American football, football (soccer), baseball, horse racing, various events like lotteries, drafts and much much more. The fact that these events are available on the radio results in a laid-back, calm state of mind at the comfort of your own home for you, the listener, while the happenings unfold. It's convenient, and while chaos continues in the outside world, as well as witnessing baseless arguments online and on social media over things most of us have no control over, rest assured there's always sports radio to ease your day/night and be able to relax.

Regional Restrictions...but Not That Strict

If you're a business owner catering to sports fans, regional blackouts are a perfect example of how to anger and potentially lose your customers/fans. Why? Over the years, TV networks have done a poor job communicating why games are blacked out in a person's area. They could've said, "This game is blacked out in your area. Tune in to Channel 100 to watch and support your local network," or something of that kind. Well, sad to say, as someone who has been listening and been a sports radio fan for years, blackouts do happen unfortunately, but all is not lost. Here's why:

When tuning into Laker games on the radio, for example, it's available on the ESPN app. However, being a current resident of Los Angeles, California, we find that both the pregame and postgame shows are available, but not the game itself. After so much searching, we found that Laker games are sometimes aired on San Diego Sports 760, a FOX Sports radio network. Yeah, it's weird but true: If you're a resident in LA, and listening through the apps, you can "bypass" the blackout set by ESPN and listen to Laker games on San Diego Sports radio station, available on the iHeart Radio app (this includes ESPN as well). Yeah, too much work switching back and forth, but that's the nature of things (listening in your car, however, doesn't have any blackouts whatsoever.)

Now, yes, there exists a way to listen to the game full-on without the hassle of switching back and forth. There's SiriusXM which airs the games completely with NO blackouts no matter where you live, as long as you have an internet connection. Only one catch: It's a paid subscription. Another point to be made is tuning in to the team channel itself, very rarely do they air the pregame and postgame shows, along with shows that are only exclusive to the team region's flagship station, which means you'll only listen to the actual game itself. Also worth noting, depending on the schedule, San Diego Sports doesn't air every Laker game there is, which means you'll have to check the radio schedule periodically for any changes made without notice. Would you rather opt for a paid subscription, or live with the hassle of switching back and forth between radio stations for free, while keeping alert on what station(s) the games are scheduled at? The choice is yours to make.

Despite that scenario, there are alternatives listening to games, and while your location varies, there are other stations that happily air games with no blackouts. Given that this is radio and not TV or streaming, finding an online guide for these radio stations are almost nonexistent, so more often than not, listeners would just choose to subscribe to SiriusXM. Rightfully so, because as of this writing, SiriusXM is clamouring for subscribers to tune in and listen.

Nevertheless, whether you're wanting to try something new for your sports fix or want to save money, listening to your teams play on the radio gives you an experience that TV/streaming doesn't provide. In addition, you get to hear first-hand reactions to the game, via postgame shows, and listen in to what other fans calling in as to what they think about the game. Once again, these features are something you don't find on TV/streaming (there's always social media, but this is about live games being regionally/nationally broadcasted). Another thing: If you really pay attention to the announcers and the hosts, often times they crack jokes that you may never hear on TV/streaming; Such jokes aren't necessarily offensive nor derogatory but such jokes are done to liven up the listening experience. Hey, we won't say no to humor!

Many fans have their own reasons why they'd rather listen to sports on the radio instead of watching it, but the points we've provided here are our basic reasons we listen to it as well. Being available for free, especially in this kind of economy, makes the most sense for getting our sports entertainment in. The pregame shows, the game itself, the postgame shows and sometimes the extended postgame shows are all just a joy to listen to. In addition, hearing fans call in to talk and react to the game is another fun treat. Granted, yes, some fans calling in have some of the most ridiculous, yet outlandish comments and reactions many of us have ever heard, but that's part of fan participation aired live for us to hear. It gives fans more reasons to have their comments and rebuttals heard.

Besides blackouts, and poor timing of airing commercials by radio affiliates during the game, we can't think of any other reason not to tune in and consider radio to be a great, inexpensive choice for sports fans. Only catch is there's no "DVR" option—shall we say "DAR," as in Digital Audio Recording—in any of these apps, so you better be sure to tune in on time to listen! (SiriusXM does have a rewind feature but no audio recording option to listen to at a later time. However, if radio apps implemented a recording option, they'd all likely add a paid subscription option.) Perhaps if there are enough listeners and demand, apps for these radio stations may be able to implement a "DAR" feature, but for now, the best thing to do is tune in before the game starts so you don't miss anything. We'll say it again: These radio apps are available and free to download, and if you're on your computer, you can access these stations' websites as they, more often than not, have a 'play' button to listen live from their page.

To all sports radio stations, big and small, we here at KCU Network want to thank you for a job well done! No matter how colorful and animated the commentary is, it has become the medium that made us appreciate sports as a whole. To add to it, we find joy tuning in games of teams outside our cities, whether it's Cleveland, Florida or even Canada, it's nice to hear about their teams and how they're doing!

Kris Caballero

Founder of KCU Network and KCU Plus, Kris has been writing since he managed a personal blog made back in late 2005. Officially back to doing computer programming (software development) and video production, Kris enjoys reading books on Mathematics, Quantum Computing, Philosophy, playing old video/DOS games, digital video archiving, and listening to sports, public radio and classical music.

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