KNBR-AM/FM is moving its radio broadcasts out of San Francisco amid several major changes for Cumulus Media’s Bay Area stations.
“KNBR will also move its primary broadcasts from offices at 750 Battery Street, San Francisco, to its studios at San Francisco’s renowned Levi Stadium, home of KNBR and KSAN broadcast rights partner, the San Francisco 49ers,” the release reads. “The move will bring even more insight, access and ‘best-seat-in-the-house’ opinions to Bay Area sports fans.”
(Like so many NFL broadcasts, the Cumulus news release seems to be unaware that Levi’s Stadium is located in Santa Clara, around 45 miles south of the current downtown San Francisco studio home.)
KNBR has been primarily based in San Francisco for the entirety of its time as a sports talk station. The station has been located on Battery Street since 2015 and had been at 55 Hawthorne St. for decades before that.
SFGATE reached out to Cumulus on Friday, seeking comment on the decision to leave the San Francisco studios, but company spokesperson Lisa Dollinger said no one was available to speak and that there was “no additional information to share at this time.”
The station already hosts several broadcasts from the Levi’s Stadium studios during the football season. Midday show host Greg Papa, who is also the 49ers radio play-by-play announcer, does most of his shows from the Santa Clara studio or from a home studio. The station has also done specialty shows from the studios, like on NFL Draft days. But that’s a far different level of use from shifting the entire 15-hour daily radio operation to Santa Clara on a full-time basis.
KNBR and Cumulus have been the home for the 49ers’ radio broadcasts since 2005 and are under contract together through 2028, as SFGATE first reported in September. Moving their entire operation to the team’s building in Santa Clara is yet another sign of a growing partnership between the two. What the move means for KNBR’s longest-tenured partner in the San Francisco Giants, however, is unknown ahead of the final season under their current contract.
In addition to the studio move, KNBR announced its replacements for Tolbert, who had been the afternoon show host since 1996, and John Lund, who had been with the station since 2016.
On the midday show, according to the Cumulus release, Papa will be joined by Greg Silver, who is slated to be the show’s producer as well as a co-host. Silver, who is the son of longtime NFL insider Mike Silver, had been an evening producer and co-host of the station’s Warriors postgame show. The new midday show is scheduled to begin on Monday.
In the afternoons, Greg Papa’s son Derek Papa is being promoted from producer to co-host alongside Adam Copeland. The duo aren’t scheduled to start on air together until Dec. 2.
Cumulus also announced that it is shifting KSFO-AM from 560 to 810, which is currently the sports gambling station 810 The Spread. The move is intended to give the Fox News Radio syndicate station a major signal boost, as 810 has 10 times the reach as 560.
Cumulus did not say what will happen to KGO-AM, which had been a local news and information station for decades until Cumulus switched to sports gambling in October 2022. It also didn’t clarify what will happen to Cal sports games, which are currently broadcast on 810.
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