FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, February 7th, 2020
NBC SPORTS BAY AREA AND THE SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS INTRODUCE “SPLITKAST” FOR 2020 MLB SEASON; MIKE KRUKOW SIGNS TWO-YEAR CONTRACT EXTENSION
Color Commentator Mike Krukow to Join Play-by-Play Announcer Duane Kuiper
for 22 N.L. West Road Games via Live Remote from the NBC Sports Studios
“SplitKast” Debuts on Season Opener, Thursday, March 26th
Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – February 7, 2020 – NBC Sports Bay Area and the San Francisco Giants today announced “SplitKast,” an innovative, first-of-its-kind MLB broadcast. Color commentator Mike Krukow will join his longtime partner and play-by-play announcer Duane Kuiper for 22 N.L. West road games (Arizona D-backs, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres) during the 2020 MLB season via live remote from the NBC Sports Bay Area studios in San Francisco. He will provide commentary as Kuiper calls the game from the stadium’s broadcast booth.
“SplitKast” will debut on the Giants season opener on Thursday, March 26th against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Krukow will continue to call 81 Giants games with Kuiper from Oracle Park.
It was also announced by Giants President and Chief Executive Officer Larry Baer and NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California Senior Vice President and General Manager Matt Murphy that Krukow has signed a two-year contract extension. He will continue to call games with Kuiper on NBC Sports Bay Area through the 2021 MLB season, which will mark their 30th season together as broadcast partners.
“We are thrilled to have our iconic broadcast team of Kruk and Kuip together as we enter this new decade of Giants baseball,” said Baer. “We also commend our broadcast partner, NBC Sports Bay Area, for their creativity and use of technology that will keep this tandem together, when one is on the road and the other back at home, which is the ultimate benefit for our fans.”
“Kruk and Kuip are Bay Area treasures, and it is important that these two beloved broadcasters continue to call games together for Giants fans to enjoy,” said Murphy. “The innovative integration of Kruk and Kuip’s commentary from separate locations into a seamless broadcast is an example of how NBC Sports Bay Area uses technology to deliver memorable experiences to fans.”
NBC Sports Bay Area will provide a dedicated studio for “SplitKast” broadcasts at its San Francisco headquarters. During each telecast, Krukow will be providing commentary while watching a monitor in San Francisco showing a real-time feed of the game, to go along with Kuiper’s play-by-play call from the out-of-town stadium’s broadcast booth. An additional monitor will be fed from the production truck to give Krukow the opportunity to view various camera angles of the ballpark and play. He will be able to communicate with the producer and director using audio channels from the fiber optic transmission connecting the San Francisco studio to the production truck at the stadium. The “SplitKast” production team will then create a natural game experience for Krukow and Kuiper, which will translate to a seamless broadcast.
“It’s something that hasn’t been done before, but we’re really looking forward to being able to do 22 more games together,” Krukow said. “I’m only losing six games from what I did last year, and that to me is enormous. I don’t want to have to quit. To me, this was a gift. I’m ecstatic about it.”
“I think it’ll take two or three innings to get used to the dynamics of him not being there, but we’ve done so many games for so long that I think it’s going to be an easy transition, I really do,” Kuiper said.
2020 marks Krukow’s 30th season in the television booth and his 26th full season on the radio side. A 14-time Emmy award winner, Krukow was one of eight finalists for the 2017 Ford C. Frick Award for baseball broadcasting excellence. He was named California’s 2015 and 2017 Sportscaster of the Year, as selected by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. A former big-league pitcher, Krukow played 14 seasons at the Major League level.
About San Francisco Giants
One of the oldest teams in Major League Baseball, the 138-year old franchise moved to San Francisco from New York in 1958. After playing a total of 42 years in Seals Stadium and Candlestick Park, the team moved to the privately constructed, downtown ballpark on the corner of 3rd and King. 2020 marks the Giants 20th year at Oracle Park and 21st season playing on the shores of McCovey Cove. The organization is widely recognized for its innovative business practices and baseball excellence. In 2010, the franchise was named the Sports Organization of the Year by Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal and in 2012 was named Organization of the Year by Baseball America. Oracle Park is also the only ballpark in the country to have earned Silver, Gold and Platinum LEED certification for an existing building.
Since opening its gates, Oracle Park has become internationally-renowned as a premier venue in the world of both sports and entertainment. On the diamond, more than 61 million spectators have witnessed a number of magical moments, including three World Series Championships (2010, 2012 & 2014), the raising of four National League Pennants and seven playoff appearances. On June 13, 2012, the organization’s first-ever Perfect Game was thrown by Giants ace Matt Cain. On July 10, 2007, San Francisco was the center of the baseball universe when it hosted the 78th Major League Baseball All-Star Game. The ballpark has played host to some of music’s biggest acts, including Lady Gaga, Beyoncé & Jay Z, Ed Sheeran, the Rolling Stones, the Eagles, Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, Green Day and Billy Joel. It also was the site of the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens.
Off the field, the Giants have one of the premier community outreach programs in professional sports. Through its community outreach programs, the Giants and the Giants Community Fund work with corporate and non-profit partners to raise awareness, educate and generate interest in a variety of issues important to both their fans and community including education/literacy, violence prevention, health and youth recreation and fitness.
About NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California:
NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California, both part of NBC Sports Regional Networks, serve more than four million households in Northern California, Nevada, Southern Oregon and Hawaii. NBC Sports Bay Area, the television home of MLB’s San Francisco Giants, NBA’s Golden State Warriors, and the official regional sports network of the San Francisco 49ers, also features a robust lineup of Emmy Award-winning news, analysis and original programming. NBC Sports California offers live coverage of MLB’s Oakland Athletics, NBA’s Sacramento Kings, NHL’s San Jose Sharks and MLS’s San Jose Earthquakes. Collectively, these networks deliver more than 600 live game broadcasts per year. The MyTeams by NBC Sports app provides live steams of the games and pre-and postgame shows, digital coverage of the hometown teams with original stories and content from a team of “Insiders,” breaking news, up-to-the-minute game previews/recaps, highlights and multimedia video clips. Follow both networks on social media –Twitter: @NBCSAuthentic; Instagram: NBCSAuthentic; and Facebook: facebook.com//NBCSAuthentic.
