For all of the time much of the sports media spends on rumors and stories that aren't really "news" stories, some media members were faced with a serious story that went incomplete. But with decisions to be made.
The recent death of race driver Dan Wheldon was one of the saddest sports stories of the year for obvious reasons. Since one of my marketing clients had previously worked with Wheldon at the Indy 500, I was especially aware of the impact this tragedy has on those within the auto racing circle, in addition to his legion of fans.
Unfortunately, accidents of this magnitude do happen from time to time. Yet, unfortunate in its own way is that the organization which organizes the Indy Racing events around the country took a "No comment" position. I know of this through a reliable producer with one of the "big 4" TV network morning shows, who was putting together a follow up story regarding the impact of Wheldon's death.
One would think that an organization which sometimes has to deal with the death of a participant would be ready to help the media inform and console the public. However, the organization was not ready (like it should have been and should be in the future). As a result, the story was defeated and did not make it to the air.
To this network's credit, no mention was made of this aspect of the story, or even the "No comment" approach taken by the organization associated with the race. On one hand, this poor approach by the race organization is worthy of being a story in itself. It is frustrating to have an actual news story of major proportion not receive an additional and factual report to carry it along.
On the other hand, it is good that the network did not go ahead and shed a negative light on Indy Racing, as they easily could have done. Yet, I do not know how many other members of the media also knew to contact this organization in follow up from this tragic story. I would like to think there were many more, especially since this was an actual story worthy of news coverage.
Yet, much of the sports media continues to "report" on stories before they become stories, and it continues to get more and more frustrating, especially in my role of being a sports fan and with private teaching of students looking to start in sportscasting and/or play-by-play.
There were two more examples within the past week alone that I know of. I wish I could show you the headline and story that appeared for a time during an afternoon last week on the Atlanta Journal Constitution's web site. The "rumor" had been that Greg Walker was being hired as the new Hitting Coach for the Atlanta Braves, which indeed turned out to be the case later that day.
So help me, I found the AJC story with the headline stating "Walker Hired....." while the copy had not been updated, and went on to say that "Walker is expected to be hired.....". Same page, same story. It wasn't just the AJC. Several media outlets were "reporting" this before it became fact, which left me waiting to check numerous sources before I believed he really had been hired.
Even worse was the reporting on the likely (and now complete) move of Theo Epstein from Red Sox GM to Cubs President of Baseball Operations, which was made official on Friday (10/21) and then followed by the Tuesday (10/25) press conference. I can understand the sports talk stations in Chicago and Boston (as well as some baseball talk shows around the country) discussing the possibility with callers and media members. It was speculation until it became fact.
However, I draw the line when actual sportscasts, which fall under the category of "reporting" of facts, continue the recent trend of mixing speculation with factual reporting. For example, on Wednesday (10/19), Comcast SportsNet Chicago actually took time on its nightly sports news recap show to "interview" the Red Sox beat reporter from CSN Boston about the negotiations and possibility. Again, if this was a sports talk show and clearly and opinion forum, I'm fine with this. But this took place within a "news" format at a time when there was no official confirmation of this possibility.
Once the story became official about Theo Epstein, and the Red Sox went on to announce his replacement at GM on Friday, the "news" coverage was tremendous in both Boston and Chicago, and points beyond. MLB Network carried both press conferences live.
ESPN aired most of the Epstein in Chicago press conference and later the Ben Cherington press conference in Boston live during its regular SportsCenter shows.
CSN Boston, knowing that Epstein leaving and Cherington coming to the Red Sox was and is a hot topic for Red Sox fans, actually showed both the Chicago and Boston press conferences live on Friday. This was an excellent move, with live coverage of a hot topic obviously better than the regular midday fare. Yet, NESN, which televises the majority of the Red Sox games, only showed the Cherington / Red Sox press conference live.
On the radio side, both WEEI and 98.5 The Sports Hub aired both press conferences live to Boston listeners, while in Chicago the Epstein / Cubs press conference aired live on 3 stations. WGN Radio, the Cubs' flagship (which is not all sports) carried it, as did sports stations WMVP ESPN 1000 and WSCR 670 The Score.
All in all, great coverage once it became an actual "news" story. Yet, not an excuse for all of the time spent covering it before it became fact.
Speaking of Boston radio, the competition between the sports outlets continues to thrive, and it benefits the listeners even more. WEEI had Patriots owner Robert Kraft as a live guest on Friday (10/21) morning's Dennis & Callahan Show, with Mr. Kraft specifically talking about the Patriots instead of giving a "hype" interview. Kraft also appeared on ESPN via the Mike & Mike Show, willingly discussing the NFL on more of a national level.
Elsewhere, it's interesting to hear the different interpretations of the "baseball vs. football" from those who worry about the TV ratings. The baseball fans can point out that the Sunday night World Series game had a higher audience rating in Dallas than the Cowboys telecast did (with both on Fox) earlier in the day. (Actually, that is big news.) On a national level, the World Series games on Sunday and Monday nights both had higher ratings than the NFL telecasts, including Fox winning the TV ratings derby overall for Sunday night. That was the first Sunday night NBC's Sunday Night Football had not won all season.
Then, the football people can point out how this, through five games, is among the lowest rated World Series in recent history, and how the Sunday night game was a blowout and that viewers had an alternative.
Either way, it shows how much live sports on TV is taking over, and that's a fun thing.
It's hard to figure out why CBS, faced with an open slot for a late afternoon game on Saturday November 5th, made a big effort to get the Army vs. Air Force telecast for that time. The network actually "traded" with NBC/Versus to get that telecast, giving up the Nov. 19th Colorado State vs. TCU telecast to Versus, and probably a player to be named later.
Of course, that the time slot came open is very understandable, as CBS had worked a "deal" with ESPN to move the LSU vs. Alabama major matchup to prime time on November 5th.
WASHINGTON D.C.: Those who jokingly associate Eric Bickel's morning "Sports Junkies" show on WJFK The Fan 106.7 with a car wreck were not laughing on Thursday (10/27) morning. It seems that a driver reportedly swerved to avoid hitting a pedestrian and literally crashed into the studio building around 7:45 AM. Despite damage to a building wall and window, the driver was not seriously hurt.
DETROIT: WDFN 1130 has undergone another change in its morning show "Sean, Terp, and Killer", when co-host Sean Baligian left the station after last Monday's (10/24) show. Baligian claims that it was his decision and not the station's, perhaps due to the struggle since the August death of Tom Kowalski. As of press time, no replacement has been named for the afternoon drive show. Baligian is expected to remain on the local scene, including SportsWorks some Sunday nights on Channel 2 and play-by-play of Wayne State football.
PHILADELPHIA: The plan to bring some separate content to WIP 610 instead of always simulcasting from 94.1 is taking shape. WIP (only) will carry 17 of the MLS Philadelphia Union's games for the 2012 season, while 94.1 will continue with its regular sports talk format. Granted, radio play-by-play of soccer is not likely to change the listening habits of millions, but the idea of providing play-by-play content on one of the 2 stations is a solid path to take. Perhaps there will be room for adding some high school and small college play-by-play as well, bringing sports radio listeners more and distinctive choices on a regular basis.
WARWICK RI: Speaking of niche programming on a sports station, WTBQ 1110 and 93.5 is starting a show focusing on amateur sports and geared toward parents, coaches, and players. Host Tony Abbatine is also director of Frozen Ropes, which provides baseball and softball instruction, as well as a consultant to several MLB teams. For now, the show will air only on Fridays at 1 PM for 30 minutes. The station hopes to expand the show, both in terms of time and reach, since the topics are not necessarily local in focus. Along the lines of what WIP in Philly is doing with putting the soccer games on its AM, a better approach would be to put this show on for longer on one of the frequencies, and see how it stacks up against "regular" sports talk on the other.
CHICAGO: The impact, or lack thereof, of not having the NBA season getting underway is now hitting the regional sports networks and various local cable outlets which would normally be televising the games. Comcast SportsNet Chicago is going to fill much of the time cleared for Bulls telecasts by replaying 15 "Chicago Bulls Classics" telecast. To the surprise of no one, these will include the most memorable and championship clinching games during Michael Jordan's career.
MEMPHIS: Several of you picked up on our comments from last week about WMC 790 joining the sports radio derby, now giving Memphis a total of five sports radio stations. Something will have to give, considering this is a market which has only one "major league" team among the big four pro sports. Ironically, due to the NBA lockout, that team isn't even playing at the moment.
Adding to the insanity is that U. of Memphis sports play-by-play airs on WREC 600, which is NOT one of the sports talk stations. Then again, KQPN 730 does nothing throughout the weekdays from 6 PM until Noon the next day except replay the 3 to 6 PM Chris Vernon Show. (Wonder what they would do with an HD channel?) The station carries Mississippi State play-by-play some weeknights and on weekends.
WMFS 680 and 92.9 carry the other significant play-by-play, with the NBA Grizzlies (eventually), Memphis Cardinals (AAA baseball), and University of Tennessee football and basketball games.
Showing posts with label comcast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comcast. Show all posts
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
August 8th Update.......
The July radio ratings are starting to come out, and based on the top 3 markets (released as of press time), it means that we'll see what impact the return of the NFL will have on the sports radio audience.
In New York, WFAN held steady while WEPN dropped .2 overall. The result is that The Fan now has literally 4 times the overall audience (all ages) that WEPN has. In Chicago, WSCR is only 19th overall, but did rise .2 compared with the June numbers. That's impressive given the lackluster season the White Sox are having, and WSCR is the team's flagship station. However, WMVP ESPN 1000 dropped .3 overall. The two stations had been close together in the ratings for the past couple of years but now WSCR has opened a gap.
In Los Angeles, where is no NFL team, it's tough to be polite in reporting. KSPN dropped again and has now lost half of its overall audience since the May numbers. And while KLAC held steady, neither station made the top 30 ranked stations in overall audience for the July ratings. Yikes!
While fans await the start of the NFL exhibition season within the week, the sports media around the country begins to benefit from the financial frenzy the NFL costs us all along getting their share of the audiences of football fans.
After all, the end of the lockout enables millions of people who are not even NFL fans to help subsidize the league and its thorough media coverage along with the millions who are fans. A big part of the reason that cable/satellite TV bills continue to rise across the country is due to ESPN/ABC being the most expensive programming package for most cable and satellite companies to carry. The cable and satellite companies "must" carry ESPN due to consumer demand. However, the high cost of this programming is, of course, passed along to customers, whether they are NFL fans or not.
Then, Comcast has filed a lawsuit against DirecTV regarding the market of its Sunday Ticket package, specifically regarding the methods that DirecTV uses to make the package an incentive for new subscribers. This is because Comcast also competes for sports fans to subscribe. No matter how this lawsuit turns out, it shows how much money is at stake just so that fans can watch the NFL games on TV. The number of TV viewers and subscribers is more important to NFL revenue than tickets sold, since millions of fans are paying more because of these telecasts.
Meanwhile, some of the sports radio stations are finding ways to provide information beneficial for NFL fans. ESPN Radio Chicago, WMVP 1000, is involved in a Fantasy Football Convention to be held in the Chicago area on August 27th. Two of the stations' hosts will lead the convention, which features a panel including Mike Ditka and others providing information and analysis for putting together an NFL fantasy team. As part of the day's convention, attendees will be able to break out into 10 team fantasy leagues and draft their players on location for a 13-week competition for prizes. Although this will be a paid ticket event, I like the idea of a radio station being involved with fantasy leagues to this extent, and providing football fans with information and presumably more reasons to listen to the station.
My point here is to bring across the idea of how many millions of dollars change hands because of fans' interesting in following NFL games, without factoring in ticket prices and betting, and why so much media competition for the audience exists. If only it wasn't so expensive whether consumers are interested or not.
Westwood One Radio has determined its announcing teams for the coming season, including Kevin Harlan calling its Monday Night Football broadcasts while Howard David will continue to call one of the network's Sunday afternoon games. Harlan will have either Boomer Esiason or Dan Fouts as analyst on Monday nights. Dave Sims and James Lofton will call the radio broadcasts of Sunday Night Football, while Kevin Kugler will call the Sunday afternoon game which Howard David does not. Westwood One will also air the Thursday Night Football games, assigning Ian Eagle and Trent Green to those.
On the baseball side, ESPN is taking an interest in Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals during August. The network has announced that the Cardinals will appear on 2 more Sunday Night Baseball telecasts, making it 3 times within 5 weeks. Just after Fox announced that it was dropping the Cardinals vs. Colorado game from its Saturday Aug. 13th regional game (in favor of picking up the Pirates game despite their recent losing streak) comes word that ESPN will show St. Louis vs. Colorado on Sunday night August 14. Then for Sunday August 21st, ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball again shows the Cardinals hosting the Cubs, the same matchup it featured on July 31st (but from St. Louis this time).
NEW YORK: Now that the recent DWI incident has passed, the N.Y. Knicks went ahead with the hiring of former L.A. Lakers voice Spero Dedes as their radio play-by-play voice beginning with the coming season (whenever that may be). Dedes will handle selected Knicks TV games when Mike Breen has conflicts with his ESPN/ABC responsibilities.
CLEVELAND: WKNR 850 will have competition by the end of this month. CBS Radio will enter the sports radio scene in Cleveland by starting "The Fan" on 92.3, replacing modern rock WKRK. The new station has already teamed Chuck Booms and Kevin Kiley for "Kiley & Booms" for the 6 to 10 AM weekday spot starting August 29th.. The station will shoot The Bull in afternoon drive, as "Adam The Bull", formerly of WFAN in New York, will host the 3 to 7 PM slot. In addition, the station plans to go football heavy by carrying Big Ten football and Westwood One's NFL lineup on weekends.
The Cavaliers have not announced who their new radio play-by-play voice will be (after Joe Tait), although it is probably due to the NBA lockout. If and when the lockout ends, most observers expect that WTAM 1100 Sports Director Mike Snyder, who filled in for Tait most of last season, to be named to the position.
MINNEAPOLIS: ESPN 1500 is reportedly planning to go local with its late morning weekday slot as the station tries to make inroads against Paul Allen on rival KFAN. The station wants to increase its Vikings talk instead of continuing with Colin Cowherd, whose show has a considerable audience drop following Mike & Mike's morning show.
MILWAUKEE: While it's a problem the local sports fans enjoy having, WTMJ 620 appears to be flexible when it comes to scheduling for its play-by-play conflicts. The Brewers' success in leading the National League Central puts more importance into their games over the next few weeks, which includes games scheduled at the same time as the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers exhibition and regular season games. Usually, WTMJ gives priority to the Packers broadcasts, but the Brewers aren't usually in serious contention.
Word is that WTMJ will go with the "most important" game during conflicts, and will move the other broadcast over to WLWK 94.5 FM. It is likely that 94.5 will carry University of Wisconsin football broadcasts until the Brewers season is over when Saturday conflicts occur.
It's good to see that this will be a week-to-week decision, since WTMJ's signal covers a wider area and the station is the #1 rated station in the market.
CINCINNATI: The Bengals continue to expand their radio coverage, while WLW also increases its team related program on Sundays for the coming season. Alan Cuter, also the Sports Director of WLEX-TV Lexington KY, has been brought back to handle the "Countdown to Kickoff" show starting 90 minutes before kickoff, as well as halftime and the "Locker Room Report" for approximately 90 minutes after each game. Cutler was studio host for Bengals broadcasts until 2009. Ken Broo, who hosted the radio post-game for the past two seasons, will host "Sunday Sports Talk" on WLW starting at 9 AM and then return for "Bengals Feedback" following the post-game show and continue until 8 PM.
WLW will again broadcast those Bengals games which do not conflict with its Reds baseball broadcasts, while all Bengals games will air on WCKY 1510 and WEBN 102.7. The new radio broadcast team of Dan Hoard with Dave Lapham begins on Friday (8/14) with the exhibition opener vs. Detroit, while Brad Johansen and Anthony Munoz call the game on Channel 12.
INDIANAPOLIS: WNDE 1260 is changing its afternoon drive show in an effort to gain on WFNI 1070. Mark Patrick is out and former WXLW host Derek Schultz and IMS Radio Network's Jake Query will team up from 3 to 7 PM starting on August 15th.
OKLAHOMA CITY / TULSA: Cox Communications will be providing extensive high school football coverage this season, announcing a total of 17 telecasts on Friday nights, not to mention replays on Satudays, serving both the Oklahoma City and Tulsa regions. Steve Marshall will call the games shown in the OK City area, while Mike Wolfe will handle the games shown in Tulsa. Plans include one game from both region to be shown on Sept. 16 and 30th.
In New York, WFAN held steady while WEPN dropped .2 overall. The result is that The Fan now has literally 4 times the overall audience (all ages) that WEPN has. In Chicago, WSCR is only 19th overall, but did rise .2 compared with the June numbers. That's impressive given the lackluster season the White Sox are having, and WSCR is the team's flagship station. However, WMVP ESPN 1000 dropped .3 overall. The two stations had been close together in the ratings for the past couple of years but now WSCR has opened a gap.
In Los Angeles, where is no NFL team, it's tough to be polite in reporting. KSPN dropped again and has now lost half of its overall audience since the May numbers. And while KLAC held steady, neither station made the top 30 ranked stations in overall audience for the July ratings. Yikes!
While fans await the start of the NFL exhibition season within the week, the sports media around the country begins to benefit from the financial frenzy the NFL costs us all along getting their share of the audiences of football fans.
After all, the end of the lockout enables millions of people who are not even NFL fans to help subsidize the league and its thorough media coverage along with the millions who are fans. A big part of the reason that cable/satellite TV bills continue to rise across the country is due to ESPN/ABC being the most expensive programming package for most cable and satellite companies to carry. The cable and satellite companies "must" carry ESPN due to consumer demand. However, the high cost of this programming is, of course, passed along to customers, whether they are NFL fans or not.
Then, Comcast has filed a lawsuit against DirecTV regarding the market of its Sunday Ticket package, specifically regarding the methods that DirecTV uses to make the package an incentive for new subscribers. This is because Comcast also competes for sports fans to subscribe. No matter how this lawsuit turns out, it shows how much money is at stake just so that fans can watch the NFL games on TV. The number of TV viewers and subscribers is more important to NFL revenue than tickets sold, since millions of fans are paying more because of these telecasts.
Meanwhile, some of the sports radio stations are finding ways to provide information beneficial for NFL fans. ESPN Radio Chicago, WMVP 1000, is involved in a Fantasy Football Convention to be held in the Chicago area on August 27th. Two of the stations' hosts will lead the convention, which features a panel including Mike Ditka and others providing information and analysis for putting together an NFL fantasy team. As part of the day's convention, attendees will be able to break out into 10 team fantasy leagues and draft their players on location for a 13-week competition for prizes. Although this will be a paid ticket event, I like the idea of a radio station being involved with fantasy leagues to this extent, and providing football fans with information and presumably more reasons to listen to the station.
My point here is to bring across the idea of how many millions of dollars change hands because of fans' interesting in following NFL games, without factoring in ticket prices and betting, and why so much media competition for the audience exists. If only it wasn't so expensive whether consumers are interested or not.
Westwood One Radio has determined its announcing teams for the coming season, including Kevin Harlan calling its Monday Night Football broadcasts while Howard David will continue to call one of the network's Sunday afternoon games. Harlan will have either Boomer Esiason or Dan Fouts as analyst on Monday nights. Dave Sims and James Lofton will call the radio broadcasts of Sunday Night Football, while Kevin Kugler will call the Sunday afternoon game which Howard David does not. Westwood One will also air the Thursday Night Football games, assigning Ian Eagle and Trent Green to those.
On the baseball side, ESPN is taking an interest in Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals during August. The network has announced that the Cardinals will appear on 2 more Sunday Night Baseball telecasts, making it 3 times within 5 weeks. Just after Fox announced that it was dropping the Cardinals vs. Colorado game from its Saturday Aug. 13th regional game (in favor of picking up the Pirates game despite their recent losing streak) comes word that ESPN will show St. Louis vs. Colorado on Sunday night August 14. Then for Sunday August 21st, ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball again shows the Cardinals hosting the Cubs, the same matchup it featured on July 31st (but from St. Louis this time).
NEW YORK: Now that the recent DWI incident has passed, the N.Y. Knicks went ahead with the hiring of former L.A. Lakers voice Spero Dedes as their radio play-by-play voice beginning with the coming season (whenever that may be). Dedes will handle selected Knicks TV games when Mike Breen has conflicts with his ESPN/ABC responsibilities.
CLEVELAND: WKNR 850 will have competition by the end of this month. CBS Radio will enter the sports radio scene in Cleveland by starting "The Fan" on 92.3, replacing modern rock WKRK. The new station has already teamed Chuck Booms and Kevin Kiley for "Kiley & Booms" for the 6 to 10 AM weekday spot starting August 29th.. The station will shoot The Bull in afternoon drive, as "Adam The Bull", formerly of WFAN in New York, will host the 3 to 7 PM slot. In addition, the station plans to go football heavy by carrying Big Ten football and Westwood One's NFL lineup on weekends.
The Cavaliers have not announced who their new radio play-by-play voice will be (after Joe Tait), although it is probably due to the NBA lockout. If and when the lockout ends, most observers expect that WTAM 1100 Sports Director Mike Snyder, who filled in for Tait most of last season, to be named to the position.
MINNEAPOLIS: ESPN 1500 is reportedly planning to go local with its late morning weekday slot as the station tries to make inroads against Paul Allen on rival KFAN. The station wants to increase its Vikings talk instead of continuing with Colin Cowherd, whose show has a considerable audience drop following Mike & Mike's morning show.
MILWAUKEE: While it's a problem the local sports fans enjoy having, WTMJ 620 appears to be flexible when it comes to scheduling for its play-by-play conflicts. The Brewers' success in leading the National League Central puts more importance into their games over the next few weeks, which includes games scheduled at the same time as the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers exhibition and regular season games. Usually, WTMJ gives priority to the Packers broadcasts, but the Brewers aren't usually in serious contention.
Word is that WTMJ will go with the "most important" game during conflicts, and will move the other broadcast over to WLWK 94.5 FM. It is likely that 94.5 will carry University of Wisconsin football broadcasts until the Brewers season is over when Saturday conflicts occur.
It's good to see that this will be a week-to-week decision, since WTMJ's signal covers a wider area and the station is the #1 rated station in the market.
CINCINNATI: The Bengals continue to expand their radio coverage, while WLW also increases its team related program on Sundays for the coming season. Alan Cuter, also the Sports Director of WLEX-TV Lexington KY, has been brought back to handle the "Countdown to Kickoff" show starting 90 minutes before kickoff, as well as halftime and the "Locker Room Report" for approximately 90 minutes after each game. Cutler was studio host for Bengals broadcasts until 2009. Ken Broo, who hosted the radio post-game for the past two seasons, will host "Sunday Sports Talk" on WLW starting at 9 AM and then return for "Bengals Feedback" following the post-game show and continue until 8 PM.
WLW will again broadcast those Bengals games which do not conflict with its Reds baseball broadcasts, while all Bengals games will air on WCKY 1510 and WEBN 102.7. The new radio broadcast team of Dan Hoard with Dave Lapham begins on Friday (8/14) with the exhibition opener vs. Detroit, while Brad Johansen and Anthony Munoz call the game on Channel 12.
INDIANAPOLIS: WNDE 1260 is changing its afternoon drive show in an effort to gain on WFNI 1070. Mark Patrick is out and former WXLW host Derek Schultz and IMS Radio Network's Jake Query will team up from 3 to 7 PM starting on August 15th.
OKLAHOMA CITY / TULSA: Cox Communications will be providing extensive high school football coverage this season, announcing a total of 17 telecasts on Friday nights, not to mention replays on Satudays, serving both the Oklahoma City and Tulsa regions. Steve Marshall will call the games shown in the OK City area, while Mike Wolfe will handle the games shown in Tulsa. Plans include one game from both region to be shown on Sept. 16 and 30th.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
The Broadcast Booth - June 29th Update
A pair of temporary baseball assignments in the news this week. Jim Riggleman, until last week the manager of the Nationals, will have weekend work. Literally for just this coming (July 1 - 3) weekend. He will be at Wrigley field as an additional pre and post-game analyst for the White Sox vs. Cubs telecasts on Friday and Sunday on Comcast SportsNet Chicago on Friday and Sunday. Granted, it is merely a weekend assignment and is not a part of the actual game telecasts, but Riggleman's expertise figures to be excellent. In addition to having managed the Cubs earlier in his career, he comes into this role just over a week after having been the manager of the Marlins.
It is great to see a local telecast add such fresh analysis, even if it will be as part of a panel of analysts outside of the actual game telecast. The Saturday game of this series will be a Fox regional game, while the Friday and Sunday games are also televised on WGN-TV.
MLB Network, which continues to innovate and improve from month to month, brings us a treat next week. Its Friday July 8th telecast of the Mets at Giants game will feature a pair of legendary play-by-play voices. Bob Costas will call the game, even though it is a Friday night instead of Thursday, and will be joined by Al Michaels.
Since the telecast cannot be shown in the San Francisco or New York markets, the duo will spend at least one inning in each of the S.F. and N.Y. local TV booths, with Gary Cohen and Ron Darling switching over to the MLB Network telecast while this happens in the Mets' booth. Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow will do the same while Costas and Michaels call it for Giants TV.
Although Al Michaels is now known for his NFL work over the past 20+ years, it was baseball which originally brought him to the network level back in the 70's for ABC's Monday Night Baseball. He had been the radio voice of the Cincinnati Reds on WLW until 1974. By the way, the man who replaced Michaels is still calling Reds radio. Marty Brennaman, who since has become a Hall of Fame baseball broadcaster, was his replacement.
As you would expect, the upcoming holiday weekend features a ton of nationally televised baseball. On Friday (1st) MLB Network shows the Yankees vs. Mets game, and then celebrates Monday (4th) and the return to league action with a doubleheader. As you would also expect, it's the American League East, with Toronto vs. Boston at 1 PM ET and the Yankees at Cleveland at 6 PM ET.
Sporting News Radio has, as expected, gone literally down the hallway to complete its search for its 1 to 4 PM ET weekday show. The network will really be simulcasting the Sean Pendergast Show from KGOW 1560 Houston, just as it does with the Travis Rodgers show that follows, starting next week.
Meanwhile, I'm in shock about the story regarding Charlie Sheen and what he supposedly did during the filming of the "Major League" movie many years ago. But not because of the content of the story. What is shocking is that this "story" actually made several sportscasts and the sports sections. If it were my sportscast, or if I was still a Sports Director (which I'm sure some of my detractors will gladly remind me that I'm not), there is no way on earth that "story" would take even one second of air time, unless it was from a caller I would want interrupted.
Sorry, Charlie. That movie was years ago, was fictional, and this story has nothing to do with sports news.
CLEVELAND: Another step in the growing trend of pro sports teams taking over from radio stations. Several pro teams have their own deals with radio stations in which they (the team) sell some or all of the advertising, hire the announcers and staff, and have virtually full control. Now, the Cleveland Browns are taking over to have "Cleveland Browns Daily" air when they want it to.
The Browns want the 6 to 7 PM time for a weekday show surrounding their season. However, flagship station WTAM could not offer that time slot, due mainly to its having Indians and Cavaliers broadcasts on many weeknights during the Browns training camp, exhibition season, and regular season.
Now, the Browns have arranged for "their" show to air during the 6 PM hour all year round, and it will air on WKNR Sports 850 instead. The team, not the station, has hired Vic Carucci, most recently employed by NFL.com, to host the show. As of press time, the start date has not been determined due to the NFL lockout.
As a longtime radio person, this disturbs me because the team is taking control of two radio stations by doing this. The flagship station loses a team focused show. And chances are that game broadcasts and this show will have some degree of cross promotion. Yet, these stations both compete for the sports audience during that time of night. It's hard to believe that both stations could be allowing the other's call letters to be aired as a result.
SAN FRANCISCO: KBWF 95.7, the latest addition to the Bay Area sports radio scene, continues to grow its local presence within its first few weeks on the air. Eric Davis has taken over the 2 to 6 PM spot, with the former NFL player (13 seasons) handling much more than only NFL related topics. Davis will, if and when the NFL season gets going, continue his role as analyst on 49ers radio while Ted Robinson returns for play-by-play.
Now the station is adding John Lund to host middays, starting August 1st. Lund has hosted for an impressive roster of sports stations around the country, including WXYT The Ticket in Detroit, KESN Dallas, and WEAE-AM Pittsburgh. He comes to the Bay Area from KXTG The Game in Portland.
HOUSTON: KGOW The Game 1560 has added Rice University football and basketball broadcasts beginning in the next few weeks as it begins a 4-year contract. Also included will be a Monday night one hour show specific to Rice sports. However, some of the Rice football games will be moved to KCOH 1430 due to pre-existing conflicts.
PORTLAND: With the departure of John Lund to San Francisco, KXTG 750 has named Brian Berger to host "The Sports Insider" during its 10 AM to Noon weekday spot.
HARTFORD: The AHL (hockey) Connecticut Whale games are movin' on up thanks to a new deal for the coming season. Their regular season games will air on rock station WCCC 106.9, with Bob Crawford retained to call the games. Crawford has done the play-by-play since the franchise came to Hartford in 1997. However, this past season only found the games on the HD2 channel of WTIC. (Does that count?) Safe to say that the presence of minor league hockey did not result in a surge of HD Radio sales locally.
CHAPEL HILL: The University of North Carolina's Tar Heels Network has made its choice to succeed the legendary Woody Durham as play-byplay voice for football and basketball after 40 years. But they didn't have to go very far. As expected by many, Jones Angell moves over from analyst to the play-by-play role after his work with Durham for the past six seasons. Angell has been calling UNC baseball, including five trips to the College World Series, over the past 11 years. No word yet on who will be selected as the new analyst.
Have a safe and happy Independence Day weekend!!
It is great to see a local telecast add such fresh analysis, even if it will be as part of a panel of analysts outside of the actual game telecast. The Saturday game of this series will be a Fox regional game, while the Friday and Sunday games are also televised on WGN-TV.
MLB Network, which continues to innovate and improve from month to month, brings us a treat next week. Its Friday July 8th telecast of the Mets at Giants game will feature a pair of legendary play-by-play voices. Bob Costas will call the game, even though it is a Friday night instead of Thursday, and will be joined by Al Michaels.
Since the telecast cannot be shown in the San Francisco or New York markets, the duo will spend at least one inning in each of the S.F. and N.Y. local TV booths, with Gary Cohen and Ron Darling switching over to the MLB Network telecast while this happens in the Mets' booth. Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow will do the same while Costas and Michaels call it for Giants TV.
Although Al Michaels is now known for his NFL work over the past 20+ years, it was baseball which originally brought him to the network level back in the 70's for ABC's Monday Night Baseball. He had been the radio voice of the Cincinnati Reds on WLW until 1974. By the way, the man who replaced Michaels is still calling Reds radio. Marty Brennaman, who since has become a Hall of Fame baseball broadcaster, was his replacement.
As you would expect, the upcoming holiday weekend features a ton of nationally televised baseball. On Friday (1st) MLB Network shows the Yankees vs. Mets game, and then celebrates Monday (4th) and the return to league action with a doubleheader. As you would also expect, it's the American League East, with Toronto vs. Boston at 1 PM ET and the Yankees at Cleveland at 6 PM ET.
Sporting News Radio has, as expected, gone literally down the hallway to complete its search for its 1 to 4 PM ET weekday show. The network will really be simulcasting the Sean Pendergast Show from KGOW 1560 Houston, just as it does with the Travis Rodgers show that follows, starting next week.
Meanwhile, I'm in shock about the story regarding Charlie Sheen and what he supposedly did during the filming of the "Major League" movie many years ago. But not because of the content of the story. What is shocking is that this "story" actually made several sportscasts and the sports sections. If it were my sportscast, or if I was still a Sports Director (which I'm sure some of my detractors will gladly remind me that I'm not), there is no way on earth that "story" would take even one second of air time, unless it was from a caller I would want interrupted.
Sorry, Charlie. That movie was years ago, was fictional, and this story has nothing to do with sports news.
CLEVELAND: Another step in the growing trend of pro sports teams taking over from radio stations. Several pro teams have their own deals with radio stations in which they (the team) sell some or all of the advertising, hire the announcers and staff, and have virtually full control. Now, the Cleveland Browns are taking over to have "Cleveland Browns Daily" air when they want it to.
The Browns want the 6 to 7 PM time for a weekday show surrounding their season. However, flagship station WTAM could not offer that time slot, due mainly to its having Indians and Cavaliers broadcasts on many weeknights during the Browns training camp, exhibition season, and regular season.
Now, the Browns have arranged for "their" show to air during the 6 PM hour all year round, and it will air on WKNR Sports 850 instead. The team, not the station, has hired Vic Carucci, most recently employed by NFL.com, to host the show. As of press time, the start date has not been determined due to the NFL lockout.
As a longtime radio person, this disturbs me because the team is taking control of two radio stations by doing this. The flagship station loses a team focused show. And chances are that game broadcasts and this show will have some degree of cross promotion. Yet, these stations both compete for the sports audience during that time of night. It's hard to believe that both stations could be allowing the other's call letters to be aired as a result.
SAN FRANCISCO: KBWF 95.7, the latest addition to the Bay Area sports radio scene, continues to grow its local presence within its first few weeks on the air. Eric Davis has taken over the 2 to 6 PM spot, with the former NFL player (13 seasons) handling much more than only NFL related topics. Davis will, if and when the NFL season gets going, continue his role as analyst on 49ers radio while Ted Robinson returns for play-by-play.
Now the station is adding John Lund to host middays, starting August 1st. Lund has hosted for an impressive roster of sports stations around the country, including WXYT The Ticket in Detroit, KESN Dallas, and WEAE-AM Pittsburgh. He comes to the Bay Area from KXTG The Game in Portland.
HOUSTON: KGOW The Game 1560 has added Rice University football and basketball broadcasts beginning in the next few weeks as it begins a 4-year contract. Also included will be a Monday night one hour show specific to Rice sports. However, some of the Rice football games will be moved to KCOH 1430 due to pre-existing conflicts.
PORTLAND: With the departure of John Lund to San Francisco, KXTG 750 has named Brian Berger to host "The Sports Insider" during its 10 AM to Noon weekday spot.
HARTFORD: The AHL (hockey) Connecticut Whale games are movin' on up thanks to a new deal for the coming season. Their regular season games will air on rock station WCCC 106.9, with Bob Crawford retained to call the games. Crawford has done the play-by-play since the franchise came to Hartford in 1997. However, this past season only found the games on the HD2 channel of WTIC. (Does that count?) Safe to say that the presence of minor league hockey did not result in a surge of HD Radio sales locally.
CHAPEL HILL: The University of North Carolina's Tar Heels Network has made its choice to succeed the legendary Woody Durham as play-byplay voice for football and basketball after 40 years. But they didn't have to go very far. As expected by many, Jones Angell moves over from analyst to the play-by-play role after his work with Durham for the past six seasons. Angell has been calling UNC baseball, including five trips to the College World Series, over the past 11 years. No word yet on who will be selected as the new analyst.
Have a safe and happy Independence Day weekend!!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
The Broadcast Booth - March 15th Update......
This figures to be a wonderful week for college hoops fans with the NCAA Tournament starting with every game finally shown live. No more gripes to the local TV stations across the country about which game was chosen over that game. Granted, many will have a challenge finding Tru-TV which gets to carry a couple of unopposed games. However, the important fact that every game will also be streamed live and free should make up for that.
There are other benefits for the fans. All of the first week's games are scheduled to be completed by midnight ET (with the possible exception of the last games of the day going into overtime). This is better than past years when CBS would show games starting after the late local newscasts which sometimes wouldn't start until after 11:30 ET.
The more casual fan may not enjoy this as much, as there will not be the switching to the endings of games and a "primary" telecast as in past years. CBS, TBS, TNT, and Tru-TV do each plan on cross-promoting other telecasts and keeping viewers very much updated on other games being played at the same time. Have remote will travel!
Where is the reprimand for Bobby Knight due to his use of an obscenity on ESPN earlier this month? It was back on March 5th when Knight was on College Gameday and refered to a "chicken s--- defense". The only apology came moments later on the show, but from host Rece Davis. Thus, there was no apology from Knight himself, who is a member of the media and is employed by ESPN. Why was Davis the only one to apologize?
It is bad enough that some media members continue to bow down to Knight even after his childish antics ruined the success he had as a coach. The fact that Knight (to the best of my knowledge) was not reprimanded and did not apologize for his own serious error is, well, chicken s---.
This was different from the incident last week in Philadelphia. Sports radio personality Mike Missanelli was on Fox-TV during a 5:00 newscast, and supposedly "didn't realize" he was on the air when he let loose with the f-word among others while anchor Lauren Cohn continued with her segment.
AT&T U-Verse cable subscribers are finally getting MLB Network after more than 2 years on the air. Earlier this year, the regional Fox Sports Networks were quietly pulled (except for those viewers paying up to $10 per month additional for AT&T's sports package), yet AT&T failed to reduce the price for its sports package even with around half of the channels pulled.
It was good to have proof that ESPN did not air a "report" from another media source without checking first. It seems that sports radio host Bob McCown "reported" last Friday on The Fan 590 Toronto that he heard that Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins was considering retirement while looking to comeback from his current injury. ESPN got denials from both Troy Crosby (Sidney's father) and from Sidney Crosby's agent. Good to know that at least one major source of sports news is doing their follow up.
On the other hand, there was the attempted "joke" report from Jim Crandell on Sacramento's KTXL-TV 10:00 PM News last week. Basketball fans in the Sacramento area have been concerned about the rumored move of the NBA Kings to Anaheim, especially since the Kings are the only "big 4" pro sports team in the city.
Yet, Crandell ran a clip of NBA Commissioner David Stern from the 1985 announcement that the Kings were moving TO Sacramento and dubbed in a voice to make it appear, however jokingly, that the announcement was about a move from Sacramento to Anaheim. (Again, this was on the 10 PM news.) As if this wasn't bad enough, Crandell had promoted the "announcement for Kings fans" earlier in the evening on the station. How awful for the team, its fans, and I would think eventually on the station's ratings for their newscasts.
There is still more of this "reporting" insanity. Talk show host Scott Moore is gone from WZZN 97.7 The Zone. Moore supposedly had tapes with Auburn star Cam Newton reportedly knowing about the "pay-for-play" controversy. It took WAAY-TV's Cole Cubelic to ask Moore if Cam was actually heard on the tapes, to which Moore said "no". The tapes also never aired.
On a positive note, The Library of Congress has acquired The John Miley Collection of sports broadcasts made between 1920 and 1972. The collection now cosists of more than 6,000 TV and radio broadcasts, and the Library plans to eventually digitally preserve and make them available for listening or viewing at the Library of Congress. Included are Wilt Chamberlain's last college game at Kansas, Arnold Palmer winning his first pro golf tournament from 1955, Curt Gowdy calling Oklahoma University football games from the late 1940's while at KOMA, and SMU's "near upset" of Notre Dame in 1949.
ATLANTA: The Falcons finishing with the best record in the NFC last season didn't help in the post-season, but it did for radio rights. The Falcons are moving to WQXI 790 The Zone for the coming season, with plans to add Falcons related programming to its lineup. Wes Durham and Dave Archer will continue as the broadcast team, with the game broadcasts also simulcast on WSTR Star 94 FM.
CHICAGO: WLS-TV gains a new sports anchor starting next week (3/21), even if it is a partially familiar name. Rafer Weigel leaves Headline News' "Morning Express" to join the station's sports staff. Rafer's late father Tim Weigel was both a sports and news anchor for the station for 17 years.
The NBA Bulls' surge to the top of the Eastern Conference has also surged the TV ratings. Bulls regular season telecasts on Comcast SportsNet are now up more than 65% over last season (as of late last week). The team's Monday (3/7) win over New Orleans was Comcast SportsNet's highest rated Bulls telecast ever (regular or post-season), even higher than the 3-overtime game vs. the Celtics in the memorable 2009 opening round NBA Playoff series.
MINNEAPOLIS: How the mighty have fallen. WCCO 830 has now lost University of Minnesota football and basketball, leaving it with only the NHL Wild among its play-by-play schedule.
KFAN 1130 will carry Gophers football on Saturdays along with the NFL Vikings most Sundays, with Gophers broadcasts also airing on KTLK-FM 100.3. KSTP-AM 1500 will carry basketball and hockey broadcasts as part of this 3-year package deal.
WASHINGTON DC: MASN will add a baseball oriented show weekdays at 5 PM starting on March 31 (the day of the MLB season openers). The show expects to devote segments to the Nationals, Orioles, and baseball in general. On many weeknights it will lead into the pre-game show of Orioles or Nationals telecasts.
CINCINATTI: Congrats to Xavier University play-by-play voice Joe Sunderman on winning the 2011 Bob Vetrone Atlantic 10 Media Award as he wraps up his 30th season on the Xavier broadcast team. The former Xavier player (and a member of the school's Hall of Fame) began his broadcast career as the analyst before switching over to play-by-play.
HILTON HEAD: 1130 AM has dropped ESPN Radio and gone to a music format as WHHW.
MACON: WPLA-AM Sports 1670 is adding a local morning show as of March 28. Charles Olson and Daniel Shirley will air from 7 to 9 AM. Hopefully the "And don't call me Shirley" jokes will stop after the first show. The station is already local from 3 to 6 PM with Bill Shanks.
There are other benefits for the fans. All of the first week's games are scheduled to be completed by midnight ET (with the possible exception of the last games of the day going into overtime). This is better than past years when CBS would show games starting after the late local newscasts which sometimes wouldn't start until after 11:30 ET.
The more casual fan may not enjoy this as much, as there will not be the switching to the endings of games and a "primary" telecast as in past years. CBS, TBS, TNT, and Tru-TV do each plan on cross-promoting other telecasts and keeping viewers very much updated on other games being played at the same time. Have remote will travel!
Where is the reprimand for Bobby Knight due to his use of an obscenity on ESPN earlier this month? It was back on March 5th when Knight was on College Gameday and refered to a "chicken s--- defense". The only apology came moments later on the show, but from host Rece Davis. Thus, there was no apology from Knight himself, who is a member of the media and is employed by ESPN. Why was Davis the only one to apologize?
It is bad enough that some media members continue to bow down to Knight even after his childish antics ruined the success he had as a coach. The fact that Knight (to the best of my knowledge) was not reprimanded and did not apologize for his own serious error is, well, chicken s---.
This was different from the incident last week in Philadelphia. Sports radio personality Mike Missanelli was on Fox-TV during a 5:00 newscast, and supposedly "didn't realize" he was on the air when he let loose with the f-word among others while anchor Lauren Cohn continued with her segment.
AT&T U-Verse cable subscribers are finally getting MLB Network after more than 2 years on the air. Earlier this year, the regional Fox Sports Networks were quietly pulled (except for those viewers paying up to $10 per month additional for AT&T's sports package), yet AT&T failed to reduce the price for its sports package even with around half of the channels pulled.
It was good to have proof that ESPN did not air a "report" from another media source without checking first. It seems that sports radio host Bob McCown "reported" last Friday on The Fan 590 Toronto that he heard that Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins was considering retirement while looking to comeback from his current injury. ESPN got denials from both Troy Crosby (Sidney's father) and from Sidney Crosby's agent. Good to know that at least one major source of sports news is doing their follow up.
On the other hand, there was the attempted "joke" report from Jim Crandell on Sacramento's KTXL-TV 10:00 PM News last week. Basketball fans in the Sacramento area have been concerned about the rumored move of the NBA Kings to Anaheim, especially since the Kings are the only "big 4" pro sports team in the city.
Yet, Crandell ran a clip of NBA Commissioner David Stern from the 1985 announcement that the Kings were moving TO Sacramento and dubbed in a voice to make it appear, however jokingly, that the announcement was about a move from Sacramento to Anaheim. (Again, this was on the 10 PM news.) As if this wasn't bad enough, Crandell had promoted the "announcement for Kings fans" earlier in the evening on the station. How awful for the team, its fans, and I would think eventually on the station's ratings for their newscasts.
There is still more of this "reporting" insanity. Talk show host Scott Moore is gone from WZZN 97.7 The Zone. Moore supposedly had tapes with Auburn star Cam Newton reportedly knowing about the "pay-for-play" controversy. It took WAAY-TV's Cole Cubelic to ask Moore if Cam was actually heard on the tapes, to which Moore said "no". The tapes also never aired.
On a positive note, The Library of Congress has acquired The John Miley Collection of sports broadcasts made between 1920 and 1972. The collection now cosists of more than 6,000 TV and radio broadcasts, and the Library plans to eventually digitally preserve and make them available for listening or viewing at the Library of Congress. Included are Wilt Chamberlain's last college game at Kansas, Arnold Palmer winning his first pro golf tournament from 1955, Curt Gowdy calling Oklahoma University football games from the late 1940's while at KOMA, and SMU's "near upset" of Notre Dame in 1949.
ATLANTA: The Falcons finishing with the best record in the NFC last season didn't help in the post-season, but it did for radio rights. The Falcons are moving to WQXI 790 The Zone for the coming season, with plans to add Falcons related programming to its lineup. Wes Durham and Dave Archer will continue as the broadcast team, with the game broadcasts also simulcast on WSTR Star 94 FM.
CHICAGO: WLS-TV gains a new sports anchor starting next week (3/21), even if it is a partially familiar name. Rafer Weigel leaves Headline News' "Morning Express" to join the station's sports staff. Rafer's late father Tim Weigel was both a sports and news anchor for the station for 17 years.
The NBA Bulls' surge to the top of the Eastern Conference has also surged the TV ratings. Bulls regular season telecasts on Comcast SportsNet are now up more than 65% over last season (as of late last week). The team's Monday (3/7) win over New Orleans was Comcast SportsNet's highest rated Bulls telecast ever (regular or post-season), even higher than the 3-overtime game vs. the Celtics in the memorable 2009 opening round NBA Playoff series.
MINNEAPOLIS: How the mighty have fallen. WCCO 830 has now lost University of Minnesota football and basketball, leaving it with only the NHL Wild among its play-by-play schedule.
KFAN 1130 will carry Gophers football on Saturdays along with the NFL Vikings most Sundays, with Gophers broadcasts also airing on KTLK-FM 100.3. KSTP-AM 1500 will carry basketball and hockey broadcasts as part of this 3-year package deal.
WASHINGTON DC: MASN will add a baseball oriented show weekdays at 5 PM starting on March 31 (the day of the MLB season openers). The show expects to devote segments to the Nationals, Orioles, and baseball in general. On many weeknights it will lead into the pre-game show of Orioles or Nationals telecasts.
CINCINATTI: Congrats to Xavier University play-by-play voice Joe Sunderman on winning the 2011 Bob Vetrone Atlantic 10 Media Award as he wraps up his 30th season on the Xavier broadcast team. The former Xavier player (and a member of the school's Hall of Fame) began his broadcast career as the analyst before switching over to play-by-play.
HILTON HEAD: 1130 AM has dropped ESPN Radio and gone to a music format as WHHW.
MACON: WPLA-AM Sports 1670 is adding a local morning show as of March 28. Charles Olson and Daniel Shirley will air from 7 to 9 AM. Hopefully the "And don't call me Shirley" jokes will stop after the first show. The station is already local from 3 to 6 PM with Bill Shanks.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
The Broadcast Booth - August 17th update
There is no excuse for the decision of Detroit Tigers' TV not to have shown the dugout confrontation which occured during this past Sunday's (8/15) game in Chicago.
After the (opposing) White Sox had batted bottom of the first inning, a heated discussion took place between Tigers starting pitcher Armando Gallaraga and catcher Alex Avila which resulted in the pitcher needing to be restrained from a possible physical confrontation with Gerald Laird (also a catcher).
When the top of the 2nd was beginning, the White Sox telecast on Comcast SportsNet did show the confrontation, with announcer Steve Stone making a comment to the effect of "the battery could be getting battered" and then getting back to the game. Obviously, fans in attendance seated on the 3rd base side could see it, and probably White Sox personnel from the 3rd base dugout, and the TV cameras caught it.
Yet, fans watching their Tigers on Fox Sports Detroit did NOT see this video, and it was their team involved. Media accounts from Detroit indicate this was a decision made by the crew and not by FSD executives or the Tigers. FSD did show the video of the incident on its pre-game show on Monday night, but that should have been the case even had it been shown right away on Sunday.
This should not have been a "cover up". FSD replays errors and poor play by the Tigers on the field. The dugout is in full view of fans and media. It's not like this incident occured in the clubhouse or someplace off limits and was secretly videotaped.
For example, baseball fans recall the June incident with Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano and his tantrum in the dugout that caused manager Lou Pinella to remove him after 1 inning and suspend him from the team. That was immediately shown on TV. The list goes on. If FSD is going to say the dugout "is not part of the playing field", then they shouldn't show the bullpen. They put Manager Jim Leyland on camera during the game, mostly when he is in the dugout. Why was this important incident off limits?
This is not the first time a TV crew has been called out for not covering an incident which happened during the course of a game. My memory even went back to the late 70's when Ohio State was in a bowl game and Coach Woody Hayes punched an opposing linebacker live on camera. Yet, the announcing team made absolutely no mention of what took place while local TV ABC-TV stations were all flooded with phone calls from confused fans.
Hopefully TV sports crews will take note of what happened, or as I should say, didn't happen, during Sunday's Tigers telecast, and make certain that the fans watching the game are given all of the pertinent "news" of the game. And not just the opposing team's telecast either.
Speaking of fans not seeing what they are entitled, it's time for another NFL season. Thus, the media "right of summer" that not everyone can get The NFL Network, even when they once had it.
It seems that Comcast Cable has taken away the NFL Network from some of the Digital Starter packages they offer, even though it was once a part of the package. Naturally, those who are effected by this could get it again, if (you guessed it) they upgrade to a higher package for more money each month.
On the NBA side, it's good to see the Portland Trailblazers get involved in a similar mess. Team President Larry Miller reportedly has written to the FCC regarding Comcast and its handling of the Blazers' TV rights, which will soon enter the 4th year of a 10-year agreement. Comcast is being accused of making it financially difficult for competing carriers to carry its Blazers telecasts.
Comcast isn't the only problem. The MLB Network is still not available on AT&T U-Verse, Dish Network, or Wow. With all of this, sports fans everywhere continue to be subjected to game telecasts being blacked out on cable and satellite, even though we still have to pay for a full day's worth of programming.
Maybe we should all write the FCC.
Meanwhile, Fox Sports sports adds coach Jim Mora Jr. and former QB Kurt Warner to its roster of analysts for the coming season. Mora will act as a 2nd analyst along with Charles Davis while Dick Stockton handles play-by-play on that crew. Warner will provide color commentary on the "Chris crew" working with either Chris Myers or Chris Rose.
ARKANSAS: Renee Gork should be pursuing becoming a household name, if she isn't already. Gork appears to have been fired by KAKS Sports Hog on Monday (8/16). Not because of anything she said or did on the air. Not because she is female. Not because she made an error of fact or missed an assignment.
All she did was wear a Florida Gators hat at an Arkansas news conference which got coach Bobby Petrino upset. Amazing that Petrino held back the tears. Here's hoping that a regional or national media organization hires Gork. Her first report should be to question University of Arkansas and SEC officials about why they allow a coach representing a major university to conduct himself in such a matter. Then find students on the Arkansas campus wearing items from other schools and ask if they feel safe. And keep on the story until Petrino is disciplined.
While one media member loses her job for no apparent good reason, another is about to be hired, likely without enough qualifications. If this is a legit advertisement, a Portland radio sports station is attempting to hire via Craigslist.
http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/tfr/1894650652.html
If this were for a small town I could maybe understand, but not for a "major league" market. Even at the low pay the position probably offers, you would think they could find applicants from other stations in the area. This is almost as insane as the contests to hire sportscasters.
Steve Czaban has become even busier. He has joined Sporting News Radio to co-host the 6 to 9 AM morning show along with Scott Linn from Washington D.C. Czaban will continue to co-host the "Sports Reporters|" with Andy Pollin on WTEM 980(Washington D.C.) from 4 to 7 PM. What about in between? He continues to contribute to The Hog 102.9 in Milwaukee during afternoon drive with segments for that rock station.
LONDON ENGLAND: BBC 5 changed its live MLB broadcast this past Sunday (8/15) in order to broadcast the Rogers Cup Final between Roger Federer and Andy Murray. They got a more important game in the process, taking the later starting Giants vs. Padres broadcast instead of the originally scheduled Yankees vs. Kansas City game.
CLEVELAND: Congrats to Joe Tait on receiving the Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Basketball Hall of Fame this past Friday. This honor comes a few weeks before Tait begins his final season calling the Cavaliers games on his way to retirement. Hopefully he will be honored throughout the NBA on his "final stop" at the various arenas throughout the season. He has called the Cavs' games for most of the seasons since 1970. He will also be remembered for calling Indians games during most of the 70's and 80's along with Herb Score.
St. LOUIS: Even though the Rams are not considered a threat to make the Super Bowl this season, I still like the idea of an HD Radio channel "Rams Radio" as unique programming. Now Rams fans around the country can hear it, at least for the time being as this channel is wisely being streamed since hardly anyone has purchased an HD Radio lately.
http://www.clearchannelmusic.com/hdradio/
NEW YORK: Michael Kay and WEPN 1050 pushed one under the rug last Wednesday (8/11) when they were not able to interview Isiah Thomas during the 4 PM hour as originally scheduled. The N.Y. Daily News reported that the NBA and the Knicks may have played a role in canceling the interview after Thomas was not allowed to have a consulting position with the Knicks due to his college coaching gig.
It would have been interesting to hear Thomas' take on the situation. Wonder what is being hidden that he couldn't go on the radio to talk about. WEPN was deprived of a chance to have a newsworthy interview. Might have helped, considering that the latest monthly ratings show WFAN with literally 3 times the overall audience of WEPN, finishing at #10 in the market overall.
CHICAGO: AM radio listeners preferred sports radio a bit more often during the June - July ratings period. Sports stations WSCR The Score and WMVP 1000 combined for a .5 overall ratings increase, while NewsRadio WBBM and News / Talk WGN combined to drop .6 overall.
DETROIT: WXYT-FM The Ticket picked up enough of the ratings it lost in June and regained the #1 spot overall in the market for the July ratings. In a similar trend to Chicago, NewsRadio WWJ fell by .3 overall.
MINNEAPOLIS: KSTP 1500 isn't taking any chances with its Twins contract, given the big attendance and standings year the team is having. The station has successfully extended for 2 more seasons, continuing as the flagship station for the Twins' Network through the 2012 season. The Network totals 85 stations for this season.
DENVER: It is all but official that the Nuggets and Avalanche broadcasts will quickly be moving to a better signal. KRWZ 950 is expected to air the games of both teams, with KCKK 1510 only being used when there is a conflict with both teams playing.
DALLAS: Bruce Gilbert replaces Tom Bigby as Program Director at The Fan 105.3 in hopes of improving the station's ratings quickly. Gilbert was P.D. at The Ticket for about 6 years until 2003, and returned to Dallas from Washington D.C. where he was with the sports stations owned by Redskins owner Dan Snyder.
Last week's Rangers telecasts vs. the Yankees (on Tuesday 10 and Weds. 11) set ratings records for Fox Sports Southwest. They were the most watched Rangers telecasts on FSS since 1998, and its most watched event since a Mavericks game vs. the Lakers late in the 2001-02 regular season.
With TV voice Josh Lewin also calling San Diego Chargers pre-season games as of this past weekend, Dave Barnett moves over on the games Lewin is not available for to handle TV play-by-play, while Bryan Dolgin fills in for Barnett.
CINCINNATI: While WLW again tops the ratings with its Reds broadcasts, the full-time sports stations again did not fare well, even with the Reds in contention. WCKY 1530 finished tied for 17th overall, while Fox Sports WSAI 1360 failed to crack the top 25 overall. Same for WQRT 1160 which is not a sports station other than Andy Furman's afternoon drive show.
St. LOUIS: KMOV-TV Channel 4 and WXOS 101.1 will utilize each other's reporters starting in 2 weeks. Channel 4's Steve Savard will do a 5:45 PM report on WXOS while radio reporters will handle some of the weekend sports reporting on the TV side.
BALTIMORE: The Ravens games will also be heard on Washington's WTOP-FM 103.5 starting this season in addition to WBAL Baltimore.
PITTSBURGH: The Fan KDKA-FM has overtaken WEAE 1250 ESPN by 1/10 of a ratings point in the latest ratings, while WBGG Fox 970 is a very distant 3rd.
LEXINGTON: To some it was only a 3-game exhibition series for the University of Kentucky's basketball team in Ontario Canada this past weekend. But not to Kentucky fans. All 3 games were shown live on WKYT-TV in Lexington and WMYO-TV Louisville along with Fox Sports South, and broadcast on WLAP Radio Lexington and WHAS Louisville.
SCHEDULES: ESPN will again kick off the college hoops regular season with a 24-hour marathon of live games on November 16th, with start times Eastern:
Midnight Miami at Memphis ESPN
2 a.m. St. John’s at Saint Mary’s ESPN
4 a.m. Central Michigan at Hawaii ESPN
6 a.m. Stony Brook at Monmouth ESPN
8 a.m. Robert Morris at Kent State ESPN
10 a.m. Northeastern at Southern Illinois ESPN
Noon Oral Roberts at Tulsa ESPN
2 p.m. La Salle at Baylor ESPN
4 p.m. Virginia Tech at Kansas State ESPN
5:30 p.m. NIT Season Tip-Off (from Villanova): Marist at Villanova ESPNU
6 p.m. Ohio State at Florida ESPN
7:30 p.m. CBE Classic (from Durham): Miami (Ohio) at Duke ESPNU
8 p.m. Butler at Louisville ESPN
9:30 p.m. NIT Season Tip-Off (from Knoxville): Belmont at Tennessee ESPNU
10 p.m. South Carolina at Michigan State ESPN
11 p.m. CBE Classic (from Spokane): San Diego State vs. Gonzaga ESPN2
11:30 p.m. NIT Season Tip-Off (from Los Angeles): Nevada or Pacific at UCLA ESPNU
After the (opposing) White Sox had batted bottom of the first inning, a heated discussion took place between Tigers starting pitcher Armando Gallaraga and catcher Alex Avila which resulted in the pitcher needing to be restrained from a possible physical confrontation with Gerald Laird (also a catcher).
When the top of the 2nd was beginning, the White Sox telecast on Comcast SportsNet did show the confrontation, with announcer Steve Stone making a comment to the effect of "the battery could be getting battered" and then getting back to the game. Obviously, fans in attendance seated on the 3rd base side could see it, and probably White Sox personnel from the 3rd base dugout, and the TV cameras caught it.
Yet, fans watching their Tigers on Fox Sports Detroit did NOT see this video, and it was their team involved. Media accounts from Detroit indicate this was a decision made by the crew and not by FSD executives or the Tigers. FSD did show the video of the incident on its pre-game show on Monday night, but that should have been the case even had it been shown right away on Sunday.
This should not have been a "cover up". FSD replays errors and poor play by the Tigers on the field. The dugout is in full view of fans and media. It's not like this incident occured in the clubhouse or someplace off limits and was secretly videotaped.
For example, baseball fans recall the June incident with Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano and his tantrum in the dugout that caused manager Lou Pinella to remove him after 1 inning and suspend him from the team. That was immediately shown on TV. The list goes on. If FSD is going to say the dugout "is not part of the playing field", then they shouldn't show the bullpen. They put Manager Jim Leyland on camera during the game, mostly when he is in the dugout. Why was this important incident off limits?
This is not the first time a TV crew has been called out for not covering an incident which happened during the course of a game. My memory even went back to the late 70's when Ohio State was in a bowl game and Coach Woody Hayes punched an opposing linebacker live on camera. Yet, the announcing team made absolutely no mention of what took place while local TV ABC-TV stations were all flooded with phone calls from confused fans.
Hopefully TV sports crews will take note of what happened, or as I should say, didn't happen, during Sunday's Tigers telecast, and make certain that the fans watching the game are given all of the pertinent "news" of the game. And not just the opposing team's telecast either.
Speaking of fans not seeing what they are entitled, it's time for another NFL season. Thus, the media "right of summer" that not everyone can get The NFL Network, even when they once had it.
It seems that Comcast Cable has taken away the NFL Network from some of the Digital Starter packages they offer, even though it was once a part of the package. Naturally, those who are effected by this could get it again, if (you guessed it) they upgrade to a higher package for more money each month.
On the NBA side, it's good to see the Portland Trailblazers get involved in a similar mess. Team President Larry Miller reportedly has written to the FCC regarding Comcast and its handling of the Blazers' TV rights, which will soon enter the 4th year of a 10-year agreement. Comcast is being accused of making it financially difficult for competing carriers to carry its Blazers telecasts.
Comcast isn't the only problem. The MLB Network is still not available on AT&T U-Verse, Dish Network, or Wow. With all of this, sports fans everywhere continue to be subjected to game telecasts being blacked out on cable and satellite, even though we still have to pay for a full day's worth of programming.
Maybe we should all write the FCC.
Meanwhile, Fox Sports sports adds coach Jim Mora Jr. and former QB Kurt Warner to its roster of analysts for the coming season. Mora will act as a 2nd analyst along with Charles Davis while Dick Stockton handles play-by-play on that crew. Warner will provide color commentary on the "Chris crew" working with either Chris Myers or Chris Rose.
ARKANSAS: Renee Gork should be pursuing becoming a household name, if she isn't already. Gork appears to have been fired by KAKS Sports Hog on Monday (8/16). Not because of anything she said or did on the air. Not because she is female. Not because she made an error of fact or missed an assignment.
All she did was wear a Florida Gators hat at an Arkansas news conference which got coach Bobby Petrino upset. Amazing that Petrino held back the tears. Here's hoping that a regional or national media organization hires Gork. Her first report should be to question University of Arkansas and SEC officials about why they allow a coach representing a major university to conduct himself in such a matter. Then find students on the Arkansas campus wearing items from other schools and ask if they feel safe. And keep on the story until Petrino is disciplined.
While one media member loses her job for no apparent good reason, another is about to be hired, likely without enough qualifications. If this is a legit advertisement, a Portland radio sports station is attempting to hire via Craigslist.
http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/tfr/1894650652.html
If this were for a small town I could maybe understand, but not for a "major league" market. Even at the low pay the position probably offers, you would think they could find applicants from other stations in the area. This is almost as insane as the contests to hire sportscasters.
Steve Czaban has become even busier. He has joined Sporting News Radio to co-host the 6 to 9 AM morning show along with Scott Linn from Washington D.C. Czaban will continue to co-host the "Sports Reporters|" with Andy Pollin on WTEM 980(Washington D.C.) from 4 to 7 PM. What about in between? He continues to contribute to The Hog 102.9 in Milwaukee during afternoon drive with segments for that rock station.
LONDON ENGLAND: BBC 5 changed its live MLB broadcast this past Sunday (8/15) in order to broadcast the Rogers Cup Final between Roger Federer and Andy Murray. They got a more important game in the process, taking the later starting Giants vs. Padres broadcast instead of the originally scheduled Yankees vs. Kansas City game.
CLEVELAND: Congrats to Joe Tait on receiving the Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Basketball Hall of Fame this past Friday. This honor comes a few weeks before Tait begins his final season calling the Cavaliers games on his way to retirement. Hopefully he will be honored throughout the NBA on his "final stop" at the various arenas throughout the season. He has called the Cavs' games for most of the seasons since 1970. He will also be remembered for calling Indians games during most of the 70's and 80's along with Herb Score.
St. LOUIS: Even though the Rams are not considered a threat to make the Super Bowl this season, I still like the idea of an HD Radio channel "Rams Radio" as unique programming. Now Rams fans around the country can hear it, at least for the time being as this channel is wisely being streamed since hardly anyone has purchased an HD Radio lately.
http://www.clearchannelmusic.com/hdradio/
NEW YORK: Michael Kay and WEPN 1050 pushed one under the rug last Wednesday (8/11) when they were not able to interview Isiah Thomas during the 4 PM hour as originally scheduled. The N.Y. Daily News reported that the NBA and the Knicks may have played a role in canceling the interview after Thomas was not allowed to have a consulting position with the Knicks due to his college coaching gig.
It would have been interesting to hear Thomas' take on the situation. Wonder what is being hidden that he couldn't go on the radio to talk about. WEPN was deprived of a chance to have a newsworthy interview. Might have helped, considering that the latest monthly ratings show WFAN with literally 3 times the overall audience of WEPN, finishing at #10 in the market overall.
CHICAGO: AM radio listeners preferred sports radio a bit more often during the June - July ratings period. Sports stations WSCR The Score and WMVP 1000 combined for a .5 overall ratings increase, while NewsRadio WBBM and News / Talk WGN combined to drop .6 overall.
DETROIT: WXYT-FM The Ticket picked up enough of the ratings it lost in June and regained the #1 spot overall in the market for the July ratings. In a similar trend to Chicago, NewsRadio WWJ fell by .3 overall.
MINNEAPOLIS: KSTP 1500 isn't taking any chances with its Twins contract, given the big attendance and standings year the team is having. The station has successfully extended for 2 more seasons, continuing as the flagship station for the Twins' Network through the 2012 season. The Network totals 85 stations for this season.
DENVER: It is all but official that the Nuggets and Avalanche broadcasts will quickly be moving to a better signal. KRWZ 950 is expected to air the games of both teams, with KCKK 1510 only being used when there is a conflict with both teams playing.
DALLAS: Bruce Gilbert replaces Tom Bigby as Program Director at The Fan 105.3 in hopes of improving the station's ratings quickly. Gilbert was P.D. at The Ticket for about 6 years until 2003, and returned to Dallas from Washington D.C. where he was with the sports stations owned by Redskins owner Dan Snyder.
Last week's Rangers telecasts vs. the Yankees (on Tuesday 10 and Weds. 11) set ratings records for Fox Sports Southwest. They were the most watched Rangers telecasts on FSS since 1998, and its most watched event since a Mavericks game vs. the Lakers late in the 2001-02 regular season.
With TV voice Josh Lewin also calling San Diego Chargers pre-season games as of this past weekend, Dave Barnett moves over on the games Lewin is not available for to handle TV play-by-play, while Bryan Dolgin fills in for Barnett.
CINCINNATI: While WLW again tops the ratings with its Reds broadcasts, the full-time sports stations again did not fare well, even with the Reds in contention. WCKY 1530 finished tied for 17th overall, while Fox Sports WSAI 1360 failed to crack the top 25 overall. Same for WQRT 1160 which is not a sports station other than Andy Furman's afternoon drive show.
St. LOUIS: KMOV-TV Channel 4 and WXOS 101.1 will utilize each other's reporters starting in 2 weeks. Channel 4's Steve Savard will do a 5:45 PM report on WXOS while radio reporters will handle some of the weekend sports reporting on the TV side.
BALTIMORE: The Ravens games will also be heard on Washington's WTOP-FM 103.5 starting this season in addition to WBAL Baltimore.
PITTSBURGH: The Fan KDKA-FM has overtaken WEAE 1250 ESPN by 1/10 of a ratings point in the latest ratings, while WBGG Fox 970 is a very distant 3rd.
LEXINGTON: To some it was only a 3-game exhibition series for the University of Kentucky's basketball team in Ontario Canada this past weekend. But not to Kentucky fans. All 3 games were shown live on WKYT-TV in Lexington and WMYO-TV Louisville along with Fox Sports South, and broadcast on WLAP Radio Lexington and WHAS Louisville.
SCHEDULES: ESPN will again kick off the college hoops regular season with a 24-hour marathon of live games on November 16th, with start times Eastern:
Midnight Miami at Memphis ESPN
2 a.m. St. John’s at Saint Mary’s ESPN
4 a.m. Central Michigan at Hawaii ESPN
6 a.m. Stony Brook at Monmouth ESPN
8 a.m. Robert Morris at Kent State ESPN
10 a.m. Northeastern at Southern Illinois ESPN
Noon Oral Roberts at Tulsa ESPN
2 p.m. La Salle at Baylor ESPN
4 p.m. Virginia Tech at Kansas State ESPN
5:30 p.m. NIT Season Tip-Off (from Villanova): Marist at Villanova ESPNU
6 p.m. Ohio State at Florida ESPN
7:30 p.m. CBE Classic (from Durham): Miami (Ohio) at Duke ESPNU
8 p.m. Butler at Louisville ESPN
9:30 p.m. NIT Season Tip-Off (from Knoxville): Belmont at Tennessee ESPNU
10 p.m. South Carolina at Michigan State ESPN
11 p.m. CBE Classic (from Spokane): San Diego State vs. Gonzaga ESPN2
11:30 p.m. NIT Season Tip-Off (from Los Angeles): Nevada or Pacific at UCLA ESPNU
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
The Broadcast Booth - March 23rd update.......
Now we are at the point where having 2 or more sports radio stations in a market is commonplace rather than being big news. When combined with the spread of local and regional sports TV networks (such as via Comcast and Fox Sports), every major league market and most medium markets now bring the fans hundreds of hours of local sports programming every week.
That doesn't include all of the national programming carried on these sports radio stations, along with the ESPN groups. Yet, when it comes to radio and TV, I still can't tell the players without a scorecard. Why is that?
Many sports shows and stations have their fair share of on-air guests. Over the past few months, especially, I have noticed something. The lack of guest spots by current players.
We hear from the coaches and managers, team officials, and probably too much from 'beat reporters' for our favorite local teams. It seems like we only hear or see player comments from after a game or as part of a reaction story to a roster move or news story. But it seems as though a current player is never a studio guest to take some calls and questions from their fans. Why not?
It's certainly not as if the players are working second jobs for extra income. For what they are getting paid, it shouldn't be out of line for teams to ask them to make some appearances in season and off season. Going on the radio to chat with fans is safer and easier than being at a store or other open public forum. But it doesn't seem to happen. At least not from current players.
Autograph shows and sessions are not the answer, especially when they are paid for. Players go along with rules about what they will and won't sign, and if they will personalize or not. That's another subject. But there is little to no time to interact, which is what radio (moreso than TV) provides.
C'mon, sports stations. Start inviting current players into the studio for an hour on open dates. It is a safe way to interact with fans. A smart programmer will eliminate the "I enjoy watching you play...." comments from every caller by having listeners call or e-mail with questions during the player's visit and letting the host(s) relay the best questions along.
This would be a way to make each off-season interesting. There is talk on most sports stations and shows about whether or not the NFL should tinker with the overtime rule. Yet, I can't think of hearing any opinions from current players about how they feel. Again, it's not like they are all working off-season jobs to make ends meet. I would like to think that a sports station reporter who covered the local NFL team could come up with 2 players who disagree about how to handle overtime, and could make for one heck of an interesting segment on the air. Way more interesting than what "Joe from the west side" thinks!
Just because there are more hours of sports talk than ever before doesn't guarantee it will all be interesting. But getting the current players involved would be a wonderful start.
CINCINNATI: For all of the complaining about TV stations and carrying certain games, it's good to see some decisions which actually favor the sports fan. Such is the case with WKRC-TV Cincinnati these 2 weeks during the NCAA Tournament.
Last week, when the opening games involving Ohio State and Louisville (the station serves Cincinnati and northern Kentucky) were overlapping, the TV station came up with a wonderful solution. The station used digital channel 12.2 to air a separate doubleheader, and thus was able to present both of those games live and entirely.
And it happens again this Thursday (March 25). The Xavier (located in Cincinnati) game against Kansas State is scheduled to begin at 9:37 PM, while the Kentucky vs. Cornell game is scheduled for 9:57 PM. Once again, WKRC-TV uses its digital capabilities and the Kentucky game will air entirely on Channel 12.2. Not only that, but the station is spreading the word locally well in advance. That's more like it.
BALTIMORE / D.C.: WJZ-FM 105.7 The Fan has moved Jeremy Conn from the evening "The Playmakers" show to afternoon drive and The Scott Garceau Show. The Conn man is expected to continue filling for morning man Ed Norris when needed, and in effect replaces Anita Marks in the afternoon role. Marks was let go earlier this quarter. Pete Medhurst and Joe Miller now handle 6 to 10 PM on weeknights without play-by-play along with Sunday afternoons. The station has also hired Jen Royle to be its Orioles beat reporter. She comes to Baltimore from YES Network in New York. The Fan is also being carried from D.C. via one of 105.7 FM's digital signals, for those few with HD radios.
Sorry to learn of the passing of Chick Lang at the age of 83 after a long illness. Lang was a fixture many moon ago on WBAL as their racing analyst and is best remembered for running Pimlico Race Course (home of The Preakness) for more than 25 years.
More Baltimore area listeners will be able to receive the Washington Nationals broadcasts starting this season, as the broadcasts have moved to WFED 1500, which has a stronger signal from D.C. into the Baltimore area. Charlie Slowes and Dave Jageler return for their 5th season calling the games, with Phil Wood hosting "Nats Talk Live". No matter how many people can hear them, it remains to be seen if they'll want to listen to the Nationals.
Frank Herzog, the long time voice of the Redskins has announced that he will be retiring from his morning news anchor role on WTOP Radio. Over the years, Herzog anchored sports on both channels 7 and 9.
PHILADELPHIA: Comcast SportsNet has a new Phillies beat reporter, but she is hardly new to viewers. Leslie Gudel, who was the first female sports anchor in Philly and started more than 12 years ago, will move to her new beat from the anchor desk.
HOUSTON: Congrats to Ralph Cooper, who will be honored on Friday with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Houston Association of Black Journalists. He has been with KCOH 1430 since 1984 and now airs weekday afternoons at 5:00. In addition, he has been a guest commentator on KTRK Channel 13's Extra Points program since 1992. His most memorable local high school player interviews include Clyde Drexler and Eric Dickerson.
A good idea from KILT SportsRadio 610. Their web site has a podcast (as of press time) with host Kyle Kennedy doing his mock NFL Draft already up and running, and the draft isn't until late April. It is at http://www.sportsradio610.com/pages/5535348.php?poll74326ViewResults=1 . What makes this a good idea is that it is for something that will happen and thus remains timely. A nice change from most podcasts which are outdated within a few hours.
Thanks to those of you who commented about the NFL team radio data we wrote about last week. Many in Houston are baffled because of the finding that the Texans supposedly had more listeners to their radio broadcasts on KILT than the Cowboys broadcasts on KRLD-FM in Dallas. I suppose it is possible. After all, the new Cowboys stadium has a huge capacity and plenty of video for those in attendance. The result was thousands more fans able to be in attendance at the Cowboys games and not needing a radio to listen than is the case with the Texans.
MEMPHIS: The NBA Grizzlies having their most successful season ever (more impressive than it really is) is translating into TV ratings. Fox Sports Tennessee telecast ratings are up about 53% over last season and more than 75% from two seasons ago. The team's February win over the L.A. Lakers drew their highest cable rating ever. In the most amazing statistic, the March 8th game against New Jersey, with one of the all-time worst records in NBA history, drew higher ratings than most of the telecasts did for the two prior seasons.
RALEIGH: Adam Gold, host from 3 - 7 PM on The Fan 99.9 FM has been recognized as one of the "250 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts" by Talkers Magazine. No other local talent was selected for the list.
WICHITA: KMAN Sports Radio 1350 got into the act with Kansas State "Sweet 16 Fever" in full force. The station aired the pep rally sponsored by the Kansas State Alumni Association live on Monday (March 22) evening, as hosted by play-by-play voice Wyatt Thompson.
ALBANY: WOFX 980 will carry "The Chris Myers Interview" show on Saturdays from 9 AM to Noon. This moves Dan Moriarty and Derrick Deese from Noon to 4 and Mike Lamb and Sean Farnham from 4 to 8 PM.
BASEBALL:
Team radio networks continue to expand as we get within 2 weeks of opening day. The Baltimore Orioles Radio Network, which already now includes WTEM in Washington D.C. has also added Frederick’s WTHU, WTRI and WICO-FM in Pocomoke City, WCBX in Bassett VA, and WVSP in Norfolk VA.
The Cincinnati Reds Radio Network has added WCVL 1550 Crawfordsville to its list of stations.
On the NFL side, XS Sports 96.1 in Redding CA has added San Francisco 49ers broadcasts in a 2-year deal including non-conflicting pre-season games. The station also will carry Giants baseball.
Finally, sorry to also learn of the passing of Roy Steinfort in VA at the age of 88. I'm sure most sports fans have no idea who that is, and that's too bad. Steinfort sold his weekly newspaper in 1961 to join Associated Press as an executive. He is probably most responsible for building up AP Radio from a handful of stations to more than 1,000 affiliates across the country. He was there when AP Radio began to include sports coverage, and even laid the foundation for video feeds before he retired. We may not know his work directly, but long time sports fans often heard the benefits of his vision for sports coverage.
That doesn't include all of the national programming carried on these sports radio stations, along with the ESPN groups. Yet, when it comes to radio and TV, I still can't tell the players without a scorecard. Why is that?
Many sports shows and stations have their fair share of on-air guests. Over the past few months, especially, I have noticed something. The lack of guest spots by current players.
We hear from the coaches and managers, team officials, and probably too much from 'beat reporters' for our favorite local teams. It seems like we only hear or see player comments from after a game or as part of a reaction story to a roster move or news story. But it seems as though a current player is never a studio guest to take some calls and questions from their fans. Why not?
It's certainly not as if the players are working second jobs for extra income. For what they are getting paid, it shouldn't be out of line for teams to ask them to make some appearances in season and off season. Going on the radio to chat with fans is safer and easier than being at a store or other open public forum. But it doesn't seem to happen. At least not from current players.
Autograph shows and sessions are not the answer, especially when they are paid for. Players go along with rules about what they will and won't sign, and if they will personalize or not. That's another subject. But there is little to no time to interact, which is what radio (moreso than TV) provides.
C'mon, sports stations. Start inviting current players into the studio for an hour on open dates. It is a safe way to interact with fans. A smart programmer will eliminate the "I enjoy watching you play...." comments from every caller by having listeners call or e-mail with questions during the player's visit and letting the host(s) relay the best questions along.
This would be a way to make each off-season interesting. There is talk on most sports stations and shows about whether or not the NFL should tinker with the overtime rule. Yet, I can't think of hearing any opinions from current players about how they feel. Again, it's not like they are all working off-season jobs to make ends meet. I would like to think that a sports station reporter who covered the local NFL team could come up with 2 players who disagree about how to handle overtime, and could make for one heck of an interesting segment on the air. Way more interesting than what "Joe from the west side" thinks!
Just because there are more hours of sports talk than ever before doesn't guarantee it will all be interesting. But getting the current players involved would be a wonderful start.
CINCINNATI: For all of the complaining about TV stations and carrying certain games, it's good to see some decisions which actually favor the sports fan. Such is the case with WKRC-TV Cincinnati these 2 weeks during the NCAA Tournament.
Last week, when the opening games involving Ohio State and Louisville (the station serves Cincinnati and northern Kentucky) were overlapping, the TV station came up with a wonderful solution. The station used digital channel 12.2 to air a separate doubleheader, and thus was able to present both of those games live and entirely.
And it happens again this Thursday (March 25). The Xavier (located in Cincinnati) game against Kansas State is scheduled to begin at 9:37 PM, while the Kentucky vs. Cornell game is scheduled for 9:57 PM. Once again, WKRC-TV uses its digital capabilities and the Kentucky game will air entirely on Channel 12.2. Not only that, but the station is spreading the word locally well in advance. That's more like it.
BALTIMORE / D.C.: WJZ-FM 105.7 The Fan has moved Jeremy Conn from the evening "The Playmakers" show to afternoon drive and The Scott Garceau Show. The Conn man is expected to continue filling for morning man Ed Norris when needed, and in effect replaces Anita Marks in the afternoon role. Marks was let go earlier this quarter. Pete Medhurst and Joe Miller now handle 6 to 10 PM on weeknights without play-by-play along with Sunday afternoons. The station has also hired Jen Royle to be its Orioles beat reporter. She comes to Baltimore from YES Network in New York. The Fan is also being carried from D.C. via one of 105.7 FM's digital signals, for those few with HD radios.
Sorry to learn of the passing of Chick Lang at the age of 83 after a long illness. Lang was a fixture many moon ago on WBAL as their racing analyst and is best remembered for running Pimlico Race Course (home of The Preakness) for more than 25 years.
More Baltimore area listeners will be able to receive the Washington Nationals broadcasts starting this season, as the broadcasts have moved to WFED 1500, which has a stronger signal from D.C. into the Baltimore area. Charlie Slowes and Dave Jageler return for their 5th season calling the games, with Phil Wood hosting "Nats Talk Live". No matter how many people can hear them, it remains to be seen if they'll want to listen to the Nationals.
Frank Herzog, the long time voice of the Redskins has announced that he will be retiring from his morning news anchor role on WTOP Radio. Over the years, Herzog anchored sports on both channels 7 and 9.
PHILADELPHIA: Comcast SportsNet has a new Phillies beat reporter, but she is hardly new to viewers. Leslie Gudel, who was the first female sports anchor in Philly and started more than 12 years ago, will move to her new beat from the anchor desk.
HOUSTON: Congrats to Ralph Cooper, who will be honored on Friday with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Houston Association of Black Journalists. He has been with KCOH 1430 since 1984 and now airs weekday afternoons at 5:00. In addition, he has been a guest commentator on KTRK Channel 13's Extra Points program since 1992. His most memorable local high school player interviews include Clyde Drexler and Eric Dickerson.
A good idea from KILT SportsRadio 610. Their web site has a podcast (as of press time) with host Kyle Kennedy doing his mock NFL Draft already up and running, and the draft isn't until late April. It is at http://www.sportsradio610.com/pages/5535348.php?poll74326ViewResults=1 . What makes this a good idea is that it is for something that will happen and thus remains timely. A nice change from most podcasts which are outdated within a few hours.
Thanks to those of you who commented about the NFL team radio data we wrote about last week. Many in Houston are baffled because of the finding that the Texans supposedly had more listeners to their radio broadcasts on KILT than the Cowboys broadcasts on KRLD-FM in Dallas. I suppose it is possible. After all, the new Cowboys stadium has a huge capacity and plenty of video for those in attendance. The result was thousands more fans able to be in attendance at the Cowboys games and not needing a radio to listen than is the case with the Texans.
MEMPHIS: The NBA Grizzlies having their most successful season ever (more impressive than it really is) is translating into TV ratings. Fox Sports Tennessee telecast ratings are up about 53% over last season and more than 75% from two seasons ago. The team's February win over the L.A. Lakers drew their highest cable rating ever. In the most amazing statistic, the March 8th game against New Jersey, with one of the all-time worst records in NBA history, drew higher ratings than most of the telecasts did for the two prior seasons.
RALEIGH: Adam Gold, host from 3 - 7 PM on The Fan 99.9 FM has been recognized as one of the "250 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts" by Talkers Magazine. No other local talent was selected for the list.
WICHITA: KMAN Sports Radio 1350 got into the act with Kansas State "Sweet 16 Fever" in full force. The station aired the pep rally sponsored by the Kansas State Alumni Association live on Monday (March 22) evening, as hosted by play-by-play voice Wyatt Thompson.
ALBANY: WOFX 980 will carry "The Chris Myers Interview" show on Saturdays from 9 AM to Noon. This moves Dan Moriarty and Derrick Deese from Noon to 4 and Mike Lamb and Sean Farnham from 4 to 8 PM.
BASEBALL:
Team radio networks continue to expand as we get within 2 weeks of opening day. The Baltimore Orioles Radio Network, which already now includes WTEM in Washington D.C. has also added Frederick’s WTHU, WTRI and WICO-FM in Pocomoke City, WCBX in Bassett VA, and WVSP in Norfolk VA.
The Cincinnati Reds Radio Network has added WCVL 1550 Crawfordsville to its list of stations.
On the NFL side, XS Sports 96.1 in Redding CA has added San Francisco 49ers broadcasts in a 2-year deal including non-conflicting pre-season games. The station also will carry Giants baseball.
Finally, sorry to also learn of the passing of Roy Steinfort in VA at the age of 88. I'm sure most sports fans have no idea who that is, and that's too bad. Steinfort sold his weekly newspaper in 1961 to join Associated Press as an executive. He is probably most responsible for building up AP Radio from a handful of stations to more than 1,000 affiliates across the country. He was there when AP Radio began to include sports coverage, and even laid the foundation for video feeds before he retired. We may not know his work directly, but long time sports fans often heard the benefits of his vision for sports coverage.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Who's paying attention?
I was watching "Baseball Tonight" on ESPN on Sunday (April 12) when during a commercial break the local Comcast Cable commercials were running. On came a promo for the free preview of the Extra Innings package.
On paper, that sounds like good placement for Comcast to run a baseball on TV spot during ESPN's primary baseball show. However, this commercial happened to air 20 minutes AFTER the final out of the last game available during the free preview which ran all week.
Thus, a baseball fan who did not know about the free preview and who tuned over to see which games were on would have then found out that they missed everything. In other words, careless scheduling of a spot, even if it was for a free offering from Comcast.
By the way, I am again NOT purchasing the Extra Innings package. They continue to black out local games. Their argument is that I can see them anyway. My argument is, as a Chicago White Sox fan, that I would pay the fee for the season to be able to watch the OTHER team telecasts against the White Sox in order to escape the horrible announcing that White Sox fans are subjected to on the local telecasts.
For that matter, I don't think that cable telecasts of local teams should be blacked out either, such as when on ESPN, TBS, and starting this year on the MLB Network. I am also paying an exhorbitant fee to my cable company just to watch TV. The cable companies pay these networks to carry the programming based on the number of subscribers. The networks showing the games (except for MLB Network) pay millions to MLB to carry the games.
Thus, I feel that I should get everything available for the amount I am paying and the cable companies and leagues have no right to black anything out.
On paper, that sounds like good placement for Comcast to run a baseball on TV spot during ESPN's primary baseball show. However, this commercial happened to air 20 minutes AFTER the final out of the last game available during the free preview which ran all week.
Thus, a baseball fan who did not know about the free preview and who tuned over to see which games were on would have then found out that they missed everything. In other words, careless scheduling of a spot, even if it was for a free offering from Comcast.
By the way, I am again NOT purchasing the Extra Innings package. They continue to black out local games. Their argument is that I can see them anyway. My argument is, as a Chicago White Sox fan, that I would pay the fee for the season to be able to watch the OTHER team telecasts against the White Sox in order to escape the horrible announcing that White Sox fans are subjected to on the local telecasts.
For that matter, I don't think that cable telecasts of local teams should be blacked out either, such as when on ESPN, TBS, and starting this year on the MLB Network. I am also paying an exhorbitant fee to my cable company just to watch TV. The cable companies pay these networks to carry the programming based on the number of subscribers. The networks showing the games (except for MLB Network) pay millions to MLB to carry the games.
Thus, I feel that I should get everything available for the amount I am paying and the cable companies and leagues have no right to black anything out.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Sports Media Report - December 9 update
Congrats to former All-Star shortstop and long time baseball TV analyst Tony Kubek on being honored with the Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award. Kubek, now 73, will be honored in Cooperstown at the July 26, 2009 ceremony.
Kubek helped to pioneer the role of a national TV analyst for many years on NBC-TV's Game of the Week. Although today's baseball analysts often get critical and more personal during a broadcast, Kubek helped to define the role.
It probably seems like science fiction to younger fans who can't comprehend the era when baseball fans would get one "out of town" game per week. That was NBC-TV each Saturday afternoon throughout the season. The home or local team couldn't be shown. The network would do a "back-up game" most weeks which would feed into the markets (or sometimes one market when a Canadian team was featured) of the two teams participating in the "main" game.
There were no "live looks", multiple nights of games on cable. and for that matter many local teams would only televise half of their games or less. Kubek helped provide the window to the "outside world" of baseball for millions. He got to work with the likes of Curt Gowdy, Bob Costas, and Jim Simpson, as well as Joe Garagiola. Those were also the days of (gulp) one color commentator for the entire telecast. There were no studio hosts, sideline reporters, or third men in the booth for the vast majority of Kubek's run.
The early to mid-80's brought additional baseball coverage to cable, such as USA Network's Thursday Night Baseball, but the color commentators at the national level generally maintained the Kubek influence of explaining the plays and the game and not being overly critical.
In addition to his NBC-TV work, Kubek also did color for the Yankees and Blue Jays. In fact, he becomes the first broadcaster to win this honor who called games for a Canadian team. Fittingly, Kubek was a part of NBC-TV's final "Game of the Week" telecast in September of 1989. That was the end of an era. The 1990 season opened with ESPN beginning its relationship with MLB including multiple telecasts each week (with doubleheaders on many Wednesday nights) and the debut of "Baseball Tonight".
To me, the best news is that Kubek lived to experience this announcement.
The only downer about this is that a few others who are also qualified didn't make it. At least not yet. Lanny Frattare, who just retired after a 30+ year run as the voice of the Pirates is among them, along with long time Red Sox voice Ken Coleman. Dave Van Horne, who could just as easily have been the first broadcaster honored who called a Canadian team (long time Expos voice) also did not get in this time, nor did the late Joe Nuxhall for his years as part of "Marty and Joe on Reds Radio" in Cincinnati.
Meanwhile, NBC-TV did make an announcement within hours of Kubek's award, although very much coincidental. Sunday Night Football is exercising its right to flex scheduling and has changed its December 21 telecast. Gone from NBC is the San Diego vs. Tampa Bay game, and (understandably) now on their schedule is the game between the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers in what is very possibly a playoff preview. CBS-TV will now have the Chargers game at Tampa at 1:00 ET on the afternoon of the 21st.
DALLAS - The Metroplex now, as of this past Monday (Dec. 8) has three sports stations. 105.3 FM became "The Fan" at 3:00 PM in a surprise move. The station hopes that the buzz surrounding the Cowboys' playoff chances and the upcoming BCS bowl games will result in a good start. Almost all of the programming on the talk station before it is gone, except that Chris Jagger and his morning crew are staying in place. It is also expected that "The Fan" will change call letters from the current KLLI.
Personally, I see one possible obstacle. KESN ESPN Radio for Dallas is at 103.3 FM, while The Fan is at 105.3. While the PPM is there to measure the audience, the PPM does not help listeners tune to the frequency they desire. A listener could be scanning the dial and hear sports on 103.3 and not make it over to 105.3, or perhaps mistake an advertisement for the ESPN Radio which is more established and has the better known brand. Here's hoping that they go by something like "105 The Fan" and keep the ".3" out of the equation.
St. LOUIS - It seems like every week brings another announcement about the upcoming new sports station, now known as Movin' WMVN. The station has just announced that Derrick Goold will bring his "The Hot Corner" baseball beat show over from KMOX on Sunday mornings to "Movin'" starting in February. Goold, also the Cardinals' beat writer for the Post-Dispatch, will host 8:00 to 10:00 AM each Sunday.
Across town, KFNS just happens to be revising its lineup starting December 15th, 2 weeks before WMVN starts. Frank Cusumano will start his show an hour earlier at 9 AM, with Jeff Gordon and Jeff Vernetti moving up to Noon to 2 PM. The station plans a rotating hour at 2:00 including veteran personalities such as Howard Balzer and Jay Randolph Sr.
SAN DIEGO - XX Sports 1090 has gone into cost-cutting mode this month. Bill Werndl and Joe Tutino are both on the outs from their respective shows where they each served as co-hosts. For now, John Kentera continues in the early afternoon spot, and Darren Smith stays at 3 - 7 PM. No word yet as to whether or not each will be given another co-host or continue solo or with guest hosts.
No word yet about a new Padres TV voice, replacing Matt Vasgersian who moves on to host on the upcoming MLB-TV Network. Among those reportedly interviewed are Dave Sims of the Mariners and Victor Rojas of the Rangers.
CHICAGO - The MLB-TV Network also will likely have an impact on baseball broadcast coverage in Chicago. Word is that at least one of the two among Dan Plesac and Darrin Jackson will also be hired as a studio analyst by the new network. If Plesac is chosen, there will be a studio analyst opening for Chicago Cubs telecasts on Comcast SportsNet. If Jackson is chosen, there will be an opening in the White Sox radio booth. Jackson is expected to learn of his "fate" by the end of this week.
Kubek helped to pioneer the role of a national TV analyst for many years on NBC-TV's Game of the Week. Although today's baseball analysts often get critical and more personal during a broadcast, Kubek helped to define the role.
It probably seems like science fiction to younger fans who can't comprehend the era when baseball fans would get one "out of town" game per week. That was NBC-TV each Saturday afternoon throughout the season. The home or local team couldn't be shown. The network would do a "back-up game" most weeks which would feed into the markets (or sometimes one market when a Canadian team was featured) of the two teams participating in the "main" game.
There were no "live looks", multiple nights of games on cable. and for that matter many local teams would only televise half of their games or less. Kubek helped provide the window to the "outside world" of baseball for millions. He got to work with the likes of Curt Gowdy, Bob Costas, and Jim Simpson, as well as Joe Garagiola. Those were also the days of (gulp) one color commentator for the entire telecast. There were no studio hosts, sideline reporters, or third men in the booth for the vast majority of Kubek's run.
The early to mid-80's brought additional baseball coverage to cable, such as USA Network's Thursday Night Baseball, but the color commentators at the national level generally maintained the Kubek influence of explaining the plays and the game and not being overly critical.
In addition to his NBC-TV work, Kubek also did color for the Yankees and Blue Jays. In fact, he becomes the first broadcaster to win this honor who called games for a Canadian team. Fittingly, Kubek was a part of NBC-TV's final "Game of the Week" telecast in September of 1989. That was the end of an era. The 1990 season opened with ESPN beginning its relationship with MLB including multiple telecasts each week (with doubleheaders on many Wednesday nights) and the debut of "Baseball Tonight".
To me, the best news is that Kubek lived to experience this announcement.
The only downer about this is that a few others who are also qualified didn't make it. At least not yet. Lanny Frattare, who just retired after a 30+ year run as the voice of the Pirates is among them, along with long time Red Sox voice Ken Coleman. Dave Van Horne, who could just as easily have been the first broadcaster honored who called a Canadian team (long time Expos voice) also did not get in this time, nor did the late Joe Nuxhall for his years as part of "Marty and Joe on Reds Radio" in Cincinnati.
Meanwhile, NBC-TV did make an announcement within hours of Kubek's award, although very much coincidental. Sunday Night Football is exercising its right to flex scheduling and has changed its December 21 telecast. Gone from NBC is the San Diego vs. Tampa Bay game, and (understandably) now on their schedule is the game between the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers in what is very possibly a playoff preview. CBS-TV will now have the Chargers game at Tampa at 1:00 ET on the afternoon of the 21st.
DALLAS - The Metroplex now, as of this past Monday (Dec. 8) has three sports stations. 105.3 FM became "The Fan" at 3:00 PM in a surprise move. The station hopes that the buzz surrounding the Cowboys' playoff chances and the upcoming BCS bowl games will result in a good start. Almost all of the programming on the talk station before it is gone, except that Chris Jagger and his morning crew are staying in place. It is also expected that "The Fan" will change call letters from the current KLLI.
Personally, I see one possible obstacle. KESN ESPN Radio for Dallas is at 103.3 FM, while The Fan is at 105.3. While the PPM is there to measure the audience, the PPM does not help listeners tune to the frequency they desire. A listener could be scanning the dial and hear sports on 103.3 and not make it over to 105.3, or perhaps mistake an advertisement for the ESPN Radio which is more established and has the better known brand. Here's hoping that they go by something like "105 The Fan" and keep the ".3" out of the equation.
St. LOUIS - It seems like every week brings another announcement about the upcoming new sports station, now known as Movin' WMVN. The station has just announced that Derrick Goold will bring his "The Hot Corner" baseball beat show over from KMOX on Sunday mornings to "Movin'" starting in February. Goold, also the Cardinals' beat writer for the Post-Dispatch, will host 8:00 to 10:00 AM each Sunday.
Across town, KFNS just happens to be revising its lineup starting December 15th, 2 weeks before WMVN starts. Frank Cusumano will start his show an hour earlier at 9 AM, with Jeff Gordon and Jeff Vernetti moving up to Noon to 2 PM. The station plans a rotating hour at 2:00 including veteran personalities such as Howard Balzer and Jay Randolph Sr.
SAN DIEGO - XX Sports 1090 has gone into cost-cutting mode this month. Bill Werndl and Joe Tutino are both on the outs from their respective shows where they each served as co-hosts. For now, John Kentera continues in the early afternoon spot, and Darren Smith stays at 3 - 7 PM. No word yet as to whether or not each will be given another co-host or continue solo or with guest hosts.
No word yet about a new Padres TV voice, replacing Matt Vasgersian who moves on to host on the upcoming MLB-TV Network. Among those reportedly interviewed are Dave Sims of the Mariners and Victor Rojas of the Rangers.
CHICAGO - The MLB-TV Network also will likely have an impact on baseball broadcast coverage in Chicago. Word is that at least one of the two among Dan Plesac and Darrin Jackson will also be hired as a studio analyst by the new network. If Plesac is chosen, there will be a studio analyst opening for Chicago Cubs telecasts on Comcast SportsNet. If Jackson is chosen, there will be an opening in the White Sox radio booth. Jackson is expected to learn of his "fate" by the end of this week.
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