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Take heart Giant fans, KCMX will air games By GREG STILES It might not be the whole loaf that San Francisco Giants baseball fans hoped for, but a significant slice of the major league team's season will be available on local radio. San Francisco games will be aired on KCMX-AM (880), beginning with the Giants' Saturday night game at Atlanta. Marathon Media announced last month that the Oakland Athletics would go on KTMT-AM (580), where the Giants have been in recent seasons. San Francisco's KNBR, holder of the Giants' radio rights, wasn't wild about playing second fiddle to the A's and originally told Marathon it wouldn't allow for a mix-and-match on the Rogue Valley airwaves. But earlier this week, Bret Fox, general manager for Marathon's six local radio stations, fashioned an agreement to put the Giants on its news-talk station. The Giants will be aired on weekends and evenings, avoiding conflicts with Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura Schlessinger. "After the season started, I called KNBR a couple times," said Fox. "I guess missing about 30 games and playing about 130 is better than none." Apparently, the Rogue Valley's Giant faithful persuaded KNBR general manager Bob Agnew that it would benefit the right's-holder to back off its all-or-nothing stance. "When I got on the phone with Bob Agnew, he said he had heard from a lot of people from the area," Fox said. "He said, `The Giants have a lot of support up there, so we better give them some ball."' A story in last Thursday's Mail Tribune generated a dozen phone calls, Fox said. "We're happy and think that it's really worked out for the best," Fox said. "This way we can maintain a good relationship with our other programming events." Fox said he had no intention of giving up on getting the Giants. "We were going to keep trying," he said. "They (KNBR personnel) really didn't share their rationale. (After hearing from Southern Oregon fans) it was, `OK, we give up, go ahead.' I think they like being on KCMX and not being on the same station as the A's." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA