This coming weekend is the one weekend of the season when NFL fans are able to watch a total of seven complete NFL games over the three day period. Having this be the Saturday (12/21) when the NFL Network exclusively televises a live triple header adds the three games to the mix.
At press time, it was not certain whether or not Rich Eisen would still do play-by-play of the Houston vs. Tampa Saturday 1 PM ET telecast. We were sorry to learn of the passing this week of Eisen's father. Fans do benefit from NFL Network's ability to "borrow" announcing teams from the networks. Nice to have Mike Torico calling the Buffalo vs. New England game, while the Fox team of Kevin Burkhardt and Charles Davis calls the Rams vs. 49ers game on Saturday night.
For Sunday, Fox Sports got a break when NBC surprised and kept its Kansas City at Chicago telecast in place. The NFL had given NBC the ability to flex the game until Monday 12/16, leaving many to think it would switch and flex the New Orleans vs. Tennessee game. By not doing so, Fox gets this as its primary early game telecast. (The Bears were eliminated this past Sunday.)
NBA fans also benefit because the end of Thursday night NFL opens the door for TNT to begin its Thursday night NBA doubleheaders most weeks.
For those of us looking toward the warmer weather and the return of baseball, ESPN announced a portion of its 2020 regular season telecast schedule. The network plans 14 telecasts in the first 11 days of the season, including three on Opening Day March 26. In a total head shaking move, ESPN is planning a live quadruple header on Monday March 30th.
Its first telecast that day, which again is a Monday afternoon, is scheduled to be Kansas City at Detroit. Based on the 2019 standings, this does not figure to be a key matchup. Perhaps it is because ESPN needs to put every MLB team on at least once throughout the season. Since this telecast would not be a ratings grabber at that time no matter who is playing, the network probably figures it can get these teams out of the way early.
Sunday Night Baseball will again have the usual participants as often as possible. Already four (of a maximum of six) appearances for the Yankees and Cubs have been announced. ESPN is, however, hoping that Mother Nature is a baseball fan. Not sure that scheduling mid-April night telecasts (with no alternate game available) from Chicago and New York City is the best idea.
NEW YORK: As the Michael Kay Show on WEPN-FM takes over as the afternoon drive sports leader in the market, WFAN prepares to begin 2020 with its "new" afternoon drive team in place. Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts have been chosen to replace the majority of the time slot held by Mike Francesa. Benigno and Evans will air from 2 to 6 PM weekdays.
Francesa will remain on the WFAN schedule, but only from 6:00 to 6:30 PM on weekdays. According to Francesa, his half hour gig may also include some political talk instead of or in addition to sports. Not sure that some political talk will be helpful in trying to take the number one afternoon sports talk spot back from Michael Kay.
Finally, let's wish all of you a great holiday season! The Broadcast Booth will be back for 2020 starting the week of Jan. 6th, and should be back to its earlier more frequent schedule. Thanks for your support over the years!
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Friday, December 6, 2019
Why Aren't Viewers Jumping Through Hoops?
It's only just over one month in to the NBA regular season, but league officials are most likely to be very concerned about the drop in ratings at both the national and local levels. Circumstances such as the decline of the Warriors and rough starts by New York (Knicks) and Chicago are likely contributors at the national ratings level. Not having Steph Curry and the dominating Warriors on the national game seemingly every week does hurt.
However, it is also possible that the decision to move up the start of the regular season competing with the first two nights of the World Series also contributed. The rumors about possible major adjustments to the regular season schedule moving forward, while only speculation, might have made some casual fans think twice about how closely to follow early regular season games.
One consideration which should be noted is that the NBA no longer has its "permanent" time for a national showcase. Having a full season Thursday night NFL package, along with the NCAA tournament in March, has combined to destroy the consistency which TNT enjoyed for years of Thursday nights being for NBA telecasts. ESPN features college games and is not consistent with doubleheaders on Wednesday and Friday like they used to be.
It is still too soon for the ABC package of Saturday night and Sunday afternoon games to kick in, although their Sunday package has become inconsistent over the past couple of seasons as well. Not having a consistent or regular day and time for national games is more important than the networks realize. Let's keep an eye on how the ratings go as the season develops.
Speaking of ratings, the local NFL telecast ratings for the NYC market for this coming Sunday (12/8) could be very interesting for the early game. CBS airs the Jets vs. Dolphins locally. To be nice, this is not the most meaningful football game available. Fox will be airing the San Francisco vs. New Orleans battle of two of the NFC powerhouses at the same time. The NFL should be pleased that an "out of town" game figures to be the bigger draw.
On the MLB side, fans holding out hope for more 'over the air' telecasts face still another struggle after the announcement that teams can now control their own live streaming rights. (This had been controlled by MLB until now.) Although the stipulation is that only "in market" streaming falls under this policy, it allows for teams to make deals with tech companies beyond the regional sports network. Whether or not this happens depends upon the terms of the current contract between local teams and their regional networks.
One example could very well be Amazon, which earlier this year purchased 15% of YES Network. This situation could lead to more such opportunities for the larger market teams that have a larger metro audience to serve.
NEW YORK: As of press time, still no definite announcement on how WFAN will replace its afternoon show now that Mike Francesa has left as full-time host. Although Francesa could remain as a contributor on the station, it appears that whoever the host will be will not start until the week of January 6th. Evan Roberts is expected to be a part of the new afternoon show, which will begin against increasingly strong competition from The Michael Kay Show on WEPN.
SAN FRANCISCO: The KNBR 680 broadcast of the big 49ers game against New Orleans on Sunday will be without long time analyst Tim Ryan. The team suspended Ryan for (at least) this week's broadcast following racially insensitive remarks Ryan made while appearing on the station's Murph & Mac morning show while discussing Ravens QB Lamar Jackson.
KANSAS CITY: The Chiefs will have a new flagship radio station starting with the 2020 season, which will be WDAF-FM 106.5 The Wolf. Mitch Holthus will be back as play-by-play voice, making 2020 his 27th season of calling the games. Sister station KCSP Sports Radio 610 will air the surrounding programming, including the coach and QB shows and weekly press conferences.
However, it is also possible that the decision to move up the start of the regular season competing with the first two nights of the World Series also contributed. The rumors about possible major adjustments to the regular season schedule moving forward, while only speculation, might have made some casual fans think twice about how closely to follow early regular season games.
One consideration which should be noted is that the NBA no longer has its "permanent" time for a national showcase. Having a full season Thursday night NFL package, along with the NCAA tournament in March, has combined to destroy the consistency which TNT enjoyed for years of Thursday nights being for NBA telecasts. ESPN features college games and is not consistent with doubleheaders on Wednesday and Friday like they used to be.
It is still too soon for the ABC package of Saturday night and Sunday afternoon games to kick in, although their Sunday package has become inconsistent over the past couple of seasons as well. Not having a consistent or regular day and time for national games is more important than the networks realize. Let's keep an eye on how the ratings go as the season develops.
Speaking of ratings, the local NFL telecast ratings for the NYC market for this coming Sunday (12/8) could be very interesting for the early game. CBS airs the Jets vs. Dolphins locally. To be nice, this is not the most meaningful football game available. Fox will be airing the San Francisco vs. New Orleans battle of two of the NFC powerhouses at the same time. The NFL should be pleased that an "out of town" game figures to be the bigger draw.
On the MLB side, fans holding out hope for more 'over the air' telecasts face still another struggle after the announcement that teams can now control their own live streaming rights. (This had been controlled by MLB until now.) Although the stipulation is that only "in market" streaming falls under this policy, it allows for teams to make deals with tech companies beyond the regional sports network. Whether or not this happens depends upon the terms of the current contract between local teams and their regional networks.
One example could very well be Amazon, which earlier this year purchased 15% of YES Network. This situation could lead to more such opportunities for the larger market teams that have a larger metro audience to serve.
NEW YORK: As of press time, still no definite announcement on how WFAN will replace its afternoon show now that Mike Francesa has left as full-time host. Although Francesa could remain as a contributor on the station, it appears that whoever the host will be will not start until the week of January 6th. Evan Roberts is expected to be a part of the new afternoon show, which will begin against increasingly strong competition from The Michael Kay Show on WEPN.
SAN FRANCISCO: The KNBR 680 broadcast of the big 49ers game against New Orleans on Sunday will be without long time analyst Tim Ryan. The team suspended Ryan for (at least) this week's broadcast following racially insensitive remarks Ryan made while appearing on the station's Murph & Mac morning show while discussing Ravens QB Lamar Jackson.
KANSAS CITY: The Chiefs will have a new flagship radio station starting with the 2020 season, which will be WDAF-FM 106.5 The Wolf. Mitch Holthus will be back as play-by-play voice, making 2020 his 27th season of calling the games. Sister station KCSP Sports Radio 610 will air the surrounding programming, including the coach and QB shows and weekly press conferences.
Friday, October 25, 2019
Jumping Through Hoops For TV Choices
The major pro sports leagues are generally not directly tied in with what goes on in the media, but this week provides a solid example of why they should be. They all make a large percentage of their revenue from the television rights. Rights fees which are ultimately passed along to sports fans, and millions of non-sports fans, via the increased costs for cable/satellite providers so we can watch.
From a logistical standpoint, it's easy to understand the NBA deciding to begin the regular season a week sooner than in the past. This allows them to spread out the schedule a bit more and get an earlier start on the playoffs.
However, from an intelligence standpoint, there are plenty of reasons to question the timing. The game nights for the 2019 World Series were announced months before the NBA regular season schedule came out. What this means is that the NBA knowingly put its two opening nights (one for a couple of spotlight games, the second for the majority of the teams) up against Games 1 and 2 of the MLB World Series.
Some will defend this by arguing that the demographics that watch the NBA are not as excited about watching the World Series as they used to be. While that is a reasonable argument, the point is that it forced many fans into making a choice. Under the previous opening games for the NBA season, they may or may not fall up against Game 6 and/or 7 of the WS. At least they have the chance of being unopposed. This week, however, only inclement weather would have put the NBA openers on unopposed.
Before arguing that the ratings have been less than stellar (to put it diplomatically) for the first two Astros vs. Nationals matchups, this is not appropriate for this discussion. The Nationals simply do not have the fan base outside of D.C., nor the tradition of generation after generation. There was a large possibility that the Dodgers or Cardinals, two teams with large fan bases, could have been playing on Tuesday and Wednesday. They would have also gone on against the NBA doubleheaders.
Granted, the prime time sports landscape is more limited for the NBA than in the past. There were many years when the NBA did not have to worry about NFL games on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays taking up three nights of prime time.
Fans of more than one sport shouldn't have to jump through hoops (pun intended) given the increased cost to watch them on TV or devices.
Meanwhile, it was quite the coincidence that both ESPN and Fox Sports lost MLB analysts within hours of each other. The official announcements that Joe Girardi was being hired as Phillies manager and David Ross as Cubs manager came at almost the same time. Girardi leaves his analyst role with Fox Sports (as well as MLB Network), while Ross was providing studio and game analysis for ESPN for the past couple of seasons.
CHICAGO: Regional network NBC Sports Chicago, which now is making a big promotional splash about being the exclusive local home for Blackhawks and Bulls telecasts this season, needs to stand behind their coverage. Specifically when it comes to their streaming of the games.
On Oct. 18th, the Blackhawks game against Columbus was going into overtime, and I received their text alert to that effect on my phone. Not being near a TV, I went to their app to watch. All I got in two attempts was the opening of their pre-game show introducing the telecast, and not the live stream of overtime.
Then, on Oct. 23rd, while using their phone app to watch (or try to watch) the final few minutes of the Bulls regular season opener against Charlotte, their stream was working. However, the stream contains different commercials than the actual telecast, and adds more of them. Because of this, an entire scoring play out of a time out was missed on the stream with about 90 seconds remaining.
The game went down to the last few seconds. A time out was called with a few seconds remaining. The stream feed ran an extra batch of commercials. Sure enough, when it returned to the stream, we got the final score as part of their sign off, since they failed to show the last few seconds which decided the game.
Fans are paying increased fees to be able to view the games via cable/satellite and on their devices. It is not a privilege. If they must oversell the advertising, let the advertisers pay our fees and give us what is promised.
INDIANAPOLIS: Scott Pollard and Charlie Clifford served as Noon to 3 PM co-hosts on WFNI The Fan 1070 all week, but only as a replacement. Dan Dakich was off, but for the purpose of serving a five day suspension by station management. No public reason was given for the suspension, with the only announcement being that "a failure last year on Dan's part to adhere to journalistic principles".
Have to wonder if the infraction happened all those months ago why a suspension was not invoked until this week.
Dakich has been with WFNI for more than nine years.
From a logistical standpoint, it's easy to understand the NBA deciding to begin the regular season a week sooner than in the past. This allows them to spread out the schedule a bit more and get an earlier start on the playoffs.
However, from an intelligence standpoint, there are plenty of reasons to question the timing. The game nights for the 2019 World Series were announced months before the NBA regular season schedule came out. What this means is that the NBA knowingly put its two opening nights (one for a couple of spotlight games, the second for the majority of the teams) up against Games 1 and 2 of the MLB World Series.
Some will defend this by arguing that the demographics that watch the NBA are not as excited about watching the World Series as they used to be. While that is a reasonable argument, the point is that it forced many fans into making a choice. Under the previous opening games for the NBA season, they may or may not fall up against Game 6 and/or 7 of the WS. At least they have the chance of being unopposed. This week, however, only inclement weather would have put the NBA openers on unopposed.
Before arguing that the ratings have been less than stellar (to put it diplomatically) for the first two Astros vs. Nationals matchups, this is not appropriate for this discussion. The Nationals simply do not have the fan base outside of D.C., nor the tradition of generation after generation. There was a large possibility that the Dodgers or Cardinals, two teams with large fan bases, could have been playing on Tuesday and Wednesday. They would have also gone on against the NBA doubleheaders.
Granted, the prime time sports landscape is more limited for the NBA than in the past. There were many years when the NBA did not have to worry about NFL games on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays taking up three nights of prime time.
Fans of more than one sport shouldn't have to jump through hoops (pun intended) given the increased cost to watch them on TV or devices.
Meanwhile, it was quite the coincidence that both ESPN and Fox Sports lost MLB analysts within hours of each other. The official announcements that Joe Girardi was being hired as Phillies manager and David Ross as Cubs manager came at almost the same time. Girardi leaves his analyst role with Fox Sports (as well as MLB Network), while Ross was providing studio and game analysis for ESPN for the past couple of seasons.
CHICAGO: Regional network NBC Sports Chicago, which now is making a big promotional splash about being the exclusive local home for Blackhawks and Bulls telecasts this season, needs to stand behind their coverage. Specifically when it comes to their streaming of the games.
On Oct. 18th, the Blackhawks game against Columbus was going into overtime, and I received their text alert to that effect on my phone. Not being near a TV, I went to their app to watch. All I got in two attempts was the opening of their pre-game show introducing the telecast, and not the live stream of overtime.
Then, on Oct. 23rd, while using their phone app to watch (or try to watch) the final few minutes of the Bulls regular season opener against Charlotte, their stream was working. However, the stream contains different commercials than the actual telecast, and adds more of them. Because of this, an entire scoring play out of a time out was missed on the stream with about 90 seconds remaining.
The game went down to the last few seconds. A time out was called with a few seconds remaining. The stream feed ran an extra batch of commercials. Sure enough, when it returned to the stream, we got the final score as part of their sign off, since they failed to show the last few seconds which decided the game.
Fans are paying increased fees to be able to view the games via cable/satellite and on their devices. It is not a privilege. If they must oversell the advertising, let the advertisers pay our fees and give us what is promised.
INDIANAPOLIS: Scott Pollard and Charlie Clifford served as Noon to 3 PM co-hosts on WFNI The Fan 1070 all week, but only as a replacement. Dan Dakich was off, but for the purpose of serving a five day suspension by station management. No public reason was given for the suspension, with the only announcement being that "a failure last year on Dan's part to adhere to journalistic principles".
Have to wonder if the infraction happened all those months ago why a suspension was not invoked until this week.
Dakich has been with WFNI for more than nine years.
Friday, October 18, 2019
Sinclair Deal Doesn't Get Carried Away
A boost for Sinclair Broadcast Group with the news this week that the Group signed a multi-year deal with AT&T, U-Verse, and DirecTV to have its regional sports networks continue to be carried. Unlike when AT&T and U-verse pulled NFL Network earlier this year over a carry dispute, Sinclair was smart to allow their networks to continue to be carried while these now successful negotiations continued.
In addition to what were the Fox Regional Networks, this extension also includes The Tennis Channel (national) and the YES Network, of which Sinclair became a partner following its purchase from Fox.
Significantly, this new deal also includes Chicago area customers being able to receive Marquee, which is the new Chicago Cubs channel which debuts in February. Marquee will be the exclusive home to Cubs telecasts since no over-the-air deals are being made as of this time. This makes U-verse and DirecTV the first local carriers to commit to airing the network.
As of press time, no word as to the cost structure for consumers, such as if all subscribers will be "forced" into paying more or if the channel will be offered as a separate option. The only other Chicago area carrier to take Marquee prior to this announcement was Charter Communications, which has a slice of the market. Comcast (Xfinity) is the area's largest carrier, but owns a portion of NBC Sports Chicago, which airs the White Sox games, along with the Chicago Blackhawks and Bulls.
Now it becomes interesting to see how aggressive Comcast will be toward adding Marquee to its system, and at what cost to its customer base if and when it does. The fact that most Cubs fans subscribed to Xfinity will have an option to switch away should make for interesting negotiations.
Many have been wondering if the Chicago Cubs channel would go the way of YES in New York, getting plenty of coverage, or the way of the Dodgers in L.A. with most of the market holding off due to the financial implications for customers.
SAN FRANCISCO: KNBR AM-FM has added former Warriors great Chris Mullin to its coverage of the team, with the regular season getting under way next week. To start, Mullin will not have a specific air shift, serving as an on air contributor throughout the various local programs.
HOUSTON: It's a rare case of air talent "winning out", but that's what just happened for Rick Kamla. Kamla joined KILT 610 as afternoon drive co-host less than three months ago, coming over from WZGC-FM The Game in Atlanta (as well as working on NBA TV). Kamla's show replaced "Lord & Penergast" and lost even more in the ratings over the couple of months. (Sean Pendergast continues in his morning drive role with Seth Payne, while Rich Lord was not renewed.)
Kamla managed to get hired by SiriusXM Radio for its NBA Channel starting in time for the new season. As of press time, no word on a replacement from KILT.
MIAMI: Greg Likens is out at 790 The Ticket, announcing his decision to leave at the end of his October 6th show, and following more than 10 years in the market. Likens also was part of The Joe Rose Show mornings on WQAM along with hosting Dolphins content for the team.
MILWAUKEE: 105.7 The Fan has dropped its sports headlines updates after 10 AM which had been running twice per hour, stating that doing so allows more time for their hosts. Other sports stations in other markets also owned by Entercom have also begun this trend in recent months.
What this means is that their sports stations are making it more difficult to get the sports "news" of the day at a scheduled time. They act as though sports fans would rather hear some fan commenting about his favorite team's offensive line than hear about an injury which could impact a fantasy pick or a favorite team's status for the next game.
The "argument" is that fans get the injury and transaction news on their phone and various other sources. Although that is true, station management overlooks that fans can also get fan opinions on every social media outlet and hundreds of podcasts on demand, without having to listen to the local sports station which is now delivering less of what they want.
PORTLAND: With the NBA regular season starting next week, the Blazers radio broadcast is perhaps the most significant of changes from last season. It won't be the same without Brian Wheeler, who is no longer calling play-by-play, as he did for the previous 21 seasons. Wheeler was not retained, most likely due to health issues which caused him to miss parts of the past few seasons.
Travis Demers will call the game on 620 AM, with Michael Holton as the new analyst (in addition to his TV studio work surrounding home games).
In addition to what were the Fox Regional Networks, this extension also includes The Tennis Channel (national) and the YES Network, of which Sinclair became a partner following its purchase from Fox.
Significantly, this new deal also includes Chicago area customers being able to receive Marquee, which is the new Chicago Cubs channel which debuts in February. Marquee will be the exclusive home to Cubs telecasts since no over-the-air deals are being made as of this time. This makes U-verse and DirecTV the first local carriers to commit to airing the network.
As of press time, no word as to the cost structure for consumers, such as if all subscribers will be "forced" into paying more or if the channel will be offered as a separate option. The only other Chicago area carrier to take Marquee prior to this announcement was Charter Communications, which has a slice of the market. Comcast (Xfinity) is the area's largest carrier, but owns a portion of NBC Sports Chicago, which airs the White Sox games, along with the Chicago Blackhawks and Bulls.
Now it becomes interesting to see how aggressive Comcast will be toward adding Marquee to its system, and at what cost to its customer base if and when it does. The fact that most Cubs fans subscribed to Xfinity will have an option to switch away should make for interesting negotiations.
Many have been wondering if the Chicago Cubs channel would go the way of YES in New York, getting plenty of coverage, or the way of the Dodgers in L.A. with most of the market holding off due to the financial implications for customers.
SAN FRANCISCO: KNBR AM-FM has added former Warriors great Chris Mullin to its coverage of the team, with the regular season getting under way next week. To start, Mullin will not have a specific air shift, serving as an on air contributor throughout the various local programs.
HOUSTON: It's a rare case of air talent "winning out", but that's what just happened for Rick Kamla. Kamla joined KILT 610 as afternoon drive co-host less than three months ago, coming over from WZGC-FM The Game in Atlanta (as well as working on NBA TV). Kamla's show replaced "Lord & Penergast" and lost even more in the ratings over the couple of months. (Sean Pendergast continues in his morning drive role with Seth Payne, while Rich Lord was not renewed.)
Kamla managed to get hired by SiriusXM Radio for its NBA Channel starting in time for the new season. As of press time, no word on a replacement from KILT.
MIAMI: Greg Likens is out at 790 The Ticket, announcing his decision to leave at the end of his October 6th show, and following more than 10 years in the market. Likens also was part of The Joe Rose Show mornings on WQAM along with hosting Dolphins content for the team.
MILWAUKEE: 105.7 The Fan has dropped its sports headlines updates after 10 AM which had been running twice per hour, stating that doing so allows more time for their hosts. Other sports stations in other markets also owned by Entercom have also begun this trend in recent months.
What this means is that their sports stations are making it more difficult to get the sports "news" of the day at a scheduled time. They act as though sports fans would rather hear some fan commenting about his favorite team's offensive line than hear about an injury which could impact a fantasy pick or a favorite team's status for the next game.
The "argument" is that fans get the injury and transaction news on their phone and various other sources. Although that is true, station management overlooks that fans can also get fan opinions on every social media outlet and hundreds of podcasts on demand, without having to listen to the local sports station which is now delivering less of what they want.
PORTLAND: With the NBA regular season starting next week, the Blazers radio broadcast is perhaps the most significant of changes from last season. It won't be the same without Brian Wheeler, who is no longer calling play-by-play, as he did for the previous 21 seasons. Wheeler was not retained, most likely due to health issues which caused him to miss parts of the past few seasons.
Travis Demers will call the game on 620 AM, with Michael Holton as the new analyst (in addition to his TV studio work surrounding home games).
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Bulls Broadcasts To Be In A Funk One More Season
Another week, another announcement in sports media about disputes between sports networks and cable/satellite providers. There was actually a news release over this past weekend to let people know that Fox Sports, as well as local Fox over the air stations, were "restored" to Dish Network.
In the early years of cable, providers were required to be approved by each local municipality because of their service to the community. In recent years, the paying subscribers have zero say in whether or not certain channels are renewed or dropped, regardless of their impact on the monthly costs.
Sports fans suffer enough with increased costs to watch games on TV and/or devices without having to watch the news to find out whether or not they can enjoy certain sports events and programs on their intended provider. There ought to be a regulation saying that when it happens that providers and networks/channels don't agree, everything stays the same.
One thing that won't stay the same will be the TV voice heard by Chicago Bulls fans after the new NBA season. After 43 seasons of calling NBA games, Neil Funk has announced that this will be his final season. Funk joined the Bulls for the 1991-92 season, which was right after the franchise's very first championship with Michael Jordan. Like last season, Neil will be doing a reduced work load, calling all available home games (not on national TV) and roughly half of the road schedule. No word yet on a replacement, but the word is that radio voice Chuck Swirsky will shift over to the TV side starting next season.
CHICAGO: It remains to be heard whether or not WMVP ESPN 1000 will be able to increase its overall audience and more favorably compete with WSCR The Score 670, but the effort is coming from the new management ESPN has brought in. The group brought in Mike Thomas to be Market Manager for Chicago. Thomas comes from WBZ-FM Sports Hub in Boston, one of the nation's most successful sports stations over the past 10 years. Thomas plans to remain with WBZ-FM in a consulting role to help transition to his eventual replacement.
WMVP faces the challenge of not having any significant local play-by-play. The Cubs and Bulls air on WSCR 670, the Bears on WBBM 780, and the Blackhawks and White Sox on WGN 720.
CINCINNATI: It won't be easy to have a new radio voice of the Reds starting next season after 46 years of Marty Brennaman doing the honors. In a surprisingly low key announcement, the Reds made it official that Tommy Thrall will take over the lead role, continuing to work with Jeff Brantley. Thrall has already been a part of the Reds broadcasts, thus making for an easier transition.
SAN FRANCISCO: KTCT-AM 1050 has become the flagship station for University of San Francisco basketball starting with the coming season. Pat Olson has been named play-by-play voice.
PITTSBURGH: AT&T SportsNet has extended its agreement to show every Pirates game it can (at least 150 per year) as part of its multi-year extension. No replacement has been named (as of press time) for Steve Blass, who retired from the booth after this season, and after 60 years in the Pirates organization. Maybe that is fitting. It's hard to think that anyone could replace Blass and all he did for the team. Of course, there will be a new member added to the broadcast team at some point during this off season.
DENVER: Former Broncos tackle Tyler Polumbus has joined the afternoon show on KKFN The Fan 104.3. Polumbus will work with Darren McKee and Nick Ferguson, replacing Tom Nalen, who is no longer with the station.
In the early years of cable, providers were required to be approved by each local municipality because of their service to the community. In recent years, the paying subscribers have zero say in whether or not certain channels are renewed or dropped, regardless of their impact on the monthly costs.
Sports fans suffer enough with increased costs to watch games on TV and/or devices without having to watch the news to find out whether or not they can enjoy certain sports events and programs on their intended provider. There ought to be a regulation saying that when it happens that providers and networks/channels don't agree, everything stays the same.
One thing that won't stay the same will be the TV voice heard by Chicago Bulls fans after the new NBA season. After 43 seasons of calling NBA games, Neil Funk has announced that this will be his final season. Funk joined the Bulls for the 1991-92 season, which was right after the franchise's very first championship with Michael Jordan. Like last season, Neil will be doing a reduced work load, calling all available home games (not on national TV) and roughly half of the road schedule. No word yet on a replacement, but the word is that radio voice Chuck Swirsky will shift over to the TV side starting next season.
CHICAGO: It remains to be heard whether or not WMVP ESPN 1000 will be able to increase its overall audience and more favorably compete with WSCR The Score 670, but the effort is coming from the new management ESPN has brought in. The group brought in Mike Thomas to be Market Manager for Chicago. Thomas comes from WBZ-FM Sports Hub in Boston, one of the nation's most successful sports stations over the past 10 years. Thomas plans to remain with WBZ-FM in a consulting role to help transition to his eventual replacement.
WMVP faces the challenge of not having any significant local play-by-play. The Cubs and Bulls air on WSCR 670, the Bears on WBBM 780, and the Blackhawks and White Sox on WGN 720.
CINCINNATI: It won't be easy to have a new radio voice of the Reds starting next season after 46 years of Marty Brennaman doing the honors. In a surprisingly low key announcement, the Reds made it official that Tommy Thrall will take over the lead role, continuing to work with Jeff Brantley. Thrall has already been a part of the Reds broadcasts, thus making for an easier transition.
SAN FRANCISCO: KTCT-AM 1050 has become the flagship station for University of San Francisco basketball starting with the coming season. Pat Olson has been named play-by-play voice.
PITTSBURGH: AT&T SportsNet has extended its agreement to show every Pirates game it can (at least 150 per year) as part of its multi-year extension. No replacement has been named (as of press time) for Steve Blass, who retired from the booth after this season, and after 60 years in the Pirates organization. Maybe that is fitting. It's hard to think that anyone could replace Blass and all he did for the team. Of course, there will be a new member added to the broadcast team at some point during this off season.
DENVER: Former Broncos tackle Tyler Polumbus has joined the afternoon show on KKFN The Fan 104.3. Polumbus will work with Darren McKee and Nick Ferguson, replacing Tom Nalen, who is no longer with the station.
Thursday, August 15, 2019
Why We Should Pass On Pub Pass
The announcement earlier this week that NBC Sports is partnering with AEG to create "NBC Sports Pub Pass" is an alarming one for sports fans for a number of reasons.
Although this platform will start out with 140 Premier League soccer matches, additional cycling race coverage (such as Tour de France), and at least 185 Rugby World Cup and Premiership Rugby matches, this could lead to still more sports telecasts becoming a part of this.
Pub Pass is designed to only be shown in what it terms "retail pub and restaurant establishments providing live international sports for their patrons".
Here is NBC Sports telling fans that they will have to go to a restaurant or pub to watch certain events. Events we won't get at home? The same fans who pay rising cable, satellite, or streaming fees to see the live events they have the rights to. From one of the many sports networks which fill up hours every day of meaningless programing which is not always sports related.
Don't think for one minute that we have nothing to worry about since this is "only" for international sporting events. If this concept shows any degree of success, we all know this could expand to the major U.S. sports. It's not like NBC Sports (or any of the other networks that start doing this) will lower residential subscription bills to help with our restaurant costs.
This may seem unrelated, but it falls under the same heading of sports fans (and millions of consumers who are not) being gouged to be able to watch their favorite sports events at home. The L.A. Dodgers still lack TV coverage in 70% of their local market. They have added five late season telecasts to be simulcast on KTLA Channel 5. The Dodgers have no control over the YouTube live streams which include the Dodgers, which include the Sept. 17th home game vs. Tampa Bay. The Dodgers vs. the Yankees upcoming on Aug. 23rd will be available via Facebook.
There has been little mention of how the Dodgers' TV Network does not even offer streaming of its telecasts to the few subscribers they have. Around the country, most of the Fox regional and NBC Sports regional networks offer free streaming to authorized subscribers. This includes the L.A. Angels, whose games can easily be streamed (locally) via the Fox Sports app.
As of now, Dish Network no longer carries any of the 21 Fox Sports regional networks. Dish chairman Charlie Ergen was quoted in Ad Age as saying that it "does not look good that the regional sports will ever be on Dish again". Although that is nothing but a bargaining plea, there is a point to be made.
While this takes place, the Chicago Cubs prepare to launch their own regional network, Marquee Sports, in February. A Comcast official was recently quoted as saying that the Chicago dominant cable provider "had nothing to report" regarding the possibility of carrying the new network.
Although Fox Sports does not get to begin its Thursday Night NFL package at the start of the season, part of its MLB deal includes airing baseball in prime time in September instead. Fox will air Atlanta vs. Philadelphia on Sept. 12 and St. Louis vs. Chicago Cubs on Sept. 19th. To get the jump on the night's NFL game, these games will begin at 7:15 ET.
NEW YORK: Two baseball play-by-play voices in the news. Congrats to Howie Rose on his upcoming induction into the New York State Baseball Hall of Fame on Nov. 3rd. Howie now serves as the Mets radio voice in the first of the team's seven year contract with WCBS 880. His time with the Mets goes back to 1987 to 1995 when he hosted pre and post-game coverage on WFAN before taking over on TV from 1996 to 2003. In addition, Rose called Islanders hockey for Fox Sports New York from 1995 to 2016.
The N Y Post reports that Michael Kay is about to return to the Yankees TV booth upon his recovery from vocal chord surgery. Ryan Rucco will continue to fill in for Kay until his return.
CHICAGO: Talk about technical difficulties! During its August 14th telecast of the Cubs vs. Phillies game, NBC Sports Chicago was losing its feed, going to a black screen except for the NBC Sports Chicago Logo. After a couple of minutes of the game feed dropping in an out, a scroll came across the screen. It said "We apologize for the technical difficulties. Stand by for Blackhawks hockey". While their first Blackhawks telecast remains more than a month away, the baseball feed did return seconds after that.
VSiN, the sports betting network with Brent Musberger, will have its "Sunday Preview" show in Chicago on WLS 890 on Saturdays from 6:30 to 8:30 PM along with airing weeknight updates at 6:58 PM. This will be unless pre-empted for University of Illinois football and basketball broadcasts. The VSiN programming expands and moves over from WSCR 670.
Bears fans will have NFL Network's Kyle Brandt on the play-by-play call for the Aug. 29th preseason local telecast. Adam Amin, who calls the other local pre-season games, will be calling the UCLA vs. Cincinnati game on ESPN that night.
DALLAS: KRLD-FM 105.3 The Fan has scrambled its midday and afternoon lineup, which begins on Monday (8/19). Ben & Skin (Ben Rogers and Jeff 'Skin' Wade) shift to 10 AM to 2 PM. GBag Nation with Gavin Dawson, Jeff Cavanaugh, and Lucious Alexander will continue to air for five hours, now from 2 to 7 PM.
PHOENIX: After years of being shuffled to other frequencies due to play-by-play conflicts, the AZ Coyotes finally have a flagship station which makes them the priority. Bob Heethuis and Paul Bissonnette will be calling the games on KGME Sports 910.
CHARLOTTE: Just in time for the exhibition games, the Panthers radio network announced its new analysts, replacing Eugene Robinson. Former QB Jake Delhomme did not wish to do the entire season, but has been hired to do all home games and only the road games from Houston and New Orleans for this season. Former tackle Jordan Gross will serve as analyst for the remaining road games. Mick Mixon is beginning his 15th season on play-by-play. WBT 1110 continues as the flagship station.
SALT LAKE: Spence Checketts returns to the local airwaves after a year and one-half absence. Starting on Monday (8/19), he will be hosting 2 to 6 PM on ESPN 700. Checketts is the son of former Utah Jazz and N Y Knicks President Dave Checketts.
NASHVILLE: WSM 650 returned to full-time country music this week, dropping George Plaster's afternoon drive sports talk show experiment after only one month.
COLUMBIA SC: Chris Miller has been named new host for University of South Carolina football pre and post-game coverage. The pre-game show runs for three hours prior to kickoff. He replaces Jay Philips, who held the role for 17 years, but continues his weekday how on 107.5 The Game.
OMAHA: 1620 The Zone has brought back Mike Severe after a five year absence. He will co-host mornings with Damon Benning, the former University of Nebraska football standout. Gary Sharp moves out of mornings and into the midday spot. Also, University of Nebraska at Omaha basketball and hockey games will continue on 1180 The Zone 2 under a just extended agreement.
BANGOR: 92.9 The Ticket debuts a new early morning show with Wayne Harvey on Monday (8/19). Harvey will host "The Morning Line" from 6 to 8 AM, drawing from his 26 years of local radio and TV experience.
Although this platform will start out with 140 Premier League soccer matches, additional cycling race coverage (such as Tour de France), and at least 185 Rugby World Cup and Premiership Rugby matches, this could lead to still more sports telecasts becoming a part of this.
Pub Pass is designed to only be shown in what it terms "retail pub and restaurant establishments providing live international sports for their patrons".
Here is NBC Sports telling fans that they will have to go to a restaurant or pub to watch certain events. Events we won't get at home? The same fans who pay rising cable, satellite, or streaming fees to see the live events they have the rights to. From one of the many sports networks which fill up hours every day of meaningless programing which is not always sports related.
Don't think for one minute that we have nothing to worry about since this is "only" for international sporting events. If this concept shows any degree of success, we all know this could expand to the major U.S. sports. It's not like NBC Sports (or any of the other networks that start doing this) will lower residential subscription bills to help with our restaurant costs.
This may seem unrelated, but it falls under the same heading of sports fans (and millions of consumers who are not) being gouged to be able to watch their favorite sports events at home. The L.A. Dodgers still lack TV coverage in 70% of their local market. They have added five late season telecasts to be simulcast on KTLA Channel 5. The Dodgers have no control over the YouTube live streams which include the Dodgers, which include the Sept. 17th home game vs. Tampa Bay. The Dodgers vs. the Yankees upcoming on Aug. 23rd will be available via Facebook.
There has been little mention of how the Dodgers' TV Network does not even offer streaming of its telecasts to the few subscribers they have. Around the country, most of the Fox regional and NBC Sports regional networks offer free streaming to authorized subscribers. This includes the L.A. Angels, whose games can easily be streamed (locally) via the Fox Sports app.
As of now, Dish Network no longer carries any of the 21 Fox Sports regional networks. Dish chairman Charlie Ergen was quoted in Ad Age as saying that it "does not look good that the regional sports will ever be on Dish again". Although that is nothing but a bargaining plea, there is a point to be made.
While this takes place, the Chicago Cubs prepare to launch their own regional network, Marquee Sports, in February. A Comcast official was recently quoted as saying that the Chicago dominant cable provider "had nothing to report" regarding the possibility of carrying the new network.
Although Fox Sports does not get to begin its Thursday Night NFL package at the start of the season, part of its MLB deal includes airing baseball in prime time in September instead. Fox will air Atlanta vs. Philadelphia on Sept. 12 and St. Louis vs. Chicago Cubs on Sept. 19th. To get the jump on the night's NFL game, these games will begin at 7:15 ET.
NEW YORK: Two baseball play-by-play voices in the news. Congrats to Howie Rose on his upcoming induction into the New York State Baseball Hall of Fame on Nov. 3rd. Howie now serves as the Mets radio voice in the first of the team's seven year contract with WCBS 880. His time with the Mets goes back to 1987 to 1995 when he hosted pre and post-game coverage on WFAN before taking over on TV from 1996 to 2003. In addition, Rose called Islanders hockey for Fox Sports New York from 1995 to 2016.
The N Y Post reports that Michael Kay is about to return to the Yankees TV booth upon his recovery from vocal chord surgery. Ryan Rucco will continue to fill in for Kay until his return.
CHICAGO: Talk about technical difficulties! During its August 14th telecast of the Cubs vs. Phillies game, NBC Sports Chicago was losing its feed, going to a black screen except for the NBC Sports Chicago Logo. After a couple of minutes of the game feed dropping in an out, a scroll came across the screen. It said "We apologize for the technical difficulties. Stand by for Blackhawks hockey". While their first Blackhawks telecast remains more than a month away, the baseball feed did return seconds after that.
VSiN, the sports betting network with Brent Musberger, will have its "Sunday Preview" show in Chicago on WLS 890 on Saturdays from 6:30 to 8:30 PM along with airing weeknight updates at 6:58 PM. This will be unless pre-empted for University of Illinois football and basketball broadcasts. The VSiN programming expands and moves over from WSCR 670.
Bears fans will have NFL Network's Kyle Brandt on the play-by-play call for the Aug. 29th preseason local telecast. Adam Amin, who calls the other local pre-season games, will be calling the UCLA vs. Cincinnati game on ESPN that night.
DALLAS: KRLD-FM 105.3 The Fan has scrambled its midday and afternoon lineup, which begins on Monday (8/19). Ben & Skin (Ben Rogers and Jeff 'Skin' Wade) shift to 10 AM to 2 PM. GBag Nation with Gavin Dawson, Jeff Cavanaugh, and Lucious Alexander will continue to air for five hours, now from 2 to 7 PM.
PHOENIX: After years of being shuffled to other frequencies due to play-by-play conflicts, the AZ Coyotes finally have a flagship station which makes them the priority. Bob Heethuis and Paul Bissonnette will be calling the games on KGME Sports 910.
CHARLOTTE: Just in time for the exhibition games, the Panthers radio network announced its new analysts, replacing Eugene Robinson. Former QB Jake Delhomme did not wish to do the entire season, but has been hired to do all home games and only the road games from Houston and New Orleans for this season. Former tackle Jordan Gross will serve as analyst for the remaining road games. Mick Mixon is beginning his 15th season on play-by-play. WBT 1110 continues as the flagship station.
SALT LAKE: Spence Checketts returns to the local airwaves after a year and one-half absence. Starting on Monday (8/19), he will be hosting 2 to 6 PM on ESPN 700. Checketts is the son of former Utah Jazz and N Y Knicks President Dave Checketts.
NASHVILLE: WSM 650 returned to full-time country music this week, dropping George Plaster's afternoon drive sports talk show experiment after only one month.
COLUMBIA SC: Chris Miller has been named new host for University of South Carolina football pre and post-game coverage. The pre-game show runs for three hours prior to kickoff. He replaces Jay Philips, who held the role for 17 years, but continues his weekday how on 107.5 The Game.
OMAHA: 1620 The Zone has brought back Mike Severe after a five year absence. He will co-host mornings with Damon Benning, the former University of Nebraska football standout. Gary Sharp moves out of mornings and into the midday spot. Also, University of Nebraska at Omaha basketball and hockey games will continue on 1180 The Zone 2 under a just extended agreement.
BANGOR: 92.9 The Ticket debuts a new early morning show with Wayne Harvey on Monday (8/19). Harvey will host "The Morning Line" from 6 to 8 AM, drawing from his 26 years of local radio and TV experience.
Thursday, August 8, 2019
RAMS & RAIDERS? REALLY?
The start of the full NFL pre-season is upon us. While local ratings for exhibition game telecasts don't mean much (beyond the local markets), one of the Saturday (8/10) games will be an interesting one for viewership. It seems that the L.A. Rams play in Oakland. This bring us one team which recently relocated back to L.A. to a so-so fan base playing in the final pre-season opener for the Raiders while they are still an Oakland team.
With both teams originating their respective telecasts, this game can be seen in almost every northern and southern California market, and beyond. The "beyond" includes Honolulu HI, Reno NV, ,Anchorage AK, and, of course, Las Vegas.
The Raiders pre-season games are carried in Los Angeles (where the team resided for years), obviously in Las Vegas (where they move after this season), and also in Honolulu, which is considered within the California region for local telecasts. The Rams are also carried in Las Vegas and Honolulu.
As a result, this exhibition game will appear with both telecasts airing simultaneously in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Honolulu. The Raiders telecast will be called by Beth Mowins with Rich Gannon, while the Rams telecast will have Andrew Siciliano and Nate Burleson on the call.
Ironically, this first week of exhibition games includes the New York battle with the Jets playing the Giants. The Jets are the road team. Yet, for these two established franchises, the Jets are not offering a telecast, forcing their fans to watch the Giants telecast as called by Bob Papa and Carl Banks. Go figure.
On the radio side, we will undoubtedly see the impact of the return of the NFL in key markets over the following couple of months on the ratings of the sports and flagship stations. Interesting research by industry trade publication Talkers Magazine showed that 57% of sports talk stations in metered markets saw declines from May to June this year. This is during the "height" of the NFL off season.
Four of the NBC Sports regional channels, including Washington and Chicago, are or will be airing "The Daily Line" on weekday afternoons. This is actually a simulcast of the NBC Sports Radio show which began earlier this year, but lacks a presence in the big markets. Michael Jenkins and Tim Murray are the hosts. The regional channels will, of course, preempt when local play-by-play and adjacent programming dictates. The focus of this show is on sports gambling. Although four hours a day on this topic may be a stretch, replacing infomercials, previous day game replays, and other programming which doesn't matter is a step in the right direction.
NEW YORK: The strong presence of WFAN 660 and 101.9 will pay dividends starting this week when play-by-play conflicts occur over the next couple of months. WFAN is the flagship for both the Yankees and Giants. When the teams conflict (which is three times in August and four times in September), the Giants broadcasts will air on 660, while Yankees broadcasts will air on 101.9.
BALTIMORE / D.C.: Bobby Trosset has joined WBAL 1090 and 101.5 as morning sports anchor along with being the station's Ravens reporter.
DC's WSBN ESPN 630, which earlier this year broke away from the news/talk simulcast of WMAL-FM, may need to re-think that decision. The just released ratings book showed the station with the lowest possible overall rating of .1.
MINNEAPOLIS: Mark Rosen, the former WCCO-TV sportscaster, and Kirk Cousins will co-host "Under Center with Kirk Cousins" on KFAN 100.3 each Tuesday at 6 PM starting Sept. 3rd. The weekly episodes will also be made available via Vikings.com. The pair plan to have interviews with other Vikings players on this show.
SAN DIEGO: KLSD 1360 has shuffled its weekday schedule. The Darren Smith Show, with co-host and producer Marty Caswell, moves to Noon to 3 PM. Jon Schaffer moves from the midday show to the Loose Cannons from 3 to 6 PM with Steve Hartman and Rich Ohrnberger. Nick Hardwick goes from midday co-host to the role as the NFL "Insider", including an hour on the Monday and Friday morning Costa & Richards show.
RALEIGH/DURHAM: "SportsChannel8: The Radio Show" started this week on WCMC 99.9 The Fan from 10 AM to Noon. Hayes Permar, Josh Goodson, and Brian Geisinger continue as co-hosts. This addition brings listeners nine hours of local sports programming on weekdays. As a result, the Dan LeBatard Show moves to Buzz Sports Radio, which now airs all three hours instead of only two hours.
MOBILE: WNSP 105.5 begins a new afternoon local sports show from 3 to 6 PM on Monday (8/12), co-hosted by David Schultz and Jordan Glass. Schultz joins WNSP from 103.7 The Game in Lafayette LA, where he had served as Program Director for six years.
With both teams originating their respective telecasts, this game can be seen in almost every northern and southern California market, and beyond. The "beyond" includes Honolulu HI, Reno NV, ,Anchorage AK, and, of course, Las Vegas.
The Raiders pre-season games are carried in Los Angeles (where the team resided for years), obviously in Las Vegas (where they move after this season), and also in Honolulu, which is considered within the California region for local telecasts. The Rams are also carried in Las Vegas and Honolulu.
As a result, this exhibition game will appear with both telecasts airing simultaneously in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Honolulu. The Raiders telecast will be called by Beth Mowins with Rich Gannon, while the Rams telecast will have Andrew Siciliano and Nate Burleson on the call.
Ironically, this first week of exhibition games includes the New York battle with the Jets playing the Giants. The Jets are the road team. Yet, for these two established franchises, the Jets are not offering a telecast, forcing their fans to watch the Giants telecast as called by Bob Papa and Carl Banks. Go figure.
On the radio side, we will undoubtedly see the impact of the return of the NFL in key markets over the following couple of months on the ratings of the sports and flagship stations. Interesting research by industry trade publication Talkers Magazine showed that 57% of sports talk stations in metered markets saw declines from May to June this year. This is during the "height" of the NFL off season.
Four of the NBC Sports regional channels, including Washington and Chicago, are or will be airing "The Daily Line" on weekday afternoons. This is actually a simulcast of the NBC Sports Radio show which began earlier this year, but lacks a presence in the big markets. Michael Jenkins and Tim Murray are the hosts. The regional channels will, of course, preempt when local play-by-play and adjacent programming dictates. The focus of this show is on sports gambling. Although four hours a day on this topic may be a stretch, replacing infomercials, previous day game replays, and other programming which doesn't matter is a step in the right direction.
NEW YORK: The strong presence of WFAN 660 and 101.9 will pay dividends starting this week when play-by-play conflicts occur over the next couple of months. WFAN is the flagship for both the Yankees and Giants. When the teams conflict (which is three times in August and four times in September), the Giants broadcasts will air on 660, while Yankees broadcasts will air on 101.9.
BALTIMORE / D.C.: Bobby Trosset has joined WBAL 1090 and 101.5 as morning sports anchor along with being the station's Ravens reporter.
DC's WSBN ESPN 630, which earlier this year broke away from the news/talk simulcast of WMAL-FM, may need to re-think that decision. The just released ratings book showed the station with the lowest possible overall rating of .1.
MINNEAPOLIS: Mark Rosen, the former WCCO-TV sportscaster, and Kirk Cousins will co-host "Under Center with Kirk Cousins" on KFAN 100.3 each Tuesday at 6 PM starting Sept. 3rd. The weekly episodes will also be made available via Vikings.com. The pair plan to have interviews with other Vikings players on this show.
SAN DIEGO: KLSD 1360 has shuffled its weekday schedule. The Darren Smith Show, with co-host and producer Marty Caswell, moves to Noon to 3 PM. Jon Schaffer moves from the midday show to the Loose Cannons from 3 to 6 PM with Steve Hartman and Rich Ohrnberger. Nick Hardwick goes from midday co-host to the role as the NFL "Insider", including an hour on the Monday and Friday morning Costa & Richards show.
RALEIGH/DURHAM: "SportsChannel8: The Radio Show" started this week on WCMC 99.9 The Fan from 10 AM to Noon. Hayes Permar, Josh Goodson, and Brian Geisinger continue as co-hosts. This addition brings listeners nine hours of local sports programming on weekdays. As a result, the Dan LeBatard Show moves to Buzz Sports Radio, which now airs all three hours instead of only two hours.
MOBILE: WNSP 105.5 begins a new afternoon local sports show from 3 to 6 PM on Monday (8/12), co-hosted by David Schultz and Jordan Glass. Schultz joins WNSP from 103.7 The Game in Lafayette LA, where he had served as Program Director for six years.
Monday, July 15, 2019
Boston Morning Landscape
The seriousness of the sports radio race in Boston came to the forefront with a major change in WEEI-FM's daily schedule. Within hours of the spring ratings showing WEEI-FM slipping to more than 1.5 ratings points behind rival WBZ-FM Sports Hub for overall audience, WEEI-FM changed its morning show.
Management opted to bring the Greg Hill Morning Show over from sister station WAAF. Hill will take over the station's weekly interview segment with Tom Brady. What makes this transition even more significant is that Hill's show will carry over some of the "non sports" programming, including its monthly interview segment with Governor Charlie Baker. Danielle Murr will continue as a co-host. The show begins on WEEI-FM on Monday July 29.
The Greg Hill Morning Show replaces Gerry Callahan, who is out after having been a part of the morning show since 1997. Callahan's contract was to expire in August. His ratings were dropping following the November 2018 departure of Kirk Minihane. Recent co-host Mike Mutansky leaves "Mutt & Callahan" to return to evenings.
Recently released spring ratings show WBZ-FM Sports Hub, even with dropping, at #4 overall in the market, while WEEI-FM came in at #8.
The morning show change for WEEI-FM coincides with the opening of training camp for the Super Bowl champion Patriots.
MINNEAPOLIS: WCCO 850 showed its 4th consecutive ratings increase, which coincides with the tremendous start of the Twins. Although the station is at #9 overall in the market, WCCO finishes as the market's highest rated AM station.
CHICAGO: On the radio side, sports talkers WSCR The Score and WMVP ESPN held steady, with WSCR finishing with more than triple the audience size of WMVP, WSCR remains strong, especially at night, as the Cubs flagship station. WGN Radio also held steady with its overall audience, including White Sox broadcasts.
What makes that interesting is that regional sports network NBC Sports Chicago, which airs the majority of White Sox telecasts, showed a large overall ratings increase this season for its telecasts (before the All-Star break) over last season. In fact, their White Sox ratings are the highest average in five years. Of course, this is the first season in more than 30 years in which Ken Harrelson is not announcing White Sox telecasts.
RALEIGH/DURHAM: Congrats to Carolina Hurricanes play-by-play voice John Forslund on his well deserved contract extension. TV analyst Tripp Tracy was also extended, which means that the coming season will their 21st season together. Forslund will be doing his 25th season of TV play-by-play for the Hurricanes.
In addition, Forslund will continue to call selected regional and national telecasts on the NBC Sports networks during the regular season and post-season.
Management opted to bring the Greg Hill Morning Show over from sister station WAAF. Hill will take over the station's weekly interview segment with Tom Brady. What makes this transition even more significant is that Hill's show will carry over some of the "non sports" programming, including its monthly interview segment with Governor Charlie Baker. Danielle Murr will continue as a co-host. The show begins on WEEI-FM on Monday July 29.
The Greg Hill Morning Show replaces Gerry Callahan, who is out after having been a part of the morning show since 1997. Callahan's contract was to expire in August. His ratings were dropping following the November 2018 departure of Kirk Minihane. Recent co-host Mike Mutansky leaves "Mutt & Callahan" to return to evenings.
Recently released spring ratings show WBZ-FM Sports Hub, even with dropping, at #4 overall in the market, while WEEI-FM came in at #8.
The morning show change for WEEI-FM coincides with the opening of training camp for the Super Bowl champion Patriots.
MINNEAPOLIS: WCCO 850 showed its 4th consecutive ratings increase, which coincides with the tremendous start of the Twins. Although the station is at #9 overall in the market, WCCO finishes as the market's highest rated AM station.
CHICAGO: On the radio side, sports talkers WSCR The Score and WMVP ESPN held steady, with WSCR finishing with more than triple the audience size of WMVP, WSCR remains strong, especially at night, as the Cubs flagship station. WGN Radio also held steady with its overall audience, including White Sox broadcasts.
What makes that interesting is that regional sports network NBC Sports Chicago, which airs the majority of White Sox telecasts, showed a large overall ratings increase this season for its telecasts (before the All-Star break) over last season. In fact, their White Sox ratings are the highest average in five years. Of course, this is the first season in more than 30 years in which Ken Harrelson is not announcing White Sox telecasts.
RALEIGH/DURHAM: Congrats to Carolina Hurricanes play-by-play voice John Forslund on his well deserved contract extension. TV analyst Tripp Tracy was also extended, which means that the coming season will their 21st season together. Forslund will be doing his 25th season of TV play-by-play for the Hurricanes.
In addition, Forslund will continue to call selected regional and national telecasts on the NBC Sports networks during the regular season and post-season.
Friday, June 7, 2019
Toronto In Finals Throws Loops Into Hoops
While the current NBA Finals are shaping up as possibly one of the most interesting series in recent years, the question remains (as of press time, following Game 3) whether or not viewership will increase as the series plays out.
It is not surprising that Game 2 set a record for the most viewed NBA game ever throughout Canada, with the likelihood that more viewing records will be set if there were to be a possible championship clincher for the Raptors. On the U.S. side, Game 3 in prime time produced the lowest ratings for a Game 3 (Finals) telecast since 2013.
Even with the Warriors becoming a nationally recognized brand over the past few years, there is the possibility that many casual fans are "ho hum" about the continuing appearance of the Warriors in the Finals.
However, it could be that ABC could be a victim of the NBA television partners rarely showing the Raptors all season in comparison to the number of games they featured the other contending teams. Since Toronto is not a local market for the U.S. networks, TNT and ESPN went with fewer appearances than normal for a team at or near the top of the Eastern Conference all season.
As a result, we have fewer fans familiar with the talent of the Raptors, while more fans expect the Warriors to win against any opponent. The translation, so far, is in lower ratings for ABC. Even the possibility of sports history of having the NBA champion being a Canada team while a U.S. team wins the Stanley Cup has yet to make a difference in the ratings.
Another reason could be the ratings declines from the regular season for several of the NBA's important markets. It's no surprise that without LeBron James and a contending team that the Cleveland Cavaliers ratings for the season fell by 58%. The NY Knicks' TV ratings fell by 38%, the seemingly always contending San Antonio Spurs ratings fell by roughly 28%, while the Chicago Bulls local ratings dropped by 24%.
Still no word (as of press time) as to what is next from John Hayes, who surprisingly left the Paul Finebaum Show on ESPN Radio and the SEC Network this past week. All indications are that the decision came from Hayes and not from either network. Hayes has been a part-time host on 730 The Game in Charlotte, leading to speculation that he is closing in on a more prominent solo hosting role in Charlotte or elsewhere.
NEW YORK: Great to see Ron Darling back on Mets TV on SNY following his recent treatment for thyroid cancer. It had not been certain that Darling would be able to return for the remainder of this season.
WFAN will have a new overnight host this fall following the announced retirement of Tony Paige. Paige announced that he will wrap up his 2nd stint at WFAN following his Sept. 14th show, ending this run which began in 2003. His retirement comes during the week of his 66th birthday. WFAN also has confirmed that Giants QB Eli Manning will not return for his weekly segment on Mike Francesa's afternoon show this season. This comes along with speculation that Manning's days as the Giants' starting QB may be coming to end.
The short term plans for YES Network are uncertain now that the sale to Disney is expected to close. Reports have YES talking with partners (such as Sinclair Broadcast Group and Amazon, which reportedly lost out in the bidding for the Fox Sports Regional Networks) about acquiring at least a controlling interest in their network. Recent reports also have YES looking to begin a regional or national radio network, possibly involving SiriusXM.
HOUSTON: Paul Gallant is no longer the third man on the morning team at KILT 610, and is no longer with the station after an eight year run. Gallant had moved to share the morning show last year after hosting his own show at night on the station for nearly seven years.
TULSA: The Sports Animal has made a couple of changes to its daytime lineup. R.J. Young has taken over as host from 9 AM to 11 AM, while Erik Gee has joined The Pat Jones Show, which airs from 11 AM to 2 PM. Jones, the former OSU football coach, had been hosting the show solo for the past few weeks. Prior to joining The Sports Animal, Gee spent four years at KRXO 107.7 Oklahoma City.
It is not surprising that Game 2 set a record for the most viewed NBA game ever throughout Canada, with the likelihood that more viewing records will be set if there were to be a possible championship clincher for the Raptors. On the U.S. side, Game 3 in prime time produced the lowest ratings for a Game 3 (Finals) telecast since 2013.
Even with the Warriors becoming a nationally recognized brand over the past few years, there is the possibility that many casual fans are "ho hum" about the continuing appearance of the Warriors in the Finals.
However, it could be that ABC could be a victim of the NBA television partners rarely showing the Raptors all season in comparison to the number of games they featured the other contending teams. Since Toronto is not a local market for the U.S. networks, TNT and ESPN went with fewer appearances than normal for a team at or near the top of the Eastern Conference all season.
As a result, we have fewer fans familiar with the talent of the Raptors, while more fans expect the Warriors to win against any opponent. The translation, so far, is in lower ratings for ABC. Even the possibility of sports history of having the NBA champion being a Canada team while a U.S. team wins the Stanley Cup has yet to make a difference in the ratings.
Another reason could be the ratings declines from the regular season for several of the NBA's important markets. It's no surprise that without LeBron James and a contending team that the Cleveland Cavaliers ratings for the season fell by 58%. The NY Knicks' TV ratings fell by 38%, the seemingly always contending San Antonio Spurs ratings fell by roughly 28%, while the Chicago Bulls local ratings dropped by 24%.
Still no word (as of press time) as to what is next from John Hayes, who surprisingly left the Paul Finebaum Show on ESPN Radio and the SEC Network this past week. All indications are that the decision came from Hayes and not from either network. Hayes has been a part-time host on 730 The Game in Charlotte, leading to speculation that he is closing in on a more prominent solo hosting role in Charlotte or elsewhere.
NEW YORK: Great to see Ron Darling back on Mets TV on SNY following his recent treatment for thyroid cancer. It had not been certain that Darling would be able to return for the remainder of this season.
WFAN will have a new overnight host this fall following the announced retirement of Tony Paige. Paige announced that he will wrap up his 2nd stint at WFAN following his Sept. 14th show, ending this run which began in 2003. His retirement comes during the week of his 66th birthday. WFAN also has confirmed that Giants QB Eli Manning will not return for his weekly segment on Mike Francesa's afternoon show this season. This comes along with speculation that Manning's days as the Giants' starting QB may be coming to end.
The short term plans for YES Network are uncertain now that the sale to Disney is expected to close. Reports have YES talking with partners (such as Sinclair Broadcast Group and Amazon, which reportedly lost out in the bidding for the Fox Sports Regional Networks) about acquiring at least a controlling interest in their network. Recent reports also have YES looking to begin a regional or national radio network, possibly involving SiriusXM.
HOUSTON: Paul Gallant is no longer the third man on the morning team at KILT 610, and is no longer with the station after an eight year run. Gallant had moved to share the morning show last year after hosting his own show at night on the station for nearly seven years.
TULSA: The Sports Animal has made a couple of changes to its daytime lineup. R.J. Young has taken over as host from 9 AM to 11 AM, while Erik Gee has joined The Pat Jones Show, which airs from 11 AM to 2 PM. Jones, the former OSU football coach, had been hosting the show solo for the past few weeks. Prior to joining The Sports Animal, Gee spent four years at KRXO 107.7 Oklahoma City.
Friday, April 26, 2019
Paying Fans Being Sent Up Stream
Like always, this is perhaps the greatest week of viewing and listening for fans of multiple sports with so many choices and so little time. NBCSN was blessed with a pair of Game 7 thrillers in its Stanley Cup coverage, including the double overtime Carolina vs. Washington battle.
Thursday (4/25) featured the extensive NFL Draft coverage, with ABC-TV providing a mostly separate feed from the more "serious" ESPN coverage while NFL Network did its version. Early ratings, available at press time, showed the ABC-TV version with slightly improved ratings over Fox Network's coverage of last year's first round in prime time.
Over at TNT, they had the coincidence of NBA legend Kevin McHale on as the analyst for its Game 6 telecast of the Denver vs. San Antonio first round series, during which the news came that McHale's former teammate and NBA legend John Havlicek has passed away at the age of 79. McHale's heartfelt reaction, understandably, took precedence over much of the 3rd quarter of the telecast.
Kudos to MLB Network for switching its scheduled telecast of Friday (4/26) from the originally scheduled Brewers vs. Mets game to the Oakland at Toronto game which marked the debut of Vlad Guerrero Jr. in a Blue Jays uniform.
However, fans are getting more caught up in the growing controversy regarding the availability of the league owned/operated networks. The potential disaster for fans began last week with the announcement that AT&T is dropping NFL Network from DirecTV Now and U-Verse. The silver lining for fans is that we still have more than three months before the regular season begins.
The NFL is fighting back with AT&T by pulling Sunday Ticket from DirecTV Now, although they have not pulled it from DirecTV. However, the NFL is reportedly trying to make its Sunday Ticket available via more sources than "only" DirecTV. Multiple reports claim the NFL is negotiating with Amazon and Disney (ESPN+) to also be able to offer Sunday Ticket.
This is turning into a high stakes game between the NFL and the networks, although the fans will be the ones to get screwed with even higher costs across the board. The hunch from here is that DirecTV Now and U-Verse will get NFL Network back in return for the NFL being able to take away the DirecTV exclusivity on Sunday ticket. It's the NFL putting the squeeze on by costing AT&T subscribers either way. Fans will leave AT&T to get NFL Network elsewhere, or fans will leave DirecTV if they can get a better deal which includes Sunday Ticket.
There is no precedence for this situation because the NFL is the only one of the four major pro leagues that has had an exclusive with one provider for its extended coverage.
However, MLB is involved in the process of the upcoming sale of the Fox Sports Regional networks, continuing to pursue a part ownership interest in them even though it only involves some of the its teams.
Fox Business reports that Sinclair Broadcasting appears to be the bidding leader for the group of regional networks, while the N Y Post reported that Amazon is proposing a partnership with Sinclair. At the same time, MLB is supposedly in discussions to obtain a minority partnership with Sinclair with regard to the potential purchase and ownership.
The Fox RSN's, which include YES Network (NYC), currently air a total of 44 pro sports teams from MLB, NBA, and the NHL. The winning bidder for this deal also receives streaming rights, which is the reason why Amazon is keeping tabs.
What all this really means is that it shows how the NFL and MLB are working in different ways to keep raising our monthly bills. By involving streaming rights, it becomes a factor in terms of also including the cord cutters by increasing streaming fees.
BOSTON: The Nielsen radio ratings for March into early April show the widest margin between the sports radio rivals WBZ-FM and WEEI-FM in several years. WBZ-FM Sports Hub held steady for a third place finish in total audience. WEEI-FM dropped one-half of a ratings point, falling out of the top 10 (#11 overall), and now with only half of the total audience of WBZ-FM.
Typically, WEEI-FM jumps back up during the summer as flagship station of the Red Sox. However, the team's slow start could be a factor for the current ratings period.
SAN DIEGO: More than two weeks later, still no return of XPRS The Mighty 1090 to the airwaves after its sudden shut down reportedly due to non-payment of station lease fees. The sports station had been in place since 2003 and served as the Padres flagship for 12 seasons through 2016.
Still too soon to tell what will become of its local broadcast rights. The station had been airing both San Diego State football and basketball as well as University of San Diego football and basketball (as its live schedule allowed). In addition, the Mighty 1090 was the San Diego station for the Los Angeles Rams, banking on local fans disowning the Chargers when they relocated in L.A.
Some of the on-air hosts, still under contract to the station, continue to air their shows via the station's web site and app.
Finally, CBS Sports Network continues to show its need for programming and is picking up local feeds of up to 40 WNBA games this summer. These telecasts will be scheduled for times which do not conflict with the ESPN/ABC package of games (which they originate) or NBA-TV's package, from which they (also) air the various local telecasts.
Thursday (4/25) featured the extensive NFL Draft coverage, with ABC-TV providing a mostly separate feed from the more "serious" ESPN coverage while NFL Network did its version. Early ratings, available at press time, showed the ABC-TV version with slightly improved ratings over Fox Network's coverage of last year's first round in prime time.
Over at TNT, they had the coincidence of NBA legend Kevin McHale on as the analyst for its Game 6 telecast of the Denver vs. San Antonio first round series, during which the news came that McHale's former teammate and NBA legend John Havlicek has passed away at the age of 79. McHale's heartfelt reaction, understandably, took precedence over much of the 3rd quarter of the telecast.
Kudos to MLB Network for switching its scheduled telecast of Friday (4/26) from the originally scheduled Brewers vs. Mets game to the Oakland at Toronto game which marked the debut of Vlad Guerrero Jr. in a Blue Jays uniform.
However, fans are getting more caught up in the growing controversy regarding the availability of the league owned/operated networks. The potential disaster for fans began last week with the announcement that AT&T is dropping NFL Network from DirecTV Now and U-Verse. The silver lining for fans is that we still have more than three months before the regular season begins.
The NFL is fighting back with AT&T by pulling Sunday Ticket from DirecTV Now, although they have not pulled it from DirecTV. However, the NFL is reportedly trying to make its Sunday Ticket available via more sources than "only" DirecTV. Multiple reports claim the NFL is negotiating with Amazon and Disney (ESPN+) to also be able to offer Sunday Ticket.
This is turning into a high stakes game between the NFL and the networks, although the fans will be the ones to get screwed with even higher costs across the board. The hunch from here is that DirecTV Now and U-Verse will get NFL Network back in return for the NFL being able to take away the DirecTV exclusivity on Sunday ticket. It's the NFL putting the squeeze on by costing AT&T subscribers either way. Fans will leave AT&T to get NFL Network elsewhere, or fans will leave DirecTV if they can get a better deal which includes Sunday Ticket.
There is no precedence for this situation because the NFL is the only one of the four major pro leagues that has had an exclusive with one provider for its extended coverage.
However, MLB is involved in the process of the upcoming sale of the Fox Sports Regional networks, continuing to pursue a part ownership interest in them even though it only involves some of the its teams.
Fox Business reports that Sinclair Broadcasting appears to be the bidding leader for the group of regional networks, while the N Y Post reported that Amazon is proposing a partnership with Sinclair. At the same time, MLB is supposedly in discussions to obtain a minority partnership with Sinclair with regard to the potential purchase and ownership.
The Fox RSN's, which include YES Network (NYC), currently air a total of 44 pro sports teams from MLB, NBA, and the NHL. The winning bidder for this deal also receives streaming rights, which is the reason why Amazon is keeping tabs.
What all this really means is that it shows how the NFL and MLB are working in different ways to keep raising our monthly bills. By involving streaming rights, it becomes a factor in terms of also including the cord cutters by increasing streaming fees.
BOSTON: The Nielsen radio ratings for March into early April show the widest margin between the sports radio rivals WBZ-FM and WEEI-FM in several years. WBZ-FM Sports Hub held steady for a third place finish in total audience. WEEI-FM dropped one-half of a ratings point, falling out of the top 10 (#11 overall), and now with only half of the total audience of WBZ-FM.
Typically, WEEI-FM jumps back up during the summer as flagship station of the Red Sox. However, the team's slow start could be a factor for the current ratings period.
SAN DIEGO: More than two weeks later, still no return of XPRS The Mighty 1090 to the airwaves after its sudden shut down reportedly due to non-payment of station lease fees. The sports station had been in place since 2003 and served as the Padres flagship for 12 seasons through 2016.
Still too soon to tell what will become of its local broadcast rights. The station had been airing both San Diego State football and basketball as well as University of San Diego football and basketball (as its live schedule allowed). In addition, the Mighty 1090 was the San Diego station for the Los Angeles Rams, banking on local fans disowning the Chargers when they relocated in L.A.
Some of the on-air hosts, still under contract to the station, continue to air their shows via the station's web site and app.
Finally, CBS Sports Network continues to show its need for programming and is picking up local feeds of up to 40 WNBA games this summer. These telecasts will be scheduled for times which do not conflict with the ESPN/ABC package of games (which they originate) or NBA-TV's package, from which they (also) air the various local telecasts.
Thursday, April 4, 2019
Will MLB Out Fox The Others?
One sports media story which bears watching over the next couple of weeks is the fate of the 21 Fox regional sports networks, which will be purchased by a new buyer between April 15th and June 18th.
The RSN's are owned for the short term by Disney, which is required to unload the Fox Sports group due to its ownership of ESPN. (June 18 marks 90 days after the closing on the deal in which Disney purchased 21st Century Fox.)
What makes this so interesting is that Fox Business News reports that Major League Baseball is among the entities bidding on the group.
While it is understandable that MLB would like to generate additional income from monthly subscriptions and advertising revenue from the networks which televise many of its teams, this possibility raises ethical questions. MLB would want for the teams it televises to be competitive to attract ratings and advertisers, but not have these rights for all of the teams.
MLB owns MLB Network, along with MLB-TV. As of now, no pro sports leagues own any regional networks which feature one or more local teams.
The process for this sale includes sealed bids which are binding. The sale price for the group is expected to be between $10 billion and $20 billion. Obviously, there is a lot at stake. Fox Business reported that other bidders include Liberty Media (which owns Sirius/XM, which has MLB radio broadcast rights) and Sinclair Broadcasting, which owns TV stations across the country.
Among the RSN's in the group are Fox Sports South, Fox Sports Ohio, Fox Sports Wisconsin, and Fox Sports Midwest.It is not certain whether entities such as Amazon and Yahoo will submit bids, which need to be done by an April 15th deadline.
Research conducted by Nielsen between August 2018 and January of 2019 shows that ESPN Radio attracted more than 22 million listeners to its live play-by-play events during that time period. The number of listeners account for 9.2% of the population.
What makes this impressive is that their broadcasts are not exclusive in local team markets and were "duplicate" broadcasts. In most cases, such as the college football championship broadcasts, fans prefer the call of the school's broadcaster. Same for all of the MLB post-season games, where the ESPN feed was competing against the regular team broadcasts in local markets as well as their network of regional stations. This time period included the MLB post-season, some NFL regular season games, NBA regular season broadcasts, and select college football regular season games along with the college football playoffs.
There are some analysts pointing to the number of cord-cutters dumping their cable and satellite providers that may be returning to radio broadcasts to keep in touch with the games. How ironic, given the monthly fee ESPN forces upon most subscribers whether they are sports fans or not.
OKLAHOMA CITY: Congratulations to AL Eschbach on being inducted into the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame this week. Eschbach goes back to being named Sports Director of KTOK back in 1976. In the mid-80's he joined WWLS-AM prior to the station becoming a sports station. All these years later he is still on the air, now on WWLS-FM where he joins Jim Traber, Dean Blevins, and Berry Tramel during afternoon drive.
The RSN's are owned for the short term by Disney, which is required to unload the Fox Sports group due to its ownership of ESPN. (June 18 marks 90 days after the closing on the deal in which Disney purchased 21st Century Fox.)
What makes this so interesting is that Fox Business News reports that Major League Baseball is among the entities bidding on the group.
While it is understandable that MLB would like to generate additional income from monthly subscriptions and advertising revenue from the networks which televise many of its teams, this possibility raises ethical questions. MLB would want for the teams it televises to be competitive to attract ratings and advertisers, but not have these rights for all of the teams.
MLB owns MLB Network, along with MLB-TV. As of now, no pro sports leagues own any regional networks which feature one or more local teams.
The process for this sale includes sealed bids which are binding. The sale price for the group is expected to be between $10 billion and $20 billion. Obviously, there is a lot at stake. Fox Business reported that other bidders include Liberty Media (which owns Sirius/XM, which has MLB radio broadcast rights) and Sinclair Broadcasting, which owns TV stations across the country.
Among the RSN's in the group are Fox Sports South, Fox Sports Ohio, Fox Sports Wisconsin, and Fox Sports Midwest.It is not certain whether entities such as Amazon and Yahoo will submit bids, which need to be done by an April 15th deadline.
Research conducted by Nielsen between August 2018 and January of 2019 shows that ESPN Radio attracted more than 22 million listeners to its live play-by-play events during that time period. The number of listeners account for 9.2% of the population.
What makes this impressive is that their broadcasts are not exclusive in local team markets and were "duplicate" broadcasts. In most cases, such as the college football championship broadcasts, fans prefer the call of the school's broadcaster. Same for all of the MLB post-season games, where the ESPN feed was competing against the regular team broadcasts in local markets as well as their network of regional stations. This time period included the MLB post-season, some NFL regular season games, NBA regular season broadcasts, and select college football regular season games along with the college football playoffs.
There are some analysts pointing to the number of cord-cutters dumping their cable and satellite providers that may be returning to radio broadcasts to keep in touch with the games. How ironic, given the monthly fee ESPN forces upon most subscribers whether they are sports fans or not.
OKLAHOMA CITY: Congratulations to AL Eschbach on being inducted into the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame this week. Eschbach goes back to being named Sports Director of KTOK back in 1976. In the mid-80's he joined WWLS-AM prior to the station becoming a sports station. All these years later he is still on the air, now on WWLS-FM where he joins Jim Traber, Dean Blevins, and Berry Tramel during afternoon drive.
Saturday, February 23, 2019
3 NHL Games - 2 Days
Kenny Albert is best known around the country for calling a variety of sports for a number of national networks as needed, but this weekend (Feb. 23/24) he gets the experience of calling three complete NHL games within a 27 hour period, as will his partner Joe Micheletti.
In his 23rd season as radio (and sometimes TV) voice of the New York Rangers, Albert calls the Saturday afternoon Rangers vs. Devils game on WEPN 98.7, with Dave Maloney as his analyst. Micheletti joins another long time local NHL voice, Sam Rosen, in the TV booth.
Once this game is over, Albert and Micheletti head south to Philadelphia, where the pair will handle
the Westwood One national radio broadcast of the Flyers vs. Penguins outdoor game. Not sure how many stations the pair will be heard on, between the infrequent national radio of NHL games and sports stations having NBA and plenty of college broadcasts to choose from, but Albert will call the game regardless.
Following the game in Philly, the two then head south again, this time to Washington D.C. The
Rangers meet the Capitals in an early (12:30 PM ET) Sunday and the pair will call the game for both MSG Network and WEPN Radio. That will make four teams and three full games in three cities within a 27 hour period.
Impressive.
Frankly, it's understandable that ratings dipped again for the NBA All-Star game on TNT last weekend. When it was East vs. West fans could identify with players and teams if they chose to endure the score every chance game. But with the "Let's choose sides" lowering this to a playground pick-up game for millionaires, the ratings dipped even compared to last year, when the telecast went head to head with the Olympics.
Adding to the concern should be that on Wednesday (2/20), the North Carolina vs. Duke college telecast on ESPN finished as the highest regular season telecast on ESPN since 2008, which happened to be the same two teams.
Why does this add to the concern? Because this college telecast also finished with higher ratings than TNT's and ESPN's regular season NBA telecasts thus far, with the exception of Christmas Day, when the NBA airs unopposed.
RATINGS:
The January into early February Nielsen radio ratings were released showing some interesting things in key markets.
In Boston, as expected, WBZ-FM Sports Hub, the flagship station of the Patriots, showed a gain of 1.6 (larger than the ratings of some of the other stations) and finished #2 overall in the market.
WEEI-FM stayed at #6, but it expected to rise back upon the start of the Red Sox season, for which it is the flagship station.
New York's WFAN edged up to #9 overall, while WEPN 98.7 continues its climb despite finishing #20 overall. The afternoon drive battle between Mike Francesa on WFAN and Michael Kay on WEPN has heated up even more, with the two being very close in terms of total audience. It's difficult to say who has the most total audience. While Francesa wins the radio battle, Kay has an equal or greater reach because of most of his show being simulcast on YES Network.
Detroit's WXYT-FM 97.1 The Ticket showed a ratings increase, but so did other stations. Despite a .6 overall ratings increase, the station slipped from #5 to #8 overall. Disappointing seasons from the Pistons and Red Wings aren't helping.
It's a much different story in Minneapolis without the Vikings going deep in the playoffs. KXFN 100.3 The Fan dropped for the third consecutive ratings period and from #6 to #8 overall. KSTP ESPN 1500, however, still has less than one-sixth of the total audience of The Fan.
The major "transplant" markets continue to have poor ratings for their sports outlets.
In L.A., KSPN ESPN 710 showed a decent gain of .5, which only brought it to #25 in the market. KLAC 570, despite airing the Chargers in the playoffs during this rating period and also showing an audience gain, came it at #33 overall. San Diego's KFWN 97.3 The Fan, and KLSD Fox Sports 1360 both showed slight gains. As a result, the stations finished #24 and #26 overall in the market.
Miami's sports stations, WQAM 560 and WAXY 790 The Ticket, both failed to show an increase, coming in at #25 and #26 in the market.
In Houston, it got to the point where the Houston Dynamo has completely dropped its English language broadcasts, tired of getting bumped from KILT 610 and KIKK 650. The team prefers to stream the audio from its KUBE-TV game telecasts on its web site instead.
The hype for the NFL Draft begins in full force and stronger than ever during the coming week with the NFL Combine, which is no longer a private event for scouts. NFL Network plans to air press conferences starting on Wednesday (2/27), while showing every on-field drill from March 1st all the way through March 4th.
ABC gets into the act with a planned airing of QB and wide receiver drills next Saturday March 2nd at 1 PM ET.
As baseball exhibition games return, ESPN has signed former Phillies standout Ryan Howard as an analyst, most likely in the studio to start.
BALTIMORE: Odd timing to wait until days before the exhibition games start, but Joe Angel officially announced his retirement from the Orioles broadcast team after a combined 19 seasons, as well as 42 seasons of big league play-by-play. Angel is also remembered for having been the initial radio voice of the Marlins and calling their 1997 World Series games. He also called games for the Yankees, Twins, and both Bay Area teams.
MILWAUKEE: Although it's too soon to tell how the five station "race" for all sports will pan out, WTMJ is taking full advantage of having its sister FM, WKTI, as all sports. WKTI is airing several Brewers exhibition games exclusively instead of WTMJ, which takes over for the regular season.
SOUTH CAROLINA: Phil Kornblut's statewide show, which recently went off the statewide network, will be back on a 20 station network starting this coming week (2/25) from 6 to 8 PM.
However, as of press time, there is no outlet for Charleston. WWIK 98.9 reports that they would begin airing the show, but not until the fall due to its commitment to airing Atlanta Braves baseball most nights.
In his 23rd season as radio (and sometimes TV) voice of the New York Rangers, Albert calls the Saturday afternoon Rangers vs. Devils game on WEPN 98.7, with Dave Maloney as his analyst. Micheletti joins another long time local NHL voice, Sam Rosen, in the TV booth.
Once this game is over, Albert and Micheletti head south to Philadelphia, where the pair will handle
the Westwood One national radio broadcast of the Flyers vs. Penguins outdoor game. Not sure how many stations the pair will be heard on, between the infrequent national radio of NHL games and sports stations having NBA and plenty of college broadcasts to choose from, but Albert will call the game regardless.
Following the game in Philly, the two then head south again, this time to Washington D.C. The
Rangers meet the Capitals in an early (12:30 PM ET) Sunday and the pair will call the game for both MSG Network and WEPN Radio. That will make four teams and three full games in three cities within a 27 hour period.
Impressive.
Frankly, it's understandable that ratings dipped again for the NBA All-Star game on TNT last weekend. When it was East vs. West fans could identify with players and teams if they chose to endure the score every chance game. But with the "Let's choose sides" lowering this to a playground pick-up game for millionaires, the ratings dipped even compared to last year, when the telecast went head to head with the Olympics.
Adding to the concern should be that on Wednesday (2/20), the North Carolina vs. Duke college telecast on ESPN finished as the highest regular season telecast on ESPN since 2008, which happened to be the same two teams.
Why does this add to the concern? Because this college telecast also finished with higher ratings than TNT's and ESPN's regular season NBA telecasts thus far, with the exception of Christmas Day, when the NBA airs unopposed.
RATINGS:
The January into early February Nielsen radio ratings were released showing some interesting things in key markets.
In Boston, as expected, WBZ-FM Sports Hub, the flagship station of the Patriots, showed a gain of 1.6 (larger than the ratings of some of the other stations) and finished #2 overall in the market.
WEEI-FM stayed at #6, but it expected to rise back upon the start of the Red Sox season, for which it is the flagship station.
New York's WFAN edged up to #9 overall, while WEPN 98.7 continues its climb despite finishing #20 overall. The afternoon drive battle between Mike Francesa on WFAN and Michael Kay on WEPN has heated up even more, with the two being very close in terms of total audience. It's difficult to say who has the most total audience. While Francesa wins the radio battle, Kay has an equal or greater reach because of most of his show being simulcast on YES Network.
Detroit's WXYT-FM 97.1 The Ticket showed a ratings increase, but so did other stations. Despite a .6 overall ratings increase, the station slipped from #5 to #8 overall. Disappointing seasons from the Pistons and Red Wings aren't helping.
It's a much different story in Minneapolis without the Vikings going deep in the playoffs. KXFN 100.3 The Fan dropped for the third consecutive ratings period and from #6 to #8 overall. KSTP ESPN 1500, however, still has less than one-sixth of the total audience of The Fan.
The major "transplant" markets continue to have poor ratings for their sports outlets.
In L.A., KSPN ESPN 710 showed a decent gain of .5, which only brought it to #25 in the market. KLAC 570, despite airing the Chargers in the playoffs during this rating period and also showing an audience gain, came it at #33 overall. San Diego's KFWN 97.3 The Fan, and KLSD Fox Sports 1360 both showed slight gains. As a result, the stations finished #24 and #26 overall in the market.
Miami's sports stations, WQAM 560 and WAXY 790 The Ticket, both failed to show an increase, coming in at #25 and #26 in the market.
In Houston, it got to the point where the Houston Dynamo has completely dropped its English language broadcasts, tired of getting bumped from KILT 610 and KIKK 650. The team prefers to stream the audio from its KUBE-TV game telecasts on its web site instead.
The hype for the NFL Draft begins in full force and stronger than ever during the coming week with the NFL Combine, which is no longer a private event for scouts. NFL Network plans to air press conferences starting on Wednesday (2/27), while showing every on-field drill from March 1st all the way through March 4th.
ABC gets into the act with a planned airing of QB and wide receiver drills next Saturday March 2nd at 1 PM ET.
As baseball exhibition games return, ESPN has signed former Phillies standout Ryan Howard as an analyst, most likely in the studio to start.
BALTIMORE: Odd timing to wait until days before the exhibition games start, but Joe Angel officially announced his retirement from the Orioles broadcast team after a combined 19 seasons, as well as 42 seasons of big league play-by-play. Angel is also remembered for having been the initial radio voice of the Marlins and calling their 1997 World Series games. He also called games for the Yankees, Twins, and both Bay Area teams.
MILWAUKEE: Although it's too soon to tell how the five station "race" for all sports will pan out, WTMJ is taking full advantage of having its sister FM, WKTI, as all sports. WKTI is airing several Brewers exhibition games exclusively instead of WTMJ, which takes over for the regular season.
SOUTH CAROLINA: Phil Kornblut's statewide show, which recently went off the statewide network, will be back on a 20 station network starting this coming week (2/25) from 6 to 8 PM.
However, as of press time, there is no outlet for Charleston. WWIK 98.9 reports that they would begin airing the show, but not until the fall due to its commitment to airing Atlanta Braves baseball most nights.
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Baseball Opener Still An Overnight Sensation?
As the influence of sports media continues to impact the offseason of the major sports at higher levels than ever. With these two weeks being the only time of the year when both NFL and MLB are "off", we have prime examples.
Earlier this week, stories were "leaked" about the 2019 NFL regular season schedule, which does not get released until mid-April. Reports tell us that the Patriots may not be in the Thursday kickoff and that the Bears might play in Detroit for the 2nd consecutive Thanksgiving. While rumors about scheduled games months away are worthless in real life, they do keep NFL fans engaged and looking ahead to the coming season.
On the other hand, MLB, as spring training starts, has a ton of publicity about which free agents have not signed and how it impacts training camp and teams trying to make plans. However, MLB has a scheduling issue, and much sooner than the NFL, and doesn't seem to be doing anything about it.
Again this year, the regular season opens with a pair of games overseas, this year March 20 and 21 between Oakland and Seattle. It is understandable that the games be played at least a week before other teams start the regular season to allow for travel adjustments. As a result, the MLB season opener and 2nd game for these teams will take place on a Wednesday and Thursday.
This season, ESPN has both of those games and will air them live. However, the starting time for both games is still shown as 5:30 AM ET. Morning drive baseball. Think again. The A's and Mariners are west coast teams. For the home town fans, these games both start at 2:30 AM local time. Middle of the night baseball during the week is what is available for their fans to celebrate the start of the season.
Chances are these games, especially the second one, will not finish among ESPN's highest rated telecasts of the season. Not only will most fans not be able to reasonably enjoy these games, but it won't make them happy either.
The NFL schedules its London (and other international games) within its regular times in the U.S. This allows them to better promote these telecasts and draw new fans from around the world in the process. They wouldn't dare put live games on that start before 6 AM in any of our time zones.
Even the advance schedule rumors confirm that.
BOSTON: The Red Sox radio booth will have quite the play-by-play rotation this season. Only in the past few days has Joe Castiglione, who has been a part of Red Sox radio since 1983, signed to return for what will be his 37 season. In case Castiglione did not return, WEEI, the flagship station, had been ready with a rotation. It means that Castiglione will have a lot of company throughout the season.
Calling games at various times will be Sean McDonough, Josh Lewin (formerly with the Mets), and TV voice Dave O'Brien. WEEI personalities Lou Merloni and Dale Arnold will call some games, as will NESN studio host Tom Caron and ESPN's Chris Berman. Now, one other name has been added to this roster. Mario Impemba, who was dismissed from the Tigers TV job during the final month of last season due to a reported altercation with Rod Allen (also dismissed), will join the Red Sox radio booth this season.
CHICAGO: The Cubs officially announced their new TV network in partnership with Sinclair Broadcasting to start for the 2020 season, and the concern begins among baseball fans as to how it will play out. Early reports claim that the cost will be in the range of $6 per month, with the Cubs being the only major Chicago team participating and no "offseason" live content in the fold.
It remains to be seen (pun intended) if the situation will go the way of Los Angeles or New York City in terms of how many systems carry the channel and how fans will react to the charge.
NEW YORK: Glad to see that Islanders broadcaster Chris King made a successful return to the radio booth last Saturday (2/9) for the game against Colorado. King missed the Thursday broadcast against New Jersey due to being hospitalized with tightness in his chest. This was only the second broadcast he has missed in 25 years, and the first in nine seasons (death of his father).
He also had a very interesting replacement on short notice. The guest announcing team which called the Islanders-Devils broadcast was WFAN's Gregg GIannoti and Boomer Esiason.
DENVER: Congratulations to Raj Sharan, named as Program Director of KKFN-FM 104.3 The Fan and KEPN ESPN 1600. Sharan was the play-by-play voice for University of Denver basketball until 2017. He replaces Armen Williams in the role, who left for KILT Houston.
COLUMBUS: WTVN 610 has hired both Matt McCoy and Lori Schmidt as sports anchors, with both coming over after 105.7 The Zone dropped its sports format in favor of classic rock earlier this year.
WICHITA: Don Hall, the P.A. voice of Wichita Shockers basketball since 1983, as well as for other sports events in the area, will be inducted into the Wichita Sports Hall of Fame this spring.
ALTOONA PA: WVAM 1430 dropped ESPN Radio last week without warning in the middle of a weekday to go to a music format. The station still pans to air Pittsburgh Pirates games and Penn State football.
Earlier this week, stories were "leaked" about the 2019 NFL regular season schedule, which does not get released until mid-April. Reports tell us that the Patriots may not be in the Thursday kickoff and that the Bears might play in Detroit for the 2nd consecutive Thanksgiving. While rumors about scheduled games months away are worthless in real life, they do keep NFL fans engaged and looking ahead to the coming season.
On the other hand, MLB, as spring training starts, has a ton of publicity about which free agents have not signed and how it impacts training camp and teams trying to make plans. However, MLB has a scheduling issue, and much sooner than the NFL, and doesn't seem to be doing anything about it.
Again this year, the regular season opens with a pair of games overseas, this year March 20 and 21 between Oakland and Seattle. It is understandable that the games be played at least a week before other teams start the regular season to allow for travel adjustments. As a result, the MLB season opener and 2nd game for these teams will take place on a Wednesday and Thursday.
This season, ESPN has both of those games and will air them live. However, the starting time for both games is still shown as 5:30 AM ET. Morning drive baseball. Think again. The A's and Mariners are west coast teams. For the home town fans, these games both start at 2:30 AM local time. Middle of the night baseball during the week is what is available for their fans to celebrate the start of the season.
Chances are these games, especially the second one, will not finish among ESPN's highest rated telecasts of the season. Not only will most fans not be able to reasonably enjoy these games, but it won't make them happy either.
The NFL schedules its London (and other international games) within its regular times in the U.S. This allows them to better promote these telecasts and draw new fans from around the world in the process. They wouldn't dare put live games on that start before 6 AM in any of our time zones.
Even the advance schedule rumors confirm that.
BOSTON: The Red Sox radio booth will have quite the play-by-play rotation this season. Only in the past few days has Joe Castiglione, who has been a part of Red Sox radio since 1983, signed to return for what will be his 37 season. In case Castiglione did not return, WEEI, the flagship station, had been ready with a rotation. It means that Castiglione will have a lot of company throughout the season.
Calling games at various times will be Sean McDonough, Josh Lewin (formerly with the Mets), and TV voice Dave O'Brien. WEEI personalities Lou Merloni and Dale Arnold will call some games, as will NESN studio host Tom Caron and ESPN's Chris Berman. Now, one other name has been added to this roster. Mario Impemba, who was dismissed from the Tigers TV job during the final month of last season due to a reported altercation with Rod Allen (also dismissed), will join the Red Sox radio booth this season.
CHICAGO: The Cubs officially announced their new TV network in partnership with Sinclair Broadcasting to start for the 2020 season, and the concern begins among baseball fans as to how it will play out. Early reports claim that the cost will be in the range of $6 per month, with the Cubs being the only major Chicago team participating and no "offseason" live content in the fold.
It remains to be seen (pun intended) if the situation will go the way of Los Angeles or New York City in terms of how many systems carry the channel and how fans will react to the charge.
NEW YORK: Glad to see that Islanders broadcaster Chris King made a successful return to the radio booth last Saturday (2/9) for the game against Colorado. King missed the Thursday broadcast against New Jersey due to being hospitalized with tightness in his chest. This was only the second broadcast he has missed in 25 years, and the first in nine seasons (death of his father).
He also had a very interesting replacement on short notice. The guest announcing team which called the Islanders-Devils broadcast was WFAN's Gregg GIannoti and Boomer Esiason.
DENVER: Congratulations to Raj Sharan, named as Program Director of KKFN-FM 104.3 The Fan and KEPN ESPN 1600. Sharan was the play-by-play voice for University of Denver basketball until 2017. He replaces Armen Williams in the role, who left for KILT Houston.
COLUMBUS: WTVN 610 has hired both Matt McCoy and Lori Schmidt as sports anchors, with both coming over after 105.7 The Zone dropped its sports format in favor of classic rock earlier this year.
WICHITA: Don Hall, the P.A. voice of Wichita Shockers basketball since 1983, as well as for other sports events in the area, will be inducted into the Wichita Sports Hall of Fame this spring.
ALTOONA PA: WVAM 1430 dropped ESPN Radio last week without warning in the middle of a weekday to go to a music format. The station still pans to air Pittsburgh Pirates games and Penn State football.
Friday, February 8, 2019
Listeners Need To Get Their A's In Gear
As if there aren't enough challenges for sports fans in Oakland, such as losing the Raiders again, A's fans are close to another blast from the past because, as of press time, there is no local radio deal in place. The A's opening exhibition game is two weeks away. Long time fans go back more than 30 years to the time that KALX, a station with a signal so poor that fans at the stadium couldn't always hear I, was the only station which would air the games.
The A's and their fans were not happy with the overall coverage of the team when their games aired on 95.7 KGMZ The Game for the previous eight seasons, ending their agreement at the conclusion of the A's 2018 season.
The broadcast team of Ken Korach and Vince Cotroneo as returning. The club has announced that pre and post-game voice Chris Townsend has been promoted to Senior Broadcast Producer with expanded duties.
However, there is no station arrangement in place. The team is reportedly arranging for free streaming of the game broadcasts via one or more commonly available apps.
Not that the team needs any more pressure to announce a deal with at least one "real" local station, but the A's will be the first to open the 2019 regular season. They face the Mariners at the Tokyo Dome on March 20th, eight days sooner than the scheduled openers for all remaining clubs.
Over at KGMZ-FM The Game, the morning show's Lorenzo Neal, who has been with the station for nearly five years, has signed a contract extension. The former Raider (along with several other teams) remains a key part of the morning drive "Joe, Lo, & Dibs" show. The station continues to finally build up respectable ratings, helped by now being the flagship station of the Warriors.
DENVER: The city lost one of its sports pioneers with the passing of Irv Brown last weekend at the age of 83. Brown spent parts of four decades on the air with sports talk, many with partner Joe Williams. On the national level, Brown was also a part of history. He was part of the broadcast team in 1979 when ESPN televised the college football game between Colorado and Oregon. That was the very first college football telecast ever on ESPN.
Around the country, Brown is remembered for having been a basketball official and for coaching baseball. Fans were and are amazed to find out that he was an official during four of the NCAA Final Four appearances by the Johnny Wooden led UCLA Bruins during the late 60's and 70's. He went on to coach the Colorado University baseball team, which has been discontinued since 1980. His comment that "I made Colorado baseball what it is today" may stand as our most fond memory of him.
NEW ORLEANS: Sorry to also learn of the passing of Chuck Edwards, the voice of New Orleans sports. Edwards had been PA announcer for both the Saints and Pelicans. He was only 49. He had been a key part of the morning show on WXYK Gulfport.
CHICAGO: The hot potato known as the University of Illinois football and basketball broadcasts has now been caught by WLS 890, which has a new 5 year deal starting with the coming football season. After dumping White Sox and Bulls broadcasts in 2017, the station had been without live play-by-play. The games move over from WSCR 670, which picked up Bulls broadcasts which added even more schedule conflicts.
The Bulls are having another awful season, but WLS-TV Channel 7 added to the misery last weekend (2/2). On its early evening sportscast, Dionne Miller, who has been at the station for more than four years, reported that the Bulls were set to take on New Orleans. The problem was that New Orleans was the next opponent. The Bulls were playing in Charlotte 40 minutes later. No correction was made on that newscast, nor on the station's late news, when Miller had them correctly playing Charlotte during the highlight segment.
SOUTH JERSEY: Former Philadelphia 97.5 The Fanatic hosts Harry Mayes and Eytan Shander will begin hosting from Noon to 2 PM on weekdays on WENJ 97.3 ESPN in Millville. The pair is doing a daily podcast for the station until they begin on April 1st. The station will continue to carry Mike Gill from 2 to 6 PM, which leaves open the possibility of Mayes and Shander being able to expand to more afternoon hours.
CHARLOTTE: WBCN 1660 and 94.7 is now carrying Fox Sports Radio. As of now, there are no plans to originate any local programming. For those wondering, WBCN is re-assigned call letters and has no affiliation with the former Boston rock station which made those call letters famous.
The A's and their fans were not happy with the overall coverage of the team when their games aired on 95.7 KGMZ The Game for the previous eight seasons, ending their agreement at the conclusion of the A's 2018 season.
The broadcast team of Ken Korach and Vince Cotroneo as returning. The club has announced that pre and post-game voice Chris Townsend has been promoted to Senior Broadcast Producer with expanded duties.
However, there is no station arrangement in place. The team is reportedly arranging for free streaming of the game broadcasts via one or more commonly available apps.
Not that the team needs any more pressure to announce a deal with at least one "real" local station, but the A's will be the first to open the 2019 regular season. They face the Mariners at the Tokyo Dome on March 20th, eight days sooner than the scheduled openers for all remaining clubs.
Over at KGMZ-FM The Game, the morning show's Lorenzo Neal, who has been with the station for nearly five years, has signed a contract extension. The former Raider (along with several other teams) remains a key part of the morning drive "Joe, Lo, & Dibs" show. The station continues to finally build up respectable ratings, helped by now being the flagship station of the Warriors.
DENVER: The city lost one of its sports pioneers with the passing of Irv Brown last weekend at the age of 83. Brown spent parts of four decades on the air with sports talk, many with partner Joe Williams. On the national level, Brown was also a part of history. He was part of the broadcast team in 1979 when ESPN televised the college football game between Colorado and Oregon. That was the very first college football telecast ever on ESPN.
Around the country, Brown is remembered for having been a basketball official and for coaching baseball. Fans were and are amazed to find out that he was an official during four of the NCAA Final Four appearances by the Johnny Wooden led UCLA Bruins during the late 60's and 70's. He went on to coach the Colorado University baseball team, which has been discontinued since 1980. His comment that "I made Colorado baseball what it is today" may stand as our most fond memory of him.
NEW ORLEANS: Sorry to also learn of the passing of Chuck Edwards, the voice of New Orleans sports. Edwards had been PA announcer for both the Saints and Pelicans. He was only 49. He had been a key part of the morning show on WXYK Gulfport.
CHICAGO: The hot potato known as the University of Illinois football and basketball broadcasts has now been caught by WLS 890, which has a new 5 year deal starting with the coming football season. After dumping White Sox and Bulls broadcasts in 2017, the station had been without live play-by-play. The games move over from WSCR 670, which picked up Bulls broadcasts which added even more schedule conflicts.
The Bulls are having another awful season, but WLS-TV Channel 7 added to the misery last weekend (2/2). On its early evening sportscast, Dionne Miller, who has been at the station for more than four years, reported that the Bulls were set to take on New Orleans. The problem was that New Orleans was the next opponent. The Bulls were playing in Charlotte 40 minutes later. No correction was made on that newscast, nor on the station's late news, when Miller had them correctly playing Charlotte during the highlight segment.
SOUTH JERSEY: Former Philadelphia 97.5 The Fanatic hosts Harry Mayes and Eytan Shander will begin hosting from Noon to 2 PM on weekdays on WENJ 97.3 ESPN in Millville. The pair is doing a daily podcast for the station until they begin on April 1st. The station will continue to carry Mike Gill from 2 to 6 PM, which leaves open the possibility of Mayes and Shander being able to expand to more afternoon hours.
CHARLOTTE: WBCN 1660 and 94.7 is now carrying Fox Sports Radio. As of now, there are no plans to originate any local programming. For those wondering, WBCN is re-assigned call letters and has no affiliation with the former Boston rock station which made those call letters famous.
Saturday, February 2, 2019
Over 100 Untold Stories
While NFL fans hope for a quality game and a solid telecast of the Super Bowl, others hope that the two weeks of hype starts taking a more solid direction moving forward. The making news when there is no news to justify "covering" the Super Bowl seems even more uneventful, probably due to all of the social media and podcasts adding to the broadcast and print media mix.
The rosters of the participating teams, along with the coaching staffs and front offices, total more than 150 people, each with their own story to tell. However, it seems like all we see are the starting quarterbacks answering the same questions they faced all season. Worse yet, this year seems to have set a record for media people interviewing media people.
Interviewing one of the beat writers or reporters of a participating team has merit, but radio and TV stations and newspapers didn't need to send reporters to Atlanta (or host city) to do that. Not when there are more than 150 stories to tell associated with the participating teams.
INDIANAPOLIS: Jeff Rickard adds co-hosting middays on WFNI The Fan 1070 and 107.5. The "Jeff & Big Joe Show" now airs from 10 AM to Noon on weekdays with former Colt Joe Staysniak remaining in the co-host role. Rickard replaces Michael Grady, who had been co-hosting from New York after joining the YES Network as sideline reporter for the Brooklyn Nets in 2017. Grady had been with the station for eight years.
ST. LOUIS: The disappointing season by the Blues has caused KMOX to drop the broadcasts it has done for the majority of the team's existence. The remainder of this season will complete this 12 season run. Beginning with the 2019-20 season, the Blues will air on WXOS ESPN 101.1. The station just extended its affiliation with ESPN Radio while marking its 10th anniversary as an affiliate.
RICHMOND: As we reported last week, WJFK-FM Washington D.C. is looking to syndicate its successful "Sports Junkies" morning show around the region. This week it was announced that WRNL-AM 910 The Fan has added "Sports Junkies" as its morning show. The Richmond market always shows very well with NFL TV ratings, especially for Redskins and division games. Having a strong Redskins presence in the morning should help during NFL season. However, since the coming season is now months away, it remains to be seen whether or not this move will impact the audience in the short term.
ORLANDO: WYGM 96.9 The Game will debut a new afternoon drive program on February 11th. "In The Zone with Brandon Kravitz & The Shot Doctor" will debut. THe 'Shot Doctor' is Austin Pistulka, who is also the Executive Producer.
COLUMBIA SC: Phil Kornblut and "SportsTalk" continues from 6 to 8 PM on 100.7 and 1470 The Point even though the S.C. (South Carolina) Radio Network was discontinued last week. Kornblut's show has been part of the state's sports radio scene for the past 35 years, airing on as many as 30 other stations around the state. The Point's web site will continue to stream SportsTalk. Kornblut will also continue his recruiting column for the Post & Courier.
The rosters of the participating teams, along with the coaching staffs and front offices, total more than 150 people, each with their own story to tell. However, it seems like all we see are the starting quarterbacks answering the same questions they faced all season. Worse yet, this year seems to have set a record for media people interviewing media people.
Interviewing one of the beat writers or reporters of a participating team has merit, but radio and TV stations and newspapers didn't need to send reporters to Atlanta (or host city) to do that. Not when there are more than 150 stories to tell associated with the participating teams.
INDIANAPOLIS: Jeff Rickard adds co-hosting middays on WFNI The Fan 1070 and 107.5. The "Jeff & Big Joe Show" now airs from 10 AM to Noon on weekdays with former Colt Joe Staysniak remaining in the co-host role. Rickard replaces Michael Grady, who had been co-hosting from New York after joining the YES Network as sideline reporter for the Brooklyn Nets in 2017. Grady had been with the station for eight years.
ST. LOUIS: The disappointing season by the Blues has caused KMOX to drop the broadcasts it has done for the majority of the team's existence. The remainder of this season will complete this 12 season run. Beginning with the 2019-20 season, the Blues will air on WXOS ESPN 101.1. The station just extended its affiliation with ESPN Radio while marking its 10th anniversary as an affiliate.
RICHMOND: As we reported last week, WJFK-FM Washington D.C. is looking to syndicate its successful "Sports Junkies" morning show around the region. This week it was announced that WRNL-AM 910 The Fan has added "Sports Junkies" as its morning show. The Richmond market always shows very well with NFL TV ratings, especially for Redskins and division games. Having a strong Redskins presence in the morning should help during NFL season. However, since the coming season is now months away, it remains to be seen whether or not this move will impact the audience in the short term.
ORLANDO: WYGM 96.9 The Game will debut a new afternoon drive program on February 11th. "In The Zone with Brandon Kravitz & The Shot Doctor" will debut. THe 'Shot Doctor' is Austin Pistulka, who is also the Executive Producer.
COLUMBIA SC: Phil Kornblut and "SportsTalk" continues from 6 to 8 PM on 100.7 and 1470 The Point even though the S.C. (South Carolina) Radio Network was discontinued last week. Kornblut's show has been part of the state's sports radio scene for the past 35 years, airing on as many as 30 other stations around the state. The Point's web site will continue to stream SportsTalk. Kornblut will also continue his recruiting column for the Post & Courier.
Thursday, January 24, 2019
Taylor Made Job For Colts
What should have been a simple announcement about the Indianapolis Colts radio broadcasts moving forward was ruined for all concerned, primarily due to speculation.
Although the Colts announced that Matt Taylor will remain as the team's radio play-by-play voice for next season, which removed the "interim" tag he had throughout the past season, his glory was overshadowed.
Taylor took over the play-by-play in August following the retirement announcement of 79 year old long time Colts voice Bob Lamey. Although the retirement announcement was unexpected since it took place during training camp, some attributed the change to a reported incident of Lamey, who was not on the air, possibly using a racial slur while sharing a story from years earlier.
Both Lamey and team stated that it was a retirement announcement and that it was not due to any incident. Yet, because of the speculation, Lamey did not get his proper recognition.
Along with having called the Colts games for years, Lamey spent years calling games for the most important teams in Indianapolis. Few remember his early days as "Hockey Bob Lamey" when he called the Indianapolis Racers games in the World Hockey Association. Even fewer recall that it was those same Racers that had a star rookie with them by the name of Wayne Gretzky.
After the Racers folded (and Gretzky wound up in Edmonton), Lamey soon after found his way to calling the Pacers games, switching from "Hockey Bob" to "Roundball Robert".
We would like to think that after more than 40 years of high profile sportscasting that Lamey would have been given a proper sendoff, no matter how or when he announced his retirement. And, that Matt Taylor would have his big moment and not have it overshadowed because of speculation about an incident which was not on the air - or even in social media. The Colts games continue to air locally on WFNI 107.5 and 1070.
Those that question the need for Los Angeles to have two NFL teams, let alone one, love the story that the L.A. market TV ratings for both the NFC and AFC Championship Game telecasts last Sunday (1/20) were comparable. Keep in mind that the Rams were in the first game of the day, and that technically neither was a prime time telecast in Los Angeles. The Patriots vs. Chiefs game ended shortly after 7 PM Pacific time.
It's a rare circumstance when having a local NFL team in an important game has little to no impact on the ratings. The Saints vs. Rams telecast wound up as the lowest rated "early window" conference championship game since 2013 at the national level. The Patriots vs. Chiefs thriller had a 26% audience increase over the "late" telecast of one year ago.
On the NHL side, it was actually no surprise that NBC stayed with its originally scheduled telecast of Washington at Chicago for its Sunday national telecast (on 1/20), despite the teams being at almost the opposite end of the standings. NBC Sports Network, which again this season is showing an extensive schedule of NHL telecasts, had Capitals telecasts this season in each of its top four highest rated telecasts.
While the Caps are Stanley Cup Champions, the Blackhawks may not make the playoffs for what would be a second consecutive season. Yet, four of the next five highest rated NBCSN telecasts so far this season involved the Blackhawks, which continues to have a large national following.
The holiday period Nielsen radio ratings were released this week. Although it is considered to be the least important of all of the monthly ratings, there were a few interesting trends from the big markets.
In Boston, WBZ-FM Sports Hub showed a .5 increase, moving from fifth to third in overall audience.
As the flagship station of the Patriots, the January ratings are likely to soar. WEEI-FM, on the other hand, dropped by .7 during the holiday period, falling to #11 overall and failing to finish in the top 10 overall for the first time in many months.
Without any of the New York teams going anywhere, both WFAN and WEPN dropped during this book, while in Chicago both WSCR and WMVP showed increases as the Bears went to the post-season.
This is something we have been pointing out for years. As much as most sports stations push their on-air talent, it is more often the teams and the local sports scene that drive the audience.
Los Angeles and Houston sports radio stayed in trend, however, despite each market having NFL teams heading for the post-season during this ratings period. KSPN 710, despite being the flagship station of the Rams, dropped from #26 to #27 overall in the market. It is worth noting that KLAC 570, the Chargers flagship, did show a nice overall audience increase. In Houston, KILT 610, the Texans flagship station, showed a half-point increase in the ratings. Yet, once again, none of Houston's three sports stations cracked the top 20 overall.
DALLAS: The December ratings showed that KRLD-FM The Fan moved up to #14 overall, passing up KTCK The Ticket which suffered its third consecutive ratings drop. KTCK 96.7 and 1310 are celebrating the station's 25 year anniversary this weekend with a series of big event live broadcasts.
Venues include Texas Motor Speedway and the Plano Events Center, with special guests including Troy Aikman and Jay Novacek.
WASHINGTON D.C.: WJFK-FM 106.7 The Fan has announced a long-term extension of "The Sports Junkies" morning show as it finishes its 23rd year on the air. The station also revealed that it will soon be announcing a syndication of this show to affiliates within the Mid-Atlantic region. While we understand and appreciate the success of "Junkies", other markets may not take to the D.C. talk nearly as much. More importantly, the D.C. market is not likely to accept lengthy discussion about teams not specific to the D.C. area. This could turn into one of those radio "Your mileage may vary" situations once this happens.
Although the Colts announced that Matt Taylor will remain as the team's radio play-by-play voice for next season, which removed the "interim" tag he had throughout the past season, his glory was overshadowed.
Taylor took over the play-by-play in August following the retirement announcement of 79 year old long time Colts voice Bob Lamey. Although the retirement announcement was unexpected since it took place during training camp, some attributed the change to a reported incident of Lamey, who was not on the air, possibly using a racial slur while sharing a story from years earlier.
Both Lamey and team stated that it was a retirement announcement and that it was not due to any incident. Yet, because of the speculation, Lamey did not get his proper recognition.
Along with having called the Colts games for years, Lamey spent years calling games for the most important teams in Indianapolis. Few remember his early days as "Hockey Bob Lamey" when he called the Indianapolis Racers games in the World Hockey Association. Even fewer recall that it was those same Racers that had a star rookie with them by the name of Wayne Gretzky.
After the Racers folded (and Gretzky wound up in Edmonton), Lamey soon after found his way to calling the Pacers games, switching from "Hockey Bob" to "Roundball Robert".
We would like to think that after more than 40 years of high profile sportscasting that Lamey would have been given a proper sendoff, no matter how or when he announced his retirement. And, that Matt Taylor would have his big moment and not have it overshadowed because of speculation about an incident which was not on the air - or even in social media. The Colts games continue to air locally on WFNI 107.5 and 1070.
Those that question the need for Los Angeles to have two NFL teams, let alone one, love the story that the L.A. market TV ratings for both the NFC and AFC Championship Game telecasts last Sunday (1/20) were comparable. Keep in mind that the Rams were in the first game of the day, and that technically neither was a prime time telecast in Los Angeles. The Patriots vs. Chiefs game ended shortly after 7 PM Pacific time.
It's a rare circumstance when having a local NFL team in an important game has little to no impact on the ratings. The Saints vs. Rams telecast wound up as the lowest rated "early window" conference championship game since 2013 at the national level. The Patriots vs. Chiefs thriller had a 26% audience increase over the "late" telecast of one year ago.
On the NHL side, it was actually no surprise that NBC stayed with its originally scheduled telecast of Washington at Chicago for its Sunday national telecast (on 1/20), despite the teams being at almost the opposite end of the standings. NBC Sports Network, which again this season is showing an extensive schedule of NHL telecasts, had Capitals telecasts this season in each of its top four highest rated telecasts.
While the Caps are Stanley Cup Champions, the Blackhawks may not make the playoffs for what would be a second consecutive season. Yet, four of the next five highest rated NBCSN telecasts so far this season involved the Blackhawks, which continues to have a large national following.
The holiday period Nielsen radio ratings were released this week. Although it is considered to be the least important of all of the monthly ratings, there were a few interesting trends from the big markets.
In Boston, WBZ-FM Sports Hub showed a .5 increase, moving from fifth to third in overall audience.
As the flagship station of the Patriots, the January ratings are likely to soar. WEEI-FM, on the other hand, dropped by .7 during the holiday period, falling to #11 overall and failing to finish in the top 10 overall for the first time in many months.
Without any of the New York teams going anywhere, both WFAN and WEPN dropped during this book, while in Chicago both WSCR and WMVP showed increases as the Bears went to the post-season.
This is something we have been pointing out for years. As much as most sports stations push their on-air talent, it is more often the teams and the local sports scene that drive the audience.
Los Angeles and Houston sports radio stayed in trend, however, despite each market having NFL teams heading for the post-season during this ratings period. KSPN 710, despite being the flagship station of the Rams, dropped from #26 to #27 overall in the market. It is worth noting that KLAC 570, the Chargers flagship, did show a nice overall audience increase. In Houston, KILT 610, the Texans flagship station, showed a half-point increase in the ratings. Yet, once again, none of Houston's three sports stations cracked the top 20 overall.
DALLAS: The December ratings showed that KRLD-FM The Fan moved up to #14 overall, passing up KTCK The Ticket which suffered its third consecutive ratings drop. KTCK 96.7 and 1310 are celebrating the station's 25 year anniversary this weekend with a series of big event live broadcasts.
Venues include Texas Motor Speedway and the Plano Events Center, with special guests including Troy Aikman and Jay Novacek.
WASHINGTON D.C.: WJFK-FM 106.7 The Fan has announced a long-term extension of "The Sports Junkies" morning show as it finishes its 23rd year on the air. The station also revealed that it will soon be announcing a syndication of this show to affiliates within the Mid-Atlantic region. While we understand and appreciate the success of "Junkies", other markets may not take to the D.C. talk nearly as much. More importantly, the D.C. market is not likely to accept lengthy discussion about teams not specific to the D.C. area. This could turn into one of those radio "Your mileage may vary" situations once this happens.
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