If you’ve ever sat in the upper deck at Citi Field with your earbuds in, waiting for Howie Rose to catch up to a home run you watched land 45 seconds ago, the Mets have some good news for you.
On Tuesday, the club announced a partnership with Audacy and SportsBug to deliver the Mets radio broadcast to fans inside Citi Field with less than one second of delay, accessible through the MLB Ballpark App beginning March 26. The service works on any mobile device, with any wireless carrier, and won’t cost fans anything. SportsBug’s platform transmits the existing play-by-play broadcast over standard 4G and 5G networks, requires no new hardware at the ballpark, and integrates directly with an app millions of fans already have.
Very cool: Mets fans will be able to listen to games essentially live with @MetsBooth at Citi Field this season, which seems pretty…Raad to me@HowieRose @KeithRaad pic.twitter.com/V7PpoOfTZs
— Mike Janela (@MikeJanela) March 17, 2026
“Partnering with SportsBug to bring real-time radio audio to the ballpark will transform how fans connect with the game,” Mets’ senior vice president of business operations, John Ricco, said in a statement. “By syncing the atmosphere and energy of watching a game at Citi Field with the iconic voices of Mets Radio on Audacy, we’re delivering a more immersive and connected experience to our fans.”
“Listening to the radio at the ballpark is as familiar and comfortable as the seventh-inning stretch,” added Audacy executive Chris Oliviero. “This partnership with the Mets and SportsBug will bring the home team voices fans love right to their seats each and every game.”
The broadcast fans will be tuning into on WHSQ 880 AM, featuring Howie Rose alongside Keith Raad and Pat McCarthy. Rose, who has called Mets games on radio or television since 1995, cut his schedule back to 84 games this year — all home broadcasts from Citi Field and three Subway Series road games at Yankee Stadium in September — after reducing his workload from a full slate following a bladder cancer diagnosis in 2021. When Rose isn’t behind the mic, McCarthy — the son of Rose’s former broadcast partner and current Phillies voice Tom McCarthy — joins Raad in the booth.
When asked about his future last fall, Rose told Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman that he’s been conscious of broadcasters who stay on longer than they should, and that he intends to know when it’s time. “I can tell you, I’m not gonna do it much longer,” he said. For now, though, he’s going, and every game at Citi Field this season will have him on it.
For now, though, he’s going, and mostly every game at Citi Field this season will have him on it.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.