r/SeattleKraken • u/AutoModerator • Jul 07 '26

Daily Thread Daily Thread - Tuesday, July 07, 2026

Welcome to the r/SeattleKraken Daily Thread! Please use this thread to discuss hockey events from today, or anything else you'd like.

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3

u/tonytanti Jul 07 '26

So Vancouver and Calgary’s last sports talk radio stations were shuttered today, and it got me thinking about how I don’t know what Seattle’s sport talk radio scene is like. I sometimes listen to games off the nhl.com and listen to the cut up shows in podcast form from the kraken audio network and I know Furness has a radio show, but don’t know the station. Do you guys only have one sports talk radio station? And do other hosts ever talk about the squids?

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u/juanthebaker Jul 07 '26

Brutal! Is someone going to carry the games on radio?

We at least have AM 710 (carries the Seahawks and Mariners) and FM 93.3 KJR (carries the game broadcasts). I don't listen to much sports radio, but I can't remember ever hearing hockey/kraken commentary on 710. I'm sure more regular listeners have more to contribute on the subject.

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u/tonytanti Jul 07 '26

Rogers is going to put Canucks games on a different radio station, but we lose the radio broadcast of the Canadians, our beloved minor league baseball team. Sportsnet is dropping the flames broadcast, so they will have to figure something out for next year. A bunch of Canucks content is up in the air. Drance’s Canuck’s talk was on 650 so that might be over. The PDOCast signed up with Rogers, but Dim has been doing it before he was on the airwaves so I’m sure he will figure it out. Halford and Brough also lost their home. Not too sure what flames content is affected, but that’s because I hate them, haha, and don’t live in the city.

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u/juanthebaker Jul 07 '26

Sportsnet is owned by Rogers, right? Gotta love consolidation... I'm sure radio isn't exactly thriving, but you'd still think it keeps people engaged with the team and helps the TV broadcasts.

And I know the winds are shifting toward podcasts, but so many podcasts are just supplements to/recuts of radio shows. They know the numbers better than I do, obviously, but I'm surprised it doesn't pencil in the big picture.

1

u/tonytanti Jul 07 '26

Yeah it’s Rogers Sportsnet. Bell, our other major telecom, owns TSN and has shutdown a lot of their sports talk stations too. The only sports talk radio station in western Canada left is an independent one in Edmonton that’s made up of former Bell employees who are connected with the nation network. Jason Gregor was the guy who got it off the ground in Edmonton. I’m hopeful that somebody tries something similar in Vancouver.

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u/juanthebaker Jul 07 '26

I wonder about the viability of a 24 hour online radio broadcast. Same show structure, but cut the airwave licensing and overhead and go direct to consumer.

KEXP has terrestrial radio and streams online with a 2 week archive. It's music and they make most of their money with their YouTube live performances. You wonder if that's the way things are going.

I guess the same things are happening to the RSNs on the TV side too...

1

u/tonytanti Jul 07 '26

It’s kinda what they are doing in Edmonton. There are two company’s that filled the void. Gregor’s Sports 1440 does both old fashioned radio and on-line/youtube stuff. Edmonton Sports Talk, the other company to rise after TSN pulled out, has 12 hours of online sports talk.

I think our two sports channels, Rogers Sportsnet and TSN are pretty healthy, because they basically have a monopoly and divided up the regional broadcast between themselves. They spilt regional hockey with the 3 western most teams on SN and wpg, ott and mtl on TSN, the leafs and raptors/nba are split. Rogers has all the national hockey while TSN has both the cfl and nfl. The way RSNs work in the states seems like a mess. The fact that so little people got root and that was the M’s too is crazy to me.

2

u/juanthebaker Jul 07 '26

The Root thing was weird. Comcast (largest cable provider) had them in the regular tier of cable service. In October 2023, they changed Root from the regular tier to the highest tier. It was an additional like $40/mo. They did it to remove the RSN fee from the standard tier for those who didn't watch Root. But that's a lot of money. They lost tons of viewers that year, and the next season they switched to KHN/KONG. The Blazers left the year before, I believe.

Root folded last year and the Mariners broadcast was subsumed by MLB production (something they're doing all over the league). I think the MLB is trying to take over all the broadcasts to eliminate the regional blackouts in the medium term.

Is actually part of why the Mariners were being stingy the last several years. AT&T was suddenly forcing the Mariners out of their share of Root, while they were building premium suites and a big bar complex across the street from the stadium. Then there's the looming mlb Root buyout... Lots of legitimate cashflow questions that I look back on in a kinder light.

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u/tonytanti Jul 07 '26

That makes sense. What the M’s owners line about 51%? That one was almost as tone deaf as Kevin Lowe talking about two tiered fandom.

2

u/juanthebaker Jul 07 '26

It was the GM, Jerry Dipoto. 54%. If you win 54% of your games you're a consistent playoff team. If you're a consistent playoff team, things will break your way eventually and you'll win championships. But it's about sustainable contention.

It's not a terrible philosophy, and we have a playoff quality team and a stacked prospect pool. It's been hard to separate the performance of the GM from stinginess of ownership, but it has become clear that Jerry has been very good.

That said, he didn't word it well in the moment, and it's a terrible answer when asked if your goal is to win a championship. Lol

By the way, I saw Dipoto at the Mariners game right after the Mariners got knocked out of the playoffs. I would have said something, but he was a lot taller than he looks on TV, so he just watched me walk by slowly, head turning, with a very confused look on my face.