Good point brought up by a random fan (literally, that’s his/her name) in the post about the 49ers and Cumulus agreeing on a 12-year contract extension:

I wonder if the Raiders are on the corner crying…..they had to hope they would get picked up and put on KGO to get off the death on the dial known as Live 105…which half the east bay can’t seem to hear.

Even though I moved from Livermore to San Francisco back in 2007, this is something that affected me on Monday night. My wife’s father and stepmother recently moved to Lafayette, and we were driving over to their house for her dad’s birthday dinner. After escaping the brutally slow Caldecott Tunnel, I flipped to the Raiders game to see what was going on in the first quarter. Unfortunately, Greg Papa’s descriptive words could barely be deciphered through the fading signal and ever-present static.

Here’s the thing: these are the OAKLAND Raiders we’re talking about. While 105.3 FM (KITS) comes in very clear in San Francisco — which means I know there’s always a good chance of catching a Red Hot Chili Peppers or Sublime song whenever I’m in my car — the East Bay counties that presumably make up the Raiders’ core audience are left out.

Okay, perhaps not completely, as I was able to understand what was going on in the game. However, in 2012 a clear signal should be a given when keeping tabs on a local professional sports franchise.

While it would be nice if the Raiders could find a way to get their games on a station like KCBS (which would be a somewhat logical fit, since they have John Madden on every weekday morning), they probably need to start winning first. It isn’t a coincidence that Cumulus locked up the 49ers through 2023 — the momentum is clearly on the 49ers’ side. Hopefully the Raiders can turn things around soon after a lackluster Week 1 effort and build themselves into a team strong-signaled stations will fight to carry.