Jesus H, rural, who cares? No one listens to PA and thinks he loves the Vikings, and always has, because they're such a singularly great organization (at least, no grown-ups or "reasonably smart buyers.") These people are professional sort-of-journalists. PA is the biggest Vikings homer on the planet solely because he works for the Vikings, and he wants to make money. Ten years ago he wouldn't have cared even the slightest about them, and openly admits that not only wasn't he a Vikings fan before it became his job to be one, he wasn't even a FOOTBALL fan. That's the business. In your little car dealership analogy, you're not the customer, you're Chevy. You don't give a flying-F who says what as long as more people want your stuff.
Now that KFAN and the Gophers have a partnership, everyone at the station has an incentive to support the organization. They will cover the team more, in an attempt to get more people interested in following the team/buying Chevys. That's the bottom line here, and it's highly unlikely this move hurts it.