While many anticipate the NBA season opening on Christmas Day with 5 games being televised nationally, it will likely be one to remember for the primary announcing team of Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy. Whether or not they remember it positively remains to be seen. That Breen and Van Gundy will call the ABC telecast (game 2 of the day) with the NBA Finals rematch of Miami at Dallas at 2:30 PM ET is hardly news. But the story that ESPN's telecast of Golden State hosting the L.A. Clippers in Oakland at 10:30 PM ET that same night is scheduled to also be described by Breen and Van Gundy is.
ABC/ESPN is hopeful that the weather and the airlines allow the pair to fly out after the Dallas telecast and be in Oakland just over 5 hours later to make it their own personal doubleheader spread over 2 time zones. I suppose this is an attempt to call attention to the Clippers vs. Warriors game being on national TV since I can't think of any other reason to do this. Maybe the NBA should have stayed with 4 games on opening day and not included such a comparatively weak matchup be included. They are counting on fans tuning in to at least the start of the game to find out if Breen and Van Gundy made it on time. If the 2 games for a single announcing team to call were geographically close I could understand, such as a Knicks game and later a Nets game, both Los Angeles teams at home, or a Chicago and Milwaukee (90 miles apart) combination.
Let's face it. Breen and Van Gundy will be better prepared, and understandably so, for the Miami vs. Dallas matchup. Calling 2 games involving 4 different teams on the same day is a tough assignment for anybody, even without the traveling. There is no reason for an NBA telecast to be so understaffed. For some reason, the NBA seems to go along with this. For example, Doris Burke does a good job as an analyst on several NBA telecasts for ESPN during the regular season. This wouldn't bother me if it wasn't that ESPN/ABC, TNT, and NBA-TV all seem to have dozens of studio analysts on at the same time who were all former NBA players. There are only a limited number of opportunities for each of them to comment sufficiently and even fewer to disagree. Less diplomatically, there is no need for all of these studio commentators. Yet, here ESPN is using the same announcing team for 2 of its telecasts on opening day. And they use Doris Burke at games while "extra" analysts who actually played in the NBA sit in the studio. It doesn't make sense.
Just in case, ESPN will have Terry Gannon and Chris Mullen ready to go in Oakland on Christmas night. If Breen and Van Gundy can't make it at all or on time, they will handle the call. If Breen and Van Gundy arrive in time, Gannon and Mullen will have lesser roles in the telecast.
It will also be a busy couple of days for Mike Tirico. He will call the ABC telecast of the Lakers hosting the Chicago Bulls at 5 PM ET on Christmas and then head out for New Orleans to call the Monday Night Football game just over 24 hours later between the Saints and the Atlanta Falcons in a game that looks to be a ratings bonanza based on the playoff implications.
NBC-TV continues to dominate with its Sunday Night Football ratings, again winning the night on Sunday (12/11) with the Giants vs. Cowboys telecast, with early numbers showing it to be the 5th highest rated Sunday night (actual Sunday) telecast for NBC. Interestingly, all 5 highest rated Sunday Night NBC telecasts have featured the Cowboys, with Sunday's game making 2 of those telecasts vs. the Giants among that top 5. It's the Cowboys that are the draw, as local market ratings show that the top 3 markets around the country watching on Sunday night were Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin.
Two long-time MLB announcers have been named to halls of fame within the past week, although reaction is different about both. Bob Uecker, the 41 year voice of the Milwaukee Brewers as well as several seasons nationally for ABC-TV earlier on, has been named to the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame, and will be inducted on April 17th in Las Vegas, and the majority of fans are happy for Uecker. Especially after his having had health issues that have taken him away from games over the past couple of years.
Tim McCarver, national telecast analyst for Fox and for CBS-TV prior, has been named to the Baseball Hall of Fame and will be honored in Cooperstown next July. However, McCarver has come under fire by many fans and media critics over the past few years.
Fox Sports Radio continues to make some unique pairings of hosts for its weekend programming. Now the network is teaming up tennis star Andy Roddick with Austin morning host Bobby Bones for its Saturday 1 to 4 PM ET spot. The pair did some fill-in work together this past summer and impressed the network.
CHICAGO: Bulls basketball will remain on WMVP ESPN 1000 for another five seasons, extending their current contract through the 2016-17 season.
DENVER: Musical chairs continues with the city's all sports stations. KKFN Fan 104.3 has announced its local schedule to begin by the first of the year to replace ESPN programming. Joel Klatt and Mike Evans will host mornings, with (former NBA player) Scott Hastings and Drew Goodman (voice of the Rockies) hosting from Noon to 3 PM weekdays. Sister station KEPN 1600 is also replacing the ESPN lineup, although it will run syndicated shows (such as Dan Patrick) and Yahoo Sports Radio instead.
SEATTLE: The Mariners' broadcast booth will once again be well attended for the 2012 season, as a cast of thousands will continue to call the games after the passing of Dave Niehaus following the 2010 season. While Rick Rizzs, Dave Sims, and Mike Blowers will handle most of the duties, Ken Wilson and Ron Fairly are among those returning for part-time broadcasting during the season. In addition, Ken Levine, Dave Valle, Dave Henderson, Dan Wilson, and Jay Buhner will also be in the booth at various times. Wonder if the players will be able to tell the announcers without a scorecard!
MINNEAPOLIS: Let the speculation begin about the future location for Twins broadcasts. KHTC 96.3 is about to change call letters to KTWN and become "K-Twin" radio although the Twins broadcasts are currently under contract to KSTP 1500. Yet, there is a good reason for this speculation. K-Twin is owned by the Pohlad family, which owns the Twins.
Showing posts with label cowboys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cowboys. Show all posts
Monday, December 12, 2011
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
The Broadcast Booth - December 29th Update
As the NFL playoff races again go down to the final weekend, the strong TV ratings are playing a direct role in the drama still to unfold.
We shouldn't overlook the moves by Fox Sports for Sunday (1/2) of putting 3 NFL games with playoff implications on at the same time. This will be an instance of helping the competitive balance and NFL fans while it is really based on generating more huge ratings for Fox.
Fox moved the Chicago at Green Bay and Dallas at Philadelphia games to 4:15 ET instead of keeping those as early regional games. Both of those games have NFC playoff implications, as does the N.Y. Giants at Washington game, originally scheduled for 4:15.
Fans have seen it happen in many past years where early games decide playoff fates instead and render a doubleheader game or two to meaningless. Not so this time around. The ticket holding fans should be thankful for this, since it gives each game more meaning. But is this really for the ticket holding fans?
Guess again. Since both Fox and CBS have doubleheader game telecasts, this is a huge push for Fox to win out over CBS on the regular season's final day. Having New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia's avid football markets glued to the screens during that time period, not to mention the Dallas Cowboys no matter what their record, should help Fox kill in the ratings. They'll kill CBS' telecasts of Tennessee at Indy or Jax at Houston. At least the fans benefit along with Fox TV, unless you want to find a "must see" early game.
NBC should do well again on Sunday (Jan. 2). Even with bowl game and the regular NFL Sunday "burnout" possibilities, NBC has the St. Louis at Seattle telecast which sends the game winner into the NFC Playoffs.
It remains to be seen if the Philadelphia Eagles show any effects of having played on Tuesday (12/28) night after the weather related postponement from Sunday. NBC did well with its Tuesday night prime time telecast. It was nice to see the game start right away after 8 PM ET instead of rehashing everything on another pre-game show. NBC will say that they did their pre-game show as scheduled on Sunday night, when they went 90 minutes instead of 75 before cutting away to game shows. What they won't say is that they wanted to get the game over with by 11 PM so that Jay Leno and their late night lineup would be on time. However, they didn't say it, and it didn't happen, as the game was delayed due to injuries and replay challenges.
Early returns (as of press time on Wednesday) show that NBC topped the prime time ratings with the Vikings' upset of the Eagles. It helped that fans in New York and Chicago had an interest in the game due to the playoff possibilities for their local teams.
But back to Sunday. It certainly was big news that the Eagles game was postponed until Tuesday due to the snowstorm. CBS had it on their bottom line scroll throughout most of its early game telecasts, which was understandable. What is curious is that every time the story scrolled across, it gave the 8 PM ET start time for the Tuesday game. No one was saying on Monday. I'm wondering if that was some sort of league directive. CBS would have no reason (or shouldn't have) to promote the start time of a game to be on NBC.
On Christmas Day, the NBA ruled the ratings, just as we thought. ESPN and ABC had ratings increases of 20 to 45% over last year's telecasts on that day, and this year a total of 5 games were televised.
You can't overlook that the Miami vs. Lakers (LeBron vs. Kobe) showed a 45% increase over last season's Christmas marquee game of Cleveland vs. the Lakers. Before you think "That was a different matchup", consider that both were LeBron vs. Kobe. In Miami, that telecast was ABC's highest rated NBA regular season telecast there. The earlier ABC telecast of Boston at Orlando showed Boston as the top local market for ratings, and was ABC's highest rated regular season telecast ever in Orlando.
The NFL Network telecast on Christmas night of Dallas vs. Arizona finished as the day's most watched program on cable TV. The Network can only dream of what their audience would have been if the Cowboys were having a good season or if that game had any playoff implications.
Meanwhile, now Time Warner Cable is in dispute with Sinclair Broadcast Group over carrying local channels in some east coast markets. This while thousands of AT&T U-Verse viewers subscribing to their sports package lost about a dozen of the Fox Sports regional networks mid-December with no announcement. While it may be easy to blame Fox Sports, AT&T makes up for that by continuing to charge subscribers to the package the same amount of money (unless they call to complain) even with far less channels. And the fans who are or would pay the expensive television bills still don't have a say - either way.
Congrats to Mike Pereira, named "Sports Media Person of the Year" for 2010 by Sports Illustrated for his roving commentary about officials challenges during Fox NFL telecasts this season. Going into the final weekend of regular season play, Pereira has correctly predicted the outcome of 49 out of 50 red flags he analyzed for the network.
Meanwhile, I understand that people in media like to have time off to spend with family around certain holidays. Yet, I understand that over the years many a media member has to do his or her thing on those days because sports increases for holiday audiences.
But here we go again. Too many sports talk hosts are on vacation this week, and it is one of the busiest sports weeks of the entire year. There is plenty to talk about. In many instances, sports radio callers are forced to discuss their opinions with part-time or replacement hosts. At least it is live and up to date programming, so I suppose I can live with it.
Not to pick on Dan Patrick again, but there is no excuse for "best of" repeats on his morning radio and TV show all this week. Especially within a few months of having added several major market TV outlets to the show. It seems like he has been airing repeats more often than in the studio. Sports happens every day. It is not like an entertainment show where actors discuss current movies.
C'mon, Dan. The next month you are taking off, get some players or fellow broadcasters to fill in for a live show. Or let your production staff do some hosting. Or record some topical interviews to keep it current. Instead, it drives listeners and viewers to other stations for live sports talk. If I were an executive with a regional TV Network or large or medium radio market that signed this show, I would be incensed at having my audience pissed away from part of morning drive. A vacation is one thing. Blowing off listeners and viewers is another.
DALLAS: The Ticket 1310 had an 18 hour charity marathon on Monday (12/27). To its credit, listeners were not bored with endless pitches for charity in between the same fans calling in with the same complaints as any other day. Instead, the station went the extra mile, with live guests including Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk. Even though this is how it should be, it was good to hear, and also shows the level of competition among the sports stations serving the Metroplex.
BALTIMORE: Tonight's (Weds. 12/29) game between Towson University and LaSalle, as aired on WTMD 89.7, was a special one for Spiro Morekas. Now in his 20th season of calling Towson's games, this one marked his 1,000th broadcast.
YOUNGSTOWN OH: This past Monday (12/27) at Noon, WNIO 1390 did as rumored and dropped music to pick up Fox Sports Radio. The station will continue to carry Cleveland Cavaliers basketball, Pittsburgh Steelers football, and most Ohio State University broadcasts.
EL PASO: KROD 600 drops its talk format and will indeed become ESPN Radio on January 18th. The play-by-play the station has been carrying will continue on KROD. In addition to local high school broadcasts, the station will keep Dallas Cowboys and Texas Longhorns football, and add play-by-play it can air without schedule conflicts from ESPN Radio. KHEY 1380 had carried ESPN locally.
FINALLY: As we wrap up 2010, let me take this opportunity to wish each of you a Happy New Year, and thank you for the comments and e-mails (positive and negative) throughout this year. The Broadcast Booth has been renewed for another year (its 3rd full year) and I'm looking forward to it.
We shouldn't overlook the moves by Fox Sports for Sunday (1/2) of putting 3 NFL games with playoff implications on at the same time. This will be an instance of helping the competitive balance and NFL fans while it is really based on generating more huge ratings for Fox.
Fox moved the Chicago at Green Bay and Dallas at Philadelphia games to 4:15 ET instead of keeping those as early regional games. Both of those games have NFC playoff implications, as does the N.Y. Giants at Washington game, originally scheduled for 4:15.
Fans have seen it happen in many past years where early games decide playoff fates instead and render a doubleheader game or two to meaningless. Not so this time around. The ticket holding fans should be thankful for this, since it gives each game more meaning. But is this really for the ticket holding fans?
Guess again. Since both Fox and CBS have doubleheader game telecasts, this is a huge push for Fox to win out over CBS on the regular season's final day. Having New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia's avid football markets glued to the screens during that time period, not to mention the Dallas Cowboys no matter what their record, should help Fox kill in the ratings. They'll kill CBS' telecasts of Tennessee at Indy or Jax at Houston. At least the fans benefit along with Fox TV, unless you want to find a "must see" early game.
NBC should do well again on Sunday (Jan. 2). Even with bowl game and the regular NFL Sunday "burnout" possibilities, NBC has the St. Louis at Seattle telecast which sends the game winner into the NFC Playoffs.
It remains to be seen if the Philadelphia Eagles show any effects of having played on Tuesday (12/28) night after the weather related postponement from Sunday. NBC did well with its Tuesday night prime time telecast. It was nice to see the game start right away after 8 PM ET instead of rehashing everything on another pre-game show. NBC will say that they did their pre-game show as scheduled on Sunday night, when they went 90 minutes instead of 75 before cutting away to game shows. What they won't say is that they wanted to get the game over with by 11 PM so that Jay Leno and their late night lineup would be on time. However, they didn't say it, and it didn't happen, as the game was delayed due to injuries and replay challenges.
Early returns (as of press time on Wednesday) show that NBC topped the prime time ratings with the Vikings' upset of the Eagles. It helped that fans in New York and Chicago had an interest in the game due to the playoff possibilities for their local teams.
But back to Sunday. It certainly was big news that the Eagles game was postponed until Tuesday due to the snowstorm. CBS had it on their bottom line scroll throughout most of its early game telecasts, which was understandable. What is curious is that every time the story scrolled across, it gave the 8 PM ET start time for the Tuesday game. No one was saying on Monday. I'm wondering if that was some sort of league directive. CBS would have no reason (or shouldn't have) to promote the start time of a game to be on NBC.
On Christmas Day, the NBA ruled the ratings, just as we thought. ESPN and ABC had ratings increases of 20 to 45% over last year's telecasts on that day, and this year a total of 5 games were televised.
You can't overlook that the Miami vs. Lakers (LeBron vs. Kobe) showed a 45% increase over last season's Christmas marquee game of Cleveland vs. the Lakers. Before you think "That was a different matchup", consider that both were LeBron vs. Kobe. In Miami, that telecast was ABC's highest rated NBA regular season telecast there. The earlier ABC telecast of Boston at Orlando showed Boston as the top local market for ratings, and was ABC's highest rated regular season telecast ever in Orlando.
The NFL Network telecast on Christmas night of Dallas vs. Arizona finished as the day's most watched program on cable TV. The Network can only dream of what their audience would have been if the Cowboys were having a good season or if that game had any playoff implications.
Meanwhile, now Time Warner Cable is in dispute with Sinclair Broadcast Group over carrying local channels in some east coast markets. This while thousands of AT&T U-Verse viewers subscribing to their sports package lost about a dozen of the Fox Sports regional networks mid-December with no announcement. While it may be easy to blame Fox Sports, AT&T makes up for that by continuing to charge subscribers to the package the same amount of money (unless they call to complain) even with far less channels. And the fans who are or would pay the expensive television bills still don't have a say - either way.
Congrats to Mike Pereira, named "Sports Media Person of the Year" for 2010 by Sports Illustrated for his roving commentary about officials challenges during Fox NFL telecasts this season. Going into the final weekend of regular season play, Pereira has correctly predicted the outcome of 49 out of 50 red flags he analyzed for the network.
Meanwhile, I understand that people in media like to have time off to spend with family around certain holidays. Yet, I understand that over the years many a media member has to do his or her thing on those days because sports increases for holiday audiences.
But here we go again. Too many sports talk hosts are on vacation this week, and it is one of the busiest sports weeks of the entire year. There is plenty to talk about. In many instances, sports radio callers are forced to discuss their opinions with part-time or replacement hosts. At least it is live and up to date programming, so I suppose I can live with it.
Not to pick on Dan Patrick again, but there is no excuse for "best of" repeats on his morning radio and TV show all this week. Especially within a few months of having added several major market TV outlets to the show. It seems like he has been airing repeats more often than in the studio. Sports happens every day. It is not like an entertainment show where actors discuss current movies.
C'mon, Dan. The next month you are taking off, get some players or fellow broadcasters to fill in for a live show. Or let your production staff do some hosting. Or record some topical interviews to keep it current. Instead, it drives listeners and viewers to other stations for live sports talk. If I were an executive with a regional TV Network or large or medium radio market that signed this show, I would be incensed at having my audience pissed away from part of morning drive. A vacation is one thing. Blowing off listeners and viewers is another.
DALLAS: The Ticket 1310 had an 18 hour charity marathon on Monday (12/27). To its credit, listeners were not bored with endless pitches for charity in between the same fans calling in with the same complaints as any other day. Instead, the station went the extra mile, with live guests including Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk. Even though this is how it should be, it was good to hear, and also shows the level of competition among the sports stations serving the Metroplex.
BALTIMORE: Tonight's (Weds. 12/29) game between Towson University and LaSalle, as aired on WTMD 89.7, was a special one for Spiro Morekas. Now in his 20th season of calling Towson's games, this one marked his 1,000th broadcast.
YOUNGSTOWN OH: This past Monday (12/27) at Noon, WNIO 1390 did as rumored and dropped music to pick up Fox Sports Radio. The station will continue to carry Cleveland Cavaliers basketball, Pittsburgh Steelers football, and most Ohio State University broadcasts.
EL PASO: KROD 600 drops its talk format and will indeed become ESPN Radio on January 18th. The play-by-play the station has been carrying will continue on KROD. In addition to local high school broadcasts, the station will keep Dallas Cowboys and Texas Longhorns football, and add play-by-play it can air without schedule conflicts from ESPN Radio. KHEY 1380 had carried ESPN locally.
FINALLY: As we wrap up 2010, let me take this opportunity to wish each of you a Happy New Year, and thank you for the comments and e-mails (positive and negative) throughout this year. The Broadcast Booth has been renewed for another year (its 3rd full year) and I'm looking forward to it.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Sports Media Update - June 19th...........
Being a Hall of Fame athlete certainly doesn't automatically translate to the same level of performance in another endeavor, especially the broadcast booth. Tony Gwynn has not set the world on fire with his broadcast analysis, but he did manage to handle a broadcast challenge with class worthy of a Hall of Fame style mention.
This past Saturday (June 13), Gwynn was again working as an analyst on the Padres local telecast on their interleague game against the Angels. There was a very close play at home plate with the result being that the runner was called out, was clearly upset at the umpire and went on to the dugout rather than risk ejection. Seconds later, the replay showed that the runner was safe and that the Padres were robbed of a run, and possibly of a bigger inning to follow.
Gwynn was calm and collected as he gave his thoughts on the play at the plate and how the runner appeared to have been safe. What makes this significant?
The base runner happened to be Tony Gwynn Jr., his son. I'm sure that no one would have questioned it had Gwynn Sr. been more vocal or sounded upset at seeing his own son losing out on what should have been a run scored and possibly changing the course of a game. But his remaining a complete professional, along with the other announcers going along without bringing up that they were talking with the player's father, was very impressive. I'm also surprised that this incident received such little media attention elsewhere.
NEW YORK: WFAN listeners get a chance to hear Joe Benigno reunited with Sid Rosenberg on Friday (6/19) when Sid guests with Joe (or so we are being told - given that Sid is currently without a fulltime local sports talk gig) during his 11 AM hour.
DALLAS: ESPN 103.3 Radio has had a busy week, with a lot of positives for its audience. Earlier the station announced a 4 year extension of their Dallas Mavericks contract which keeps the Mavs through the 2012-13 season. Related programming will include a weekly show with coach Rick Carlisle. Chuck Cooperstein and Brad Davis will continue to handle the call of every game.
The station also introduces a "Lunch With A Legend" series which begins next week, on Friday 6/26. Fans that come to a local restaurant for a 3-course lunch will be at a live broadcast of the Michael Irvin Show with special guest Nolan Ryan. Great idea - but it could be a challenge getting a bigger legend for future lunches.
Time will tell how this all impacts the ratings for the ESPN station. The May ratings again showed The Ticket with a significant lead over ESPN Radio, while The Fan is a distant third in men 25-54.
105.3 The Fan adds Texas A & M Football play-by-play, joining the Cowboys on KRLD-FM.
ALABAMA: It's the Crimson Tide version of "soothing the Savage beast". Not really, but former Cleveland Browns GM Phil Savage has joined the University of Alabama football network as radio analyst beginning with the coming season. He joins play-by-play voice Eli Gold on the 50+ station network. Opening day is Sept. 5th in Atlanta's Georgia Dome against VA Tech.
TOLEDO: Sports radio WLQR expands its coverage area by adding the 106.5 FM WRWK signal beginning this coming Monday (6/22). The brilliant part of this is that the AM and FM will split up when there are play-by-play conflicts to provide full coverage choices, such as when the Tigers and Lions play at the same time.
The station will continue coverage of the Tigers, Lions, and Red Wings from Detroit, Ohio State football and basketball, along with some national feeds of baseball, NFL, and college football bowl games.
Finally, as the NFL season draws closer, Westwood One has begun unveiling its Sunday radio doubleheader broadcast schedule. In addition Westwood One will again feature all Sunday and Monday night games along with Thursday night games and all post-season contests.
Most of the broadcasts will be announced as the dates get closer, and are subject to local market blackout, but here are the early season games just announced:
SUNDAY NFL DOUBLEHEADER SCHEDULE
2009 REGULAR SEASON GAMES
9/13/09, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES @ CAROLINA PANTHERS - 12:30 PM ET
9/13/09, SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS @ ARIZONA CARDINALS - 3:45 PM ET
9/20/09, HOUSTON TEXANS @ TENNESSEE TITANS - 12:30 PM ET
9/20/09, BALTIMORE RAVENS @ SAN DIEGO CHARGERS - 3:45 PM ET
9/27/09, ATLANTA FALCONS @ NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS - 12:30 PM ET
PITTSBURGH STEELERS @ CINCINNATI BENGALS - 3:45 PM ET
10/4/09, SEATTLE SEAHAWKS @ INDIANAPOLIS COLTS - 12:30 PM ET
10/4/09, DALLAS COWBOYS @ DENVER BRONCOS - 3:45 PM ET
10/11/09, MINNESOTA VIKINGS @ ST. LOUIS RAMS - 12:30 PM ET
10/11/09, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS @ DENVER BRONCOS - 3:45 PM ET
10/18/09, NEW YORK GIANTS @ NEW ORLEANS SAINTS - 12:30 PM ET
10/18/09, ARIZONA CARDINALS @ SEATTLE SEAHAWKS - 3:30 PM ET
10/25/09, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS vs. TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS
@ WEMBLEY STADIUM IN LONDON, ENGLAND - 12:30 PM ET
This past Saturday (June 13), Gwynn was again working as an analyst on the Padres local telecast on their interleague game against the Angels. There was a very close play at home plate with the result being that the runner was called out, was clearly upset at the umpire and went on to the dugout rather than risk ejection. Seconds later, the replay showed that the runner was safe and that the Padres were robbed of a run, and possibly of a bigger inning to follow.
Gwynn was calm and collected as he gave his thoughts on the play at the plate and how the runner appeared to have been safe. What makes this significant?
The base runner happened to be Tony Gwynn Jr., his son. I'm sure that no one would have questioned it had Gwynn Sr. been more vocal or sounded upset at seeing his own son losing out on what should have been a run scored and possibly changing the course of a game. But his remaining a complete professional, along with the other announcers going along without bringing up that they were talking with the player's father, was very impressive. I'm also surprised that this incident received such little media attention elsewhere.
NEW YORK: WFAN listeners get a chance to hear Joe Benigno reunited with Sid Rosenberg on Friday (6/19) when Sid guests with Joe (or so we are being told - given that Sid is currently without a fulltime local sports talk gig) during his 11 AM hour.
DALLAS: ESPN 103.3 Radio has had a busy week, with a lot of positives for its audience. Earlier the station announced a 4 year extension of their Dallas Mavericks contract which keeps the Mavs through the 2012-13 season. Related programming will include a weekly show with coach Rick Carlisle. Chuck Cooperstein and Brad Davis will continue to handle the call of every game.
The station also introduces a "Lunch With A Legend" series which begins next week, on Friday 6/26. Fans that come to a local restaurant for a 3-course lunch will be at a live broadcast of the Michael Irvin Show with special guest Nolan Ryan. Great idea - but it could be a challenge getting a bigger legend for future lunches.
Time will tell how this all impacts the ratings for the ESPN station. The May ratings again showed The Ticket with a significant lead over ESPN Radio, while The Fan is a distant third in men 25-54.
105.3 The Fan adds Texas A & M Football play-by-play, joining the Cowboys on KRLD-FM.
ALABAMA: It's the Crimson Tide version of "soothing the Savage beast". Not really, but former Cleveland Browns GM Phil Savage has joined the University of Alabama football network as radio analyst beginning with the coming season. He joins play-by-play voice Eli Gold on the 50+ station network. Opening day is Sept. 5th in Atlanta's Georgia Dome against VA Tech.
TOLEDO: Sports radio WLQR expands its coverage area by adding the 106.5 FM WRWK signal beginning this coming Monday (6/22). The brilliant part of this is that the AM and FM will split up when there are play-by-play conflicts to provide full coverage choices, such as when the Tigers and Lions play at the same time.
The station will continue coverage of the Tigers, Lions, and Red Wings from Detroit, Ohio State football and basketball, along with some national feeds of baseball, NFL, and college football bowl games.
Finally, as the NFL season draws closer, Westwood One has begun unveiling its Sunday radio doubleheader broadcast schedule. In addition Westwood One will again feature all Sunday and Monday night games along with Thursday night games and all post-season contests.
Most of the broadcasts will be announced as the dates get closer, and are subject to local market blackout, but here are the early season games just announced:
SUNDAY NFL DOUBLEHEADER SCHEDULE
2009 REGULAR SEASON GAMES
9/13/09, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES @ CAROLINA PANTHERS - 12:30 PM ET
9/13/09, SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS @ ARIZONA CARDINALS - 3:45 PM ET
9/20/09, HOUSTON TEXANS @ TENNESSEE TITANS - 12:30 PM ET
9/20/09, BALTIMORE RAVENS @ SAN DIEGO CHARGERS - 3:45 PM ET
9/27/09, ATLANTA FALCONS @ NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS - 12:30 PM ET
PITTSBURGH STEELERS @ CINCINNATI BENGALS - 3:45 PM ET
10/4/09, SEATTLE SEAHAWKS @ INDIANAPOLIS COLTS - 12:30 PM ET
10/4/09, DALLAS COWBOYS @ DENVER BRONCOS - 3:45 PM ET
10/11/09, MINNESOTA VIKINGS @ ST. LOUIS RAMS - 12:30 PM ET
10/11/09, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS @ DENVER BRONCOS - 3:45 PM ET
10/18/09, NEW YORK GIANTS @ NEW ORLEANS SAINTS - 12:30 PM ET
10/18/09, ARIZONA CARDINALS @ SEATTLE SEAHAWKS - 3:30 PM ET
10/25/09, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS vs. TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS
@ WEMBLEY STADIUM IN LONDON, ENGLAND - 12:30 PM ET
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