We know that the NBA and NHL post-seasons are generating significant ratings on both the national and (most) local levels, including local viewing records set in both Boston and Chicago this month.
But many will be heavily anticipating the audience ratings for the NFL Draft later this week, with ESPN and NFL Network, as well as satellite radio, devoting hour after hour of coverage. With the NFL player lockout looming (rulings and appeals as of press time), the Draft coverage is one way to determine the interest level and perhaps the mindset of NFL fans.
Elsewhere, KMOX St. Louis had quite the predicament this past Friday (4/22) night when the severe storm and tornado damaged the St. Louis International Airport and several other locations within the metro area. After a lengthy delay, the Cardinals decided to play their home game vs. Cincinnati. KMOX wanted to stick with its local service by providing continuous coverage of the storm. As a result, they moved the Cardinals broadcast to music station KYKY 98.1. A solid decision under the circumstances.
Following up from our comments last week about the state of sports radio, we now have the March ratings for Boston and Detroit, among other key markets. Sure enough, those markets did show an overall increase in listenership to help buck the trend in some others.
While WEEI has lost more than 20% of its overall audience since January, rival WBZ-FM showed an audience increase and finished only 2 spots below WEEI this time around. This set of results even touched off a "radio war" between the two morning teams. Dennis & Callhan on WEEI and Toucher & Rich on WBZ-FM both claimed "victory" on the air. I'm not sure the listeners to either care as much as they each seemed to. They should all be pleased that Boston sports radio still has a good-sized audience compared to some other markets.
WXYT-FM The Ticket showed a slight increase from February, and if WXYT-AM didn't air different sports programming at times and both stations counted as one, The Ticket would have been 4th overall in the market. However, The Ticket finished first overall for a time last year.
A couple of other markets showed some increase, while still not making a major overall audience impact. Cincinnati's WCKY and WSAI-AM both showed increases of at least .3 in the ratings since February, but even if combined would not have made the top 10 overall. In Miami, the 3 sports stations combined to increase the overall audience since January, but combined would not have made the top 20 in the market.
San Diego and Milwaukee's sports stations battle held steady. The 3 San Diego sports stations showed no increase from January on, and combined would not make the overall top 20. Milwaukee's WAUK 540 held steady, while WSSP lost slightly. The 2 Chicago sports stations again showed up in the Milwaukee book, with both remaining the same as recent months.
While most of the comments I received from last week's column about the decline of sports radio audience this year were private, there were a handfull that disagree with me. Some of those think that football is the dominant sport to talk year-round, and that the NFL lockout is the main reason for this decline. All the more reason to watch for audience ratings for this week's draft. But it seems to me that the NFL has been talked about as much as usual for this time of the year, with the only difference being the "if there is a season" within most comments.
We'll keep watching this over the next few months, but I'm still going with the reasoning that fans are more interested in watching the games (and increasing the record TV ratings) than merely hearing too many "non-expert" opinions from other fans.
There may be "no crying" in baseball, but there was on SportsCenter. This past Friday (4/22) anchor Josh Elliot, doing his final show on ESPN before heading off to ABC-TV and Good Morning America, teared up during his farewell signoff.
MIAMI: Sad news with the announcement that Dolphins broadcaster, and former Dolphins standout Jim Mandich passed away on Tuesday (4/26) at age 62 from cancer. Mandich has been the Dolphins' radio analyst from 1992 through 2004 and had rejoined the role since 2007. His playing days may be best remembered for his role with the 1972 Dolphins that finished the season undefeated.
CHICAGO: It's much deserved praise for Comcast SportsNet Chicago for its handling of having 3 games to show on the same night and keeping its viewing audience happy. Both last Thursday (4/21) and this Tuesday (4/26), the Chicago area regional cable network carried both the NHL Blackhawks and NBA Bulls in playoff battles, as well as having White Sox baseball on the docket. Using its primary channel and "Comcast SportsNet Plus", plus adding a third channel, the network managed to have at least one channel for all 3 games. It took moving around of some of the pre and post-game shows for those viewers partial to one of the games, but this added to the thorough job they did.
The network also did an excellent job of alerting viewers with the bottom graphics as to where each game was being shown in its entirety and where post-game programming could be seen.
DALLAS: As of this writing, KDAF-TV will find itself without a sportscaster after this week for its nightly newscasts. Word is that Dave Crome, who had been with KDAF for more than 10 years, is out after this week. This follows the recent departures of Desmond Purnell and Candice Crawford. It looks like the station will significantly reduce, or possibily eliminate, a sports segment starting next week. More and more TV stations are looking to cut back their sports segments, not wanting to compete against the regional and national networks in-depth nightly shows. Yet, by not offering sports, they risk losing even more of a shrinking male audience.
SACRAMENTO: KHTK 1140 has regained the Oakland Raiders broadcasts. This announcement comes after the team has a new San Francisco deal with KRFR 1550 and Live 105 FM in the Bay Area.
A nice local touch by ESPN 1320 last Saturday (4/23). Mike Finnerty devoted some of his SureWest Sports morning show to prep sports, specifically focusing on the recent untimely death of a Davis H.S. assistant baseball coach and how the team responded with an impressive 3-game winning streak on a big road trip right after. It was one of those times when it is about more than sports, and when fan reaction takes on more meaning.
PORTLAND: KPAM 860 introduced Northwest Sports Tonight" into the early evening this week (started Monday 4/25), hosted by Ron Callan. The only local sports show within its time period is also expected to devote more coverage to Oregon State University sports, since KPAM remains OSU's flagship station.
OMAHA: KXSP ESPN Radio adds a new co-host to its 2 to 6 PM show starting May 16th. Michael Grey joins the station from a morning co-hosting gig on WBBL Grand Rapids. Grey will host along with Pete McIntyre, and the show is expected to continue its focus on Nebraska, Iowa, and Creighton University sports.
Ft. WAYNE: ESPN 1380 (and WOWO 1190) will have a new Operations Manager starting next week. Gregg Henson brings his KRLD-FM 105.3 Dallas sports talk experience to the smaller market. No word yet as to whether or not Henson will perform any hosting duties on ESPN 1380.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
The Broadcast Booth - April 19th Update.....
Is this the beginning of the end for all sports radio? The radio ratings for March are gradually being released this week, and the early returns are not good for sports stations around the country.
Granted, as of press time we do not have the latest for Detroit and Boston, two of the larger markets with high performing sports stations, but even that may not be enough to stop this trend.
This late February to late March ratings period is usually friendly to sports stations. NBA and NHL teams are into playoff runs. Most major markets have at least one NCAA team ready for the NCAA Tournament, along with regional conference tournaments leading in. Spring training is underway and baseball fans begin their optimism for the coming season. There is plenty to talk about. But it appears fewer people are around to talk about it.
As I have said earlier, I look at the overall audience ratings, since sports is not limited to 25 to 54 year old males.
In New York, WFAN dropped out of the top 10 in overall (6 AM to Midnight, 12+), now having lost half of a ratings point (3.0 to 2.5) since January. During the same period, WEPN 1050 has lost about 20% of its total audience. This while the Knicks and Rangers both headed toward playoff appearances (not common over the past few years) and the Yankees and Mets were in spring training.
San Francisco's KNBR, which carries the World Champion Giants games, shows as having lost more than 100,000 listeners since January.
In Chicago, WMVP 1000 gained .4 in the ratings and passed by rival WSCR The Score for the first time in several months in overall audience. Hard to say if that is due to WMVP airing the Bulls games as they were going toward finishing the regular season with the NBA's best record, or it is due to The Score giving such poor scoreboard and information updates (as discussed last week). However, neither station finished better than 25th place overall. During this time, Chicago had the Bulls charging to the top, the Blackhawks in a rush to the playoffs to defend their Stanley Cup championship, and the White Sox and Cubs in spring training. (Maybe this audience loss will convince WSCR to forget their "interactive" White Sox exhibition broadcasts where they stop the play-by-play only to take phone calls from fans to talk with the game broadcasters about the team.)
Sports radio remains dismal in Los Angeles, although this is not much of a change from the past year. Again, neither KSPN 710 or KLAC 570 did any better than a 1.0 overall. Even worse in Houston, where KILT has no change in their audience size since January. Neither KBME or KFNC had any increase since the (previous) February ratings, and none of these 3 competing stations so much as cracked the top 20 in overall ratings.
Similar story out of Atlanta, where neither WCNN or WQXI made the top 20 overall. In fact, their combined rating would barely crack the top 20 in the market.
Philadelphia sports fans had plenty going on during March. The Sixers and Flyers in their runs for the playoffs. Local teams in the NCAA tourney. The Phillies in spring training looking to return to the World Series. Yet, WIP 610 droped from a 3.1 to a 2.4 rating in just one month, and they had a 3.5 for the January ratings period. Like most of the other cities, the audience lost by WIP did not go over to the sports talk competition. WPEN's overall rating for March was nearly a 20% decrease from just the month before!
Of those large markets with the March ratings released thus far, only Dallas has a reasonable sports talk presence when compared with news and some music formats. A combined rating of WTCK The Ticket, KESN, and KRLD-FM would be 4th overall in the market. However, this is primarily because the 3 rival stations are bunched closely in the ratings, since none of the 3 cracked the top 20 overall in the market.
This trend would not be so alarming if one sports station was losing its audience to one or more other sports stations. The sports radio audience is sinking.
I have two separate theories as to why. (I'm interested in your feedback about which one you think is the biggest factor.)
One theory is that there continues to (in general) be too much emphasis on fan opinions and not enough on information and compelling and informative guests. Sports fans now have many other choices for sports information and can get expert opinion. They can "follow" experts of their favorite teams and sports online. They can go online and get all of the scores they want instead of hoping the local sports update will "bother" to give out of town scores.
The other theory is that sports fans have a certain amount of time to devote to following sports, and now use it to watch the actual games on TV instead of to merely hear what other fans think about them. While sports radio listenership has begun its decline, TV ratings for pro and even college sports has been rising significantly over the past couple of years.
Whether it is HD telecasts, fans wanting to get their money's worth because of paying so much more for cable or satellite packages for the games, or a combination, TV ratings keep rising. And those 2 to 3 hours spent watching one or more games each day could well be replacing the listening time to sports radio.
Just take a look at the ratings increases for every network involved in opening week telecasts of both the NBA and NHL playoffs this month. After a successful NCAA Tournament showing for CBS and Turner Sports. Coming off incredible ratings for the entire NFL season.
While on the subject, hockey fans actually "win" with the new TV package between the NHL and the NBC "family" including Versus. This new 10 year deal brings a ton of NHL games to fans around the country.
At least 100 regular season games will be televised by Versus and NBC starting next season, with Versus getting an increase from 50 to about 90 games. Come playoff time, every game will be televised on one of the channels, whether NBC, Versus, or perhaps CNBC or one of their others.
No word yet on how many telecasts NHL Network will be able to pick up starting next season.
On the local NHL television scene, it seems that the Pittsburgh Penguins were the most watched local team in terms of ratings for the 4th season in a row. The Chicago Blackhawks moved up to 2nd among local audiences, followed by Boston, Detroit, and Philadelphia.
The bigger markets also dominated the NBA local market regular season ratings. The Lakers had the biggest regular season audience, followed by Chicago (which coincidentally, came in 2nd for both of its winter sports teams), New York Knicks, and Boston.
Yet, two of those markets also had an impact at the other end of the list. New Jersey Nets telecasts on YES were the NBA's lowest local ratings, for the 2nd season in a row, with the L.A. Clippers telecasts finishing just above Jersey.
NEW YORK: WEPN 1050 is reducing The Michael Kay Show by an hour each afternoon starting next month. Mike Lupica, the columnist and also ESPN "The Sports Reporters" panelist over the years, will begin a 2 to 3 PM weekday show starting May 9th. It will be interesting to see if management is looking for Lupica to springboard to more hours on WEPN each day, or if this is targeting to replace a show on the national ESPN Radio schedule.
SAN FRANCISCO/OAKLAND: From The Wolf to The Shark for 95.7? A few days after securing the Oakland A's baseball broadcasts effective immediately, 95.7 FM dumped "The Wolf" country music format and is now SportsRadio 95.7. The station is negotiating to also bring the NHL Sharks broadcasts over from KFOX to give them year-round local play-by-play.
Word is that 95.7 is also targeting Stanford football and possibly basketball, since those have been airing on KTRB, the station which bailed on the A's broadcasts just days before the season opener and still has its ownership status in limbo.
Granted, as of press time we do not have the latest for Detroit and Boston, two of the larger markets with high performing sports stations, but even that may not be enough to stop this trend.
This late February to late March ratings period is usually friendly to sports stations. NBA and NHL teams are into playoff runs. Most major markets have at least one NCAA team ready for the NCAA Tournament, along with regional conference tournaments leading in. Spring training is underway and baseball fans begin their optimism for the coming season. There is plenty to talk about. But it appears fewer people are around to talk about it.
As I have said earlier, I look at the overall audience ratings, since sports is not limited to 25 to 54 year old males.
In New York, WFAN dropped out of the top 10 in overall (6 AM to Midnight, 12+), now having lost half of a ratings point (3.0 to 2.5) since January. During the same period, WEPN 1050 has lost about 20% of its total audience. This while the Knicks and Rangers both headed toward playoff appearances (not common over the past few years) and the Yankees and Mets were in spring training.
San Francisco's KNBR, which carries the World Champion Giants games, shows as having lost more than 100,000 listeners since January.
In Chicago, WMVP 1000 gained .4 in the ratings and passed by rival WSCR The Score for the first time in several months in overall audience. Hard to say if that is due to WMVP airing the Bulls games as they were going toward finishing the regular season with the NBA's best record, or it is due to The Score giving such poor scoreboard and information updates (as discussed last week). However, neither station finished better than 25th place overall. During this time, Chicago had the Bulls charging to the top, the Blackhawks in a rush to the playoffs to defend their Stanley Cup championship, and the White Sox and Cubs in spring training. (Maybe this audience loss will convince WSCR to forget their "interactive" White Sox exhibition broadcasts where they stop the play-by-play only to take phone calls from fans to talk with the game broadcasters about the team.)
Sports radio remains dismal in Los Angeles, although this is not much of a change from the past year. Again, neither KSPN 710 or KLAC 570 did any better than a 1.0 overall. Even worse in Houston, where KILT has no change in their audience size since January. Neither KBME or KFNC had any increase since the (previous) February ratings, and none of these 3 competing stations so much as cracked the top 20 in overall ratings.
Similar story out of Atlanta, where neither WCNN or WQXI made the top 20 overall. In fact, their combined rating would barely crack the top 20 in the market.
Philadelphia sports fans had plenty going on during March. The Sixers and Flyers in their runs for the playoffs. Local teams in the NCAA tourney. The Phillies in spring training looking to return to the World Series. Yet, WIP 610 droped from a 3.1 to a 2.4 rating in just one month, and they had a 3.5 for the January ratings period. Like most of the other cities, the audience lost by WIP did not go over to the sports talk competition. WPEN's overall rating for March was nearly a 20% decrease from just the month before!
Of those large markets with the March ratings released thus far, only Dallas has a reasonable sports talk presence when compared with news and some music formats. A combined rating of WTCK The Ticket, KESN, and KRLD-FM would be 4th overall in the market. However, this is primarily because the 3 rival stations are bunched closely in the ratings, since none of the 3 cracked the top 20 overall in the market.
This trend would not be so alarming if one sports station was losing its audience to one or more other sports stations. The sports radio audience is sinking.
I have two separate theories as to why. (I'm interested in your feedback about which one you think is the biggest factor.)
One theory is that there continues to (in general) be too much emphasis on fan opinions and not enough on information and compelling and informative guests. Sports fans now have many other choices for sports information and can get expert opinion. They can "follow" experts of their favorite teams and sports online. They can go online and get all of the scores they want instead of hoping the local sports update will "bother" to give out of town scores.
The other theory is that sports fans have a certain amount of time to devote to following sports, and now use it to watch the actual games on TV instead of to merely hear what other fans think about them. While sports radio listenership has begun its decline, TV ratings for pro and even college sports has been rising significantly over the past couple of years.
Whether it is HD telecasts, fans wanting to get their money's worth because of paying so much more for cable or satellite packages for the games, or a combination, TV ratings keep rising. And those 2 to 3 hours spent watching one or more games each day could well be replacing the listening time to sports radio.
Just take a look at the ratings increases for every network involved in opening week telecasts of both the NBA and NHL playoffs this month. After a successful NCAA Tournament showing for CBS and Turner Sports. Coming off incredible ratings for the entire NFL season.
While on the subject, hockey fans actually "win" with the new TV package between the NHL and the NBC "family" including Versus. This new 10 year deal brings a ton of NHL games to fans around the country.
At least 100 regular season games will be televised by Versus and NBC starting next season, with Versus getting an increase from 50 to about 90 games. Come playoff time, every game will be televised on one of the channels, whether NBC, Versus, or perhaps CNBC or one of their others.
No word yet on how many telecasts NHL Network will be able to pick up starting next season.
On the local NHL television scene, it seems that the Pittsburgh Penguins were the most watched local team in terms of ratings for the 4th season in a row. The Chicago Blackhawks moved up to 2nd among local audiences, followed by Boston, Detroit, and Philadelphia.
The bigger markets also dominated the NBA local market regular season ratings. The Lakers had the biggest regular season audience, followed by Chicago (which coincidentally, came in 2nd for both of its winter sports teams), New York Knicks, and Boston.
Yet, two of those markets also had an impact at the other end of the list. New Jersey Nets telecasts on YES were the NBA's lowest local ratings, for the 2nd season in a row, with the L.A. Clippers telecasts finishing just above Jersey.
NEW YORK: WEPN 1050 is reducing The Michael Kay Show by an hour each afternoon starting next month. Mike Lupica, the columnist and also ESPN "The Sports Reporters" panelist over the years, will begin a 2 to 3 PM weekday show starting May 9th. It will be interesting to see if management is looking for Lupica to springboard to more hours on WEPN each day, or if this is targeting to replace a show on the national ESPN Radio schedule.
SAN FRANCISCO/OAKLAND: From The Wolf to The Shark for 95.7? A few days after securing the Oakland A's baseball broadcasts effective immediately, 95.7 FM dumped "The Wolf" country music format and is now SportsRadio 95.7. The station is negotiating to also bring the NHL Sharks broadcasts over from KFOX to give them year-round local play-by-play.
Word is that 95.7 is also targeting Stanford football and possibly basketball, since those have been airing on KTRB, the station which bailed on the A's broadcasts just days before the season opener and still has its ownership status in limbo.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
The Broadcast Booth - April 14th Update........
We're about to go through still another April 15th of "Jackie Robinson" day for Major League Baseball. Perhaps the worst day for fans watching any of the action on TV. Sorry, but MLB and its teams have done enough over the years to honor Robinson for all he accomplished. This need to have every player wear number 42 is a significant distraction for fans watching on TV. The local stations and sports networks showing highlights lose impact when every player has the same number on. Any great plays, clutch hits, or pitching performances worthy of making highlight features for the week, month, or even the season become tarnished because the player(s) featured are not wearing their regular numbers.
Elsewhere, some cable systems continue to find even more ways of getting out of hand with expecting their customers to cough up still more dollars for sports packages. As MLB teams continue to have more and more of their games on local or regional cable networks, the teams and cable providers seem to think that adding more telecasts should translate into extra money. One system in the Minneapolis area has "negotiated" to be able to include about 20 "additional" Twins telecasts this season for the subscribers.
Now comes a story out of Asheville that Charter TV will carry 45 "additional" Atlanta Braves telecasts, bringing the package from 109 to 154 games for the current season. This because of additional negotiations with Fox Sports South, which supposedly may be charging Charter an additional fee for these additional games. Can somebody tell me (and, more importantly, us as consumers) how part of a package of games would cost even more? Sorry, but if the regional networks can't make enough money, why are they spending all of this money to get the rights to show all of these games? Why should customers, even those who don't care about sports, be "forced" to pay even more because of this?
While some baseball fans are tired of seemingly every Yankees vs. Red Sox game being shown on national TV, ESPN did very well with its Sunday Night Baseball telecast of this matchup last week (4/10). The initial ratings report showed that telecast to be ESPN's highest rated Sunday night since August of 2009, and this was just the second week of the young season. And the August '09 telecast with almost as high of a rating was - you guessed it - Yankees vs. Red Sox. As an exclusive telecast in both the Boston and New York markets, it is interesting that the audience ratings in the Boston market were more than double the audience ratings for the New York market. Keep in mind the miserable start of the Red Sox this young season.
The big bucks going to college conferences continues stronger than ever. The Pac-10 Conference figures to be next. The Conference is waiting on bids for national coverage, now with the addition of Colorado and Utah to the Conference. Word is that Fox and CBS Sports will battle it out for rights to the football and basketball games.
The Big 12 Conference has just announced a 13 year deal with Fox Sports to include about 40 football games each season. A separate arrangement with Fox will allow ESPN and ABC to show selected Big 12 football and basketball games for next season. This deal brings millions and millions more to the Conference. However, it is the thousands of cable subscribers who are socked for increased costs whether or not they follow sports at all or wish to financially support the schools in these conferences.
LOS ANGELES: Multiple local sources report that the Lakers will have a new TV play-by-play voice to work with Stu Lantz starting next season. Although all of the Lakers' radio and TV announcer contracts are set to expire at the end of the team's playoff run, it appears the team will not seek to renew Joel Meyers, who has handled the TV side since 2003.
The Lakers continue their TV deals for one more season with Fox Sports and KCAL-TV before their gazillion dollar cable deal begins in the 2012-13 season. Spero Dedes is a likely choice to move from the radio booth over to the TV side, although his work for CBS Sports on NFL football and college basketball would create several conflicts. Bill MacDonald, after 25 years with Prime Ticket and Fox Sports, is also considered a candidate for either the radio or TV play-by-play spot.
PITTSBURGH: Congrats to Billy Hillgrove from "Billy Hillgrove Day" in Pittsburgh last Friday (4/8). The legendary play-by-play voice was honored in ceremonies. Hillgrove was chosen by the Rooney family to replace the then retired Jack Fleming in 1994 to become the voice of the Steelers, and has not missed even one game since.
In addition, the 70-year old Hillgrove has been the voice of University of Pittsburgh football for 37 seasons (during which he has missed only 2 games, with those being due to Steelers conflicts) and Pitt basketball for 42 years.
A prime example of his dedication came in January 2009 when the Steelers hosted San Diego in a 4:00 PM playoff game. Of course, he did the broadcast, but did so without his usual pre-game preparation routine. The reason? He called the Pitt basketball home game which started at Noon that day before heading over to the football game.
CHICAGO: Mike Murphy, who was on WSCR The Score for its first 17 years, has joined WMVP ESPN 1000 to co-host a Sunday morning basebal oriented show starting this Sunday (4/17) from 9 AM to 1 PM.
BOSTON: The Red Sox aren't the only team generating significant local TV ratings. The Bruins' ratings on NESN were reportedly up more than 40% from last season to the just concluded regular season. Both pre-game and post-game programming also showed double digit increases in viewers. NESN has already expanded its pre-game shows for the first round playoff series vs. Montreal to a full hour.
On the radio side, WEEI has moved Mike Adams to "The Big Show" in the afternoon along with Glenn Ordway and Michael Holley as of this week. The move coincides with Adams' evening show having fewer hours due to Red Sox broadcasts.
DALLAS: It's always good when a sports talk station gets a major guest, and SportsRadio 1310 The Ticket scored an excellent live segment with Rangers Manager Ron Washington last Friday (4/8). Washington was on live with Norm Hitzges.
RALEIGH/DURHAM: The Buzz 620 has added The Dan Patrick Show, airing it live from 9 AM to Noon, as of this week.
TORONTO: TSN Radio 1050 has added Bryan Hayes as a weekday host from 10 AM to Noon as of this week. Hayes comes over from 640 AM. The station, meanwhile, has begun streaming on TSN.ca.
Down the dial, The Score Radio has brought back local personality Stormin' Norman Rumack to host late nights.
ENGLAND: BBC 5 is again airing a live MLB broadcast of a Sunday afternoon game. This past Sunday, the weekly broadcast was the Braves vs. Phillies game. Due to the time difference, the broadcasts are heard during evening prime time in the UK.
Elsewhere, some cable systems continue to find even more ways of getting out of hand with expecting their customers to cough up still more dollars for sports packages. As MLB teams continue to have more and more of their games on local or regional cable networks, the teams and cable providers seem to think that adding more telecasts should translate into extra money. One system in the Minneapolis area has "negotiated" to be able to include about 20 "additional" Twins telecasts this season for the subscribers.
Now comes a story out of Asheville that Charter TV will carry 45 "additional" Atlanta Braves telecasts, bringing the package from 109 to 154 games for the current season. This because of additional negotiations with Fox Sports South, which supposedly may be charging Charter an additional fee for these additional games. Can somebody tell me (and, more importantly, us as consumers) how part of a package of games would cost even more? Sorry, but if the regional networks can't make enough money, why are they spending all of this money to get the rights to show all of these games? Why should customers, even those who don't care about sports, be "forced" to pay even more because of this?
While some baseball fans are tired of seemingly every Yankees vs. Red Sox game being shown on national TV, ESPN did very well with its Sunday Night Baseball telecast of this matchup last week (4/10). The initial ratings report showed that telecast to be ESPN's highest rated Sunday night since August of 2009, and this was just the second week of the young season. And the August '09 telecast with almost as high of a rating was - you guessed it - Yankees vs. Red Sox. As an exclusive telecast in both the Boston and New York markets, it is interesting that the audience ratings in the Boston market were more than double the audience ratings for the New York market. Keep in mind the miserable start of the Red Sox this young season.
The big bucks going to college conferences continues stronger than ever. The Pac-10 Conference figures to be next. The Conference is waiting on bids for national coverage, now with the addition of Colorado and Utah to the Conference. Word is that Fox and CBS Sports will battle it out for rights to the football and basketball games.
The Big 12 Conference has just announced a 13 year deal with Fox Sports to include about 40 football games each season. A separate arrangement with Fox will allow ESPN and ABC to show selected Big 12 football and basketball games for next season. This deal brings millions and millions more to the Conference. However, it is the thousands of cable subscribers who are socked for increased costs whether or not they follow sports at all or wish to financially support the schools in these conferences.
LOS ANGELES: Multiple local sources report that the Lakers will have a new TV play-by-play voice to work with Stu Lantz starting next season. Although all of the Lakers' radio and TV announcer contracts are set to expire at the end of the team's playoff run, it appears the team will not seek to renew Joel Meyers, who has handled the TV side since 2003.
The Lakers continue their TV deals for one more season with Fox Sports and KCAL-TV before their gazillion dollar cable deal begins in the 2012-13 season. Spero Dedes is a likely choice to move from the radio booth over to the TV side, although his work for CBS Sports on NFL football and college basketball would create several conflicts. Bill MacDonald, after 25 years with Prime Ticket and Fox Sports, is also considered a candidate for either the radio or TV play-by-play spot.
PITTSBURGH: Congrats to Billy Hillgrove from "Billy Hillgrove Day" in Pittsburgh last Friday (4/8). The legendary play-by-play voice was honored in ceremonies. Hillgrove was chosen by the Rooney family to replace the then retired Jack Fleming in 1994 to become the voice of the Steelers, and has not missed even one game since.
In addition, the 70-year old Hillgrove has been the voice of University of Pittsburgh football for 37 seasons (during which he has missed only 2 games, with those being due to Steelers conflicts) and Pitt basketball for 42 years.
A prime example of his dedication came in January 2009 when the Steelers hosted San Diego in a 4:00 PM playoff game. Of course, he did the broadcast, but did so without his usual pre-game preparation routine. The reason? He called the Pitt basketball home game which started at Noon that day before heading over to the football game.
CHICAGO: Mike Murphy, who was on WSCR The Score for its first 17 years, has joined WMVP ESPN 1000 to co-host a Sunday morning basebal oriented show starting this Sunday (4/17) from 9 AM to 1 PM.
BOSTON: The Red Sox aren't the only team generating significant local TV ratings. The Bruins' ratings on NESN were reportedly up more than 40% from last season to the just concluded regular season. Both pre-game and post-game programming also showed double digit increases in viewers. NESN has already expanded its pre-game shows for the first round playoff series vs. Montreal to a full hour.
On the radio side, WEEI has moved Mike Adams to "The Big Show" in the afternoon along with Glenn Ordway and Michael Holley as of this week. The move coincides with Adams' evening show having fewer hours due to Red Sox broadcasts.
DALLAS: It's always good when a sports talk station gets a major guest, and SportsRadio 1310 The Ticket scored an excellent live segment with Rangers Manager Ron Washington last Friday (4/8). Washington was on live with Norm Hitzges.
RALEIGH/DURHAM: The Buzz 620 has added The Dan Patrick Show, airing it live from 9 AM to Noon, as of this week.
TORONTO: TSN Radio 1050 has added Bryan Hayes as a weekday host from 10 AM to Noon as of this week. Hayes comes over from 640 AM. The station, meanwhile, has begun streaming on TSN.ca.
Down the dial, The Score Radio has brought back local personality Stormin' Norman Rumack to host late nights.
ENGLAND: BBC 5 is again airing a live MLB broadcast of a Sunday afternoon game. This past Sunday, the weekly broadcast was the Braves vs. Phillies game. Due to the time difference, the broadcasts are heard during evening prime time in the UK.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
The Broadcast Booth - April 5th Update
Butler University and its incredible run to the NCAA Championship 2 seasons in a row did not translate into huge ratings for CBS. Maybe enough people "already saw that last year" from Butler, or even more people than last year gave up on brackets. Whatever the case, the Monday night championship telecast finished down about 17% compared with last year. And for the first time in years, the telecast did not conflict with MLB season opening games.
Nothing better demonstrates the lower national interest than the early numbers showing the top 3 markets in terms of local ratings being closest to the participating teams. Indianapolis (home of Butler), Hartford (home market of UConn), and Louisville (next market south of Butler U.) were the leaders. Then again, early indications are that the national ratings numbers will finish higher than they were for the 2009 championship game. However you look at it, the telecast lost overall to "Dancing With The Stars".
As long-time sportscaster Gary Bender prepares for retirement, it's great to see the Phoenix Suns plan to honor him during their game on Monday. Bender spent 18 seasons with the Suns. His 27 years at the network level included stints on NFL, NBA, and MLB telecasts. Bender also has the distinction of having done radio play-by-play for both sides of the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers rivalry, even if more than 20 years apart.
OAKLAND/SAN FRANCISCO: The Oakland A's managed to open the season on a real radio station after all. After last year's scramble to get on KTRB and then be asked to consider buying the radio station to get it out of receivership, the A's instead began a 4-year deal on KBWF 95.7. The country music station (otherwise) brings an immediate signal advantage to the northeast corner of the Bay Area (Berkeley, Oakland Hills, etc.).
The broadcast crew, led by Ken Korach, stays the same. Finally, the A's radio station will, at least for this and the following 3 seasons. This, while the Giants games have aired on KNBR going back to 1978.
The 49ers are not changing stations for their radio broadcasts. Just the analyst to work along with Ted Robinson. Former all-pro defensive back Eric Davis, who had served as analyst on local exhibition game telecasts for the prior two seasons, joins the radio crew. He replaces his former 49er teammate, Gary Plummer, in the new role. No word yet on who will take over the analyst role for local exhibition telecasts, but we still aren't sure there will be any this August. (NFL lockout)
CHICAGO: They call WSCR 670 "The Score", but lately have made it seem like "a score" for listeners to get information over the air. This past Friday (4/1), I happened to be driving in the Chicago area over an hour after both the White Sox and Cubs opening day games were over, with the White Sox opener having been broadcast on WSCR.
It was 6:30 PM, and "time for another scoreboard update" they said. For baseball, listeners got quick recaps of both the White Sox and Cubs opening games. But no out-of-town MLB scores, with final scores in and several games in progress at the time. And not even a mention of if or when listeners could or would get those scores. Then, on to the NBA where the Bulls game was just about to start. This we learn. But then nothing about the Celtics game that night, important to Bulls fans as they both battle for the top spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Then, onto an in-progress score of the NHL Blackhawks game. But zero mention about the teams in competition for a playoff spot and their games that night.
Not having "national" scores is bad enough. But not including scores of interest to the local teams is another. This was supposed to be a "scoreboard update". Instead, the reporter hurried through it, making me think maybe a manager of team official from one of the baseball teams was holding or something. But no. The update ends, and it's back to more phone calls with fans' opinions.
WSCR has some very good reporters and hosts, some of whom I know or have known. Yet, the Friday incident, while not the first time they have left me hanging like that, was not the only one.
On Saturday afternoon, it turned out that the White Sox at Cleveland broadcast aired on the 7-second delay used for their call-in shows. OK, it can happen for maybe an inning until somebody catches it. Not on Saturday. The entire game was delayed compared with the TV feed.
Sorry, but this is insane to me. It tells me no one monitors the telecast of the game to make sure this doesn't happen AGAIN. Years ago when I was producing live sports broadcasts for games which were also televised, I recall bringing my own portable TV into the studio so that I could keep an eye on the game in case of technical problems or if something significant happened during the game to discuss with listeners afterward.
But there was more to get upset about. Keep in mind this is a regular season MLB game, not spring training. With Darrin Jackson doing play-by-play in the middle 3 innings as usual, the Indians put in a new pitcher. Jackson, along with main play-by-play voice Ed Farmer, admitted that they did not have information about this pitcher other than his name.
That was bad enough, but even into the NEXT inning, they still didn't. Granted, this technically is not the fault of WSCR, but to me it is a representation. How neither broadcaster would get up and go over to the Indians' people in the press box or to the Cleveland TV or radio booth to get information is beyond me. But where was the flagship station staff? Was no one in the studio that could look up information about a current Major League pitcher?
In my years of teaching sports broadcasting in college and working with students of many ages, I have given a poor grade for a lot less than these offenses. But in today's era, I'll bet the station's response would be "the information I want is on the WSCR web site". It may well be. But when I was in the car, I couldn't access the web. Nor should I have to. An all-sports station is supposed to report the sports news, not tell me I have to go to another source to get it.
Do they really think I'll ever visit their web site again?
BOSTON: While Dave O'Brien continues as the primary voice of ESPN's Wednesday Night Baseball this season, the Red Sox and WEEI have extended his contract for 4 more seasons to remain on Red Sox radio along with Joe Castiglione. This, even though his ESPN duties could take him out of as many as 30 Red Sox broadcasts this season. This week he also was scheduled to call the NCAA Womens hoops championship game on Tuesday (4/5) and the Yankees vs. Twins Weds. Night Baseball game on ESPN, before getting to Cleveland for Thursday's Red Sox vs. Indians game. And he will know everybody that pitches for the Indians, too.
MINNEAPOLIS: Looks like WCCO continues to lose its local sports play-by-play. Word is (as of press time) that the NHL Wild will come off WCCO and move to KFAN starting for next season. The team is expected to buy the air time.
ATLANTA: 680 The Fan adds University of Georgia football and basketball to its impressive local play-by-play roster with a new multi-year deal. The Fan also carries the Braves, Hawks, and Thrashers broadcasts. The U. of Georgia deal also includes baseball broadcasts on (sister station) WFOM 1230 starting next month.
PHILADELPHIA: With Phillies fever (or should that be phever?) running high, the Phillies now have an HD Radio channel on HD4 of WOGL Oldies Radio. The channel will also carry each Phillies game live, and replay the previous day or night's game the following morning at 9 AM. The channel also plans original programming related to Phillies baseball during the day along with classic game replays.
KANSAS CITY: KCSP 610 has added Danny Parkins to its 9 to 11 AM midday show as of this week (Mon. 4/4). Parkins comes to K.C. from WSKO Syracuse, and replaces Shan Shariff, who left the market for Dallas's 105.3 The Fan and started there last week.
DENVER: The Broncos and KOA have given a 3-year contract extension to play-by-play voice Dave Logan. His analyst, at least for the 2011 season (if there is one) will again be former QB Brian Griese.
JACKSONVILLE: 1010XL Radio has moved its "Sports Final" show from morning drive to the 10 AM to 1 PM spot as of this week. The change was made to accommodate the Lex & Terry Show move to the 6 to 10 AM spot.
MUNCIE IN: WXFN 1340 wants to keep its local sports events and programming to the point of dropping ESPN Radio after 10 years. The station is working to pick up Fox Sports Radio programming in the near future.
Nothing better demonstrates the lower national interest than the early numbers showing the top 3 markets in terms of local ratings being closest to the participating teams. Indianapolis (home of Butler), Hartford (home market of UConn), and Louisville (next market south of Butler U.) were the leaders. Then again, early indications are that the national ratings numbers will finish higher than they were for the 2009 championship game. However you look at it, the telecast lost overall to "Dancing With The Stars".
As long-time sportscaster Gary Bender prepares for retirement, it's great to see the Phoenix Suns plan to honor him during their game on Monday. Bender spent 18 seasons with the Suns. His 27 years at the network level included stints on NFL, NBA, and MLB telecasts. Bender also has the distinction of having done radio play-by-play for both sides of the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers rivalry, even if more than 20 years apart.
OAKLAND/SAN FRANCISCO: The Oakland A's managed to open the season on a real radio station after all. After last year's scramble to get on KTRB and then be asked to consider buying the radio station to get it out of receivership, the A's instead began a 4-year deal on KBWF 95.7. The country music station (otherwise) brings an immediate signal advantage to the northeast corner of the Bay Area (Berkeley, Oakland Hills, etc.).
The broadcast crew, led by Ken Korach, stays the same. Finally, the A's radio station will, at least for this and the following 3 seasons. This, while the Giants games have aired on KNBR going back to 1978.
The 49ers are not changing stations for their radio broadcasts. Just the analyst to work along with Ted Robinson. Former all-pro defensive back Eric Davis, who had served as analyst on local exhibition game telecasts for the prior two seasons, joins the radio crew. He replaces his former 49er teammate, Gary Plummer, in the new role. No word yet on who will take over the analyst role for local exhibition telecasts, but we still aren't sure there will be any this August. (NFL lockout)
CHICAGO: They call WSCR 670 "The Score", but lately have made it seem like "a score" for listeners to get information over the air. This past Friday (4/1), I happened to be driving in the Chicago area over an hour after both the White Sox and Cubs opening day games were over, with the White Sox opener having been broadcast on WSCR.
It was 6:30 PM, and "time for another scoreboard update" they said. For baseball, listeners got quick recaps of both the White Sox and Cubs opening games. But no out-of-town MLB scores, with final scores in and several games in progress at the time. And not even a mention of if or when listeners could or would get those scores. Then, on to the NBA where the Bulls game was just about to start. This we learn. But then nothing about the Celtics game that night, important to Bulls fans as they both battle for the top spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Then, onto an in-progress score of the NHL Blackhawks game. But zero mention about the teams in competition for a playoff spot and their games that night.
Not having "national" scores is bad enough. But not including scores of interest to the local teams is another. This was supposed to be a "scoreboard update". Instead, the reporter hurried through it, making me think maybe a manager of team official from one of the baseball teams was holding or something. But no. The update ends, and it's back to more phone calls with fans' opinions.
WSCR has some very good reporters and hosts, some of whom I know or have known. Yet, the Friday incident, while not the first time they have left me hanging like that, was not the only one.
On Saturday afternoon, it turned out that the White Sox at Cleveland broadcast aired on the 7-second delay used for their call-in shows. OK, it can happen for maybe an inning until somebody catches it. Not on Saturday. The entire game was delayed compared with the TV feed.
Sorry, but this is insane to me. It tells me no one monitors the telecast of the game to make sure this doesn't happen AGAIN. Years ago when I was producing live sports broadcasts for games which were also televised, I recall bringing my own portable TV into the studio so that I could keep an eye on the game in case of technical problems or if something significant happened during the game to discuss with listeners afterward.
But there was more to get upset about. Keep in mind this is a regular season MLB game, not spring training. With Darrin Jackson doing play-by-play in the middle 3 innings as usual, the Indians put in a new pitcher. Jackson, along with main play-by-play voice Ed Farmer, admitted that they did not have information about this pitcher other than his name.
That was bad enough, but even into the NEXT inning, they still didn't. Granted, this technically is not the fault of WSCR, but to me it is a representation. How neither broadcaster would get up and go over to the Indians' people in the press box or to the Cleveland TV or radio booth to get information is beyond me. But where was the flagship station staff? Was no one in the studio that could look up information about a current Major League pitcher?
In my years of teaching sports broadcasting in college and working with students of many ages, I have given a poor grade for a lot less than these offenses. But in today's era, I'll bet the station's response would be "the information I want is on the WSCR web site". It may well be. But when I was in the car, I couldn't access the web. Nor should I have to. An all-sports station is supposed to report the sports news, not tell me I have to go to another source to get it.
Do they really think I'll ever visit their web site again?
BOSTON: While Dave O'Brien continues as the primary voice of ESPN's Wednesday Night Baseball this season, the Red Sox and WEEI have extended his contract for 4 more seasons to remain on Red Sox radio along with Joe Castiglione. This, even though his ESPN duties could take him out of as many as 30 Red Sox broadcasts this season. This week he also was scheduled to call the NCAA Womens hoops championship game on Tuesday (4/5) and the Yankees vs. Twins Weds. Night Baseball game on ESPN, before getting to Cleveland for Thursday's Red Sox vs. Indians game. And he will know everybody that pitches for the Indians, too.
MINNEAPOLIS: Looks like WCCO continues to lose its local sports play-by-play. Word is (as of press time) that the NHL Wild will come off WCCO and move to KFAN starting for next season. The team is expected to buy the air time.
ATLANTA: 680 The Fan adds University of Georgia football and basketball to its impressive local play-by-play roster with a new multi-year deal. The Fan also carries the Braves, Hawks, and Thrashers broadcasts. The U. of Georgia deal also includes baseball broadcasts on (sister station) WFOM 1230 starting next month.
PHILADELPHIA: With Phillies fever (or should that be phever?) running high, the Phillies now have an HD Radio channel on HD4 of WOGL Oldies Radio. The channel will also carry each Phillies game live, and replay the previous day or night's game the following morning at 9 AM. The channel also plans original programming related to Phillies baseball during the day along with classic game replays.
KANSAS CITY: KCSP 610 has added Danny Parkins to its 9 to 11 AM midday show as of this week (Mon. 4/4). Parkins comes to K.C. from WSKO Syracuse, and replaces Shan Shariff, who left the market for Dallas's 105.3 The Fan and started there last week.
DENVER: The Broncos and KOA have given a 3-year contract extension to play-by-play voice Dave Logan. His analyst, at least for the 2011 season (if there is one) will again be former QB Brian Griese.
JACKSONVILLE: 1010XL Radio has moved its "Sports Final" show from morning drive to the 10 AM to 1 PM spot as of this week. The change was made to accommodate the Lex & Terry Show move to the 6 to 10 AM spot.
MUNCIE IN: WXFN 1340 wants to keep its local sports events and programming to the point of dropping ESPN Radio after 10 years. The station is working to pick up Fox Sports Radio programming in the near future.
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