Twin Cities Radio: Twins May Be Looking For FM Broadcast Deal

The Minnestoa Twins' team’s radio contract with WCCO is set to conclude after this season, which has opened the door for recent talks with Sports KFAN and SKOR North.

According to The Ahtletic citing 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.

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.