Play ball! It has been vastly overlooked by the sports media that the baseball regular season opens this week for the A's and Mariners with their two game opening series in Japan. Granted, this is does not appear to be a matchup of contending teams for the new season, but that's not the point. ESPN doesn't want us to know, because they are too busy promoting the April 4th telecast of the Cardinals at Marlins as if that is the "real" season opening game.
It's also interesting to note that MLB did not force these games to be played for American TV. That's a departure from the NFL and NBA overseas approach of scheduling games for U.S. viewing. The NFL's regular season game in London is played at night in London, but is timed to start at 1 PM ET as the first game of the week's NFL doubleheader. NBA games overseas have been shown live either on weekend afternoons or during prime time.
Although this is an historic moment for MLB, with the regular season opening in a different country, the TV people are keeping this a secret. The opening game, on Weds. March 28th (the next morning after press time), will be shown nationally on tape delay via MLB Network. This is one very rare occasion when a MLB game on tape delay makes sense for the viewing audience.
Because the game is being played for the fans in Japan, the Wednesday starting time is 6:10 AM ET, which is actually 3:10 AM local time for the A's and Mariners fans. Root Sports is televising the game live to the Seattle area, and its telecast is the one being picked up by MLB Network for the morning showing. Then, on Thursday (3/29), the game starts an hour earlier, with the game starting at 5:10 AM ET. No TV to Oakland, although KGMZ Radio will air its one hour pregame shows and the live broadcast. Both teams' radio networks will carry the games live overnight.
From a sports media point of view, this is a tough one. These games are the season openers for MLB for the 2012 season, even though both teams will play more exhibition games prior to their next regular season dates. Yet, there is no live national coverage, and, frankly, even the most hardcare baseball fans may not even be aware that the season is actually upon us. (At least those not in fantasy leagues which had to draft earlier than usual.)
It is difficult to overlook the MLB rights holders for, so to speak, dropping the ball on this one. One of ESPN, Fox Sports, or TBS should have been on this. We "should" have had extensive previews and feature reports on the scene in Japan surrounding games that count, Ichrio playing meaningful games in Japan, and various other angles.
Look at how ESPN makes such a production out of Midnight Madness when college basketball pre-season practice begins around the country. And their 24 hour marathon of college hoops when the season starts. They get schools to literally host games at 7 AM or after midnight. In this instance, with the games being in Japan, they could have overnight live baseball without it being an issue for fans in the U.S. since they can't attend the games.
Or, Fox could have shown these games and had fun with the telecasts being a lead-in for their morning show. Maybe have some of their morning show personalities in Japan from the stadium area and kept the theme going well into the morning.
MLB should have taken the lesson from the NFL, which every year hypes its regular season game from London nationally and somehow attracts regional and national media reporters to travel for the game above and beyond the televising network and the participating teams' radio crews. Especially considering how much money sports fans, and non-sports fans, are coughing up each month for ESPN and Fox's regional sports channels around the country.
In a funny coincidence to this, less than 24 hours before the MLB season will open in secret to a crowd in Japan, the NFL announced its national televised opener will be in prime time on Wednesday September 5th. NBC will televise the game between the Super Bowl champion Giants and the Dallas Cowboys at 8:30 that Wednesday night. That announcement seems to be drawing more national media attention than the baseball opener in a matter of hours. Go figure.
Speaking of KGMZ 95.7, the flagship station for the Oakland A's, the station has lined up A's GM Billy Beane to join Bob Melvin every Thursday afternon at 5 PM (unless an A's broadcast interferes) to talk baseball with Brandon Tierney and Eric Davis.
LOS ANGELES: Long time local sports talker Joe McDonnell has resurfaced to handle weekend sports updates on KNX NewsRadio 1070. Otherwise, he will only be heard during the week on an internet based sports talk show with his former on-air partner Doug Krikorian. KNX has also recently added market veteran Geoff Witcher to its sports reporting staff.
HOUSTON: KILT will be changing a co-host along with John Lopez, for the KILT 610 morning drive show by the end of May. But not for the usual "radio station" reason. Current co-host Marc Vandermeer, also the Texans' play-by-play voice for the past 10 seasons, will leave the morning drive co-host role to join the Texans on a full-time basis. Vandermeer will continue to be a part of the station, especially since the Texans will air on KILT for at least another 10 seasons, as the station's Texans related programming is expected to expand starting this off-season.
CHAPEL HILL: The story about the Vermont station that carries the University of Vermont sports that some university officials were not happy with (as written about last week) because the station also airs Rush Limbaugh was not just a crazed Vermont story after all. Same stuff, different day, in Chapel Hill with WRDU 106.1, which is the flagship station of the Tar Heel Sports Network. WRDU happens to also air the Rush Limbaugh show.
It shows you the power of these universities over the media these days. It seems that University of North Carolina officials have been granted their request for the station to not promote Limbaugh's show during Tar Heels broadcasts, or to promote the UNC broadcasts during the Rush Limbaugh show.Personally, I didn't agree with or understand Limbaugh's controversial comments either. However, the listeners should merely be able to "vote" by not listening, which would give the stations that carry his show reasons to take it off the air. It is even more disgusting to see University and city officials get upset with "programs the station associates with", especially when it is due to opinions expressed on a show not originated by the local station.
Here's hoping that WRDU management starts making requests about University policy it disagrees with.
SPRINGFIELD IL: WCIS-TV has added Joe Snaidauf to its sports staff, coming from Chicago where he served as a writer and producer for WBBM-TV and WFLD-TV among other outlets. Snaidauf's reports will also air on sister station WCID-TV Champaign, including his coverage of University of Illinois sports.
Showing posts with label chicago. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chicago. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Sports Talk Stations On The Comeback Trail
Sports talk radio stations are finally on the rise in some of the larger markets based on the just released January ratings. Some of this, such as New York and Boston, were due to the Giants and Patriots reaching the Super Bowl during the ratings period.
Perhaps the biggest news is that Houston sports stations are trending up again, now registering more than the blip on the radar they have been for the past couple of years. Although KILT has only risen to #19 overall, KBME-AM and KFNC-FM also went up. This is significant for a number of reasons. The total sports audience rise means that one station's rise was not due to another station losing some of its audience, since they each gained.
In addition, this is not exactly a sports bonanza time for Houston's pro teams. The Texans' season ended in early in January even though it included a playoff appearance. The Rockets are not among the NBA's contenders this season, while the Astros' upcoming season does not look promising. This market bears watching over the next few months. Maybe I did write it off too soon.
San Francisco also showed growth, but it remains to be seen how much of that was due to the 49ers playoff run. KNBR went up to #7 overall, while The Game WGMZ-FM also went up, even if only to #26 overall in the market.
Chicago also saw its rival sports stations both on the rise for the January ratings period, with The Score WSCR finishing at #16 overall while WMVP ESPN showed an even larger audience increase despite finishing only 21st overall.
Dallas and Philadelphia, two of the traditionally strong sports radio markets over the years, each showed alarming decreases again, however. In Dallas, the 3 sports stations are now grouped together. KTCK-AM The Ticket is only #22 overall, with KRLD-FM now just .1 behind at #23. KESN-FM ESPN has now lost half of the overall audience it had as recently as the November ratings, and has sunk to #26 overall. Since I was unable to find out for sure prior to press time, I'll only speculate that it is the first time in many ratings periods that Dallas didn't have at least one of its sports stations in the Top 20.
In Philly, WPEN-FM held steady but came in at #18 overall, while the WIP 610 continues its downward spiral, now at a .7 for a #28 market rank. The FM partial simulcast has yet to make a dent either. The argument that the Phillies' broadcasts will be simulcast on WIP-FM may or may not make a difference. What happens in other cities does not always carry over, but Chicago's WBBM Newsradio had actually dropped a full ratings point since November, even with having added a full FM simulcast in the fall.
Los Angeles continues to be a sports talk disaster. KSPN 710 had dropped again and now ranks #28 overall in the market. KLAC has dipped to #34 overall. Combined, these stations don't make the top 20. We shall see whether or not baseball fans discover these stations over the next couple of ratings periods. The Dodgers enter the season with ownership uncertainty while fans have little to no idea about the station now airing their games (in English). The Angels begin their season with Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson being added, and with a lot of promise to contend.
Boston and New York will likely ride the Super Bowl train for at least another ratings book, as baseball season should keep their stations buzzing as well. For the January ratings, WFAN went up to #9 overall while WEPN (even at #23) also went up. In Boston, both The Sports Hub WBZ-FM and WEEI went through the roof, with both stations up and finishing in the top 8 overall.
Meanwhile, back to Houston and the likely disaster of a season ahead for the Astros. One reason to listen to the broadcasts will be because it will be the final season for Milo Hamilton to call the games on radio. That makes it worthwhile right there. Let's hope that Milo is also saluted as he makes his final trips to the road ballparks this season.
We won't know for sure whether or not ESPN removing Ron Jaworski from Monday Night Football was really for the intent of getting him off those telecasts or if it is to reduce to a 2-man booth. My feeling is that it is a combination of both. On the surface, ESPN seems to really want Jaworski since they gave him a 5-year contract and will include him in much more of their NFL related programming.
While I grant you that not everyone likes Jon Gruden, I find it more significant that Monday Night Football will have 2 men in the booth for the first time ever. It's about time. ESPN has been making the gradual transition to turning MNF into a true football telecast instead of the booth circus that ABC used all those years. With NFL telecast ratings on the rise over the past couple of years, ESPN recognizes that fans are tuning in for the games and not to see what the announcers will do next. It is finally play-by-play and real analysis, compared with Frank Gifford's endless conversations about everything but for all those years on ABC, some of which lacked defined roles over who called the plays and who analyzed them. My hope is that this will become a trend.
For all sports, we are becoming saddled with so many analysts in the studio and at the game that there is not enough time for the "good" ones to expand on their thoughts. Getting back to the basics and focusing on the game itself is a great start.
Although it's not polite to highlight an embarassing story, the way the situation was handled by James Bates of CBS Sports Network deserves mention. Bates and Steve Wolf were on camera for the Network doing the opening of the Dayton at Xavier telecast on Saturday (2/18). During the opening, with both announcers seated on the court, the stool that Bates was sitting on broke and collapsed and Bates tumbled to the floor, all live on camera. Bates was shown getting up from the floor while Wolf stood up, but Bates kept talking, kept his cool, and began to joke about the fall. That was extremely professional and he made it seem like fun. If you haven't seen it yet, I'll bet you can still find the video of it.
Do NFL fans truly want to see prospects working out? The NFL Network thinks so. This week (Thursday through Saturday) the Network plans about 50 hours of coverage from the NFL Scouting Combine from Indianapolis. Complete with Rich Eisen anchoring the coverage and primary analysts including Mike Mayock, Michael Irvin, Deion Sanders, and Kurt Warner. This is not for any game action. This for guys working out and demonstrating skills individually for consideration among NFL teams. Unless I missed something, such as Vegas having a line on which guys will work out the best or some sort of rookie projection fantasy league, I'm not sure this "event' warrants such extensive coverage. Granted, there's not much else to talk about for NFL Network until much closer to draft time, and I'm all for live "original" programming, but this seems extreme.
The TV networks covering baseball are putting out their initial telecast schedules for the coming season. While we have already mentioned several of the early season ESPN telecasts, and MLB Network waits until other schedules are finalized before announcing which games they will carry, Fox and TBS have unveiled some or most of their planned telecasts.
Fox Sports is finally back to doing telecasts every Saturday (instead of waiting a couple of weeks into the season), and is expanding to eight Saturday night telecasts for this season. However, there will be a couple of Saturdays when Fox will move ahead of their "traditional" 4 PM ET spot and televise at 1 PM ET instead. This will be when Fox has a NASCAR telecast scheduled for prime time, and to make certain that their baseball telecasts are concluded. While that is admirable, this, combined with the added prime telecasts, means that more than 1/3 of their Saturday telecasts will not be airing at their "traditional" time.
Of course, Fox already has the Yankees and Red Sox scheduled for the maximum of 9 appearances, with the Mets, Braves, and Angels scheduled for 8 times. (The Mets???)
TBS has announced its Sunday afternoon telecast schedule for all of April and May. Guess what. Of their first 8 telecasts, 6 of those include either New York or Boston. However, TBS continues to have varied times for the start of its games, although no west coast or mountain time telecasts are scheduled yet. With varied starting times between 1 and 2 PM ET, at least fans know they can tune in at 2 PM ET and see a game start or in the early innings.
Here are those TV schedules:
FOX Saturday Baseball:
April 7 (3:30 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals at Milwaukee Brewers, San Francisco Giants at Arizona Diamondbacks, Kansas City Royals at Anaheim Angels
April 14 (12:30 PM ET) Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals, Anaheim Angels at New York Yankees, Texas Rangers at Minnesota Twins
April 21 (3:30 PM ET) New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox at Seattle Mariners
April 28 (12:30 PM ET) Milwaukee Brewers at St. Louis Cardinals, Anaheim Angels at Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins
May 5 (3:30 PM ET) Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers Arizona Diamondbacks at New York Mets Milwaukee Brewers at San Francisco Giants
May 12 (12:30 PM ET) Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee Brewers Anaheim Angels at Texas Rangers New York Mets at Miami Marlins
May 19 (7:00 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at Philadelphia Phillies Chicago White Sox at Chicago Cubs Texas Rangers at Houston Astros Baltimore Orioles at Washington Nationals Arizona Diamondbacks at Kansas City Royals
May 26 (7:00 PM ET) Philadelphia Phillies at St. Louis Cardinals Tampa Bay Rays at Boston Red Sox Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh Pirates Colorado Rockies at Cincinnati Reds Anaheim Angels at Seattle Mariners
June 2 (7:00 PM ET) New York Yankees at Detroit Tigers Chicago Cubs at San Francisco Giants Minnesota Twins at Cleveland Indians Arizona Diamondbacks at San Diego Padres Cincinnati Reds at Houston Astros
June 9 (7:00 PM ET) New York Mets at New York Yankees Cleveland Indians at St. Louis Cardinals Los Angeles Dodgers at Seattle Mariners Tampa Bay Rays at Miami Marlins Kansas City Royals at Pittsburgh Pirates
June 16 (7:00 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at Chicago Cubs Cincinnati Reds at New York Mets Miami Marlins at Tampa Bay Rays Baltimore Orioles at Atlanta Braves Houston Astros at Texas Rangers
June 23 (7:00 PM ET) New York Yankees at New York Mets Atlanta Braves at Boston Red Sox Washington Nationals at Baltimore Orioles Los Angeles Dodgers at Anaheim Angels San Francisco Giants at Oakland Athletics Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago White Sox
June 30 (7:00 PM ET) New York Mets at Los Angeles Dodgers Arizona Diamondbacks at Milwaukee Brewers Detroit Tigers at Tampa Bay Rays Oakland Athletics at Texas Rangers San Diego Padres at Colorado Rockies Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins
July 7 (7:00 PM ET) New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox Atlanta Braves at Philadelphia Phillies Minnesota Twins at Texas Rangers
July 14 (3:30 PM ET) New York Mets at Atlanta Braves Arizona Diamondbacks at Chicago Cubs Philadelphia Phillies at Colorado Rockies
July 21 (3:30 PM ET) San Francisco Giants at Philadelphia Phillies Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals Texas Rangers at Anaheim Angels
July 28 (3:30 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves
August 18 (3:30 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees San Francisco Giants at San Diego Padres
August 25 (3:30 PM ET) St. Louis Cardinals at Cincinnati Reds Atlanta Braves at San Francisco Giants Minnesota Twins at Texas Rangers
September 1 (3:30 PM ET) Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves San Francisco Giants at Chicago Cubs Anaheim Angels at Seattle Mariners
September 8 (3:30 PM ET) Atlanta Braves at New York Mets Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants Kansas City Royals at Chicago White Sox
September 15 (3:30 PM ET) Tampa Bay Rays at New York Yankees Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Indians Colorado Rockies at San Diego Padres
September 22 + Sept. 29 - To be determined
SUNDAY TBS SCHEDULE
April 8 1:30 p.m. New York Yankees at Tampa Bay
April 15 1:30 p.m. Tampa Bay Rays at Boston
April 22 1 p.m. Texas Rangers at Detroit
April 29 1 p.m. Detroit Tigers at New York Yankees
May 6- 2 p.m. New York Yankees at Kansas City
May 13 2 p.m. Atlanta Braves at St. Louis
May 20 1:30 p.m. Boston Red Sox at Philadelphia
May 27 1:30 p.m. Tampa Bay Rays at Boston
Perhaps the biggest news is that Houston sports stations are trending up again, now registering more than the blip on the radar they have been for the past couple of years. Although KILT has only risen to #19 overall, KBME-AM and KFNC-FM also went up. This is significant for a number of reasons. The total sports audience rise means that one station's rise was not due to another station losing some of its audience, since they each gained.
In addition, this is not exactly a sports bonanza time for Houston's pro teams. The Texans' season ended in early in January even though it included a playoff appearance. The Rockets are not among the NBA's contenders this season, while the Astros' upcoming season does not look promising. This market bears watching over the next few months. Maybe I did write it off too soon.
San Francisco also showed growth, but it remains to be seen how much of that was due to the 49ers playoff run. KNBR went up to #7 overall, while The Game WGMZ-FM also went up, even if only to #26 overall in the market.
Chicago also saw its rival sports stations both on the rise for the January ratings period, with The Score WSCR finishing at #16 overall while WMVP ESPN showed an even larger audience increase despite finishing only 21st overall.
Dallas and Philadelphia, two of the traditionally strong sports radio markets over the years, each showed alarming decreases again, however. In Dallas, the 3 sports stations are now grouped together. KTCK-AM The Ticket is only #22 overall, with KRLD-FM now just .1 behind at #23. KESN-FM ESPN has now lost half of the overall audience it had as recently as the November ratings, and has sunk to #26 overall. Since I was unable to find out for sure prior to press time, I'll only speculate that it is the first time in many ratings periods that Dallas didn't have at least one of its sports stations in the Top 20.
In Philly, WPEN-FM held steady but came in at #18 overall, while the WIP 610 continues its downward spiral, now at a .7 for a #28 market rank. The FM partial simulcast has yet to make a dent either. The argument that the Phillies' broadcasts will be simulcast on WIP-FM may or may not make a difference. What happens in other cities does not always carry over, but Chicago's WBBM Newsradio had actually dropped a full ratings point since November, even with having added a full FM simulcast in the fall.
Los Angeles continues to be a sports talk disaster. KSPN 710 had dropped again and now ranks #28 overall in the market. KLAC has dipped to #34 overall. Combined, these stations don't make the top 20. We shall see whether or not baseball fans discover these stations over the next couple of ratings periods. The Dodgers enter the season with ownership uncertainty while fans have little to no idea about the station now airing their games (in English). The Angels begin their season with Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson being added, and with a lot of promise to contend.
Boston and New York will likely ride the Super Bowl train for at least another ratings book, as baseball season should keep their stations buzzing as well. For the January ratings, WFAN went up to #9 overall while WEPN (even at #23) also went up. In Boston, both The Sports Hub WBZ-FM and WEEI went through the roof, with both stations up and finishing in the top 8 overall.
Meanwhile, back to Houston and the likely disaster of a season ahead for the Astros. One reason to listen to the broadcasts will be because it will be the final season for Milo Hamilton to call the games on radio. That makes it worthwhile right there. Let's hope that Milo is also saluted as he makes his final trips to the road ballparks this season.
We won't know for sure whether or not ESPN removing Ron Jaworski from Monday Night Football was really for the intent of getting him off those telecasts or if it is to reduce to a 2-man booth. My feeling is that it is a combination of both. On the surface, ESPN seems to really want Jaworski since they gave him a 5-year contract and will include him in much more of their NFL related programming.
While I grant you that not everyone likes Jon Gruden, I find it more significant that Monday Night Football will have 2 men in the booth for the first time ever. It's about time. ESPN has been making the gradual transition to turning MNF into a true football telecast instead of the booth circus that ABC used all those years. With NFL telecast ratings on the rise over the past couple of years, ESPN recognizes that fans are tuning in for the games and not to see what the announcers will do next. It is finally play-by-play and real analysis, compared with Frank Gifford's endless conversations about everything but for all those years on ABC, some of which lacked defined roles over who called the plays and who analyzed them. My hope is that this will become a trend.
For all sports, we are becoming saddled with so many analysts in the studio and at the game that there is not enough time for the "good" ones to expand on their thoughts. Getting back to the basics and focusing on the game itself is a great start.
Although it's not polite to highlight an embarassing story, the way the situation was handled by James Bates of CBS Sports Network deserves mention. Bates and Steve Wolf were on camera for the Network doing the opening of the Dayton at Xavier telecast on Saturday (2/18). During the opening, with both announcers seated on the court, the stool that Bates was sitting on broke and collapsed and Bates tumbled to the floor, all live on camera. Bates was shown getting up from the floor while Wolf stood up, but Bates kept talking, kept his cool, and began to joke about the fall. That was extremely professional and he made it seem like fun. If you haven't seen it yet, I'll bet you can still find the video of it.
Do NFL fans truly want to see prospects working out? The NFL Network thinks so. This week (Thursday through Saturday) the Network plans about 50 hours of coverage from the NFL Scouting Combine from Indianapolis. Complete with Rich Eisen anchoring the coverage and primary analysts including Mike Mayock, Michael Irvin, Deion Sanders, and Kurt Warner. This is not for any game action. This for guys working out and demonstrating skills individually for consideration among NFL teams. Unless I missed something, such as Vegas having a line on which guys will work out the best or some sort of rookie projection fantasy league, I'm not sure this "event' warrants such extensive coverage. Granted, there's not much else to talk about for NFL Network until much closer to draft time, and I'm all for live "original" programming, but this seems extreme.
The TV networks covering baseball are putting out their initial telecast schedules for the coming season. While we have already mentioned several of the early season ESPN telecasts, and MLB Network waits until other schedules are finalized before announcing which games they will carry, Fox and TBS have unveiled some or most of their planned telecasts.
Fox Sports is finally back to doing telecasts every Saturday (instead of waiting a couple of weeks into the season), and is expanding to eight Saturday night telecasts for this season. However, there will be a couple of Saturdays when Fox will move ahead of their "traditional" 4 PM ET spot and televise at 1 PM ET instead. This will be when Fox has a NASCAR telecast scheduled for prime time, and to make certain that their baseball telecasts are concluded. While that is admirable, this, combined with the added prime telecasts, means that more than 1/3 of their Saturday telecasts will not be airing at their "traditional" time.
Of course, Fox already has the Yankees and Red Sox scheduled for the maximum of 9 appearances, with the Mets, Braves, and Angels scheduled for 8 times. (The Mets???)
TBS has announced its Sunday afternoon telecast schedule for all of April and May. Guess what. Of their first 8 telecasts, 6 of those include either New York or Boston. However, TBS continues to have varied times for the start of its games, although no west coast or mountain time telecasts are scheduled yet. With varied starting times between 1 and 2 PM ET, at least fans know they can tune in at 2 PM ET and see a game start or in the early innings.
Here are those TV schedules:
FOX Saturday Baseball:
April 7 (3:30 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals at Milwaukee Brewers, San Francisco Giants at Arizona Diamondbacks, Kansas City Royals at Anaheim Angels
April 14 (12:30 PM ET) Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals, Anaheim Angels at New York Yankees, Texas Rangers at Minnesota Twins
April 21 (3:30 PM ET) New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox at Seattle Mariners
April 28 (12:30 PM ET) Milwaukee Brewers at St. Louis Cardinals, Anaheim Angels at Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins
May 5 (3:30 PM ET) Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers Arizona Diamondbacks at New York Mets Milwaukee Brewers at San Francisco Giants
May 12 (12:30 PM ET) Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee Brewers Anaheim Angels at Texas Rangers New York Mets at Miami Marlins
May 19 (7:00 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at Philadelphia Phillies Chicago White Sox at Chicago Cubs Texas Rangers at Houston Astros Baltimore Orioles at Washington Nationals Arizona Diamondbacks at Kansas City Royals
May 26 (7:00 PM ET) Philadelphia Phillies at St. Louis Cardinals Tampa Bay Rays at Boston Red Sox Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh Pirates Colorado Rockies at Cincinnati Reds Anaheim Angels at Seattle Mariners
June 2 (7:00 PM ET) New York Yankees at Detroit Tigers Chicago Cubs at San Francisco Giants Minnesota Twins at Cleveland Indians Arizona Diamondbacks at San Diego Padres Cincinnati Reds at Houston Astros
June 9 (7:00 PM ET) New York Mets at New York Yankees Cleveland Indians at St. Louis Cardinals Los Angeles Dodgers at Seattle Mariners Tampa Bay Rays at Miami Marlins Kansas City Royals at Pittsburgh Pirates
June 16 (7:00 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at Chicago Cubs Cincinnati Reds at New York Mets Miami Marlins at Tampa Bay Rays Baltimore Orioles at Atlanta Braves Houston Astros at Texas Rangers
June 23 (7:00 PM ET) New York Yankees at New York Mets Atlanta Braves at Boston Red Sox Washington Nationals at Baltimore Orioles Los Angeles Dodgers at Anaheim Angels San Francisco Giants at Oakland Athletics Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago White Sox
June 30 (7:00 PM ET) New York Mets at Los Angeles Dodgers Arizona Diamondbacks at Milwaukee Brewers Detroit Tigers at Tampa Bay Rays Oakland Athletics at Texas Rangers San Diego Padres at Colorado Rockies Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins
July 7 (7:00 PM ET) New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox Atlanta Braves at Philadelphia Phillies Minnesota Twins at Texas Rangers
July 14 (3:30 PM ET) New York Mets at Atlanta Braves Arizona Diamondbacks at Chicago Cubs Philadelphia Phillies at Colorado Rockies
July 21 (3:30 PM ET) San Francisco Giants at Philadelphia Phillies Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals Texas Rangers at Anaheim Angels
July 28 (3:30 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves
August 18 (3:30 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees San Francisco Giants at San Diego Padres
August 25 (3:30 PM ET) St. Louis Cardinals at Cincinnati Reds Atlanta Braves at San Francisco Giants Minnesota Twins at Texas Rangers
September 1 (3:30 PM ET) Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves San Francisco Giants at Chicago Cubs Anaheim Angels at Seattle Mariners
September 8 (3:30 PM ET) Atlanta Braves at New York Mets Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants Kansas City Royals at Chicago White Sox
September 15 (3:30 PM ET) Tampa Bay Rays at New York Yankees Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Indians Colorado Rockies at San Diego Padres
September 22 + Sept. 29 - To be determined
SUNDAY TBS SCHEDULE
April 8 1:30 p.m. New York Yankees at Tampa Bay
April 15 1:30 p.m. Tampa Bay Rays at Boston
April 22 1 p.m. Texas Rangers at Detroit
April 29 1 p.m. Detroit Tigers at New York Yankees
May 6- 2 p.m. New York Yankees at Kansas City
May 13 2 p.m. Atlanta Braves at St. Louis
May 20 1:30 p.m. Boston Red Sox at Philadelphia
May 27 1:30 p.m. Tampa Bay Rays at Boston
Monday, December 19, 2011
The High Cost of Sports Media
Sports media is supposed to be to serve and support the fans who follow their favorite teams and sports, yet as 2011 comes toward an end, it seems to be switching toward sports fans supporting the media, and I'm talking financially. That's not how it is supposed to be.
With all of the technology now available to sports fans which didn't exist 20 years ago, this should be a period of time during which the fans could rejoice at all of the coverage and information available to follow favorite leagues, teams, games, and even individual players for fantasy sports. Instead, we sports fans keep having to open our wallets further and further to have it. Without a vote.
The big "sports media" stories of these past couple of weeks show this. The NFL contracts to the TV networks figures to significantly raise the cost of cable/satellite bills over the next few months. Worse yet, even the millions of consumers who are not sports fans will wind up helping to pay for the new NFL package.
In the New York area, the bickering continues between Time Warner Cable and MSG Networks regarding the prices MSG Networks wants to charge Time Warner per subscriber starting January 1st. Time Warner is looking to play "hero" (as of press time on Monday 12/19) via its media release that it intends to continue to carry MSG Networks through the duration of the Knicks' and Rangers' current seasons while it negotiates.
What we have is MSG Networks raising the prices to watch coverage of teams which may not even be serious title contenders. Yet, it's difficult to be on the side of Time Warner, since it decides which channels and groups will be on which packages and what the prices will be - often whether its paying customers want them or not. TW, as with other cable and satellite providers, continue to demand that customers pay for channels for different languages, religions, and programming choices than what they necessarily want or use.
Not only are us "fans" put in this position, but we also have to watch telecasts cluttered with advertisements, network promotions, and other solicitations.
Now, it's more than TV and radio. With the NBA season now less than a week from starting, the NBA has announced that it has a new "official wireless service provider of the NBA". Complete with the press releases about what a great service this is for NBA fans who can get live game broadcasts and video on their phones. The NBA seems to overlook that consumers already pay extra for plans that allow them online and "radio" access via their phones. However, we now have Sprint paying the NBA for exclusive rights to offer this, after T-Mobile was the "official" carrier for the past six seasons. If the NBA truly wants to provide its fan base with phone access for the coming season (and after the lockout they should be bending over backwards to make this available) it should allow this access via all of the national wireless carriers.
The sports media has become more important to many consumers because it costs too much for many people to attend games due to huge ticket prices. The media is supposed to "cover" the sports events that fans are interested, and not be so worried about making money off every fan that is or isn't interested.
CBS is pleased after winning the battle (against NBC which tried to flex the telecast into prime time) to keep the New England vs. Denver telecast on Sunday (12/18). The telecast scored the highest regular season rating of the entire season thus far, and was CBS' highest rated regular season telecast since 2007.
BALTIMORE / D.C.: The Ravens have a new local radio & TV contract extension for five more seasons. WBAL-AM and 98 Rock-FM will continue to air the games, with Gerry Sandusky (who has to remind people that he is not 'that' Gerry Sandusky), Stan White, and Qadry Ismail handling the broadcasts. On the TV side, WBAL-TV Channel 11 will air the pre-season games not picked up by any of the national networks.
WTEM ESPN 980 (D.C.) will need a new co-host along with Doc Walker on its 2 - 4 PM weekday show. Former Georgetown University coach John Thompson, who has been co-hosting the show with Walker since 1999, is leaving the show. As of press time, Thompson only said "It's time to move on", and had not announced any intention of giving up any of his other current broadcast duties.
CINCINNATI: WQTR-AM 1160 will continue with sports talk programming from 5 to 7 PM weekdays, starting a new show "The Other Guys" with Fox Sports Ohio's Jeff Piecoro and Rick "The Brick" Wall. The "Guys" replace Andy Furman, who resigned on December 5th after two years of hosting on WQTR. Furman continues his Fox Sports Radio Sunday night show, while speculation is that he will have another Cincinnati media gig to announce within the next 60 days.
PITTSBURGH: WWCS 540 is ending its Spanish language programming to become "Fox Sports 540" by January 1st. However, its initial announcement shows all network and syndicated programming on both weekdays and weekends, at least to start. Fox Sports Radio had been dumped by WBGG 970 which is now Pittsburgh's ESPN Radio.
TAMPA: Congrats to Nel Solondz on being named as the Rays broadcasts pre and post-game host starting for the upcoming season. Solondz had been the voice of the Rays' AAA Durham Bulls for the previous 8 seasons, and had been used to fill in on some of the Rays' related programming.
With all of the technology now available to sports fans which didn't exist 20 years ago, this should be a period of time during which the fans could rejoice at all of the coverage and information available to follow favorite leagues, teams, games, and even individual players for fantasy sports. Instead, we sports fans keep having to open our wallets further and further to have it. Without a vote.
The big "sports media" stories of these past couple of weeks show this. The NFL contracts to the TV networks figures to significantly raise the cost of cable/satellite bills over the next few months. Worse yet, even the millions of consumers who are not sports fans will wind up helping to pay for the new NFL package.
In the New York area, the bickering continues between Time Warner Cable and MSG Networks regarding the prices MSG Networks wants to charge Time Warner per subscriber starting January 1st. Time Warner is looking to play "hero" (as of press time on Monday 12/19) via its media release that it intends to continue to carry MSG Networks through the duration of the Knicks' and Rangers' current seasons while it negotiates.
What we have is MSG Networks raising the prices to watch coverage of teams which may not even be serious title contenders. Yet, it's difficult to be on the side of Time Warner, since it decides which channels and groups will be on which packages and what the prices will be - often whether its paying customers want them or not. TW, as with other cable and satellite providers, continue to demand that customers pay for channels for different languages, religions, and programming choices than what they necessarily want or use.
Not only are us "fans" put in this position, but we also have to watch telecasts cluttered with advertisements, network promotions, and other solicitations.
Now, it's more than TV and radio. With the NBA season now less than a week from starting, the NBA has announced that it has a new "official wireless service provider of the NBA". Complete with the press releases about what a great service this is for NBA fans who can get live game broadcasts and video on their phones. The NBA seems to overlook that consumers already pay extra for plans that allow them online and "radio" access via their phones. However, we now have Sprint paying the NBA for exclusive rights to offer this, after T-Mobile was the "official" carrier for the past six seasons. If the NBA truly wants to provide its fan base with phone access for the coming season (and after the lockout they should be bending over backwards to make this available) it should allow this access via all of the national wireless carriers.
The sports media has become more important to many consumers because it costs too much for many people to attend games due to huge ticket prices. The media is supposed to "cover" the sports events that fans are interested, and not be so worried about making money off every fan that is or isn't interested.
CBS is pleased after winning the battle (against NBC which tried to flex the telecast into prime time) to keep the New England vs. Denver telecast on Sunday (12/18). The telecast scored the highest regular season rating of the entire season thus far, and was CBS' highest rated regular season telecast since 2007.
BALTIMORE / D.C.: The Ravens have a new local radio & TV contract extension for five more seasons. WBAL-AM and 98 Rock-FM will continue to air the games, with Gerry Sandusky (who has to remind people that he is not 'that' Gerry Sandusky), Stan White, and Qadry Ismail handling the broadcasts. On the TV side, WBAL-TV Channel 11 will air the pre-season games not picked up by any of the national networks.
WTEM ESPN 980 (D.C.) will need a new co-host along with Doc Walker on its 2 - 4 PM weekday show. Former Georgetown University coach John Thompson, who has been co-hosting the show with Walker since 1999, is leaving the show. As of press time, Thompson only said "It's time to move on", and had not announced any intention of giving up any of his other current broadcast duties.
CINCINNATI: WQTR-AM 1160 will continue with sports talk programming from 5 to 7 PM weekdays, starting a new show "The Other Guys" with Fox Sports Ohio's Jeff Piecoro and Rick "The Brick" Wall. The "Guys" replace Andy Furman, who resigned on December 5th after two years of hosting on WQTR. Furman continues his Fox Sports Radio Sunday night show, while speculation is that he will have another Cincinnati media gig to announce within the next 60 days.
PITTSBURGH: WWCS 540 is ending its Spanish language programming to become "Fox Sports 540" by January 1st. However, its initial announcement shows all network and syndicated programming on both weekdays and weekends, at least to start. Fox Sports Radio had been dumped by WBGG 970 which is now Pittsburgh's ESPN Radio.
TAMPA: Congrats to Nel Solondz on being named as the Rays broadcasts pre and post-game host starting for the upcoming season. Solondz had been the voice of the Rays' AAA Durham Bulls for the previous 8 seasons, and had been used to fill in on some of the Rays' related programming.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
It's The Game - Not The Sports Station
The release of radio ratings for the mid-September to mid-October period provide reasons to re-visit the impact of sports radio stations around the country. These ratings come during the busiest time of the year in sports, with football, baseball, hockey, and (not quite) basketball all keeping the sports pages busy.
Several of the large market sports stations have recently done some lineup shuffling, whether to fend off competing sportstalk stations, add a fresh approach, or both. Over the past year, I have taken the point of view that sports station ratings are driven too much by the local teams or major sports happenings moreso than the personalities hosting the shows day after day.
With so much time spent talking about rumors, speculation, and predictions by the various hosts instead of increasing "hard sports news" reporting and having more quality guests, many of the sports stations continue to not make a significant impact with the local radio audience, local programming or not. For the most part, when local teams are making significant news or changes, it reflects positively on the local sports stations.
This is not good for the industry. It tells me that sports fans know these sportstalk stations are there, but choose to listen for a hot topic, and not the personalities.
Not everyone who reads and responds to me on this topic agrees, and that's fine. However, I'm seeing even less to support their arguments on this. Let's look at the latest radio ratings for a group of larger markets.
In New York City, WFAN is now #12 in the market in overall audience, and did increase .4 from the previous month. WEPN showed a 50% overall audience increase over the September ratings and has more than doubled its total audience since July, which is impressive. Yet, there were no significant program lineup changes during this time. Fans are not listening more to these stations because "such-and-such is now on in the afternoon". The audience increases for both stations came during the Yankees' run to the post-season with higher expectations and the start of the Giants' and Jets' seasons.
In Chicago, WSCR The Score 670 came in at #18 overall with another slight increase. Yet, rival WMVP ESPN 1000, while tied for #20 showed its strongest overall rating this year. This coincides with the Bears' season starting, as evidenced by WBBM 780 and 105.9, which airs the play-by-play, rising from a 5.4 to a 6.6 overall in just one month to finish #1 in the market.
I'm going to comment more (and separately) on Los Angeles sports radio later this month, since that market again failed to place either of its sports stations in the top 25 in overall audience.
San Francisco also brings the point home. As the Giants were fading from their chance to repeat a World Series championship and the 49ers brought low expectations (at the time), KNBR 680 lost about 20% of its overall audience from one month earlier and fell to #9 in the market. KTCT The Ticket did show a large increase in listeners, but shows a total audience less than 1/3 of KNBR.
In Dallas, KESN showed a 25% audience increase and finished #9 in the market, while KRLD-FM showed a similar increase while rising to #18 overall. KTCK The Ticket held steady. This while the Rangers were on their way to another World Series (decided after this ratings period) and the Cowboys' season was now in full swing.
Houston is another significant example of why it is the sports climate and not the stations themselves. The 3 "leading" sports radio stations showed increases for the October ratings just as Texans began a season with higher than usual expectations. Heck, KILT's audience increased enough to put a Houston sports station into the top 20 stations overall, even though they are at #19. (Other than Los Angeles, Houston's sports stations have shown perhaps the lowest major league market sports radio ratings over the past couple of years.)
Boston was a sports 'hot bed' during this time, with the severe Red Sox collapse at the same time as the start of the Patriots' season. WEEI/WMKK moved up over a full ratings point over the one month. Before I get the argument that the WMKK simulcast recently began and this would account for the increase, consider that WBZ-FM The Sports Hub ALSO rose more than one full rating point during the same time. Sports talk had been on FM in the Boston area. The late September local sports scene is what brought the fans to want to talk about it.
In Detroit, the Tigers' run to the post-season, the Lions best start in more than 40 years, the opening of the Red Wings season, and early success of Michigan and Michigan State football created a sports frenzy. WXYT-FM 97.1 The Ticket had a second straight record-setting ratings month, rose by .6 overall, and finished #1 in the market.
In Phoenix, the success of the Diamondbacks into the post-season brought KTAR-AM up to more than double the audience ratings it had for August.
In Columbus, WBNS-FM's overall ratings rose from a 5.5 a month earlier to a 6.7, an impressive increase, raising the station to #4 in the market. Why? You guessed it. The sportstalk station carries Ohio State football play-by-play.
One more large market to comment on. I'm sure I'll hear from a few of you who will argue that the WEEI to FM simulcast was a factor in the Boston sports radio increase. Perhaps you should also research the Philadelphia market. WIP killed off WYSP-FM's music format to simulcast sports radio, giving this long time sports leader an AM-FM presence for the first time. For October, WIP-AM dropped to #23 overall in the market, and has lost more than half of its audience since July. Yet, WPEN rose to #18 in the market, but showed nearly a full ratings point increase. This looks like the impact of Howard Eskin leaving WIP and many of his listeners trying out the competition - during the Phillies' post-season run and with the Eagles' season in full swing.
Here's hoping that sportstalk stations will strive for more than "Let's go to Joe on the north side who thinks that (name of team) needs a new linebacker" to try and attract more listeners.
Elsewhere, I'm glad that ESPN thought to televise the announcements of MLB's Gold Glove Award winners on Tuesday (11/1) night. With all of the time on the national, regional, and league/conference networks, there is room for shows surrounding award announcements, since many fans want to know exactly when these awards will be announced.
However, if ESPN or MLB Network is going to televise these awards (such as Silver Slugger, MVP, Cy Young, etc.), they need to do a better job of making it interesting or there won't be enough of an audience to make it worthwhile in the future.
"All" ESPN did for each position in both leagues was give the list of nominees, have a former player announce the winner, and THEN show highlights of that player's performance. Sorry, but that wasn't enough of a buildup to make it worth watching again.
Show us clips and information about each nominee, like the major movie and TV awards shows air a clip of each show or film in consideration. Instead, ESPN made it seem easier to go to another news source later that night or the next morning and see the list all at once.
Even an MVP or Cy Young Award telecast could be made interesting. They could include some clips and statistical comparisons of some players not even in the "top 10" in the voting to raise the "How could this guy not have been voted higher?" discussion. In this context, it enhances the winning of the award while adding more suspense. That would be a thousand times better than what seemed like it could have been a pre-recorded presentation.
Next Thursday (11/10) begins Thursday Night Football on NFL Network when the Raiders take on the Chargers. Once again, a new season means a new announcing team. This year Brad Nessler, known for his college football play-by-play over the years, will handle it for NFL Network, along with Notre Dame on NBC analyst Mike Mayock.
Although Nessler and Mayock each do a very good job and figure to be a good team, it seems odd that the NFL's own network would not go with an announcing team strongly associated with the NFL instead of college games.
NEW YORK: It wasn't announced until after our press time last week, but the Yankees broadcasts will indeed return to WCBS-AM for the 2012 season. The significance is that this is a one-year extension and not a multi-year deal. Sister station WFAN has the Mets broadcasts, and that contract is also up at the end of next season. One of the aspects the bears watching is how CBS Radio stations approach retaining or bidding for local play-by-play rights over the next few months. If CBS is looking at a lesser role for sports broadcasts, it could create a wild scene in NYC with both teams coming up. Or, CBS could be bidding against itself and others for both teams next summer.
The Yankees' radio team of John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman will return. How much or how little those two will actually talk to each other directly on the air remains to be seen - or heard.
While WEPN 1050 lacks for programming since there are no Knicks broadcasts during the NBA lockout, the station will carry Seton Hall basketball starting on Nov. 12th vs. St. Francis. The contract allows for the Seton Hall broadcasts to move to WABC 770 if and when there are Knicks conflicts during the coming season, as well as when there will be Rangers conflicts. (WEPN airs the Rangers games as well.)
WASHINGTON D.C.: Although the college basketball season is about to start, it took until the last minute for Georgetown University basketball to get a deal with WTEM 980. The ESPN station or WSPZ-AM 570 will air the Hoyas games again this season, with Rich Chvotkin going in to his 39th season as play-by-play voice.
DENVER: Nate Kreckman has moved into a co-host role from Noon to 3 PM on 102.3 The Ticket, teaming with Charles Johnson. Former Colorado QB Joel Klatt has left the station, with details sketchy as to what happened there.
ALLENTOWN PA: A Saturday morning mystery, radio style. This past Saturday (10/30), The Fox AM 1470 did not air the "Calling All Sports" Show with Keith Groller, although there was no official announcement. Later, Groller stated in his local newspaper column that the show was taken off the schedule "due to some transitions". The station is owned by a large national radio group which has been eliminating jobs around the country over the past two weeks, and this was a weekly locally produced show. So now the guess is it's no longer a mystery and the show won't be back.
Several of the large market sports stations have recently done some lineup shuffling, whether to fend off competing sportstalk stations, add a fresh approach, or both. Over the past year, I have taken the point of view that sports station ratings are driven too much by the local teams or major sports happenings moreso than the personalities hosting the shows day after day.
With so much time spent talking about rumors, speculation, and predictions by the various hosts instead of increasing "hard sports news" reporting and having more quality guests, many of the sports stations continue to not make a significant impact with the local radio audience, local programming or not. For the most part, when local teams are making significant news or changes, it reflects positively on the local sports stations.
This is not good for the industry. It tells me that sports fans know these sportstalk stations are there, but choose to listen for a hot topic, and not the personalities.
Not everyone who reads and responds to me on this topic agrees, and that's fine. However, I'm seeing even less to support their arguments on this. Let's look at the latest radio ratings for a group of larger markets.
In New York City, WFAN is now #12 in the market in overall audience, and did increase .4 from the previous month. WEPN showed a 50% overall audience increase over the September ratings and has more than doubled its total audience since July, which is impressive. Yet, there were no significant program lineup changes during this time. Fans are not listening more to these stations because "such-and-such is now on in the afternoon". The audience increases for both stations came during the Yankees' run to the post-season with higher expectations and the start of the Giants' and Jets' seasons.
In Chicago, WSCR The Score 670 came in at #18 overall with another slight increase. Yet, rival WMVP ESPN 1000, while tied for #20 showed its strongest overall rating this year. This coincides with the Bears' season starting, as evidenced by WBBM 780 and 105.9, which airs the play-by-play, rising from a 5.4 to a 6.6 overall in just one month to finish #1 in the market.
I'm going to comment more (and separately) on Los Angeles sports radio later this month, since that market again failed to place either of its sports stations in the top 25 in overall audience.
San Francisco also brings the point home. As the Giants were fading from their chance to repeat a World Series championship and the 49ers brought low expectations (at the time), KNBR 680 lost about 20% of its overall audience from one month earlier and fell to #9 in the market. KTCT The Ticket did show a large increase in listeners, but shows a total audience less than 1/3 of KNBR.
In Dallas, KESN showed a 25% audience increase and finished #9 in the market, while KRLD-FM showed a similar increase while rising to #18 overall. KTCK The Ticket held steady. This while the Rangers were on their way to another World Series (decided after this ratings period) and the Cowboys' season was now in full swing.
Houston is another significant example of why it is the sports climate and not the stations themselves. The 3 "leading" sports radio stations showed increases for the October ratings just as Texans began a season with higher than usual expectations. Heck, KILT's audience increased enough to put a Houston sports station into the top 20 stations overall, even though they are at #19. (Other than Los Angeles, Houston's sports stations have shown perhaps the lowest major league market sports radio ratings over the past couple of years.)
Boston was a sports 'hot bed' during this time, with the severe Red Sox collapse at the same time as the start of the Patriots' season. WEEI/WMKK moved up over a full ratings point over the one month. Before I get the argument that the WMKK simulcast recently began and this would account for the increase, consider that WBZ-FM The Sports Hub ALSO rose more than one full rating point during the same time. Sports talk had been on FM in the Boston area. The late September local sports scene is what brought the fans to want to talk about it.
In Detroit, the Tigers' run to the post-season, the Lions best start in more than 40 years, the opening of the Red Wings season, and early success of Michigan and Michigan State football created a sports frenzy. WXYT-FM 97.1 The Ticket had a second straight record-setting ratings month, rose by .6 overall, and finished #1 in the market.
In Phoenix, the success of the Diamondbacks into the post-season brought KTAR-AM up to more than double the audience ratings it had for August.
In Columbus, WBNS-FM's overall ratings rose from a 5.5 a month earlier to a 6.7, an impressive increase, raising the station to #4 in the market. Why? You guessed it. The sportstalk station carries Ohio State football play-by-play.
One more large market to comment on. I'm sure I'll hear from a few of you who will argue that the WEEI to FM simulcast was a factor in the Boston sports radio increase. Perhaps you should also research the Philadelphia market. WIP killed off WYSP-FM's music format to simulcast sports radio, giving this long time sports leader an AM-FM presence for the first time. For October, WIP-AM dropped to #23 overall in the market, and has lost more than half of its audience since July. Yet, WPEN rose to #18 in the market, but showed nearly a full ratings point increase. This looks like the impact of Howard Eskin leaving WIP and many of his listeners trying out the competition - during the Phillies' post-season run and with the Eagles' season in full swing.
Here's hoping that sportstalk stations will strive for more than "Let's go to Joe on the north side who thinks that (name of team) needs a new linebacker" to try and attract more listeners.
Elsewhere, I'm glad that ESPN thought to televise the announcements of MLB's Gold Glove Award winners on Tuesday (11/1) night. With all of the time on the national, regional, and league/conference networks, there is room for shows surrounding award announcements, since many fans want to know exactly when these awards will be announced.
However, if ESPN or MLB Network is going to televise these awards (such as Silver Slugger, MVP, Cy Young, etc.), they need to do a better job of making it interesting or there won't be enough of an audience to make it worthwhile in the future.
"All" ESPN did for each position in both leagues was give the list of nominees, have a former player announce the winner, and THEN show highlights of that player's performance. Sorry, but that wasn't enough of a buildup to make it worth watching again.
Show us clips and information about each nominee, like the major movie and TV awards shows air a clip of each show or film in consideration. Instead, ESPN made it seem easier to go to another news source later that night or the next morning and see the list all at once.
Even an MVP or Cy Young Award telecast could be made interesting. They could include some clips and statistical comparisons of some players not even in the "top 10" in the voting to raise the "How could this guy not have been voted higher?" discussion. In this context, it enhances the winning of the award while adding more suspense. That would be a thousand times better than what seemed like it could have been a pre-recorded presentation.
Next Thursday (11/10) begins Thursday Night Football on NFL Network when the Raiders take on the Chargers. Once again, a new season means a new announcing team. This year Brad Nessler, known for his college football play-by-play over the years, will handle it for NFL Network, along with Notre Dame on NBC analyst Mike Mayock.
Although Nessler and Mayock each do a very good job and figure to be a good team, it seems odd that the NFL's own network would not go with an announcing team strongly associated with the NFL instead of college games.
NEW YORK: It wasn't announced until after our press time last week, but the Yankees broadcasts will indeed return to WCBS-AM for the 2012 season. The significance is that this is a one-year extension and not a multi-year deal. Sister station WFAN has the Mets broadcasts, and that contract is also up at the end of next season. One of the aspects the bears watching is how CBS Radio stations approach retaining or bidding for local play-by-play rights over the next few months. If CBS is looking at a lesser role for sports broadcasts, it could create a wild scene in NYC with both teams coming up. Or, CBS could be bidding against itself and others for both teams next summer.
The Yankees' radio team of John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman will return. How much or how little those two will actually talk to each other directly on the air remains to be seen - or heard.
While WEPN 1050 lacks for programming since there are no Knicks broadcasts during the NBA lockout, the station will carry Seton Hall basketball starting on Nov. 12th vs. St. Francis. The contract allows for the Seton Hall broadcasts to move to WABC 770 if and when there are Knicks conflicts during the coming season, as well as when there will be Rangers conflicts. (WEPN airs the Rangers games as well.)
WASHINGTON D.C.: Although the college basketball season is about to start, it took until the last minute for Georgetown University basketball to get a deal with WTEM 980. The ESPN station or WSPZ-AM 570 will air the Hoyas games again this season, with Rich Chvotkin going in to his 39th season as play-by-play voice.
DENVER: Nate Kreckman has moved into a co-host role from Noon to 3 PM on 102.3 The Ticket, teaming with Charles Johnson. Former Colorado QB Joel Klatt has left the station, with details sketchy as to what happened there.
ALLENTOWN PA: A Saturday morning mystery, radio style. This past Saturday (10/30), The Fox AM 1470 did not air the "Calling All Sports" Show with Keith Groller, although there was no official announcement. Later, Groller stated in his local newspaper column that the show was taken off the schedule "due to some transitions". The station is owned by a large national radio group which has been eliminating jobs around the country over the past two weeks, and this was a weekly locally produced show. So now the guess is it's no longer a mystery and the show won't be back.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
If It's Not On The Air And No One Hears It, Did They Report It?
If a radio station reports something but not over the air, does it still count? It seems that WSCR 670 The Score in Chicago raised that very question on Monday night (9/26).
It so happens that the Chicago White Sox are my favorite baseball team, so I was watching their game vs. Toronto on Monday night which began hours after (then) Manager Ozzie Guillen had met with team owner Jerry Reinsdorf and speculation was heavy that Guillen would not be returning as manager. Early in the game, media reports began to surface that this game would be Guillen's last as manager, which indeed was announced right as the game ended.
I had gone onto Twitter and began to follow various media reports about the Guillen situation while watching and listening to the White Sox game. It so happens that I find White Sox TV announcer Ken Harrelson (or "Horrible-son" as he is called by some) to be dreadful and instead listen to the radio play-by-play with Ed Farmer and Darrin Jackson on WSCR.
Sometime around the 2nd inning, Ed Farmer said, to the effect of, (not an exact quote) "There has been a lot of speculation about manager Ozzie Guillen, but at this point it is all speculation, and if there is an official announcement we'll tell you".
A while later, a friend sent me a text message he received from WSCR, for which he signed up to receive texts of sports headlines. This text said, to the effect of "WSCR reports that Ozzie Guillen will be out as manager after the game". Of course, I told this friend that WSCR "has NOT" reported that, since I have been listening for over an hour prior to this text.
As the game itself progressed, various media reports surfaced with variations of the story that Guillen was managing his last game. Another friend who somehow tolerates the TV audio said that Harrelson and Steve Stone were discussing the Guillen reports during the game, while on WSCR (and the White Sox Radio Network), Farmer and Jackson gave no further mention of the situation until the 8th inning.
During the 8th inning, Ed Farmer said something to the effect of "There will be a news announcement at the end of the game" but did not elaborate. By that time, the various media reports I found via Twitter from a combination of print reporters, TV correspondents, and bloggers, were all reporting the upcoming announcement and press conference.
Now back to my initial question. Did WSCR "report" this information? The answer is philosophical as much as technical.
My personal philosophy is that WSCR The Score is a radio station, and that radio station did NOT report the Guillen story until Ed Farmer read the announcement on the air right after the final out of the game. To me, the web site and the Twitter updates and text messages are not the radio station. I understand that WSCR thinks it "reported" this news early on. Not everyone agrees with my personal philosophy, and that's fine.
However, it magnifies an issue I have been commenting on over the past couple of years. Maybe it's because I'm a radio guy from many years ago. It's not that I don't embrace the new media and social media being utilized by radio and TV stations, because I do. It's just that I still see WSCR as only being a radio station. Their web site, social media, and text messaging are secondary. My opinion is that WSCR did NOT report the Ozzie Guillen story until after the game had ended, whereas WSCR says it reported the story during the 2nd inning of the game. They are radio station, and their radio station itself did not give the information.
On a separate point, I find it interesting that White Sox TV and Radio took opposite approaches dealing with this breaking story even though the team has control over both broadcasts. If it were up to me, WSCR should have "broken in" during the game broadcast or between innings to truly report this story as a news source, just as they would for a weather bulletin.
As it is, WSCR is not a source I go to for breaking sports news. During the evening and many weekend times when there are big slates of games in progress, their so-called "Scoreboard Update" consists of what are really sports headlines and then the Chicago team scores. Some of their "reporters" go on as if there are no out of town games in existence instead of realizing that some people would tune in or stay tuned in longer to be kept up to date. Because of this, I see no reason to use their web site, subscribe to their text messages, or any of what I consider to be "extras". First, they have to deliver the goods on their true product, which is being a sports radio station. And, again, the radio station failed to deliver on the biggest story for White Sox fans all year, even though they were broadcasting the game.
Meanwhile, Ozzie Guillen also will not be returning (as of press time) to Fox TV Sports for its post-season coverage this year, although the White Sox will still have a presence. Guillen did pre and post-game analysis for Fox on its World Series coverage last year and also did color on the Spanish coverage. This year, White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski will be on the Fox crew for its ALCS and World Series coverage. Pierzynski was hired as analyst for ESPN studio coverage of the 2010 ALCS and World Series.
Speaking of the baseball post-season, it begins this Friday (9/30) with Turner Sports coverage of all Division Series action. Sorry to report that Ernie Johnson will be away due to the illness of his son. As a result, Brian Anderson moves up to the TBS lead crew and will be working a division series (to be determined) and then the entire NLCS with Ron Darling and John Smoltz as analysts.
Dick Stockton will be joined by Chicago Cubs TV analyst Bob Brenly, most likely on a National League series. The American League series will be handled by Don Orsillo (Red Sox TV voice) and Buck Martinez on one crew, and Victor Rojas and Joe Simpson on the other ALDS.
Fox Sports did follow up on the story which the Chicago Tribune reported a week after the fact regarding their use of fake headlines about Bears QB Jay Cutler during their week 1 telecast of the Chicago vs. Atlanta game. This past Sunday (9/25), Curt Menefee issued an on-air apology during its NFL Sunday pregame show, as if Daryl Johnston had been given incorrect information when he made the comments. The apology also was geared toward Jay Cutler as well as to the Chicago Bears in addition to the audience. Nice to see that Fox did respond to the matter and did so on a national basis.
NEW YORK: The N.Y. Daily News reports that the Yankees "are not close" to a new radio deal to start for next season even as the team enters the post-season. WCBS-AM 880 did not renew during its exclusive window, leading to speculation that WEPN ESPN 1050, WABC, and WRXP-FM could be in the running. The broadcast combination of John Sterling and Syzyn Waldman has also not been renewed as of press time.
SEATTLE: Even though the Mariners are finishing a bad season on the field, their radio relationship with KIRO 710 remains solid. The station has completed a multi-year extension to continue the broadcasts, which had returned to the station prior to the '09 season.
ATLANTIC CITY: AM 1490 now carries a simulcast of WIP AM-FM from Philadelphia, adding to the FM simulcast of the station in the Philadelphia area.
BOSTON: the Felger & Massarotti Show on 98.5 The Sports Hub will begin a TV simulcast on Comcast SportsNet next week. Felger is no stranger to the CSN audience outside of the Boston area, since he already hosts Sports Sunday and some Sports Tonight shows on CSN.
On one hand, the additional visibility could help in the radio ratings battle between the Sports Hub and WEEI, and also provide more regional coverage for the show since CSN has millions of potential viewers outside of the FM signal reach of the Hub. However, those viewers within the immediate Boston area would take away from radio ratings points.
It so happens that the Chicago White Sox are my favorite baseball team, so I was watching their game vs. Toronto on Monday night which began hours after (then) Manager Ozzie Guillen had met with team owner Jerry Reinsdorf and speculation was heavy that Guillen would not be returning as manager. Early in the game, media reports began to surface that this game would be Guillen's last as manager, which indeed was announced right as the game ended.
I had gone onto Twitter and began to follow various media reports about the Guillen situation while watching and listening to the White Sox game. It so happens that I find White Sox TV announcer Ken Harrelson (or "Horrible-son" as he is called by some) to be dreadful and instead listen to the radio play-by-play with Ed Farmer and Darrin Jackson on WSCR.
Sometime around the 2nd inning, Ed Farmer said, to the effect of, (not an exact quote) "There has been a lot of speculation about manager Ozzie Guillen, but at this point it is all speculation, and if there is an official announcement we'll tell you".
A while later, a friend sent me a text message he received from WSCR, for which he signed up to receive texts of sports headlines. This text said, to the effect of "WSCR reports that Ozzie Guillen will be out as manager after the game". Of course, I told this friend that WSCR "has NOT" reported that, since I have been listening for over an hour prior to this text.
As the game itself progressed, various media reports surfaced with variations of the story that Guillen was managing his last game. Another friend who somehow tolerates the TV audio said that Harrelson and Steve Stone were discussing the Guillen reports during the game, while on WSCR (and the White Sox Radio Network), Farmer and Jackson gave no further mention of the situation until the 8th inning.
During the 8th inning, Ed Farmer said something to the effect of "There will be a news announcement at the end of the game" but did not elaborate. By that time, the various media reports I found via Twitter from a combination of print reporters, TV correspondents, and bloggers, were all reporting the upcoming announcement and press conference.
Now back to my initial question. Did WSCR "report" this information? The answer is philosophical as much as technical.
My personal philosophy is that WSCR The Score is a radio station, and that radio station did NOT report the Guillen story until Ed Farmer read the announcement on the air right after the final out of the game. To me, the web site and the Twitter updates and text messages are not the radio station. I understand that WSCR thinks it "reported" this news early on. Not everyone agrees with my personal philosophy, and that's fine.
However, it magnifies an issue I have been commenting on over the past couple of years. Maybe it's because I'm a radio guy from many years ago. It's not that I don't embrace the new media and social media being utilized by radio and TV stations, because I do. It's just that I still see WSCR as only being a radio station. Their web site, social media, and text messaging are secondary. My opinion is that WSCR did NOT report the Ozzie Guillen story until after the game had ended, whereas WSCR says it reported the story during the 2nd inning of the game. They are radio station, and their radio station itself did not give the information.
On a separate point, I find it interesting that White Sox TV and Radio took opposite approaches dealing with this breaking story even though the team has control over both broadcasts. If it were up to me, WSCR should have "broken in" during the game broadcast or between innings to truly report this story as a news source, just as they would for a weather bulletin.
As it is, WSCR is not a source I go to for breaking sports news. During the evening and many weekend times when there are big slates of games in progress, their so-called "Scoreboard Update" consists of what are really sports headlines and then the Chicago team scores. Some of their "reporters" go on as if there are no out of town games in existence instead of realizing that some people would tune in or stay tuned in longer to be kept up to date. Because of this, I see no reason to use their web site, subscribe to their text messages, or any of what I consider to be "extras". First, they have to deliver the goods on their true product, which is being a sports radio station. And, again, the radio station failed to deliver on the biggest story for White Sox fans all year, even though they were broadcasting the game.
Meanwhile, Ozzie Guillen also will not be returning (as of press time) to Fox TV Sports for its post-season coverage this year, although the White Sox will still have a presence. Guillen did pre and post-game analysis for Fox on its World Series coverage last year and also did color on the Spanish coverage. This year, White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski will be on the Fox crew for its ALCS and World Series coverage. Pierzynski was hired as analyst for ESPN studio coverage of the 2010 ALCS and World Series.
Speaking of the baseball post-season, it begins this Friday (9/30) with Turner Sports coverage of all Division Series action. Sorry to report that Ernie Johnson will be away due to the illness of his son. As a result, Brian Anderson moves up to the TBS lead crew and will be working a division series (to be determined) and then the entire NLCS with Ron Darling and John Smoltz as analysts.
Dick Stockton will be joined by Chicago Cubs TV analyst Bob Brenly, most likely on a National League series. The American League series will be handled by Don Orsillo (Red Sox TV voice) and Buck Martinez on one crew, and Victor Rojas and Joe Simpson on the other ALDS.
Fox Sports did follow up on the story which the Chicago Tribune reported a week after the fact regarding their use of fake headlines about Bears QB Jay Cutler during their week 1 telecast of the Chicago vs. Atlanta game. This past Sunday (9/25), Curt Menefee issued an on-air apology during its NFL Sunday pregame show, as if Daryl Johnston had been given incorrect information when he made the comments. The apology also was geared toward Jay Cutler as well as to the Chicago Bears in addition to the audience. Nice to see that Fox did respond to the matter and did so on a national basis.
NEW YORK: The N.Y. Daily News reports that the Yankees "are not close" to a new radio deal to start for next season even as the team enters the post-season. WCBS-AM 880 did not renew during its exclusive window, leading to speculation that WEPN ESPN 1050, WABC, and WRXP-FM could be in the running. The broadcast combination of John Sterling and Syzyn Waldman has also not been renewed as of press time.
SEATTLE: Even though the Mariners are finishing a bad season on the field, their radio relationship with KIRO 710 remains solid. The station has completed a multi-year extension to continue the broadcasts, which had returned to the station prior to the '09 season.
ATLANTIC CITY: AM 1490 now carries a simulcast of WIP AM-FM from Philadelphia, adding to the FM simulcast of the station in the Philadelphia area.
BOSTON: the Felger & Massarotti Show on 98.5 The Sports Hub will begin a TV simulcast on Comcast SportsNet next week. Felger is no stranger to the CSN audience outside of the Boston area, since he already hosts Sports Sunday and some Sports Tonight shows on CSN.
On one hand, the additional visibility could help in the radio ratings battle between the Sports Hub and WEEI, and also provide more regional coverage for the show since CSN has millions of potential viewers outside of the FM signal reach of the Hub. However, those viewers within the immediate Boston area would take away from radio ratings points.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Weathering The TV Networks
Even for all those millions of dollars the sports media still can't control the weather. But the sports media can control itself. It's too soon to know if this will happen more often, but the past weekend's weather delays for football games and a key NASCAR race raise some interesting questions for those in charge of the TV coverage.
Rain or weather delays have been a factor regarding baseball telecasts for years, but very rarely has it come up during football telecasts, only to have several college football games delayed (with one stopped completely) due to severe storm conditions.
Granted, ESPN has an advantage over most other networks during weather delays since it has immediate studio and game resources on which to rely, even when not expected during a football telecast.
On Saturday (9/3) NBC was put in the rare position of what turned out to be lengthy rain delays during its Notre-Dame vs. South Florida telecast that began during the late afternoon hours. The network began by doing an excellent job given the unusual circumstances. It was one instance where having a "reporter" in addition to the broadcast booth actually enhanced the telecast, as Alex Flanagan was able to secure an interview with N.D. Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick. Viewers were brought up to date on what the players could and could not do during the weather delay. Tom Hicks, filling in for Tom Hammond on play-by-play (odd that Hammond would have another NBC assignment ahead of the N.D. season opener), was able to interview Terry McAulay of the Big East Conference regarding the rules and procedures for such weather delays.
Granted, the weather delays totaled more than 2 1/2 hours, NBC wasn't expecting this, and it was not a full slate of other NCAA games on Saturday. Yet, NBC instead opted to replay much of a past Notre Dame game while keeping the South Bend radar and delay information on the screen during a large portion of these delays. I know I'll get the responses that NBC's contract is for Notre Dame games and not with the NCAA. My point is that replaying a past game, no matter how enjoyable at the time it happened for N.D. fans, leaves much of the audience hanging. Or should I say looking for something else to watch. During this time period, there were several other live games still being televised just about everywhere in the country in addition to the ESPN and ABC games.
As one who complains because the networks tend to have way too many studio analysts for pre-game, halftime, and post-game segments because the good ones don't get enough time to comment, this was a situation where it would have helped. Sorry, NBC, but the idea should be to stay live and current. This was the season opener for N.D. No reason there shouldn't have been profiles of players at key positions, an in-depth look at the remaining schedule (at the very least the home games), and more scoreboard updates. Heck, even more info about future opponents would likely have retained the viewing audience ahead of a recorded game from a past season.
NBC was fortunate to have Versus to take over the live coverage into prime time. Normally, I'd be upset about them moving the game, but in this instance I certainly understand that weather delays of this magnitude could not have been anticipated in time to make revised programming arrangements.
On Sunday (9/4)ESPN wound up with weather delays during both its Marshall at West VA football coverage and the its NASCAR rate scheduled for Atlanta. The football game was delayed, and later not completed with the score at the time standing as the final, during its late afternoon time slot. The telecast was scheduled to have ended in time for the NASCAR race, which was also delayed and eventually postponed. Although ESPN hoped to fill the NASCAR delay with the conclusion of the football game, neither took place.
The saving grace is that ESPN has so many "live" resources immediately available, including its College GameDay coverage crew and its NASCAR studio crew. Thus, ESPN was able to offer the live updates, analysis, and coverage of scores, other games, and sports events, that NBC didn't.
I'm sure that there will be more discussion and perhaps policy discussed by the NCAA, member schools, and likely TV network officials, in the very near future, regarding ways to handle these weather delays. Storms such as these do impact player and fan safety, and it's good that the schools consider fan safety given the high cost of attending a game these days.
Hopefully the networks other than ESPN/ABC will be ready with live programming, interviews, and features in the event of future delays.
Meanwhile, while the fallout understandably continues about the startup of the Texas Longhorn Network, the University of Missouri is moving forward with its own TV presentation. To its credit, Missouri is doing it much differently. The Mizzou Network is scheduled to debut on December 1st (thus not for this new football season), and will be internet based. Most of the content will be free, including some live telecasts of lesser sports events. Word is there will also be some shows from football and basketball practices and other behind-the-scenes sports activities, with the idea being for branding rather than revenue, as it should be.
The Mizzou Network will have the rights to show one football game per season (starting in 2012) and any basketball games not already picked up by TV stations or regional/national networks, but may do so as a pay-per-view. Normally, I'm not in favor of pay-per-view of sports events, but if the cost is reasonable, it makes more sense than the Longhorn Network expecting people who do not support the U. of Texas to cough up still more dollars each month to have the channel they might not want. When even some of the large cable/satellite companies aren't carrying the Longhorn Network because of the revenue concerns, it shows you how much out of proportion TV costs have become.
Yet, the Longhorn Network snuck through another aggravating announcement late last week. Now that it won't easily be able to show high school games live as it hoped, the Longhorn Network will now show five home football games of UTSA (University of Texas San Antonio) starting this Saturday (9/10) vs. McMurry. They seem to have overlooked how UTSA is part of the University of Texas. Now it is as though the Network was limited to UT in Austin, and not even for the entire university system. Yes, how nice of the University of Texas to be willing to share some of the millions and millions of dollars it is trying to soak people for with a part of its own system.
On the NHL side, NBC and Versus continue to be aggressive about the NHL on TV for this season, especially as the NBA lockout continues while NHL teams open training camp. Versus now plans to air at least 4 exhibition games nationally. In the past few years, only the NHL Network showed some. It is possible that these will be national feeds of local Comcast SportsNet telecasts to reduce production costs, but understandable since the CSN family is also part of the NBC Sports Network family. Three of the telecasts are Flyers games, already scheduled to be shown on CSN Philadelphia, while the fourth is a Chicago Blackhawks game already scheduled for CSN Chicago:
Sept. 21, 7:00 p.m. – Toronto vs. Philadelphia
Sept. 26, 7:00 p.m. – NY Rangers vs. Philadelphia
Sept. 28, 8:30 p.m. – Detroit vs. Chicago
Sept. 29, 7:00 p.m. – New Jersey vs. Philadelphia (VERSUS)
On the Canadian side, CBC and TSN will each air at least 4 exhibition games, with all featuring at least one of the Canadian teams in action.
In the Atlanta market, efforts are underway to maintain an NHL presence on the regional sports networks. As of press time, an announcement is pending regarding the market receiving a steady diet of Nashville Predators games this coming season. If so, it will be most interesting to see the audience measurements, and see if fans have given up on the NHL or would rally to indicate that Atlanta should again have a team in the league.
SAN DIEGO: As a disappointing season comes to an end for the Padres, it could be end of an era for the team's local radio and TV coverage. The XX Sports Radio contract for the broadcasts is up at the end of this season, with no renewal announced as of yet. Last week, Channel 4 confirmed that it will not televise the Padres after this season. Dick Enberg is, as of press time, the only announcer under contract for 2012, and that's as far as his agreement goes. Mark Grant, Ted Leitner, and Andy Masur have not yet been renewed.
CHICAGO: We have another instance of a current player being signed to a paid media deal, as Comcast SportsNet Chicago has hired White Sox pitcher Jack Peavy for a "Jake's Take" segment to appear as a weekly video diary. The segments are expected to air on White Sox pre-game shows along with some of the network's nightly sports recap shows. Have to wonder about the demand for such a feature, given that the fans have heard enough excuses for Peavy earning close to $2 million per pitching victory this season.
MILWAUKEE: It's not just "any" football for Milwaukee area TV viewers. It's the Super Bowl champion Packers, obviously. This past Thursday (9/1) the Packers final exhibition game vs. Kansas City was on up against the University of Wisconsin's season opener head-to-head. Yet, the meaningless Packers telecast more than doubled the audience of the Badgers' opener of what could be a big bowl season.
PORTLAND ME: WPEI 95.9 has increased area coverage thanks to WLOB-FM 95.5 Topsham dropping its talk format (which continues on its AM) and picking up a simulcast of WPEI as of this week.
CORPUS CHRISTI TX and PENSACOLA FL: After losing several affiliates to Fox Sports Radio, ESPN Radio is taking steps to add more affiliates once again. Corpus Christi's 1440 KEYS went from news/talk to ESPN Radio on Thursday (9/1), while Pensacola's WBSR 1450 dropped its light music format to become "1450 ESPN) this week.
Rain or weather delays have been a factor regarding baseball telecasts for years, but very rarely has it come up during football telecasts, only to have several college football games delayed (with one stopped completely) due to severe storm conditions.
Granted, ESPN has an advantage over most other networks during weather delays since it has immediate studio and game resources on which to rely, even when not expected during a football telecast.
On Saturday (9/3) NBC was put in the rare position of what turned out to be lengthy rain delays during its Notre-Dame vs. South Florida telecast that began during the late afternoon hours. The network began by doing an excellent job given the unusual circumstances. It was one instance where having a "reporter" in addition to the broadcast booth actually enhanced the telecast, as Alex Flanagan was able to secure an interview with N.D. Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick. Viewers were brought up to date on what the players could and could not do during the weather delay. Tom Hicks, filling in for Tom Hammond on play-by-play (odd that Hammond would have another NBC assignment ahead of the N.D. season opener), was able to interview Terry McAulay of the Big East Conference regarding the rules and procedures for such weather delays.
Granted, the weather delays totaled more than 2 1/2 hours, NBC wasn't expecting this, and it was not a full slate of other NCAA games on Saturday. Yet, NBC instead opted to replay much of a past Notre Dame game while keeping the South Bend radar and delay information on the screen during a large portion of these delays. I know I'll get the responses that NBC's contract is for Notre Dame games and not with the NCAA. My point is that replaying a past game, no matter how enjoyable at the time it happened for N.D. fans, leaves much of the audience hanging. Or should I say looking for something else to watch. During this time period, there were several other live games still being televised just about everywhere in the country in addition to the ESPN and ABC games.
As one who complains because the networks tend to have way too many studio analysts for pre-game, halftime, and post-game segments because the good ones don't get enough time to comment, this was a situation where it would have helped. Sorry, NBC, but the idea should be to stay live and current. This was the season opener for N.D. No reason there shouldn't have been profiles of players at key positions, an in-depth look at the remaining schedule (at the very least the home games), and more scoreboard updates. Heck, even more info about future opponents would likely have retained the viewing audience ahead of a recorded game from a past season.
NBC was fortunate to have Versus to take over the live coverage into prime time. Normally, I'd be upset about them moving the game, but in this instance I certainly understand that weather delays of this magnitude could not have been anticipated in time to make revised programming arrangements.
On Sunday (9/4)ESPN wound up with weather delays during both its Marshall at West VA football coverage and the its NASCAR rate scheduled for Atlanta. The football game was delayed, and later not completed with the score at the time standing as the final, during its late afternoon time slot. The telecast was scheduled to have ended in time for the NASCAR race, which was also delayed and eventually postponed. Although ESPN hoped to fill the NASCAR delay with the conclusion of the football game, neither took place.
The saving grace is that ESPN has so many "live" resources immediately available, including its College GameDay coverage crew and its NASCAR studio crew. Thus, ESPN was able to offer the live updates, analysis, and coverage of scores, other games, and sports events, that NBC didn't.
I'm sure that there will be more discussion and perhaps policy discussed by the NCAA, member schools, and likely TV network officials, in the very near future, regarding ways to handle these weather delays. Storms such as these do impact player and fan safety, and it's good that the schools consider fan safety given the high cost of attending a game these days.
Hopefully the networks other than ESPN/ABC will be ready with live programming, interviews, and features in the event of future delays.
Meanwhile, while the fallout understandably continues about the startup of the Texas Longhorn Network, the University of Missouri is moving forward with its own TV presentation. To its credit, Missouri is doing it much differently. The Mizzou Network is scheduled to debut on December 1st (thus not for this new football season), and will be internet based. Most of the content will be free, including some live telecasts of lesser sports events. Word is there will also be some shows from football and basketball practices and other behind-the-scenes sports activities, with the idea being for branding rather than revenue, as it should be.
The Mizzou Network will have the rights to show one football game per season (starting in 2012) and any basketball games not already picked up by TV stations or regional/national networks, but may do so as a pay-per-view. Normally, I'm not in favor of pay-per-view of sports events, but if the cost is reasonable, it makes more sense than the Longhorn Network expecting people who do not support the U. of Texas to cough up still more dollars each month to have the channel they might not want. When even some of the large cable/satellite companies aren't carrying the Longhorn Network because of the revenue concerns, it shows you how much out of proportion TV costs have become.
Yet, the Longhorn Network snuck through another aggravating announcement late last week. Now that it won't easily be able to show high school games live as it hoped, the Longhorn Network will now show five home football games of UTSA (University of Texas San Antonio) starting this Saturday (9/10) vs. McMurry. They seem to have overlooked how UTSA is part of the University of Texas. Now it is as though the Network was limited to UT in Austin, and not even for the entire university system. Yes, how nice of the University of Texas to be willing to share some of the millions and millions of dollars it is trying to soak people for with a part of its own system.
On the NHL side, NBC and Versus continue to be aggressive about the NHL on TV for this season, especially as the NBA lockout continues while NHL teams open training camp. Versus now plans to air at least 4 exhibition games nationally. In the past few years, only the NHL Network showed some. It is possible that these will be national feeds of local Comcast SportsNet telecasts to reduce production costs, but understandable since the CSN family is also part of the NBC Sports Network family. Three of the telecasts are Flyers games, already scheduled to be shown on CSN Philadelphia, while the fourth is a Chicago Blackhawks game already scheduled for CSN Chicago:
Sept. 21, 7:00 p.m. – Toronto vs. Philadelphia
Sept. 26, 7:00 p.m. – NY Rangers vs. Philadelphia
Sept. 28, 8:30 p.m. – Detroit vs. Chicago
Sept. 29, 7:00 p.m. – New Jersey vs. Philadelphia (VERSUS)
On the Canadian side, CBC and TSN will each air at least 4 exhibition games, with all featuring at least one of the Canadian teams in action.
In the Atlanta market, efforts are underway to maintain an NHL presence on the regional sports networks. As of press time, an announcement is pending regarding the market receiving a steady diet of Nashville Predators games this coming season. If so, it will be most interesting to see the audience measurements, and see if fans have given up on the NHL or would rally to indicate that Atlanta should again have a team in the league.
SAN DIEGO: As a disappointing season comes to an end for the Padres, it could be end of an era for the team's local radio and TV coverage. The XX Sports Radio contract for the broadcasts is up at the end of this season, with no renewal announced as of yet. Last week, Channel 4 confirmed that it will not televise the Padres after this season. Dick Enberg is, as of press time, the only announcer under contract for 2012, and that's as far as his agreement goes. Mark Grant, Ted Leitner, and Andy Masur have not yet been renewed.
CHICAGO: We have another instance of a current player being signed to a paid media deal, as Comcast SportsNet Chicago has hired White Sox pitcher Jack Peavy for a "Jake's Take" segment to appear as a weekly video diary. The segments are expected to air on White Sox pre-game shows along with some of the network's nightly sports recap shows. Have to wonder about the demand for such a feature, given that the fans have heard enough excuses for Peavy earning close to $2 million per pitching victory this season.
MILWAUKEE: It's not just "any" football for Milwaukee area TV viewers. It's the Super Bowl champion Packers, obviously. This past Thursday (9/1) the Packers final exhibition game vs. Kansas City was on up against the University of Wisconsin's season opener head-to-head. Yet, the meaningless Packers telecast more than doubled the audience of the Badgers' opener of what could be a big bowl season.
PORTLAND ME: WPEI 95.9 has increased area coverage thanks to WLOB-FM 95.5 Topsham dropping its talk format (which continues on its AM) and picking up a simulcast of WPEI as of this week.
CORPUS CHRISTI TX and PENSACOLA FL: After losing several affiliates to Fox Sports Radio, ESPN Radio is taking steps to add more affiliates once again. Corpus Christi's 1440 KEYS went from news/talk to ESPN Radio on Thursday (9/1), while Pensacola's WBSR 1450 dropped its light music format to become "1450 ESPN) this week.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Universities With Too Much Control
For all of the time the sports media spends on rumors and speculation, it's hard to believe the story about a true reporter in Kentucky has not received the attention it deserves. It seems that Aaron Smith, a reporter for the Kentucky Kernel (which is a student newspaper for the University of Kentucky), is being punished because he interviewed two basketball students "without permission" from the school. As long as there is nothing illegal or in violation, how does a University have this authority?
The first I heard of this story was because it was published via Rueters news wire. The wire service claims in its story that Smith called two basketball players who planned to join the U.K. basketball team as walk-ons, after a U.K. player "leaked" the information on Twitter. Nothing wrong with that. Frankly, it's nice to see a reporter at any level go after the facts instead of going with a "speculation" story that these players would do this.
As a result of Smith's reporting, the University of Kentucky has decided that Smith has "lost his access to interview members of the university's basketball team", acting as if this is some privilege. Keep in mind this is the same school (though not the same personnel) that almost literally ran sportscaster Phil Foster out of town in the mid-70's because he reported a negative RUMOR about Kentucky basketball players.
The sports media should be in an uproar about this, instead of speculating about baseball moves and fantasy football picks this week. If the large conference schools can really determine who gets to interview whom, how much "reporting" do we sports fans really get?
My point is that these colleges and universities have gained too much control when it comes to media. Go back to earlier this year when the U. of Texas TV network was announced. It's only in recent weeks that others in the media and other schools finally realized the consequences. Decisions about what can and can't be televised now need to be made. Thousands of alum of other schools (besides the U. of Texas) are actually contributing to Texas because of part of their cable/satellite monthly fees being used to fund this venture. While these universities pump in millions of dollars - even though tuition and other costs continue to rise.
It's a shame this starts to ruin the excitement many share about the college football season starting within a matter of hours. I guess we can continue to enjoy the games. Just be wary of the interviews.
Speaking of enjoying football, a study by Catalyst Public Relations shows that 42% of NFL fans are using social media DURING games, while 51.5% of college football fans are doing the same during college games. The percentages are, understandably, even higher after the games have ended. There are a couple of ways to look at this trend.
One is that the TV coverage other than the camera shots and replays leaves something to be desired and that viewers would rather concentrate on their phones or computers than what the announcers are saying. Another is that the TV networks and stations should look at ways to become more a part of this participation.
The large networks have not (yet) embraced the possibilities. Suppose there is a time-out leading into a 4th down and 1 yard to go play. Instead of speculating among 3 announcers in the booth and seemingly hundreds "back in the studio", it would be interesting to know what fans of the team on offense would call in that situation. Ask the fans to comment on the televising station or network's social pages, and gather the information. The viewers might pay more attention to the announcing team if they said that "42% of the (offensive team) fans want to see Smith run the ball here", and then see if it happens.
We also are coming up on the NFL season openers, with most of the teams opening on September 11th. As we said a few weeks back when Marv Albert joined the CBS-TV announcing team, Marv could be in competition with son Kenny Albert in a few midwest markets on opening Sunday.
Marv Albert makes his regular season debut with the CBS-TV NFL staff when he calls the early game from Kansas City against Buffalo. At the same time, Kenny Albert will be on Fox-TV calling the Atlanta Falcons at Chicago Bears opener.
Here are the opening Sunday (Sept. 11) announcing assignments:
Detroit Lions @ Tampa Bay Bucs, 1 p.m. ET - FOX -- Chris Myers, Tim Ryan
Atlanta Falcons @ Chicago Bears, 1 p.m. FOX -- Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston
Philadelphia Eagles @ St. Louis Rams, 1 p.m. FOX -- Thom Brennaman, Brian Billick
Pittsburgh Steelers @ Baltimore Ravens, 1 p.m. CBS -- Jim Nantz, Phil Simms
Buffalo Bills @ Kansas City Chiefs, 1 p.m. CBS -- Marv Albert, Rich Gannon
Tennessee Titans @ Jacksonville Jaguars, 1 p.m. CBS -- Ian Eagle, Dan Fouts
Indianapolis Colts @ Houston Texans, 1 p.m. CBS -- Greg Gumbel, Dan Dierdorff
Cincinnati Bengals @ Cleveland Browns, 1 p.m. CBS -- Kevin Harlan, Soloman Wilcots
New York Giants @ Washington Redskins, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Joe Buck, Troy Aikman
Seattle Seahawks @ San Francisco 49ers, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Dick Stockton, John Lynch
Minnesota Vikings @ San Diego Chargers, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Ron Pitts, Jim Mora
Carolina Panthers @ Arizona Cardinals, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Sam Rosen, Chad Pennington
Westwood One begins its national college football broadcasts this week (starting with the 9/2 TCU at Baylor game). The network will have two announcing teams to cover its 26 broadcasts including regular season and some post-season games. John Tautges and Terry Donahue will team up, as will Brian Davis and Eddie George. Brian Davis, who has done Seattle Seahawks play-by-play, is also the voice of the NBA Oklahoma City Thunder telecasts. At least Davis knows for sure he'll be calling games somewhere come November.
Versus continues to beef up its "fresh" sports programming on weeknights with a 6 PM ET block of live studio shows starting next week. Each weeknight will feature a different primary theme, with those being ProFootballTalk, HardballTalk, ProBasketballTalk, ProHockeyTalk, CollegeFootballTalk, InsidetheIrish and ProGolfTalk. When the NHL regular season gets underway in October, the specialty show on game telecast nights will be shortened by 1/2 hour to make way for the network's hockey pre-game shows. Russ Thaler will host "NBC SportsTalk" during that slot on selected nights.
CHICAGO: WLS 890 will continue as the radio home of Notre Dame football for the new season and for at least the two seasons to follow. The station will also air at least 25 N.D. basketball games.
Since the Bears broadcasts are now simulcast on FM and with other larger stations having sports and other programming conflicts, a group of three suburban radio stations will carry at least one NFL broadcast each Sunday for the coming season. WCPY-FM 92.5 serves the west suburbs, WCPQ-FM 99.9 serves the south suburbs, and WCPT 92.7 serves the north suburbs.
WMAQ-TV's digital channel 5.2 has a deal to carry Illinois High School Association football and basketball starting this season, including state playoff games. These telecasts were previously over-the-air.
NEW JERSEY: Eric LeGrand has been named to participate in pre-game, post-game, and halftime of Rutgers football broadcasts for this season. Yet, Eric is not your typical sportscaster-in-waiting. LeGrand was, unfortunately, paralyzed last season during a game while playing for the Rutgers football team, and suffers from a spinal cord injury. A wonderful gesture by the school.
WINNIPEG: Only days away from the start of training camp, the new Winnipeg Jets of the NHL now have their radio and TV deals in place. SportsRadio 1290 will, as expected, carry every exhibition and regular season (and post-season if it happens) game. TSN will televise at least 60 regular season games on "TSN Jets" a part-time TV channel covering portions of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories. TSN will also televise at least five Jets games as part of its national Canadian TV package.
OTTAWA Senators games will continue to air on Team 1200 radio through the 2013-14 season as part of a just announced contract extension. Dean Brown, Gord Wilson, and Dave Schreiber will continue as the broadcast team.
HARRISBURG: Thursday (9/1) marked the debut of 95.3 as ESPN Radio and the end of its time as an R & B station. The sports station will also simulcast on 1400 AM.
GULFPORT: WUJM 96.7 has also changed to ESPN Radio and is now known (as of Monday 8/29) as "Champ 96.7". No word, as of press time, regarding specific local programming.
The first I heard of this story was because it was published via Rueters news wire. The wire service claims in its story that Smith called two basketball players who planned to join the U.K. basketball team as walk-ons, after a U.K. player "leaked" the information on Twitter. Nothing wrong with that. Frankly, it's nice to see a reporter at any level go after the facts instead of going with a "speculation" story that these players would do this.
As a result of Smith's reporting, the University of Kentucky has decided that Smith has "lost his access to interview members of the university's basketball team", acting as if this is some privilege. Keep in mind this is the same school (though not the same personnel) that almost literally ran sportscaster Phil Foster out of town in the mid-70's because he reported a negative RUMOR about Kentucky basketball players.
The sports media should be in an uproar about this, instead of speculating about baseball moves and fantasy football picks this week. If the large conference schools can really determine who gets to interview whom, how much "reporting" do we sports fans really get?
My point is that these colleges and universities have gained too much control when it comes to media. Go back to earlier this year when the U. of Texas TV network was announced. It's only in recent weeks that others in the media and other schools finally realized the consequences. Decisions about what can and can't be televised now need to be made. Thousands of alum of other schools (besides the U. of Texas) are actually contributing to Texas because of part of their cable/satellite monthly fees being used to fund this venture. While these universities pump in millions of dollars - even though tuition and other costs continue to rise.
It's a shame this starts to ruin the excitement many share about the college football season starting within a matter of hours. I guess we can continue to enjoy the games. Just be wary of the interviews.
Speaking of enjoying football, a study by Catalyst Public Relations shows that 42% of NFL fans are using social media DURING games, while 51.5% of college football fans are doing the same during college games. The percentages are, understandably, even higher after the games have ended. There are a couple of ways to look at this trend.
One is that the TV coverage other than the camera shots and replays leaves something to be desired and that viewers would rather concentrate on their phones or computers than what the announcers are saying. Another is that the TV networks and stations should look at ways to become more a part of this participation.
The large networks have not (yet) embraced the possibilities. Suppose there is a time-out leading into a 4th down and 1 yard to go play. Instead of speculating among 3 announcers in the booth and seemingly hundreds "back in the studio", it would be interesting to know what fans of the team on offense would call in that situation. Ask the fans to comment on the televising station or network's social pages, and gather the information. The viewers might pay more attention to the announcing team if they said that "42% of the (offensive team) fans want to see Smith run the ball here", and then see if it happens.
We also are coming up on the NFL season openers, with most of the teams opening on September 11th. As we said a few weeks back when Marv Albert joined the CBS-TV announcing team, Marv could be in competition with son Kenny Albert in a few midwest markets on opening Sunday.
Marv Albert makes his regular season debut with the CBS-TV NFL staff when he calls the early game from Kansas City against Buffalo. At the same time, Kenny Albert will be on Fox-TV calling the Atlanta Falcons at Chicago Bears opener.
Here are the opening Sunday (Sept. 11) announcing assignments:
Detroit Lions @ Tampa Bay Bucs, 1 p.m. ET - FOX -- Chris Myers, Tim Ryan
Atlanta Falcons @ Chicago Bears, 1 p.m. FOX -- Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston
Philadelphia Eagles @ St. Louis Rams, 1 p.m. FOX -- Thom Brennaman, Brian Billick
Pittsburgh Steelers @ Baltimore Ravens, 1 p.m. CBS -- Jim Nantz, Phil Simms
Buffalo Bills @ Kansas City Chiefs, 1 p.m. CBS -- Marv Albert, Rich Gannon
Tennessee Titans @ Jacksonville Jaguars, 1 p.m. CBS -- Ian Eagle, Dan Fouts
Indianapolis Colts @ Houston Texans, 1 p.m. CBS -- Greg Gumbel, Dan Dierdorff
Cincinnati Bengals @ Cleveland Browns, 1 p.m. CBS -- Kevin Harlan, Soloman Wilcots
New York Giants @ Washington Redskins, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Joe Buck, Troy Aikman
Seattle Seahawks @ San Francisco 49ers, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Dick Stockton, John Lynch
Minnesota Vikings @ San Diego Chargers, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Ron Pitts, Jim Mora
Carolina Panthers @ Arizona Cardinals, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Sam Rosen, Chad Pennington
Westwood One begins its national college football broadcasts this week (starting with the 9/2 TCU at Baylor game). The network will have two announcing teams to cover its 26 broadcasts including regular season and some post-season games. John Tautges and Terry Donahue will team up, as will Brian Davis and Eddie George. Brian Davis, who has done Seattle Seahawks play-by-play, is also the voice of the NBA Oklahoma City Thunder telecasts. At least Davis knows for sure he'll be calling games somewhere come November.
Versus continues to beef up its "fresh" sports programming on weeknights with a 6 PM ET block of live studio shows starting next week. Each weeknight will feature a different primary theme, with those being ProFootballTalk, HardballTalk, ProBasketballTalk, ProHockeyTalk, CollegeFootballTalk, InsidetheIrish and ProGolfTalk. When the NHL regular season gets underway in October, the specialty show on game telecast nights will be shortened by 1/2 hour to make way for the network's hockey pre-game shows. Russ Thaler will host "NBC SportsTalk" during that slot on selected nights.
CHICAGO: WLS 890 will continue as the radio home of Notre Dame football for the new season and for at least the two seasons to follow. The station will also air at least 25 N.D. basketball games.
Since the Bears broadcasts are now simulcast on FM and with other larger stations having sports and other programming conflicts, a group of three suburban radio stations will carry at least one NFL broadcast each Sunday for the coming season. WCPY-FM 92.5 serves the west suburbs, WCPQ-FM 99.9 serves the south suburbs, and WCPT 92.7 serves the north suburbs.
WMAQ-TV's digital channel 5.2 has a deal to carry Illinois High School Association football and basketball starting this season, including state playoff games. These telecasts were previously over-the-air.
NEW JERSEY: Eric LeGrand has been named to participate in pre-game, post-game, and halftime of Rutgers football broadcasts for this season. Yet, Eric is not your typical sportscaster-in-waiting. LeGrand was, unfortunately, paralyzed last season during a game while playing for the Rutgers football team, and suffers from a spinal cord injury. A wonderful gesture by the school.
WINNIPEG: Only days away from the start of training camp, the new Winnipeg Jets of the NHL now have their radio and TV deals in place. SportsRadio 1290 will, as expected, carry every exhibition and regular season (and post-season if it happens) game. TSN will televise at least 60 regular season games on "TSN Jets" a part-time TV channel covering portions of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories. TSN will also televise at least five Jets games as part of its national Canadian TV package.
OTTAWA Senators games will continue to air on Team 1200 radio through the 2013-14 season as part of a just announced contract extension. Dean Brown, Gord Wilson, and Dave Schreiber will continue as the broadcast team.
HARRISBURG: Thursday (9/1) marked the debut of 95.3 as ESPN Radio and the end of its time as an R & B station. The sports station will also simulcast on 1400 AM.
GULFPORT: WUJM 96.7 has also changed to ESPN Radio and is now known (as of Monday 8/29) as "Champ 96.7". No word, as of press time, regarding specific local programming.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Broadcast Booth - August 1st Update....
August just arrived and already it signals change in sports media. Normally a change of name without a change in the "product" is overrated. But certainly not in the case of Sporting News Radio making way to be known as Yahoo Sports. This one is a surprise, at least to the "over 40" generations.
Once upon a time, and a land that is still here but at times seems so far away, The Sporting News was as important to sports fans as the internet is today. Years ago, long before cable TV and the internet, TSN was our link to sports teams beyond our local teams' coverage area. Fans would practically wait at the mailbox for the new issue for the weekly sports newspaper to arrive. It had every box score of every MLB game, reports on each team, and excellent columnists. More importantly, it had credibility among sports fans.
In later years, the onslaught of ESPN, regional cable sports networks, and even newspapers such as (the former) The National and USA Today came along and took away from the impact of The Sporting News as a magazine. Yet, the brand name held up as TSN moved more to radio and other ways of being an information source.
As a result, those in the "over 40" age range most likely consider The Sporting News to have more credibility as a sports news and information source than Yahoo, which has come along within the past 15 years, and is not solely a sports reporting entity. Sure, it's merely a name change, as the Yahoo Sports Radio Network will have the same content. But to the "over 40" range, this takes away from the Sporting News credibility. It's as if this should be the other way around, with Yahoo Sports movin' on up to become a part of TSN's stable.
Yet, to those under the age of 40, they are seeing this as a growth of Yahoo Sports, and see it as taking over for "some newspaper" or a source they never had the opportunity to worship.
Yahoo Sports Radio will continue with the same shows and content, and continue to broadcast from the network's Houston studios. It's nothing more than still another name change for this network, which was known as "One on One Sports Network" in the 90's before The Sporting News purchased it. To me, it's the same content with a "lesser" name behind it.
On the other hand, NBC is upgrading its brand by finally eliminating the Versus name from the sports TV scene at the end of this year. There will be little to no impact on the cable network's programming. This, too, is just a name change. It took until the past 12 to 18 months for the audience to find this network, and that was due to NHL fans finally finding where most of the games are televised. Sports fans rarely, if ever, use the term "Versus", and the name never caught on. Once it becomes known as NBC Sports Network, it should make a difference, given NBC's presence with the NFL and NHL.
It will be interesting to see how NBC Sports Network works to increase their presence starting in 2012. Perhaps they will look to supplement Sunday Night Football with expanded pre and post-game coverage only on the cable channel, and more NFL related programming during the week. I'm sure that TNT and ESPN/ABC are now pleased they have longer term deals with the NBA, since you would think NBC will start bidding for other major sports once again.
Meanwhile, there must be a logical explanation for the big audience that NFL Network received last week for its coverage of the start of the free agent and trading period which began as the lockout was settled. NFL Network jumped in with 12+ hours per day of live "coverage" of the signing and trading period, which resulted in an audience increase of more than 200% over the same time period last year. One explanation is that fantasy players have less time to track the players before their drafts.
On the baseball side, we have the Red Sox vs. Yankees coming up this weekend (Aug. 5 - 7). At times, it seems as though the networks expect the rest of MLB to shut down completely so that the entire nation can focus on nothing but the Yankees - Red Sox series. It's as if it's in the national contracts that these two teams can't play a game not shown nationally or regionally.
This Friday's game will be on MLB Network, Saturday on Fox, and Sunday night, of course, on ESPN. What makes this weekend "different" is that this time around it really is the best series in baseball as the two teams are in a battle for first place (at press time). For once, the hype for this series is legit. Let's see how the audiences respond. Many are so used to the overhype of this matchup that it might take an adjustment to get more people to tune in this time around.
Of course, this means that TBS gets shut out from showing either team this Sunday on its supposed "national" package. Oh my! So, TBS will show the NY Mets hosting Atlanta on Sunday Aug. 7th. Not to worry. On Aug. 14 TBS shows the Yankees hosting Tampa. (This past Sunday 7/31 it was Boston at Chicago.)
In some ways it's the end of an era in southeast Michigan. A month away from the start of the college football season, and (as of press time) the University of Michigan still does not have a radio deal finalized for the Detroit area. WOMC 104.3 still has not renewed its deal for football, nor has WWJ 950 for the school's basketball games. WJR 760 continues with Michigan State football. Yikes.
DALLAS: The Fan 105.3 will have a major presence for fans attending Cowboys games at Cowboys Stadium for this new season. Roger Emrich is taking over as the new Public Address announcer at the stadium. In addition, the station's Armen Williams will act as "In-Game Emcee". This is expected to include fan interaction, contests, and probably commercials. Seems to be a growing trend in the Dallas market, as Jim Knox has been doing this during Rangers games. Here's hoping that Williams' role doesn't get overbearing and acts as a quick promo for the station rather than becoming an annoyance to fans who spend a ton of money on game tickets.
St. LOUIS: Now that the NFL exhibition season is upon us, KTVI-TV 2 is preparing to televise all four of the Rams' exhibition games, since none were picked up by national networks. The new play-by-play crew consists of Andrew Siciliano (an NFL Network host) on play-by-play with former Rams all-pro Marshall Faulk hired as the analyst. Their opening telecast will be the Rams vs. Indianapolis Colts on August 13th.
ALBANY: With the growth of the NFL on TV, it might not matter as much, but it seems that area radio listeners will not have as many choices for the upcoming season. The NY Giants broadcasts will again by on WPYX 106.5, and the NY Jets will air on WTMM 104.5 when there are no Yankees baseball conflicts. WOFX 980 is able to air the Westwood One NFL doubleheaders, but airs Mets baseball as a priority. And, WQBK 103.9 has chosen not to carry the Buffalo Bills broadcasts. Thus, on September Sundays when both the Mets and Yankees are playing, local NFL on radio choices will be very limited.
BRYAN TX: KZNE 1150 The Zone will begin airing a 2-hour weekday show dedicated to Texas A & M sports starting Aug. 22. Gabe Bock will host the show, which will air from 9 to 11 AM Monday through Friday.
LUBBOCK TX: Sorry to learn of the passing of former Texas Tech football and basketball play-by-play voice Jack Dale. He lost his battle with cancer at the age of 79 this past Friday (7/29). Dale actually began his broadcast career in Lubbock in 1952, and was hosting a morning sports show on 1340 AM until he was hospitalized a few weeks ago.
Once upon a time, and a land that is still here but at times seems so far away, The Sporting News was as important to sports fans as the internet is today. Years ago, long before cable TV and the internet, TSN was our link to sports teams beyond our local teams' coverage area. Fans would practically wait at the mailbox for the new issue for the weekly sports newspaper to arrive. It had every box score of every MLB game, reports on each team, and excellent columnists. More importantly, it had credibility among sports fans.
In later years, the onslaught of ESPN, regional cable sports networks, and even newspapers such as (the former) The National and USA Today came along and took away from the impact of The Sporting News as a magazine. Yet, the brand name held up as TSN moved more to radio and other ways of being an information source.
As a result, those in the "over 40" age range most likely consider The Sporting News to have more credibility as a sports news and information source than Yahoo, which has come along within the past 15 years, and is not solely a sports reporting entity. Sure, it's merely a name change, as the Yahoo Sports Radio Network will have the same content. But to the "over 40" range, this takes away from the Sporting News credibility. It's as if this should be the other way around, with Yahoo Sports movin' on up to become a part of TSN's stable.
Yet, to those under the age of 40, they are seeing this as a growth of Yahoo Sports, and see it as taking over for "some newspaper" or a source they never had the opportunity to worship.
Yahoo Sports Radio will continue with the same shows and content, and continue to broadcast from the network's Houston studios. It's nothing more than still another name change for this network, which was known as "One on One Sports Network" in the 90's before The Sporting News purchased it. To me, it's the same content with a "lesser" name behind it.
On the other hand, NBC is upgrading its brand by finally eliminating the Versus name from the sports TV scene at the end of this year. There will be little to no impact on the cable network's programming. This, too, is just a name change. It took until the past 12 to 18 months for the audience to find this network, and that was due to NHL fans finally finding where most of the games are televised. Sports fans rarely, if ever, use the term "Versus", and the name never caught on. Once it becomes known as NBC Sports Network, it should make a difference, given NBC's presence with the NFL and NHL.
It will be interesting to see how NBC Sports Network works to increase their presence starting in 2012. Perhaps they will look to supplement Sunday Night Football with expanded pre and post-game coverage only on the cable channel, and more NFL related programming during the week. I'm sure that TNT and ESPN/ABC are now pleased they have longer term deals with the NBA, since you would think NBC will start bidding for other major sports once again.
Meanwhile, there must be a logical explanation for the big audience that NFL Network received last week for its coverage of the start of the free agent and trading period which began as the lockout was settled. NFL Network jumped in with 12+ hours per day of live "coverage" of the signing and trading period, which resulted in an audience increase of more than 200% over the same time period last year. One explanation is that fantasy players have less time to track the players before their drafts.
On the baseball side, we have the Red Sox vs. Yankees coming up this weekend (Aug. 5 - 7). At times, it seems as though the networks expect the rest of MLB to shut down completely so that the entire nation can focus on nothing but the Yankees - Red Sox series. It's as if it's in the national contracts that these two teams can't play a game not shown nationally or regionally.
This Friday's game will be on MLB Network, Saturday on Fox, and Sunday night, of course, on ESPN. What makes this weekend "different" is that this time around it really is the best series in baseball as the two teams are in a battle for first place (at press time). For once, the hype for this series is legit. Let's see how the audiences respond. Many are so used to the overhype of this matchup that it might take an adjustment to get more people to tune in this time around.
Of course, this means that TBS gets shut out from showing either team this Sunday on its supposed "national" package. Oh my! So, TBS will show the NY Mets hosting Atlanta on Sunday Aug. 7th. Not to worry. On Aug. 14 TBS shows the Yankees hosting Tampa. (This past Sunday 7/31 it was Boston at Chicago.)
In some ways it's the end of an era in southeast Michigan. A month away from the start of the college football season, and (as of press time) the University of Michigan still does not have a radio deal finalized for the Detroit area. WOMC 104.3 still has not renewed its deal for football, nor has WWJ 950 for the school's basketball games. WJR 760 continues with Michigan State football. Yikes.
DALLAS: The Fan 105.3 will have a major presence for fans attending Cowboys games at Cowboys Stadium for this new season. Roger Emrich is taking over as the new Public Address announcer at the stadium. In addition, the station's Armen Williams will act as "In-Game Emcee". This is expected to include fan interaction, contests, and probably commercials. Seems to be a growing trend in the Dallas market, as Jim Knox has been doing this during Rangers games. Here's hoping that Williams' role doesn't get overbearing and acts as a quick promo for the station rather than becoming an annoyance to fans who spend a ton of money on game tickets.
St. LOUIS: Now that the NFL exhibition season is upon us, KTVI-TV 2 is preparing to televise all four of the Rams' exhibition games, since none were picked up by national networks. The new play-by-play crew consists of Andrew Siciliano (an NFL Network host) on play-by-play with former Rams all-pro Marshall Faulk hired as the analyst. Their opening telecast will be the Rams vs. Indianapolis Colts on August 13th.
ALBANY: With the growth of the NFL on TV, it might not matter as much, but it seems that area radio listeners will not have as many choices for the upcoming season. The NY Giants broadcasts will again by on WPYX 106.5, and the NY Jets will air on WTMM 104.5 when there are no Yankees baseball conflicts. WOFX 980 is able to air the Westwood One NFL doubleheaders, but airs Mets baseball as a priority. And, WQBK 103.9 has chosen not to carry the Buffalo Bills broadcasts. Thus, on September Sundays when both the Mets and Yankees are playing, local NFL on radio choices will be very limited.
BRYAN TX: KZNE 1150 The Zone will begin airing a 2-hour weekday show dedicated to Texas A & M sports starting Aug. 22. Gabe Bock will host the show, which will air from 9 to 11 AM Monday through Friday.
LUBBOCK TX: Sorry to learn of the passing of former Texas Tech football and basketball play-by-play voice Jack Dale. He lost his battle with cancer at the age of 79 this past Friday (7/29). Dale actually began his broadcast career in Lubbock in 1952, and was hosting a morning sports show on 1340 AM until he was hospitalized a few weeks ago.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
The Broadcast Booth - July 27th Update
Fans are pleased to have their NFL football coming back and knowing that the regular season will open as scheduled and plans can be made. We also saw an example of the NFL's media partners jumping on the end of the lockout and adding to the positive vibes felt by the fans. Within 24 hours of the end of the lockout, the networks began to announce their TV schedules for the regular season, as well as pre-season TV schedules.
I mention this because it came at a time when fans knew they could get enthusiastic about the upcoming games knowing they will be played as scheduled. This is exactly what I pointed out last week regarding the NBA's TV partners. While it is understandable that the NBA needs to have a schedule in place, the publicity surrounding its release was tamed due to the current lockout status of the players. Yet, ESPN/ABC, TNT, and the NBA Network came out with their national TV schedules, even within the uncertainty. The NFL took advantage of the timing to announce national TV games, whereas the NBA wasted the opportunity.
Speaking of announcing upcoming telecasts, the Pac-12 Conference TV deal just announced has become more thorough than most originally thought. The Conference is planning to have a national cable network as well as six regional networks including pay-per-view possibilities.
This will all begin next August (2012), with the regional networks based in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and "mountain regions". The Conference will show about 850 live events each year, including approximately 350 events on the national feed. This will include every football and basketball game not carried on a national telecast partner.
ESPN/ABC used this week to, in addition to its NFL telecast schedule, announce its extensive plans for the upcoming college football season. This season will be the first of its 12 season agreement with the ACC, a new 8-year exclusive on BYE home games, and at least 50 games (various conferences) which will only be available via stream on ESPN3.com.
In addition, there will be an increase in games shown on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, along with a "Kickoff Week" stretch of 32 telecasts in 5 days from September 1 thru 5.
BOSTON: WEEI wasted no time in expanding its Patriots and NFL coverage once the lockout ended. Former Pats linebacker, and ESPN analyst, Ted Bruschi will join "The Big Show" with Michael Holley and Glen Ordway on Mondays from 4 to 6 PM during "Patriots Monday". He will also help with the Coach Belichick interview segments each week.
CHICAGO: WMAQ-TV Channel 5 went internal to replace sportscaster Daryl Hawks who passed away this past May. The station is returning Mike Adamle to full-time status. Paula Faris and Peggy Kusinski will continue in their roles.
CINCINNATI: Andy Furman is moving back to afternoons to talk sports on WQRT 1160 starting next Monday (8/1), moving from 7 to 9 AM (which he occupied since January) to the 5 to 7 PM spot. Furman's show is the only pure sports show on the station, and station officials reason that he will be able to secure more guests with the later time slot.
PITTSBURGH: The success of the Pirates this season will also likely impact the team's future on local radio. Now that people care that the team's radio contract is up after the current season, word is that KDKA-FM The Fan is about to enter the bidding for the rights for next season and beyond. However, this may not be the typical bidding war. It will be interesting to see if the Pirates wish to continue to control the advertising, the announcers, and the overall broadcasts, as opposed to selling the rights to the highest bidder.
TAMPA: Now that the NFL is all systems go, WTSP-TV 10 takes over as the pre-season station for the Buccaneers starting a new 2-year agreement. Chris Myers and John Lynch remain as the announcing team. However, the home pre-season games WTSP can televise are not sold out yet. Thus, the possibility remains that the games will not be able to be shown live, thus reducing the overall value of the package. If and as these exhibition games do not sell out, the station would be forced to air the games on tape delay.
SEATTLE/TACOMA: KJR 950 is planning a push for the minor league Tacoma Rainiers by broadcasting its Friday afternoon drive show with Mike Gastineau and Elise Woodward from Cheney Stadium on July 28th and again on August 12th. The game broadcasts air on sister station South Sound Sports 850.
PENSACOLA: While ESPN Radio is leaving some markets. Pensacola will have a full-time AM/FM combo for ESPN Radio starting on August 8th. WBSR 1450 and 101.1 will become the markets only full-time sports station.
I mention this because it came at a time when fans knew they could get enthusiastic about the upcoming games knowing they will be played as scheduled. This is exactly what I pointed out last week regarding the NBA's TV partners. While it is understandable that the NBA needs to have a schedule in place, the publicity surrounding its release was tamed due to the current lockout status of the players. Yet, ESPN/ABC, TNT, and the NBA Network came out with their national TV schedules, even within the uncertainty. The NFL took advantage of the timing to announce national TV games, whereas the NBA wasted the opportunity.
Speaking of announcing upcoming telecasts, the Pac-12 Conference TV deal just announced has become more thorough than most originally thought. The Conference is planning to have a national cable network as well as six regional networks including pay-per-view possibilities.
This will all begin next August (2012), with the regional networks based in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and "mountain regions". The Conference will show about 850 live events each year, including approximately 350 events on the national feed. This will include every football and basketball game not carried on a national telecast partner.
ESPN/ABC used this week to, in addition to its NFL telecast schedule, announce its extensive plans for the upcoming college football season. This season will be the first of its 12 season agreement with the ACC, a new 8-year exclusive on BYE home games, and at least 50 games (various conferences) which will only be available via stream on ESPN3.com.
In addition, there will be an increase in games shown on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, along with a "Kickoff Week" stretch of 32 telecasts in 5 days from September 1 thru 5.
BOSTON: WEEI wasted no time in expanding its Patriots and NFL coverage once the lockout ended. Former Pats linebacker, and ESPN analyst, Ted Bruschi will join "The Big Show" with Michael Holley and Glen Ordway on Mondays from 4 to 6 PM during "Patriots Monday". He will also help with the Coach Belichick interview segments each week.
CHICAGO: WMAQ-TV Channel 5 went internal to replace sportscaster Daryl Hawks who passed away this past May. The station is returning Mike Adamle to full-time status. Paula Faris and Peggy Kusinski will continue in their roles.
CINCINNATI: Andy Furman is moving back to afternoons to talk sports on WQRT 1160 starting next Monday (8/1), moving from 7 to 9 AM (which he occupied since January) to the 5 to 7 PM spot. Furman's show is the only pure sports show on the station, and station officials reason that he will be able to secure more guests with the later time slot.
PITTSBURGH: The success of the Pirates this season will also likely impact the team's future on local radio. Now that people care that the team's radio contract is up after the current season, word is that KDKA-FM The Fan is about to enter the bidding for the rights for next season and beyond. However, this may not be the typical bidding war. It will be interesting to see if the Pirates wish to continue to control the advertising, the announcers, and the overall broadcasts, as opposed to selling the rights to the highest bidder.
TAMPA: Now that the NFL is all systems go, WTSP-TV 10 takes over as the pre-season station for the Buccaneers starting a new 2-year agreement. Chris Myers and John Lynch remain as the announcing team. However, the home pre-season games WTSP can televise are not sold out yet. Thus, the possibility remains that the games will not be able to be shown live, thus reducing the overall value of the package. If and as these exhibition games do not sell out, the station would be forced to air the games on tape delay.
SEATTLE/TACOMA: KJR 950 is planning a push for the minor league Tacoma Rainiers by broadcasting its Friday afternoon drive show with Mike Gastineau and Elise Woodward from Cheney Stadium on July 28th and again on August 12th. The game broadcasts air on sister station South Sound Sports 850.
PENSACOLA: While ESPN Radio is leaving some markets. Pensacola will have a full-time AM/FM combo for ESPN Radio starting on August 8th. WBSR 1450 and 101.1 will become the markets only full-time sports station.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
The Broadcast Booth - July 7th Update
ESPN got to where it is today by televising and reporting on competition and doing a mostly excellent job in the process. I can't overlook the network's competitive nature in terms of ESPN/ABC acquiring the Wimbledon rights away from NBC after 43 years.
Face it, it wasn't really because ESPN wants to take up hours and hours of programming with tennis. While this acquisition provides the ESPN family of networks, along with ABC, with the ability to show hours and hours of the competition live, it was not the main factor. They'll certainly do a very good and thorough job, as well as providing supplemental coverage on SportsCenter and ESPNews. The promised 3-hour highlight blocks are something that ESPN can do well, will attract tennis fans to the networks, and will result in additional inventory to sell to sponsors.
Yet, the real reason ESPN/ABC did this was their competition. They felt the need, at whatever cost, to get Wimbledon away from NBC as fast as possible. This time around, NBC entered negotiations having far more than "just" the NBC-TV Network. Now, there is an NBC "family" of networks, even if not yet as strong as the ESPN family of networks. There is the reason this happened.
I'm certain that NBC had planned to retain the Wimbledon rights and expand its live coverage throughout the entire tourney. They would have used Versus, which is starved for "serious" sports programming, especially during the NHL off-season which is when the tournament is played. They probably would have also used their Comcast SportsNet regional networks, including SNY New York, along with Comcast SportsNet in Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco Bay area, and several others in large markets.
If the regional networks would not have picked up any live coverage, the NBC family would have benefitted by the CSN group providing expanded Wimbledon coverage on their local sports updates.
This is why ESPN/ABC stepped it up, bid high, and won it. A 12-year agreement. In doing so, they keep NBC from expanding its sports network "family" with a major event. There is a sports element to this move. ESPN scouted its competition, came up with a game plan (the bidding war), and did what it had to do to defeat the opposition.
Do the tennis fans also "win"? Yes and no. They "win" because it is likely the ESPN coverage will be as good or better than NBC's over the years. Either way, there will be plenty more of it than ever, and it will be live. There might even be more than one match shown live simultaneously, which has not been able to happen previously. And I'm sure there will be plenty of surrounding coverage.
Yet, fans, and even those who are not tennis or sports fans, will likely "lose" again in the wallet. As ESPN/ABC continues to expand its inventory and its presence with college regional networks, this gives them still another reason to raise the per subscriber cost to cable and satellite systems. They already charge the highest amount of any national cable network. The problem is that, naturally, such an increase gets "passed along" to us consumers. Whether we care about sports or not. By having the biggest events in as many sports as possible, they make it harder for fans and cable/satellite providers to refuse them. Chances are millions of consumers will be paying more for Wimbledon, whether they care about the expanded coverage or not.
Elsewhere, it may not be a done deal that Spero Dedes will be the play-by-play voice of the N.Y. Knicks for next season (whenever it may be). The New York Post reported that Dedes had not signed the contracts to take over on the Knicks Radio Network or for MSG Network to handle TV games when Mike Breen has ESPN/ABC assignments. This came out after Dedes was arrested for alleged DWI over the past holiday weekend in Southhampton. There was an across-the-board "No comment" at press time. Dedes has been replaced by the Lakers, and remains under contract with CBS Sports.
There seems to be way too much time and space taken up by the announcement that writer John Feinstein will no longer be an analyst on Navy Football radio broadcasts, even though he had done so for 14 seasons.
In the Chicago area, the Chicago Bandits, a women's professional softball team, has implemented an excellent broadcast idea. Many of their games are streamed online, yet most of the production crew (including cameras) are operated by high school students. This provides valuable experience for the students as well as a cost effective means for the team's games to gain an audience. Yet, a search of the team's web site fails to mention or provide a link to these telecasts. You would think they would want people to watch. (By the way, I have no personal affiliation with the team or the telecasts.)
Sometimes the producers and behind-the-scenes people make a big difference. Take WSCR 670 Chicago for example. This past Friday (7/1), the station was doing its post-game show after it broadcast the White Sox game vs. the Cubs. Keep in mind this was during afternoon drive on an all sports station which had just aired the White Sox broadcast at the same time WGN Radio had aired the Cubs broadcast.
Post-game show host Chris Rongey, who does an excellent job of reviewing the team throughout the season, introduced the post-game comments and press conference from White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen shortly before 5 PM, and moments before his post-game show was scheduled to end.
However, the comments from Guillen made little to no sense. About 45 seconds in, Rongey cut in and revealed that they were playing the previous day's post-game comments by mistake. OK, these things happen from time to time. Yet, what listeners heard next was the closing music for the show, and Rongey saying "We hope to get those comments to you later....." and promoting the talk show that was about to begin. After several minutes of commercials. Mistakes are one thing. Had they gone to the correct feed of the comments, it's 'no harm no foul'. Instead it was a total blowoff of the audience, which had the choice of listening on another radio station to the next two games of that series.
PHOENIX: Another former NFL player takes to the local airwaves, even if only once per week. The "EZ Sports Talk Show" now airs Saturdays at 6 PM on KXXT 1010. The host is Edward Smith III, the former Atlanta Falcons tight end. Obviously planned to coincide with football season coming up, it's hard to imagine that fans will want to discuss the lockout (which continued as of press time).
TULSA: KTBZ afternoon host Chris Plank will be able to add more insight to his discussion of Oklahoma University football starting with the upcoming season. Plank has been added as sideline reporter on the OU Football Network, along with hosting the pre and post-game shows.
POCATELLO: KSEI 930 becomes the latest all sports station to bail out of ESPN Radio and replace it with Fox Sports Radio. The Idaho station promises to deliver more play-by-play, even without the ESPN Radio lineup of games. In addition to Seattle Seahawks football, the station plans on adding another Sunday live broadcast, and probably will add either Colorado Rockies or Seattle Mariners baseball. Locally, the station is planning on airing Idaho State football and basketball games. Several stations around the country have made this change in affiliation within the past year reportedly due to increased financial demands from ESPN Radio.
Face it, it wasn't really because ESPN wants to take up hours and hours of programming with tennis. While this acquisition provides the ESPN family of networks, along with ABC, with the ability to show hours and hours of the competition live, it was not the main factor. They'll certainly do a very good and thorough job, as well as providing supplemental coverage on SportsCenter and ESPNews. The promised 3-hour highlight blocks are something that ESPN can do well, will attract tennis fans to the networks, and will result in additional inventory to sell to sponsors.
Yet, the real reason ESPN/ABC did this was their competition. They felt the need, at whatever cost, to get Wimbledon away from NBC as fast as possible. This time around, NBC entered negotiations having far more than "just" the NBC-TV Network. Now, there is an NBC "family" of networks, even if not yet as strong as the ESPN family of networks. There is the reason this happened.
I'm certain that NBC had planned to retain the Wimbledon rights and expand its live coverage throughout the entire tourney. They would have used Versus, which is starved for "serious" sports programming, especially during the NHL off-season which is when the tournament is played. They probably would have also used their Comcast SportsNet regional networks, including SNY New York, along with Comcast SportsNet in Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco Bay area, and several others in large markets.
If the regional networks would not have picked up any live coverage, the NBC family would have benefitted by the CSN group providing expanded Wimbledon coverage on their local sports updates.
This is why ESPN/ABC stepped it up, bid high, and won it. A 12-year agreement. In doing so, they keep NBC from expanding its sports network "family" with a major event. There is a sports element to this move. ESPN scouted its competition, came up with a game plan (the bidding war), and did what it had to do to defeat the opposition.
Do the tennis fans also "win"? Yes and no. They "win" because it is likely the ESPN coverage will be as good or better than NBC's over the years. Either way, there will be plenty more of it than ever, and it will be live. There might even be more than one match shown live simultaneously, which has not been able to happen previously. And I'm sure there will be plenty of surrounding coverage.
Yet, fans, and even those who are not tennis or sports fans, will likely "lose" again in the wallet. As ESPN/ABC continues to expand its inventory and its presence with college regional networks, this gives them still another reason to raise the per subscriber cost to cable and satellite systems. They already charge the highest amount of any national cable network. The problem is that, naturally, such an increase gets "passed along" to us consumers. Whether we care about sports or not. By having the biggest events in as many sports as possible, they make it harder for fans and cable/satellite providers to refuse them. Chances are millions of consumers will be paying more for Wimbledon, whether they care about the expanded coverage or not.
Elsewhere, it may not be a done deal that Spero Dedes will be the play-by-play voice of the N.Y. Knicks for next season (whenever it may be). The New York Post reported that Dedes had not signed the contracts to take over on the Knicks Radio Network or for MSG Network to handle TV games when Mike Breen has ESPN/ABC assignments. This came out after Dedes was arrested for alleged DWI over the past holiday weekend in Southhampton. There was an across-the-board "No comment" at press time. Dedes has been replaced by the Lakers, and remains under contract with CBS Sports.
There seems to be way too much time and space taken up by the announcement that writer John Feinstein will no longer be an analyst on Navy Football radio broadcasts, even though he had done so for 14 seasons.
In the Chicago area, the Chicago Bandits, a women's professional softball team, has implemented an excellent broadcast idea. Many of their games are streamed online, yet most of the production crew (including cameras) are operated by high school students. This provides valuable experience for the students as well as a cost effective means for the team's games to gain an audience. Yet, a search of the team's web site fails to mention or provide a link to these telecasts. You would think they would want people to watch. (By the way, I have no personal affiliation with the team or the telecasts.)
Sometimes the producers and behind-the-scenes people make a big difference. Take WSCR 670 Chicago for example. This past Friday (7/1), the station was doing its post-game show after it broadcast the White Sox game vs. the Cubs. Keep in mind this was during afternoon drive on an all sports station which had just aired the White Sox broadcast at the same time WGN Radio had aired the Cubs broadcast.
Post-game show host Chris Rongey, who does an excellent job of reviewing the team throughout the season, introduced the post-game comments and press conference from White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen shortly before 5 PM, and moments before his post-game show was scheduled to end.
However, the comments from Guillen made little to no sense. About 45 seconds in, Rongey cut in and revealed that they were playing the previous day's post-game comments by mistake. OK, these things happen from time to time. Yet, what listeners heard next was the closing music for the show, and Rongey saying "We hope to get those comments to you later....." and promoting the talk show that was about to begin. After several minutes of commercials. Mistakes are one thing. Had they gone to the correct feed of the comments, it's 'no harm no foul'. Instead it was a total blowoff of the audience, which had the choice of listening on another radio station to the next two games of that series.
PHOENIX: Another former NFL player takes to the local airwaves, even if only once per week. The "EZ Sports Talk Show" now airs Saturdays at 6 PM on KXXT 1010. The host is Edward Smith III, the former Atlanta Falcons tight end. Obviously planned to coincide with football season coming up, it's hard to imagine that fans will want to discuss the lockout (which continued as of press time).
TULSA: KTBZ afternoon host Chris Plank will be able to add more insight to his discussion of Oklahoma University football starting with the upcoming season. Plank has been added as sideline reporter on the OU Football Network, along with hosting the pre and post-game shows.
POCATELLO: KSEI 930 becomes the latest all sports station to bail out of ESPN Radio and replace it with Fox Sports Radio. The Idaho station promises to deliver more play-by-play, even without the ESPN Radio lineup of games. In addition to Seattle Seahawks football, the station plans on adding another Sunday live broadcast, and probably will add either Colorado Rockies or Seattle Mariners baseball. Locally, the station is planning on airing Idaho State football and basketball games. Several stations around the country have made this change in affiliation within the past year reportedly due to increased financial demands from ESPN Radio.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
The Broadcast Booth - May 26th update
This has been one of my complaints about MLB and NFL telecasts in general over the past few years, and now it seems to be spreading to radio. As a viewer or listener tuning in for the start of a game, especially a local team's game, I'd like to know the starting lineup before the first pitch or kickoff.
On the baseball side, we learn about the pitching matchup for the upcoming game, and that is understandable. However, in many cases I already know the matchup. In the case of some regional or national telecasts, the matchup could be a reason for tuning in. Now that more and more teams start their games at 7:10 (or 1:10, etc.), this allows more time than years before for the telecasts to set the scene. We will see the announcers talk up the pitching matchup, the weather, the current winning or losing streak of the participating teams, and seeming everything else - except for the starting lineups.
Most of the time, I am expected to wait until the bottom of the first inning is starting before I see the home team's batting order. Why is that? If the telecast started 30 seconds before the first pitch, maybe I could understand. Now I don't even know who is batting cleanup for the home team until after 3 outs have been made. When watching an American League game, I don't even know who the DH is, or where he is batting in the lineup until later on. This is more aggravating on TV, because there is the ability to show the batting orders on the screen, even as a bottom line scroll, minutes before the game itself begins.
For years, I have taught my students, both at the college level and privately, about putting the batting order and related information about players in the game at the top of a broadcast, BEFORE the action starts. It just might keep a viewer or listener captive once they know the team's best hitter is batting 3rd in the very first inning. Why is this not a priority anymore?
I go back to the days of some teams actually having the local public address announcer read the lineups on the pregame shows when the team was home.
Yet, now the radio side is going more in the opposite direction. As if all we need to know is who the starting pitchers are. At this rate, some local broadcasts will have a sponsor for every batter in the lineup when they announce it.
Granted, football is out of season at the moment, but it's the same gripe there, especially on the TV side. The network televising the game has just done a one hour (or longer) pre-game show. Now, the NFL games no longer start at 1:03 or 4:05. The telecasts have more time than ever before to open up.
Yet, each team's first offensive drive, often an important indicator of the game to come, is buried while the televising network THEN shows us the starting running backs and receivers. And then the defenders. It sometimes happens where a key play has already taken place before viewers are introduced to who is playing the key positions already involved in that play. Again, if the telecast had just signed on, or it is a late game joined in progress, it is or would be understandable to need to recap the players in the game instead of the play.
Obviously, this is not stopping people from watching or listening. The TV ratings for anything and everything live in the four major sports over the past couple of years prove that. Now radio ratings for baseball are going up and up around the country this season.
Now if us viewers and listeners could be better informed about the game's participants before it starts, we'll get even better coverage of the early plays. Sometimes I think if Abbott & Costello were writing a routine today, it would be: "Who's on first?" "Not sure, we'll have to wait until the next half inning." And the audience would go home without so much as a chuckle.
Meanwhile, there are times when rumors and 'possibilities' in sports media are justified as a call to action. The possibility of Winnipeg getting back into the NHL is one of those. While no one knows for sure that the Atlanta Thrashers would actually relocate in time for the coming season, CJOB Radio management has already been quoted locally as expressing an interest in broadcasting the team's games. CJOB currently airs Manitoba Moose hockey and Blue Bombers (CFL) football, yet is not an all sports station. Sports Radio 1290 is, yet only carries the baseball Winnipeg Goldeyes for local play-by-play. In this instance, these stations figure to be ready to, if I might, face off against each other should the team relocate there.
Sorry to learn of the passing of Paul Splittorff, who will forever be identified with the Kansas City Royals for whom he pitched and later broadcast for. He lost his battle with cancer earlier this week at the age of 64. Splittorff eventually added basketball to his broadcast duties, appearing on many Big 12 Conference game broadcasts over the years.
This past few days also brought us two separate instances of sportscasters putting themselves into a "news" story. WEPN 1050 sports anchor Jared Max suddenly decided to reveal that he is gay during his 5 to 6 AM shift one morning last week. Max had been on WCBS-AM New York for 16 years without this information having been public. At least some other sportscaster didn't report the "rumor" first.
Then, this past Wednesday WKYC-TV sports anchor Jim Donovan, who has been with the station since 1985, revealed on the air that he is going on medical leave due to needing a bone marrow transplant in his ongoing battle against leukemia. Dave Chudowsky will add to his weekend sports anchoring to fill in for Dononvan.
HOUSTON: KILT 610, which continues to lead the sports radio pack in Houston, is planning its 2nd annual Fan Fest for Saturday June 4th at the Reliant Center. Among those scheduled to appear to meet and greet the fans in attendance are Dan Pastorini, Warren Moon, Robert Horry, and Jose Cruz. It is great to see sports stations engage with the fans this way.
Astros broadcaster Milo Hamilton managed to find a reason to enjoy the existence of interleague play last weekend (May 20-22). Milo made a rare road trip when the Astros went to Toronto to play in the former SkyDome for the first time. That made it a total of 59 major league ballparks from which Milo has called a MLB game over the years. Keep in mind there are 30 teams total, and two of them (Boston and Chgo. Cubs) have had the same ballpark during Milo's lifetime. It's safe to say that it wasn't the lure of the Astros vs. Blue Jays "rivalry" that gave him a reason to make the visit. But in this era of broadcast rights changing and some announcers not doing every game of their team, Milo may hold the distinction of the most MLB ballparks for many many years. It's as though Hank Aaron should say, "There's a new baseball broadcasting king of all time........and it's Milo Hamilton!".
MILWAUKEE: The trend around the country of stations carrying baseball in April gaining in audience most certainly continued in Milwaukee. The April ratings showed a rise from WTMJ 620 as it began still another season as the Brewers' flagship station. WTMJ is a news/talk station with some sports programming to go along with its extensive local play-by-play roster (Brewers, Bucks, Packers, U. of Wisconsin). However, the latest ratings were a disaster for the 2 full-time sports stations. WAUK ESPN 540 literally lost half of its overall audience since the previous ratings book just a month prior. In fact, WSCR The Score 670 from Chicago (75 miles away) actually matched WAUK's overall ratings for the month, while WSCR does not talk Milwaukee sports at all. (WSCR rarely gives the Brewers scores on its so-called "Scoreboard Updates".) Rival WSSP dropped 25% of its audience, although that is from a .4 to a .3 overall, and trails both WAUK and WSCR.
I know a couple of people who are on WAUK and can tell you it's not from any major changes or from lack of effort. This news supports my theory that sports fans want to watch and listen to the games and get opinions from "experts" online and during the games instead of the same "fan on the street".
PORTLAND: As of this week, "The Game" no longer simulcasts on 101.1 FM, now only airing on KXL-AM 750 while the FM changes to another format. It will be interesting to see how many listeners who had been on the FM side will regularly switch over to the AM dial for their sports talk lineup.
BALTIMORE: Even though the Orioles and Washington Nationals are settling in the lower half of the respective division standings, the fans are watching their games on TV this season. Orioles telecasts on MASN were reportedly up about 24% compared with the same period last season, through the first 26 telecasts. A more detailed report shows that the ratio of increase is much higher from the D.C. area for Orioles games. Yet, D.C. area viewers are not choosing the O's over the Nationals games (tempting as that may be).
The Nationals' TV ratings, while not matching those of the Orioles, are up more than 70% for their MASN telecasts thus far.
SCHEDULES: There will be plenty of nationally televised baseball over the Memorial Day weekend, as we have come to expect.
Friday night (5/27), MLB Network shows Cinci vs. Atlanta. On Saturday afternoon, MLB Network shows San Francisco at Milwaukee in the 4 PM ET slot usually reserved for Fox. Fox continues its prime time baseball coverage with 6 regional telecasts on Saturday night.
The TBS Sunday afternoon game has Boston at Detroit, while Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN has Cinci vs. Atlanta.
On Monday, Memorial Day, MLB Network shows Minnesota at Detroit at 1 PM ET, and then Milwaukee vs. Cincinnati at 7 PM ET. These are all, of course, in addition to the usual local telecasts.
Have a great Memorial Day weekend, and we leave you with the Big Ten Network's just announced list of prime time football games it will show this fall:
2011 BIG TEN NETWORK PRIMETIME SCHEDULE
Sept. 2, 7:30pm ET Youngstown State at Michigan State (10th night game 88-year history of Spartan Stadium)
Sept. 10, 7pm ET Virginia at Indiana
Sept. 17, 7pm ET Arizona State at Illinois
Sept. 24, 7pm ET North Dakota State at Minnesota
Oct. 8, 7pm ET Michigan at Northwestern (13th night game in Northwestern’s home stadium history)
Oct. 15, 7pm ET Northwestern at Iowa
Oct. 22, 7pm ET Penn State at Northwestern
On the baseball side, we learn about the pitching matchup for the upcoming game, and that is understandable. However, in many cases I already know the matchup. In the case of some regional or national telecasts, the matchup could be a reason for tuning in. Now that more and more teams start their games at 7:10 (or 1:10, etc.), this allows more time than years before for the telecasts to set the scene. We will see the announcers talk up the pitching matchup, the weather, the current winning or losing streak of the participating teams, and seeming everything else - except for the starting lineups.
Most of the time, I am expected to wait until the bottom of the first inning is starting before I see the home team's batting order. Why is that? If the telecast started 30 seconds before the first pitch, maybe I could understand. Now I don't even know who is batting cleanup for the home team until after 3 outs have been made. When watching an American League game, I don't even know who the DH is, or where he is batting in the lineup until later on. This is more aggravating on TV, because there is the ability to show the batting orders on the screen, even as a bottom line scroll, minutes before the game itself begins.
For years, I have taught my students, both at the college level and privately, about putting the batting order and related information about players in the game at the top of a broadcast, BEFORE the action starts. It just might keep a viewer or listener captive once they know the team's best hitter is batting 3rd in the very first inning. Why is this not a priority anymore?
I go back to the days of some teams actually having the local public address announcer read the lineups on the pregame shows when the team was home.
Yet, now the radio side is going more in the opposite direction. As if all we need to know is who the starting pitchers are. At this rate, some local broadcasts will have a sponsor for every batter in the lineup when they announce it.
Granted, football is out of season at the moment, but it's the same gripe there, especially on the TV side. The network televising the game has just done a one hour (or longer) pre-game show. Now, the NFL games no longer start at 1:03 or 4:05. The telecasts have more time than ever before to open up.
Yet, each team's first offensive drive, often an important indicator of the game to come, is buried while the televising network THEN shows us the starting running backs and receivers. And then the defenders. It sometimes happens where a key play has already taken place before viewers are introduced to who is playing the key positions already involved in that play. Again, if the telecast had just signed on, or it is a late game joined in progress, it is or would be understandable to need to recap the players in the game instead of the play.
Obviously, this is not stopping people from watching or listening. The TV ratings for anything and everything live in the four major sports over the past couple of years prove that. Now radio ratings for baseball are going up and up around the country this season.
Now if us viewers and listeners could be better informed about the game's participants before it starts, we'll get even better coverage of the early plays. Sometimes I think if Abbott & Costello were writing a routine today, it would be: "Who's on first?" "Not sure, we'll have to wait until the next half inning." And the audience would go home without so much as a chuckle.
Meanwhile, there are times when rumors and 'possibilities' in sports media are justified as a call to action. The possibility of Winnipeg getting back into the NHL is one of those. While no one knows for sure that the Atlanta Thrashers would actually relocate in time for the coming season, CJOB Radio management has already been quoted locally as expressing an interest in broadcasting the team's games. CJOB currently airs Manitoba Moose hockey and Blue Bombers (CFL) football, yet is not an all sports station. Sports Radio 1290 is, yet only carries the baseball Winnipeg Goldeyes for local play-by-play. In this instance, these stations figure to be ready to, if I might, face off against each other should the team relocate there.
Sorry to learn of the passing of Paul Splittorff, who will forever be identified with the Kansas City Royals for whom he pitched and later broadcast for. He lost his battle with cancer earlier this week at the age of 64. Splittorff eventually added basketball to his broadcast duties, appearing on many Big 12 Conference game broadcasts over the years.
This past few days also brought us two separate instances of sportscasters putting themselves into a "news" story. WEPN 1050 sports anchor Jared Max suddenly decided to reveal that he is gay during his 5 to 6 AM shift one morning last week. Max had been on WCBS-AM New York for 16 years without this information having been public. At least some other sportscaster didn't report the "rumor" first.
Then, this past Wednesday WKYC-TV sports anchor Jim Donovan, who has been with the station since 1985, revealed on the air that he is going on medical leave due to needing a bone marrow transplant in his ongoing battle against leukemia. Dave Chudowsky will add to his weekend sports anchoring to fill in for Dononvan.
HOUSTON: KILT 610, which continues to lead the sports radio pack in Houston, is planning its 2nd annual Fan Fest for Saturday June 4th at the Reliant Center. Among those scheduled to appear to meet and greet the fans in attendance are Dan Pastorini, Warren Moon, Robert Horry, and Jose Cruz. It is great to see sports stations engage with the fans this way.
Astros broadcaster Milo Hamilton managed to find a reason to enjoy the existence of interleague play last weekend (May 20-22). Milo made a rare road trip when the Astros went to Toronto to play in the former SkyDome for the first time. That made it a total of 59 major league ballparks from which Milo has called a MLB game over the years. Keep in mind there are 30 teams total, and two of them (Boston and Chgo. Cubs) have had the same ballpark during Milo's lifetime. It's safe to say that it wasn't the lure of the Astros vs. Blue Jays "rivalry" that gave him a reason to make the visit. But in this era of broadcast rights changing and some announcers not doing every game of their team, Milo may hold the distinction of the most MLB ballparks for many many years. It's as though Hank Aaron should say, "There's a new baseball broadcasting king of all time........and it's Milo Hamilton!".
MILWAUKEE: The trend around the country of stations carrying baseball in April gaining in audience most certainly continued in Milwaukee. The April ratings showed a rise from WTMJ 620 as it began still another season as the Brewers' flagship station. WTMJ is a news/talk station with some sports programming to go along with its extensive local play-by-play roster (Brewers, Bucks, Packers, U. of Wisconsin). However, the latest ratings were a disaster for the 2 full-time sports stations. WAUK ESPN 540 literally lost half of its overall audience since the previous ratings book just a month prior. In fact, WSCR The Score 670 from Chicago (75 miles away) actually matched WAUK's overall ratings for the month, while WSCR does not talk Milwaukee sports at all. (WSCR rarely gives the Brewers scores on its so-called "Scoreboard Updates".) Rival WSSP dropped 25% of its audience, although that is from a .4 to a .3 overall, and trails both WAUK and WSCR.
I know a couple of people who are on WAUK and can tell you it's not from any major changes or from lack of effort. This news supports my theory that sports fans want to watch and listen to the games and get opinions from "experts" online and during the games instead of the same "fan on the street".
PORTLAND: As of this week, "The Game" no longer simulcasts on 101.1 FM, now only airing on KXL-AM 750 while the FM changes to another format. It will be interesting to see how many listeners who had been on the FM side will regularly switch over to the AM dial for their sports talk lineup.
BALTIMORE: Even though the Orioles and Washington Nationals are settling in the lower half of the respective division standings, the fans are watching their games on TV this season. Orioles telecasts on MASN were reportedly up about 24% compared with the same period last season, through the first 26 telecasts. A more detailed report shows that the ratio of increase is much higher from the D.C. area for Orioles games. Yet, D.C. area viewers are not choosing the O's over the Nationals games (tempting as that may be).
The Nationals' TV ratings, while not matching those of the Orioles, are up more than 70% for their MASN telecasts thus far.
SCHEDULES: There will be plenty of nationally televised baseball over the Memorial Day weekend, as we have come to expect.
Friday night (5/27), MLB Network shows Cinci vs. Atlanta. On Saturday afternoon, MLB Network shows San Francisco at Milwaukee in the 4 PM ET slot usually reserved for Fox. Fox continues its prime time baseball coverage with 6 regional telecasts on Saturday night.
The TBS Sunday afternoon game has Boston at Detroit, while Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN has Cinci vs. Atlanta.
On Monday, Memorial Day, MLB Network shows Minnesota at Detroit at 1 PM ET, and then Milwaukee vs. Cincinnati at 7 PM ET. These are all, of course, in addition to the usual local telecasts.
Have a great Memorial Day weekend, and we leave you with the Big Ten Network's just announced list of prime time football games it will show this fall:
2011 BIG TEN NETWORK PRIMETIME SCHEDULE
Sept. 2, 7:30pm ET Youngstown State at Michigan State (10th night game 88-year history of Spartan Stadium)
Sept. 10, 7pm ET Virginia at Indiana
Sept. 17, 7pm ET Arizona State at Illinois
Sept. 24, 7pm ET North Dakota State at Minnesota
Oct. 8, 7pm ET Michigan at Northwestern (13th night game in Northwestern’s home stadium history)
Oct. 15, 7pm ET Northwestern at Iowa
Oct. 22, 7pm ET Penn State at Northwestern
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