The San Francisco Giants Reported Rocky Relationship With KNBR Has a Simple Fix

It hasn’t been a great year for the San Francisco Giants. The team is nearly 30 games under .500 and is on pace for its worst season since the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign. Tough years aren’t easy—not just for the franchise, but also for its fan base, media partners, and business relationships.

It was interesting to read a report from SFGATE stating that the relationship between the Giants and flagship radio station KNBR has become strained this season. The report cited a source with knowledge of the relationship between the station and the team who said it has “never been this bad.”

Since 1979, KNBR has served as the Giants’ flagship radio station. The partnership has endured championships, rebuilding seasons, and everything in between. Last year, the station celebrated a three-year extension of its radio rights agreement on Opening Day. Giants president Larry Baer joined KNBR’s morning show and compared the partnership to a long-standing marriage.

“When you have a really good, long, successful marriage, what do you want to do? You want to keep it going,” said Baer in April 2025.

According to reports, there’s now trouble in paradise between the longtime partners.

Any partnership between a radio station and a professional sports franchise requires give and take. It takes the right people in the right positions to make those relationships work. The franchise’s responsibility is to provide access to game broadcasts and fulfill any other agreed-upon ancillary programming commitments. There are also many other moving parts, including tickets, inventory, access opportunities, cross-promotional initiatives, and more.

For the radio station, the responsibility is to fulfill its contractual obligations by working with the franchise on promotions, messaging, and ensuring fans know where to find the broadcasts.

Then there’s the content itself.

Some franchises (not all) understand that a sports radio station’s role is to hold the team accountable when necessary, while also celebrating success when it’s warranted. A sports radio station and its personalities exist to bring fans closer to the team. That was true in 1996, and it’s just as true in 2026.

Without question, this is likely a season the Giants would love to forget. Players avoiding the media. Executives refusing to comment on team promotions. Team personnel canceling appearances on the flagship station at the last minute without explanation. Players responding to criticism on social media. Every one of those situations stems from decisions made by representatives of the organization. Not the flagship station.

It’s the job of the sports radio station to cover the headlines surrounding the team. All of them. It’s the job of the on-air talent to share authentic, informed opinions about what fans are seeing. Remember, the role of a sports radio station is not to serve any master by shaping its content to benefit a team partner.

That’s not how successful partnerships work.

If one of the team’s star players, Rafael Devers, avoids speaking with the media for weeks without explanation, that’s a story KNBR should discuss. If Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey says he won’t answer questions beyond “baseball questions,” that’s a story KNBR should discuss. When KNBR agreed to conduct an interview with no follow-up questions during the controversy surrounding Pride Night, that was the station acting as a good partner.

Baseball has plenty of unwritten rules. Sports radio partnerships do too. One of them is understanding that a flagship station still has an obligation to call it like it sees it, hold teams accountable, and deliver the type of coverage local fans expect.

Baseball teams are no different. There’s pressure to win, perform, and remain accountable during both the good times and the bad. Poor results bring negative coverage, tougher questions, and increased scrutiny. That’s part of professional sports.

If the team is unhappy with the coverage, be better. Pretty simple. If the Giants want more positive press and conversation, win more games. If the organization wants a partner to smooth over difficult times, that’s simply not the media landscape in 2026, where authenticity is often valued even more than objectivity.

KNBR shouldn’t have to choose between being a good broadcast partner and being a credible sports radio station. Those two responsibilities can, and should, coexist. The Giants entrusted KNBR to connect the team with its fans, not to shield the organization from criticism when things go wrong. That’s what listeners expect, and ultimately, it’s what serves the franchise best.

If the Giants want more positive conversations on their flagship station, the solution isn’t to restrict access, cancel interviews, or grow frustrated with honest opinions. It’s to give fans a better product to talk about. Winning games, communicating openly, and embracing accountability have always been the quickest path to favorable coverage.

Until then, KNBR should be allowed to do the job it has done for nearly five decades: tell the truth, ask the hard questions, and serve the fans who invest their time, money, and emotion into Giants baseball.

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.

John Mamola

John Mamola is Barrett Media’s sports editor and daily sports columnist. He brings over two decades of experience (Chicago, Tampa/St Petersburg) in the broadcast industry with expertise in brand management, sales, promotions, producing, imaging, hosting, talent coaching, talent development, web development, social media strategy and design, video production, creative writing, partnership building, communication/networking with a long track record of growth and success. He is a five-time recognized top 20 program director in a major market via Barrett Medi’s Top 20 series and has been honored internally multiple times as station/brand of the year (Tampa, FL) and employee of the month (Tampa, FL) by iHeartMedia. Connect with John by email at John@BarrettMedia.com.

linktr.ee/johnmamolaThe San Francisco Giants Reported RockyThe San Francisco Giants Reported Rocky

The post The San Francisco Giants Reported Rocky Relationship With KNBR Has a Simple Fix appeared first on Barrett Media.