It has been a very challenging week for the St. Louis Cardinals, their fans, and even for radio stations they helped to shape. From a media standpoint, it is more than recovering from the disappointing sweep by the L. A. Dodgers in the first round of the playoffs.
The huge news that for the first time in more than 35 years KMOX Radio is not the top rated station in St. Louis certainly has its place in this column. Yes, I know that for the past 2 seasons, the Cardinals games have been broadcast on a different station.
My point is that the Cardinals radio situation has resulted in defeat for all parties involved, separate from the team losing to the Dodgers.
This past regular season was the best for the team on the field since 2006 when the Cardinals went all the way to a World Series championship. And KMOX Radio aired every moment along the way.
Ever since the Cardinals bought into KTRS 550 and moved the broadcasts there, many fans have complained about signal and reception problems. Thousands of baseball-loving fans outside of the immediate St. Louis area not served by a Cardinals Radio Network station could no longer pick up the broadcasts at night.
While I understand that the Cardinals went revenue "now" from their broadcasts, they overlooked the future consequences when they no longer have avid fans between 50 and 200 miles from St. Louis who cannot easily receive the broadcasts anymore, and they become far less likely to attend games in St. Louis at least once per summer.
KMOX reportedly did all it could to keep the Cardinals broadcasts. And now, the ratings for the period of time leading into the Cardinals clinching their first Central Division title in 3 years show listeners are going away from KMOX.
Put those stories together, and it spells a bad decision all around. There is no way anyone can convince me that KMOX would lose its top ranking after 35+ years during a Cardinals clinching month if it still had the broadcasts.
If only the Cardinals had stuck to baseball and not plunged into the radio business. Ironically, this is an instance where a CBS Radio station lost audience because of something not their fault. Let's just say that a certain Cardinals outfielder wasn't the only one who "dropped the ball" in a crucial situation lately.
Speaking of dropping the ball, TBS made still another strange decision regarding its baseball coverage this past weekend. TBS was stuck with a nearly 3 hour window between games on Sunday (Oct. 11th) due to the Dodgers' sweep of the Cardinals. After the Angeles eliminated the Red Sox early Sunday afternoon, the network did a short post-game show with only a couple of on field interviews. Host Ernie Johnson was in the studio, as he would be later on the for the night doubleheader of telecasts from Minneapolis and Denver.
Yet, Johnson was alone for the afternoon session. How does this happen? What we wound up with was the night telecasts with, count 'em, three analysts in the studio bucking for air time. As a result, fans had no studio analyst for a clinching game. They can't use the excuse that Dennis Eckersley couldn't analyze the Red Sox, given that he did some Red Sox TV filling in (and quite well) for Jerry Remy throughout the season. After all, Red Sox TV voice Joe Orsillo called the series for TBS. You can't tell me they needed all 3 analysts to wrap up the Phillies-Rockies telecast of Sunday night which ran until after 2 AM ET on a Sunday night, and could not have been a series clinching game.
At least this move took away from Chip Caray's phantom play-by-play calls.
Then there was ESPN Radio putting Chris Berman on as play-by-play voice for its national broadcast of the Phillies and Rockies series opener. It is understandable that after 30 years of almost all TV work, Berman constantly forgot that listeners can't see what is happening when he talks. As a result, thousands of listeners, during a weekday afternoon when radio broadcasts have a bigger reach, had little to no idea of what just happened. This time, I don't blame Chris Berman. You can't tell me that ESPN Radio couldn't have gotten someone with years of radio play-by-play experience to take that plum assignment instead.
The time to blame Berman was, for example, in his Game 1 telecast play-by-play of the 2005 Division Series opener between the Red Sox and White Sox. When a ground ball went between the legs of the Boston 2nd baseman for a crucial error, Berman's call consisted of "OH.......NOOOOOO !!" on a national telecast with fans of both teams watching. But on the Phillies vs. Rockies radio broadcast, it wasn't his fault he was there.
Meanwhile, it is one thing when sports reporters bring facts together in order to speculate about a possible story. But it is another when callers to a sports station start doing the same. Have we gotten to that point?
The Zone 1280 in Salt Lake City had a very interesting group of callers last week just after the story broke that Dave Checketts (along with Rush Limbaugh) was teaming up to bid on the NFL St. Louis Rams. Checketts has ties to Utah. Among callers to the radio station was a man claiming to have seen a plan involving land supposedly set aside for an NFL stadium. Other callers pointed out how St. Louis lost the (NFL) Cardinals to Arizona in the late 80's and that the Rams moved there from Los Angeles. Interesting theory. It may or may not happen, and it might not even come to fruition, but that isn't the point. What got my attention was learning that callers to a radio station are tapping into a potential story.
On the TV side, the numbers continue to look good for the NFL. The Denver vs. New England overtime thriller on CBS this past Sunday will certain help. (Numbers not available at press time.)
But the great numbers for football across the board are already making an impact. CBS now reports that about 80% of its inventory is already sold for its February 7th Super Bowl telecast - reportedly at $2.5 million or more for a 30-second spot.
NEW YORK: Yankees telecast ratings on YES increased by nearly 10% over the course of the regular season, pushing it ahead of NESN as the most watched regional sports network in the country.
Even though fans couldn't actually see the studio, they might notice a different sound or feel to 660 WFAN as of this week. The Fan has now moved into the Manhattan studios of its CBS Radio sister stations, following 20+ years of broadcasting from Kaufman Studios in Queens.
PHILADELPHIA: ESPN Radio continues to try and rival WIP 610 for the sports audience. WPEN 950 AM is now being simulcast on 97.5 FM, and will continue to be split between local and ESPN national programming. Both stations are airing the baseball playoff broadcasts. This announcement comes just days after the latest ratings show that WIP has increased its overall audience by about one-third this year.
LOS ANGELES: While it is way too early to pass judgement, the latest ratings show KFWB 980 slipping into 34th place for the period which ended during September. Granted, the ratings period ended less than one month into the revised format (from News to News/Talk), but this time period included the Angels' run toward clinching the American League West Division title. It's not like beginning its NBA Clippers contract this month will make a splash. We'll see just how compatible Dr. Laura and the Clippers are on the same radio station.
BOSTON: WBZ-FM 98.5 The Sports Hub had an outstanding debut in its first month of ratings. From nowhere, WBZ-FM showed up in 11th place in 25-54 men, while scoring higher than the station "average" in this demographic for morning drive. These showings represent more than 1/2 of WEEI 850's audience in the same categories. Yet, both stations have reasons to be pleased. The WEEI 850 morning show with John Dennis and Gerry Callahan came in #1 in that demographic, while Glen Ordway in the afternoon did the same.
This is primarily a reflection of one of the strongest sports periods in Boston history. Even though the Red Sox were just eliminated, the Patriots continue a solid run, while the Bruins and Celtics begin seasons in which both are expected to make a solid playoff run.
CHICAGO: Sports radio in Chicago is seeing solid numbers from competitors WSCR The Score and WMVP ESPN Radio based on the most recent ratings. This is becoming quite the battle between the two. Overall, WMVP ranked 13th in the market, with WSCR right behind at 14th. In morning drive, WSCR ranks #7 with WMVP at #8. WMVP has the edge in afternoons, finishing 9th while WSCR ranked #15. In the 25-54 male category, WMVP finished #3 overall, with WSCR right behind at #4. To some, the demographic showing becomes even more impressive when you realize that a Spanish station is one of the 2 stations that finished higher.
The Score has made one improvment, although it is probably short-lived. Even though the station continues to air Dan Patrick's midday show on a significant delay late night, they knew to edit out segments about upcoming baseball post-season games which had already been completed by the time the show aired. Even though they did not change anything during the entire season of regular season games having been completed before airing the show.
DETROIT: "The Ticket" WXYT-FM is the ticket in the latest Motor City radio ratgings, showing an audience increase of more than 20%. And to think the ratings period concluded before the Lions actually won a game.
WASHINGTON D.C.: I'm sure the "Sports Hub" in Boston has this info plastered across every bulletin board in the station. The fan 106.7, which signed on just this past July, has already become the most popular sports station in D.C. in the 25-54 male demographic. Its audience increased by 38% in the 12+ age category, thus overtaking WTEM ESPN 980. In addition to U. of Maryland football and NFL broadcasts, The Fan begins NBA Wizards broadcasts this month.
HOUSTON: The KILT 610 morning show with Marc Vandermeer actually devoted portions of its morning show this past Thursday (Oct. 8) to the AHL's Houston Aeros. Vandermeer, the voice of the Texans, and John Lopez aired live from the Toyota Center Arena on the Aeros' Media Day and interviewed team officials and players. Even though Houston does not have an NHL team, it is unusual for a station of that size to devote morning drive time to hockey, let alone a minor league team.
TENTATIVE COLLEGE FOOTBALL ON TV for this week (subject to change, times Eastern):
Wednesday, Oct. 14
8:00: Boise St. at Tulsa, ESPN
Thursday, Oct. 15
7:30: Cincinnati at South Florida, ESPN
7:30: Howard at Morgan St., ESPNU
8:00: Virginia Union at Virginia St. (D-II), CBS College
Friday, Oct. 16
8:00: Pittsburgh at Rutgers, ESPN
Saturday, Oct. 17
12:00: Oklahoma vs. Texas, ABC
12:00: Ohio State at Purdue, BTN
12:00: Delaware St. at Michigan, BTN
12:00: Iowa at Wisconsin, ESPN
12:00: Northwestern at Michigan St., ESPN2
12:30: Mississippi State at Middle Tennessee, ESPNU
12:30: Princeton at Brown, Versus
3:30: Minnesota at Penn State, ABC
3:30: Arkansas at Florida, CBS
3:30: Houston at Tulane, CBS College
3:30: N.C. State at Boston College, ESPN
3:30: Southern Cal at Notre Dame, NBC
4:00: Virginia at Maryland, ESPNU
4:00: Colorado St. at Texas Christian, Versus
6:00: Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech, ESPN2
7:00: Illinois at Indiana, BTN
7:30: Miami (Fla.) at Central Florida, CBS College
7:30: Kentucky at Auburn, ESPNU
7:30: Stanford at Arizona, Versus
7:45: South Carolina at Alabama, ESPN
9:15: Missouri at Oklahoma St., ESPN2
Showing posts with label dodgers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dodgers. Show all posts
Monday, October 12, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Sports Media Report - July 8th update
It is a week where sports related publicity about the media is most definitely a mixed bag rather than a positive among the sports fans.CBS-TV Sports is making a big deal about its decision to replay a 1963 "Wonderful World of Golf" match between Jack Nicklaus and Sam Sneed this comong Sunday (7/12) as a lead-in to its scheduled coverage of the final round of the John Deere Classic.
Right idea, but wrong network. CBS-TV still has plenty of ground to make up if it wants to be recognized once again as a TV sports leader. Their offerings are still a far cry from their days in the '90's when they topped the TV sports world with MLB, NFL, and NBA coverage on a regular basis before bailing out on all for a while. Instead, this airing comes off as an obvious plea for the older audience to come back to watching televised golf. My hunch is that those who would tune in to remember Sam Sneed (who was around 50 years old at the time of the original airing) probably are not as in tune with today's golfers and might not stick around for the Deere Classic.
What would be the "right" network? That would be ESPN Classic, but that network continues its decline from years ago, unfortunately. Given the millions of dollars and relationships that ESPN enjoys with MLB, NFL, NBA, and the NCAA (plus a couple of stints with NHL rights in the past), one would think that ESPN Classic would provide a steady diet of major league pro and college games from over the years.
Instead, "Classic" gets trounced by the "Best Of" telecasts on MLB Network, NFL Network, and NBA Network. While there are some NCAA football and basketball classic games shown, these tend to be more in season and themed toward specific matchups. (That would be fine if the rest of the programming were up to standard.)
Instead, "classic" features have been reduced to programming such as poker, kick boxing, and the like. Or should I say, don't like. ESPN Classic seems to be more of an overflow channel when NCAA football and basketball schedules require use of another ESPN Family channel to show a live game. "Instant Classic" has some merit, but considering all of the years of great games, many long forgotten, sit on shelves instead of gather a bigger audience than boxing matches with fighters I have never heard of.
Meanwhile, Comcast Cable continues to make life dangerous (in the wallet) for its subscribers. Now things are getting vague as to where us sports fans stand. Within the past week, I have seen 3 separate newspaper accounts from different parts of the country with different stories about how subscribers will fare regarding certain channels. One story (from Illinois) says that NFL Network will be moved from the (extra fee) sports package to digital classic. Another story from Arizona claims that a similar sounding digital package is being eliminated resulting in a different additional charge to receive the sports channels. Instead a "digital preferred" package will magically appear, and you can bet it won't be for the same cost. Just a hunch that it will be about $5 per month more to receive these sports channels "free" which used to cost an additional $5 per month.
My local Comcast Cable system has posted that ESPN Classic is being moved to the "extra fee" sports package at the end of the month. It is likely the Big Ten Network also will be, since that was the plan last year when BTN was added to Comcast and other systems, but that matter has been quiet to this point.One of the reports I read does confirm that NFL Network and NBA Network are expected to be moved to "digital classic" in time for their respective seasons.
Frankly, they should have been there all along. No thank you cards from me if it really does happen, but a feeling that justice has been served.Hopefully the BTN realizes that, especially in this economy, they might not retain enough subscribers within a pay tier to make it worthwhile and will make the effort to remain on digital basic.
While I realize it would cost even more dollars to fight the battle, I'm still of the belief that we are already paying for these sports channels and there should not be an additional fee for them as long as consumers are still forced to pay for channels we don't want.
Meanwhile, after a bit of (undeserved, in my opinion) flac from some fans and media, ABC/ESPN seems to be increasing the role that Matt Millen will have on college football telecasts for this season. While nothing is official yet, the moving of Paul Maguire away from the primary team of Brad Nessler and Bob Griese and into more studio work and radio assignments could very well be to clear more room for Millen. Granted, Millen was not successful with the Detroit Lions, but he was recognized for his excellent broadcast work in the past, and there is no reason for that to have changed.
WASHINGTON D.C.: The speculation is even more rampant this week about WJFK 106.7 changing over to all sports within this month. Reports have surfaced that Wizards basketball will be moving over to WJFK for this season. Should this happen, it clears the landscape for the Nationals, Wizards, and Capitals to each have one radio station to itself for play-by-play. WFED 1500 had been carrying both the Wizards and Capitals (when not conflicting) with both teams reportedly buying their air time. One of those teams could move to WTEM 980, giving all 3 separate packages, always a better deal for the fans.
PHILADELPHIA: D.C.'s loss could be Philly's gain. Former Redskin Brian Mitchell, recently let go from WTEM in D.C. (either due to cost cutting or comments about the team, whose owner also owns the station), has returned to WIP, this time joining Howard Eskin for the afternoon drive spot.
MIAMI: While the speculation continues that Sid Rosenberg will join WQAM to host its midday sports talk show shortly after Labor Day and in time for the start of the NFL season, the 10 AM to 1 PM time slot has officially gone to sports. Panthers TV voice Steve Goldstein has been named interim host of that time slot.Miami's Channel 6, the NBC-TV affiliate, has cut back on its sports department with the layoffs of sportscaster Andrea Brody along with Jeff Tavss, who had served as Executive Sports Producer. The station is now down to a 2 person department, Joe Rose and Adam Kuperstein.
HOUSTON: Like Miami, reductions on the TV sports side. Keith Norton has left KPRC-TV Channel 2 after nearly 3 years, with management admitting that the position will not be filled. At Channel 39, Ray Fisher is out and that station now only brings the "Sports Minute" as part of its one hour nightly newscast. Why even bother with sports at all?
LOS ANGELES: It is tough enough to go up against Vin Scully, such as Charlie Steiner and Rick Monday do during Dodgers home games and road games in the west when Scully does most of the games on TV.But Steiner made it worse this past Sunday (7/6) from San Diego when the Padres shocked the Dodgers with a 5 run 9th inning to tie the game and send it to extra innings. The problem was that the Padres got the 2 run hit which tied the game with 2 out in the 9th, and the 3rd out was made on the bases an instant after the tying run had scored.
Steiner first reported that the "out" on the basepaths meant that the Dodgers had won the game, which they had not. Seconds later, he corrected himself, but the damage had already been done. Basic radio play-by-play instinct is that you wait until you are certain of what happened before relaying it to the audience. There were likely some fans who instantly turned the game off before Steiner made his immediate correction and apologized.
By all accounts, Vin Scully handled that play as smooth as always on the TV side. But, unfortunately for Charlie, one doesn't need nearly 60 years of play-by-play experience to call an important play correctly all the way through.
DENVER: KEPN 1600, the local ESPN Radio outlet will debut its new 7 - 9 AM morning show next week. Gary Miller (from Channel 4) and Vic Lombardi will host "Sports Insiders".
TAMPA: AM 1010 seems to have phased out the Sports Chix from its Noon to 3 PM weekday slot. Lynne Austin supposedly resigned within two weeks of Leslee Lacey also leaving the show. Tom Krasniqi has been named to take over the slot, but no co-host has been named as of this writing.
Right idea, but wrong network. CBS-TV still has plenty of ground to make up if it wants to be recognized once again as a TV sports leader. Their offerings are still a far cry from their days in the '90's when they topped the TV sports world with MLB, NFL, and NBA coverage on a regular basis before bailing out on all for a while. Instead, this airing comes off as an obvious plea for the older audience to come back to watching televised golf. My hunch is that those who would tune in to remember Sam Sneed (who was around 50 years old at the time of the original airing) probably are not as in tune with today's golfers and might not stick around for the Deere Classic.
What would be the "right" network? That would be ESPN Classic, but that network continues its decline from years ago, unfortunately. Given the millions of dollars and relationships that ESPN enjoys with MLB, NFL, NBA, and the NCAA (plus a couple of stints with NHL rights in the past), one would think that ESPN Classic would provide a steady diet of major league pro and college games from over the years.
Instead, "Classic" gets trounced by the "Best Of" telecasts on MLB Network, NFL Network, and NBA Network. While there are some NCAA football and basketball classic games shown, these tend to be more in season and themed toward specific matchups. (That would be fine if the rest of the programming were up to standard.)
Instead, "classic" features have been reduced to programming such as poker, kick boxing, and the like. Or should I say, don't like. ESPN Classic seems to be more of an overflow channel when NCAA football and basketball schedules require use of another ESPN Family channel to show a live game. "Instant Classic" has some merit, but considering all of the years of great games, many long forgotten, sit on shelves instead of gather a bigger audience than boxing matches with fighters I have never heard of.
Meanwhile, Comcast Cable continues to make life dangerous (in the wallet) for its subscribers. Now things are getting vague as to where us sports fans stand. Within the past week, I have seen 3 separate newspaper accounts from different parts of the country with different stories about how subscribers will fare regarding certain channels. One story (from Illinois) says that NFL Network will be moved from the (extra fee) sports package to digital classic. Another story from Arizona claims that a similar sounding digital package is being eliminated resulting in a different additional charge to receive the sports channels. Instead a "digital preferred" package will magically appear, and you can bet it won't be for the same cost. Just a hunch that it will be about $5 per month more to receive these sports channels "free" which used to cost an additional $5 per month.
My local Comcast Cable system has posted that ESPN Classic is being moved to the "extra fee" sports package at the end of the month. It is likely the Big Ten Network also will be, since that was the plan last year when BTN was added to Comcast and other systems, but that matter has been quiet to this point.One of the reports I read does confirm that NFL Network and NBA Network are expected to be moved to "digital classic" in time for their respective seasons.
Frankly, they should have been there all along. No thank you cards from me if it really does happen, but a feeling that justice has been served.Hopefully the BTN realizes that, especially in this economy, they might not retain enough subscribers within a pay tier to make it worthwhile and will make the effort to remain on digital basic.
While I realize it would cost even more dollars to fight the battle, I'm still of the belief that we are already paying for these sports channels and there should not be an additional fee for them as long as consumers are still forced to pay for channels we don't want.
Meanwhile, after a bit of (undeserved, in my opinion) flac from some fans and media, ABC/ESPN seems to be increasing the role that Matt Millen will have on college football telecasts for this season. While nothing is official yet, the moving of Paul Maguire away from the primary team of Brad Nessler and Bob Griese and into more studio work and radio assignments could very well be to clear more room for Millen. Granted, Millen was not successful with the Detroit Lions, but he was recognized for his excellent broadcast work in the past, and there is no reason for that to have changed.
WASHINGTON D.C.: The speculation is even more rampant this week about WJFK 106.7 changing over to all sports within this month. Reports have surfaced that Wizards basketball will be moving over to WJFK for this season. Should this happen, it clears the landscape for the Nationals, Wizards, and Capitals to each have one radio station to itself for play-by-play. WFED 1500 had been carrying both the Wizards and Capitals (when not conflicting) with both teams reportedly buying their air time. One of those teams could move to WTEM 980, giving all 3 separate packages, always a better deal for the fans.
PHILADELPHIA: D.C.'s loss could be Philly's gain. Former Redskin Brian Mitchell, recently let go from WTEM in D.C. (either due to cost cutting or comments about the team, whose owner also owns the station), has returned to WIP, this time joining Howard Eskin for the afternoon drive spot.
MIAMI: While the speculation continues that Sid Rosenberg will join WQAM to host its midday sports talk show shortly after Labor Day and in time for the start of the NFL season, the 10 AM to 1 PM time slot has officially gone to sports. Panthers TV voice Steve Goldstein has been named interim host of that time slot.Miami's Channel 6, the NBC-TV affiliate, has cut back on its sports department with the layoffs of sportscaster Andrea Brody along with Jeff Tavss, who had served as Executive Sports Producer. The station is now down to a 2 person department, Joe Rose and Adam Kuperstein.
HOUSTON: Like Miami, reductions on the TV sports side. Keith Norton has left KPRC-TV Channel 2 after nearly 3 years, with management admitting that the position will not be filled. At Channel 39, Ray Fisher is out and that station now only brings the "Sports Minute" as part of its one hour nightly newscast. Why even bother with sports at all?
LOS ANGELES: It is tough enough to go up against Vin Scully, such as Charlie Steiner and Rick Monday do during Dodgers home games and road games in the west when Scully does most of the games on TV.But Steiner made it worse this past Sunday (7/6) from San Diego when the Padres shocked the Dodgers with a 5 run 9th inning to tie the game and send it to extra innings. The problem was that the Padres got the 2 run hit which tied the game with 2 out in the 9th, and the 3rd out was made on the bases an instant after the tying run had scored.
Steiner first reported that the "out" on the basepaths meant that the Dodgers had won the game, which they had not. Seconds later, he corrected himself, but the damage had already been done. Basic radio play-by-play instinct is that you wait until you are certain of what happened before relaying it to the audience. There were likely some fans who instantly turned the game off before Steiner made his immediate correction and apologized.
By all accounts, Vin Scully handled that play as smooth as always on the TV side. But, unfortunately for Charlie, one doesn't need nearly 60 years of play-by-play experience to call an important play correctly all the way through.
DENVER: KEPN 1600, the local ESPN Radio outlet will debut its new 7 - 9 AM morning show next week. Gary Miller (from Channel 4) and Vic Lombardi will host "Sports Insiders".
TAMPA: AM 1010 seems to have phased out the Sports Chix from its Noon to 3 PM weekday slot. Lynne Austin supposedly resigned within two weeks of Leslee Lacey also leaving the show. Tom Krasniqi has been named to take over the slot, but no co-host has been named as of this writing.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
The latest sports related lawsuit - Media Update 5/12
There is no name for this yet, so I'll call it the "Sports Likeness and Permission" controversy. In late April, a Federal District Court judge in Minnesota had ruled in favor of CBS Interactive regarding its use of "information" about football players without first getting permission from sports leagues. It is another step in what seems a mounting battle about the use of actual player performance statistics for fantasy, board, and computer games. But the difference between pro and college players becomes a factor on the latest development.
Then, last week, a lawsuit involving former University of Nebraska QB Samuel Keller against the NCAA and EA Games (Electronic Arts) for allegedly misappropriating his likeness in video games that simulate college matches, and he is seeking class action status.
While I'm not here to (nor am I capable) offer a legal opinion, the interesting part of this lawsuit to me is Keller's claim that the NCAA "wrongly approved" for a game company to use actual player likenesses in games, and is also profiting from having done so.
EA Games profits from Division I college football and basketball games every year, in which it uses computer graphics to depict specific teams and players, including a likeness to "perform" within its games. There have already been several court rulings regarding the rights of game companies and media organizations (including fantasy sports web sites) to use publicly accessible player statistics.
What is also interesting to me is how little media attention this story is getting. The same local stations and TV and radio networks which pay millions of dollars for rights to broadcast the games and performances of these players. The same stations and print + online media which broadcast and/or publish "fantasy update" stats to draw viewers, listeners, and readers on a regular basis.
From the fans' perspective, these video and virtual games with actual players "performing" (as opposed to only a statistical reflection) will continue to exist and be as current as possible.
Actually, they will benefit by all of this. The publicity of this lawsuit will call even more attention to these games where players "perform". (Fantasy leagues are based on actual in-game statistics - where is in a virtual game, a player designed to physically and performance wise resemble specific players are involved in an actual game setting.)
If the court rules against virtual games and they would need to cough up royalties (as this lawsuit seeks), the game companies would realize that they would then have to significantly increase prices. Not a viable move in this econonmy. But they would have an out. All they need to do is create nameless characters who resemble certain teams and hold to those teams and player statistics. For example, they could put out a college football fantasy game, with 2 of the teams being "Lincoln vs. Norman". The players and statistics would match those as the universities in the towns of Lincoln and Norman, and not have to pay any royalties.
Fans in the know would figure out that these really represent the U. of Nebraska and Oklahoma (which play in Lincoln NE and Norman OK respectively) and simply insert the appropriate player names on their home version.
Hopefully the courts will make some defined rulings, such as pro vs. college players and fantasy vs. virtual instead of this going case by case. Maybe it's time to plan a radio and TV show to help virtual game players match the statistics against the "real" teams.
Meanwhile, after months of suggesting this, an attempt to make HD Radio relevant is finally entering the sports community. WXDX Pittsburgh will launch an HD channel specific to the NHL Penguins and NHL Radio this September, to coincide with the start of training camp. As I have been suggesting, this will be a dedicated 24 hour channel, and is expected to include broadcast replays, historical game replays, and innovations such as broadcasts of the Penguins' minor league team games. This announcement comes shortly after WXDX announced a new 6 year contract with the team.
While this is believed to be the first 24 hour channel dedicated to a team, there is also KRLD in Dallas planning to use an HD channel for "extensive coverage" of the Cowboys.
It's a start!
Meanwhile, I am delighted about ESPN hiring Matt Millen as a football analyst starting for the coming season. His new role will include both college and pro games, although his NFL analysis is limited to studio work for Monday Night Football. Here's hoping he is judged for his broadcasting ability, was was excellent several years ago on Fox, and not against his General Manager duties for the Detroit Lions.
NEW YORK - WEPN 1050 has renewed with N.Y. Giants players Eli Manning and Brandon Jacobs for weekly appearances during the coming season. These will be done at separate times.
This is fine as long as both players continue reasonable media cooperation at other times. It is certain players who sign media contracts and then take the "I'm not getting paid to talk to you" attitude that ruin this type of arrangment.
LOS ANGELES: The Dodgers continue to unveil their "Women's Initiatives Network" program as a means to attract more of a female audience. Now they have hired Janne Zelasko, known to baseball fans as the former host of Fox-TV baseball coverage for the past few previous seasons, to call play-by-play of Wednesday home Dodgers games for the rest of this seasons. Her call, along with Mark Sweeney as analyst, will be heard on www.Dodgers.com/win. I didn't know that women weren't happy with Vin Scully and Charlie Steiner handling the call.
Speaking of calling Dodgers games, still another (and well deserved) award for the 60 year voice of the franchise. On Monday night (5/11), Vin Scully received the Sports & Entertainment Ambassador Award of Excellence from the Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission at a dinner held at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades.
SAN FRANCISCO: The Oakland A's struggle to call attention to their games has suffered another blow, however temporary. Many fans have given up on the weak signal radio coverage in place for this season. Now, Dish Network has dropped some A's games due to more negotiation problems with Comcast SportsNet. This on the heels of a report that last week the Giants telecasts delivered more than 5 times the total audience of the A's games - when they were available on Dish Network. This could be an attempt by Dish Network to gauge interest in the A's before they pay to the piper (CSN) to carry all of the games once again.
SEATTLE: The addition of KIRO 710 to all-sports and the move of all-news to KIRO FM at 97.3 has influenced news rival KOMO. Starting this Friday (5/15), KOMO 1000 will simulcast on 97.7 FM. This means the end of "the Eagle" and its classic hit music format.
DENVER: Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post returns to sports talk radio on July 13th. After a 2-year stint during afternoon drive on The Fan 104.3, Armstrong will join Les Shapiro during morning drive on KCKK 1510 starting at that time. Shapiro will continue with guest co-hosts until that time.
Former Colorado University QB Joel Klatt has joined Nate Kreckman on the 3 - 6 PM show on 1510 as of last week. Klatt has other local broadcasting experience prior to this.
No word yet about a new radio play-by-play voice for the Denver Broncos for the upcoming season. It seems that another casualty of Clearance Channel was David Diaz-Infante, who had called the games on KOA 850.
WASHINGTON D.C.: Congrats to former Redskin Brian Mitchell on being named to the Redskins' "Field Ring Hall of Fame" during a game next season after his 10 years of special teams work for the Redskins. However, Mitchell had been working in radio ever since. Only days after learning of his honor from the team, Mitchell was let go from 890 ESPN after more than four years hosting or co-hosting various shows.
One other important fact to all of this. The radio station is one of the stations owned by the Redskins' owner.
RALEIGH: Congrats to The Buzz 850 Sports Radio upon a 25% increase in total weekly audience according to the recently released first quarter ratings.
HUNTINGTON: Congrats to Paul Swann of WVHU 800 on a first place and two second place awards at the recent West Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters Association Awards Banquet held in Charleston. Swann too honors for "Best Host" and received Honorable Mention for "Best Sports Talk Show".
Then, last week, a lawsuit involving former University of Nebraska QB Samuel Keller against the NCAA and EA Games (Electronic Arts) for allegedly misappropriating his likeness in video games that simulate college matches, and he is seeking class action status.
While I'm not here to (nor am I capable) offer a legal opinion, the interesting part of this lawsuit to me is Keller's claim that the NCAA "wrongly approved" for a game company to use actual player likenesses in games, and is also profiting from having done so.
EA Games profits from Division I college football and basketball games every year, in which it uses computer graphics to depict specific teams and players, including a likeness to "perform" within its games. There have already been several court rulings regarding the rights of game companies and media organizations (including fantasy sports web sites) to use publicly accessible player statistics.
What is also interesting to me is how little media attention this story is getting. The same local stations and TV and radio networks which pay millions of dollars for rights to broadcast the games and performances of these players. The same stations and print + online media which broadcast and/or publish "fantasy update" stats to draw viewers, listeners, and readers on a regular basis.
From the fans' perspective, these video and virtual games with actual players "performing" (as opposed to only a statistical reflection) will continue to exist and be as current as possible.
Actually, they will benefit by all of this. The publicity of this lawsuit will call even more attention to these games where players "perform". (Fantasy leagues are based on actual in-game statistics - where is in a virtual game, a player designed to physically and performance wise resemble specific players are involved in an actual game setting.)
If the court rules against virtual games and they would need to cough up royalties (as this lawsuit seeks), the game companies would realize that they would then have to significantly increase prices. Not a viable move in this econonmy. But they would have an out. All they need to do is create nameless characters who resemble certain teams and hold to those teams and player statistics. For example, they could put out a college football fantasy game, with 2 of the teams being "Lincoln vs. Norman". The players and statistics would match those as the universities in the towns of Lincoln and Norman, and not have to pay any royalties.
Fans in the know would figure out that these really represent the U. of Nebraska and Oklahoma (which play in Lincoln NE and Norman OK respectively) and simply insert the appropriate player names on their home version.
Hopefully the courts will make some defined rulings, such as pro vs. college players and fantasy vs. virtual instead of this going case by case. Maybe it's time to plan a radio and TV show to help virtual game players match the statistics against the "real" teams.
Meanwhile, after months of suggesting this, an attempt to make HD Radio relevant is finally entering the sports community. WXDX Pittsburgh will launch an HD channel specific to the NHL Penguins and NHL Radio this September, to coincide with the start of training camp. As I have been suggesting, this will be a dedicated 24 hour channel, and is expected to include broadcast replays, historical game replays, and innovations such as broadcasts of the Penguins' minor league team games. This announcement comes shortly after WXDX announced a new 6 year contract with the team.
While this is believed to be the first 24 hour channel dedicated to a team, there is also KRLD in Dallas planning to use an HD channel for "extensive coverage" of the Cowboys.
It's a start!
Meanwhile, I am delighted about ESPN hiring Matt Millen as a football analyst starting for the coming season. His new role will include both college and pro games, although his NFL analysis is limited to studio work for Monday Night Football. Here's hoping he is judged for his broadcasting ability, was was excellent several years ago on Fox, and not against his General Manager duties for the Detroit Lions.
NEW YORK - WEPN 1050 has renewed with N.Y. Giants players Eli Manning and Brandon Jacobs for weekly appearances during the coming season. These will be done at separate times.
This is fine as long as both players continue reasonable media cooperation at other times. It is certain players who sign media contracts and then take the "I'm not getting paid to talk to you" attitude that ruin this type of arrangment.
LOS ANGELES: The Dodgers continue to unveil their "Women's Initiatives Network" program as a means to attract more of a female audience. Now they have hired Janne Zelasko, known to baseball fans as the former host of Fox-TV baseball coverage for the past few previous seasons, to call play-by-play of Wednesday home Dodgers games for the rest of this seasons. Her call, along with Mark Sweeney as analyst, will be heard on www.Dodgers.com/win. I didn't know that women weren't happy with Vin Scully and Charlie Steiner handling the call.
Speaking of calling Dodgers games, still another (and well deserved) award for the 60 year voice of the franchise. On Monday night (5/11), Vin Scully received the Sports & Entertainment Ambassador Award of Excellence from the Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission at a dinner held at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades.
SAN FRANCISCO: The Oakland A's struggle to call attention to their games has suffered another blow, however temporary. Many fans have given up on the weak signal radio coverage in place for this season. Now, Dish Network has dropped some A's games due to more negotiation problems with Comcast SportsNet. This on the heels of a report that last week the Giants telecasts delivered more than 5 times the total audience of the A's games - when they were available on Dish Network. This could be an attempt by Dish Network to gauge interest in the A's before they pay to the piper (CSN) to carry all of the games once again.
SEATTLE: The addition of KIRO 710 to all-sports and the move of all-news to KIRO FM at 97.3 has influenced news rival KOMO. Starting this Friday (5/15), KOMO 1000 will simulcast on 97.7 FM. This means the end of "the Eagle" and its classic hit music format.
DENVER: Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post returns to sports talk radio on July 13th. After a 2-year stint during afternoon drive on The Fan 104.3, Armstrong will join Les Shapiro during morning drive on KCKK 1510 starting at that time. Shapiro will continue with guest co-hosts until that time.
Former Colorado University QB Joel Klatt has joined Nate Kreckman on the 3 - 6 PM show on 1510 as of last week. Klatt has other local broadcasting experience prior to this.
No word yet about a new radio play-by-play voice for the Denver Broncos for the upcoming season. It seems that another casualty of Clearance Channel was David Diaz-Infante, who had called the games on KOA 850.
WASHINGTON D.C.: Congrats to former Redskin Brian Mitchell on being named to the Redskins' "Field Ring Hall of Fame" during a game next season after his 10 years of special teams work for the Redskins. However, Mitchell had been working in radio ever since. Only days after learning of his honor from the team, Mitchell was let go from 890 ESPN after more than four years hosting or co-hosting various shows.
One other important fact to all of this. The radio station is one of the stations owned by the Redskins' owner.
RALEIGH: Congrats to The Buzz 850 Sports Radio upon a 25% increase in total weekly audience according to the recently released first quarter ratings.
HUNTINGTON: Congrats to Paul Swann of WVHU 800 on a first place and two second place awards at the recent West Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters Association Awards Banquet held in Charleston. Swann too honors for "Best Host" and received Honorable Mention for "Best Sports Talk Show".
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Sports Media Report - March 24th update
The NCAA Basketball Tournament continues this week and weekend, as popular as ever, and from a media standpoint, shows us why radio doesn't have anywhere the role it once did for sports fans. I have tried to come up with an idea for radio to make a difference during the tournament games, but so far have drawn a blank.
Quick - which radio station in your market is broadcasting the NCAA Tournament games (other than a local team's broadcast) this weekend? Chances are you had to stop and think, if you even knew for sure.
The reason is the other forms of electronic media have provided us with enough reasons to forget about radio while the games are going on, unless there is no other choice.
People with high end cell phone service or a Blackberry can get instant details (if not live coverage) in the palm of their hand. Those who had online access during last Thursday and Friday's daytime slate of games could have a refreshing scoreboard of all of the games - as a second option.
The online "March Madness On Demand" streaming of all of the games live was reportedly up more than 60% from last year. More and more can watch whatever game they most want to or switch back and forth and go with the best action of the moment. That is even better than the CBS-TV national telecast which would feature one game but switch around as action warranted.
And, yes, the CBS telecasts of all games and rotating of updated scores on the screen throughout.
Then there is radio. Doing....ummmm, ummmmmm, some game coverage and some scoreboard updates. A far cry from the days when hardly any games were televised while everything was live on the radio.
Interesting decision for WFOR Channel 4 Miami last Friday. The station did not air the NCAA Regional games being played locally in Miami, instead going with games they felt would be of greater interest to the local audience. This is fine, as long as it wasn't because of a blackout policy. And in this case, it wasn't. What makes this decision even better is that it was an honest choice, and not one because they couldn't show the local games if they wanted to.
LOS ANGELES: Congrats to Eric Collins, who will handle play-by-play of more than 30 Dodgers road telecasts for the coming season. These will be the telecasts that Vin Scully does not call, which are when the Dodgers play east of Colorado.
Collins has worked for ESPN, including some College World Series telecasts, along with NBC Olympic Baseball, among other assignments. He also filled in a couple of games on Chicago White Sox radio last year, and should have merited more consideration for a full-time role there ahead of Darrin Jackson. Collins will be joined by Steve Lyons as analyst. The position opened because of the decision for Charlie Steiner to remain on the radio starting this season rather than moving to TV when Scully is not with the team.
MIAMI - Another area station is going all sports within the next 30 days. And this is not a repeat of an earlier column. Now WINZ 940 will add to its Heat broadcasts at night with an assortment of network fare. Unless WINZ is serious about competing in the market place and goes after Sid Rosenberg or another high profile and local host.
The Ticket 790 is now expected to announce a replacement for Rosenberg by the end of March.
WFTL 640 continues with Sporting News Radio, its local morning show, and Larry Millan (formerly of 790 The Ticket) doing local weekend shows.
St. LOUIS - More of the radio version of musical chairs, but with positive results including Kevin Slaten moving back to afternoons. Slaten will move from middays into the 2 - 6 PM spot on KSLG 1380 within the next 30 days. The opening came when Bernie Miklasz decided to move to WXOS 101.1 FM, which began as a sports station at the start of this year.
SALT LAKE CITY - KALL 700 continues as the king of sports syndication as the Jim Rome show moves into the middday slot, aired live from 10 to 2. The station conintues to carry Dan Patrick and Chris Myers, among others. Local play-by-play includes pro soccer and U. of Utah football and basketball.
DES MOINES - It has been all over the news in the past few days about the profanity filled argument that went out over the air at KXNO 1460 this past Friday morning. Understandably broadcasters Marty Tirrell and Larry Cotlar have been suspended indefinitely. This means the removal of Cotlar's morning show and the afternoon drive show which Tirrell co-hosts (or co-hosted).
That is the "understandable" part. But what is not understandable is that in place of both shows is more network and syndicated programming. The result for Des Moines market listeners is that they lose local sports talk in drive time.That isn't fair to the sports fans in the area. As it goes in radio these days, I wouldn't be at all surprised if this isn't ultimately the end of local drive time talk, at least on KXNO.
The station is a Clearance Channel station, which leads me to belive that if the ratings finish anywhere within striking distance of the now suspended local shows, management will "decide" to continue with them. And if they don't, management will either examine what they can charge for ad time with the lower ratings vs. the operating costs of syndicated fare, or pull the plug on the format, as if low ratings are the reason.
If this were truly a "suspension" for the purpose of recovery, there would be local hosts filling in right away. Could be columnists, TV sportscasters, and/or special guests. For that matter, Clearance Channel would have the resources to assign a knowledgeable sports host from somewhere in the region to fill in for a few weeks. But that would cost money.
This is what local radio brings us, while TV, online, and mobile reporting reaches new heights while the sports games are being played.
Quick - which radio station in your market is broadcasting the NCAA Tournament games (other than a local team's broadcast) this weekend? Chances are you had to stop and think, if you even knew for sure.
The reason is the other forms of electronic media have provided us with enough reasons to forget about radio while the games are going on, unless there is no other choice.
People with high end cell phone service or a Blackberry can get instant details (if not live coverage) in the palm of their hand. Those who had online access during last Thursday and Friday's daytime slate of games could have a refreshing scoreboard of all of the games - as a second option.
The online "March Madness On Demand" streaming of all of the games live was reportedly up more than 60% from last year. More and more can watch whatever game they most want to or switch back and forth and go with the best action of the moment. That is even better than the CBS-TV national telecast which would feature one game but switch around as action warranted.
And, yes, the CBS telecasts of all games and rotating of updated scores on the screen throughout.
Then there is radio. Doing....ummmm, ummmmmm, some game coverage and some scoreboard updates. A far cry from the days when hardly any games were televised while everything was live on the radio.
Interesting decision for WFOR Channel 4 Miami last Friday. The station did not air the NCAA Regional games being played locally in Miami, instead going with games they felt would be of greater interest to the local audience. This is fine, as long as it wasn't because of a blackout policy. And in this case, it wasn't. What makes this decision even better is that it was an honest choice, and not one because they couldn't show the local games if they wanted to.
LOS ANGELES: Congrats to Eric Collins, who will handle play-by-play of more than 30 Dodgers road telecasts for the coming season. These will be the telecasts that Vin Scully does not call, which are when the Dodgers play east of Colorado.
Collins has worked for ESPN, including some College World Series telecasts, along with NBC Olympic Baseball, among other assignments. He also filled in a couple of games on Chicago White Sox radio last year, and should have merited more consideration for a full-time role there ahead of Darrin Jackson. Collins will be joined by Steve Lyons as analyst. The position opened because of the decision for Charlie Steiner to remain on the radio starting this season rather than moving to TV when Scully is not with the team.
MIAMI - Another area station is going all sports within the next 30 days. And this is not a repeat of an earlier column. Now WINZ 940 will add to its Heat broadcasts at night with an assortment of network fare. Unless WINZ is serious about competing in the market place and goes after Sid Rosenberg or another high profile and local host.
The Ticket 790 is now expected to announce a replacement for Rosenberg by the end of March.
WFTL 640 continues with Sporting News Radio, its local morning show, and Larry Millan (formerly of 790 The Ticket) doing local weekend shows.
St. LOUIS - More of the radio version of musical chairs, but with positive results including Kevin Slaten moving back to afternoons. Slaten will move from middays into the 2 - 6 PM spot on KSLG 1380 within the next 30 days. The opening came when Bernie Miklasz decided to move to WXOS 101.1 FM, which began as a sports station at the start of this year.
SALT LAKE CITY - KALL 700 continues as the king of sports syndication as the Jim Rome show moves into the middday slot, aired live from 10 to 2. The station conintues to carry Dan Patrick and Chris Myers, among others. Local play-by-play includes pro soccer and U. of Utah football and basketball.
DES MOINES - It has been all over the news in the past few days about the profanity filled argument that went out over the air at KXNO 1460 this past Friday morning. Understandably broadcasters Marty Tirrell and Larry Cotlar have been suspended indefinitely. This means the removal of Cotlar's morning show and the afternoon drive show which Tirrell co-hosts (or co-hosted).
That is the "understandable" part. But what is not understandable is that in place of both shows is more network and syndicated programming. The result for Des Moines market listeners is that they lose local sports talk in drive time.That isn't fair to the sports fans in the area. As it goes in radio these days, I wouldn't be at all surprised if this isn't ultimately the end of local drive time talk, at least on KXNO.
The station is a Clearance Channel station, which leads me to belive that if the ratings finish anywhere within striking distance of the now suspended local shows, management will "decide" to continue with them. And if they don't, management will either examine what they can charge for ad time with the lower ratings vs. the operating costs of syndicated fare, or pull the plug on the format, as if low ratings are the reason.
If this were truly a "suspension" for the purpose of recovery, there would be local hosts filling in right away. Could be columnists, TV sportscasters, and/or special guests. For that matter, Clearance Channel would have the resources to assign a knowledgeable sports host from somewhere in the region to fill in for a few weeks. But that would cost money.
This is what local radio brings us, while TV, online, and mobile reporting reaches new heights while the sports games are being played.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Sports Media Report - Oct. 13th update
How times have changed with TV sports coverage. I never thought the time would come when one TV network would acknowledge another sport being shown at the same time on another network.
It happened on Sunday night (Oct. 12) during the Phillies-Dodgers Game 3 telecast of the NLCS. Just as the Sunday Night Football game on rival NBC-TV reached halftime, Fox's Joe Buck did an immediate recap of the baseball game to that point, introducing it by saying "For those of you who have been watching the football game............".
Granted, Fox-TV also has the NFL and was a couple of hours removed from its Sunday doubleheader to most of the country, but a "two-sport" acknowledgement is a huge rarity.
I'm not sure how much audience research will be available or released about how Fox and NBC did during that quarter hour.
Once upon a time, it was a "no-no" to so much as acknowledge another network on the air, let alone a blatant reference to a telecast competing for much of the same audience.
I had no idea that was coming and was stunned. Doing that recap pretty much told viewers who were over at NBC-TV that they didn't need to tune over to check on the NLCS score any earlier.
After all, it has been years and years of networks not addressing an event on a competing network. I highly doubt this was anything that Joe Buck did on his own. Fox had a graphic ready to go to show the recap of key plays and events in the baseball game. Plus, Buck had to be made aware by someone that indeed the NFL game had reached the halftime mark exactly when it did.
Fox had spent its NFL doubleheader promoting the baseball telecast for the night. Obviously, they were out to lure the football fans. Hours later, while the baseball game they were carrying was already somewhat one-sided, they reminded millions of people that another network had an NFL game in progress.
Buck did not give the score of the NFL game. He only "welcomed" those viewers at half time. Say what? Since the baseball game was not close, I would bet that a percentage of viewers tuned over to NBC to see if the NFL game was closer. Maybe Fox overlooked that the San Diego Chargers were playing in the NFL game, while their NLCS game featured the Los Angeles Dodgers. Many fans in Orange County, for example, were then reminded of a choice between two "local" teams.
That could have been a costly announcement in terms of viewers by Fox. They should have known how to handle this. As I see it, here is what they should have done. The game recap still could have started exactly when it did, to coincide with the start of half-time of the competing football telecast.
All Joe Buck should have said was "If you are just now joining us........" and gone on with the recap. By doing so, the large number of football fans tuned to Fox would not have been reminded about another option to watch.
As it is, Fox is required to promote the American League Championship Series telecasts on TBS during its telecasts. In this case, it is required and reciprocal with TBS. But the result is that during this one baseball game, Fox was promoting specific telecasts on TWO other TV networks.
That is a long way from the "check your local listings" approach the networks and stations used to take regarding their competition.
Meanwhile, yet another sportscasting veteran has left us. Gil Stratton passed away last week at the age of 86 in his Los Angeles home located minutes from Universal Studios. A fixture on KNX Radio and KNXT-TV in Los Angeles since the mid-50's, Stratton won the "Golden Mike Award" from the Southern California Broadcasters Association seven different times.
NBA fans who enjoy all of the national TV the league has to offer but do not or no longer enjoy the omnipresent Bill Walton are closer to having it their way for the upcoming season. While Walton has not officially been "replaced", Magic Johnson has been signed to be an NBA studio analyst for ESPN and ABC starting with the upcoming season. Magic leaves TNT after seven seasons in a similar role on their Thursday night and numerous playoff telecasts. This is the exact role which Walton has held for the past few seasons.
Coach Jeff Van Gundy has also signed on with ESPN and ABC to continue as a game analyst for this season and beyond. His new five year deal keeps him on the #1 team with Mike Breen and Mark Jackson.
NEW YORK - Kenny Smith will not return to MSG and Knicks TV this season. Since Gus Johnson continues on the radio side, word is that Gus may have an expanded role to include some MSG coverage now that Smith is gone.
The new NBA season also marks the changing of the guard, as a pair of long long time legends will be reduced or eliminated from the TV booth. In Boston, Bob Cousy was not asked back by Comcast SportsNet at all for this season following his reduced workload last season. In Chicago, Johnny "Red" Kerr, a part of the Bulls franchise since he was their first head coach during their expansion year of 1966-67, will only appear on pre and post-game plus halftime of home games shown on Comcast SportsNet. Both of these legends are nearing 80 years old. Cousy had been a part of Celtics TV for the past 34 seasons.
St. LOUIS - Best wishes to Kelly Chase, radio analyst on the Blues' hockey broadcasts, who is undergoing examination for a lesion on his brain. The 40 year-old Chase was hopeful of continuing on the air until further determinations are made. The St. Louis Post Dispatch also quoted play-by-play voice Chris Kerber as saying he did not notice any difference with Chase during their recent broadcasts going back into the pre-season.
With college hoops about one month away, St. Louis University still has not announced a radio deal for its games. If nothing happens after their season starts, we have to wonder if "Movin' FM" would pick up the broadcasts for after its Jan. 1st debut as the market's latest all-sports station.
KANSAS CITY - While the Royals have become the latest team to announce a ticket price hike for next season, it looks as though the broadcast teams will remain in place for 2009. Bob Davis is expected to be signed to continue in the radio booth along with Denny Matthews and Steve Stewart. Davis made the successful move to radio for this past season when switched with Ryan Lefebvre was moved to TV when FSN began handling the Royals telecasts.
It happened on Sunday night (Oct. 12) during the Phillies-Dodgers Game 3 telecast of the NLCS. Just as the Sunday Night Football game on rival NBC-TV reached halftime, Fox's Joe Buck did an immediate recap of the baseball game to that point, introducing it by saying "For those of you who have been watching the football game............".
Granted, Fox-TV also has the NFL and was a couple of hours removed from its Sunday doubleheader to most of the country, but a "two-sport" acknowledgement is a huge rarity.
I'm not sure how much audience research will be available or released about how Fox and NBC did during that quarter hour.
Once upon a time, it was a "no-no" to so much as acknowledge another network on the air, let alone a blatant reference to a telecast competing for much of the same audience.
I had no idea that was coming and was stunned. Doing that recap pretty much told viewers who were over at NBC-TV that they didn't need to tune over to check on the NLCS score any earlier.
After all, it has been years and years of networks not addressing an event on a competing network. I highly doubt this was anything that Joe Buck did on his own. Fox had a graphic ready to go to show the recap of key plays and events in the baseball game. Plus, Buck had to be made aware by someone that indeed the NFL game had reached the halftime mark exactly when it did.
Fox had spent its NFL doubleheader promoting the baseball telecast for the night. Obviously, they were out to lure the football fans. Hours later, while the baseball game they were carrying was already somewhat one-sided, they reminded millions of people that another network had an NFL game in progress.
Buck did not give the score of the NFL game. He only "welcomed" those viewers at half time. Say what? Since the baseball game was not close, I would bet that a percentage of viewers tuned over to NBC to see if the NFL game was closer. Maybe Fox overlooked that the San Diego Chargers were playing in the NFL game, while their NLCS game featured the Los Angeles Dodgers. Many fans in Orange County, for example, were then reminded of a choice between two "local" teams.
That could have been a costly announcement in terms of viewers by Fox. They should have known how to handle this. As I see it, here is what they should have done. The game recap still could have started exactly when it did, to coincide with the start of half-time of the competing football telecast.
All Joe Buck should have said was "If you are just now joining us........" and gone on with the recap. By doing so, the large number of football fans tuned to Fox would not have been reminded about another option to watch.
As it is, Fox is required to promote the American League Championship Series telecasts on TBS during its telecasts. In this case, it is required and reciprocal with TBS. But the result is that during this one baseball game, Fox was promoting specific telecasts on TWO other TV networks.
That is a long way from the "check your local listings" approach the networks and stations used to take regarding their competition.
Meanwhile, yet another sportscasting veteran has left us. Gil Stratton passed away last week at the age of 86 in his Los Angeles home located minutes from Universal Studios. A fixture on KNX Radio and KNXT-TV in Los Angeles since the mid-50's, Stratton won the "Golden Mike Award" from the Southern California Broadcasters Association seven different times.
NBA fans who enjoy all of the national TV the league has to offer but do not or no longer enjoy the omnipresent Bill Walton are closer to having it their way for the upcoming season. While Walton has not officially been "replaced", Magic Johnson has been signed to be an NBA studio analyst for ESPN and ABC starting with the upcoming season. Magic leaves TNT after seven seasons in a similar role on their Thursday night and numerous playoff telecasts. This is the exact role which Walton has held for the past few seasons.
Coach Jeff Van Gundy has also signed on with ESPN and ABC to continue as a game analyst for this season and beyond. His new five year deal keeps him on the #1 team with Mike Breen and Mark Jackson.
NEW YORK - Kenny Smith will not return to MSG and Knicks TV this season. Since Gus Johnson continues on the radio side, word is that Gus may have an expanded role to include some MSG coverage now that Smith is gone.
The new NBA season also marks the changing of the guard, as a pair of long long time legends will be reduced or eliminated from the TV booth. In Boston, Bob Cousy was not asked back by Comcast SportsNet at all for this season following his reduced workload last season. In Chicago, Johnny "Red" Kerr, a part of the Bulls franchise since he was their first head coach during their expansion year of 1966-67, will only appear on pre and post-game plus halftime of home games shown on Comcast SportsNet. Both of these legends are nearing 80 years old. Cousy had been a part of Celtics TV for the past 34 seasons.
St. LOUIS - Best wishes to Kelly Chase, radio analyst on the Blues' hockey broadcasts, who is undergoing examination for a lesion on his brain. The 40 year-old Chase was hopeful of continuing on the air until further determinations are made. The St. Louis Post Dispatch also quoted play-by-play voice Chris Kerber as saying he did not notice any difference with Chase during their recent broadcasts going back into the pre-season.
With college hoops about one month away, St. Louis University still has not announced a radio deal for its games. If nothing happens after their season starts, we have to wonder if "Movin' FM" would pick up the broadcasts for after its Jan. 1st debut as the market's latest all-sports station.
KANSAS CITY - While the Royals have become the latest team to announce a ticket price hike for next season, it looks as though the broadcast teams will remain in place for 2009. Bob Davis is expected to be signed to continue in the radio booth along with Denny Matthews and Steve Stewart. Davis made the successful move to radio for this past season when switched with Ryan Lefebvre was moved to TV when FSN began handling the Royals telecasts.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Sports Media Report - Sept. 8 update
Great to see that Vin Scully has agreed to return to his Dodgers broadcast duties for the 2009 season, since that will mark an even 60 years as the lead voice of the Dodgers franchise. He will continue to handle the home games and road games no further east than Colorado. After all these years, Scully continues to work alone when he broadcasts.
While going solo has been unique for a number of years, I can't help but think of how we may never have that again. It goes to show how the number of announcers used on a telecast and some radio broadcast packages is getting out of hand. On NBC-TV's Sunday Night Football opener between Chicago and Indianapolis, it seemed like there were three teams with 53 person rosters: the Bears, the Colts, and NBC-TV's studio staff.
Telecasts of games were successful all these years with as few as two announcers to handle everything (including pre and post game) at the games. Now, the networks feel the need to have at least 5 people in studio (NFL, TNT on NBA, others), with football having some telecasts with three in the announcing booth. While this is too much in one direction, radio still has a few instances of too little. Chicago is one example. Even in a top 3 media market, White Sox radio voice Ed Farmer calls each entire game, while Cubs voice Pat Hughes calls at least 8 innings of every game. This is even funnier when you realize that we can SEE the action on TV with tons of announcers but not when listening on radio.
KANSAS CITY: Speaking of long-time broadcasters, this past weekend marked the 40th anniversary of former Chiefs QB Len Dawson along with Larry Moore beginning on KMBC-TV. Let's put this in perspective for football fans. When Dawson began his broadcasting career in Kansas City, the Chiefs were starting their 2nd season in the NFL after coming over from the American Football League. Joe Namath had not guaranteed a Super Bowl win at that point in time.
On that note, congrats to Seattle Seahawks radio voice Steve Raible, who just began his 25th season calling the Seahawks games. He is joined again this season by Warren Moon as analyst on KIRO 710.
SAN DIEGO: As we suspected for weeks, after more than 20 years Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton is now completely out of the San Diego radio market, at least for the moment. It was termed "by mutual agreement" that Hamilton is gone from XTRA Sports 1360 as of last week. Like him or not, Hamilton is a pioneer of hard core sports radio talk, especially on a regional and national level, even when his shows were local. Word is that he is on the lookout for either a college or NFL play-by-play gig.
HOUSTON: Still no announcement about the location of Astros radio broadcasts for next year and beyond, even after the exclusive negotiating period has past for KTRH to retain the games.
CINCINNATI: Bengals fans finally have one station where they can always find the games now that WEBN 102.7 FM has taken over the broadcasts on the FM side from sister station WOFX-FM. On the AM side, WCKY 1530 also airs the games through September. After the Reds baseball season comes to a quiet conclusion, powerhouse WLW 700 will again carry the remainder of the Bengals broadcasts.
ST. LOUIS: Controversial sports host Kevin Slaten returns to the local airwaves on Monday October 6, starting during the midday on KSLG 1380 AM. Slaten was dismissed by KFNS 590 in April after the controversy surrounding Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan reportedly not knowing he was being interviewed live on the air. Oct. 6th is also the date that Slaten's non-compete clause expires.
MILWAUKEE: After several mentions of the Milwaukee sports radio market and heating up and 540 Sports doing a separate Brewers post-game show after night games are over, and the Brewers into a lengthy sellout streak, comes this bit of ratings news. This past Thursday (Sept. 4), the Brewers game telecast against the San Diego Padres drew less than 20% of the audience that watched the NFL season opener between the Giants and Redskins. Not only an out of market game, but not even a divisional game for Packers fans.
That has me interested to see how the next few Packers telecasts do against Brewers games in September.
ELSEWHERE: While it is nowhere near SEC dollars, the Western Athletic Conference now as a 7 year deal with ESPN including ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile TV. The network properties now hold the rights to all conference controlled games from this season through the 2016-17 seasons.
New Haven CT's ESPN 1300 AM now carries its own version of the "Bobby and the Bird" show each Sunday from 9 AM until 11 AM. The two are well known from Connecticut's WICC 600 AM where they continue their 7 PM to 9 PM Sunday night top rated sports show.
Bowling Green OH's WBGN 1340 has announced a 2 year deal to broadcast the city's Class A baseball team starting in April, including www.1340WBGN.com, and is expected to carry all 140 games.
While going solo has been unique for a number of years, I can't help but think of how we may never have that again. It goes to show how the number of announcers used on a telecast and some radio broadcast packages is getting out of hand. On NBC-TV's Sunday Night Football opener between Chicago and Indianapolis, it seemed like there were three teams with 53 person rosters: the Bears, the Colts, and NBC-TV's studio staff.
Telecasts of games were successful all these years with as few as two announcers to handle everything (including pre and post game) at the games. Now, the networks feel the need to have at least 5 people in studio (NFL, TNT on NBA, others), with football having some telecasts with three in the announcing booth. While this is too much in one direction, radio still has a few instances of too little. Chicago is one example. Even in a top 3 media market, White Sox radio voice Ed Farmer calls each entire game, while Cubs voice Pat Hughes calls at least 8 innings of every game. This is even funnier when you realize that we can SEE the action on TV with tons of announcers but not when listening on radio.
KANSAS CITY: Speaking of long-time broadcasters, this past weekend marked the 40th anniversary of former Chiefs QB Len Dawson along with Larry Moore beginning on KMBC-TV. Let's put this in perspective for football fans. When Dawson began his broadcasting career in Kansas City, the Chiefs were starting their 2nd season in the NFL after coming over from the American Football League. Joe Namath had not guaranteed a Super Bowl win at that point in time.
On that note, congrats to Seattle Seahawks radio voice Steve Raible, who just began his 25th season calling the Seahawks games. He is joined again this season by Warren Moon as analyst on KIRO 710.
SAN DIEGO: As we suspected for weeks, after more than 20 years Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton is now completely out of the San Diego radio market, at least for the moment. It was termed "by mutual agreement" that Hamilton is gone from XTRA Sports 1360 as of last week. Like him or not, Hamilton is a pioneer of hard core sports radio talk, especially on a regional and national level, even when his shows were local. Word is that he is on the lookout for either a college or NFL play-by-play gig.
HOUSTON: Still no announcement about the location of Astros radio broadcasts for next year and beyond, even after the exclusive negotiating period has past for KTRH to retain the games.
CINCINNATI: Bengals fans finally have one station where they can always find the games now that WEBN 102.7 FM has taken over the broadcasts on the FM side from sister station WOFX-FM. On the AM side, WCKY 1530 also airs the games through September. After the Reds baseball season comes to a quiet conclusion, powerhouse WLW 700 will again carry the remainder of the Bengals broadcasts.
ST. LOUIS: Controversial sports host Kevin Slaten returns to the local airwaves on Monday October 6, starting during the midday on KSLG 1380 AM. Slaten was dismissed by KFNS 590 in April after the controversy surrounding Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan reportedly not knowing he was being interviewed live on the air. Oct. 6th is also the date that Slaten's non-compete clause expires.
MILWAUKEE: After several mentions of the Milwaukee sports radio market and heating up and 540 Sports doing a separate Brewers post-game show after night games are over, and the Brewers into a lengthy sellout streak, comes this bit of ratings news. This past Thursday (Sept. 4), the Brewers game telecast against the San Diego Padres drew less than 20% of the audience that watched the NFL season opener between the Giants and Redskins. Not only an out of market game, but not even a divisional game for Packers fans.
That has me interested to see how the next few Packers telecasts do against Brewers games in September.
ELSEWHERE: While it is nowhere near SEC dollars, the Western Athletic Conference now as a 7 year deal with ESPN including ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile TV. The network properties now hold the rights to all conference controlled games from this season through the 2016-17 seasons.
New Haven CT's ESPN 1300 AM now carries its own version of the "Bobby and the Bird" show each Sunday from 9 AM until 11 AM. The two are well known from Connecticut's WICC 600 AM where they continue their 7 PM to 9 PM Sunday night top rated sports show.
Bowling Green OH's WBGN 1340 has announced a 2 year deal to broadcast the city's Class A baseball team starting in April, including www.1340WBGN.com, and is expected to carry all 140 games.
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