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It has been a decade and a half since the Cardinals last included over-the-air television in their broadcast package, an eon ago in the churn of Major League Baseball rosters.

The drought ends Friday, as the Cards are putting their game on KMOV (Channel 4) and Matrix Midwest (Channel 32) — “free TV� stations owned by Gray Media — in addition to showing and streaming them on regular outlet FanDuel Sports Network. It’s the first of at least 10 games this season to be offered those ways.

“It is an absolutely monumental deal for the community,� JD Sosnoff, who runs Gray’s local operations, said this week. “A return to broadcast television is an opportunity for everyone in the region to see Cardinals baseball and access it easily and for free.�

Although there have been a handful of Cards games on Fox (KTVI, Channel 2 locally) in the last 15 seasons, mostly on Saturdays, the team had a whole different look than the last time one of their locally produced telecasts was available without having to pay a fee to a programming distributor.

Albert Pujols not only led the team, but the National League, in home runs (42) and RBIs (118) in 2010. Pujols and Matt Holliday had the best batting average (.312 each) among the club’s regular position players. Adam Wainwright led the pitching staff in wins (20) and Ryan Franklin led the bullpen with 27 saves.

It was a time when the regional sports network television model was surging, with teams in multiple sports drastically reducing — or eliminating — the number of over-the-air telecasts in favor of cashing in on the RSN business model. In addition to adverting dollars that broadcast TV also had, the cable model enjoyed the additional revenue stream of subscription fees that viewers were charged.

By 2010, the Cardinals already had been gradually reducing their over-the-air schedule for years in favor of boosting their availability on what now is FanDuel, and by the ’10 season were down to some Sunday afternoon games shown on KSDK (Channel 5). Jay Randolph, now 90 and retired, did the play-by-play and Ricky Horton, now 65 and one of the team’s radio announcers, handled commentary for those telecasts. But by the next season it was all cable for the Cards.

But now with the regional sports television business in disarray, and what has become FanDuel emerging from bankruptcy, the Cardinals have decided to experiment this year by returning to “free TVâ€� for a few games. The schedule begins Friday, when the Cards entertain Philadelphia at 7:15 p.m., and those contests also will be available outside ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½. They are set to air on Gray over-the-air stations in other areas of Missouri plus markets in Illinois, Tennessee, Arkansas, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky and Oklahoma.

“We felt like the fact they have both the main channel (KMOV) and Matrix Midwest (in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½) and a strong outer market footprint of stations they own, that lines up really well with our coreâ€� goals, Cardinals senior vice president of business operations Anuk Karunaratne has said. “That’s what led us to choose them.â€�

The over-the-air telecasts add to a significant expansion of ways to watch Cardinals games this season, including fans’ ability to directly purchase them via streaming (no separate subscription to a middleman needed) for the first time.

“Even with streaming, a big goal was how can we maximize our reach and get our games in front of more people — not just in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, but across our entire footprint,â€� Karunaratne has said. “We’re hoping this will be just one other thing in the tool kit for people to be able to access our games.â€�

Sosnoff is ecstatic that KMOV and Matrix landed the “free TV� slice of that Cardinals broadcast pie, which comes after those stations shared three Blues games this year as that team made a return to over-the-air television for the first time in 16 seasons.

Unlike with the Cardinals, who are simulcasting the FanDuel productions on KMOV and/or Matrix, the Blues’ telecasts were TV exclusives to Gray (and streamed on Victory+).

Other MLB, NHL and NBA clubs also have been returning broadcast TV.

“All these major (sports) clubs across the country are looking in today’s evolving media world how they can continue to provide some sort of free exposure to their products,� Sosnoff said. “I think that’s big for fans who are kind of confused as to where they can find their teams, and it’s big for us because I really believe it’s a trust level of the kind of product we put on the air and the delivery of it. I hope down the road we’ll see more of these opportunities.�

Weathering the storm

The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ TV stations that have newsrooms pump their weather coverage, sometimes to seemingly carnival-barker levels (get your milk and bread, an inch of snow is coming), and it’s had to argue that any of them pushes it harder than KMOV. But Sosnoff said accommodations can be made if severe weather hits while Channel 4 is showing a Cardinals game.

“Our first obligation at all times is to keep the community safe, to talk about it,� he said. “We will provide that safety information in ways we can serve the majority of the community.�

He pointed to a “double box� that KMOV used in the NCAA Tournament, with part of the screen showing basketball and the other weather coverage. “We’ll play it on a case-by-case basis,� he said. “And there’s no weather break on Matrix or FanDuel� so viewers to those stations who are not in an area under a warning won’t be irritated.

Blues TV viewership rises

The Blues not only were soaring just on the ice recently, viewership on their primary local television outlet also was skyrocketing.

The team won 12 games in a row, a club record, in a spree that ran from March 15 until losing its last two contests. FanDuel Sports Network televised 10 of the games in the streak and reports that those had a 53% ratings increase over its previous 56 games — up from 2.2% of the market tuning it to 3.4%, per figures from viewership-tracking firm Nielsen.

In addition, FanDuel drew its top four Blues ratings of the season to that point in the streak, topped by 4.8% of the market and 61,000 viewers on average tuning in for their 5-4 overtime victory against Pittsburgh on April 3. That’s the night on which they tied the franchise winning-streak mark, and the audience peaked at 78,000 viewers.

It was the team’s second-highest rated game of the season overall and the No. 1 locally produced telecast. The only bigger number (5.3) came when TNT and TruTV showed the Blues beat the Blackhawks on New Year’s Eve in the Winter Classic contest played outdoors, at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

The streak-ending game came on Monday, when the Blues fell 3-1 in Winnipeg. People still were watching at a high rate — the 4.2 rating is FanDuel third-best number of the season, which ends next week.