Paying Attention To Game Promos

A winner and champion for this week's "Ooops" definitely goes to ESPN. Hours after the Golden State Warriors advanced to the NBA Finals, which will be televised via ESPN on ABC, the network aired at least one promo for Western Conference Game 6, which would have been played on Friday night May 29th. Not even an "if necessary" which would have given them a little bit of an out. Just a promo as if nothing was wrong.


OK, I'll say it. You have to believe that if a New York or Boston team was involved these games, this wrong promo never would have happened.


Speaking of "Ooops", MLB Network has yet (as of press time) to correct an error on one of its credits, although it is minor in comparison. On the Network's excellent Quick Pitch show, the source credits for its Chicago Cubs highlights show the Cubs radio station as being WGN Radio. Although we can understand that habits are hard to break, the Cubs' association with WGN Radio ended after last season following 70 years of broadcasting the games. As of this season, the games air on WBBM Radio. Yet, this has not been corrected nearly two months into the season.




TNT, which got its promos right, did well with its NBA Eastern Conference Finals, even with a shorter series than anticipated between Cleveland and Atlanta. Game 1 (on May 21) showed a 10% increase over its opening game Western Conference Finals telecast in May 2014, and was TNT's most watched NBA game (regular season or playoffs) of the entire season. In the Cleveland market, that game set a record for an NBA game airing locally on TNT.




CBS Sports is gearing up for the upcoming SEC football package, officially scheduling its first two Saturdays. The Louisville vs. Auburn game will air at 3:30 PM ET on Saturday Sept. 5th, shown live from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The following week, Sat. Sept. 12th will have Georgia at Vanderbilt on the late afternoon schedule. Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson will return as the broadcast team. The remaining games will not be announced until less than two weeks before.




Fox Sports has rehired Matt Millen, planning to use him as both a game and studio analyst for both its NFL and college football telecasts. Millen will also be a game analyst for weekly telecasts for Big Ten Network, which is majority owned by Fox, working with Kevin Kugler. He is expected to also handle some NFL regional telecasts for Fox, likely for games in the Midwest or proximity to where his BTN duties will take him for Saturday action.


Hopefully Millen will become as good of an analyst as he was years ago, prior to becoming the failed GM of the Detroit Lions. It will be interesting to see whether or not Millen is assigned to any of the Lions telecasts on Fox.




DENVER: Mile High Sports 1550 is been grounded. The station has officially been sold and the sports programming is off the air, supposedly on a temporary basis. Nothing as of press time, but the Mile High Sports Radio group plans to have an announcement about a new location within the next few weeks.




CHICAGO: The minor league baseball telecast series mentioned here last week is going to be seen on more than some local and independent TV stations after all. Comcast SportsNet Chicago will air those games in the package it can (when no local telecast conflicts) starting this Sunday (5/31) with the Iowa Cubs against the El Paso Chihuahuas.




LAS VEGAS:  It's another round of sports radio networks moving around the dial as if it matters. KMZQ-AM The Score drops Fox Sports Radio after this week and will air Yahoo Sports Radio starting on Monday (6/1). KRLV-AM has chosen to drop its Spanish language programming and pick up Fox Radio Sports.  KBAD-AM, with those call letters that may or may not be a coincidence, continues to air NBC Sports Radio.




STATE COLLEGE PA: The Fanatic 1390 has dropped its sports format, which was almost all CBS Sports Radio Network anyway. As it goes in radio, the station is now "Newsradio 1390", but is all general talk shows and (as of press time) does not feature any news blocks in its lineup.




Mt. PLEASANT MI: WFYC 1280 has a new and local morning show which began last week. Don Chiodo and Brock Gutierrez are co-hosts from 6 to 9 AM. Chiodo is the voice of Central Michigan University football and basketball.