Radio and Television
The 49ers' flagship radio stations are KSAN 107.7 FM ("The Bone"), KNBR 680 AM, and KTCT 1050 AM. KSAN airs all 49ers games on FM. On AM, they are simulcast on KTCT in August, September, and October and on KNBR from October to the end of the season. All three stations are owned by Cumulus Media. Joe Starkey, best known as the voice of the University of California and The Play, was previously the color commentator on the broadcasts next to legendary announcer Lon Simmons in 1987 and 1988 and took over as lead commentator in 1989. Lon Simmons and Gordy Soltau did the broadcasts on KSFO in the 1950s and 1960s. For a brief period in the late 1970s and early 1980s Don Kline, the Voice of Stanford did the 49ers' games. Starkey first teamed with former Detroit Lions' and KPIX Sports Director, Wayne Walker and then former 49ers' linebacker Gary Plummer formed the broadcast team from 1998 to 2008, with Starkey retiring after the 2008 season. Ted Robinson replaced Starkey and teamed up with Plummer for the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Plummer was relieved of his color commentating duties for the 2011 season and replaced by former teammate Eric Davis.
Most preseason games are telecast on KPIX, channel 5, with announcers Dennis O'Donnell and Tim Ryan.
The 49ers are a beneficiary of league scheduling policies. Both the 49ers and the Oakland Raiders share the San Francisco Bay Area market, and said market is on the West Coast of the United States. This means that the 49ers cannot play home games or most division games in the early 10:00 a.m. Pacific time slot, nor can they play interconference home games at the same time or network as the Raiders. As a result, both teams generally have more limited scheduling options, and also benefit by receiving more prime time games than usual (click here for further information). Thus, regardless of the previous season's record, the 49ers receive a disproportionate number of Sunday Night, Monday Night and/or Thursday Night games, compared to the rest of the league.
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Famous quotes containing the words radio and/or television:
“Local television shows do not, in general, supply make-up artists. The exception to this is Los Angeles, an unusually generous city in this regard, since they also provide this service for radio appearances.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)
“It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy’s edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create “one world.” Instead of one world, we have “star wars,” and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet’s dead.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)