Originally published Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 12:00 AM

Mariners reach new radio deal with KIRO

After a six-year run on KOMO, the Mariners will return to KIRO for radio, starting next season.

The Seattle Mariners are returning to KIRO radio (710 AM).

Bonneville International and the team jointly announced a new radio rights agreement this morning that will move the team's game broadcasts to KIRO beginning in 2009. The three-year agreement, which is subject to approval by Major League Baseball, will continue through the 2011 season. Financial terms of the agreement were not released.

The Mariners are currently in the final year of a six-year agreement with KOMO (1000 AM) which has carried the team's broadcasts since 2003.

"Returning to KIRO and Bonneville feels like we're going home," said Chuck Armstrong, Seattle Mariners President and CEO. "KIRO was our flagship station for 18 years and we are looking forward to renewing our ties with one of the great stations and broadcast ownership groups in the nation."

The Mariners will have a year-round presence on KIRO including all regular season games, as well as pregame and postgame programming, a weekly magazine feature program during the baseball season, the Hot Stove League during the offseason and 20 spring training games. Play-by-play announcers are employed by the Mariners and will continue to be so under the new agreement.

Bonneville International is a media company with radio, television, satellite, and advertising properties in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Phoenix, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Salt Lake City. The Seattle Bonneville stations are KIRO, KTTH 770 AM and KBSG 97.3 FM.

Previously, KIRO held Mariner radio rights from 1985 to 2002. KVI had them from 1977-1984.

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