Much Les of the Greats

It's a week of losses for the sports media, topped off by the passing of Chicago sportscasting legend Les Grobstein on Sunday (1/16). He was a walking encyclopedia of Chicago sports over the past 50 years, most recently the overnight host on WSCR The Score 670. He was 69 years of age and showed no signs of letting up.

After a few years of doing play-by-play for high school basketball, Chicago Sting soccer, the Chicago Hustle (women's pro basketball in the late 70's), and later UIC (University of Illinois Chicago) Flames basketball, his first big break came when he joined WLS 890 in 1979. 

It was my personal pleasure to have worked on the air with Les (high school games and some Chicago Sting broadcasts) and off the air during his early days. We both had the "work as hard as you can" work ethic, but Les took that to max, being at seemingly every game in town and taking whatever work he could get. Although he made no secret of being a fan of certain teams, he maintained his composure on air and always knew to respect callers and reporters supporting "other" teams. 

Working overnights brought him certain advantages, such as being able to keep a "good" caller on with him for upwards of 15 minutes or more if the discussion was going well. Yet, one of the many things I will remember about him is how he always kept the games in front of the mix.

Unfortunately, too many sports stations and hosts are far too concerned with opinions and not enough about the games in progress. In many cases, it's because of the station philosophy. Grobstein never let this get to him, as west coast games would still be going into the first hour or two of his shows on many nights. 

While some other hosts on WSCR don't give "out of town" scores on the updates any more, Les never stopped, going through the scoreboard throughout the overnight. He kept that "secret" that giving score updates could keep some fans involved with the show.

He would be between calls or thoughts at 1:15 AM, and mention that "Cleveland just scored 3 in the 8th at Anaheim....." and go back to the topic. Unfortunately, this is a long lost art on too many sports stations, as well as some play-by-play broadcasts. Les knew that his audience shouldn't have to "go to their phone" to get other scores and info, because they might wind up finding something else there which would take them away from listening to his show or the station. Exactly.

His amazing work ethic should inspire others, no matter what we do. He will be missed.

Meanwhile, the sports media world also lost Ron Franklin earlier this week (1/18) at the age of 79. Franlin was known nationally for his work on ESPN. He co-hosted "College Football Prime Time" from 1987 to 2005, and did a ton of football and basketball play-by-play. In Houston, Franklin was Sports Director with KHOU-TV and KPRC-TV over a 16 year period, as well as doing play-by-play for the Houston Oilers.

In addition we also lost Tim Rosaforte, the long time golf reporter at the age of 66. Rosaforte wrote for Sports Illustrated and Golf Digest, also appearing on The Golf Channel in his later years. He covered every Masters Tournament from 1983 through 2019. 

PITTSBURGH: This "loss" is a semi-retirement, as market staple Jim Colony announced that he has left his co-host role on the morning show of 93.7 The Fan. Colony had been with the station since it began in 2010, but his time goes back to WTAE and its sports programming going back more than 30 years. He promised his audience that he will be around and fill in "from time to time" while enjoying having free time.

 

 

Championship Game But Not Championship Numbers

Quite the mixed opinions on how the college football championship telecasts from Monday (1/10) night fared in the ratings. The overall ratings for the entire ESPN group telecasts were above those of 2021, but below those of the previous four years.

Those lower numbers for this year are not surprising for two reasons. First, this came right after a busy Saturday and Sunday which allowed for viewing five entire NFL games, with the primary national games involving teams battling for positions in the post-season. In addition, this year's Alabama vs. Georgia game marked the third time this season these teams met, including the SEC Championship Game in December. Many casual fans were disappointed that a team which did not win its conference still had the opportunity to play for a championship. Most likely, the lower numbers were a combination of those two factors.

Each network did a solid job of covering the NFL games this past weekend. CBS did standout work by switching a couple of their early game audiences to more competitive games which also had playoff indications. In addition, kudos for sticking with regional coverage of the Pittsburgh vs. Baltimore overtime game instead of going to the start of their doubleheader game in markets where there were not local teams involved. Nice to see after all of the times CBS or Fox had to switch away from bonus coverage no matter what was going on in the early game.

 

ESPN was able to boast that its two Saturday telecasts, obviously helped by being aired on ABC, finished among its top five Monday Night Football telecasts. 

It will be interesting to see how the ratings fare this coming week, which will be the first ever with six playoff games on the schedule, including one on Monday night. 

Meanwhile, it could very well be that NBA ratings are, pun intended, on the rebound. Indications are that national telecast ratings are on the rise, with the season approaching the halfway point. It probably helps that New York and Chicago teams are much improved. ESPN hopes to pick up on this with a Knicks and Nets doubleheader on Wednesday (1/12). Adding the Nets at Chicago Bulls telecast as its second game forces Chicago to start a home game at 9:10 PM on a weeknight.

To make the point, consider what happened on Sunday night (1/9). While NBC had the tight Raiders vs. Chargers game with playoff implications on, NBA TV aired the game between Golden State and Cleveland. This was an attractive game given the notable improvement of both teams thus far this season. That telecast wound up as NBA TV's most watched telecast since 2016, and that game was when the Warriors won their 72nd game of that season. Got to wonder what viewership would have been had it not been opposed by the NFL game, and if more fans were made aware of that game being on. Sorry, but it's not like NBA TV telecasts garner a lot of advance publicity.

ESPN has announced its new broadcaster lineup for Sunday Night Baseball for the scheduled coming season. (Still in lockout at press time.) Naming Karl Ravich as play-by-play voice is somewhat disappointing (considering the caliber they have had over the past 30 years). However, going with Eduardo Perez as analyst and bumping Alex Rodriguez helps to make up for that. Rodriguez will join Michael Kay on some sidecasts during the season. With both announcers all having strong ties to New York, they might as well call it the "New York Simulcast", but they won't.

 

BUFFALO: Sorry to learn of the passing of Brian Blessing, who was a big part of Bills and Sabres broadcasts. Many of Blessings' 25 years in Buffalo were with WIVB, with his work being a part of the Bills' Super Bowl seasons in the 90's. Blessing had most recently been working in Las Vegas with a betting firm as well as a talk show about the Golden Knights.

Comings & Goings

Although MLB fans won't feel the impact until the current lockout is resolved, MLB Network took a big step backwards with the reported termination of reporter Ken Rosenthal. While we will continue to be blessed with Rosenthal's in-depth reporting via Fox Sports and other sources, this move could ding the surrounding coverage which MLB Network provides.

It's not only the awful reason, which was reportedly because of Rosenthal's criticism of Commissioner Rob Manfred, although that adds to it. It is because Rosenthal will be tough to replace because of all of his sources and the number of important stories he has brought us over the past 12 years. His thorough coverage needs to be replaced. Obviously, this is far from a typical off-season, which now leaves us without any of their live shows during the weekdays. Let's hope that when MLB Network comes back with their studio coverage that it doesn't decline any further. Either way, it's hard to take getting rid of a significant contributor merely because of a properly expressed opinion.

This coming final weekend of the NFL season includes both Fox and CBS doing national doubleheaders. One oddity is that the primary doubleheader games on both networks are NFC matchups. With CBS losing out on the Raiders vs. Chargers game (selected by NBC for Sunday Night Football), CBS gets and features the Tampa Bay vs. Carolina game in the late slot. At the same time, Fox shows the 49ers vs. Rams game to most of the country. 

As the Cleveland Browns wrap up their disappointing season on Sunday against Cincinnati, radio analyst Doug Dieken will be doing his final broadcast. After 37 seasons in the role, the 72 year old Dieken is retiring. Dieken was drafted by the "original" Browns back in 1971 prior to playing in 203 consecutive games with the franchise.

NBA fans wanting to see the much anticipated matchup between the Chicago Bulls and Brooklyn Nets next week (Weds. Jan. 12) are going to have to stay up later than anticipated. It is understandable that ESPN is picking up this telecast of (as of press time) the top two teams in the Eastern Conference. However, since the Knicks are scheduled for the "early" spot (7:30 ET), ESPN is not going to give up a Knicks telecast. (This is even though the game is against the Dallas Mavericks.) As a result, the Chicago vs. Brooklyn telecast is scheduled for 10:05 PM ET. This means that the Bulls are forced to begin a weeknight home game at 9:05 PM. 

On the college side, James Laurinaitis is leaving his broadcasting roles with both WBLS 97.1 Columbus and the Big 10 Network. In this case, it is not a retirement. James is leaving to join Marcus Freeman's staff at Notre Dame. The two were teammates at Ohio State.

 

Fox Sports has entered in to horse racing. Starting in 2023 Fox will air The Belmont Stakes, giving it a share of the Triple Crown. This will be the first of a reported eight year deal.

PHOENIX: A bit of local history on Tuesday (Jan. 4) when Luis Arturo called play-by-play of the Coyotes game on a separate Spanish broadcast.