KGO Radio, the Voice of Cal Football, Shuts Down, Changing Format
KGO Radio, the station that broadcasts Cal football and basketball games, abruptly and mysterious shut down Thursday morning, announcing later that it is changing formats starting Monday.
The station, which is 810 AM, has been a news-talk show for years, but stopped broadcasting with little warning at about 10 a.m. Thursday morning.
There has been no announcement about what the new format will be although there have been unconfirmed reports that it will switch to a sports-talk and sports-betting format.
It is assumed the station will continue to broadcast Cal football and basketball games at least through the current season, although that has not been confirmed by the station.
The principals involved in the football broadcasts have not been notified of any imminent change, and Cal has made no announcement.
Cal football has a bye this week, and the next KGO broadcast of a Cal game would be Oct. 15 when the Golden Bears play a road game against Colorado. KGO has broadcast each of Cal’s first five games this season.
KGO has been broadcasting Cal football games since 1974, so this is the 49th year KGO 810 AM has been the voice of Cal football. Joe Starkey, the longtime voice of Cal football, is scheduled to retire after this season.
After the station shut down Thursday morning, programming was replaced by music and promotions about the upcoming format change.
Cumulus Media, the parent company of the San Francisco station, told the San Jose Mercury-News it would announce on Monday the details of the new format.
The station provided this information on its twitter site.
We will continue to update this story as it unfolds in terms of KGO's relationship to Cal sports.
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