Two Hours Is Too Many For Tournament Announcement

While the NCAA Tournament selection and pairings show is highly anticipated, it seems to be getting out of control. The Sunday March 13 show will air on CBS, as always, but will be expanded again to a full two hours. That's longer than a tournament game takes.

Do we really need more hype? More analysis? Just show us the matchups and schedule of games. This shouldn't take more than ten minutes. I know it is show business and about hyping the games for ratings, but this borders on insane.

Ernie Johnson and Greg Gumbel will act as co-hosts, and there will be the usual endless stream of analysts. For what? Sorry, but it doesn't take a whole group of analysts to point out which teams didn't make the field despite winning records and which teams have the toughest seedings.

The show will begin at 5:30 ET and, yes, go for a full two hours. At this rate, maybe they'll show a marching band performing show tunes for ten minutes around 6:30 PM and then show a recap of the first hour's analysis.


MILWAUKEE: While the Brewers haven't shown much on the field over the past couple of years, their radio booth is a breeding ground for big league broadcasters. This season begins with another new partner for 82 year old Bob Uecker.

The honor goes to Lane Grindle, who comes to Milwaukee by way of the University Husker Sports Network, and will now handle play-by-play for between 50 and 60 games which Uecker will not travel to.


NEW YORK: WFAN 660 The Fan will continue with year round local play-by-play, signing a multi-year extension to continue airing the Brooklyn Nets games, as it has since the 2004-05 season. Games which conflict with Yankees broadcasts will continue to air on WCBS 880.
As a result, the coincidence continues of the Yankees and Nets sharing the same radio station, WFAN, and the same TV outlet, YES Network, for their games.


CHICAGO: WGN Radio has extended its coverage of Northwestern University football and basketball through the 2019-20 season. At the same time, the station signed play-by-play voice and morning sports anchor Dave Eanet to a four year extension. Eanet has called NU football since 1990.


PITTSBURGH: The Pirates broadcasts are staying put on KDKA 93.7 The Fan with a just announced multi-year contract extension following the just concluded four year deal. KDKA-AM aired the Pirates for more than 50 years until WPGB got the games from 2007 through 2011.


LOS ANGELES: KFWB 980 The Beast is now even less than a whimper. The poorly rated sports station went under new ownership earlier this week and has dropped all sports programming except for its Clippers (and Galaxy soccer) broadcasts.

Due to a strong contract, the Clippers will remain on KWFB through the regular and post-season, although there reportedly is an opening for another L.A. station to come in and take over as soon as possible.


FARGO: Sorry to learn of the passing of Scott Miller who passed away at the age of 57 due to Melanoma. Miller called North Dakota State University football and basketball games for the past 20 seasons, most recently for KFGO. He also did baseball for the Fargo-Moorhead Red Hawks for the past ten seasons.