Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Why 95.7 The Game Won't Ever Change

On April 15, 2011, an Oakland Athetlics fans dream came true as country station KBWF flipped over to an all sports station known as SportsRadio 95.7.  On August 1, 2011, the station rebranded itself as KGMZ, 95.7 The Game.  East Bay fans and San Jose Sharks fans were thrilled as finally there was a station to talk about them.  The biggest rival KNBR has periodically ignored everything not named Giants, Warriors or 49ers in recent years.  With the run down O.co Coliseum in Oakland, the new Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara and the Warriors looking to return to San Francisco, they had all of the power, but 95.7 was supposed to be different.  This was a new beginning for East Bay Sports and a new station that possibly could take down KNBR in terms of ratings.

Fast forward to 2014 and well nothing has changed one bit.  East Bay Fan's have dubbed The Game as KNBR Jr.  Through the years, A's fans have had to endure the annoying "Bell" from Brandon Tierney and constant continuing bashing of the attendance.  As the Oakland Athletics flagship station, A's fans have learned that this station hasn't changed one bit and continues to focus on more important things such as Tim Lincecum's father, Aubrey Huff's rally thong and multiple Colin Kaepernick vs Alex Smith debates.  Now it is about Jim Harbaugh and the rumored fight between him and upper management.  Where is the Raiders talk, which is in desperate need of many positions and fans are frustrated.  Where is the San Jose Sharks talk who are trying to finally bring a cup to the loyal fans of San Jose?  On 95.7 The Game, nowhere to be found.

Before I continue, I have a disclaimer to make.  I was born in 1982 and my sports allegiances lie with the Oakland Athletics, San Francisco 49ers, Golden State Warriors and San Jose Sharks.  I feel I am able to see both perspectives clearly as I take a lot of flack from Raider fans who hate the 49ers.  However, I personally have nothing against the Raiders.  The team I passionately hope to lose every night is the San Francisco Giants.  My back story on not liking the Giants is a few of their fans that I have spoken with who are my age say they have been die hard fans since they were young, but cannot tell me who Kevin Mitchell, Will Clark and Brett Butler are... I know a few bad apples shouldn't spoil the whole bunch, but I am bothered by the arrogance by some of them.  However, I do admit that every fan base has their bad apples; you just have to wither them out.

I disowned 95.7 The Game in the three weeks following the Asiana Flight 214 plane crash that occurred at San Francisco Airport in July 2013.  The only thing I will listen to is anything Oakland Athletics game related.  I will from time to time go on their website to check out archived interviews of A's players and beat writers.  Other than that, nothing.  Anyways, KTVU Fox 2 released the pilots names and they were incorrect. In fact, they were racist and this got quite a few people fired at the station.  About a week and a half later, radio personality Greg Papa was back on the air and after KTVU apologized, he continued to make racist and inappropriate comments about the incident.  This prompted me to completely go apeshit over twitter about it because by this time we found out that there were fatalities.  I called for the firing of Papa who was once the Oakland Athletics play by play announcer and the current Oakland Raiders play by play announcer. For those that know me well enough, I do throw around my share of racial jokes, but there is a time and a place for them and this was not the time, nor was it the place.  Below are my tweets to Producer Jason Barrett, which went unnoticed.






In early August 2013, Barrett took over their twitter account over twitter to do a Q&A session with listeners and I repeated the same story to the 95.7 the game twitter account.  After my rant and none of my questions being answered, I figured everything fell on deaf ears again...



Even twitter user @mjoven1975 and @midnightkells asked and chimed in. A while later, Barrett sent me this tweet from his personal account.
Barrett wanted me to probably give him my phone number or something, but I felt that e mail contact was best.  I never received an e mail back from him to this very day and probably will never receive an e mail.  I never heard an apology from Greg Papa either on air or on the 95.7 website.  Greg Papa is still with the radio station today and a little while later signed an extension to be on The Game.  From what I saw, he was not reprimanded for his actions and for this, I deem ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE.  I feel he should have been fired for his actions for his insensitive comments.

Like many East Bay Sports fans and San Jose Sharks fans, I had so much promise for this station.  I felt that fans that were rarely talked about could have a voice, but alas we were let down once again.  Until there are future changes made, 95.7 to me is just another station that says it's the "Flagship Station of Oakland Athletics baseball", but we all really know what that station really means.  If you still don't believe me, go check 95.7's ratings.
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