A Super Day of Comments, Too

Both the game and the NBC telecast were solid and worthy. For sports fans and the sports media, that should be enough, especially given the early indication of significant viewer ratings for this game. At the same time, social media was also more prominent than ever before when it comes to the "big game".


Reports indicate that Facebook had approximately 65 million users posting Super Bowl related comments on Sunday (2/1) only, mounting up to roughly 265 million posts. Twitter supposedly had 3.5 million more game related tweets vs. the 2014 game as well.


What is curious is that these totals include posts and comments made regarding the commercials shown during the telecast.


Of course the NBC ratings will be substantial. This year, compared with most others, the weather had a big impact on the number of viewers. Many major markets, including the Boston (and New England area) "home team" area, were getting and/or recovering from major snowstorms which kept millions of consumers at home to watch instead of going to parties and/or venues to watch.


Millions of people watching at sports bars go unmeasured compared with households, and the likes of NYC, Chicago, Detroit, and many other cities had an unusually higher number of "at home" viewers this time around. Obviously, this is also the reason for the increase in social media posts.


A large percentage of the social media posts focused on the commercials and the halftime show. Not to say these are not worthy of comment, but it makes me wonder how closely all of the viewers are paying attention to the game, and to NBC's telecast. Advertisers are paying millions of dollars for those commercials. If millions are commenting on them, how many are watching the "next" one in the break? How many actually saw the replays or analysis from NBC?


It's bad enough that NBC insists on having as many analysts on its studio segments as there are fans in the stands (or so it seems), but the huge social media impact does not bode well for the attention span of the millions of viewers.




ATLANTA: Even with the Falcon's sub .500 season, one year was enough for WZGC 92.9 The Game to extend its contract and remain the Falcons' flagship station for at least the next three seasons. WCNN 680 The Fan reportedly refused to raise its bid. Coincidentally, WZGC carried the Falcons from 2004 through 2011 when it was a rock music station.




LOS ANGELES: Like father like son, as the Dodgers Spanish radio broadcasts on KTNQ Radio will be handled by the father and son team of Jaime and Jorge Jarrin starting with the coming season. "Captain" Jorge, as he was known on traffic reports on KABC Radio for more than 20 years, joins his Hall of Fame broadcaster father Jaime, as Pepe Yniguez moves over to the TV side. Yniguez will call the Spanish telecasts on SportsNet L A (for those few who can actually receive them) along with Fernando Valenzuela and/or Manny Mota. The Spanish portion of the network plans to double the number of telecasts from 75 last season to about 150 this year.




CHICAGO: Now that football season is over, WSCR 670 The Score host Patrick Mannelly (a Bears player for 16 seasons) has given up his role as co-host of the stations 9 AM to 1 PM weekday show with Matt Spiegel. Mannelly will remain with and return to the station for the next NFL season. No word yet on a replacement, with speculation being that former host Dan McNeil, who did not re-sign with the station last summer and left that very time slot, would make a return to the show in the near future.




NEW YORK: The Mets telecasts on SNY will have a new pre and postgame analyst as former Met Bob Ojeda will not be returning as contract negotiations fell apart. Ojeda is expected to pursue other broadcasting opportunities.




OKLAHOMA CITY: OK City and the region will once again be able to see a steady diet of Texas Rangers baseball for the coming season. With the 25 game Friday night package of Rangers games about to vanish in most of Oklahoma, it turns out that Fox Sports Southwest will be airing 150 plus Rangers games. (This will be all games not exclusively nationally televised.) Steve Busby and Tom Grieve return as the Rangers TV broadcast team.




LANSING MI: From The Ticket to The Team for WQTX 92.1. The station is now known as "The Team", being forced to remove "The Ticket" from its name because WXYT-FM Detroit now has the Michigan trademark for that name. The programming and lineup remain the same, including airing University of Michigan basketball and football, local high school games, and minor league Lansing Lugnuts baseball.




ROME GA: Speaking of minor league baseball WGJK have signed a multi-season deal to air the Rome Braves starting on April 9th, with the broadcast team of Kevin Karel and Clarke Johnson.