Bowling Green Hot Rods manager Jeff Smith and coach Skeeter Barnes celebrate after a Hot Rods’ 6-3 victory against Greensboro in the High A East championship Sept. 28 at Bowling Green Ballpark.

The Bowling Green Hot Rods have a new home on the radio airwaves.

Coming off a championship year in the minor league franchise’s first season in the newly formed High A East, the Hot Rods have partnered with Bowling Green-based Talk 104.1 FM to broadcast all 126 home and away regular-season games as the flagship station for the upcoming season. Broadcasts will also air simultaneously on WKCT 930 AM.

“We’ve been a local station for 75 years and try to do all we can on a local level,” said Alan Cooper, general manager of the WKCT and WDNS stations that make up the Daily News Broadcasting Co. “This partnership, proximity – everything for us, it just fit. We love what they do here and want to be a part of it.”

The Hot Rods, a minor league affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, had previously been carried by flagship station WBGN 94.5 FM every season since the team’s first year in Bowling Green in 2009.

Eric C. Leach, the Hot Rods’ chief operating officer and general manager, said Talk 104.1’s greater coverage area is a big reason for the new partnership. Talk 104.1 can be heard throughout Warren County and all the surrounding counties, while WKCT 930 AM can be picked up as far away as Nashville and Owensboro.

“We want to continue to grow the brand and it is imperative for the Bowling Green Hot Rods to be successful to reach beyond just Warren County and into the outlying counties, and have that population base be able to come to games,” Leach said. “This is a great opportunity to be able to listen, to get to know the players, get to know the broadcast and then hopefully to be able to come out to the ballpark and see it in person.

“The reality is we’re the third-smallest minor league market in the country, so again that’s how huge it is for us to be able to draw from the adjacent counties and that’s exactly why Talk 104’s reach is important to us.”

While the Hot Rods will be on a new station, the broadcast will be seamless for listeners as play-by-play announcer Shawn Murnin will be back for a third season calling the team’s games.

“Shawn does a great job with the broadcast,” Leach said. “I’ll be honest, we were nervous that we were going to lose him to a much bigger team. Radio has transformed over the last several years, especially in minor league baseball. For us, it’s a huge, valuable piece in our inventory and what we do. A lot of teams are eliminating it. We’re going in the opposite direction. We’re doubling down and investing more into it because of Shawn and his talent and also just the general reach.”

Cooper is looking forward to expanding his station’s commitment to sports in the southcentral Kentucky region starting with the first broadcast of the upcoming season April 8 with a 6:35 p.m. first pitch between the Hot Rods and the Asheville Tourists (Houston Astros) to start a three-game series at Bowling Green Ballpark. WKCT will also host a weekly radio show featuring the Hot Rods this season.

“It’s a big chunk of our programming, but we feel like it’s worth it,” Cooper said. “We still plan on doing high school sports in the fall. The best thing about baseball is it fits the calendar, where we’re done with football and we’re done with basketball and we can progress into offering something to the community that is locally-based.”

Although the Hot Rods weren’t expected to see the direct impact of a delayed or potentially shortened Major League season, news of the end of MLB’s lockout on Thursday was welcomed by Leach.

“The last three years, we’ve had 37 Hot Rods make their Major League debut,” Leach said. “And to continue to emphasize the brand of hey, you’re seeing them here and in a couple years you’re going to see them in the big leagues – that is very important for us. It’s good to see them resolve it.

“The ripple effect on us was that we were probably going to see some younger players had the lockout continued – now we’ll get our normal roster and be able to start the year. Fans will be able to get to know them and you won’t have all of sudden 12 guys get sent down to a lower level when the lockout gets done.”