Millions of Americans have grown up listening to baseball games, our national pasttime, on the radio.
Few sports, if any, are better suited for radio form than baseball. The game fits perfectly on radio broadcasts, with its stops in play and its individual pitches, among other things. It’s incredibly easy to follow, unlike other sports.
But, in the year of 2026, do we still need to have baseball games on the radio?
One former MLB executive is claiming that baseball games are no longer needed on the radio.
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Former Marlins executive David Samson claims that there is no longer a need for baseball games on the radio.
“The difference between TV and radio is disappearing before our very eyes. We don’t need baseball on radio anymore. The only reason we have baseball on radio is so people can feel better about what baseball means to them,” he said on his program, Nothing Personal with David Samson.
Samson added that there’s no real money in radio more, either.
“Here’s the thing about radio today. It’s totally changed. There’s no money in radio. If you’re on AM radio right now, well, let’s just say that you ought to be simulcasting. You ought to be on YouTube. You ought to be a podcast because money in AM radio has pretty much disappeared.”
“What teams do is they buy time on their radio stations. Sometimes they own their radio stations, not a good business. They buy a block of time, and then they go out and sell ads. They literally either outsource it to a company, or they have a sales force themselves trying to sell radio ads. Plus, they produce their own radio, and guess what? It’s not very profitable. It’s like a nightmare.”
Samson believes baseball on radio is only for ‘old people
The former MLB executive believes that the audience is dwindling.
“Baseball and radio goes together like peanut butter and jelly. It goes together like cookies and cream. You require to have baseball and radio because everybody hasn’t died yet who grew up listening to baseball on the radio. But guess what? That generation is going to die at some point. Then you will have people who are older, who they grew up on their device, listening through the internet, listening to the audio of the video,” he said, per Barrett Media.
“We all live by the clock that is kernels of sand through an hourglass. So, radio will go the way of Kodak and Blockbuster. It doesn’t mean the voices will go away. The voices will find a different way to get into your brain because you have a different way of engaging with content.”
Many, though, are pushing back.
ESPN announcer Jorge Sedano was among those to push back.
“With all due respect @DavidPSamson , the ability to have a broadcast that’s friendly for those in vehicles is always going to be important. The amount of detail needed to paint the picture on audio is an art form unto itself. Anyone that thinks otherwise isn’t interested in what’s best for the fan. Just the bottom line,” he shared.
