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.