College Football For Cord Cutters

One of the sports media happenings this week is certain to draw the attention of those sports fans who have cut the cord and dropped cable/satellite service due to the high cost.

It seems that a sports "network" known as Stadium has negotiated a partnership with Facebook for at least 15 live college football "telecasts" which will only be available via streaming social media. Although radio has given way to the internet, especially over the past few years, this partnership is perhaps the first one that makes direct inroads into the dominance of television for showing live games.

Even though this season's 15 already scheduled games are for Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference, it seems likely that other conferences will keep a close watch on this.

This is not something which is months or years in the future. This service starts on "Watch", which is a Facebook video platform available everywhere (as in globally, and not a limited area) on the "Live College Football Show" page starting with two games on September 2nd. That means this all starts a week from Saturday with Miami OH at Marshall at 6:30 PM ET, and the UC Davis at San Diego State game streaming at 8:30 PM ET. And on the following Thursday Sept. 7th, while the NFL season is opening up, this service will stream the Idaho State at Utah State game at 8:00 PM ET.

Here is their schedule of live streamed games, as of press time:

•Saturday, Sept. 2: Miami (OH) at Marshall, 6:30 p.m. ET
•Saturday, Sept. 2: UC Davis at San Diego State, 8:30 p.m. ET
•Thursday, Sept. 7: Idaho State at Utah State, 8:00 p.m. ET
•Saturday, Sept. 9: New Mexico State at New Mexico, 8:00 p.m. ET
•Saturday, Sept. 23: FIU at Rice, 7:30 p.m. ET
•Saturday, Sept. 23: Utah State at San Jose State, 7:30 p.m. ET
•Saturday, Sept. 30: Texas State at Wyoming, 4:00 p.m. ET
•Saturday, Oct. 7: Southern Miss at UTSA, 7:00 p.m. ET
•Saturday, Oct. 14: Wyoming at Utah State, 4:30 p.m. ET
•Saturday, Oct. 21: Rice at UTSA, 7:00 p.m. ET
•Saturday, Oct. 28: FIU at Marshall, 2:30 p.m. ET
•Saturday, Nov. 4: North Texas at Louisiana Tech, 3:30 p.m. ET
•Saturday, Nov. 11: Southern Miss at Rice, 3:30 p.m. ET
•Saturday, Nov. 18: Marshall at UTSA, 7:00 p.m. ET
•Saturday, Nov. 25: FAU at Charlotte, 2:00 p.m. ET

Keep in mind that "Stadium" already has 25 separate games scheduled to air on Twitter and on a free internet service, Pluto TV.


The sports media world lost another legend this week with the passing on Monday (8/21) of Rafael Ramirez, the Spanish radio voice of the Miami Marlins, at the age of 94. "Felo", as he was known, called Marlins games throughout their entire history, which included the team's first five no-hitters and both World Series titles. In addition, Ramirez, who broadcast baseball in seven decades, also called 32 World Series and is estimated to have done play-by-play at 40 Caribbean World Series as well.


As expected, NBC Sports is moving forward with changing the remaining regional sports networks currently billed as Comcast SportsNet to the NBC Sports name over the next few weeks. This includes Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston (New England), and Washington. The Bay Area network became NBC Sports Bay Area (and NBC Sports California) earlier this year, tipping off the change across the board. Only SNY New York will continue under its current brand. The goal is for this change to take place prior to the start of the NHL regular season in early October.


Still another tough spot for ESPN due to the actions of an employee. Ryen Russillo, an ESPN Radio host, was arrested (8/23) in Wyoming while on vacation when he entered a stranger's condo in the middle of the night reportedly intoxicated. No word, as of press time, on what ESPN will do following this incident.


NEW YORK: WEPN 98.7 has switched Alan Hahn and Dave Rothenberg within its current weekday lineup as of this week. Rothenberg leaves the 7:00 to 10:00 PM show and will join Chris Canty and Rick DiPietro on the 10 AM to 1 PM show, now known as "Humpty & Canty". Rothenberg will continue to host his Saturday 9 AM to Noon show. At the same time, Hahn moved out of the midday show and takes over the night spot.

It was also interesting how the N Y Daily News ran the story about how WFAN told Chris Christie that he would not be taking over its afternoon spot following the retirement of Mike Francesa late this year. Not exactly a shocker. And now that WEPN is moving around personalities before and after the Michael Kay Show, let's not forget our prediction that Kay will be the replacement for Francesa and jump to The Fan to further enhance its Yankees coverage.


SAN DIEGO: While the former flagship station of the Chargers, 105.3, has switched to air Raiders games starting this season, it turns out that the L.A. Chargers broadcasts will air on a San Diego station after all. Sister station KGB-FM 101.5 is taking those games. It might not be smooth sailing, since L.A. station KFI 640, which is now the flagship station for the team, has a strong signal which is easily heard in much of the San Diego market. This means that mentions of "KFI 640" will air on KGB as part of the Chargers broadcast.

However, the value of carrying these games is likely to outweigh that. Since it is sister stations (same ownership) hosting both the Chargers and Raiders broadcasts, it gives management the ability to sell either or both broadcasts from a sales and revenue standpoint. This also creates listener confusion, which could have fans switching back and forth between the stations, and that benefits the owners either way. It's also important because it keeps either team from going to Mighty 1090 Sports. 1090 is thought to be struggling to survive, after having lost the Padres broadcasts, as well as San Diego State games, within the past year.


CORPUS CHRISI: KLHB 105.5 has dumped its ESPN Radio affiliation in favor of a music format. A curious move considering that the market already has four other stations with similar music formats.


VANCOUVER: It will be interesting to see how newcome CISL 650 Sportsnet does following its official debut on September 4th. CISL has a strong tool to start with, beginning as the new radio home of the Canucks, the big game in town. Brendan Batchelor will handle play-by-play with (former Canucks goalie) Corey Hirsch as analyst. The station has also secured the radio rights for Toronto Blue Jays games starting next year.

On the other hand, CKST 1040, with 16 years as a sports station, has pledged to continue to be strong with Canucks coverage despite having lost the game broadcasts. Jeff Paterson stays on as the Canucks "beat reporter" for the station, while former Canucks Assistant General Manager Laurence Gilman has also been added to the on-air staff to analyze the team on a regular basis.