The San Francisco Giants’ rough season on the field isn’t just impacting their roster. It’s also putting a strain on the team’s relationship with its flagship radio station, KNBR-AM/FM.
Giants games have aired on KNBR since 1979, and the station is currently in its first year of a three-year extension that was signed in spring of 2025. The longtime partnership will make 2028 the 50th season of Giants baseball on “the Sports Leader.”
But what has been a strong relationship at many points during that time has been tested in recent years, and none more than this season, multiple sources with knowledge of the relationship told SFGATE. (The sources were granted anonymity in accordance with Hearst policies.) In terms of the past decade, one source told SFGATE, “It’s never been this bad.”
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Neither the Giants nor KNBR responded to SFGATE’s request for interviews about the status of the relationship between the team and radio station.
There has been no shortage of criticism to lob the Giants’ way in 2026. On the field, the team has performed poorly, making fundamental mistakes and mental errors on a somewhat regular basis, and had several moments of player disputes for the world to see. But the team has been making even more headlines for off-field reasons, from star players dodging the media to writing Bible verses on their hats before playing on Pride Night.
The San Francisco Giants observe the national anthem at Oracle Park on July 26, 2026, in San Francisco.
Godofredo Vásquez/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images
It’s all been discussed actively among the fanbase, and KNBR hosts, reflecting that fanbase, have addressed these things on the air, too. The team, according to sources, hasn’t taken kindly to the barrage of criticism.
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The biggest moment happened during the fallout from the Giants’ Pride Night debacle, and revolved around a canceled interview with president of baseball operations Buster Posey.
On June 24, Posey refused to answer questions about the four Giants players who protested against the team’s annual celebration of the LGBTQ+ community, which by then had become a national story, saying he would only answer “baseball questions.” The next day, KNBR announced that Posey would be the guest on its weekly “Giants Executive Show” on Thursday morning.
But around 90 minutes before that was set to happen, KNBR put out a new announcement that Giants President and CEO Larry Baer would be the guest, not Posey. While the Giants and KNBR never publicly said why they made the change — and did not respond to SFGATE’s inquiries about Posey’s absence on the show — multiple sources tell SFGATE the switch came after a contentious back-and-forth between the station and team, with the Giants threatening to cancel the interview entirely at one point.
Buster Posey, president of baseball operations for the San Francisco Giants, speaks during a ceremony honoring former teammate Brandon Belt, prior the the game against the Miami Marlins, at Oracle Park on April 25, 2026.
Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
The end result was that fill-in hosts John Dickinson and Dieter Kurtenbach were barred from asking Baer follow-up questions after he opened with a statement about Pride Night. In the segment after Baer’s interview, Kurtenbach ripped the executive’s statement while acknowledging the “parameters” that were put in place for the interview. Other KNBR hosts have also publicly acknowledged the restrictions.
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Other moments have stood out, too. Back on May 25, Posey had a testy interview with “Murph and Markus” show hosts Brian Murphy and Markus Boucher, in which he bristled at questions about how he constructed the bullpen for the season and how the team was utilizing prospect Bryce Eldridge.
Posey then missed his regular turn in the “Giants Executive Show” rotation in June because of the Pride Night fallout. He finally returned to KNBR’s airwaves July 16 for a standard interview with an executive of a struggling baseball team ahead of the trade deadline. But one segment later, an unnamed person could be heard talking over Murphy and Boucher after a standard microphone test, saying: “Posey sucks, man.”
The hosts were forced to address the hot mic moment when a listener called in and referenced it later in the show. KNBR subsequently deleted all digital traces of the gaffe, taking the highly unusual step of ending its YouTube livestream in the middle of its typical 12-hour stream and turning the original video to private. They also scrubbed all references to the hot mic moment from that hour’s podcast episodes, but left in the rest of the listener’s call.
The other major Giants-KNBR flare-up happened on social media, though it later became fodder for the airwaves. After All-Star pitcher Logan Webb allowed five runs to the first six batters in the Giants’ July 8 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, KNBR digital producer Jack Loder posted a video to his personal X account criticizing Webb and even saying he “might be searching his name on Twitter after the game.”
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Logan Webb of the San Francisco Giants speaks to the media at Citizens Bank Park on July 13, 2026, in Philadelphia.
Drew Hallowell/MLB Photos via Getty Images
An hour after Loder’s post, Webb replied: “You know what’s sad is they allow people like you in the locker room.” He subsequently responded to several commenters throughout the afternoon, even taking a side snipe at KNBR afternoon host Adam Copeland, before deciding to delete his X account entirely by the end of the night.
While Webb has since said he regretted the exchange, his comments may reflect some behind-the-scenes tension between the team and the station when it comes to player interviews. There has been a noticeable drop-off in Giants players appearing on the main KNBR weekday talk shows since the start of the MLB season. While multiple players did interviews with KNBR during the station’s live shows from spring training in Arizona, SFGATE could only find a digital record of three since the season began in late March: Landen Roupp on March 31, Daniel Susac on May 18 and Grant McCray on July 29.
That’s a big change from previous years, when players frequently were guests both on the midday shows and after games. It also stands in contrast to KNBR’s other team partner, the 49ers, as the station has a weekly standing interview with that team’s player of the week during its season. This is not for lack of trying, either, as sources told SFGATE the station has been rebuffed multiple times on its player interview requests.
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A number of factors could explain why. The simplest one may be that players just don’t want to, especially when you consider what happened with Webb, who is the longest-tenured current Giants player.
FILE: KNBR sports radio host Tom Tolbert talks at his home in Alameda, Calif.
Michael Macor/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty
Also, layoffs at KNBR’s parent company Cumulus in recent years have taken away several longtime hosts and other personnel who had deep rapport with the team — namely afternoon host Tom Tolbert, program director Lee Hammer and evening call-in show host F.P. Santangelo, a former Giants player. (Santangelo has since returned to KNBR in the same role, while also contributing to Giants-run radio broadcasts.)
It could also be due to logistics: In mid-July last season, the Giants suddenly kicked the station out of “the Bunker,” its longtime studio inside the field club level in the bowels of Oracle Park, with Copeland, the afternoon host, saying he didn’t get any warning about the change ahead of time. The station had been broadcasting from there since the ballpark opened in 2000, and it was frequently used for postgame shows, making nabbing player interviews as easy as walking down a hallway. (The Giants didn’t explain why they made such a move in the middle of the season, but a renovation of the team’s field club, which created a new “exclusive lounge,” led it to relocate a sweets and snacks concession to the small space KNBR used to have.)
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All of this has added up to a dynamic that is hard to miss in the Bay Area. San Francisco Standard columnist Tim Kawakami — who has been critical of KNBR himself in recent weeks — discussed the Giants-KNBR relationship in a recent “TK Show” episode with Kerry Crowley, his colleague at the Standard and a part-time KNBR host himself.
San Francisco Giants President Larry Baer stands on the field before their game against the San Diego Padres at Oracle Park on May 5, 2026.
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
As for why the Posey-Baer swap happened on June 25, Kawakami chalked it up to the station’s hosts for that specific day: “You’re never going to see Buster Posey on with the hosts that Larry Baer ended up with on [the air].” (Murphy and Boucher were both on pre-planned vacations at the time, which is why Dickinson and Kurtenbach were in their places.) But it speaks to a larger issue at play, too.
“I don’t think they love a lot of the hosts,” Kawakami said. He then referenced the uncomfortable May 25 interview: “I think Posey did not enjoy — Brian Murphy makes a lot of money, so I’ll say it — he does not like his time with Brian Murphy. He did not like it when he was on.”
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Kawakami later added that, given the absence of people like Tolbert, KNBR is “different now.”
His colleague Crowley said he has never had questions dictated to him by the Giants in his time at KNBR, but then added that Giants chairman Greg Johnson has come up to him at a press conference in the past, questioning things Crowley has said on air. To Kawakami, that’s not actually a bad thing — but it does emphasize the tricky spot KNBR hosts are in.
“Sometimes, that’s when you know you’re on the right line,” Kawakami said. “… I do think, like, it’s fair. Pissing somebody off and someone being pissed off, both sides can be fine. And when you ask the question, or say it in a way that someone doesn’t like, doesn’t mean you’re a jerk. Sometimes it means you’re right on it. Sometimes it means you’re a jerk. Sometimes it does.
“But the Giants being the major part of KNBR programming — which they are — and they have held that very much on top of KNBR’s throat. Like, ‘You get your ratings because our games are on your freaking channel.’ Then there’s going to be a different kind of relationship.”
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FILE: Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper, left, and Dave Flemming call the game from the KNBR radio booth as the San Francisco Giants played the Oakland Athletics in a pre-season game at AT&T Park in San Francisco on Thursday, March 27, 2014.
S.F Chronicle/Getty Images
This translates to a classic conflict: While hosts may not want to make one of their station’s most important partners upset, they also have a listening audience that wants not just entertainment, but honest commentary, and four hours of radio to fill.
On top of that, pretty much everyone employed at KNBR is a massive sports fan — so much so that they’ve made it their jobs. Multiple hosts regularly attend games as fans, giving them a clear understanding of how the larger fanbase views the team, not just the KNBR listeners who are passionate enough to text, call or comment on the station’s YouTube video stream.
As the season has gone along and the losses have continued to pile up, KNBR hosts are reflecting the Giants’ aggrieved fanbase and criticizing the team on a number of fronts — the lacking on-field product itself, but also on how much ownership is spending, the team’s communication and even prices at the stadium.
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Last week, Baer was back on the “Giants Executive Show” with Murphy and Boucher. About 20 minutes into a wide-ranging interview, Murphy brought up a long-held gripe: the exorbitant beer prices at Oracle Park. After going to a Giants-Mariners game in Seattle and getting a 16-ounce craft beer for just $8, the hosts came to Baer with a proposal for a KNBR-sponsored cheap beer night. Based on the station’s frequencies on the radio dial, the Giants would offer fans a 12-ounce domestic beer for $6.80 (for 680 AM) and a 16-ounce craft beer for $10.45 (for 104.5 FM).
But as he discussed the proposal, Murphy made a reference dripping with sarcasm: “Your longtime partners who you love, KNBR, who you never have a problem with, KNBR.”
Could discounted beers finally be coming to Oracle Park?
Murph & Markus brought their “KNBR Beer Price Night” proposal to Larry Baer and it’s safe to say it went well.
“It is on the table and you will get a response. I like it. I like the sound of it.” pic.twitter.com/ldJmEVXXk9
— KNBR (@KNBR) July 23, 2026
Baer said he would consider the proposal and, ever the salesman, brought up the team’s Coors Light-sponsored ticket deal for July, where fans could purchase a ticket to the game for $19 and get $17 in credit to spend at the game — typically the cost of a Coors at the park. When Baer wrapped up, Boucher quickly retorted, “See, that’s a great deal Larry, but then when I go back for a second beer, it’s $23.” Baer chuckled, but still didn’t commit to the proposal.
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As Murphy concluded the interview, he gave a quick summary of the topics they covered: “You’re anti-rebuild, you only want expensive beers, you love KNBR. These are all the things — I’m teasing, Larry, I’m teasing.” Then he complimented Baer on being a “good sport.”
Baer replied about just one of the three things Murphy listed: “Anti-rebuild, you have to define your terms.”
Left unaddressed was the KNBR commentary. But given how frayed the relationship is, it wouldn’t shock anyone involved if the 50th year of Giants baseball on KNBR in 2028 is also the last one.
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