I learned of the change as I have a son living in Oakland. In numerous visits/DX trials there, I don't recall receiving KHTK in Oakland. But perhaps I didn't try hard with a local A's option available. I'm planning on assisting him with a project out there in the Spring, I will make an effort to tune into 1140 KHTK.
Now, I am about as far away from NYC as Oakland is from Sacramento. Some NYC 50k Class A stations are of excellent reception, some are barely audible. I know KHTK is a 50k Class B station, I don't know how low they transmit at night.
The A's have a high number of day time broadcasts compared to east coast teams. There are only 2 AL teams in the same time zone so most road games are 2-3 time zones ahead. From listening, I know most of their road night games finish before sunset in Oakland. Plus 33 of the 81 A's home games this year are afternoon tiffs. If the signal is impeded by sunlight into the bay, methinks terrestrial radio in English of the A's will be a "tough catch".