This very week appears to be one of the most interesting times for sports talk. The annual controversy over the choices for the college football championship game. NFL playoff races heating up. Some fans anticipating NBA free agent signings and training camps opening. Baseball's winter meetings. All this along with a full slate of NHL and early season college hoops.
Hopefully this will be a time for sports talk stations to step up their game as well. There is plenty of opportunity for players, coaches, and team executives to be guests and provide listeners with solid opinions, facts, and good information. The stations can make it interesting for a variety of topics. Let's hope for something better than "Steve from the north side wants to talk playoffs....".
The radio ratings for late October to mid-November are out for the larger markets. Philadelphia and Minneapolis show the most significant developments. The move of WIP to an AM-FM combo has had very little impact thus far. WIP AM and FM, with the FM adding more hours of separate programming, merely combined for roughly half of the audience of WPEN, and WPEN finished at #18 in overall audience. Sure looks like Howard Eskin leaving afternoon drive at the end of August was a severe blow to WIP that even the addition of the FM signal isn't about to fix any time soon.
The recent move of several big market sports stations to FM is already paying dividends in certain cities. In the Twin Cities, KFXN-FM The Fan has been on the upward trend since coming over from the AM side. The Fan came in at #7 in overall audience at 4.8, up a full ratings point from its September showing. What underscores this increase is when you realize it is not the local teams. The Vikings are headed toward last place, the Twins just finished a last place finish, and the University of Minnesota football team didn't exactly light up the Big 10. KFXN-FM is successful by taking away the audience from rival KSTP-AM, which dropped from 3.6 to 2.7 during the same time period. It is virtually the same number of people listening to sports talk.
Several of the largest markets saw little (if any) change in the number of sports talk listeners during this ratings period. In New York, WFAN and WEPN both held steady, with The Fan coming in #13 overall. In Chicago, WSCR The Score moved up to a 2.6 rating and #16 in the market, while rival WMVP ESPN 1000 was steady and finished #21.
In San Francisco, KNBR continues its huge lead in the sports station race, while finishing #9 overall. KTCK-AM The Ticket finished at #26 while KGMZ came in #27 in that market. In Dallas, sports radio continues to be popular as the Cowboys season unfolds (and the Rangers were in the World Series during much of this ratings period). KESN ESPN came in #12 overall, just ahead of KTCK The Ticket at #14, while KRLD-FM came in #22.
In Boston, the competition between The Sports Hub and WEEI continues to be interesting, as WEEI and The Sports Hub both lost overall audience. WBZ-FM Sports Hub leads WEEI by .3 after WEEI lost most of the audience it had gained a month earlier.
The success of the Detroit Lions during the ratings period helped WXYT-FM The Ticket remain #1 overall in the market even with a loss of well over a full ratings point. With the Lions on a losing streak since, it will be interesting to see whether or not The Ticket holds on to the top spot next month.
St. Louis remains a sports radio hot bed, as WXOS-FM gained more than one full ratings point over the month. The station is the flagship station for Rams football, although its audience increased overall despite a poor season by the team. KMOX, which has some sports talk programming in addition to play-by-play, remains a solid #1 in the market and continues to enjoy the success of the Cardinals' World Series victory.
In Houston, KILT is starting to make sports talk viable, moving up to #19 overall, reflecting an overall 2.6 rating from only a 1.4 in August. KBME is at #25 overall, reflecting an increase for both of those stations.
Even Los Angeles sports stations show a slight audience increase although it's nothing to get excited about. KSPN ESPN jumps up to #25, while KLAC moved up very slightly but is still #34 overall. It shows you where that market has gone when it's a positive that one sports station barely cracks the top 25.
One other ratings oddity of sorts. In Winnipeg, where the city is enjoying its own NHL team for the first time in years, Sports Radio 1290 actually dropped .1 in October, the first month it was carrying the team's games.
DENVER: As The Ticket becomes ESPN Radio, instead of 1600 AM, on Jan. 1st, morning hosts Vic Lombardi and Gary Miller have been given their ticket "out". Management decided to continue Mike & Mike on FM and end the 7 - 9 AM local show hosted by the KCNC-TV sportscasters. As of now, plans remain in place for The Ticket on FM to be local from Noon to 3 with Les Shapiro and JoJo and from 3 to 7 PM with Charles Johnson and Nate Kreckman.
HOUSTON: Whether or not anyone will notice, WGOW 1560 has moved Sean Pendergast from middays to morning drive and is now co-hosting with John Granato, as of this week, from 6 to 11 AM. Travis Rodgers will air from 2 to 6 PM with Yahoo Sports Radio taking up most of the rest of the time.
CHICAGO: WGN Radio, which airs Blackhawks hockey, debuted an "occasional" weekend 1-hour show hosted by winger Daniel Carcillo, this past Friday (12/2) night following the Blackhawks vs. Islanders broadcast. The recorded program is more of a music and "personal experience" show, and will air several more times during the season on weekend nights following the Hawks' broadcasts.
WVON 1690 will air about 10 Illinois State University basketball games this season, marking the first time in years that a Chicago station has aired the Redbirds games. The station did not and does not air any other play-by-play at this time.
CINCINNATI: WLW Radio has begun its "Reds Hot Stove League" broadcasts each Tuesday night at 6 PM ET during the baseball off season. This past Tuesday (11/29), the show aired live from a restaurant near the stadium and prompted Reds voice Marty Brennaman to comment that he wishes the show was broadcast "among the fans" every week instead of mostly from the station studios. However, the next remotes won't be until Dec. 20th and Jan. 17th.
MEMPHIS: Verno Radio 730 has stopped its numerous rebroadcasts of its afternoon drive "The Chris Vernon Show" and now airs Yahoo Sports Radio for the majority of its broadcast day. Although the move is technically from local to national, in this instance it is more importantly from recorded to live.
DES MOINES: Sorry to learn of the passing of Mike Newell from a heart attack at the age of 66 last week. Newell has done play-by-play for Drake University basketball, Iowa Oaks (minor league) baseball, and years of hosting WHO Radio's University of Iowa post-game "Sound Off" show.
And, finally, I will acknowledge that I left out a very important fact in one of my comments last week. There I was writing about how ESPN actually went "news" rather than just sports with its reporting of the Bernie Fine story and recordings it had to support the unfortunate incidents which led to his (Fine's) firing. However, the portion of the story I saw and heard on ESPN did not include the part where it was revealed that ESPN had those recordings for several years and failed to release them or report on their contents. Therefore, ESPN was actually NOT doing an efficient job of presenting news because of that.
Showing posts with label dallas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dallas. Show all posts
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Sports Hub Sees and Hears Red
The Sports Hub 98.5 in Boston not only helped itself this past Friday (10/14) but helped sports radio in general. While a lot was understandably reported about the comments made by Red Sox owner John Henry about the team and certain players, there is more to the interview than even that.
The result was one of the most compelling segments ever for a sports radio station, and how well everyone involved handled it and followed up.
Even with friends and acquaintances in the business and working for sports radio stations around the country, I continue to suggest how and why sports radio needs to improve and keep working to gain or hold its audiences. The Boston Sports Hub story from Friday was an outstanding way to do just that.
It seems that Red Sox owner John Henry was listening to the Sports Hub in the car on Friday morning, and supposedly became upset about the callers and to some extent the hosts and how they were discussing the Red Sox' situation. (The team suffered a huge September collapse and failed to make the playoffs, to then lose their manager and general manager.) Mr. Henry was compelled enough to respond to the point of actually going to the Sports Hub studio and going on the air live with hosts Mike Felger and Tony Massarotti for close to a full hour.
First of all, this emphasizes a point I have been making for more than 30 years. The immediacy of radio compared with other forms of media. TV stations and networks could not have put the Red Sox owner on the air immediately and run with it for more than one hour, including a commercial break. This is especially important these days since fans have options online, via sports TV networks, and social media, to go to for breaking sports news just as much as radio.
Granted, it will remain an isolated incident that a team official, especially a major team owner, would actually go to a studio and be subject to going on live. But the station's handling of this was most worthy.
Felger and Massarotti did not "sweet talk" the interview, soften their stances, or only put callers on the air who would have something positive to say. The hosts asked about the, as it turned out, disappointing performance from Carl Crawford in the first year of a large contract. That Henry answered by admitting he was disappointed with Crawford is, from a media standpoint, secondary to the hosts asking such a direct question. And there were more questions just as direct from disappointed hosts, such as getting into the treatment of now ex-manager Terry Francona, making for compelling listening, especially for Red Sox fans.
As of press time, the station's web site still had podcasts of the two 30-minute plus segments available. Getting this interview created a ton of much deserved positive publicity for the Sports Hub. The station handled it well every step of the way, from putting Mr. Henry on the air to the follow up publicity to keeping the segments available online for days.
One more thing not to be overlooked. The Sports Hub is NOT the Red Sox flagship station. WEEI, the Sports Hub's rival for the local all sports radio audience, does carry the Red Sox. Yet, the team's owner was obviously listening to and then willingly went on the air on the Sports Hub. WEEI will be hard-pressed to top this one.
Another good idea is being continued by WGN Radio Chicago, even though WGN is not an all-sports station. (The station does carry Blackhawks hockey, Cubs baseball, Northwestern University football and basketball, and some night and weekend sports talk shows.)
As the Blackhawks' season began earlier this month, the station will be presenting six one-hour shows specific to the Blackhawks to air live from a local restaurant with a live audience asking questions of team officials and players. It will air once each month during the season as "Chicago Blackhawks Live", with the first one to be on Monday October 24th. Blackhawks President John McDonough will be among the guests on that show. Again, this is what sports radio stations need to bring us more of, over and above "Joe from the north side" constantly giving us his opinion and then on to another fan call.
Meanwhile, Fox TV Sports gets an amazing coincidence on Sunday (Oct. 23) when it brings viewers in many markets the NFL game between St. Louis and Dallas from Cowboys Stadium in its 4:15 ET late game window, and follows that with the World Series game from Dallas with the Rangers hosting St. Louis in nearby Arlington.
This comes the Sunday after Fox had St. Louis at Green Bay among its early regional NFL games, while TBS had the prime time NLCS matchup of St. Louis at Milwaukee.
MEMPHIS: WMC 790 surprised its listeners last week when it went from country music to an all sports format, including taking over some programming which had been airing on WMFS 680 and 92.9. Thus, within a matter of days, both 680 and 790 AM have new lineups and are sports radio.
WMC is now "Sports 790 AM" and carries Fox Sports Radio, including Zakk & Jack in the morning, Jim Rome middays, and "Loose Cannons" in the afternoon, along with Petros & Money at night.
WFMS now airs ESPN programming except for the local Eric Hasseltine Show from 1 to 4 PM on weekdays.
RICHMOND: ESPN 950's "Hardly Workin' with Greg Burton" show now has its last 2 hours (4 to 6 PM) also carried on WHAP 1340 Hopewell VA as of this week. Burton's show is now in its 8th year on 950 AM.
DAYTON: Fans of Mark Schlemmer, who was hosting a sports talk show on WONE 980 until this past summer, were shocked to learn (via the Daily News) that he is now homeless and broke, and dealing with prostate cancer and diabetes. The former University of Dayton baseball coach has also experienced a series of family setbacks.
SYRACUSE: The trend of TV simulcasts of sports radio shows comes to Syracuse as of this week. The "Upon Further Review Show" with Steve Infanti and Chris McManus, which airs from 3 to 6 PM on ESPN 97.7 and 100.1 now has its first two hours on TV. WSYR-TV's digital channel 9.2 now airs the first two hours live. It doesn't hurt that Infanti is also Sports Director of WSYR-TV.
DURHAM: On an upbeat note, congratulations to Duke Sports Radio Network's Bob Harris, who called his 400th football game this past Saturday (10/15). Harris has called Duke football since 1976.
The result was one of the most compelling segments ever for a sports radio station, and how well everyone involved handled it and followed up.
Even with friends and acquaintances in the business and working for sports radio stations around the country, I continue to suggest how and why sports radio needs to improve and keep working to gain or hold its audiences. The Boston Sports Hub story from Friday was an outstanding way to do just that.
It seems that Red Sox owner John Henry was listening to the Sports Hub in the car on Friday morning, and supposedly became upset about the callers and to some extent the hosts and how they were discussing the Red Sox' situation. (The team suffered a huge September collapse and failed to make the playoffs, to then lose their manager and general manager.) Mr. Henry was compelled enough to respond to the point of actually going to the Sports Hub studio and going on the air live with hosts Mike Felger and Tony Massarotti for close to a full hour.
First of all, this emphasizes a point I have been making for more than 30 years. The immediacy of radio compared with other forms of media. TV stations and networks could not have put the Red Sox owner on the air immediately and run with it for more than one hour, including a commercial break. This is especially important these days since fans have options online, via sports TV networks, and social media, to go to for breaking sports news just as much as radio.
Granted, it will remain an isolated incident that a team official, especially a major team owner, would actually go to a studio and be subject to going on live. But the station's handling of this was most worthy.
Felger and Massarotti did not "sweet talk" the interview, soften their stances, or only put callers on the air who would have something positive to say. The hosts asked about the, as it turned out, disappointing performance from Carl Crawford in the first year of a large contract. That Henry answered by admitting he was disappointed with Crawford is, from a media standpoint, secondary to the hosts asking such a direct question. And there were more questions just as direct from disappointed hosts, such as getting into the treatment of now ex-manager Terry Francona, making for compelling listening, especially for Red Sox fans.
As of press time, the station's web site still had podcasts of the two 30-minute plus segments available. Getting this interview created a ton of much deserved positive publicity for the Sports Hub. The station handled it well every step of the way, from putting Mr. Henry on the air to the follow up publicity to keeping the segments available online for days.
One more thing not to be overlooked. The Sports Hub is NOT the Red Sox flagship station. WEEI, the Sports Hub's rival for the local all sports radio audience, does carry the Red Sox. Yet, the team's owner was obviously listening to and then willingly went on the air on the Sports Hub. WEEI will be hard-pressed to top this one.
Another good idea is being continued by WGN Radio Chicago, even though WGN is not an all-sports station. (The station does carry Blackhawks hockey, Cubs baseball, Northwestern University football and basketball, and some night and weekend sports talk shows.)
As the Blackhawks' season began earlier this month, the station will be presenting six one-hour shows specific to the Blackhawks to air live from a local restaurant with a live audience asking questions of team officials and players. It will air once each month during the season as "Chicago Blackhawks Live", with the first one to be on Monday October 24th. Blackhawks President John McDonough will be among the guests on that show. Again, this is what sports radio stations need to bring us more of, over and above "Joe from the north side" constantly giving us his opinion and then on to another fan call.
Meanwhile, Fox TV Sports gets an amazing coincidence on Sunday (Oct. 23) when it brings viewers in many markets the NFL game between St. Louis and Dallas from Cowboys Stadium in its 4:15 ET late game window, and follows that with the World Series game from Dallas with the Rangers hosting St. Louis in nearby Arlington.
This comes the Sunday after Fox had St. Louis at Green Bay among its early regional NFL games, while TBS had the prime time NLCS matchup of St. Louis at Milwaukee.
MEMPHIS: WMC 790 surprised its listeners last week when it went from country music to an all sports format, including taking over some programming which had been airing on WMFS 680 and 92.9. Thus, within a matter of days, both 680 and 790 AM have new lineups and are sports radio.
WMC is now "Sports 790 AM" and carries Fox Sports Radio, including Zakk & Jack in the morning, Jim Rome middays, and "Loose Cannons" in the afternoon, along with Petros & Money at night.
WFMS now airs ESPN programming except for the local Eric Hasseltine Show from 1 to 4 PM on weekdays.
RICHMOND: ESPN 950's "Hardly Workin' with Greg Burton" show now has its last 2 hours (4 to 6 PM) also carried on WHAP 1340 Hopewell VA as of this week. Burton's show is now in its 8th year on 950 AM.
DAYTON: Fans of Mark Schlemmer, who was hosting a sports talk show on WONE 980 until this past summer, were shocked to learn (via the Daily News) that he is now homeless and broke, and dealing with prostate cancer and diabetes. The former University of Dayton baseball coach has also experienced a series of family setbacks.
SYRACUSE: The trend of TV simulcasts of sports radio shows comes to Syracuse as of this week. The "Upon Further Review Show" with Steve Infanti and Chris McManus, which airs from 3 to 6 PM on ESPN 97.7 and 100.1 now has its first two hours on TV. WSYR-TV's digital channel 9.2 now airs the first two hours live. It doesn't hurt that Infanti is also Sports Director of WSYR-TV.
DURHAM: On an upbeat note, congratulations to Duke Sports Radio Network's Bob Harris, who called his 400th football game this past Saturday (10/15). Harris has called Duke football since 1976.
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!!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
The Broadcast Booth - April 27th Update.......
We know that the NBA and NHL post-seasons are generating significant ratings on both the national and (most) local levels, including local viewing records set in both Boston and Chicago this month.
But many will be heavily anticipating the audience ratings for the NFL Draft later this week, with ESPN and NFL Network, as well as satellite radio, devoting hour after hour of coverage. With the NFL player lockout looming (rulings and appeals as of press time), the Draft coverage is one way to determine the interest level and perhaps the mindset of NFL fans.
Elsewhere, KMOX St. Louis had quite the predicament this past Friday (4/22) night when the severe storm and tornado damaged the St. Louis International Airport and several other locations within the metro area. After a lengthy delay, the Cardinals decided to play their home game vs. Cincinnati. KMOX wanted to stick with its local service by providing continuous coverage of the storm. As a result, they moved the Cardinals broadcast to music station KYKY 98.1. A solid decision under the circumstances.
Following up from our comments last week about the state of sports radio, we now have the March ratings for Boston and Detroit, among other key markets. Sure enough, those markets did show an overall increase in listenership to help buck the trend in some others.
While WEEI has lost more than 20% of its overall audience since January, rival WBZ-FM showed an audience increase and finished only 2 spots below WEEI this time around. This set of results even touched off a "radio war" between the two morning teams. Dennis & Callhan on WEEI and Toucher & Rich on WBZ-FM both claimed "victory" on the air. I'm not sure the listeners to either care as much as they each seemed to. They should all be pleased that Boston sports radio still has a good-sized audience compared to some other markets.
WXYT-FM The Ticket showed a slight increase from February, and if WXYT-AM didn't air different sports programming at times and both stations counted as one, The Ticket would have been 4th overall in the market. However, The Ticket finished first overall for a time last year.
A couple of other markets showed some increase, while still not making a major overall audience impact. Cincinnati's WCKY and WSAI-AM both showed increases of at least .3 in the ratings since February, but even if combined would not have made the top 10 overall. In Miami, the 3 sports stations combined to increase the overall audience since January, but combined would not have made the top 20 in the market.
San Diego and Milwaukee's sports stations battle held steady. The 3 San Diego sports stations showed no increase from January on, and combined would not make the overall top 20. Milwaukee's WAUK 540 held steady, while WSSP lost slightly. The 2 Chicago sports stations again showed up in the Milwaukee book, with both remaining the same as recent months.
While most of the comments I received from last week's column about the decline of sports radio audience this year were private, there were a handfull that disagree with me. Some of those think that football is the dominant sport to talk year-round, and that the NFL lockout is the main reason for this decline. All the more reason to watch for audience ratings for this week's draft. But it seems to me that the NFL has been talked about as much as usual for this time of the year, with the only difference being the "if there is a season" within most comments.
We'll keep watching this over the next few months, but I'm still going with the reasoning that fans are more interested in watching the games (and increasing the record TV ratings) than merely hearing too many "non-expert" opinions from other fans.
There may be "no crying" in baseball, but there was on SportsCenter. This past Friday (4/22) anchor Josh Elliot, doing his final show on ESPN before heading off to ABC-TV and Good Morning America, teared up during his farewell signoff.
MIAMI: Sad news with the announcement that Dolphins broadcaster, and former Dolphins standout Jim Mandich passed away on Tuesday (4/26) at age 62 from cancer. Mandich has been the Dolphins' radio analyst from 1992 through 2004 and had rejoined the role since 2007. His playing days may be best remembered for his role with the 1972 Dolphins that finished the season undefeated.
CHICAGO: It's much deserved praise for Comcast SportsNet Chicago for its handling of having 3 games to show on the same night and keeping its viewing audience happy. Both last Thursday (4/21) and this Tuesday (4/26), the Chicago area regional cable network carried both the NHL Blackhawks and NBA Bulls in playoff battles, as well as having White Sox baseball on the docket. Using its primary channel and "Comcast SportsNet Plus", plus adding a third channel, the network managed to have at least one channel for all 3 games. It took moving around of some of the pre and post-game shows for those viewers partial to one of the games, but this added to the thorough job they did.
The network also did an excellent job of alerting viewers with the bottom graphics as to where each game was being shown in its entirety and where post-game programming could be seen.
DALLAS: As of this writing, KDAF-TV will find itself without a sportscaster after this week for its nightly newscasts. Word is that Dave Crome, who had been with KDAF for more than 10 years, is out after this week. This follows the recent departures of Desmond Purnell and Candice Crawford. It looks like the station will significantly reduce, or possibily eliminate, a sports segment starting next week. More and more TV stations are looking to cut back their sports segments, not wanting to compete against the regional and national networks in-depth nightly shows. Yet, by not offering sports, they risk losing even more of a shrinking male audience.
SACRAMENTO: KHTK 1140 has regained the Oakland Raiders broadcasts. This announcement comes after the team has a new San Francisco deal with KRFR 1550 and Live 105 FM in the Bay Area.
A nice local touch by ESPN 1320 last Saturday (4/23). Mike Finnerty devoted some of his SureWest Sports morning show to prep sports, specifically focusing on the recent untimely death of a Davis H.S. assistant baseball coach and how the team responded with an impressive 3-game winning streak on a big road trip right after. It was one of those times when it is about more than sports, and when fan reaction takes on more meaning.
PORTLAND: KPAM 860 introduced Northwest Sports Tonight" into the early evening this week (started Monday 4/25), hosted by Ron Callan. The only local sports show within its time period is also expected to devote more coverage to Oregon State University sports, since KPAM remains OSU's flagship station.
OMAHA: KXSP ESPN Radio adds a new co-host to its 2 to 6 PM show starting May 16th. Michael Grey joins the station from a morning co-hosting gig on WBBL Grand Rapids. Grey will host along with Pete McIntyre, and the show is expected to continue its focus on Nebraska, Iowa, and Creighton University sports.
Ft. WAYNE: ESPN 1380 (and WOWO 1190) will have a new Operations Manager starting next week. Gregg Henson brings his KRLD-FM 105.3 Dallas sports talk experience to the smaller market. No word yet as to whether or not Henson will perform any hosting duties on ESPN 1380.
But many will be heavily anticipating the audience ratings for the NFL Draft later this week, with ESPN and NFL Network, as well as satellite radio, devoting hour after hour of coverage. With the NFL player lockout looming (rulings and appeals as of press time), the Draft coverage is one way to determine the interest level and perhaps the mindset of NFL fans.
Elsewhere, KMOX St. Louis had quite the predicament this past Friday (4/22) night when the severe storm and tornado damaged the St. Louis International Airport and several other locations within the metro area. After a lengthy delay, the Cardinals decided to play their home game vs. Cincinnati. KMOX wanted to stick with its local service by providing continuous coverage of the storm. As a result, they moved the Cardinals broadcast to music station KYKY 98.1. A solid decision under the circumstances.
Following up from our comments last week about the state of sports radio, we now have the March ratings for Boston and Detroit, among other key markets. Sure enough, those markets did show an overall increase in listenership to help buck the trend in some others.
While WEEI has lost more than 20% of its overall audience since January, rival WBZ-FM showed an audience increase and finished only 2 spots below WEEI this time around. This set of results even touched off a "radio war" between the two morning teams. Dennis & Callhan on WEEI and Toucher & Rich on WBZ-FM both claimed "victory" on the air. I'm not sure the listeners to either care as much as they each seemed to. They should all be pleased that Boston sports radio still has a good-sized audience compared to some other markets.
WXYT-FM The Ticket showed a slight increase from February, and if WXYT-AM didn't air different sports programming at times and both stations counted as one, The Ticket would have been 4th overall in the market. However, The Ticket finished first overall for a time last year.
A couple of other markets showed some increase, while still not making a major overall audience impact. Cincinnati's WCKY and WSAI-AM both showed increases of at least .3 in the ratings since February, but even if combined would not have made the top 10 overall. In Miami, the 3 sports stations combined to increase the overall audience since January, but combined would not have made the top 20 in the market.
San Diego and Milwaukee's sports stations battle held steady. The 3 San Diego sports stations showed no increase from January on, and combined would not make the overall top 20. Milwaukee's WAUK 540 held steady, while WSSP lost slightly. The 2 Chicago sports stations again showed up in the Milwaukee book, with both remaining the same as recent months.
While most of the comments I received from last week's column about the decline of sports radio audience this year were private, there were a handfull that disagree with me. Some of those think that football is the dominant sport to talk year-round, and that the NFL lockout is the main reason for this decline. All the more reason to watch for audience ratings for this week's draft. But it seems to me that the NFL has been talked about as much as usual for this time of the year, with the only difference being the "if there is a season" within most comments.
We'll keep watching this over the next few months, but I'm still going with the reasoning that fans are more interested in watching the games (and increasing the record TV ratings) than merely hearing too many "non-expert" opinions from other fans.
There may be "no crying" in baseball, but there was on SportsCenter. This past Friday (4/22) anchor Josh Elliot, doing his final show on ESPN before heading off to ABC-TV and Good Morning America, teared up during his farewell signoff.
MIAMI: Sad news with the announcement that Dolphins broadcaster, and former Dolphins standout Jim Mandich passed away on Tuesday (4/26) at age 62 from cancer. Mandich has been the Dolphins' radio analyst from 1992 through 2004 and had rejoined the role since 2007. His playing days may be best remembered for his role with the 1972 Dolphins that finished the season undefeated.
CHICAGO: It's much deserved praise for Comcast SportsNet Chicago for its handling of having 3 games to show on the same night and keeping its viewing audience happy. Both last Thursday (4/21) and this Tuesday (4/26), the Chicago area regional cable network carried both the NHL Blackhawks and NBA Bulls in playoff battles, as well as having White Sox baseball on the docket. Using its primary channel and "Comcast SportsNet Plus", plus adding a third channel, the network managed to have at least one channel for all 3 games. It took moving around of some of the pre and post-game shows for those viewers partial to one of the games, but this added to the thorough job they did.
The network also did an excellent job of alerting viewers with the bottom graphics as to where each game was being shown in its entirety and where post-game programming could be seen.
DALLAS: As of this writing, KDAF-TV will find itself without a sportscaster after this week for its nightly newscasts. Word is that Dave Crome, who had been with KDAF for more than 10 years, is out after this week. This follows the recent departures of Desmond Purnell and Candice Crawford. It looks like the station will significantly reduce, or possibily eliminate, a sports segment starting next week. More and more TV stations are looking to cut back their sports segments, not wanting to compete against the regional and national networks in-depth nightly shows. Yet, by not offering sports, they risk losing even more of a shrinking male audience.
SACRAMENTO: KHTK 1140 has regained the Oakland Raiders broadcasts. This announcement comes after the team has a new San Francisco deal with KRFR 1550 and Live 105 FM in the Bay Area.
A nice local touch by ESPN 1320 last Saturday (4/23). Mike Finnerty devoted some of his SureWest Sports morning show to prep sports, specifically focusing on the recent untimely death of a Davis H.S. assistant baseball coach and how the team responded with an impressive 3-game winning streak on a big road trip right after. It was one of those times when it is about more than sports, and when fan reaction takes on more meaning.
PORTLAND: KPAM 860 introduced Northwest Sports Tonight" into the early evening this week (started Monday 4/25), hosted by Ron Callan. The only local sports show within its time period is also expected to devote more coverage to Oregon State University sports, since KPAM remains OSU's flagship station.
OMAHA: KXSP ESPN Radio adds a new co-host to its 2 to 6 PM show starting May 16th. Michael Grey joins the station from a morning co-hosting gig on WBBL Grand Rapids. Grey will host along with Pete McIntyre, and the show is expected to continue its focus on Nebraska, Iowa, and Creighton University sports.
Ft. WAYNE: ESPN 1380 (and WOWO 1190) will have a new Operations Manager starting next week. Gregg Henson brings his KRLD-FM 105.3 Dallas sports talk experience to the smaller market. No word yet as to whether or not Henson will perform any hosting duties on ESPN 1380.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
The Broadcast Booth - August 11th update
Last week's report released by Arbitron about the listenership of Major League Baseball on radio for most of the first 3 months of the current season confirms my theory that radio audience preferences are not always consistent with those of TV audiences.
Out of 25 markets where PPM's are used for audience measurements (which includes 28 of the MLB teams), it was most interesting to see the Seattle Mariners broadcasts in the Top 10 of total audience (all demographics). The pre-season high expectations for the Mariners quickly faded after the first month of the season, while Seattle is not a top ten market in terms of total radio audience. Yet, the Mariners broadcasts (which moved to a different station for this season) came out with a larger audience than the Chicago White Sox, playing in a top 3 market and with the team still battling for first place in the A.L. Central.
Along those same lines, Seattle ranked 9th in the 25-54 Men age group across the country, with the lowly Kansas City Royals finishing 6th. Compare that to the Boston Red Sox finishing below both of those teams in this category.
At the same time, TV ratings for teams which are or leaped into contention have generally risen for this season, during the same period as this radio report. The Padres' surprising first place run has resulted in their highest TV ratings in almost 3 years, even though the radio report does not have the Padres among the top 15 in either overall or 25-54 men. Chicago Cubs radio ratings, compared with other teams, remain strong despite a poor start by the team, while the TV ratings have been slipping.
My theory is that the radio audience, especially at night, tends to consist of people who are listening for longer periods of time, seek a live and unique event vs. talk or music, and could be at work or where they do not have online access to keep up on the progress of other games. The sports fan with TV access is more likely to watch a "better" game when available if their favorite team isn't doing so well. Interesting to see the difference between the radio broadcast and telecast ratings, and I'll be anxious to see the end of season report.
NBA fans won't be disappointed in the schedule for the coming season just released, especially when it comes to televising games. It will again be a feast.
TNT will have 22 Thursdays of doubleheaders, plus 8 other game telecasts within what will be Turner Sports' 27th season of televising the NBA. Their marquee telecast is probably December 2 when LeBron James and the Heat play at Cleveland.
When the ESPN/ABC package is factored in, it means that the coming season will begin with 4 consecutive nights of doubleheaders for the fans, and that's before NBA-TV kicks in the first weekend.
On opening night, Tues. Oct. 26th, TNT has Miami at Boston and then Houston at Lakers, showcasing the finalists in their openers. On Weds. Oct. 27 ESPN has a doubleheader with the Chgo. Bulls at Oklahoma City (Well, it is Derrick Rose and Kevin Durant) and then the Clippers vs. Portland. (Ironic that the Bulls AND Vinny DelNegro will be featured in their respective openers.) TNT takes it back on Thursday Oct. 28th with Orlando vs. Washington (debut of #1 pick John Wall) and then Phoenix vs. Utah. On Friday Oct. 29, ESPN comes back with Miami's home opener vs. Orlando and then Phoenix against the Lakers. A definite edge to TNT with their opening week selections! On Saturday Oct. 30 NBA-TV kicks off its scheduled 96 games with Denver at Houston, and then Utah at OK City on Oct. 31.
From then on, ESPN / ABC will again combine to show 5 NBA games on Christmas Day, including the first Miami vs. Lakers matchup of the season.
NBA-TV will again do its Tuesday Fan Night where fans vote for the game to be shown, and will also carry the two games from London between Toronto and New Jersey on March 4 & 5, both at 3 PM ET.
Meanwhile, maybe ESPN and Fox will begin to realize that the entire nation of sports fans do not stop everything else every single time the Yankees play the Red Sox. This past Sunday night (Aug. 8) NBC's telecast of an opening NFL pre-season game more than doubled the audience of ESPN's Red Sox - Yankees game. It turned out to be the highest rated NFL pre-season game since 2004, even though not all of them are against national baseball telecasts. Ouch. This was a pre-season opener. The game where NFL teams play the most rookies and the least number of starters. And people still chose that. In ESPN's defense, of the ten TV markets with the highest ratings for the NFL game, only one hosts an American League, and that was Dallas. Understandable, since this was the Cowboys' exhibition opener.
NBC Sunday Night Football's studio crew will go on without Keith Olbermann, supposedly dropped to no longer take away from his MSNBC prime-time show. By my count, this reduces the studio crew to about 20 on-air hosts. (Not really, but it seems that way.)
The NFL Network welcomes the exhibition season in style, with a promise to show every game either live or on delay, starting this coming weekend. The live telecasts will be:
Bills at Redskins, Friday at 7:30 PM ET
Buccaneers at Dolphins, Saturday at 7:00 PM ET
Titans at Seahawks, Saturday at 10:00 PM ET
49ers at Colts, Sunday at 1:00 PM ET
Broncos at Bengals, Sunday at 7:00 PM ET
On the college scene, all of the TV rights activity in the past few months involving the SEC and ACC plus Big Ten expansion has not gone unnoticed by the Big East Conference. The Conference has reportedly hired former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue as a consultant with an eye toward developing its own cable network. Even with the New York City and Chicago markets involved, I don't see this getting off the ground and competing for channel space with the likes of YES, SNY, and Comcast SportsNet Chicago.
SALT LAKE: Surprisingly little coverage of this beyond Salt Lake. This past Thursday (8/5) 1280 AM sports reporter Jan Jorgensen was asked to leave a University of Utah football practice after Head Coach Kyle Whittingham expressed concern. Jorgensen was there to join co-host Kyle Gunther (a former Ute) after joining the station for the daily "Red and Blue" program. However, Jorgensen is a former BYU defensive lineman.
Jorgensen returned to the studios while Gunther remained at the practice to continue with gathering interviews.
BOSTON: It has been well documented here and other places about the passion of the Boston area sports fan, the success of all of the pro teams, and the battle for the sports radio audience. In addition to WEEI and the Sports Hub, regional cable TV network NESN also provides sportscasts and interview based programs. Thus, it comes as a surprise to me that NESN's web site published a story about the local sports radio competition:
http://www.nesn.com/2010/08/sports-radio-battle-in-boston-resulting-in-winwin-for-fans.html
One hand has NESN promoting its web site to viewers "for more in-depth coverage" while the other hand lets the web site indirectly reminding those viewers about other 24 hour sources for news and information.
CHICAGO: Crain's Chicago Business reports that WSCR The Score 670 is close to a new multi-year deal to continue with White Sox broadcasts beyond this season. This will probably wind up being better for the White Sox than the station. There had been rumors that the White Sox would buy into an FM station and move the broadcasts there and lose a 50,000 watt strong AM signal covering the region.
Hopefully this will lead to some much needed improvements by WSCR. The station needs to eliminate their so-called "interactive" spring training broadcasts during which the station literally stops the play-by-play mid-game only to have the broadcasters take calls from listeners. As if White Sox fans would rather hear fan opinions about who should make the team ahead of how those very players are performing at that very moment.
In addition, after the games are over, the station needs to learn to get right into the next sports talk show right out of the White Sox post-game show. Currently, they end the post-game and air a several minute cluster of commercials prior to starting the next show. A poor use of a lead-in opportunity for surrounding programming. Worse yet, there have been some late nights when WSCR has failed to provide updates of west coast games in progress, merely providing earlier final scores on its "scoreboard updates".
FARGO: Excellent move by WDAY Radio. In the wake of the Minnesota Timberwolves President being fined last month by the NBA for comments made on a radio interview not in an NBA environment, WDAY was scheduled to have Twins President Dave St. Peter as a guest this past Friday (8/6) during its early afternoon show. Good to see a team executive continue to do an interview he doesn't need to do rather than say no because he could be fined.
HOUSTON: KILT 610 continues to prepare for football season, adding former Green Bay Packers and University of Arkansas lineman Greg Koch as an NFL analyst. Koch will start his studio work primarily on weekends.
SAN DIEGO: In a market where you would expect ESPN Radio to be more successful than most others, the possibility now exists that ESPN Radio would not have a local outlet as of September 1st. ESPN 98.9 is quietly dropping ESPN and the sports format at the end of August. The station, and AM 800 which carried ESPN in earlier years, was not one to go overboard in promoting its programming.
XX 1090 currently airs Sporting News Network overnights and on weekends, and the addition of ESPN instead would be a nice supplement to its Padres broadcasts and programming. With the number of transplanted sports fans in Southern California, ESPN would seem a great fit. XTRA Sports 1360 is less likely to look at ESPN, especially with KGTV's (Channel 10) Ben Higgins adding a Noon to 3 PM weekday show starting next Monday (8/16).
CINCINNATI: WXIX-TV Channel 19 will air a one hour special previewing the new Pete Rose documentary movie on Friday Aug. 20th. What makes this more interesting is that the NFL Bengals have a home exhibition game that night against Philadelphia which is to be televised nationally via Fox. However, the game has yet to sell out, and the NFL blackout rule would take effect, thus freeing up the local Fox affiliate to need other programming.
DENVER: Former NFL QB Brian Griese seems to have made one more successful pass in his career. He "passed" the audition. After being one of, count 'em, six analysts used on Broncos radio on KOA last year, Griese will officially join Dave Logan in the booth for this season. Well, almost all of it. Griese will continue with his ESPN schedule, which will cause him to miss the Broncos' 2 away exhibition games, as wel as Denver's Oct. 31 game vs. San Francisco to be played in London. David Treadwell will replace Griese for those broadcasts.
TAMPA: Buccaneers fans will be able to hear training camp coverage each Wednesday at 5 PM local time on Sports Radio 1010 with J.P. Peterson and Scott Reynolds. The show will then continue through the coming season, and will also be streamed on 1010SportsOnline.com.
VANCOUVER: Former NHL standout Ray Ferraro is adding to his busy TSN analyst schedule even before training camps open. Starting August 23rd, Ferraro will be the morning co-host on The Team 1040 from 6 to 10 AM along with Scott Rintoul. TSN will be the priority, with Rintoul hosting solo when necessary.
CHARLESTON: ESPN 1490 is now being simulcast on 104.5 FM as of this week. The stations are adding a local sports show from 4 to 6 PM, to be known as "The Drive" starting on August 23. Program Director Wes Ryan will co-host along with former Marshall and NFL player Carl Lee.
Out of 25 markets where PPM's are used for audience measurements (which includes 28 of the MLB teams), it was most interesting to see the Seattle Mariners broadcasts in the Top 10 of total audience (all demographics). The pre-season high expectations for the Mariners quickly faded after the first month of the season, while Seattle is not a top ten market in terms of total radio audience. Yet, the Mariners broadcasts (which moved to a different station for this season) came out with a larger audience than the Chicago White Sox, playing in a top 3 market and with the team still battling for first place in the A.L. Central.
Along those same lines, Seattle ranked 9th in the 25-54 Men age group across the country, with the lowly Kansas City Royals finishing 6th. Compare that to the Boston Red Sox finishing below both of those teams in this category.
At the same time, TV ratings for teams which are or leaped into contention have generally risen for this season, during the same period as this radio report. The Padres' surprising first place run has resulted in their highest TV ratings in almost 3 years, even though the radio report does not have the Padres among the top 15 in either overall or 25-54 men. Chicago Cubs radio ratings, compared with other teams, remain strong despite a poor start by the team, while the TV ratings have been slipping.
My theory is that the radio audience, especially at night, tends to consist of people who are listening for longer periods of time, seek a live and unique event vs. talk or music, and could be at work or where they do not have online access to keep up on the progress of other games. The sports fan with TV access is more likely to watch a "better" game when available if their favorite team isn't doing so well. Interesting to see the difference between the radio broadcast and telecast ratings, and I'll be anxious to see the end of season report.
NBA fans won't be disappointed in the schedule for the coming season just released, especially when it comes to televising games. It will again be a feast.
TNT will have 22 Thursdays of doubleheaders, plus 8 other game telecasts within what will be Turner Sports' 27th season of televising the NBA. Their marquee telecast is probably December 2 when LeBron James and the Heat play at Cleveland.
When the ESPN/ABC package is factored in, it means that the coming season will begin with 4 consecutive nights of doubleheaders for the fans, and that's before NBA-TV kicks in the first weekend.
On opening night, Tues. Oct. 26th, TNT has Miami at Boston and then Houston at Lakers, showcasing the finalists in their openers. On Weds. Oct. 27 ESPN has a doubleheader with the Chgo. Bulls at Oklahoma City (Well, it is Derrick Rose and Kevin Durant) and then the Clippers vs. Portland. (Ironic that the Bulls AND Vinny DelNegro will be featured in their respective openers.) TNT takes it back on Thursday Oct. 28th with Orlando vs. Washington (debut of #1 pick John Wall) and then Phoenix vs. Utah. On Friday Oct. 29, ESPN comes back with Miami's home opener vs. Orlando and then Phoenix against the Lakers. A definite edge to TNT with their opening week selections! On Saturday Oct. 30 NBA-TV kicks off its scheduled 96 games with Denver at Houston, and then Utah at OK City on Oct. 31.
From then on, ESPN / ABC will again combine to show 5 NBA games on Christmas Day, including the first Miami vs. Lakers matchup of the season.
NBA-TV will again do its Tuesday Fan Night where fans vote for the game to be shown, and will also carry the two games from London between Toronto and New Jersey on March 4 & 5, both at 3 PM ET.
Meanwhile, maybe ESPN and Fox will begin to realize that the entire nation of sports fans do not stop everything else every single time the Yankees play the Red Sox. This past Sunday night (Aug. 8) NBC's telecast of an opening NFL pre-season game more than doubled the audience of ESPN's Red Sox - Yankees game. It turned out to be the highest rated NFL pre-season game since 2004, even though not all of them are against national baseball telecasts. Ouch. This was a pre-season opener. The game where NFL teams play the most rookies and the least number of starters. And people still chose that. In ESPN's defense, of the ten TV markets with the highest ratings for the NFL game, only one hosts an American League, and that was Dallas. Understandable, since this was the Cowboys' exhibition opener.
NBC Sunday Night Football's studio crew will go on without Keith Olbermann, supposedly dropped to no longer take away from his MSNBC prime-time show. By my count, this reduces the studio crew to about 20 on-air hosts. (Not really, but it seems that way.)
The NFL Network welcomes the exhibition season in style, with a promise to show every game either live or on delay, starting this coming weekend. The live telecasts will be:
Bills at Redskins, Friday at 7:30 PM ET
Buccaneers at Dolphins, Saturday at 7:00 PM ET
Titans at Seahawks, Saturday at 10:00 PM ET
49ers at Colts, Sunday at 1:00 PM ET
Broncos at Bengals, Sunday at 7:00 PM ET
On the college scene, all of the TV rights activity in the past few months involving the SEC and ACC plus Big Ten expansion has not gone unnoticed by the Big East Conference. The Conference has reportedly hired former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue as a consultant with an eye toward developing its own cable network. Even with the New York City and Chicago markets involved, I don't see this getting off the ground and competing for channel space with the likes of YES, SNY, and Comcast SportsNet Chicago.
SALT LAKE: Surprisingly little coverage of this beyond Salt Lake. This past Thursday (8/5) 1280 AM sports reporter Jan Jorgensen was asked to leave a University of Utah football practice after Head Coach Kyle Whittingham expressed concern. Jorgensen was there to join co-host Kyle Gunther (a former Ute) after joining the station for the daily "Red and Blue" program. However, Jorgensen is a former BYU defensive lineman.
Jorgensen returned to the studios while Gunther remained at the practice to continue with gathering interviews.
BOSTON: It has been well documented here and other places about the passion of the Boston area sports fan, the success of all of the pro teams, and the battle for the sports radio audience. In addition to WEEI and the Sports Hub, regional cable TV network NESN also provides sportscasts and interview based programs. Thus, it comes as a surprise to me that NESN's web site published a story about the local sports radio competition:
http://www.nesn.com/2010/08/sports-radio-battle-in-boston-resulting-in-winwin-for-fans.html
One hand has NESN promoting its web site to viewers "for more in-depth coverage" while the other hand lets the web site indirectly reminding those viewers about other 24 hour sources for news and information.
CHICAGO: Crain's Chicago Business reports that WSCR The Score 670 is close to a new multi-year deal to continue with White Sox broadcasts beyond this season. This will probably wind up being better for the White Sox than the station. There had been rumors that the White Sox would buy into an FM station and move the broadcasts there and lose a 50,000 watt strong AM signal covering the region.
Hopefully this will lead to some much needed improvements by WSCR. The station needs to eliminate their so-called "interactive" spring training broadcasts during which the station literally stops the play-by-play mid-game only to have the broadcasters take calls from listeners. As if White Sox fans would rather hear fan opinions about who should make the team ahead of how those very players are performing at that very moment.
In addition, after the games are over, the station needs to learn to get right into the next sports talk show right out of the White Sox post-game show. Currently, they end the post-game and air a several minute cluster of commercials prior to starting the next show. A poor use of a lead-in opportunity for surrounding programming. Worse yet, there have been some late nights when WSCR has failed to provide updates of west coast games in progress, merely providing earlier final scores on its "scoreboard updates".
FARGO: Excellent move by WDAY Radio. In the wake of the Minnesota Timberwolves President being fined last month by the NBA for comments made on a radio interview not in an NBA environment, WDAY was scheduled to have Twins President Dave St. Peter as a guest this past Friday (8/6) during its early afternoon show. Good to see a team executive continue to do an interview he doesn't need to do rather than say no because he could be fined.
HOUSTON: KILT 610 continues to prepare for football season, adding former Green Bay Packers and University of Arkansas lineman Greg Koch as an NFL analyst. Koch will start his studio work primarily on weekends.
SAN DIEGO: In a market where you would expect ESPN Radio to be more successful than most others, the possibility now exists that ESPN Radio would not have a local outlet as of September 1st. ESPN 98.9 is quietly dropping ESPN and the sports format at the end of August. The station, and AM 800 which carried ESPN in earlier years, was not one to go overboard in promoting its programming.
XX 1090 currently airs Sporting News Network overnights and on weekends, and the addition of ESPN instead would be a nice supplement to its Padres broadcasts and programming. With the number of transplanted sports fans in Southern California, ESPN would seem a great fit. XTRA Sports 1360 is less likely to look at ESPN, especially with KGTV's (Channel 10) Ben Higgins adding a Noon to 3 PM weekday show starting next Monday (8/16).
CINCINNATI: WXIX-TV Channel 19 will air a one hour special previewing the new Pete Rose documentary movie on Friday Aug. 20th. What makes this more interesting is that the NFL Bengals have a home exhibition game that night against Philadelphia which is to be televised nationally via Fox. However, the game has yet to sell out, and the NFL blackout rule would take effect, thus freeing up the local Fox affiliate to need other programming.
DENVER: Former NFL QB Brian Griese seems to have made one more successful pass in his career. He "passed" the audition. After being one of, count 'em, six analysts used on Broncos radio on KOA last year, Griese will officially join Dave Logan in the booth for this season. Well, almost all of it. Griese will continue with his ESPN schedule, which will cause him to miss the Broncos' 2 away exhibition games, as wel as Denver's Oct. 31 game vs. San Francisco to be played in London. David Treadwell will replace Griese for those broadcasts.
TAMPA: Buccaneers fans will be able to hear training camp coverage each Wednesday at 5 PM local time on Sports Radio 1010 with J.P. Peterson and Scott Reynolds. The show will then continue through the coming season, and will also be streamed on 1010SportsOnline.com.
VANCOUVER: Former NHL standout Ray Ferraro is adding to his busy TSN analyst schedule even before training camps open. Starting August 23rd, Ferraro will be the morning co-host on The Team 1040 from 6 to 10 AM along with Scott Rintoul. TSN will be the priority, with Rintoul hosting solo when necessary.
CHARLESTON: ESPN 1490 is now being simulcast on 104.5 FM as of this week. The stations are adding a local sports show from 4 to 6 PM, to be known as "The Drive" starting on August 23. Program Director Wes Ryan will co-host along with former Marshall and NFL player Carl Lee.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
The Broadcast Booth - July 21st update.......
Nashville's 104.5 The Zone was on top of the story last week when Vanderbilt football coach Bobby Johnson unexpectedly announced his immediate retirement just a few weeks before the start of the coming season. Or were they?
As on-air hosts George Plaster and Willy Daunic were taking phone calls from shocked Vandy fans, the now Interim Head Coach Robbie Caldwell called their show and expressed his surprise of the announcement, stating on the air that he didn't know either until that very morning.
On one hand, The Zone got a significant reaction to a major local story on its airwaves. This also gives huge crediblity to the station that a key person in the story chose to phone the station. I have to believe that people listening at the time and/or learning of that call-in had their credibility in The Zone increase because of that. I wouldn't think the coach would have then called in to other stations or media to keep reacting.
However, it's the story that Caldwell "called in to the show" that has me stopped in my tracks. I have to question why, when such a prominent local story was breaking, didn't the station contact Caldwell first? (I will point out that I was not listening to The Zone that day and that I have accounts of what aired.) From what I was told, the bulk of the show was taking calls from concerned Vanderbilt fans with their reaction. Fans reacting? What about the other coaches? The players on the team? School officials?
Some "real" sports news breaks, and all the station does is take calls from fans until a key figure in the announcement calls in?
What irks me about this is how much of today's sports "news" is rumors and speculation. Local stations will routinely have a national analyst such as Ken Rosenthal or Buster Olney on the phone to comment about rumors involving the local team and who "might" be traded or moved. That is not news. It is speculation until or unless it happens. On that day in Nashville, a big sports news story actually happened. This time, the station emphasizes calls from fans?
Along those same lines, I made it a point to hear "scoreboard updates" on several all-sports stations around the country last week on the Monday and Wednesday surrounding the All-Star break. When there are no pro games on the docket. It bothered me how many of them talked about what the local or regional team(s) had done coming into the All-Star break. Not what is coming up after. It was the 'easy' story instead of digging for news. What a waste of time to rehash the same stories they gave the days before.
Here's hoping that sometime soon sports radio will return to the reporters telling us actual "news" and getting reaction from those making it, and it will be the fans doing the speculation if and when time permits.
Speaking of the All-Star Game, the 9% ratings drop for Fox-TV from last year's game is magnified when you consider that the Los Angeles area ratings for the telecast (the game was played in Anaheim) were less than half of what they were for the host markets over the previous five years. That should be a cause for concern. In addition to the growing ratings for live sports on TV over the past 2 years, both the Angels and Dodgers remain in contention for division titles.
Over in England, BBC Radio 5 carried the Cardinals vs. Dodgers game broadcast this past Sunday, adding BBC commentary.
LOS ANGELES: Sorry to learn of the passing of Chuck Madden at the age of 61 due to Leukemia. Madden had 2 stints with KNX, as well as having worked at KABC, the former KMPC, and Fox Sports Radio.
ATLANTA: WCNN 680 The Fan continues its busy play-by-play schedule into the coming winter sports season. This will be its 6th season of airing the NHL Thrashers games, with Dan Kamal returning for his 11th season of play-by-play. (Kamal has been calling the games since the franchise moved to Atlanta.) However, while The Fan will carry additional NBA Hawks programming, including some pre and post-game, the Hawks broadcasts move to sister station 99X, marking the first time the Hawks will be heard on FM. Steve Holman continues on play-by-play. My contention is that FM signals do not have the regional reach that most AM signals do and long-time fans are not used to searching the FM dial for local sports broadcasts.
ST. LOUIS: Speaking of broadcast traditions coming to an end, it appears this will be the final season of Cardinals baseball telecasts on over-the-air TV. Reports are that Fox Sports Midwest will carry all 150+ games not covered by a national network. This screws the people who cannot afford cable or satellite and only have digital TV reception out of games. Plus, some cable and satellite providers won't cough up more money to FSN Midwest for so-called "additional" telecasts. As a result, if the Cardinals radio does not return to KMOX for next season and stays on the lesser-signal of 590 AM, there will be a higher number of fans who can't get EITHER the radio or TV of some of the games.
HOUSTON: Further proof that Texas was a strong area for interest in the World Cup even after the USA was knocked out. KFNC 97.5 showed a ratings increase during the World Cup period when it broadcast the games, to the point of leading the 4 Houston sports stations in men 25-54 during the midday and afternoon time slots. KESN Dallas also moved up in audience during the World Cup period.
Mike Meltser, who has worked on ESPN Radio and Sirius/XM, has joined KILT to provide afternoon sports updates and will likely host a local weekend shift. KILT has also added a weekend hosting spot for Brien Straw on top of his fill-in assignments.
PITTSBURGH: KDKA-FM SportsRadio 93.7 will carry Pitt Panthers football and basketball games starting for the coming seasons. Bill Hillgrove will continue in the play-by-play roles, with Bill Fralic doing football analysis and Dick Groat on basketball. KDKA-FM began as SportsRadio earlier this year and this addition strengthens its foothold on local sports programming. Pitt games had aired on WWSW-FM and WBGG-AM.
NEW YORK: YES Network scored excellent ratings for its Yankees Old Timers Day telecast and surrounding coverage this past Saturday. Likely boosted by the deaths of George Steinbrenner and Bob Sheppard, it was the most watched Old Timers Day telecast YES Network has done. Then, on Sunday (July 18), YES' telecast of the Yankees vs. Rays game wound up as its highest rated day game telecast of the season.
WGBB 1240 Long Island and The Sports Radio NY blog now either stream or have podcasts of their various local team oriented sports shows at SportsRadioNY.com. Former Jets QB Ken O'Brien and Islanders voice Jiggs McDonald are among the participants.
DENVER: As of this week, Denver joins Houston as a major league market now having four all-sports radio stations. KCUV 102.3 switches this week from classic rock to sports, including a morning show with Vic Lombardi and Channel 4's Gary Miller. The duo was heard on KEPN 1600 until a few weeks ago when they were replaced by syndicated sports shows. KCUV appears to be going after KEPN, which now has only Joe Williams and Irv Brown as "local" talent and mostly syndicated shows.
CINCINNATI: WORT 1160 afternoon host Andy Furman has added a regular stint on Fox Sports Saturday airing nationally on Fox Sports Radio. After a couple of successful fill-in stints, Furman now teams with Sean Farnham on the Noon to 4 PM ET show. Ironically, the show airs in Cincinnati on a different station, as WSAI-AM 1360 carries the Fox program.
LOUISVILLE: Dave Jennings is changing shows on WKRD Sports Radio 790, as he moves to afternoons. Jennings will now co-host The Afternoon Underdogs show from 3:00 until 5:30 with Tony Vanetti starting next Monday (July 26). As a result, a new co-host is needed for the late morning Joe B. and Denny Show featuring Joe B. Hall and Denny Crum.
DULUTH: Come August 3rd, Bruce Ciskie will be even busier, and on a regular basis. Already the play-by-play voice of Minnesota Duluth hockey, Ciskie will become Sports Director of an 8 radio station operation. The Superior MN native will contribute to the KQDS-FM morning show, and then host a one-hour sports talk show at Noon on weekdays on KQDS-AM.
WINSTON-SALEM: ESPN Radio and local programming will cover the area on 3 frequencies starting within the month. WSML 1200, WMFR 1230, and WCOG 1320, will each have some programming which will differ from the other two stations.
BOWLING GREEN KY: High school sports are a priority in certain areas, and this is obviously one of them. Not many cities publicize multi-year broadcast agreements for high school football and basketball, but this one does. WWKU 1450 has a new 3-year deal to carry Bowling Green HS football and basketball, including boys and girls hoops doubleheaders both home and away. The local ESPN station looks for more local sports emphasis, especially since it does not carry Western Kentucky University play-by-play.
But the high school coverage doesn't stop there. WKCT 930 will continue to air play-by-play of Greenwood High School games.
Meanwhile, WBGN 1340, which aired the Bowling Green HS games in past seasons, has announced plans to air both a football and basketball "Game of the Week" rotating among the 5 high schools in Warren County.
AKRON: WARF 1350 has extended its deal to air University of Akron Zips football through 2013.
JOPLIN MO: KXDG-FM Big Dog 97.9 will air Missouri Southern State University football and basketball games starting this coming season.
As on-air hosts George Plaster and Willy Daunic were taking phone calls from shocked Vandy fans, the now Interim Head Coach Robbie Caldwell called their show and expressed his surprise of the announcement, stating on the air that he didn't know either until that very morning.
On one hand, The Zone got a significant reaction to a major local story on its airwaves. This also gives huge crediblity to the station that a key person in the story chose to phone the station. I have to believe that people listening at the time and/or learning of that call-in had their credibility in The Zone increase because of that. I wouldn't think the coach would have then called in to other stations or media to keep reacting.
However, it's the story that Caldwell "called in to the show" that has me stopped in my tracks. I have to question why, when such a prominent local story was breaking, didn't the station contact Caldwell first? (I will point out that I was not listening to The Zone that day and that I have accounts of what aired.) From what I was told, the bulk of the show was taking calls from concerned Vanderbilt fans with their reaction. Fans reacting? What about the other coaches? The players on the team? School officials?
Some "real" sports news breaks, and all the station does is take calls from fans until a key figure in the announcement calls in?
What irks me about this is how much of today's sports "news" is rumors and speculation. Local stations will routinely have a national analyst such as Ken Rosenthal or Buster Olney on the phone to comment about rumors involving the local team and who "might" be traded or moved. That is not news. It is speculation until or unless it happens. On that day in Nashville, a big sports news story actually happened. This time, the station emphasizes calls from fans?
Along those same lines, I made it a point to hear "scoreboard updates" on several all-sports stations around the country last week on the Monday and Wednesday surrounding the All-Star break. When there are no pro games on the docket. It bothered me how many of them talked about what the local or regional team(s) had done coming into the All-Star break. Not what is coming up after. It was the 'easy' story instead of digging for news. What a waste of time to rehash the same stories they gave the days before.
Here's hoping that sometime soon sports radio will return to the reporters telling us actual "news" and getting reaction from those making it, and it will be the fans doing the speculation if and when time permits.
Speaking of the All-Star Game, the 9% ratings drop for Fox-TV from last year's game is magnified when you consider that the Los Angeles area ratings for the telecast (the game was played in Anaheim) were less than half of what they were for the host markets over the previous five years. That should be a cause for concern. In addition to the growing ratings for live sports on TV over the past 2 years, both the Angels and Dodgers remain in contention for division titles.
Over in England, BBC Radio 5 carried the Cardinals vs. Dodgers game broadcast this past Sunday, adding BBC commentary.
LOS ANGELES: Sorry to learn of the passing of Chuck Madden at the age of 61 due to Leukemia. Madden had 2 stints with KNX, as well as having worked at KABC, the former KMPC, and Fox Sports Radio.
ATLANTA: WCNN 680 The Fan continues its busy play-by-play schedule into the coming winter sports season. This will be its 6th season of airing the NHL Thrashers games, with Dan Kamal returning for his 11th season of play-by-play. (Kamal has been calling the games since the franchise moved to Atlanta.) However, while The Fan will carry additional NBA Hawks programming, including some pre and post-game, the Hawks broadcasts move to sister station 99X, marking the first time the Hawks will be heard on FM. Steve Holman continues on play-by-play. My contention is that FM signals do not have the regional reach that most AM signals do and long-time fans are not used to searching the FM dial for local sports broadcasts.
ST. LOUIS: Speaking of broadcast traditions coming to an end, it appears this will be the final season of Cardinals baseball telecasts on over-the-air TV. Reports are that Fox Sports Midwest will carry all 150+ games not covered by a national network. This screws the people who cannot afford cable or satellite and only have digital TV reception out of games. Plus, some cable and satellite providers won't cough up more money to FSN Midwest for so-called "additional" telecasts. As a result, if the Cardinals radio does not return to KMOX for next season and stays on the lesser-signal of 590 AM, there will be a higher number of fans who can't get EITHER the radio or TV of some of the games.
HOUSTON: Further proof that Texas was a strong area for interest in the World Cup even after the USA was knocked out. KFNC 97.5 showed a ratings increase during the World Cup period when it broadcast the games, to the point of leading the 4 Houston sports stations in men 25-54 during the midday and afternoon time slots. KESN Dallas also moved up in audience during the World Cup period.
Mike Meltser, who has worked on ESPN Radio and Sirius/XM, has joined KILT to provide afternoon sports updates and will likely host a local weekend shift. KILT has also added a weekend hosting spot for Brien Straw on top of his fill-in assignments.
PITTSBURGH: KDKA-FM SportsRadio 93.7 will carry Pitt Panthers football and basketball games starting for the coming seasons. Bill Hillgrove will continue in the play-by-play roles, with Bill Fralic doing football analysis and Dick Groat on basketball. KDKA-FM began as SportsRadio earlier this year and this addition strengthens its foothold on local sports programming. Pitt games had aired on WWSW-FM and WBGG-AM.
NEW YORK: YES Network scored excellent ratings for its Yankees Old Timers Day telecast and surrounding coverage this past Saturday. Likely boosted by the deaths of George Steinbrenner and Bob Sheppard, it was the most watched Old Timers Day telecast YES Network has done. Then, on Sunday (July 18), YES' telecast of the Yankees vs. Rays game wound up as its highest rated day game telecast of the season.
WGBB 1240 Long Island and The Sports Radio NY blog now either stream or have podcasts of their various local team oriented sports shows at SportsRadioNY.com. Former Jets QB Ken O'Brien and Islanders voice Jiggs McDonald are among the participants.
DENVER: As of this week, Denver joins Houston as a major league market now having four all-sports radio stations. KCUV 102.3 switches this week from classic rock to sports, including a morning show with Vic Lombardi and Channel 4's Gary Miller. The duo was heard on KEPN 1600 until a few weeks ago when they were replaced by syndicated sports shows. KCUV appears to be going after KEPN, which now has only Joe Williams and Irv Brown as "local" talent and mostly syndicated shows.
CINCINNATI: WORT 1160 afternoon host Andy Furman has added a regular stint on Fox Sports Saturday airing nationally on Fox Sports Radio. After a couple of successful fill-in stints, Furman now teams with Sean Farnham on the Noon to 4 PM ET show. Ironically, the show airs in Cincinnati on a different station, as WSAI-AM 1360 carries the Fox program.
LOUISVILLE: Dave Jennings is changing shows on WKRD Sports Radio 790, as he moves to afternoons. Jennings will now co-host The Afternoon Underdogs show from 3:00 until 5:30 with Tony Vanetti starting next Monday (July 26). As a result, a new co-host is needed for the late morning Joe B. and Denny Show featuring Joe B. Hall and Denny Crum.
DULUTH: Come August 3rd, Bruce Ciskie will be even busier, and on a regular basis. Already the play-by-play voice of Minnesota Duluth hockey, Ciskie will become Sports Director of an 8 radio station operation. The Superior MN native will contribute to the KQDS-FM morning show, and then host a one-hour sports talk show at Noon on weekdays on KQDS-AM.
WINSTON-SALEM: ESPN Radio and local programming will cover the area on 3 frequencies starting within the month. WSML 1200, WMFR 1230, and WCOG 1320, will each have some programming which will differ from the other two stations.
BOWLING GREEN KY: High school sports are a priority in certain areas, and this is obviously one of them. Not many cities publicize multi-year broadcast agreements for high school football and basketball, but this one does. WWKU 1450 has a new 3-year deal to carry Bowling Green HS football and basketball, including boys and girls hoops doubleheaders both home and away. The local ESPN station looks for more local sports emphasis, especially since it does not carry Western Kentucky University play-by-play.
But the high school coverage doesn't stop there. WKCT 930 will continue to air play-by-play of Greenwood High School games.
Meanwhile, WBGN 1340, which aired the Bowling Green HS games in past seasons, has announced plans to air both a football and basketball "Game of the Week" rotating among the 5 high schools in Warren County.
AKRON: WARF 1350 has extended its deal to air University of Akron Zips football through 2013.
JOPLIN MO: KXDG-FM Big Dog 97.9 will air Missouri Southern State University football and basketball games starting this coming season.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
The Broadcast Booth - May 13th update......
Sun Sports Florida pitched a perfect game of its own with its coverage of Dallas Braden's perfect game on Sunday (May 9) for Oakland against the Rays. Dewayne Staats and Kevin Kennedy added the extraordinary excitement in their deliveries even though "their" team was the victim of this ultimate performance. (There are some announcers who would voice the disappointment to favor the team they describe.)
It didn't stop there. The production crew did an incredible job. The Rays telecast stayed on the field and showed Braden celebrate with his grandmother (who took over after Dallas' mother passed away). This was, after all, on Mother's Day.
Then, prior to signing off from Oakland, Sun Sports replayed all 27 outs. A classy move. Plus, when you factor in that the Tampa area has a lot of transplants from around the country who are baseball fans rather than Rays fans, you have a great service to the audience.
On a side note, the Rays have a dubious distinction that is likely to remain theirs for many many years. I don't know that the same franchise will ever again have a perfect game thrown at them 2 seasons in a row, let alone having one batter (Gabe Kapler) being part of both ninth innings. Mark Buehrle's perfecto was also against the Rays last July.
The Rays excellent start this season has already reflected in their TV ratings, which have almost doubled compared to the first month of last season.
Congratulations to Joe Tait on the 2010 Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Basketball Hall of Fame that he will receive on August 12th in Springfield MA. Except for a season in Chicago in the 80's when Cavaliers ownership was a mess, Joe has been the constant through the mostly bad times over the past 40 years. Also named for the Media Award is Jackie MacMullan, based on her nearly 30 years with the Boston Globe and books with the likes of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Both are very deserving!
I'm not generally looking for things to complain about on telecasts, but I can't be alone on this one. Some of the regional and national baseball telecasts have started showing the batter's line for the game in scorecard form. That is showing the innings and then "F7" or "BB". I understand they are looking to appeal to the hardcore baseball fan who will understand it.
However, I have 2 problems with doing this. For one, this is only a row on the screen and not every screen people are watching on is big enough, nor are viewers always close enough to READ the letters and numbers. For another, it forces people to calculate. Not that we can or can't do it, but the information on the screen is supposed to help us enjoy the telecast, and not distract us from it while we add numbers.
Please - just tell us the guy is 1 for 4 with a double in the 5th inning and keep it simple and easy for us.
Fans continue to watch televised pro sports in a big way. With the baseball season now into its 2nd full month, Neilsen Co. says that the St. Louis Cardinals were the most watched team in terms of local telecasts for the month of April with an increase over 30% compared with last year. Fox Sports Midwest also shows a 75% increase in the pre-game show audience and strong gains for its post-game programming. The Minnesota Twins were second, undoubtedly helped by the team's great start and new stadium.
The NHL ratings for the quarterfinal playoffs on both Versus and NBC showed significant increases in a few TV markets you wouldn't expect. Knoxville area combined ratings reportedly rose 200%, while Louisville, San Antonio, Dayton, Birmingham, and Albuquerque were among those markets which doubled their respective audiences. Of those, only Dayton is located within a 2-hour drive of an NHL franchise, and the Columbus Blue Jackets were not even in the playoffs. This is huge for the NHL, which will be able to renegotiate its network TV deals next year, if not sooner.
The existing NHL markets showing the biggest ratings increases for Versus and NBC telecasts were Chicago, Detroit, and Phoenix. Even this should not be overlooked, given that local telecasts took over for Versus during the quarterfinal round. For the final 2 rounds, local telecasts are over, and Versus and NBC televise exclusively into the home team markets.
On the college side, word is that the ACC is already in the process of wrapping up negotiations for its TV contracts, which are set to expire next spring at the end of the basketball regular season. Their contracts could again involve Fox Sports and Raycom Sports in addition to the ESPN/ABC family.
WASHINGTON D.C.: The Nationals having a winning month of April is being noticed after all. Ratings on MASN have been on the rise, including solid numbers for their recent series vs. the Mets, which resulted in a 43% increase over the same time period last season. While the NHL Capitals understandably have better ratings (the Caps finished the regular season with the East's best record), the NBA Wizards somehow had better ratings than the Nationals. At least the Nats games are on the upswing, for now.
SAN JOSE: Here is one of those "You could make a case either way" reports. CSNCalifornia.com has been providing additional coverage online of the Sharks during their playoff run, in addition to televising the first 2 round's games not on NBC.
The network reports a 200% increase in page views on its Sharks pages into the second round of playoffs.
One side says this is a huge positive for the network as it keeps the audience interested and bolsters its coverage. But there is the other point of view, and it's the one I support.
Since CSN's purpose is a TV network to drive revenue, and since there is this much interest in the Sharks, why don't they increase their Sharks programming on the network? Fans shouldn't have to go online to get "extra" coverage since there is this much demand.
If the online coverage was to replay Sharks programming which already aired, that would be fine. But it is extra coverage.
Sorry, but I find it odd that more of the TV and radio channels dedicated to local sports are taking the "additional coverage on our web site" approach. Without viewers or listeners, the TV or radio network or station doesn't survive. If it doesn't survive, an "additional revenue" opportunity doesn't get off the ground.
This is the same as how radio music stations that "sell" downloads of the songs they just played via their web sites are giving their listeners more and more reasons they don't have to listen to the station. If they can download only the songs they want (even if for a few bucks), then they have no reason to listen to the station for songs they don't want and endless clusters of commercials. So if sports stations and networks are going to send us to our computers for their coverage, they give us fewer reasons to watch or listen.
MINNEAPOLIS: The Star-Tribune reports that the NHL Wild will soon announce a contract extention with Fox Sports North. But there's one phase of this story that hasn't been announced yet. Rumor has it that by the 2011-12 season Fox will carry every game it can, phasing out the over-the-air telcasts on KSTC-TV.
The team's broadcasters are still not confirmed for the coming season, although changes are not expected. Dan Terhaar and Mike Greenlay are expected to continue in the TV booth with Bob Kurtz and Tom Reid on radio.
PHOENIX: Kevin Graham joins KTAR 620 as Program Director starting next week. He comes by way of The Zone in Salt Lake City where he co-hosted afternoons.
RALEIGH: The "Triangle Sports" stations of 99.9 The Fan, WCMC ESPN Radio, and 620 The Buzz have set a combined ratings record for the first quarter of 2010. This is bolsterd by 99.9 FM The Fan showing a 16% overall audience increase for the same period.
MEANWHILE:
Glad to see how well the broadcast media handled the situation a few days back in Philadelphia when that fan ran onto the field and was tasered. Fox Sports Midwest's Dan McLaughlin described what was happening but the TV crew knew not to show it, even though it was a newsworthy story.
On the radio side, John Rooney and Mike Shannon were both laughing on the air and having fun with the incident, yet brought across the serious nature of the event. The idea of not showing fans who do this sort of thing is a positive one even though most people want to see it.
Former Heisman Trophy winner and Notre Dame standout Tim Brown now hosts "The Legends of Sport With Tim Brown" each Saturday on Sports Byline USA Radio. The first show featured a Dallas Cowboys theme with Everson Wallas and former Player Personnel Direcdtor Gil Brandt as the guests. The show will usually air on Saturdays at 11 AM ET and again at 10 PM.
The hunger of many baseball fans for minor league games continues to be responded to. MLB Network has begun its Monday telecasts of select minor league games.
Now comes word that the Bradenton (FL) Marauders class A home games, along with selected road games, are being streamed at www.BradentonMarauders.com. Great to see the Pirates affiliate doing this. There are some fans at the major league level who would enjoy being able to listen in to hear about the prospects for their favorite team(s).
Better yet, at least so far, no stupid blackouts of these minor league streams.
On the schedule side, ESPN has announced some of its Pac 10 football telecast schedule for the coming season:
Thu, Sep 2 11 p.m. No. 15 USC at Hawaii * ESPN
Fri, Sep 3 8 p.m. Arizona at Toledo * ESPN
Sat, Sep 4 3:30 p.m. UCLA at Kansas State ABC
7:45 p.m. Cowboys Classic: Oregon State vs. No. 6 TCU * ESPN
Sat, Sep 11 7 p.m. No. 10 Oregon at Tennessee ESPN2
10:30 p.m. No. 24 Stanford at UCLA ESPN
Fri, Sep 17 10 p.m. California at Nevada * ESPN2
Sat, Sep 18 3:30 p.m. No. 7 Nebraska at Washington ABC
Arizona State at No. 9 Wisconsin ABC and ESPN2
3:30 p.m. No. 15 USC at Minnesota ESPN
10:30 p.m. No. 11 Iowa at Arizona ESPN
11:15 p.m. Wake Forest at No. 24 Stanford ESPN2
Sat, Sep 25 TBD Oregon State at No. 2 Boise State * ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
TBD UCLA at No. 4 Texas * ABC
Sat, Oct 2 8 p.m. Washington at No. 15 USC ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
11:15 p.m. No. 24 Stanford at No. 10 Oregon ESPN
Sat, Oct 9 8 p.m. No. 15 USC at No. 24 Stanford ABC
Thu, Oct 21 9 p.m. UCLA at No. 10 Oregon * ESPN
Sat, Oct 30 8 p.m. No. 10 Oregon at No. 15 USC ABC
Sat, Nov 13 8 p.m. No. 15 USC at Arizona ABC
Thu, Nov 18 8 p.m. UCLA at Washington * ESPN
Sat, Nov 20 8 p.m. No. 15 USC at Oregon State ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
Fri, Nov 26 7 p.m. Arizona at No. 10 Oregon ESPN
Sat, Nov 27 8 p.m. Notre Dame at No. 15 USC ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
Thu, Dec 2 8 p.m. Arizona State at Arizona * ESPN
ESPN has also announced its TV games for this fall's ACC/Big Ten (basketball) Challenge. (Although given the ACC's total dominance, "Challenge" is an overstatement!)
Mon, Nov 29 Virginia at Minnesota
Tue, Nov 30 No. 11 North Carolina at No. 15 Illinois
No. 6 Ohio State at Florida State
Michigan at Clemson
Georgia Tech at Northwestern
Iowa at Wake Forest
Wed, Dec 1 No. 3 Michigan State at No. 1 Duke
No. 2 Purdue at No. 22 Virginia Tech
North Carolina State at Wisconsin
Indiana at Boston College
Maryland at Penn State
It didn't stop there. The production crew did an incredible job. The Rays telecast stayed on the field and showed Braden celebrate with his grandmother (who took over after Dallas' mother passed away). This was, after all, on Mother's Day.
Then, prior to signing off from Oakland, Sun Sports replayed all 27 outs. A classy move. Plus, when you factor in that the Tampa area has a lot of transplants from around the country who are baseball fans rather than Rays fans, you have a great service to the audience.
On a side note, the Rays have a dubious distinction that is likely to remain theirs for many many years. I don't know that the same franchise will ever again have a perfect game thrown at them 2 seasons in a row, let alone having one batter (Gabe Kapler) being part of both ninth innings. Mark Buehrle's perfecto was also against the Rays last July.
The Rays excellent start this season has already reflected in their TV ratings, which have almost doubled compared to the first month of last season.
Congratulations to Joe Tait on the 2010 Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Basketball Hall of Fame that he will receive on August 12th in Springfield MA. Except for a season in Chicago in the 80's when Cavaliers ownership was a mess, Joe has been the constant through the mostly bad times over the past 40 years. Also named for the Media Award is Jackie MacMullan, based on her nearly 30 years with the Boston Globe and books with the likes of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Both are very deserving!
I'm not generally looking for things to complain about on telecasts, but I can't be alone on this one. Some of the regional and national baseball telecasts have started showing the batter's line for the game in scorecard form. That is showing the innings and then "F7" or "BB". I understand they are looking to appeal to the hardcore baseball fan who will understand it.
However, I have 2 problems with doing this. For one, this is only a row on the screen and not every screen people are watching on is big enough, nor are viewers always close enough to READ the letters and numbers. For another, it forces people to calculate. Not that we can or can't do it, but the information on the screen is supposed to help us enjoy the telecast, and not distract us from it while we add numbers.
Please - just tell us the guy is 1 for 4 with a double in the 5th inning and keep it simple and easy for us.
Fans continue to watch televised pro sports in a big way. With the baseball season now into its 2nd full month, Neilsen Co. says that the St. Louis Cardinals were the most watched team in terms of local telecasts for the month of April with an increase over 30% compared with last year. Fox Sports Midwest also shows a 75% increase in the pre-game show audience and strong gains for its post-game programming. The Minnesota Twins were second, undoubtedly helped by the team's great start and new stadium.
The NHL ratings for the quarterfinal playoffs on both Versus and NBC showed significant increases in a few TV markets you wouldn't expect. Knoxville area combined ratings reportedly rose 200%, while Louisville, San Antonio, Dayton, Birmingham, and Albuquerque were among those markets which doubled their respective audiences. Of those, only Dayton is located within a 2-hour drive of an NHL franchise, and the Columbus Blue Jackets were not even in the playoffs. This is huge for the NHL, which will be able to renegotiate its network TV deals next year, if not sooner.
The existing NHL markets showing the biggest ratings increases for Versus and NBC telecasts were Chicago, Detroit, and Phoenix. Even this should not be overlooked, given that local telecasts took over for Versus during the quarterfinal round. For the final 2 rounds, local telecasts are over, and Versus and NBC televise exclusively into the home team markets.
On the college side, word is that the ACC is already in the process of wrapping up negotiations for its TV contracts, which are set to expire next spring at the end of the basketball regular season. Their contracts could again involve Fox Sports and Raycom Sports in addition to the ESPN/ABC family.
WASHINGTON D.C.: The Nationals having a winning month of April is being noticed after all. Ratings on MASN have been on the rise, including solid numbers for their recent series vs. the Mets, which resulted in a 43% increase over the same time period last season. While the NHL Capitals understandably have better ratings (the Caps finished the regular season with the East's best record), the NBA Wizards somehow had better ratings than the Nationals. At least the Nats games are on the upswing, for now.
SAN JOSE: Here is one of those "You could make a case either way" reports. CSNCalifornia.com has been providing additional coverage online of the Sharks during their playoff run, in addition to televising the first 2 round's games not on NBC.
The network reports a 200% increase in page views on its Sharks pages into the second round of playoffs.
One side says this is a huge positive for the network as it keeps the audience interested and bolsters its coverage. But there is the other point of view, and it's the one I support.
Since CSN's purpose is a TV network to drive revenue, and since there is this much interest in the Sharks, why don't they increase their Sharks programming on the network? Fans shouldn't have to go online to get "extra" coverage since there is this much demand.
If the online coverage was to replay Sharks programming which already aired, that would be fine. But it is extra coverage.
Sorry, but I find it odd that more of the TV and radio channels dedicated to local sports are taking the "additional coverage on our web site" approach. Without viewers or listeners, the TV or radio network or station doesn't survive. If it doesn't survive, an "additional revenue" opportunity doesn't get off the ground.
This is the same as how radio music stations that "sell" downloads of the songs they just played via their web sites are giving their listeners more and more reasons they don't have to listen to the station. If they can download only the songs they want (even if for a few bucks), then they have no reason to listen to the station for songs they don't want and endless clusters of commercials. So if sports stations and networks are going to send us to our computers for their coverage, they give us fewer reasons to watch or listen.
MINNEAPOLIS: The Star-Tribune reports that the NHL Wild will soon announce a contract extention with Fox Sports North. But there's one phase of this story that hasn't been announced yet. Rumor has it that by the 2011-12 season Fox will carry every game it can, phasing out the over-the-air telcasts on KSTC-TV.
The team's broadcasters are still not confirmed for the coming season, although changes are not expected. Dan Terhaar and Mike Greenlay are expected to continue in the TV booth with Bob Kurtz and Tom Reid on radio.
PHOENIX: Kevin Graham joins KTAR 620 as Program Director starting next week. He comes by way of The Zone in Salt Lake City where he co-hosted afternoons.
RALEIGH: The "Triangle Sports" stations of 99.9 The Fan, WCMC ESPN Radio, and 620 The Buzz have set a combined ratings record for the first quarter of 2010. This is bolsterd by 99.9 FM The Fan showing a 16% overall audience increase for the same period.
MEANWHILE:
Glad to see how well the broadcast media handled the situation a few days back in Philadelphia when that fan ran onto the field and was tasered. Fox Sports Midwest's Dan McLaughlin described what was happening but the TV crew knew not to show it, even though it was a newsworthy story.
On the radio side, John Rooney and Mike Shannon were both laughing on the air and having fun with the incident, yet brought across the serious nature of the event. The idea of not showing fans who do this sort of thing is a positive one even though most people want to see it.
Former Heisman Trophy winner and Notre Dame standout Tim Brown now hosts "The Legends of Sport With Tim Brown" each Saturday on Sports Byline USA Radio. The first show featured a Dallas Cowboys theme with Everson Wallas and former Player Personnel Direcdtor Gil Brandt as the guests. The show will usually air on Saturdays at 11 AM ET and again at 10 PM.
The hunger of many baseball fans for minor league games continues to be responded to. MLB Network has begun its Monday telecasts of select minor league games.
Now comes word that the Bradenton (FL) Marauders class A home games, along with selected road games, are being streamed at www.BradentonMarauders.com. Great to see the Pirates affiliate doing this. There are some fans at the major league level who would enjoy being able to listen in to hear about the prospects for their favorite team(s).
Better yet, at least so far, no stupid blackouts of these minor league streams.
On the schedule side, ESPN has announced some of its Pac 10 football telecast schedule for the coming season:
Thu, Sep 2 11 p.m. No. 15 USC at Hawaii * ESPN
Fri, Sep 3 8 p.m. Arizona at Toledo * ESPN
Sat, Sep 4 3:30 p.m. UCLA at Kansas State ABC
7:45 p.m. Cowboys Classic: Oregon State vs. No. 6 TCU * ESPN
Sat, Sep 11 7 p.m. No. 10 Oregon at Tennessee ESPN2
10:30 p.m. No. 24 Stanford at UCLA ESPN
Fri, Sep 17 10 p.m. California at Nevada * ESPN2
Sat, Sep 18 3:30 p.m. No. 7 Nebraska at Washington ABC
Arizona State at No. 9 Wisconsin ABC and ESPN2
3:30 p.m. No. 15 USC at Minnesota ESPN
10:30 p.m. No. 11 Iowa at Arizona ESPN
11:15 p.m. Wake Forest at No. 24 Stanford ESPN2
Sat, Sep 25 TBD Oregon State at No. 2 Boise State * ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
TBD UCLA at No. 4 Texas * ABC
Sat, Oct 2 8 p.m. Washington at No. 15 USC ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
11:15 p.m. No. 24 Stanford at No. 10 Oregon ESPN
Sat, Oct 9 8 p.m. No. 15 USC at No. 24 Stanford ABC
Thu, Oct 21 9 p.m. UCLA at No. 10 Oregon * ESPN
Sat, Oct 30 8 p.m. No. 10 Oregon at No. 15 USC ABC
Sat, Nov 13 8 p.m. No. 15 USC at Arizona ABC
Thu, Nov 18 8 p.m. UCLA at Washington * ESPN
Sat, Nov 20 8 p.m. No. 15 USC at Oregon State ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
Fri, Nov 26 7 p.m. Arizona at No. 10 Oregon ESPN
Sat, Nov 27 8 p.m. Notre Dame at No. 15 USC ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
Thu, Dec 2 8 p.m. Arizona State at Arizona * ESPN
ESPN has also announced its TV games for this fall's ACC/Big Ten (basketball) Challenge. (Although given the ACC's total dominance, "Challenge" is an overstatement!)
Mon, Nov 29 Virginia at Minnesota
Tue, Nov 30 No. 11 North Carolina at No. 15 Illinois
No. 6 Ohio State at Florida State
Michigan at Clemson
Georgia Tech at Northwestern
Iowa at Wake Forest
Wed, Dec 1 No. 3 Michigan State at No. 1 Duke
No. 2 Purdue at No. 22 Virginia Tech
North Carolina State at Wisconsin
Indiana at Boston College
Maryland at Penn State
Monday, December 21, 2009
Sports Media Update - December 22nd
Time to cast my vote for the biggest sports media story of 2009. I may be the only one "voting" this way, but this year turned out to be a huge year for sports radio stations. It is really the fans doing the voting.
Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, and Philadelphia are among the large markets showing significant growth in the total sports radio audience. In these cities it is not just one station on the increase. In Chicago, the two 50,000 watt AM sports stations, which have been competitors for years, are both coming off some of their best numbers ever.
This trend speaks well for the format. These ratings numbers, along with the increase of sports stations coming into large, medium, and small markets as competition, had never reached these levels before.
Why is this happening now? Many would say it is the People Meters, but I'm not among them. In the days of ratings diaries, you would figure that men would have been more apt to show listening to sports radio than to soft rock. I have a different theory.
I think the surge in sports radio listening around the country this year is because of the outrageously high ticket prices for sports events. It is no longer worth the hassle of going to a stadium or arena for just one regular season game when it can cost $150 for 2 people. I'm far from the only fan who feels this way.
As a result, fans are finding other ways to spend their "sports dollar". There are no official statistics on how much is bet each week. But we do see the increase in fantasy league activity, whether for money or the joy of it. The TV ratings this year indicate that people are more content than ever to stay home (or go to their favorite establishment) to enjoy HD and big screen telecasts where they can actually see what is going on in the game itself.
In order to keep up with their favorite teams and games, these same fans are now relying on sports radio more often than ever. Especially when combined with the music stations reducing the local flavor, cutting back on playlists, and clustering commercials.
Some of the sports stations generating the higher numbers have really not done very much different than, say, two years ago. I think their target audience is doing a better job of finding them. Let's see what 2010 brings for sports radio ratings.
Meanwhile, some programming decisions aren't so easy, especially when they don't turn out right. WBBM-TV Chicago, the CBS affiliate, has only itself to blame this past Sunday (Dec. 20) if their local NFL ratings went into the tank.
With the Chicago Bears playing on Fox, and on the road, in what was originally slated to be an "early" NFL game, WBBM-TV wisely scheduled the Cinci vs. San Diego "late" game as its lone telecast. The idea was to not go up against the Bears telecast and, so I thought, also offer the most appealing game CBS had to offer during the late time slot. When it can, WBBM-TV tries not to compete with the strong local ratings of Bears' telecasts on the Fox-TV station.
However, when the weather forced the Baltimore Ravens to move the game to the late (4:15 ET) slot, it meant that Fox-TV in Chicago would have the Bears game against the Cinci vs. San Diego telecast.
My first comment upon learning the Bears vs. Colts kickoff was changed was that WBBM-TV might have a winner on its hands with the Cinci vs. San Diego telecast. The game meant nothing to the Bears, already eliminated from playoff contention. Baltimore is an AFC team and not a rival. The game didn't figure to be close.
Yet, WBBM-TV still elected not to compete against the Bears, and picked up the Miami vs. Tennessee telecast early as their only NFL game of the day. Neither team has a particular following in Chicago, and it so happened that the game wasn't even close until late 4th quarter, just as fans were getting ready to check the start of the Bears game on Fox.
Sure enough, the Bears were out of the game in Baltimore early. As it was, Chicago fans couldn't get the Green Bay at Pittsburgh telecast originally scheduled. But instead of being able to switch over to a meaningful and interesting matchup on WBBM-TV, Bears fans (without the TV package available to get other games) were stuck with a horrible game - or no NFL football. Sometimes management needs people who know and understand the game to make such decisions. This was one of them.
The moving of the San Francisco at Philadelphia NFL telecast on Fox from an early to late telecast had an impact in that road team market as well. This made it a very rare time when the 49ers went head-to-head with the Raiders. In this instance, the Raiders got clobbered. In the ratings. Early numbers show the 49ers game with nearly 3 times the audience the Raiders vs. Broncos game had.
Later, the Sunday Night Football game on NBC didn't draw as well as most of the other telecasts this season, but the Carolina win over Minnesota still won the night for NBC. That's the 13th time this year NBC has finished first in the Sunday night ratings. Last year, NBC won 13 times. Now there are 2 more Sunday Night games to go, including the final week of the season when NBC gets to pick a game away from either Fox or CBS due to its flex scheduling rights.
On Saturday (Dec. 19), the NFL Network had its most watched regular season game (only on the NFL Network - not counting the New England game two years ago shared with CBS and NBC). Just the NFL Network had more than 10 million viewers. This is significant because that figure does not include viewers watching the telecast "over-the-air" in the local markets. With the Cowboys being the Cowboys, and the Saints being unbeaten at the time, there was obviously huge interest in both local markets, which aren't factored in to these record ratings.
NBA-TV continues to roll along with its increased slate of games this season. Hard as it may be to believe, the fans voted to see the Oklahoma City Thunder game this Tuesday (Dec. 22). Then again, it is from Los Angeles against the Lakers. The fans won't be voting for the following Tuesday telecast, but NBA-TV will originate for Dec. 29th. Ernie Johnson will call the game, with Kevin McHale and Chris Webber as analysts, as Cleveland plays at Atlanta. Fan voting for the Tuesday night NBA-TV game returns before the Jan. 5th telecast.
ATLANTA: Speaking of Atlanta, just weeks after the phantom "base hit" in the American League "Game 163" telecast from Minnesota, Chip Caray has landed in the TV booth once again. He has been rehired by the Braves to handle play-by-play of at least 100 telecasts on Fox Sports South and SportSouth, paired with Joe Simpson. This nearly triples the amount of games Caray will work compared with the past couple of years on Sunday and post-season TBS telecasts.
BALTIMORE / D.C.: The Orioles TV analysis team on MASN may be reduced to Jim Palmer and Rick Dempsey for 2010. Buck Martinez, also known around the country for his work on TBS and earlier ESPN over the years, is leaving Baltimore to join the Toronto Blue Jays in their TV booth.
If I had a "Wrong Interpretation Award" for 2009 media, it would go to "Nasty" Nestor Aparicio, owner and an on-air host at Baltimore sports radio WNST 1570. Even in this year of increased sports radio listenership around the country, WNST just came in at 46th place in the latest ratings. That translates to, well, only a select few listeners. Aparicio's response was that his station web site is busier than "other radio stations and two of the four TV stations in Baltimore". He then took the approach that the web activity shows that the ratings are wrong. Guess he never thought about the possibility that the information and statistics available on the web site could be much more informative than his programming.
On the D.C. side, give a ton of credit to Nationals President Stan Kasten. He didn't just go on the Mike Wise show on 106.7 The Fan last Thursday (Dec. 17). He guest hosted the show, along with co-host Bill Rohland. His guests included Adam Dunn of the Nationals and NBA talk with Mike Fratello (whom Kasten actually fired years ago from the Atlanta Hawks). Kasten also commented on the Tiger Woods story and other headlines.
Here is the TV schedule for the coming weekend's NFL action. Enjoy!
WEEK 16
Friday, Dec. 25
7:30: San Diego at Tennessee, NFL Network
Sunday, Dec. 27
1:00: Buffalo at Atlanta, CBS
1:00: Kansas City at Cincinnati, CBS
1:00: Oakland at Cleveland, CBS
1:00: Seattle at Green Bay, Fox
1:00: Houston at Miami, CBS
1:00: Carolina at N.Y. Giants, Fox
1:00: Jacksonville at New England, CBS
1:00: Tampa Bay at New Orleans, Fox
1:00: Baltimore at Pittsburgh, CBS
4:05: St. Louis at Arizona, Fox
4:05: Detroit at San Francisco, Fox
4:15: N.Y. Jets at Indianapolis, CBS
4:15: Denver at Philadelphia, CBS
8:20: Dallas at Washington, NBC
Monday, Dec. 28
8:30: Minnesota at Chicago, ESPN (206)
Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, and Philadelphia are among the large markets showing significant growth in the total sports radio audience. In these cities it is not just one station on the increase. In Chicago, the two 50,000 watt AM sports stations, which have been competitors for years, are both coming off some of their best numbers ever.
This trend speaks well for the format. These ratings numbers, along with the increase of sports stations coming into large, medium, and small markets as competition, had never reached these levels before.
Why is this happening now? Many would say it is the People Meters, but I'm not among them. In the days of ratings diaries, you would figure that men would have been more apt to show listening to sports radio than to soft rock. I have a different theory.
I think the surge in sports radio listening around the country this year is because of the outrageously high ticket prices for sports events. It is no longer worth the hassle of going to a stadium or arena for just one regular season game when it can cost $150 for 2 people. I'm far from the only fan who feels this way.
As a result, fans are finding other ways to spend their "sports dollar". There are no official statistics on how much is bet each week. But we do see the increase in fantasy league activity, whether for money or the joy of it. The TV ratings this year indicate that people are more content than ever to stay home (or go to their favorite establishment) to enjoy HD and big screen telecasts where they can actually see what is going on in the game itself.
In order to keep up with their favorite teams and games, these same fans are now relying on sports radio more often than ever. Especially when combined with the music stations reducing the local flavor, cutting back on playlists, and clustering commercials.
Some of the sports stations generating the higher numbers have really not done very much different than, say, two years ago. I think their target audience is doing a better job of finding them. Let's see what 2010 brings for sports radio ratings.
Meanwhile, some programming decisions aren't so easy, especially when they don't turn out right. WBBM-TV Chicago, the CBS affiliate, has only itself to blame this past Sunday (Dec. 20) if their local NFL ratings went into the tank.
With the Chicago Bears playing on Fox, and on the road, in what was originally slated to be an "early" NFL game, WBBM-TV wisely scheduled the Cinci vs. San Diego "late" game as its lone telecast. The idea was to not go up against the Bears telecast and, so I thought, also offer the most appealing game CBS had to offer during the late time slot. When it can, WBBM-TV tries not to compete with the strong local ratings of Bears' telecasts on the Fox-TV station.
However, when the weather forced the Baltimore Ravens to move the game to the late (4:15 ET) slot, it meant that Fox-TV in Chicago would have the Bears game against the Cinci vs. San Diego telecast.
My first comment upon learning the Bears vs. Colts kickoff was changed was that WBBM-TV might have a winner on its hands with the Cinci vs. San Diego telecast. The game meant nothing to the Bears, already eliminated from playoff contention. Baltimore is an AFC team and not a rival. The game didn't figure to be close.
Yet, WBBM-TV still elected not to compete against the Bears, and picked up the Miami vs. Tennessee telecast early as their only NFL game of the day. Neither team has a particular following in Chicago, and it so happened that the game wasn't even close until late 4th quarter, just as fans were getting ready to check the start of the Bears game on Fox.
Sure enough, the Bears were out of the game in Baltimore early. As it was, Chicago fans couldn't get the Green Bay at Pittsburgh telecast originally scheduled. But instead of being able to switch over to a meaningful and interesting matchup on WBBM-TV, Bears fans (without the TV package available to get other games) were stuck with a horrible game - or no NFL football. Sometimes management needs people who know and understand the game to make such decisions. This was one of them.
The moving of the San Francisco at Philadelphia NFL telecast on Fox from an early to late telecast had an impact in that road team market as well. This made it a very rare time when the 49ers went head-to-head with the Raiders. In this instance, the Raiders got clobbered. In the ratings. Early numbers show the 49ers game with nearly 3 times the audience the Raiders vs. Broncos game had.
Later, the Sunday Night Football game on NBC didn't draw as well as most of the other telecasts this season, but the Carolina win over Minnesota still won the night for NBC. That's the 13th time this year NBC has finished first in the Sunday night ratings. Last year, NBC won 13 times. Now there are 2 more Sunday Night games to go, including the final week of the season when NBC gets to pick a game away from either Fox or CBS due to its flex scheduling rights.
On Saturday (Dec. 19), the NFL Network had its most watched regular season game (only on the NFL Network - not counting the New England game two years ago shared with CBS and NBC). Just the NFL Network had more than 10 million viewers. This is significant because that figure does not include viewers watching the telecast "over-the-air" in the local markets. With the Cowboys being the Cowboys, and the Saints being unbeaten at the time, there was obviously huge interest in both local markets, which aren't factored in to these record ratings.
NBA-TV continues to roll along with its increased slate of games this season. Hard as it may be to believe, the fans voted to see the Oklahoma City Thunder game this Tuesday (Dec. 22). Then again, it is from Los Angeles against the Lakers. The fans won't be voting for the following Tuesday telecast, but NBA-TV will originate for Dec. 29th. Ernie Johnson will call the game, with Kevin McHale and Chris Webber as analysts, as Cleveland plays at Atlanta. Fan voting for the Tuesday night NBA-TV game returns before the Jan. 5th telecast.
ATLANTA: Speaking of Atlanta, just weeks after the phantom "base hit" in the American League "Game 163" telecast from Minnesota, Chip Caray has landed in the TV booth once again. He has been rehired by the Braves to handle play-by-play of at least 100 telecasts on Fox Sports South and SportSouth, paired with Joe Simpson. This nearly triples the amount of games Caray will work compared with the past couple of years on Sunday and post-season TBS telecasts.
BALTIMORE / D.C.: The Orioles TV analysis team on MASN may be reduced to Jim Palmer and Rick Dempsey for 2010. Buck Martinez, also known around the country for his work on TBS and earlier ESPN over the years, is leaving Baltimore to join the Toronto Blue Jays in their TV booth.
If I had a "Wrong Interpretation Award" for 2009 media, it would go to "Nasty" Nestor Aparicio, owner and an on-air host at Baltimore sports radio WNST 1570. Even in this year of increased sports radio listenership around the country, WNST just came in at 46th place in the latest ratings. That translates to, well, only a select few listeners. Aparicio's response was that his station web site is busier than "other radio stations and two of the four TV stations in Baltimore". He then took the approach that the web activity shows that the ratings are wrong. Guess he never thought about the possibility that the information and statistics available on the web site could be much more informative than his programming.
On the D.C. side, give a ton of credit to Nationals President Stan Kasten. He didn't just go on the Mike Wise show on 106.7 The Fan last Thursday (Dec. 17). He guest hosted the show, along with co-host Bill Rohland. His guests included Adam Dunn of the Nationals and NBA talk with Mike Fratello (whom Kasten actually fired years ago from the Atlanta Hawks). Kasten also commented on the Tiger Woods story and other headlines.
Here is the TV schedule for the coming weekend's NFL action. Enjoy!
WEEK 16
Friday, Dec. 25
7:30: San Diego at Tennessee, NFL Network
Sunday, Dec. 27
1:00: Buffalo at Atlanta, CBS
1:00: Kansas City at Cincinnati, CBS
1:00: Oakland at Cleveland, CBS
1:00: Seattle at Green Bay, Fox
1:00: Houston at Miami, CBS
1:00: Carolina at N.Y. Giants, Fox
1:00: Jacksonville at New England, CBS
1:00: Tampa Bay at New Orleans, Fox
1:00: Baltimore at Pittsburgh, CBS
4:05: St. Louis at Arizona, Fox
4:05: Detroit at San Francisco, Fox
4:15: N.Y. Jets at Indianapolis, CBS
4:15: Denver at Philadelphia, CBS
8:20: Dallas at Washington, NBC
Monday, Dec. 28
8:30: Minnesota at Chicago, ESPN (206)
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Sports Media Update - Sept. 23rd
Have the TV people and the NFL done "too good" of a marketing job? It may be only 2 weeks into the season, but I see some indications of this. Over the years, the NFL has been the most effective of the pro sports leagues in terms of building up the league as a whole.
Even the casual football fan finds appeal in watching a good matchup involving the Cowboys, Patriot, and Colts (among others) simply based on the success of these teams and their key players over the years. NBC has had major success with its first 2 Sunday Night Football telecasts, while ESPN had record viewership for a cable telecast for its Monday Night Football game this week. In fact, the Colts-Dolphins game ranks as the biggest cable TV audience of the year for anything.
Obviously, these huge ratings mean that the audience is coming from well beyond the market territory of the participating teams. So why is this "too good"?
Stories were published leading into the season about certain teams being concerned about not selling out their games and having telecasts blacked out. This past Sunday, the Detroit Lions game was televised in Detroit because the blackout deadline was extended another 24 hours. It barely made the deadline, even though it was Brett Favre's first appearance in Detroit since having left the Packers. But the outcome of the game was never in question, as the Lions lost still again. The Jacksonville Jaguars loss to Arizona was blacked out locally. Both of those games were Fox telecasts, and early indications are that Fox-TV's NFL ratings were down for week 2 compared with week 1 and last season.
The San Diego Chargers game also sold out only because of the 24 hour extension. It was shown locally in both San Diego and Los Angeles.
My hunch is that the fans in Jacksonville were probably happier with the "better" game they got early. Some Lions fans were probably upset at the sellout, since they could have seen a better quality game had it not. Therein lies my point. The NFL has marketed the league and the out of town teams so well that in many instances the fans prefer out of town matchups to the local teams.
Need more proof? Fans in Houston had the Houston Texans vs. Tennessee as the first televised game of the day, and of course had the Cowboys vs. Giants game on NBC Sunday Night Football later on. The Texans are not expected to set the league on fire. Which telecast had more viewers? The Cowboys-Giants game wound up with .8 higher ratings in the Houston market. And if CBS wasn't airing The Emmy Awards against it, there is no telling how NBC would have fared.
The teams with crappy records either don't or barely sell out. Yet, interesting matchups on Sunday and Monday nights generate significant ratings in only the first 2 weeks of a young season. The NFL appeal has reached a point where fans will watch the best matchups, regardless of the home team.
If the attendance concerns really were due to the economy, then even the better matchups wouldn't sell out.
This could be a push for local radio. There is the percentage of fans who are not going to buy tickets this season that will listen on the radio since they can't see the game on local TV when it doesn't sell out.
It is not just the NFL with increased ratings. The college game with Florida vs. Tennessee this past Saturday on CBS-TV drew a rating 60% higher than for the same matchup last season. It wound up as CBS' highest rated telecast this early in the season since Sept. 7, 2002, and the U. of Florida was in that game (against rival Miami).
Personally, I think this trend is great. With ticket prices, parking, concessions, and fans being gouged just to go to a game these days, staying home or going to a gathering place to watch the best matchups sends a message to the home team that they need to be competitive in order to fill the seats. The will to win is, or at least should be, what sports is all about.
Meanwhile, a TV oddity in New York City this Sunday. Both the Jets and Giants will be on at the same since the Jets moved their kick off against Tennessee up to the early game due to the Yom Kippur holiday. For the same reason, Jets and Giants fans who are also Yankees fans face additional competition, as the Yankees vs. Red Sox game was moved from Sunday Night to the afternoon. The baseball game will be seen on ESPN which does Sunday Night Baseball during the afternoon. TBS will not show a game this Sunday, instead showing the Yankees and Red Sox on Friday night in prime time.
LOOKING AHEAD: CBS-TV has announced that it will show the LSU at Georgia game at 3:30 PM ET on Saturday Oct. 3, with Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson on the call.
But ESPN is looking past next week. They have announced their 2010 college football opening telecast for next September 2nd. North Carolina will play LSU at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. So now when you get your 2010 calendar, you have a September event to pencil in.
ESPN is ready to welcome college hoops with another 24 hour marathon of games on November 17th. It starts at 12 Midnight ET with Cal State Fullerton at UCLA on ESPN. A live telecast from Hawaii will be game 3, starting at 4 AM ET, and Temple at Georgetown airs at 4 PM ET. By the way, Nov. 17th is a Tuesday.
LOS ANGELES: UCLA basketball won't be hard to find for local TV viewers when its season starts in November. As of now, 26 of its games are scheduled to be televised. In addition to 15 games shown as part of the Pac 10 Conference packages with ESPN, CBS, and Fox Sports Net, 8 games will be seen on Prime Ticket and Fox Sports West. ESPN will also show their 3 games in the 76 Classic in Anaheim on Thanksgiving weekend.
PHILADELPHIA: WIP 610 will handle both the Sixers and Flyers broadcasts for the upcoming season, but the station will not have control over the advertisers. How times have changed. The teams will oversee their own broadcast advertising and package sponsorships with other opportunities beyond the broadcasts themselves.
For the past couple of years we have been bombarded with reports on how radio stations are cutting back on jobs, programming, and whatever other costs they can think of. They search for ways to increase revenue. Then they let pro teams take over game broadcast revenue. Now a sponsor can spend additional money on game program magazines, arena signage, corporate seats and boxes, and promotional giveaway items. With money that in the past may well have been spent sponsoring other team or sports related programming on the radio station.
SAN DIEGO: It seems like old news even though it begins, again, on Monday October 5th. Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton in afternoon drive on San Diego sports radio. After weeks of speculation, Hacksaw begins on XX1090 AM in the 3 - 7 PM slot. He will continue to call NFL games for Compass Sports. It is a long way from past years when he called Chargers games, San Diego State, or USC football. Hamilton has always been a good fit in San Diego because of his vast knowledge of national sports. With so many transplanted sports fans, San Diego is not the typical market in terms of non-stop talk about only the local teams.
SAN FRANCISCO: Three of the inductees to The Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame at next Tuesday's (Sept. 29) ceremony are or were sports broadcasters. Most noteworthy is Hank Greenwald, the voice of the Giants from 1980 to 1996.
You may remember the call of "The band is on the field!!!" from the famous Cal Berkeley game in 1982. He is still the voice of Cal Bears football, but Joe Starkey was also Sports Director at KGO for 30 years.
Going back a few years, the 3rd sports honoree is Cliff Johnsen, who called San Francisco 49ers games back in the 1940's. That was so long ago it was before the All-America Football Conference "merged" with the NFL in 1950 and included the 49ers. Congrats are in order to all 3, who have brought thousands and thousands of hours of enjoyment to Bay Area sports fans.
KTRB 860 has a new Sports Director, but he is far from new to the market. Ken Dito takes over the position on the station, which now carries the A's games and Stanford football. Dito called A's games years ago on KSFO and KFRC, and was at KNBR as far back as 1979.
DALLAS: The radio ratings for August again show that males 25-54 are The Ticket. In that key demographic, The Ticket shows more than double the audience of ESPN Radio, which has a slight lead over The Fan.
TAMPA: NHL Hal of Famer Phil Esposito will host a one hour segment on WHBO 1040, which is the local ESPN station. It will air from 1 - 2 PM local time each Wednesday afternoon. My thinking is that Espo is being groomed to do a show in Boston, where he had the best of his Hall of Fame bound seasons, and where ESPN needs to make inroads into that crowded sports radio market. This show doesn't figure to be on because Tampa is such a hockey hotbed, especially airing once a week on a Wednesday afternoon.
REDDING CAL.: After a year and a half, sports radio is on the comeback as of this week, as KNRO 1670 debuted its syndicated lineup of Fox Sports Radio programming on Monday (Sept. 21). No word yet about regional play-by-play, but speculation is that Giants, 49ers, and Kings play-by-play could happen within the next year.
NORFOLK: ESPN Radio moves to 94.1 FM as of Monday Oct. 5th. At that time WGH 1310 will change formats, except for keeping James Madison U. play-by-play.
Even the casual football fan finds appeal in watching a good matchup involving the Cowboys, Patriot, and Colts (among others) simply based on the success of these teams and their key players over the years. NBC has had major success with its first 2 Sunday Night Football telecasts, while ESPN had record viewership for a cable telecast for its Monday Night Football game this week. In fact, the Colts-Dolphins game ranks as the biggest cable TV audience of the year for anything.
Obviously, these huge ratings mean that the audience is coming from well beyond the market territory of the participating teams. So why is this "too good"?
Stories were published leading into the season about certain teams being concerned about not selling out their games and having telecasts blacked out. This past Sunday, the Detroit Lions game was televised in Detroit because the blackout deadline was extended another 24 hours. It barely made the deadline, even though it was Brett Favre's first appearance in Detroit since having left the Packers. But the outcome of the game was never in question, as the Lions lost still again. The Jacksonville Jaguars loss to Arizona was blacked out locally. Both of those games were Fox telecasts, and early indications are that Fox-TV's NFL ratings were down for week 2 compared with week 1 and last season.
The San Diego Chargers game also sold out only because of the 24 hour extension. It was shown locally in both San Diego and Los Angeles.
My hunch is that the fans in Jacksonville were probably happier with the "better" game they got early. Some Lions fans were probably upset at the sellout, since they could have seen a better quality game had it not. Therein lies my point. The NFL has marketed the league and the out of town teams so well that in many instances the fans prefer out of town matchups to the local teams.
Need more proof? Fans in Houston had the Houston Texans vs. Tennessee as the first televised game of the day, and of course had the Cowboys vs. Giants game on NBC Sunday Night Football later on. The Texans are not expected to set the league on fire. Which telecast had more viewers? The Cowboys-Giants game wound up with .8 higher ratings in the Houston market. And if CBS wasn't airing The Emmy Awards against it, there is no telling how NBC would have fared.
The teams with crappy records either don't or barely sell out. Yet, interesting matchups on Sunday and Monday nights generate significant ratings in only the first 2 weeks of a young season. The NFL appeal has reached a point where fans will watch the best matchups, regardless of the home team.
If the attendance concerns really were due to the economy, then even the better matchups wouldn't sell out.
This could be a push for local radio. There is the percentage of fans who are not going to buy tickets this season that will listen on the radio since they can't see the game on local TV when it doesn't sell out.
It is not just the NFL with increased ratings. The college game with Florida vs. Tennessee this past Saturday on CBS-TV drew a rating 60% higher than for the same matchup last season. It wound up as CBS' highest rated telecast this early in the season since Sept. 7, 2002, and the U. of Florida was in that game (against rival Miami).
Personally, I think this trend is great. With ticket prices, parking, concessions, and fans being gouged just to go to a game these days, staying home or going to a gathering place to watch the best matchups sends a message to the home team that they need to be competitive in order to fill the seats. The will to win is, or at least should be, what sports is all about.
Meanwhile, a TV oddity in New York City this Sunday. Both the Jets and Giants will be on at the same since the Jets moved their kick off against Tennessee up to the early game due to the Yom Kippur holiday. For the same reason, Jets and Giants fans who are also Yankees fans face additional competition, as the Yankees vs. Red Sox game was moved from Sunday Night to the afternoon. The baseball game will be seen on ESPN which does Sunday Night Baseball during the afternoon. TBS will not show a game this Sunday, instead showing the Yankees and Red Sox on Friday night in prime time.
LOOKING AHEAD: CBS-TV has announced that it will show the LSU at Georgia game at 3:30 PM ET on Saturday Oct. 3, with Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson on the call.
But ESPN is looking past next week. They have announced their 2010 college football opening telecast for next September 2nd. North Carolina will play LSU at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. So now when you get your 2010 calendar, you have a September event to pencil in.
ESPN is ready to welcome college hoops with another 24 hour marathon of games on November 17th. It starts at 12 Midnight ET with Cal State Fullerton at UCLA on ESPN. A live telecast from Hawaii will be game 3, starting at 4 AM ET, and Temple at Georgetown airs at 4 PM ET. By the way, Nov. 17th is a Tuesday.
LOS ANGELES: UCLA basketball won't be hard to find for local TV viewers when its season starts in November. As of now, 26 of its games are scheduled to be televised. In addition to 15 games shown as part of the Pac 10 Conference packages with ESPN, CBS, and Fox Sports Net, 8 games will be seen on Prime Ticket and Fox Sports West. ESPN will also show their 3 games in the 76 Classic in Anaheim on Thanksgiving weekend.
PHILADELPHIA: WIP 610 will handle both the Sixers and Flyers broadcasts for the upcoming season, but the station will not have control over the advertisers. How times have changed. The teams will oversee their own broadcast advertising and package sponsorships with other opportunities beyond the broadcasts themselves.
For the past couple of years we have been bombarded with reports on how radio stations are cutting back on jobs, programming, and whatever other costs they can think of. They search for ways to increase revenue. Then they let pro teams take over game broadcast revenue. Now a sponsor can spend additional money on game program magazines, arena signage, corporate seats and boxes, and promotional giveaway items. With money that in the past may well have been spent sponsoring other team or sports related programming on the radio station.
SAN DIEGO: It seems like old news even though it begins, again, on Monday October 5th. Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton in afternoon drive on San Diego sports radio. After weeks of speculation, Hacksaw begins on XX1090 AM in the 3 - 7 PM slot. He will continue to call NFL games for Compass Sports. It is a long way from past years when he called Chargers games, San Diego State, or USC football. Hamilton has always been a good fit in San Diego because of his vast knowledge of national sports. With so many transplanted sports fans, San Diego is not the typical market in terms of non-stop talk about only the local teams.
SAN FRANCISCO: Three of the inductees to The Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame at next Tuesday's (Sept. 29) ceremony are or were sports broadcasters. Most noteworthy is Hank Greenwald, the voice of the Giants from 1980 to 1996.
You may remember the call of "The band is on the field!!!" from the famous Cal Berkeley game in 1982. He is still the voice of Cal Bears football, but Joe Starkey was also Sports Director at KGO for 30 years.
Going back a few years, the 3rd sports honoree is Cliff Johnsen, who called San Francisco 49ers games back in the 1940's. That was so long ago it was before the All-America Football Conference "merged" with the NFL in 1950 and included the 49ers. Congrats are in order to all 3, who have brought thousands and thousands of hours of enjoyment to Bay Area sports fans.
KTRB 860 has a new Sports Director, but he is far from new to the market. Ken Dito takes over the position on the station, which now carries the A's games and Stanford football. Dito called A's games years ago on KSFO and KFRC, and was at KNBR as far back as 1979.
DALLAS: The radio ratings for August again show that males 25-54 are The Ticket. In that key demographic, The Ticket shows more than double the audience of ESPN Radio, which has a slight lead over The Fan.
TAMPA: NHL Hal of Famer Phil Esposito will host a one hour segment on WHBO 1040, which is the local ESPN station. It will air from 1 - 2 PM local time each Wednesday afternoon. My thinking is that Espo is being groomed to do a show in Boston, where he had the best of his Hall of Fame bound seasons, and where ESPN needs to make inroads into that crowded sports radio market. This show doesn't figure to be on because Tampa is such a hockey hotbed, especially airing once a week on a Wednesday afternoon.
REDDING CAL.: After a year and a half, sports radio is on the comeback as of this week, as KNRO 1670 debuted its syndicated lineup of Fox Sports Radio programming on Monday (Sept. 21). No word yet about regional play-by-play, but speculation is that Giants, 49ers, and Kings play-by-play could happen within the next year.
NORFOLK: ESPN Radio moves to 94.1 FM as of Monday Oct. 5th. At that time WGH 1310 will change formats, except for keeping James Madison U. play-by-play.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Sports Media Update - Sept. 2nd
Nice to see a sports radio show behind the breaking of a sports news story, even if it is not your typical sports story. Yahoo Sports has confirmed that indeed Dave Carmichael on Sacramento's KHTK was involved in breaking the improbable story about the NBA's Ron Artest contacting and "making up" with the fan who started the memorable brawl in the Pistons-Pacers game a few years back. Artest has been a frequent guest and contributor on the show going back to his days of playing with the Kings.
What makes this story even more bizarre is that the on-air discussion about this between Carmichael and Artest has taken place even though Artest is now a member of the L.A. Lakers. Yet, without the Sacramento radio show, this story might not have gotten out. In this sports reporting era of trade, hiring, and firing rumors making up the supposed headlines as often as the actual games, it is good to see at least one radio station breaking a story.
There haven't been very many NFL pre-season games I have made any sort of effort to watch, but last Sunday's Chicago Bears at Denver Broncos game was certainly a rare exception. The teams that participated in the biggest trade of the past couple of years and who are not scheduled to meet during the upcoming regular season going head to head. I can't help but wonder how big of a factor the Jay Cutler trade was in NBC's decision to air this one nationally, but that decision paid off.
The Bears' win with Cutler's dominant first half gained NBC the distinction of having the most watched pre-season game in literally 5 years. (Yes, literally as the last big pre-season draw as Dallas vs. Tennessee on Aug. 30, 2004.) It wound up being NBC's best Sunday prime time audience since, well, the Super Bowl this past February. For at least the first half, the two teams played the game as if it really had meaning, and it made a difference to the audience well beyond Denver and Chicago. Even more unusual is the fact that 3 of the top 10 "metered markets" for the game were from markets which do not have an NFL franchise. Oh, and the NFL doesn't want us to know, but another of those top 10 markets for the Bears vs. Broncos telecast was Jacksonville, which is facing having most or all of the Jaguars home games blacked out this season due to poor ticket sales.
Then, this past Monday night, the Vikings' pre-season game with Brett Favre also scored well for ESPN. Here's hoping the TV networks will start picking pre-season telecasts based on trades, signings, and significant changes in the future.
The MLB Network continues to make new and great strides practically every week with their innovations and coverage of the season. Now, they are adding still more live game telecasts to the mix in addition to 2 games most Thursdays and 1 on Saturday nights.
They are scheduled to show 2 games on Monday (Labor Day), with the Red Sox at White Sox at 2:00 ET and the Yankees hosting the Rays at 7:00 ET. MLB Network is also planning to cover the playoff races by adding live game telecasts for the final 3 Tuesdays of the season on Sept. 15, 22, and 29th. They will announce which games as the dates draw closer. Meanwhile, TBS will use its opening for a prime time telecast on Friday night Sept. 25th when they will originate the Red Sox at Yankees telecast. Now if we can only get some closer division races..........
College football is back big time starting this week with a ton of national (and some regional) games on tap (shown by ET):
Thursday’s games
7:00: South Carolina at North Carolina State, ESPN
7:30: North Texas at Ball State, ESPNU
8:00: Eastern Kentucky at Indiana, BTN (Big Ten Network)
9:00: Utah State at Utah, MTN
10:15: Oregon at Boise State, ESPN
Friday’s game
8:00: Tulsa at Tulane, ESPN
Saturday’s games
12:00: Akron at Penn State, BTN
12:00: Navy at Ohio State, ESPN
12:00: Minnesota at Syracuse, ESPN2
12:00: Kentucky at Miami (Ohio), ESPNU
3:30: Georgia at Oklahoma State, ABC
3:30: Illinois vs. Missouri, ESPN
3:30: Baylor at Wake Forest, ESPN2
3:30: Nevada at Notre Dame,NBC
3:30: Jackson State at Mississippi State, ESPNU
7:00: Brigham Young vs. Oklahoma, ESPN
7:00: Louisiana Tech at Auburn, ESPNU
7:00: Northern Illinois at Wisconsin, BTN
8:00: Alabama vs. Virginia Tech, ABC
9:00: Buffalo at Texas-El Paso, CBS College
10:00: Maryland at California, ESPN2
10:30: LSU at Washington, ESPN
Sunday’s games
3:30: Mississippi at Memphis, ESPN
Monday’s games
4:00: Cincinnati at Rutgers, ESPN
8:00: Miami (Fla.) at Florida State, ESPN
DENVER: ESPN 1600 continues to push for listeners against Mile High Sports, and they are hoping that local legend John Elway can come through in the clutch for them. Elway will join Channel 4 anchors Vic Lombardi and Gary Miller each Monday morning at 8:00 local time right through the morning after the Super Bowl. They also have former Bronco receiver Ed McCaffery scheduled to join their morning show each Tuesday morning for still more analysis.
ATLANTA + ATHENS: Former University of Georgia defensive end David Pollack will be an analyst on "SEC Gridiron Live" on Fox Sports South and Fox Sports Southwest beginning this week, with the first run of the show at 10:00 PM ET on Wednesdays. Former NFL standout and analyst Randy Cross is also on this show.
PHILADELPHIA: As mentioned earlier, Bob Salmi will not return to the 76ers telecasts for the coming NBA season. The announcement has been made official that Ed Pinckney will replace Salmi on the Comcast SportsNet telecasts working along with Marc Zumoff.
ORLANDO: Talk about an impact player! Dwight Howard has emerged as a force in the NBA and the upcoming season reflects that. Yet, the Orlando Magic Radio Network will actually benefit more on the financial side than the TV side. The national or regional network TV schedules announced by ABC, ESPN, and TNT already have 24 games of the Magic scheduled. The scheduled 10 appearances on TNT and 5 on ABC are exclusive telecasts, which means that Sun Sports or Fox Sports Florida cannot show those games. Thus, fewer revenue opportunities from TV advertising whereas the Radio Network does every game.
Sun Sports and Fox Sports Florida are splitting up every game which can be shown. David Steele returns for play-by-play and former Magic coach Matt Goukas will again provide commentary on.
DALLAS: The Fan 103.5 has just added Richie Whitt as official co-host for middays along with Nevy Scruggs. This means no more rotating with Richard Durrett.
ALLENTOWN: The Fox 1470 adds a local sports show from 9:00 to 11:00 AM beginning this Saturday (9/5). Keith Groller will host "Calling All Sports", with the local newspaper columnist focusing on Penn State and Philadelphia Eagles football along with Phillies baseball and local happenings.
What makes this story even more bizarre is that the on-air discussion about this between Carmichael and Artest has taken place even though Artest is now a member of the L.A. Lakers. Yet, without the Sacramento radio show, this story might not have gotten out. In this sports reporting era of trade, hiring, and firing rumors making up the supposed headlines as often as the actual games, it is good to see at least one radio station breaking a story.
There haven't been very many NFL pre-season games I have made any sort of effort to watch, but last Sunday's Chicago Bears at Denver Broncos game was certainly a rare exception. The teams that participated in the biggest trade of the past couple of years and who are not scheduled to meet during the upcoming regular season going head to head. I can't help but wonder how big of a factor the Jay Cutler trade was in NBC's decision to air this one nationally, but that decision paid off.
The Bears' win with Cutler's dominant first half gained NBC the distinction of having the most watched pre-season game in literally 5 years. (Yes, literally as the last big pre-season draw as Dallas vs. Tennessee on Aug. 30, 2004.) It wound up being NBC's best Sunday prime time audience since, well, the Super Bowl this past February. For at least the first half, the two teams played the game as if it really had meaning, and it made a difference to the audience well beyond Denver and Chicago. Even more unusual is the fact that 3 of the top 10 "metered markets" for the game were from markets which do not have an NFL franchise. Oh, and the NFL doesn't want us to know, but another of those top 10 markets for the Bears vs. Broncos telecast was Jacksonville, which is facing having most or all of the Jaguars home games blacked out this season due to poor ticket sales.
Then, this past Monday night, the Vikings' pre-season game with Brett Favre also scored well for ESPN. Here's hoping the TV networks will start picking pre-season telecasts based on trades, signings, and significant changes in the future.
The MLB Network continues to make new and great strides practically every week with their innovations and coverage of the season. Now, they are adding still more live game telecasts to the mix in addition to 2 games most Thursdays and 1 on Saturday nights.
They are scheduled to show 2 games on Monday (Labor Day), with the Red Sox at White Sox at 2:00 ET and the Yankees hosting the Rays at 7:00 ET. MLB Network is also planning to cover the playoff races by adding live game telecasts for the final 3 Tuesdays of the season on Sept. 15, 22, and 29th. They will announce which games as the dates draw closer. Meanwhile, TBS will use its opening for a prime time telecast on Friday night Sept. 25th when they will originate the Red Sox at Yankees telecast. Now if we can only get some closer division races..........
College football is back big time starting this week with a ton of national (and some regional) games on tap (shown by ET):
Thursday’s games
7:00: South Carolina at North Carolina State, ESPN
7:30: North Texas at Ball State, ESPNU
8:00: Eastern Kentucky at Indiana, BTN (Big Ten Network)
9:00: Utah State at Utah, MTN
10:15: Oregon at Boise State, ESPN
Friday’s game
8:00: Tulsa at Tulane, ESPN
Saturday’s games
12:00: Akron at Penn State, BTN
12:00: Navy at Ohio State, ESPN
12:00: Minnesota at Syracuse, ESPN2
12:00: Kentucky at Miami (Ohio), ESPNU
3:30: Georgia at Oklahoma State, ABC
3:30: Illinois vs. Missouri, ESPN
3:30: Baylor at Wake Forest, ESPN2
3:30: Nevada at Notre Dame,NBC
3:30: Jackson State at Mississippi State, ESPNU
7:00: Brigham Young vs. Oklahoma, ESPN
7:00: Louisiana Tech at Auburn, ESPNU
7:00: Northern Illinois at Wisconsin, BTN
8:00: Alabama vs. Virginia Tech, ABC
9:00: Buffalo at Texas-El Paso, CBS College
10:00: Maryland at California, ESPN2
10:30: LSU at Washington, ESPN
Sunday’s games
3:30: Mississippi at Memphis, ESPN
Monday’s games
4:00: Cincinnati at Rutgers, ESPN
8:00: Miami (Fla.) at Florida State, ESPN
DENVER: ESPN 1600 continues to push for listeners against Mile High Sports, and they are hoping that local legend John Elway can come through in the clutch for them. Elway will join Channel 4 anchors Vic Lombardi and Gary Miller each Monday morning at 8:00 local time right through the morning after the Super Bowl. They also have former Bronco receiver Ed McCaffery scheduled to join their morning show each Tuesday morning for still more analysis.
ATLANTA + ATHENS: Former University of Georgia defensive end David Pollack will be an analyst on "SEC Gridiron Live" on Fox Sports South and Fox Sports Southwest beginning this week, with the first run of the show at 10:00 PM ET on Wednesdays. Former NFL standout and analyst Randy Cross is also on this show.
PHILADELPHIA: As mentioned earlier, Bob Salmi will not return to the 76ers telecasts for the coming NBA season. The announcement has been made official that Ed Pinckney will replace Salmi on the Comcast SportsNet telecasts working along with Marc Zumoff.
ORLANDO: Talk about an impact player! Dwight Howard has emerged as a force in the NBA and the upcoming season reflects that. Yet, the Orlando Magic Radio Network will actually benefit more on the financial side than the TV side. The national or regional network TV schedules announced by ABC, ESPN, and TNT already have 24 games of the Magic scheduled. The scheduled 10 appearances on TNT and 5 on ABC are exclusive telecasts, which means that Sun Sports or Fox Sports Florida cannot show those games. Thus, fewer revenue opportunities from TV advertising whereas the Radio Network does every game.
Sun Sports and Fox Sports Florida are splitting up every game which can be shown. David Steele returns for play-by-play and former Magic coach Matt Goukas will again provide commentary on.
DALLAS: The Fan 103.5 has just added Richie Whitt as official co-host for middays along with Nevy Scruggs. This means no more rotating with Richard Durrett.
ALLENTOWN: The Fox 1470 adds a local sports show from 9:00 to 11:00 AM beginning this Saturday (9/5). Keith Groller will host "Calling All Sports", with the local newspaper columnist focusing on Penn State and Philadelphia Eagles football along with Phillies baseball and local happenings.
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