I Heard It On the Radio: MLB Teams and the Radio Networks That Love Them
Hey there boys and girls. Because I'm a giant effing nerd, I decided to go and look up MLB baseball teams and look through their radio networks to see how far their fanbase extends to. Most of them make sense, but some kind of stick out like a sore thumb and give a giant WTF. What I'm hoping to do in due time is try to make a map which, through these radio stations that are listed, give me a good idea of fandom bases....yes I'm even gonna include the batshit insane ones too. It's only fair. That will take a while because I need to get a good read on receptions and stuff. Like for example, the Mets only have three stations but one of them is WFAN which is a insanely strong radio signal and probably can extend far beyond areas. To be honest, that was one of the toughest ones to figure out. Though one surprising thing is that there's no MLB radio affiliates in Utah. That's the only state I couldn't find a station taht carried any MLB ballgames. SO that's really no-man's land for fandom right now. Maybe the edges of each will get some teams, but the heart of Utah is a giant WTFzone if going by radio stations. That was probably the most interesting thing. Anyways...onto the study!
So I basically got the information and I measured them in three ways. The first way is what states are covered(and how many stations in the said state) per team. The second way is by state, I listed the teams and what cities are covered in their ground. The third was going by state and listing how many teams have stations in the state. I came across some interesting results. Now keep in mind also, some of my stuff may not be that accurate. For one thing, poisonavery noted to me when I first talked of this that there's a radio station in Hawaii that carries Phillies games on teh weekend which is interesting. There's also some stations that only carry sparingly or there's one AM station in Fort Myers which is kind of the slut of Radio Stations because it carries four teams alone (Red Sox/Yankees/Rays/Marlins) so yeah Fort Myers is a dirty dirty slut. :P But anyways here's my first measurement
AL East
Baltimore Orioles -- Maryland (14), DC (1), Pennsylvania (5), Virginia (13), West Virginia (3)
Boston Red Sox -- Massachusetts (16), New Hampshire (14), Rhode Island (1), Connecticut (5), Maine (19), Vermont (12), Wyoming (1), Florida (1)
New York Yankees -- New York (26), Connecticut (5), Florida (3), Arkansas (1), Massachusetts (1), Rhode Island (1), Nevada (3), New Hampshire (1), North Carolina (3), Pennsylvania (5), Vermont (3)
Tampa Bay Rays -- Florida (18), Ohio (1)
Toronto Blue Jays -- Alberta (2), British Columbia (1), Manitoba (1), New Brunswick (2), Nova Scotia (1), Ontario (10), Quebec (1), Saskatchewan (4), New York (1)
AL Central
Chicago White Sox -- Illinois (16), Indiana (3), Iowa (2), Missouri (1)
Cleveland Indians -- Ohio (28), Pennsylvania (1)
Detroit Tigers -- Michigan (28), Ohio (2), Ontario (1)
Kansas City Royals -- Arkansas (7), Iowa (6), Kansas (30), Missouri (19), Nebraska (7), South Dakota (2)
Minnesota Twins -- Iowa (3), Minnesota (49), North Dakota (10), South Dakota (6)
AL West
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim -- California (5), Nevada (1)
Oakland Athletics -- California (19), Nevada (2)
Seattle Mariners -- Alaska (3), British Columbia (1), Hawaii (2), Idaho (3), Montana (4), Oregon (6), Washington (26)
Texas Rangers -- Texas (20), New Mexico (2), Louisiana (2), Arkansas (1)
NL East
Atlanta Braves -- Alabama (17), Florida (4), Georgia (76), Kentucky (1), Mississippi (3), North Carolina (16), South Carolina (11), Tennessee (19), US Virgin Islands (1), Virginia (3), West Virginia (2)
Florida Marlins -- Florida (10)
New York Mets -- New York (3)
Philadelphia Phillies -- Pennsylvania (18), Delaware (1), New Jersey (1), Hawaii (1)
Washington Nationals -- DC (1), Maryland (1), Virginia (6), West Virginia (1)
NL Central
Chicago Cubs -- Idaho (1), Illinois (15), Indiana (10), Iowa (13), Kentucky (1), Minnesota (1), Missouri (1), Mississippi (1), Nebraska (1), North Dakota (1), South Dakota (1)
Cincinnati Reds -- Ohio (17), Indiana (9), Kentucky (17), Illinois (1), Tennessee (1), Virginia (1), West Virginia (7)
Houston Astros -- Texas (20), Louisiana (6)
Milwaukee Brewers -- Wisconsin (48)
Pittsburgh Pirates -- Pennsylvania (31), Ohio (2), West Virginia (8), Maryland (1)
St. Louis Cardinals -- Arkansas (14), Illinois (30), Indiana (3), Iowa (6), Kentucky (7), Mississippi (1), Missouri (35), Oklahoma (6), Tennessee (7)
NL West
Arizona Diamondbacks -- Arizona (13), New Mexico (5), Mexico (1)
Colorado Rockies -- Colorado (7), Kansas (1), Montana (7), Nebraska (3), New Mexico (1), North Dakota (1), South Dakota (1), Wyoming (17)
Los Angeles Dodgers -- California (15), Mexico (1), New Mexico (2), Tennessee (2), Missouri (1), Indiana (1), Illinois (1), US Virgin Islands (1), Nevada (1)
San Diego Padres -- Mexico (3)
San Francisco Giants -- California (9), Hawaii (2), Nevada (1), Oregon (1)
And through this, we come up with a list of states/provinces(because I wanted to be awesome and use the Canadian Provinces and one of the Virgin Islands and Mexico) we see these kind of deals. Also I didn't include New Jersey as the Monopolized State because even though it has the Phillies only affiliate wise, I get the idea that the closeness to NY will probably allow Mets and Yankees feeds to come in clearly. So yeah...
No Man’s Land
Utah
Monopolized States
Alabama (Braves)
Alaska (Mariners)
Arizona (Diamondbacks)
Colorado (Rockies)
Delaware (Phillies)
Georgia (Braves)
Maine (Red Sox)
South Carolina (Braves)
Washington (Mariners)
Alberta (Blue Jays)
Manitoba (Blue Jays)
New Brunswick (Blue Jays)
Nova Scotia (Blue Jays)
Quebec (Blue Jays)
Saskatchewan (Blue Jays)
Two Teams For State
Connecticut (Red Sox/Yankees)
Hawaii (Giants/Mariners)
Idaho (Mariners/Cubs)
Kansas (Rockies/Royals)
Louisiana (Rangers/Astros)
Massachusetts (Red Sox/Yankees)
Michigan (Cubs/Tigers)
Minnesota (Cubs/Twins)
Montana (Mariners/Rockies)
New Hampshire (Red Sox/Yankees)
North Carolina (Braves/Yankees)
Oklahoma (Cardinals/Royals)
Oregon (Mariners/Giants)
Rhode Island (Red Sox/Yankees)
Texas (Rangers/Astros)
Vermont (Red Sox/Yankees)
Wisconsin (Brewers/Twins)
Wyoming (Red Sox/Rockies)
British Columbia (Blue Jays/Mariners)
Ontario (Blue Jays/Tigers)
US Virgin Islands (Braves/Dodgers)
District of Columbia (Orioles/Nationals)
Three Teams
Maryland (Orioles/Pirates/Nationals)
Mississippi (Braves/Cubs/Cardinals)
Nebraska (Cubs/Rockies/Royals)
New York (Blue Jays/Yankees/Mets)
New Jersey (Phillies/Mets/Yankees)
North Dakota (Rockies/Cubs/Twins)
Tennessee (Braves/Dodgers/Cardinals)
Mexico (Diamondbacks/Padres/Dodgers)
Four Teams
Arkansas (Rangers/Cardinals/Royals/Yankees)
Indiana (Dodgers/Reds/Cubs/White Sox)
Kentucky (Braves/Reds/Cubs/Cardinals)
Missouri (Dodgers/Cardinals/Royals/White Sox)
New Mexico (Dodgers/Diamondbacks/Rockies/Rangers)
South Dakota (Rockies/Cubs/Royals/Twins)
Virginia (Braves/Orioles/Reds/Nationals)
Five or More
California (Giants/Angels/Dodgers/Athletics/Padres)
Florida (Braves/Red Sox/Yankees/Rays/Marlins)
Illinois (Dodgers/Reds/Cubs/Cardinals/White Sox)
Indiana (Dodgers/Reds/Cubs/Cardinals/White Sox)
Iowa (Cubs/Cardinals/Royals/Twins/White Sox)
Nevada (Giants/Angels/Dodgers/Athletics/Yankees)
Ohio (Pirates/Reds/Indians/Tigers/Rays)
Pennsylvania (Orioles/Pirates/Indians/Yankees/Phillies)
West Virginia (Braves/Orioles/Pirates/Reds/Nationals)
Of course my next big mission with teh information I have about the cities and towns that have affiliates is to try to map them out teh best I can. Because odds are even if a state is considered monopolized, odds are they probably get some bleedover and reception from out of state stations once and a while. Case in point -- My radio dial has stations from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island and on a clear day I can pick up stations from Long Island. So odds are, there'll be bleedover. The key is to try to work this the best I can. So there's my next big mission.
So any notes and points of interest about this? Well I'm surprised about how much of a battleground that Nevada and West Virginia are. I mean I figured with Illinois, Florida, California, and Indiana but some of them are pretty surprising. I also learned that the main HQ of the Padres' flagship stations are in Mexico. That is pretty interesting to me. I also learned of the West Side Story esque rivalry of Mariners and Giants over in Hawaii. Giants have Honolulu and Hilo while the M's have Maui and Kauai. And well the Canadian ones kinda go without saying but I get the feel that the Red Sox are probably easy to pick up in the Maritime region of Canada/Quebec area, a lot of the Central teams are probably picked up a lot better in Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, and the gang. And so on and so on. So this will be an interesting map I really hope to make. I mean, I know there's a TV audience type of naitonally blacked out games and all along with a Canadian region related one too (btw because it's too damn small to read: Bright Red -- Toronto/Boston. Regular Blue -- Toronto Only, Maroon -- Toronto/Minnesota, Dark Blue -- Toronto/Seattle)
Well that's all for now until I can somehow work a map out of this. I don't guarantee anything though because odds are I may get disinterested easily. :P Also I am well aware of the weirdness of some of the stations. It's what makes life more interesting :) Oh and if I happened to miss any, let me know(like if there's a station I may have missed in some weird state...or Utah actually HAS a station that has a team on it, those kind of things)
So I basically got the information and I measured them in three ways. The first way is what states are covered(and how many stations in the said state) per team. The second way is by state, I listed the teams and what cities are covered in their ground. The third was going by state and listing how many teams have stations in the state. I came across some interesting results. Now keep in mind also, some of my stuff may not be that accurate. For one thing, poisonavery noted to me when I first talked of this that there's a radio station in Hawaii that carries Phillies games on teh weekend which is interesting. There's also some stations that only carry sparingly or there's one AM station in Fort Myers which is kind of the slut of Radio Stations because it carries four teams alone (Red Sox/Yankees/Rays/Marlins) so yeah Fort Myers is a dirty dirty slut. :P But anyways here's my first measurement
AL East
Baltimore Orioles -- Maryland (14), DC (1), Pennsylvania (5), Virginia (13), West Virginia (3)
Boston Red Sox -- Massachusetts (16), New Hampshire (14), Rhode Island (1), Connecticut (5), Maine (19), Vermont (12), Wyoming (1), Florida (1)
New York Yankees -- New York (26), Connecticut (5), Florida (3), Arkansas (1), Massachusetts (1), Rhode Island (1), Nevada (3), New Hampshire (1), North Carolina (3), Pennsylvania (5), Vermont (3)
Tampa Bay Rays -- Florida (18), Ohio (1)
Toronto Blue Jays -- Alberta (2), British Columbia (1), Manitoba (1), New Brunswick (2), Nova Scotia (1), Ontario (10), Quebec (1), Saskatchewan (4), New York (1)
AL Central
Chicago White Sox -- Illinois (16), Indiana (3), Iowa (2), Missouri (1)
Cleveland Indians -- Ohio (28), Pennsylvania (1)
Detroit Tigers -- Michigan (28), Ohio (2), Ontario (1)
Kansas City Royals -- Arkansas (7), Iowa (6), Kansas (30), Missouri (19), Nebraska (7), South Dakota (2)
Minnesota Twins -- Iowa (3), Minnesota (49), North Dakota (10), South Dakota (6)
AL West
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim -- California (5), Nevada (1)
Oakland Athletics -- California (19), Nevada (2)
Seattle Mariners -- Alaska (3), British Columbia (1), Hawaii (2), Idaho (3), Montana (4), Oregon (6), Washington (26)
Texas Rangers -- Texas (20), New Mexico (2), Louisiana (2), Arkansas (1)
NL East
Atlanta Braves -- Alabama (17), Florida (4), Georgia (76), Kentucky (1), Mississippi (3), North Carolina (16), South Carolina (11), Tennessee (19), US Virgin Islands (1), Virginia (3), West Virginia (2)
Florida Marlins -- Florida (10)
New York Mets -- New York (3)
Philadelphia Phillies -- Pennsylvania (18), Delaware (1), New Jersey (1), Hawaii (1)
Washington Nationals -- DC (1), Maryland (1), Virginia (6), West Virginia (1)
NL Central
Chicago Cubs -- Idaho (1), Illinois (15), Indiana (10), Iowa (13), Kentucky (1), Minnesota (1), Missouri (1), Mississippi (1), Nebraska (1), North Dakota (1), South Dakota (1)
Cincinnati Reds -- Ohio (17), Indiana (9), Kentucky (17), Illinois (1), Tennessee (1), Virginia (1), West Virginia (7)
Houston Astros -- Texas (20), Louisiana (6)
Milwaukee Brewers -- Wisconsin (48)
Pittsburgh Pirates -- Pennsylvania (31), Ohio (2), West Virginia (8), Maryland (1)
St. Louis Cardinals -- Arkansas (14), Illinois (30), Indiana (3), Iowa (6), Kentucky (7), Mississippi (1), Missouri (35), Oklahoma (6), Tennessee (7)
NL West
Arizona Diamondbacks -- Arizona (13), New Mexico (5), Mexico (1)
Colorado Rockies -- Colorado (7), Kansas (1), Montana (7), Nebraska (3), New Mexico (1), North Dakota (1), South Dakota (1), Wyoming (17)
Los Angeles Dodgers -- California (15), Mexico (1), New Mexico (2), Tennessee (2), Missouri (1), Indiana (1), Illinois (1), US Virgin Islands (1), Nevada (1)
San Diego Padres -- Mexico (3)
San Francisco Giants -- California (9), Hawaii (2), Nevada (1), Oregon (1)
And through this, we come up with a list of states/provinces(because I wanted to be awesome and use the Canadian Provinces and one of the Virgin Islands and Mexico) we see these kind of deals. Also I didn't include New Jersey as the Monopolized State because even though it has the Phillies only affiliate wise, I get the idea that the closeness to NY will probably allow Mets and Yankees feeds to come in clearly. So yeah...
No Man’s Land
Utah
Monopolized States
Alabama (Braves)
Alaska (Mariners)
Arizona (Diamondbacks)
Colorado (Rockies)
Delaware (Phillies)
Georgia (Braves)
Maine (Red Sox)
South Carolina (Braves)
Washington (Mariners)
Alberta (Blue Jays)
Manitoba (Blue Jays)
New Brunswick (Blue Jays)
Nova Scotia (Blue Jays)
Quebec (Blue Jays)
Saskatchewan (Blue Jays)
Two Teams For State
Connecticut (Red Sox/Yankees)
Hawaii (Giants/Mariners)
Idaho (Mariners/Cubs)
Kansas (Rockies/Royals)
Louisiana (Rangers/Astros)
Massachusetts (Red Sox/Yankees)
Michigan (Cubs/Tigers)
Minnesota (Cubs/Twins)
Montana (Mariners/Rockies)
New Hampshire (Red Sox/Yankees)
North Carolina (Braves/Yankees)
Oklahoma (Cardinals/Royals)
Oregon (Mariners/Giants)
Rhode Island (Red Sox/Yankees)
Texas (Rangers/Astros)
Vermont (Red Sox/Yankees)
Wisconsin (Brewers/Twins)
Wyoming (Red Sox/Rockies)
British Columbia (Blue Jays/Mariners)
Ontario (Blue Jays/Tigers)
US Virgin Islands (Braves/Dodgers)
District of Columbia (Orioles/Nationals)
Three Teams
Maryland (Orioles/Pirates/Nationals)
Mississippi (Braves/Cubs/Cardinals)
Nebraska (Cubs/Rockies/Royals)
New York (Blue Jays/Yankees/Mets)
New Jersey (Phillies/Mets/Yankees)
North Dakota (Rockies/Cubs/Twins)
Tennessee (Braves/Dodgers/Cardinals)
Mexico (Diamondbacks/Padres/Dodgers)
Four Teams
Arkansas (Rangers/Cardinals/Royals/Yankees)
Indiana (Dodgers/Reds/Cubs/White Sox)
Kentucky (Braves/Reds/Cubs/Cardinals)
Missouri (Dodgers/Cardinals/Royals/White Sox)
New Mexico (Dodgers/Diamondbacks/Rockies/Rangers)
South Dakota (Rockies/Cubs/Royals/Twins)
Virginia (Braves/Orioles/Reds/Nationals)
Five or More
California (Giants/Angels/Dodgers/Athletics/Padres)
Florida (Braves/Red Sox/Yankees/Rays/Marlins)
Illinois (Dodgers/Reds/Cubs/Cardinals/White Sox)
Indiana (Dodgers/Reds/Cubs/Cardinals/White Sox)
Iowa (Cubs/Cardinals/Royals/Twins/White Sox)
Nevada (Giants/Angels/Dodgers/Athletics/Yankees)
Ohio (Pirates/Reds/Indians/Tigers/Rays)
Pennsylvania (Orioles/Pirates/Indians/Yankees/Phillies)
West Virginia (Braves/Orioles/Pirates/Reds/Nationals)
Of course my next big mission with teh information I have about the cities and towns that have affiliates is to try to map them out teh best I can. Because odds are even if a state is considered monopolized, odds are they probably get some bleedover and reception from out of state stations once and a while. Case in point -- My radio dial has stations from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island and on a clear day I can pick up stations from Long Island. So odds are, there'll be bleedover. The key is to try to work this the best I can. So there's my next big mission.
So any notes and points of interest about this? Well I'm surprised about how much of a battleground that Nevada and West Virginia are. I mean I figured with Illinois, Florida, California, and Indiana but some of them are pretty surprising. I also learned that the main HQ of the Padres' flagship stations are in Mexico. That is pretty interesting to me. I also learned of the West Side Story esque rivalry of Mariners and Giants over in Hawaii. Giants have Honolulu and Hilo while the M's have Maui and Kauai. And well the Canadian ones kinda go without saying but I get the feel that the Red Sox are probably easy to pick up in the Maritime region of Canada/Quebec area, a lot of the Central teams are probably picked up a lot better in Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, and the gang. And so on and so on. So this will be an interesting map I really hope to make. I mean, I know there's a TV audience type of naitonally blacked out games and all along with a Canadian region related one too (btw because it's too damn small to read: Bright Red -- Toronto/Boston. Regular Blue -- Toronto Only, Maroon -- Toronto/Minnesota, Dark Blue -- Toronto/Seattle)
Well that's all for now until I can somehow work a map out of this. I don't guarantee anything though because odds are I may get disinterested easily. :P Also I am well aware of the weirdness of some of the stations. It's what makes life more interesting :) Oh and if I happened to miss any, let me know(like if there's a station I may have missed in some weird state...or Utah actually HAS a station that has a team on it, those kind of things)