Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that the Minnesota Twins are also in talks with SKOR North over radio rights, according to industry sources.
MINNEAPOLIS — Lost in the Minnesota Twins’ ongoing, headline-making local television drama is another key impending media rights decision: The team’s radio contract with WCCO is set to conclude after this season, which has opened the door for recent talks with KFAN and SKOR North.
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According to multiple team and radio sources with knowledge of the situation, the Twins are engaged in discussions to potentially remain with longtime partner WCCO, but sports-talk station KFAN, with its FM signal and a larger, younger audience, has emerged as a viable alternative some in the organization believe could be a partner with more long-term upside.
Hubbard-owned SKOR North, which broadcast Twins games under the station’s previous 1500-ESPN branding, is also part of the mix, per industry sources.
WCCO has been the Twins’ radio home for 53 of the franchise’s 64 years in Minnesota, including each of the past seven seasons.
SKOR North, then 1500-ESPN, was the Twins’ radio home from 2007-12, but has since rebranded with an emphasis on podcasts and YouTube content, along with syndicated national radio programming.
KFAN is the flagship station of nearly every other prominent sports team in the state, including the Minnesota Vikings, Minnesota Wild, Minnesota Timberwolves, Minnesota Lynx and University of Minnesota football and basketball, creating ancillary over-the-air and streaming content for those teams that the Twins find appealing, industry sources said.
However, there’s also the downside of joining a station with such a crowded schedule: It’s likely fewer than half of the Twins’ games would be on KFAN, at least initially, due to existing contractual commitments to other teams on nights and weekends, as well as the popularity of weekday afternoon shows hosted by Dan “The Common Man” Cole and Dan Barreiro.
WCCO broadcasts every Twins game, building much of the Audacy-owned station’s identity around the team, whereas with KFAN many games would be moved to other iHeart-owned stations or perhaps even streaming-only availability. Last year, the Timberwolves agreed to that same type of setup in leaving WCCO for KFAN, providing precedent for the Twins.
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The Twins have left WCCO before, ending their five-decade partnership to join Hubbard-owned 1500-ESPN from 2007-2012 and then Pohlad-owned stations from 2013-16. They’ve previously had talks with KFAN on several occasions, with the earliest negotiations going back more than a decade to when KFAN was an AM station with fewer team partnerships.
But things have changed considerably since then, for KFAN, WCCO and SKOR North, for the Twins and for the overall state of the radio industry.
According to the Nielsen radio ratings for April, May and June — the first three months of the Twins’ season — KFAN ranked No. 2 in the Twin Cities, averaging a 7.2 share of the active listeners in the market. WCCO ranked No. 10, averaging a 4.5 share, and the AM station’s listeners also skew older, a key consideration for advertising, audience growth and future streaming-based content possibilities.
SKOR North registered a 0.1 share and currently offers minimal local programming, but featured a full lineup of shows when they were partnered with the Twins.
Kris Atteberry has been part of Twins radio broadcasts since 2007. He is in his first season as the team’s primary play-by-play announcer. (Minnesota Twins)
Multiple team sources indicated the decision could come down to the Twins’ willingness to upset a core audience of longtime AM radio devotees unable or unwilling to shift to FM and/or streaming. Another big consideration: Twins officials would need to accept becoming merely one of the many teams on KFAN after being the unquestioned face of WCCO for so long.
WCCO is the old-school option, with a decades-long history of successfully partnering with the Twins and a 50,000-watt AM signal that reaches much of Minnesota and beyond.
KFAN is the new-school option, with a larger audience among the coveted 18-49 age demographic and a clearer path forward in the rapidly changing media landscape.
SKOR North is perhaps an even newer-school option, with a current approach no longer geared toward traditional radio but a past relationship with the Twins on which they could lean.
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Those are some of the factors Twins officials will be weighing in choosing a future radio home. It’s a particularly delicate situation as the Twins are likely to also be TV free agents for the second straight offseason after remaining with Bally Sports North this season with a controversial one-year contract signed in February.
In tandem, the two decisions will shape the next decade of how Twins fans can — or can’t — follow the team. And they need to be made at a time when fan frustration over broadcasting restrictions is already as high as ever and trying to predict the big-picture future of media consumption preferences is ripe for missteps.
(Top photo of Target Field: Matt Krohn / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Aaron Gleeman is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Minnesota Twins. He was previously the editor-in-chief of Baseball Prospectus and a senior writer for NBC Sports. He was named the 2021 NSMA Minnesota Sportswriter of the Year and co-hosts the "Gleeman and The Geek" podcast. Follow Aaron on Twitter @AaronGleeman
