Wednesday night, in a nail-biting championship game, the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the New York Yankees 7–6 in Game 5 of the MLB World Series.
Now, as any of our readers can tell you, baseball and radio have a long, storied history, with our beloved sportscasters often spending decades of their lives calling games.
While I, myself, am a lifelong Dodgers fan, no matter who you root for, we can all appreciate the in-depth coverage sports radio stations provide during historic matchups.
Following the Dodgers’ win, I received a note from a reader who wanted to share news of one such station:
Dear Elle,
On Oct. 30th this year, with the biggest baseball game of the season happening (a big East Coast vs. West Coast World Series final), I read on social media that the KLAC 570 AM transmitter went off air just ahead of the game. KLAC is billed as the “Home of Dodgers Radio & Los Angeles sports.” So this wasn’t just some AM radio — but THE AM station for the team that later that evening were crowned champions.
I read this with interest — in the UK (where I live) there’s a little over 20 AM networks still on the air. Some provide near national coverage from multiple sites, so all told, there’s a little under 80 transmitters running across the whole of the nation. Elsewhere in Europe, the AM band (Medium Wave as we call it) is empty. Germany, France, Netherlands and Belgium all closed their AM networks years ago; Norway has even ceased their national public radio on FM, going all digital on DAB, and Switzerland has a timetable to do the same by the end of 2026.
So it was encouraging to see KLAC’s sister station KFI carrying its first Dodgers game in about 40 years to cover the downtime at KLAC, whilst the tech-staff got to site and got to grips with the issue.
I’d just like to say “Nice Work” and give much kudos to the KLAC engineers who restored the service before the end of the game. While the game of baseball remains a mystery to many on this side of the pond, myself and fellow RF engineers fully understand the pressure in getting a station back on. I just hope the local TV network carried a highlights programme so the staff could enjoy their local side winning once they got home!
Best regards from the centre of England,
— Paddy O’Reilly, Wireless Un Limited
We are currently experiencing technical difficulties here on AM 570 LA Sports.
To listen to tonight’s Game 5 on radio, hear the game on @KFIAM640 and @AM570LASports.
To stream the game live on any device, listen on @am570lasports on the free @iheartradio app! pic.twitter.com/z2i8njW2da
— AM 570 LA Sports (@AM570LASports) October 30, 2024
During what is undoubtably a Super Bowl-equivalent event for KLAC 570 — an iHeartMedia station that serves as the Los Angeles affiliate for Fox Sports Radio and the flagship station for the Los Angeles Dodgers Radio Network — I can imagine that there was no worse time to experience technical difficulties than during the World Series.
So, as requested by Paddy, here is Radio World’s kudos to the KFI and KLAC engineers for a quick recovery!
You can hear Stephen Nelson and Rick Monday providing the winning commentary for AM 570 LA Sports below. (Fun fact: KLAC turned 100 this past March, with KFI turning 102 in April.)
The Dodgers Radio call of the title-clinching moment, with Stephen Nelson and Rick Monday providing the commentary for AM 570 LA Sports. ⚾️️ #WorldSeries #MLB
(h/t: @BenRaby31; @AM570LASports) pic.twitter.com/2lY9d69vth
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 31, 2024
Where did you tune in to the game? Do you have a station that you’d like the shout out? Email me at elle.kehres@futurenet.com.
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