An important and local sports "news" story is taking place, but the local sports radio station doesn't capture the audience you would expect. Granted, these are not based on scientific results, but I think it makes the point.
This past Thursday (4/12), the owners of the Sacramento Kings of the NBA were meeting with league officials regarding the status of the current ownership. Once again, rumors have heated up that the Kings might be relocating away from the Sacramento area. Such a relocation impacts local revenue, part-time jobs, and civic pride. Especially in this instance, considering the Kings are the only major professional team in town.
Coincidentally, the Sacramento Bee began a poll that day asking respondents "Which sports radio station do you listen to on the drive home?". The poll received a total of 780 responses. Again, not scientific, but compared to the number of diaries or PPM's used to determine the market's ratings, this is a reasonably representative sampling. Especially when you learn that only 13% of those responding said "none". That 87% of those responding actually do listen to a sports radio station during their afternoon commute adds significance.
During afternoon drive in Sacramento, only KHTK 1140 The Fan regularly airs a local sports show, hosted by Grant Napear. The Fan is also the flagship station of the Kings' broadcasts, as well as airing the Oakland Raiders games and some syndicated play-by-play such as Monday Night Football. ESPN 1320 airs ESPN programming during afternoon drive. The story about the meetings involving Kings ownership received comparably less national attention.
This is where the results of this informal poll hit hard. While ESPN 1320 and its national programming received only 16% of the vote, Napear and KHTK received 28% of the vote. Those desperate for a positive spin on this, of course, point out that the "local" show beat out the ESPN show by about 12%.
However, a sports station received 43% of the votes (including votes by those who do not listen to sports radio). KNBR 680 from nearby San Francisco was the "winner". As many of you know, KNBR has been showing excellent ratings in the Bay Area and its consistent 10 ten finishes make it one of the strongest sports radio stations in the country, especially on the west coast.
KNBR is in Warriors country, and right now, its focus is, understandably, on the Giants and their start to the 2012 baseball season. Their focus is and was not on the Sacramento Kings, especially when this is not an "on the court" matter in the news.
Although I have heard Napear several times and enjoy his work, I was not listening last week and was not aware of this Bee poll until after the fact. Granted, this poll is not at all a reflection of only April 12th listening. However, the story of the Kings possibly relocating has been ongoing for months. I can't say this is a reflection of his show, but it could be a reflection of the station.
MIAMI: One of the most significant weeks for Miami's sports radio stations in quite some time. A change in afternoon drive for WQAM results in Dan Sileo taking over as host of the 3 - 7 PM spot last week. This appointment comes just a few weeks after Sileo, who is a former University of Miami defensive lineman, was fired from his morning sports show in Tampa after referring to three black football players as "monkeys". Sileo replaces Sid Rosenberg, who was dismissed last week from the station. Not because of ratings, but because of his arrest for DUI while reportedly driving with a suspended license. Just a few weeks earlier, Rosenberg was reportedly under suspicion of having large gambling debts.
While this was going on, Jorge Sedano has left 790 The Ticket to move on to CBSSports.com. Sedano initially is hosting a fantasy sports show for the web site, although many insiders expect the show to soon begin airing on CBS Sports Network. But for reasons having nothing to do with ratings, area sports fans have lost out on two popular hosts.
SAN FRANCISCO: It's the radio version of "I Said - They Said" played out all over again. KNBR 680 fired Ralph Barbieri after 15 years as "the Razor" on the "Razor & Mr. T Show" and did not (as of press time) explain the move. Later, Barbieri issued a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle, claiming he "had no idea" that day and was actually escorted out of the building after gathering his belongings and turning in the key, ending his 28 years at the station.
HOUSTON: Within a month after being let go by KILT, former NFL linemen N.D. Kalu and Greg Koch have been teamed up for the beginnings of a new show on KBME 790. As of this week (Monday 4/16), the pair host "In the Trenches with Koch & Kalu" from 10 to 11 AM. The pair had only done one shift together as co-hosts prior to this, while working on separate shows on KILT. The next few weeks figure to be on-the-air training for the pair. Look for KBME to expand their role by July and the start of Texans training camp and the coming NFL season.
CHICAGO: Let the jokes about sports events becoming "made for TV" continue on this one. The National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame will honor its 2012 "Sportsman of the Year" on Saturday (4/21), and it will be a television executive. Jim Corno, the President of Comcast SportsNet Chicago, will be honored for his years of service to Chicago based regional sports networks. Joey Votto of the Reds (who are in Chicago this weekend) will be honored as "Athlete of the Year", while former catcher Mike Piazza will be one of the emcees. Once the jokes are over, it is time to acknowledge the job that Corno has done over the years in keeping those regional networks successful.
BOSTON: While Patriots fans celebrate long time play-by-play voice Gil Santos' 72nd birthday on Monday (4/16), the possibility remains that Santos' health status could keep him from returning to the booth this summer. Santos is reportedly still at a rehabiliation center recovering from "a severe case" of pneumonia. 98.5 The Sports Hub is expected to give Santos plenty of time to recover before making determinations for the coming season's broadcasts. He has been teamed with Gino Cappelletti for the past 21 seasons, and here's hoping it's at least 22 before all is said and done.
LOS ANGELES: Score another peg on the maximum exposure meter for USC. The school has become only the second school (other than Notre Dame) to now have a national radio package, as the University of Southern California football games will air nationally on ESPN Radio starting with the upcoming season. It is a multi-year contract, which begins on Sept. 1st with a home game against Hawaii. Locally, 710 KSPN has been airing USC games since the 2006 season.
SOUTH BEND: WSBT, the flagship station for Notre Dame football and basketball is adding its FM signal and now offers a complete simulcast, including the play-by-play and the ESPN Radio programming it carries. In a wonderful coincidence, the signal from 960 AM now airs on (you guessed it) 96.1 FM. Sure makes it easier for the promotion staff!
And finally, being a "beat reporter" for a "major league" team is a big way to get noticed at the national level. NFL Media, which oversees NFL Network and NFL.com has added four new reporters to its staff. They are Kim Jones, who has worked on WFAN New York and on YES Network as a Yankees reporter; Aditi Kinkhabwala, who covered the N.Y. Giants for Wall Street Journal and will become the Steelers correspondent based out of Pittsburgh; Ian Rappaport, who covered the Patriots for the Boston Herald and will now be based out of Dallas; and Gregg Rosenthal, who comes over from NBCSports.com and Pro Football Talk to become a Senior Editor.
Showing posts with label espn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label espn. Show all posts
Monday, April 16, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
The Heat Rises Over The Fish
Miami sports night in the national spotlight this past Wednesday (4/4) night surprised those who pay attention to the TV ratings. ESPN had the Marlins' season opener and debut regular season game in their new stadium starting an hour before ESPN2 had the highly anticipated matchup between the Heat and the Oklahoma City Thunder, also shown from Miami.
Even with the shortened season coming off of the lockout, the Heat vs. Thunder telecast came in with a 67% increase in the ratings over last year and had a higher audience than the baseball telecast. In fact, the late "doubleheader" NBA telecast between the L.A. Lakers and Clippers, which aired on ESPN after the baseball telecast, also outdrew the baseball telecast.
In the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale market, the Heat telecast also outdrew the Marlins' opener by more than 2 to 1 in terms of total audience, including both the ESPN2 and Sun Network (local) telecasts. The folks at TNT and ESPN/ABC are certain to be keeping this in mind with the start of the NBA playoffs now less than 3 weeks away.
Fox Sports is looking at establishing a new prime time habit for sports fans, having scheduled the majority of Saturday nights with live prime-time sports telecasts, including baseball, NASCAR, and college football. This is in addition to the baseball telecasts almost every Saturday (all but 2 total) which will air during the afternoon prior to the prime-time sports event on those Saturdays when there is not a prime-time baseball telecast during the MLB season.
NASCAR events will air on the next two Saturday nights, with Fox airing its baseball telecast during the 1:00 PM time slot this Saturday to assure its regional telecasts are finished well in advance of the NASCAR telecast. Fox had to gain additional cooperation from Major League Baseball to gear up for eight prime-time telecasts this season, up from two last year. The prime-time baseball telecasts will also include the new and expanded pre-game show produced in conjunction with MLB Network.
College football season will have Fox Sports showing Pac-10 Conference games during the 12 week regular season, including the ability to select which game airs nationally. Fox Sports' regional networks will carry other Conference games, although these telecasts will often go head-to-head with ABC's nationally televised games in Saturday prime-time.
In addition, there will be a couple of Saturday night Ultimate Fighting Challenge telecasts. The concept of having one night out of the week to show live sports in prime-time on most Saturdays is not new, but a network (Fox) promoting it as aggressively as it appears they will is new. ABC-TV had sports in prime-time for at least half of the year back in the 1970's when they aired Monday Night Baseball during the summer weeks and then went into Monday Night Football from September into December.
NEW YORK: Baseball telecasts did prove popular in NYC, as SNY reports the Mets' season opening telecast vs. the Atlanta Braves set a ratings record which was established in 2002.
Michael Kay's afternoon show on local ESPN Radio has an interesting addition for once each week, as Red Sox Manager Bobby Valentine has been signed on to appear only for the New York audience. We can certainly understand the move from Kay's and the station's point of view to want the rival manager on its airwaves as a draw to the audience of Yankees fans. However, it is tough to understand Valentine being so open and willing to address fans of "his" team's biggest rival on a regular basis.
It is not as though Valentine has no other media outlet, as he will also appear on a weekly basis on WEEI Boston's "The Big Show", which is perfectly understandable. If Valentine wanted to continue to have this much media exposure, he should have stayed with ESPN and done additional commentary on their various local stations. I'd say Red Sox fans have a right to be upset about the fact that their new manager is taking time away from his team to talk to the play-by-play voice of and fans of "his" team's biggest rival on a regular basis to supplement his income.
LOS ANGELES: KLAA 830's Roger Lodge is now getting plenty of air time when it comes to the Angels' new season. Although Lodge continues to co-host the station's morning show, he is also hosting the additional pre-game talk show which begins about 90 minutes before each Angels home game and usually airs from Gate 5 of The Big A. Lodge actually hosted the morning show live from outside the stadium on Opening Day (this past Friday 4/6) and later returned to the same location for his pre-game talk show. Word is that he had about 100 or so fans on hand with him by the time his morning segment ended.
CHICAGO: WSCR The Score 670's Dan McNeil returned to the station's midday show on Monday (4/9) after a 6-week absence due to what he termed "depression and substance abuse". Other station hosts and reporters filled in for McNeil during his time away, during which no specific reasons were given until his return.
St. LOUIS: With the Blues in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the Cardinals' season in full swing, both KMOX Radio and Fox Sports Midwest will have some conflicts regarding which game to air live. In both instances, the Cardinals' management reportedly has agreed to be flexible, unlike several situations around the country where one team clearly has priority in the event of a conflict.
On the radio side, if and when Cardinals and Blues conflicts occur, one will air as usual on KMOX 1120 while the other broadcast moves to KEZK 102.5. On the TV side, Fox Sports Midwest has indicated that conflicting telecasts, not handled by Channel 5 (the local NBC affiliate) will air on FSM Plus. FSM reports that Blues' telecast ratings were up about 14% over last season.
PHILADELPHIA: Sorry to learn of the passing of Steve Fredericks on Saturday at the age of 72. The long-time Philadelphia area sportscaster is probably best remembered for his stint on WIP-AM when he co-hosted afternoons with Mike Missanelli. Fredericks also held numerous local play-by-play assignments over his 44 years in the business, and had retired in 2004.
RAPID CITY: K-TALK 1340 has now officially become the local ESPN Radio affiliate after a 3 month abscence from the market when KRKI switched to Fox Sports Radio. In addition, K-TALK will continue to carry University of Nebraska football and select local high school broadcasts.St. GEORGE UT: Another market has gone to making sports radio into an AM-FM combo, now with 102.3 and 107.3 FM carrying the ESPN programming and extensive play-by-play. The stations will continue to carry Utah Jazz games, BYU, Dixie State College, and selected local high school games.
BLOOMINGTON/NORMAL IL: WZIM 99.5 has become "The Ticket" and is a Fox Sports Radio affiliate, dropping its music format last week in time for the opening of the baseball season. The station continues to carry Chicago Cubs baseball.
SCHEDULES: Finally, for those looking ahead to NFL Football, the networks have announced the bulk of their pre-season national TV schedules:
Sunday August 5 Hall of Fame Game: Arizona Cardinals - New Orleans Saints (NFL Network 8PM ET)
Week 1
Thursday August 9 Green Bay Packers - San Diego Chargers (ESPN 8PM)
Monday, August 13 Dallas Cowboys - Oakland Raiders (ESPN 8PM)
Week 2
Thursday August 16 Cincinnati Bengals - Atlanta Falcons (FOX 8PM)
Friday August 17 Detroit Lions - Baltimore Ravens (FOX 8PM)
Sunday August 19 Indianapolis Colts - Pittsburgh Steelers (NBC 8PM)
Monday August 20 Philadelphia Eagles - New England Patriots (ESPN 8PM)
Week 3
Thursday August 23 Arizona Cardinals - Tennessee Titans (ESPN 8PM)
Friday August 24 Chicago Bears - New York Giants (CBS 8PM)
Saturday August 25 Houston Texans - New Orleans Saints (CBS 8PM)
Sunday August 26 San Francisco 49ers - Denver Broncos (FOX 4PM)
Carolina Panthers - New York Jets (NBC 8PM)
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Even with the shortened season coming off of the lockout, the Heat vs. Thunder telecast came in with a 67% increase in the ratings over last year and had a higher audience than the baseball telecast. In fact, the late "doubleheader" NBA telecast between the L.A. Lakers and Clippers, which aired on ESPN after the baseball telecast, also outdrew the baseball telecast.
In the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale market, the Heat telecast also outdrew the Marlins' opener by more than 2 to 1 in terms of total audience, including both the ESPN2 and Sun Network (local) telecasts. The folks at TNT and ESPN/ABC are certain to be keeping this in mind with the start of the NBA playoffs now less than 3 weeks away.
Fox Sports is looking at establishing a new prime time habit for sports fans, having scheduled the majority of Saturday nights with live prime-time sports telecasts, including baseball, NASCAR, and college football. This is in addition to the baseball telecasts almost every Saturday (all but 2 total) which will air during the afternoon prior to the prime-time sports event on those Saturdays when there is not a prime-time baseball telecast during the MLB season.
NASCAR events will air on the next two Saturday nights, with Fox airing its baseball telecast during the 1:00 PM time slot this Saturday to assure its regional telecasts are finished well in advance of the NASCAR telecast. Fox had to gain additional cooperation from Major League Baseball to gear up for eight prime-time telecasts this season, up from two last year. The prime-time baseball telecasts will also include the new and expanded pre-game show produced in conjunction with MLB Network.
College football season will have Fox Sports showing Pac-10 Conference games during the 12 week regular season, including the ability to select which game airs nationally. Fox Sports' regional networks will carry other Conference games, although these telecasts will often go head-to-head with ABC's nationally televised games in Saturday prime-time.
In addition, there will be a couple of Saturday night Ultimate Fighting Challenge telecasts. The concept of having one night out of the week to show live sports in prime-time on most Saturdays is not new, but a network (Fox) promoting it as aggressively as it appears they will is new. ABC-TV had sports in prime-time for at least half of the year back in the 1970's when they aired Monday Night Baseball during the summer weeks and then went into Monday Night Football from September into December.
NEW YORK: Baseball telecasts did prove popular in NYC, as SNY reports the Mets' season opening telecast vs. the Atlanta Braves set a ratings record which was established in 2002.
Michael Kay's afternoon show on local ESPN Radio has an interesting addition for once each week, as Red Sox Manager Bobby Valentine has been signed on to appear only for the New York audience. We can certainly understand the move from Kay's and the station's point of view to want the rival manager on its airwaves as a draw to the audience of Yankees fans. However, it is tough to understand Valentine being so open and willing to address fans of "his" team's biggest rival on a regular basis.
It is not as though Valentine has no other media outlet, as he will also appear on a weekly basis on WEEI Boston's "The Big Show", which is perfectly understandable. If Valentine wanted to continue to have this much media exposure, he should have stayed with ESPN and done additional commentary on their various local stations. I'd say Red Sox fans have a right to be upset about the fact that their new manager is taking time away from his team to talk to the play-by-play voice of and fans of "his" team's biggest rival on a regular basis to supplement his income.
LOS ANGELES: KLAA 830's Roger Lodge is now getting plenty of air time when it comes to the Angels' new season. Although Lodge continues to co-host the station's morning show, he is also hosting the additional pre-game talk show which begins about 90 minutes before each Angels home game and usually airs from Gate 5 of The Big A. Lodge actually hosted the morning show live from outside the stadium on Opening Day (this past Friday 4/6) and later returned to the same location for his pre-game talk show. Word is that he had about 100 or so fans on hand with him by the time his morning segment ended.
CHICAGO: WSCR The Score 670's Dan McNeil returned to the station's midday show on Monday (4/9) after a 6-week absence due to what he termed "depression and substance abuse". Other station hosts and reporters filled in for McNeil during his time away, during which no specific reasons were given until his return.
St. LOUIS: With the Blues in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the Cardinals' season in full swing, both KMOX Radio and Fox Sports Midwest will have some conflicts regarding which game to air live. In both instances, the Cardinals' management reportedly has agreed to be flexible, unlike several situations around the country where one team clearly has priority in the event of a conflict.
On the radio side, if and when Cardinals and Blues conflicts occur, one will air as usual on KMOX 1120 while the other broadcast moves to KEZK 102.5. On the TV side, Fox Sports Midwest has indicated that conflicting telecasts, not handled by Channel 5 (the local NBC affiliate) will air on FSM Plus. FSM reports that Blues' telecast ratings were up about 14% over last season.
PHILADELPHIA: Sorry to learn of the passing of Steve Fredericks on Saturday at the age of 72. The long-time Philadelphia area sportscaster is probably best remembered for his stint on WIP-AM when he co-hosted afternoons with Mike Missanelli. Fredericks also held numerous local play-by-play assignments over his 44 years in the business, and had retired in 2004.
RAPID CITY: K-TALK 1340 has now officially become the local ESPN Radio affiliate after a 3 month abscence from the market when KRKI switched to Fox Sports Radio. In addition, K-TALK will continue to carry University of Nebraska football and select local high school broadcasts.St. GEORGE UT: Another market has gone to making sports radio into an AM-FM combo, now with 102.3 and 107.3 FM carrying the ESPN programming and extensive play-by-play. The stations will continue to carry Utah Jazz games, BYU, Dixie State College, and selected local high school games.
BLOOMINGTON/NORMAL IL: WZIM 99.5 has become "The Ticket" and is a Fox Sports Radio affiliate, dropping its music format last week in time for the opening of the baseball season. The station continues to carry Chicago Cubs baseball.
SCHEDULES: Finally, for those looking ahead to NFL Football, the networks have announced the bulk of their pre-season national TV schedules:
Sunday August 5 Hall of Fame Game: Arizona Cardinals - New Orleans Saints (NFL Network 8PM ET)
Week 1
Thursday August 9 Green Bay Packers - San Diego Chargers (ESPN 8PM)
Monday, August 13 Dallas Cowboys - Oakland Raiders (ESPN 8PM)
Week 2
Thursday August 16 Cincinnati Bengals - Atlanta Falcons (FOX 8PM)
Friday August 17 Detroit Lions - Baltimore Ravens (FOX 8PM)
Sunday August 19 Indianapolis Colts - Pittsburgh Steelers (NBC 8PM)
Monday August 20 Philadelphia Eagles - New England Patriots (ESPN 8PM)
Week 3
Thursday August 23 Arizona Cardinals - Tennessee Titans (ESPN 8PM)
Friday August 24 Chicago Bears - New York Giants (CBS 8PM)
Saturday August 25 Houston Texans - New Orleans Saints (CBS 8PM)
Sunday August 26 San Francisco 49ers - Denver Broncos (FOX 4PM)
Carolina Panthers - New York Jets (NBC 8PM)
W77WKKD794UM
Monday, April 2, 2012
A Sleepy Knight For The Coach
Perhaps the biggest "highlight" from the Final Four coverage was on ESPN when Bobby Knight was shown on camera either having dozed off or simply not paying attention. Viewers could see analyst Digger Phelps poking Knight in the arm, and how Knight was trying to make it look as though he was ready all along.
As seems typical when Knight is involved in an embarrassing moment, there was no further comment from him or ESPN, even though Knight clearly insulted ESPN and the viewers by appearing so disinterested. Although this is not as amazing as when Knight used the "s-word" on the air last year and did not personally apologize, you have to wonder how many more times he will embarass ESPN before they send him packing.
It's too bad a producer or somebody didn't toss a chair in his direction to wake him up on camera, just as Knight thought was fit to do at a referee during a game (among his many disgusting actions) while coaching at Indiana University before they finally sent him packing. These days, there is no reason (or shouldn't be any) that the media continues to act as if he never does anything wrong and sets such a poor example.
Unlike Knight, the fans clearly stayed awake, at least for the game coverage, and brought CBS higher ratings for the Final Four than any of the recent seasons going back to 2005. Both of the Saturday telecasts showed increases of about 1% over last year.
Despite the widespread radio coverage of Monday night's championship game, the broadcast nearly did not air in Chicago. WMVP 1000 had been airing "whip around" coverage of the early round games and carrying as much as possible through the Saturday Final Four games, but was not able to air the championship game due to airing the Chicago Bulls game vs. Houston at the same time. Yet, WSCR 670 The Score, which is a CBS station, chose not to carry the broadcast even though it had no play-by-play conflict at the time and it would have supported the CBS-TV telecast. WGN Radio, which did not have a Blackhawks hockey or Cubs exhibition game to air, stepped in and aired the syndicated broadcast.
ESPN and MLB Network begin their schedule of telecasts over the next few days as we welcome back baseball. In addition to its opening Wednesday Night Baseball telecast from Miami, ESPN will also air games on Thursday and Friday and then continue with its usual Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday Night Baseball telecasts.
The NBC Sports Group continues its in-depth coverage of the NHL, with telecasts every day this week as the regular season winds down, and as a promotion for the Group airing every playoff game starting next week.
NBC Sports Network aired a doubleheader on Tuesday April 3, with Det. at St. Louis on Wednesday night, N.Y. Rangers at Pittsburgh on Thursday, and Phoenix at St. Louis on Friday night. NBC airs Chicago at Detroit on Saturday afternoon, while NBC Sports Network delivers a live doubleheader after that (Philly at Pitts at 4 PM ET and Washington at Rangers at 6:30 PM ET).
On the NBA side, the Lakers broadcasts on KSPN 710 with John Ireland and Mychal Thompson have taken on an interesting feature during most of the home games. They have been featuring a celebrity commentator during the 2nd quarter to join them in the booth, and not always to focus on the ins and outs of the game in progress. The on-air "guests" have included musicians such as Richie Sambora (of Bon Jovi) and Flea, and the likes of David Hasselhoff, Lisa Leslie, Dyan Cannon, and Richard Lewis. While an interesting twist, talking about non-basketball matters takes away too much from the play-by-play, since this is on radio and the listeners usually (unless listening while watching the telecast) can't see what is going on in the game.
Congratulations to 87 year-old Jack Whitaker on receiving a Sports Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award later this month (April 30) in New York. Whitaker was actually the first to receive a sportscasting Emmy back in 1979. He was a primary voice for CBS Sports in the 60's and most of the 70's, doing NFL play-by-play and anchoring the network's golf coverage, and his authoritative and "serious" style of sportscasting will be long remembered.
MIAMI: The Ticket 790 begins its weekly "Manager's Show" with new Marlins Manager Ozzie Guillen on Tuesday (April 3) at 3:30 in a segment to air within the Dan LeBatard Show. It might be the one show on the station where the 7-second delay is needed for the guest instead of the callers, but it will undoubtedly make for compelling radio. The station has welcomed Tod Castleberry as its new Program Director, coming from WTEM 980 and other Washington D.C. stations.
MILWAUKEE: One of the fastest and quietest radio rights negotiations in recent years ended with nothing changed. WTMJ continues as the flagship station for the Brewers' broadcasts. The number of years was not announced, nor were the names of any other stations which supposedly were willing to bid. This is as mutually beneficial of an arrangement as you will find. The Brewers benefit by staying on what is generally the top rated station in town. Although WTMJ is not all sports, it carries all of the local play-by-play that matters (Brewers, Packers, Bucks, U. of Wisconsin), while the 2 sports talk stations in the market are usually nowhere to be found in the monthly ratings. The station benefits by maintaining the local "sports monopoly".
Bob Uecker is back for his 42nd season as radio voice of the Brewers, with Joe Block as his new partner.
CHICAGO: Wayne Randazzo, who has handled play-by-play for Big Ten Network and sports headlines and occasional fill-in on WSCR The Score 670, has been hired as play-by-play voice of the Kane County Cougars Class A minor league baseball team which plays in a western suburb. Suburban station WBIG 1260 will air the games again this season.
HOUSTON: KILT 610 will have at least two different NFL analysts on board by the time the station begins its surrounding Texans coverage for next season. Both Greg Koch and N.D. Kalu left the station last week. No word yet on replacements, which may not be named until closer to NFL training camp.
The new baseball season doesn't figure to be very memorable for the Astros, and their fans will not have any of their games, other than up to three Saturday games on the local Fox-TV affiliate, shown on over-the-air TV. Fox Sports Houston will carry at least 150 games this season, with Bill Brown and Jim Deshaies. This Friday night (4/6) the Astros game has priority on Fox Sports Houston, meaning that its Rockets vs. Lakers telecast will likely begin on Fox Sports Net Plus. In fact, six other Rockets regular season telecasts this month have been moved to KTXH-TV 20 due to Astros conflicts on FSH, and it was KTXH-TV which used to show at least 20 Astros games per season until this year.
OKLAHOMA CITY: WWLS-FM 98.1 and WWLS-AM 640 each remain all sports although they no longer simulcast as of last Thursday (3/29). 98.1 remains the Sports Animal with local and regional programming which also airs on KYAL Tulsa and KBIX Muskogee. 640 AM now carries ESPN Radio throughout the day and night, except for airing the NBA Thunder games and Oklahoma and Oklahoma State pre-game and post-game shows.
The market is paradise for baseball fans, perhaps more than anywhere else in the country, for most cable/satellite subscribers. In addition to the national packages from ESPN, MLB Network, and TBS throughout the season, there will be plenty to choose from. About 150 St. Louis Cardinals telecasts will be available via Fox Sports Plus. Fox Sports Oklahoma and FS Plus will also combine to air 116 Texas Rangers telecasts. In addition, Fox Sports OK will air 67 Houston Astros telecasts, and about 30 Kansas City Royals telecasts. In addition, most systems also receive WGN-TV America, which airs 67 Chicago Cubs and 32 Chicago White Sox telecasts this year. The Cardinals and Rangers are the closest team in each league geographically, while the Astros are the parent club of the OK City RedHawks minor league team.
AMARILLO: KPUR 1440 abruptly dropped ESPN Radio and went to oldies music last Wednesday (3/28), leaving the market without an affiliate, at least for the time being.
YAKIMA WA: Same story in this market, as KJOX 1390 also dropped ESPN, changing to KTCR and turning to classic country music. Station officials were quoted as saying it was an ESPN decision. Unlike the Amarillo situation, it could be that ESPN is looking at shifting to one of a larger group of local stations in the near future. The new KTCR is maintaining its local sports presence, with plans to continue to air Mainers baseball and Washington State University football and basketball games.
MOBILE: WNSP 105.5 now (as of Monday 4/2) serves as the flagship station for "Conference Call SEC", which airs from Noon to 2 PM Monday through Friday, and is hosted by Max Howell and Randy Burgan. The pair had been hosting "Sidelines" during that time slot only on WNSP. The new show focuses on all SEC sports in season, and plans to broadcast on location during the Fridays leading in to key Conference football games. The show now airs on six radio stations, with a TV version airing in Jackson MS and currently streamed on www.ConferenceCallSEC.com.
PORT JERVIS NY: WDLC 1490 and 107.7 has expanded its local high school sports coverage to include play-by-play of some local baseball and softball games starting next week (4/10). Kevin Halpenny and Lou Masci will call the games.
As seems typical when Knight is involved in an embarrassing moment, there was no further comment from him or ESPN, even though Knight clearly insulted ESPN and the viewers by appearing so disinterested. Although this is not as amazing as when Knight used the "s-word" on the air last year and did not personally apologize, you have to wonder how many more times he will embarass ESPN before they send him packing.
It's too bad a producer or somebody didn't toss a chair in his direction to wake him up on camera, just as Knight thought was fit to do at a referee during a game (among his many disgusting actions) while coaching at Indiana University before they finally sent him packing. These days, there is no reason (or shouldn't be any) that the media continues to act as if he never does anything wrong and sets such a poor example.
Unlike Knight, the fans clearly stayed awake, at least for the game coverage, and brought CBS higher ratings for the Final Four than any of the recent seasons going back to 2005. Both of the Saturday telecasts showed increases of about 1% over last year.
Despite the widespread radio coverage of Monday night's championship game, the broadcast nearly did not air in Chicago. WMVP 1000 had been airing "whip around" coverage of the early round games and carrying as much as possible through the Saturday Final Four games, but was not able to air the championship game due to airing the Chicago Bulls game vs. Houston at the same time. Yet, WSCR 670 The Score, which is a CBS station, chose not to carry the broadcast even though it had no play-by-play conflict at the time and it would have supported the CBS-TV telecast. WGN Radio, which did not have a Blackhawks hockey or Cubs exhibition game to air, stepped in and aired the syndicated broadcast.
ESPN and MLB Network begin their schedule of telecasts over the next few days as we welcome back baseball. In addition to its opening Wednesday Night Baseball telecast from Miami, ESPN will also air games on Thursday and Friday and then continue with its usual Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday Night Baseball telecasts.
The NBC Sports Group continues its in-depth coverage of the NHL, with telecasts every day this week as the regular season winds down, and as a promotion for the Group airing every playoff game starting next week.
NBC Sports Network aired a doubleheader on Tuesday April 3, with Det. at St. Louis on Wednesday night, N.Y. Rangers at Pittsburgh on Thursday, and Phoenix at St. Louis on Friday night. NBC airs Chicago at Detroit on Saturday afternoon, while NBC Sports Network delivers a live doubleheader after that (Philly at Pitts at 4 PM ET and Washington at Rangers at 6:30 PM ET).
On the NBA side, the Lakers broadcasts on KSPN 710 with John Ireland and Mychal Thompson have taken on an interesting feature during most of the home games. They have been featuring a celebrity commentator during the 2nd quarter to join them in the booth, and not always to focus on the ins and outs of the game in progress. The on-air "guests" have included musicians such as Richie Sambora (of Bon Jovi) and Flea, and the likes of David Hasselhoff, Lisa Leslie, Dyan Cannon, and Richard Lewis. While an interesting twist, talking about non-basketball matters takes away too much from the play-by-play, since this is on radio and the listeners usually (unless listening while watching the telecast) can't see what is going on in the game.
Congratulations to 87 year-old Jack Whitaker on receiving a Sports Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award later this month (April 30) in New York. Whitaker was actually the first to receive a sportscasting Emmy back in 1979. He was a primary voice for CBS Sports in the 60's and most of the 70's, doing NFL play-by-play and anchoring the network's golf coverage, and his authoritative and "serious" style of sportscasting will be long remembered.
MIAMI: The Ticket 790 begins its weekly "Manager's Show" with new Marlins Manager Ozzie Guillen on Tuesday (April 3) at 3:30 in a segment to air within the Dan LeBatard Show. It might be the one show on the station where the 7-second delay is needed for the guest instead of the callers, but it will undoubtedly make for compelling radio. The station has welcomed Tod Castleberry as its new Program Director, coming from WTEM 980 and other Washington D.C. stations.
MILWAUKEE: One of the fastest and quietest radio rights negotiations in recent years ended with nothing changed. WTMJ continues as the flagship station for the Brewers' broadcasts. The number of years was not announced, nor were the names of any other stations which supposedly were willing to bid. This is as mutually beneficial of an arrangement as you will find. The Brewers benefit by staying on what is generally the top rated station in town. Although WTMJ is not all sports, it carries all of the local play-by-play that matters (Brewers, Packers, Bucks, U. of Wisconsin), while the 2 sports talk stations in the market are usually nowhere to be found in the monthly ratings. The station benefits by maintaining the local "sports monopoly".
Bob Uecker is back for his 42nd season as radio voice of the Brewers, with Joe Block as his new partner.
CHICAGO: Wayne Randazzo, who has handled play-by-play for Big Ten Network and sports headlines and occasional fill-in on WSCR The Score 670, has been hired as play-by-play voice of the Kane County Cougars Class A minor league baseball team which plays in a western suburb. Suburban station WBIG 1260 will air the games again this season.
HOUSTON: KILT 610 will have at least two different NFL analysts on board by the time the station begins its surrounding Texans coverage for next season. Both Greg Koch and N.D. Kalu left the station last week. No word yet on replacements, which may not be named until closer to NFL training camp.
The new baseball season doesn't figure to be very memorable for the Astros, and their fans will not have any of their games, other than up to three Saturday games on the local Fox-TV affiliate, shown on over-the-air TV. Fox Sports Houston will carry at least 150 games this season, with Bill Brown and Jim Deshaies. This Friday night (4/6) the Astros game has priority on Fox Sports Houston, meaning that its Rockets vs. Lakers telecast will likely begin on Fox Sports Net Plus. In fact, six other Rockets regular season telecasts this month have been moved to KTXH-TV 20 due to Astros conflicts on FSH, and it was KTXH-TV which used to show at least 20 Astros games per season until this year.
OKLAHOMA CITY: WWLS-FM 98.1 and WWLS-AM 640 each remain all sports although they no longer simulcast as of last Thursday (3/29). 98.1 remains the Sports Animal with local and regional programming which also airs on KYAL Tulsa and KBIX Muskogee. 640 AM now carries ESPN Radio throughout the day and night, except for airing the NBA Thunder games and Oklahoma and Oklahoma State pre-game and post-game shows.
The market is paradise for baseball fans, perhaps more than anywhere else in the country, for most cable/satellite subscribers. In addition to the national packages from ESPN, MLB Network, and TBS throughout the season, there will be plenty to choose from. About 150 St. Louis Cardinals telecasts will be available via Fox Sports Plus. Fox Sports Oklahoma and FS Plus will also combine to air 116 Texas Rangers telecasts. In addition, Fox Sports OK will air 67 Houston Astros telecasts, and about 30 Kansas City Royals telecasts. In addition, most systems also receive WGN-TV America, which airs 67 Chicago Cubs and 32 Chicago White Sox telecasts this year. The Cardinals and Rangers are the closest team in each league geographically, while the Astros are the parent club of the OK City RedHawks minor league team.
AMARILLO: KPUR 1440 abruptly dropped ESPN Radio and went to oldies music last Wednesday (3/28), leaving the market without an affiliate, at least for the time being.
YAKIMA WA: Same story in this market, as KJOX 1390 also dropped ESPN, changing to KTCR and turning to classic country music. Station officials were quoted as saying it was an ESPN decision. Unlike the Amarillo situation, it could be that ESPN is looking at shifting to one of a larger group of local stations in the near future. The new KTCR is maintaining its local sports presence, with plans to continue to air Mainers baseball and Washington State University football and basketball games.
MOBILE: WNSP 105.5 now (as of Monday 4/2) serves as the flagship station for "Conference Call SEC", which airs from Noon to 2 PM Monday through Friday, and is hosted by Max Howell and Randy Burgan. The pair had been hosting "Sidelines" during that time slot only on WNSP. The new show focuses on all SEC sports in season, and plans to broadcast on location during the Fridays leading in to key Conference football games. The show now airs on six radio stations, with a TV version airing in Jackson MS and currently streamed on www.ConferenceCallSEC.com.
PORT JERVIS NY: WDLC 1490 and 107.7 has expanded its local high school sports coverage to include play-by-play of some local baseball and softball games starting next week (4/10). Kevin Halpenny and Lou Masci will call the games.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Sports League Networks Work Worthwhile
Sports fans continue to benefit by the various major sports having multiple networks showing their games, and even moreso based on recent announcements and events.
Even the NHL is catching up and not hiding their telecasts liked they used to, or so it seemed. For yars, every MLB and NFL playoff game has been televised on a national basis. Last season, NBA-TV filled in the occasional early round "gap" and made certain that every playoff game was seen nationally. We are also in the midst of our second year of every NCAA Basketball Tournament game being seen live on one of four channels.
NBC has come out with the announcement that starting in early April, every NHL playoff game will be shown live. NBC will continue to showcase weekend action, with NBC Sports Network providing doubelheader coverage when possible. In addition, CNBC will be utilized to show additional early round action, since the strength of CNBC programming comes during the business day and would not be impacted by NHL coverage at night. NHL Network will also carry local feeds of additional telecasts.
This is good to see, as networks normally competing for viewers continue to work together, including cross-promotion, for the benefit of fans of the sport or the league(s). After all, CBS would normally not promote programming appearing on TNT or TBS, and vice versa, but these networks have devoted air time toward cross promoting the NCAA telecasts.
Even on regular season NBA telecasts, ESPN/ABC and TNT regularly promote the "national TV schedule" within their game telecasts regardless of which games are on other networks.
On the heels of this comes the word that Fox Sports is partnering with MLB Network for its Saturday baseball pre-game show starting in just over 2 weeks. The pregame show for the Fox Game Of The Week will now originate from the MLB Network studios, and be hosted by Matt Vasgersian. Personnel from both MLB Network and Fox Sports will participate.
This all serves to show how far the various "league" networks have come, and the progress they continue to add. NBA-TV did a great job with its "Trade Deadline Special" last week (3/15), with a 2-hour live special centered upon the league trade deadline. The network also came back with a prime-time recap and a fresh look at the teams. Of course, the network had no way of knowing there would not be a major deal done, but having this show available and utilizing the available resources around the league was a great approach. For the NBA fan, it certainly beat hours of nothing but speculation on the various sports talk radio stations around the country. NBA-TV also didn't stop because these shows were on up against the NCAA opening round telecasts during the afternoon, instead doing their job to maintain interest in NBA activities on what could have been a significant day.
NFL Media, which includes NFL Network (along with NFL.com and NFL Films) has received 14 Sports Emmy Award nominations. This is an amazing and very positive reflection on NFL Media. Other award nominees come from the various networks and programmers who invest millions and millions of dollars and use prime time toward showcasing the games and leagues they telecast.
Included among the nominations are Mike Mayock, who acted as analyst for NFL Network's Thursday Night Football telecasts this past season. Mayock was established as analyst on NBC's Notre Dame football telecasts and did quite well in his first regular NFL assignment.
By the way, NBC has moved the Notre Dame vs. Miami college football telecast on October 6th, which will be played in Chicago at Soldier Field as an ND home game, to prime-time for an 8:30 PM ET telecast.
Meanwhile, this might seem like an issue only in Vermont, but it should not be treated as such. It seems that administrators at the University of Vermont went as far as to ask University President John Bramley to take terminate the school's contract for its sports broadcasts with WVMT-AM Radio. The reason? Because that station happens to carry Rush Limbaugh's show during the day. It seems that some faculty and school personnel remain upset over the remarks Limbaugh made last month and do not think the University should be associated with a radio station that carries that show as well.
UVM President John Bramley officially took the position of urging those upset about Limbaugh's comments to contact the station. WMVT General Manager Paul Goldman was quoted as saying that the station has no plans to drop Limbaugh's show, and that it wishes to keep the UVM sports contract, which as of now runs through the 2016 seasons.
Frankly, this attempt from the faculty members is more outrageous than anything Limbaugh said. Maybe the next group of students who disagree with a comment made by a professor should contact the school about ending the course. Those who work in the media should be totally offended by this crap.
NEW YORK: The latest radio ratings show that ESPN Radio is gaining on WFAN, especially in the afternoon, although Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton continue with solid morning numbers.
CHICAGO: WFLD-TV has added Dionne Miller as a sports anchor in early April. She will anchor the Friday and Saturday night sportscasts on the late news and participate in the Sunday half hour recap show, "The Final Word". Miller has worked for Big Ten Network, WBNS-TV Columbus, and also hosted studio shows before and after Cavaliers basketball telecasts.
97.5 ESPN Deportes will carry the Spanish broadcasts of White Sox games this season, as well as Chicago Fire MLS broadcasts for this season.
SAN DIEGO: XX Sports 1090 is adding Josh Rosenberg and Charod Williams to its lineup starting next week, with the pair coming over from XTRA Sports 1360. Rosenberg and Williams will take over the 10 AM to 2 PM spot, which also reduces Darren Smith's show to 2 to 5 PM. XX 1090 is the Padres' flagship station, and this means that John Kentera will air from 8 to 11 PM only on nights that the Padres are not playing at that time. What makes this move even more interesting is that it moves Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton into the 5 to 8 PM time slot after handling the midday spot. Most of the Padres road games will pre-empt some or all of Hamilton's show.
Hacksaw has always been very good at handling the "national" sports fans, as in the transplants and tourists in the San Diego area. Now, the evening time slot puts Hamilton up against the majority of games being televised and/or broadcast on other stations. Chances are, based on sports radio ratings vs. live sports telecasts around the country, this could cut into Hamilton's audience in the short term. Makes us wonder if there aren't any further changes in the hopper at 1090.
Even the NHL is catching up and not hiding their telecasts liked they used to, or so it seemed. For yars, every MLB and NFL playoff game has been televised on a national basis. Last season, NBA-TV filled in the occasional early round "gap" and made certain that every playoff game was seen nationally. We are also in the midst of our second year of every NCAA Basketball Tournament game being seen live on one of four channels.
NBC has come out with the announcement that starting in early April, every NHL playoff game will be shown live. NBC will continue to showcase weekend action, with NBC Sports Network providing doubelheader coverage when possible. In addition, CNBC will be utilized to show additional early round action, since the strength of CNBC programming comes during the business day and would not be impacted by NHL coverage at night. NHL Network will also carry local feeds of additional telecasts.
This is good to see, as networks normally competing for viewers continue to work together, including cross-promotion, for the benefit of fans of the sport or the league(s). After all, CBS would normally not promote programming appearing on TNT or TBS, and vice versa, but these networks have devoted air time toward cross promoting the NCAA telecasts.
Even on regular season NBA telecasts, ESPN/ABC and TNT regularly promote the "national TV schedule" within their game telecasts regardless of which games are on other networks.
On the heels of this comes the word that Fox Sports is partnering with MLB Network for its Saturday baseball pre-game show starting in just over 2 weeks. The pregame show for the Fox Game Of The Week will now originate from the MLB Network studios, and be hosted by Matt Vasgersian. Personnel from both MLB Network and Fox Sports will participate.
This all serves to show how far the various "league" networks have come, and the progress they continue to add. NBA-TV did a great job with its "Trade Deadline Special" last week (3/15), with a 2-hour live special centered upon the league trade deadline. The network also came back with a prime-time recap and a fresh look at the teams. Of course, the network had no way of knowing there would not be a major deal done, but having this show available and utilizing the available resources around the league was a great approach. For the NBA fan, it certainly beat hours of nothing but speculation on the various sports talk radio stations around the country. NBA-TV also didn't stop because these shows were on up against the NCAA opening round telecasts during the afternoon, instead doing their job to maintain interest in NBA activities on what could have been a significant day.
NFL Media, which includes NFL Network (along with NFL.com and NFL Films) has received 14 Sports Emmy Award nominations. This is an amazing and very positive reflection on NFL Media. Other award nominees come from the various networks and programmers who invest millions and millions of dollars and use prime time toward showcasing the games and leagues they telecast.
Included among the nominations are Mike Mayock, who acted as analyst for NFL Network's Thursday Night Football telecasts this past season. Mayock was established as analyst on NBC's Notre Dame football telecasts and did quite well in his first regular NFL assignment.
By the way, NBC has moved the Notre Dame vs. Miami college football telecast on October 6th, which will be played in Chicago at Soldier Field as an ND home game, to prime-time for an 8:30 PM ET telecast.
Meanwhile, this might seem like an issue only in Vermont, but it should not be treated as such. It seems that administrators at the University of Vermont went as far as to ask University President John Bramley to take terminate the school's contract for its sports broadcasts with WVMT-AM Radio. The reason? Because that station happens to carry Rush Limbaugh's show during the day. It seems that some faculty and school personnel remain upset over the remarks Limbaugh made last month and do not think the University should be associated with a radio station that carries that show as well.
UVM President John Bramley officially took the position of urging those upset about Limbaugh's comments to contact the station. WMVT General Manager Paul Goldman was quoted as saying that the station has no plans to drop Limbaugh's show, and that it wishes to keep the UVM sports contract, which as of now runs through the 2016 seasons.
Frankly, this attempt from the faculty members is more outrageous than anything Limbaugh said. Maybe the next group of students who disagree with a comment made by a professor should contact the school about ending the course. Those who work in the media should be totally offended by this crap.
NEW YORK: The latest radio ratings show that ESPN Radio is gaining on WFAN, especially in the afternoon, although Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton continue with solid morning numbers.
CHICAGO: WFLD-TV has added Dionne Miller as a sports anchor in early April. She will anchor the Friday and Saturday night sportscasts on the late news and participate in the Sunday half hour recap show, "The Final Word". Miller has worked for Big Ten Network, WBNS-TV Columbus, and also hosted studio shows before and after Cavaliers basketball telecasts.
97.5 ESPN Deportes will carry the Spanish broadcasts of White Sox games this season, as well as Chicago Fire MLS broadcasts for this season.
SAN DIEGO: XX Sports 1090 is adding Josh Rosenberg and Charod Williams to its lineup starting next week, with the pair coming over from XTRA Sports 1360. Rosenberg and Williams will take over the 10 AM to 2 PM spot, which also reduces Darren Smith's show to 2 to 5 PM. XX 1090 is the Padres' flagship station, and this means that John Kentera will air from 8 to 11 PM only on nights that the Padres are not playing at that time. What makes this move even more interesting is that it moves Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton into the 5 to 8 PM time slot after handling the midday spot. Most of the Padres road games will pre-empt some or all of Hamilton's show.
Hacksaw has always been very good at handling the "national" sports fans, as in the transplants and tourists in the San Diego area. Now, the evening time slot puts Hamilton up against the majority of games being televised and/or broadcast on other stations. Chances are, based on sports radio ratings vs. live sports telecasts around the country, this could cut into Hamilton's audience in the short term. Makes us wonder if there aren't any further changes in the hopper at 1090.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Call The Games, Not The Names
Since when is on-air "name calling" a more punishable offense than inaccurate reporting or using profanity? It appears since recently based on the most recent media developments.
Earlier this week WDAE 620 Tampa listeners now have Rock Riley as a fill-in host on the sports talk station's morning drive show, following the dismissal of Dan Sileo. Station management would not comment about the sudden departure of Sileo, which happened to come the day after he referred to three NFL players as "monkeys" on the air. Sileo was suspended by the station back in 2009 due to comments he made about the family that owns the Buccaneers, but without any further comment, we can't say for sure if the "monkeys" incident is considered a second offense or not.
Obviously, Sileo's use of the term was not a proper action. Just like Rush Limbaugh's poor judgement in calling a young lady slang names which has resulted in some advertisers dropping the show.
KMOX St. Louis has been temporarily spared a decision about continuing with the Limbaugh show, since it is carrying the majority of Cardinals exhibition game broadcasts this year, including an average of 2 weekday afternoon games which pre-empt most of the Limbaugh show.
This is not to say that Sileo, Limbaugh, and other broadcasters who have seen their on-air gigs end or be jeopardized due to name calling, should be allowed to continue as if nothing happened. It is, however, to raise the question of why the name-calling is so much more punishable than inaccurate reporting and use of "unacceptable" language according to the FCC.
Last year, viewers heard Bob Knight use the 's-word' during an ESPN basketball telecast before he laughed it off on the air and was not the one to issue an apology on behalf of the network. Last fall, Fox Sports Radio listeners heard Mike North "report" the death of boxer Joe Frazier before it really happened. (At least he apologized and corrected the "report" later in the same show.) Since those incidents, Knight continues in his same role, and North has actually been promoted into a bigger role with Fox Sports Radio. Regular readers of The Broadcast Booth know how much I do not appreciate "reporters" merely telling their audience that "such and such is reporting that......" instead of investigating and providing their own take on a developing story.
I would like to think that the vast majority of sports fans who are listeners or viewers of these hosts and analysts can make the distinction between fact and opinion/comments. If I were to have been listening when Limbaugh made his insensitive comments, I would have had the choice to voice my disagreement with his name-calling or turn off his show and not return. If I were listening when Sileo used the possible racial slur, I would have been upset at his usage and opinion, and also had the option of tuning out forever. If and as these hosts (and others who make this mistake) lose their audience, they will then lose their show because of it.
Simply put, I see much more justification for terminating a "reporter" who doesn't get the facts right than I do because of name-calling.
DENVER: Speculation was a huge part of the "reporting" last Friday (3/9) when QB Peyton Manning visited the city to talk with the Broncos now that he is a free agent. Sure, it will be huge news wherever Manning goes. But it's not as if Manning was coming to town to make a final decision. But tell that to the local media.
On ESPN 102.3, Les Shapiro and JoJo were "reporting" about Manning leaving the local airport and heading for the Broncos offices. (Frankly, it would only be news if Manning did not get there.) On The Fan 104.3, Drew Goodman and Scott Hastings were also discussing the arrival of Manning. Dave Logan devoted much of the early portion of his KOA 850 afternoon show to this possibility.
Yet, the "coverage" was not limited to the sports shows and stations. Even KUSA-TV 9 reportedly spent more than eight minutes (eight minutes?) of its 10 PM newscast on this "story".
As of press time five days later, there is no official announcement of where Manning will play. Not even a decision that the Broncos are or are not in the mix. Unless Manning or a high ranking Broncos official was speaking about this specific possibility, it's tough to fathom this "story" taking up more than one minute of airtime during "reports". The sports talk stations could, of course, speculate with callers to their hearts' content, for those who find that interesting listening. I guess as long as the "reporters" don't call Manning or anyone else any slang or obscene names, this is the "reporting" we as sports fans will continue to be expected to live with.
St. LOUIS: The Broadcast Booth salutes Randy Karraker, who has returned to his WXOS 101.1 afternoon show within just four weeks of undergoing a quadruple bypass.
WASHINGTON D.C.: Doc Walker has a new three-year extension to continue hosting at WTEM-AM 980. While Walker has been with the station since the late 90's, this extension is significant since Walker no longer will co-host with coaching legend John Thompson. Instead, Walker will be featured in the 2 to 4 PM weekdays spot, starting on March 26th. In addition, he will continue on the Redskins' broadcast crew.
HARTFORD: The 97.9 and 1410 Sports AM and FM combo are ending their simulcast, providing area listeners with more sports choices. 97.9 has changed call letters to WUCS and continues with ESPN programming, along with Mike Bower hosting a local afternoon sports show from 3 to 7. WPOP 1410 now carries Fox Radio Sports and will air a local show with Paul Nanos (also heard on New Haven's ESPN WAVZ 1300) on weekdays. Area listeners can usually also pick up WFAN 660 out of New York, providing them with additional regional choices and play-by-play, making Hartford a well served sports radio market.
Earlier this week WDAE 620 Tampa listeners now have Rock Riley as a fill-in host on the sports talk station's morning drive show, following the dismissal of Dan Sileo. Station management would not comment about the sudden departure of Sileo, which happened to come the day after he referred to three NFL players as "monkeys" on the air. Sileo was suspended by the station back in 2009 due to comments he made about the family that owns the Buccaneers, but without any further comment, we can't say for sure if the "monkeys" incident is considered a second offense or not.
Obviously, Sileo's use of the term was not a proper action. Just like Rush Limbaugh's poor judgement in calling a young lady slang names which has resulted in some advertisers dropping the show.
KMOX St. Louis has been temporarily spared a decision about continuing with the Limbaugh show, since it is carrying the majority of Cardinals exhibition game broadcasts this year, including an average of 2 weekday afternoon games which pre-empt most of the Limbaugh show.
This is not to say that Sileo, Limbaugh, and other broadcasters who have seen their on-air gigs end or be jeopardized due to name calling, should be allowed to continue as if nothing happened. It is, however, to raise the question of why the name-calling is so much more punishable than inaccurate reporting and use of "unacceptable" language according to the FCC.
Last year, viewers heard Bob Knight use the 's-word' during an ESPN basketball telecast before he laughed it off on the air and was not the one to issue an apology on behalf of the network. Last fall, Fox Sports Radio listeners heard Mike North "report" the death of boxer Joe Frazier before it really happened. (At least he apologized and corrected the "report" later in the same show.) Since those incidents, Knight continues in his same role, and North has actually been promoted into a bigger role with Fox Sports Radio. Regular readers of The Broadcast Booth know how much I do not appreciate "reporters" merely telling their audience that "such and such is reporting that......" instead of investigating and providing their own take on a developing story.
I would like to think that the vast majority of sports fans who are listeners or viewers of these hosts and analysts can make the distinction between fact and opinion/comments. If I were to have been listening when Limbaugh made his insensitive comments, I would have had the choice to voice my disagreement with his name-calling or turn off his show and not return. If I were listening when Sileo used the possible racial slur, I would have been upset at his usage and opinion, and also had the option of tuning out forever. If and as these hosts (and others who make this mistake) lose their audience, they will then lose their show because of it.
Simply put, I see much more justification for terminating a "reporter" who doesn't get the facts right than I do because of name-calling.
DENVER: Speculation was a huge part of the "reporting" last Friday (3/9) when QB Peyton Manning visited the city to talk with the Broncos now that he is a free agent. Sure, it will be huge news wherever Manning goes. But it's not as if Manning was coming to town to make a final decision. But tell that to the local media.
On ESPN 102.3, Les Shapiro and JoJo were "reporting" about Manning leaving the local airport and heading for the Broncos offices. (Frankly, it would only be news if Manning did not get there.) On The Fan 104.3, Drew Goodman and Scott Hastings were also discussing the arrival of Manning. Dave Logan devoted much of the early portion of his KOA 850 afternoon show to this possibility.
Yet, the "coverage" was not limited to the sports shows and stations. Even KUSA-TV 9 reportedly spent more than eight minutes (eight minutes?) of its 10 PM newscast on this "story".
As of press time five days later, there is no official announcement of where Manning will play. Not even a decision that the Broncos are or are not in the mix. Unless Manning or a high ranking Broncos official was speaking about this specific possibility, it's tough to fathom this "story" taking up more than one minute of airtime during "reports". The sports talk stations could, of course, speculate with callers to their hearts' content, for those who find that interesting listening. I guess as long as the "reporters" don't call Manning or anyone else any slang or obscene names, this is the "reporting" we as sports fans will continue to be expected to live with.
St. LOUIS: The Broadcast Booth salutes Randy Karraker, who has returned to his WXOS 101.1 afternoon show within just four weeks of undergoing a quadruple bypass.
WASHINGTON D.C.: Doc Walker has a new three-year extension to continue hosting at WTEM-AM 980. While Walker has been with the station since the late 90's, this extension is significant since Walker no longer will co-host with coaching legend John Thompson. Instead, Walker will be featured in the 2 to 4 PM weekdays spot, starting on March 26th. In addition, he will continue on the Redskins' broadcast crew.
HARTFORD: The 97.9 and 1410 Sports AM and FM combo are ending their simulcast, providing area listeners with more sports choices. 97.9 has changed call letters to WUCS and continues with ESPN programming, along with Mike Bower hosting a local afternoon sports show from 3 to 7. WPOP 1410 now carries Fox Radio Sports and will air a local show with Paul Nanos (also heard on New Haven's ESPN WAVZ 1300) on weekdays. Area listeners can usually also pick up WFAN 660 out of New York, providing them with additional regional choices and play-by-play, making Hartford a well served sports radio market.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Sportscast Gives Points To The Opposition
There are still a number of "Instant Media" reporters that still need to understand the importance of utilizing their internal resources to develop and/or report stories.
This might seem minor to some people, but as a sports fan I, for one, feel entitled to get "my" sports news based on a legitimate effort being made to bring me the story. Especially from CBS.
Another example of this took place on Wednesday (2/29). I was listening to WBBM Newsradio 780 and heard Sports Director Jeff Joniak deliver one of his afternoon sportscasts on the all-news station. Joniak mentioned the story about the likelihood of MLB adding 2 more teams to its post-season in time for the upcoming 2012 season, saying (to the effect of) "It will be announced tomorrow, according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports".
And then Joniak went on to his next story. Huh? I'm not here to pick on Joniak specifically, but I do need to remind you that he is the Sports Director for a CBS owned and operated 50,000 watt radio station in a top 3 market. However, if he were one of my students and did that in a practice session, he would not have even finished that sportscast without me stopping him.
How could that story possibly have made WBBM's airwaves as it aired? After all, this is a CBS station. Just a few weeks ago, CBS Sports hired baseball expert Jon Heymann away from Sports Illustrated, and serious baseball fans (and Twitter followers of both Heymann and Rosenthal) know that these two guys are often in the battle for breaking baseball news. This story being one of national interest and impact (like it or not) would seem an avenue for Jon Heymann to be pursuing for "his" and the CBS audience.
Yet, Joniak merely gave credit to the biggest individual competitor to the assigned reporter for "his" network, instead of contacting Heymann in an effort to confirm, deny, or hold this story.
The on-air story should have been something like "CBS baseball beat reporter Jon Heymann has confirmed an earlier report that MLB will announce....." OR "CBS Sports' Jon Heymann has yet to confirm speculation that MLB would announce......".
Doing so would have demonstrated to listeners that he (Joniak) or the station was digging for information about this story, while making hardcore fans who had previously heard Rosenthal's report hesitate since it had not become fact. In the process, it provides another reason to tune to WBBM Radio Sports (the next day) to hear a confirmation or denial of the story.
If he (Joniak) could not somehow reach Heymann, then just maybe someone else at CBS Sports has some information one way or the other. For that matter, Chicago is one of only a few markets which has TWO MLB teams in the area. The sister station broadcasts one of them. Why not reach an executive with at least one of those teams for comment? A nice local angle, even if nothing is official either way.
Instead, Joniak provided me with a big reason NOT to return to his sportscasts. If it all depends on what a reporter for a competing network says, then I'll just go to Fox Sports or even ESPN to get my information about this.
Had this been on a sports talk show and he (or whoever is hosting) commented about the Rosenthal story within a discussion of the MLB playoff format, that would be different. (Although still not desirable for a competing station or network.) But this report I heard was on an all-news station.
Jeff Joniak on WBBM is most certainly not the only sportscaster who has been guilty of this. That's the issue. Especially when sports radio is still losing its audience in several major cities (even though there has been a rise within the past couple of months) while live telecasts are experiencing a ratings frenzy. For so many years, radio was the "immediate" media when it came to breaking and covering sports (and news) stories. Incidents such as this one, which are all too common, provide reasons why that could be changed back.
For example, even with the backlash from the NBA lockout and the shortened and injury marred season, TV ratings continue to be a slam dunk for the rights holders. Local telecast ratings are up nearly 20% for the first half of this season, with an estimated four teams showing 100% or higher increases.
Even the Los Angeles Clippers, which for years existed to give Southern California basketball fans additional chances to see their favorite teams and opposing players, have shown a 138% ratings increase thus far. Oklahoma City and Philadelphia, with their teams off to great starts, have increased more than 100%. Amazingly, the Minnesota Timberwolves, not exactly a threat to dominate the playoffs, have shown a strong increase as well.
ESPN/ABC, TNT, and NBA-TV are all showing double digit ratings increases thus far, with NBA-TV up more than 50%. The rise for NBA-TV is likely due to an increased number of doubleheaders and showing on more nights than in the past, in order to meet their previously determined number of telecasts.
New York and Chicago are seeing noteworthy ratings increases. Jeremy Lin and the Knicks have attracted some of highest numbers in several seasons. The Chicago Bulls telecasts on Comcast SportsNet Chicago have shown a 45% increase as well.Yet, among the few teams which have dropped off in audience (despite the strong national showing) are the local telecasts of the Lakers, Celtics, and Spurs. San Antonio has won 12 of its last 14 games (as of press time).
Even the NBA All-Star Game drew decent ratings, especially when you consider it was played later than usual this year (due to the lockout) and went up against the Academy Awards. Miami was the top local market for the TNT telecast, followed by OK City, Orlando, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
The FanGraphs web site has begun to gradually unveil its poll of local baseball TV announcing teams around the country. To make it even more interesting, they are announcing the results for the 30 teams' telecasts starting from the bottom. Finishing last is the White Sox TV team of Ken Harrelson and Steve Stone. No surprise here. Even the expertise of Steve Stone after all of these years is pulled down by "Horrible-son" (as he is referred to by his detractors). While I expect the usual choices, such as Vin Scully, to be up at or near the top, the poll results also include plenty of fan comments in support of the voting.
Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see what, if anything, NASCAR does regarding future scheduling of its major races. A major rain storm could be the catalyst for a significant change. Last Sunday's postponement of the Daytona 500 due to heavy rain "forced" it to air on Monday night in prime time. Coincidentally, there was no NBA action (since the All-Star Game was played the night before), and obviously no baseball or football. In other words, even though there were plenty of college hoops games airing, there were no other pro sports to compete. Some markets had strong ratings for the Daytona telecast, even with only a few hours advance notice.
In fact, WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee had stronger numbers for the Daytona race than the WITI-TV telecast of the Big Ten game between the University of Wisconsin and Ohio State.
I have to think the NASCAR folks, and its TV partners, will take a look at the prime time possibilities for at least a handful of their key races in the future.
SAN DIEGO: Fox Sports San Diego is surging ahead in preparation for its Padres telecasts even though they were still awaiting (as of press time) approval from MLB of the new package. Mike Pomeranz has been named as studio host for the pre-game and post-game shows. Pomeranz is leaving KARE-TV Minneapolis and his news anchor role to come to San Diego.
ALBANY: A most interesting move by WOFX 980. The station has dropped from being a Mets affiliate, but will continue to carry Major League Baseball starting next week. It seems the station has become a Red Sox affiliate, including at least 10 spring training broadcasts.
On the TV side in Albany, some Mets telecasts air locally, but because it is a Yankees "secondary market", Red Sox local telecasts cannot air in that market. WOFX will also be able to carry the 18 games between the Red Sox and Yankees. Normally Yankees fans would not want the "rival" broadcast, but the speculation is that some fans may choose the Red Sox version ahead of John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman doing the Yankees call. The station could also attract Yankees fans in general when the Red Sox are playing Tampa and other Yankees rivals.
This might seem minor to some people, but as a sports fan I, for one, feel entitled to get "my" sports news based on a legitimate effort being made to bring me the story. Especially from CBS.
Another example of this took place on Wednesday (2/29). I was listening to WBBM Newsradio 780 and heard Sports Director Jeff Joniak deliver one of his afternoon sportscasts on the all-news station. Joniak mentioned the story about the likelihood of MLB adding 2 more teams to its post-season in time for the upcoming 2012 season, saying (to the effect of) "It will be announced tomorrow, according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports".
And then Joniak went on to his next story. Huh? I'm not here to pick on Joniak specifically, but I do need to remind you that he is the Sports Director for a CBS owned and operated 50,000 watt radio station in a top 3 market. However, if he were one of my students and did that in a practice session, he would not have even finished that sportscast without me stopping him.
How could that story possibly have made WBBM's airwaves as it aired? After all, this is a CBS station. Just a few weeks ago, CBS Sports hired baseball expert Jon Heymann away from Sports Illustrated, and serious baseball fans (and Twitter followers of both Heymann and Rosenthal) know that these two guys are often in the battle for breaking baseball news. This story being one of national interest and impact (like it or not) would seem an avenue for Jon Heymann to be pursuing for "his" and the CBS audience.
Yet, Joniak merely gave credit to the biggest individual competitor to the assigned reporter for "his" network, instead of contacting Heymann in an effort to confirm, deny, or hold this story.
The on-air story should have been something like "CBS baseball beat reporter Jon Heymann has confirmed an earlier report that MLB will announce....." OR "CBS Sports' Jon Heymann has yet to confirm speculation that MLB would announce......".
Doing so would have demonstrated to listeners that he (Joniak) or the station was digging for information about this story, while making hardcore fans who had previously heard Rosenthal's report hesitate since it had not become fact. In the process, it provides another reason to tune to WBBM Radio Sports (the next day) to hear a confirmation or denial of the story.
If he (Joniak) could not somehow reach Heymann, then just maybe someone else at CBS Sports has some information one way or the other. For that matter, Chicago is one of only a few markets which has TWO MLB teams in the area. The sister station broadcasts one of them. Why not reach an executive with at least one of those teams for comment? A nice local angle, even if nothing is official either way.
Instead, Joniak provided me with a big reason NOT to return to his sportscasts. If it all depends on what a reporter for a competing network says, then I'll just go to Fox Sports or even ESPN to get my information about this.
Had this been on a sports talk show and he (or whoever is hosting) commented about the Rosenthal story within a discussion of the MLB playoff format, that would be different. (Although still not desirable for a competing station or network.) But this report I heard was on an all-news station.
Jeff Joniak on WBBM is most certainly not the only sportscaster who has been guilty of this. That's the issue. Especially when sports radio is still losing its audience in several major cities (even though there has been a rise within the past couple of months) while live telecasts are experiencing a ratings frenzy. For so many years, radio was the "immediate" media when it came to breaking and covering sports (and news) stories. Incidents such as this one, which are all too common, provide reasons why that could be changed back.
For example, even with the backlash from the NBA lockout and the shortened and injury marred season, TV ratings continue to be a slam dunk for the rights holders. Local telecast ratings are up nearly 20% for the first half of this season, with an estimated four teams showing 100% or higher increases.
Even the Los Angeles Clippers, which for years existed to give Southern California basketball fans additional chances to see their favorite teams and opposing players, have shown a 138% ratings increase thus far. Oklahoma City and Philadelphia, with their teams off to great starts, have increased more than 100%. Amazingly, the Minnesota Timberwolves, not exactly a threat to dominate the playoffs, have shown a strong increase as well.
ESPN/ABC, TNT, and NBA-TV are all showing double digit ratings increases thus far, with NBA-TV up more than 50%. The rise for NBA-TV is likely due to an increased number of doubleheaders and showing on more nights than in the past, in order to meet their previously determined number of telecasts.
New York and Chicago are seeing noteworthy ratings increases. Jeremy Lin and the Knicks have attracted some of highest numbers in several seasons. The Chicago Bulls telecasts on Comcast SportsNet Chicago have shown a 45% increase as well.Yet, among the few teams which have dropped off in audience (despite the strong national showing) are the local telecasts of the Lakers, Celtics, and Spurs. San Antonio has won 12 of its last 14 games (as of press time).
Even the NBA All-Star Game drew decent ratings, especially when you consider it was played later than usual this year (due to the lockout) and went up against the Academy Awards. Miami was the top local market for the TNT telecast, followed by OK City, Orlando, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
The FanGraphs web site has begun to gradually unveil its poll of local baseball TV announcing teams around the country. To make it even more interesting, they are announcing the results for the 30 teams' telecasts starting from the bottom. Finishing last is the White Sox TV team of Ken Harrelson and Steve Stone. No surprise here. Even the expertise of Steve Stone after all of these years is pulled down by "Horrible-son" (as he is referred to by his detractors). While I expect the usual choices, such as Vin Scully, to be up at or near the top, the poll results also include plenty of fan comments in support of the voting.
Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see what, if anything, NASCAR does regarding future scheduling of its major races. A major rain storm could be the catalyst for a significant change. Last Sunday's postponement of the Daytona 500 due to heavy rain "forced" it to air on Monday night in prime time. Coincidentally, there was no NBA action (since the All-Star Game was played the night before), and obviously no baseball or football. In other words, even though there were plenty of college hoops games airing, there were no other pro sports to compete. Some markets had strong ratings for the Daytona telecast, even with only a few hours advance notice.
In fact, WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee had stronger numbers for the Daytona race than the WITI-TV telecast of the Big Ten game between the University of Wisconsin and Ohio State.
I have to think the NASCAR folks, and its TV partners, will take a look at the prime time possibilities for at least a handful of their key races in the future.
SAN DIEGO: Fox Sports San Diego is surging ahead in preparation for its Padres telecasts even though they were still awaiting (as of press time) approval from MLB of the new package. Mike Pomeranz has been named as studio host for the pre-game and post-game shows. Pomeranz is leaving KARE-TV Minneapolis and his news anchor role to come to San Diego.
ALBANY: A most interesting move by WOFX 980. The station has dropped from being a Mets affiliate, but will continue to carry Major League Baseball starting next week. It seems the station has become a Red Sox affiliate, including at least 10 spring training broadcasts.
On the TV side in Albany, some Mets telecasts air locally, but because it is a Yankees "secondary market", Red Sox local telecasts cannot air in that market. WOFX will also be able to carry the 18 games between the Red Sox and Yankees. Normally Yankees fans would not want the "rival" broadcast, but the speculation is that some fans may choose the Red Sox version ahead of John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman doing the Yankees call. The station could also attract Yankees fans in general when the Red Sox are playing Tampa and other Yankees rivals.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Sports Talk Stations On The Comeback Trail
Sports talk radio stations are finally on the rise in some of the larger markets based on the just released January ratings. Some of this, such as New York and Boston, were due to the Giants and Patriots reaching the Super Bowl during the ratings period.
Perhaps the biggest news is that Houston sports stations are trending up again, now registering more than the blip on the radar they have been for the past couple of years. Although KILT has only risen to #19 overall, KBME-AM and KFNC-FM also went up. This is significant for a number of reasons. The total sports audience rise means that one station's rise was not due to another station losing some of its audience, since they each gained.
In addition, this is not exactly a sports bonanza time for Houston's pro teams. The Texans' season ended in early in January even though it included a playoff appearance. The Rockets are not among the NBA's contenders this season, while the Astros' upcoming season does not look promising. This market bears watching over the next few months. Maybe I did write it off too soon.
San Francisco also showed growth, but it remains to be seen how much of that was due to the 49ers playoff run. KNBR went up to #7 overall, while The Game WGMZ-FM also went up, even if only to #26 overall in the market.
Chicago also saw its rival sports stations both on the rise for the January ratings period, with The Score WSCR finishing at #16 overall while WMVP ESPN showed an even larger audience increase despite finishing only 21st overall.
Dallas and Philadelphia, two of the traditionally strong sports radio markets over the years, each showed alarming decreases again, however. In Dallas, the 3 sports stations are now grouped together. KTCK-AM The Ticket is only #22 overall, with KRLD-FM now just .1 behind at #23. KESN-FM ESPN has now lost half of the overall audience it had as recently as the November ratings, and has sunk to #26 overall. Since I was unable to find out for sure prior to press time, I'll only speculate that it is the first time in many ratings periods that Dallas didn't have at least one of its sports stations in the Top 20.
In Philly, WPEN-FM held steady but came in at #18 overall, while the WIP 610 continues its downward spiral, now at a .7 for a #28 market rank. The FM partial simulcast has yet to make a dent either. The argument that the Phillies' broadcasts will be simulcast on WIP-FM may or may not make a difference. What happens in other cities does not always carry over, but Chicago's WBBM Newsradio had actually dropped a full ratings point since November, even with having added a full FM simulcast in the fall.
Los Angeles continues to be a sports talk disaster. KSPN 710 had dropped again and now ranks #28 overall in the market. KLAC has dipped to #34 overall. Combined, these stations don't make the top 20. We shall see whether or not baseball fans discover these stations over the next couple of ratings periods. The Dodgers enter the season with ownership uncertainty while fans have little to no idea about the station now airing their games (in English). The Angels begin their season with Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson being added, and with a lot of promise to contend.
Boston and New York will likely ride the Super Bowl train for at least another ratings book, as baseball season should keep their stations buzzing as well. For the January ratings, WFAN went up to #9 overall while WEPN (even at #23) also went up. In Boston, both The Sports Hub WBZ-FM and WEEI went through the roof, with both stations up and finishing in the top 8 overall.
Meanwhile, back to Houston and the likely disaster of a season ahead for the Astros. One reason to listen to the broadcasts will be because it will be the final season for Milo Hamilton to call the games on radio. That makes it worthwhile right there. Let's hope that Milo is also saluted as he makes his final trips to the road ballparks this season.
We won't know for sure whether or not ESPN removing Ron Jaworski from Monday Night Football was really for the intent of getting him off those telecasts or if it is to reduce to a 2-man booth. My feeling is that it is a combination of both. On the surface, ESPN seems to really want Jaworski since they gave him a 5-year contract and will include him in much more of their NFL related programming.
While I grant you that not everyone likes Jon Gruden, I find it more significant that Monday Night Football will have 2 men in the booth for the first time ever. It's about time. ESPN has been making the gradual transition to turning MNF into a true football telecast instead of the booth circus that ABC used all those years. With NFL telecast ratings on the rise over the past couple of years, ESPN recognizes that fans are tuning in for the games and not to see what the announcers will do next. It is finally play-by-play and real analysis, compared with Frank Gifford's endless conversations about everything but for all those years on ABC, some of which lacked defined roles over who called the plays and who analyzed them. My hope is that this will become a trend.
For all sports, we are becoming saddled with so many analysts in the studio and at the game that there is not enough time for the "good" ones to expand on their thoughts. Getting back to the basics and focusing on the game itself is a great start.
Although it's not polite to highlight an embarassing story, the way the situation was handled by James Bates of CBS Sports Network deserves mention. Bates and Steve Wolf were on camera for the Network doing the opening of the Dayton at Xavier telecast on Saturday (2/18). During the opening, with both announcers seated on the court, the stool that Bates was sitting on broke and collapsed and Bates tumbled to the floor, all live on camera. Bates was shown getting up from the floor while Wolf stood up, but Bates kept talking, kept his cool, and began to joke about the fall. That was extremely professional and he made it seem like fun. If you haven't seen it yet, I'll bet you can still find the video of it.
Do NFL fans truly want to see prospects working out? The NFL Network thinks so. This week (Thursday through Saturday) the Network plans about 50 hours of coverage from the NFL Scouting Combine from Indianapolis. Complete with Rich Eisen anchoring the coverage and primary analysts including Mike Mayock, Michael Irvin, Deion Sanders, and Kurt Warner. This is not for any game action. This for guys working out and demonstrating skills individually for consideration among NFL teams. Unless I missed something, such as Vegas having a line on which guys will work out the best or some sort of rookie projection fantasy league, I'm not sure this "event' warrants such extensive coverage. Granted, there's not much else to talk about for NFL Network until much closer to draft time, and I'm all for live "original" programming, but this seems extreme.
The TV networks covering baseball are putting out their initial telecast schedules for the coming season. While we have already mentioned several of the early season ESPN telecasts, and MLB Network waits until other schedules are finalized before announcing which games they will carry, Fox and TBS have unveiled some or most of their planned telecasts.
Fox Sports is finally back to doing telecasts every Saturday (instead of waiting a couple of weeks into the season), and is expanding to eight Saturday night telecasts for this season. However, there will be a couple of Saturdays when Fox will move ahead of their "traditional" 4 PM ET spot and televise at 1 PM ET instead. This will be when Fox has a NASCAR telecast scheduled for prime time, and to make certain that their baseball telecasts are concluded. While that is admirable, this, combined with the added prime telecasts, means that more than 1/3 of their Saturday telecasts will not be airing at their "traditional" time.
Of course, Fox already has the Yankees and Red Sox scheduled for the maximum of 9 appearances, with the Mets, Braves, and Angels scheduled for 8 times. (The Mets???)
TBS has announced its Sunday afternoon telecast schedule for all of April and May. Guess what. Of their first 8 telecasts, 6 of those include either New York or Boston. However, TBS continues to have varied times for the start of its games, although no west coast or mountain time telecasts are scheduled yet. With varied starting times between 1 and 2 PM ET, at least fans know they can tune in at 2 PM ET and see a game start or in the early innings.
Here are those TV schedules:
FOX Saturday Baseball:
April 7 (3:30 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals at Milwaukee Brewers, San Francisco Giants at Arizona Diamondbacks, Kansas City Royals at Anaheim Angels
April 14 (12:30 PM ET) Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals, Anaheim Angels at New York Yankees, Texas Rangers at Minnesota Twins
April 21 (3:30 PM ET) New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox at Seattle Mariners
April 28 (12:30 PM ET) Milwaukee Brewers at St. Louis Cardinals, Anaheim Angels at Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins
May 5 (3:30 PM ET) Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers Arizona Diamondbacks at New York Mets Milwaukee Brewers at San Francisco Giants
May 12 (12:30 PM ET) Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee Brewers Anaheim Angels at Texas Rangers New York Mets at Miami Marlins
May 19 (7:00 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at Philadelphia Phillies Chicago White Sox at Chicago Cubs Texas Rangers at Houston Astros Baltimore Orioles at Washington Nationals Arizona Diamondbacks at Kansas City Royals
May 26 (7:00 PM ET) Philadelphia Phillies at St. Louis Cardinals Tampa Bay Rays at Boston Red Sox Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh Pirates Colorado Rockies at Cincinnati Reds Anaheim Angels at Seattle Mariners
June 2 (7:00 PM ET) New York Yankees at Detroit Tigers Chicago Cubs at San Francisco Giants Minnesota Twins at Cleveland Indians Arizona Diamondbacks at San Diego Padres Cincinnati Reds at Houston Astros
June 9 (7:00 PM ET) New York Mets at New York Yankees Cleveland Indians at St. Louis Cardinals Los Angeles Dodgers at Seattle Mariners Tampa Bay Rays at Miami Marlins Kansas City Royals at Pittsburgh Pirates
June 16 (7:00 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at Chicago Cubs Cincinnati Reds at New York Mets Miami Marlins at Tampa Bay Rays Baltimore Orioles at Atlanta Braves Houston Astros at Texas Rangers
June 23 (7:00 PM ET) New York Yankees at New York Mets Atlanta Braves at Boston Red Sox Washington Nationals at Baltimore Orioles Los Angeles Dodgers at Anaheim Angels San Francisco Giants at Oakland Athletics Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago White Sox
June 30 (7:00 PM ET) New York Mets at Los Angeles Dodgers Arizona Diamondbacks at Milwaukee Brewers Detroit Tigers at Tampa Bay Rays Oakland Athletics at Texas Rangers San Diego Padres at Colorado Rockies Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins
July 7 (7:00 PM ET) New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox Atlanta Braves at Philadelphia Phillies Minnesota Twins at Texas Rangers
July 14 (3:30 PM ET) New York Mets at Atlanta Braves Arizona Diamondbacks at Chicago Cubs Philadelphia Phillies at Colorado Rockies
July 21 (3:30 PM ET) San Francisco Giants at Philadelphia Phillies Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals Texas Rangers at Anaheim Angels
July 28 (3:30 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves
August 18 (3:30 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees San Francisco Giants at San Diego Padres
August 25 (3:30 PM ET) St. Louis Cardinals at Cincinnati Reds Atlanta Braves at San Francisco Giants Minnesota Twins at Texas Rangers
September 1 (3:30 PM ET) Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves San Francisco Giants at Chicago Cubs Anaheim Angels at Seattle Mariners
September 8 (3:30 PM ET) Atlanta Braves at New York Mets Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants Kansas City Royals at Chicago White Sox
September 15 (3:30 PM ET) Tampa Bay Rays at New York Yankees Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Indians Colorado Rockies at San Diego Padres
September 22 + Sept. 29 - To be determined
SUNDAY TBS SCHEDULE
April 8 1:30 p.m. New York Yankees at Tampa Bay
April 15 1:30 p.m. Tampa Bay Rays at Boston
April 22 1 p.m. Texas Rangers at Detroit
April 29 1 p.m. Detroit Tigers at New York Yankees
May 6- 2 p.m. New York Yankees at Kansas City
May 13 2 p.m. Atlanta Braves at St. Louis
May 20 1:30 p.m. Boston Red Sox at Philadelphia
May 27 1:30 p.m. Tampa Bay Rays at Boston
Perhaps the biggest news is that Houston sports stations are trending up again, now registering more than the blip on the radar they have been for the past couple of years. Although KILT has only risen to #19 overall, KBME-AM and KFNC-FM also went up. This is significant for a number of reasons. The total sports audience rise means that one station's rise was not due to another station losing some of its audience, since they each gained.
In addition, this is not exactly a sports bonanza time for Houston's pro teams. The Texans' season ended in early in January even though it included a playoff appearance. The Rockets are not among the NBA's contenders this season, while the Astros' upcoming season does not look promising. This market bears watching over the next few months. Maybe I did write it off too soon.
San Francisco also showed growth, but it remains to be seen how much of that was due to the 49ers playoff run. KNBR went up to #7 overall, while The Game WGMZ-FM also went up, even if only to #26 overall in the market.
Chicago also saw its rival sports stations both on the rise for the January ratings period, with The Score WSCR finishing at #16 overall while WMVP ESPN showed an even larger audience increase despite finishing only 21st overall.
Dallas and Philadelphia, two of the traditionally strong sports radio markets over the years, each showed alarming decreases again, however. In Dallas, the 3 sports stations are now grouped together. KTCK-AM The Ticket is only #22 overall, with KRLD-FM now just .1 behind at #23. KESN-FM ESPN has now lost half of the overall audience it had as recently as the November ratings, and has sunk to #26 overall. Since I was unable to find out for sure prior to press time, I'll only speculate that it is the first time in many ratings periods that Dallas didn't have at least one of its sports stations in the Top 20.
In Philly, WPEN-FM held steady but came in at #18 overall, while the WIP 610 continues its downward spiral, now at a .7 for a #28 market rank. The FM partial simulcast has yet to make a dent either. The argument that the Phillies' broadcasts will be simulcast on WIP-FM may or may not make a difference. What happens in other cities does not always carry over, but Chicago's WBBM Newsradio had actually dropped a full ratings point since November, even with having added a full FM simulcast in the fall.
Los Angeles continues to be a sports talk disaster. KSPN 710 had dropped again and now ranks #28 overall in the market. KLAC has dipped to #34 overall. Combined, these stations don't make the top 20. We shall see whether or not baseball fans discover these stations over the next couple of ratings periods. The Dodgers enter the season with ownership uncertainty while fans have little to no idea about the station now airing their games (in English). The Angels begin their season with Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson being added, and with a lot of promise to contend.
Boston and New York will likely ride the Super Bowl train for at least another ratings book, as baseball season should keep their stations buzzing as well. For the January ratings, WFAN went up to #9 overall while WEPN (even at #23) also went up. In Boston, both The Sports Hub WBZ-FM and WEEI went through the roof, with both stations up and finishing in the top 8 overall.
Meanwhile, back to Houston and the likely disaster of a season ahead for the Astros. One reason to listen to the broadcasts will be because it will be the final season for Milo Hamilton to call the games on radio. That makes it worthwhile right there. Let's hope that Milo is also saluted as he makes his final trips to the road ballparks this season.
We won't know for sure whether or not ESPN removing Ron Jaworski from Monday Night Football was really for the intent of getting him off those telecasts or if it is to reduce to a 2-man booth. My feeling is that it is a combination of both. On the surface, ESPN seems to really want Jaworski since they gave him a 5-year contract and will include him in much more of their NFL related programming.
While I grant you that not everyone likes Jon Gruden, I find it more significant that Monday Night Football will have 2 men in the booth for the first time ever. It's about time. ESPN has been making the gradual transition to turning MNF into a true football telecast instead of the booth circus that ABC used all those years. With NFL telecast ratings on the rise over the past couple of years, ESPN recognizes that fans are tuning in for the games and not to see what the announcers will do next. It is finally play-by-play and real analysis, compared with Frank Gifford's endless conversations about everything but for all those years on ABC, some of which lacked defined roles over who called the plays and who analyzed them. My hope is that this will become a trend.
For all sports, we are becoming saddled with so many analysts in the studio and at the game that there is not enough time for the "good" ones to expand on their thoughts. Getting back to the basics and focusing on the game itself is a great start.
Although it's not polite to highlight an embarassing story, the way the situation was handled by James Bates of CBS Sports Network deserves mention. Bates and Steve Wolf were on camera for the Network doing the opening of the Dayton at Xavier telecast on Saturday (2/18). During the opening, with both announcers seated on the court, the stool that Bates was sitting on broke and collapsed and Bates tumbled to the floor, all live on camera. Bates was shown getting up from the floor while Wolf stood up, but Bates kept talking, kept his cool, and began to joke about the fall. That was extremely professional and he made it seem like fun. If you haven't seen it yet, I'll bet you can still find the video of it.
Do NFL fans truly want to see prospects working out? The NFL Network thinks so. This week (Thursday through Saturday) the Network plans about 50 hours of coverage from the NFL Scouting Combine from Indianapolis. Complete with Rich Eisen anchoring the coverage and primary analysts including Mike Mayock, Michael Irvin, Deion Sanders, and Kurt Warner. This is not for any game action. This for guys working out and demonstrating skills individually for consideration among NFL teams. Unless I missed something, such as Vegas having a line on which guys will work out the best or some sort of rookie projection fantasy league, I'm not sure this "event' warrants such extensive coverage. Granted, there's not much else to talk about for NFL Network until much closer to draft time, and I'm all for live "original" programming, but this seems extreme.
The TV networks covering baseball are putting out their initial telecast schedules for the coming season. While we have already mentioned several of the early season ESPN telecasts, and MLB Network waits until other schedules are finalized before announcing which games they will carry, Fox and TBS have unveiled some or most of their planned telecasts.
Fox Sports is finally back to doing telecasts every Saturday (instead of waiting a couple of weeks into the season), and is expanding to eight Saturday night telecasts for this season. However, there will be a couple of Saturdays when Fox will move ahead of their "traditional" 4 PM ET spot and televise at 1 PM ET instead. This will be when Fox has a NASCAR telecast scheduled for prime time, and to make certain that their baseball telecasts are concluded. While that is admirable, this, combined with the added prime telecasts, means that more than 1/3 of their Saturday telecasts will not be airing at their "traditional" time.
Of course, Fox already has the Yankees and Red Sox scheduled for the maximum of 9 appearances, with the Mets, Braves, and Angels scheduled for 8 times. (The Mets???)
TBS has announced its Sunday afternoon telecast schedule for all of April and May. Guess what. Of their first 8 telecasts, 6 of those include either New York or Boston. However, TBS continues to have varied times for the start of its games, although no west coast or mountain time telecasts are scheduled yet. With varied starting times between 1 and 2 PM ET, at least fans know they can tune in at 2 PM ET and see a game start or in the early innings.
Here are those TV schedules:
FOX Saturday Baseball:
April 7 (3:30 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals at Milwaukee Brewers, San Francisco Giants at Arizona Diamondbacks, Kansas City Royals at Anaheim Angels
April 14 (12:30 PM ET) Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals, Anaheim Angels at New York Yankees, Texas Rangers at Minnesota Twins
April 21 (3:30 PM ET) New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox at Seattle Mariners
April 28 (12:30 PM ET) Milwaukee Brewers at St. Louis Cardinals, Anaheim Angels at Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins
May 5 (3:30 PM ET) Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers Arizona Diamondbacks at New York Mets Milwaukee Brewers at San Francisco Giants
May 12 (12:30 PM ET) Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee Brewers Anaheim Angels at Texas Rangers New York Mets at Miami Marlins
May 19 (7:00 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at Philadelphia Phillies Chicago White Sox at Chicago Cubs Texas Rangers at Houston Astros Baltimore Orioles at Washington Nationals Arizona Diamondbacks at Kansas City Royals
May 26 (7:00 PM ET) Philadelphia Phillies at St. Louis Cardinals Tampa Bay Rays at Boston Red Sox Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh Pirates Colorado Rockies at Cincinnati Reds Anaheim Angels at Seattle Mariners
June 2 (7:00 PM ET) New York Yankees at Detroit Tigers Chicago Cubs at San Francisco Giants Minnesota Twins at Cleveland Indians Arizona Diamondbacks at San Diego Padres Cincinnati Reds at Houston Astros
June 9 (7:00 PM ET) New York Mets at New York Yankees Cleveland Indians at St. Louis Cardinals Los Angeles Dodgers at Seattle Mariners Tampa Bay Rays at Miami Marlins Kansas City Royals at Pittsburgh Pirates
June 16 (7:00 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at Chicago Cubs Cincinnati Reds at New York Mets Miami Marlins at Tampa Bay Rays Baltimore Orioles at Atlanta Braves Houston Astros at Texas Rangers
June 23 (7:00 PM ET) New York Yankees at New York Mets Atlanta Braves at Boston Red Sox Washington Nationals at Baltimore Orioles Los Angeles Dodgers at Anaheim Angels San Francisco Giants at Oakland Athletics Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago White Sox
June 30 (7:00 PM ET) New York Mets at Los Angeles Dodgers Arizona Diamondbacks at Milwaukee Brewers Detroit Tigers at Tampa Bay Rays Oakland Athletics at Texas Rangers San Diego Padres at Colorado Rockies Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins
July 7 (7:00 PM ET) New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox Atlanta Braves at Philadelphia Phillies Minnesota Twins at Texas Rangers
July 14 (3:30 PM ET) New York Mets at Atlanta Braves Arizona Diamondbacks at Chicago Cubs Philadelphia Phillies at Colorado Rockies
July 21 (3:30 PM ET) San Francisco Giants at Philadelphia Phillies Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals Texas Rangers at Anaheim Angels
July 28 (3:30 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves
August 18 (3:30 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees San Francisco Giants at San Diego Padres
August 25 (3:30 PM ET) St. Louis Cardinals at Cincinnati Reds Atlanta Braves at San Francisco Giants Minnesota Twins at Texas Rangers
September 1 (3:30 PM ET) Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves San Francisco Giants at Chicago Cubs Anaheim Angels at Seattle Mariners
September 8 (3:30 PM ET) Atlanta Braves at New York Mets Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants Kansas City Royals at Chicago White Sox
September 15 (3:30 PM ET) Tampa Bay Rays at New York Yankees Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Indians Colorado Rockies at San Diego Padres
September 22 + Sept. 29 - To be determined
SUNDAY TBS SCHEDULE
April 8 1:30 p.m. New York Yankees at Tampa Bay
April 15 1:30 p.m. Tampa Bay Rays at Boston
April 22 1 p.m. Texas Rangers at Detroit
April 29 1 p.m. Detroit Tigers at New York Yankees
May 6- 2 p.m. New York Yankees at Kansas City
May 13 2 p.m. Atlanta Braves at St. Louis
May 20 1:30 p.m. Boston Red Sox at Philadelphia
May 27 1:30 p.m. Tampa Bay Rays at Boston
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Are The Odds Against Sid?
As of press time, not so much as a "no comment" or a denial from WQAM Miami's Sid Rosenberg regarding a Miami Herald report that the sports talk host is being chased for an alleged gambling debt:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/12/2635294/radio-host-sid-rosenberg-alleged.html#storylink=misearch
This story was also picked up by several radio trade sites, but also without a reaction. There are some stories where a lack of reaction or denial can be interpreted as being accurate. From being a sports fan, sports reporter, and media consultant over the past 40 years, the lack of a denial or even a comment is disturbing. (I should mention that I do not recall meeting or knowing Mr. Rosenberg and have no further information beyond this report.)
It's easy to think, "So what?" when learning about the possibility that a sportscaster has been gambling thousands of dollars. Of course, Sid is not the only person to do this (if indeed the story is true). However, I'd like to think that those whose job it is to report information to us as sports fans do not have anything else riding on this information.
Sports betting is very often dictated by where the money is going. How do we know that a sportscaster who is a heavy gambler is not "reporting" information about key players or teams which could sway a potential bet? Suppose a sportscaster has bet thousands of dollars on Cleveland against Detroit later tonight. Suppose that same sportscaster only "reports" on an injury which could impact the status of a key Cleveland player for that game. This could make the casual betting fan lean toward putting his money on Detroit. If enough fans put more money on Detroit, it increases the payoff if Cleveland wins.
In the Rosenberg situation, the lack of a denial or comment also brings to light that Sid had just returned from a suspension by WQAM. The reason? Gambling.
This Miami Herald story includes a report of the gambling establishment supposedly contacting the radio station. How and why did that story get out? Since the reputation of a major radio station and well established sportscaster are at stake, wouldn't a complete denial of such a contact be shot down before it became public?
Although we don't need background checks on every sportscaster out there, this situation indicates a need for dealing with the situation more thoroughly than seems to be happening thus far. Given how the pro sports leagues will not put a team in Las Vegas or Atlantic City and have discipline in place for any players involved in any way with gamblers, how "news" is reported to sports fans could be playing a part in how thousands and thousands of dollars change hands, legally or not.
Meanwhile, the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Golf Tournament last weekend drew more media attention, just as it drew more viewers than usual. CBS-TV saw its highest ratings for this tournament since 1997 on Sunday (2/12) when Tiger Woods issued a challenge to Phil Mickelson early in the final round. The Sunday ratings were up more than 95% over last year's.
Many credit the stronger (than recent months) performance of Tiger Woods for drawing the added interest. Here, I'll credit something totally different. The NFL. After another very strong ratings season, this past Sunday was the first one since August without NFL football on. Sports fans are used to having "must see" TV every Sunday, and settled on golf. Frankly, ABC/ESPN blew it by only having one NBA telecast during the afternoon on ABC which didn't start until 3:30 PM ET, and then putting a doubleheader on ESPN that night.
ABC does not seem to be pushing the NBA as much this season. There was no "early" telecast on Super Bowl Sunday, as networks have done in the past (other than a so-so game on NBA-TV instead that day). Then, they should have had a marquee matchup doubleheader this past Sunday in an effort to establish the NBA as "must see". Even with the shortened season after the lockout, TNT is among the networks showing noticeable ratings increases so far.
Not to pick on televised golf, but if the Pebble Beach National had gone up against the NFL, these paragraphs would have been about something completely different.
NBC is beefing up its NHL coverage, showing what is essentially an NHL tripleheader next Sunday (2/19). Starting at Noon ET with 3 regional games, NBC will then show the Boston at Minnesota game at 3 PM ET nationally. Then NBC Sports Network will carry the New Jersey vs. Montreal game with coverage starting at 6 PM ET.
NBC Sports Group also announced a 5-year contract to televise Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) football and basketball games. The new contract includes NBC Sports Network and its Comcast SportsNet regional networks. This announcement seems much overblown. Those that made a big deal about this announcement seem to have overlooked that the CAA includes the likes of Towson University, George Mason, Northeastern, Drexel, Hofstra, and others. These are all excellent institutions. That is not in question. It's just that the 'typical' college basketball fan isn't waiting for the schedule to come out to alter their days for the Delaware vs. North-Carolina-Wilmington telecasts. What this "announcement" really means is that NBC Sports Group is seeking live programming for its networks in place of informercials for fitness products and some of the other oddities taking up time on their sports networks during odd hours.
Along those same lines, PlayOn Sports Network announced plans to debut a high school sports related TV channel later this year including high school sports events from what is already 21 states. While I understand and appreciate increased coverage of high school football and basketball, it should be on a local or regional (at most) level and not on a national platform. The network's release points out the millions of high school sports participants and how many millions attend or watch high school sports across the country. While those statistics are true, they are due to the local schools and clearly not because there is a demand for high school sports across the board, especially for a 24-hour network.
Somebody will be expected to help defray the costs of producing live telecasts from around the country. And you can easily guess that the PlayOn Sports people expect it to be paid from cable and satellite subscribers each month whether they care or not. I'm already paying my local cable provider each month for their local access channels which showcase an occasional local high school game. I don't wish to pay to see high school games from hundreds of miles away with schools and players I have never heard of and have no interest in.
My other problem with this is how it takes away from local radio stations. If and as even more high school football and basketball games are televised, it tells even more local radio stations they don't need to broadcast the local high school games anymore. And instead of going with live programming from their studios, the radio stations will continue to pick up syndicated and network shows.
MLB Network is adding to its on-air studio staff in time for the start of spring training. Alanna Rizzo joins MLB Network from ROOT Sports Rocky Mountain where she appeared on Rockies telecasts, and previously covered the Brewers as weekend sports anchor at WISC-TV Madison. Scott Braun also joins MLB Network, coming over from ESPN where he handled college basketball play-by-play for ESPN and covered the Miami Heat for the ESPN web site. Also joining is Lauren Shehadi, who comes over from the CBS Sports web site. Shehadi has also been a sports anchor at KXMC-TV in Minot ND and worked at Comcast SportsNet Washington.
Sorry to learn that "The Fabulous Sports Babe", Nanci Donnellan, has left Tampa's ESPN 1040 due to serious health issues. She was one of those "love her or hate her" broadcasters when she became the first female to host a national sports show in the mid-90's. Whitney Johnson, formerly with WDAE 620, has taken over the Noon to 3 PM show from Donnellan on ESPN 1040.
NEW YORK: It is now official that Josh Lewin joins Howie Rose in the Mets' radio booth starting with the coming season on WFAN, replacing Wayne Hagin. Lewin plans to continue handling San Diego Chargers radio, which will make for some long weekends both in the air and on the air.
JACKSON: Still another loss in the sports media world. Frank Underwood of WBFG 96.5, who covered sports for nearly 10 years, passed away on Sunday (2/12) after a brief but undisclosed illness.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/12/2635294/radio-host-sid-rosenberg-alleged.html#storylink=misearch
This story was also picked up by several radio trade sites, but also without a reaction. There are some stories where a lack of reaction or denial can be interpreted as being accurate. From being a sports fan, sports reporter, and media consultant over the past 40 years, the lack of a denial or even a comment is disturbing. (I should mention that I do not recall meeting or knowing Mr. Rosenberg and have no further information beyond this report.)
It's easy to think, "So what?" when learning about the possibility that a sportscaster has been gambling thousands of dollars. Of course, Sid is not the only person to do this (if indeed the story is true). However, I'd like to think that those whose job it is to report information to us as sports fans do not have anything else riding on this information.
Sports betting is very often dictated by where the money is going. How do we know that a sportscaster who is a heavy gambler is not "reporting" information about key players or teams which could sway a potential bet? Suppose a sportscaster has bet thousands of dollars on Cleveland against Detroit later tonight. Suppose that same sportscaster only "reports" on an injury which could impact the status of a key Cleveland player for that game. This could make the casual betting fan lean toward putting his money on Detroit. If enough fans put more money on Detroit, it increases the payoff if Cleveland wins.
In the Rosenberg situation, the lack of a denial or comment also brings to light that Sid had just returned from a suspension by WQAM. The reason? Gambling.
This Miami Herald story includes a report of the gambling establishment supposedly contacting the radio station. How and why did that story get out? Since the reputation of a major radio station and well established sportscaster are at stake, wouldn't a complete denial of such a contact be shot down before it became public?
Although we don't need background checks on every sportscaster out there, this situation indicates a need for dealing with the situation more thoroughly than seems to be happening thus far. Given how the pro sports leagues will not put a team in Las Vegas or Atlantic City and have discipline in place for any players involved in any way with gamblers, how "news" is reported to sports fans could be playing a part in how thousands and thousands of dollars change hands, legally or not.
Meanwhile, the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Golf Tournament last weekend drew more media attention, just as it drew more viewers than usual. CBS-TV saw its highest ratings for this tournament since 1997 on Sunday (2/12) when Tiger Woods issued a challenge to Phil Mickelson early in the final round. The Sunday ratings were up more than 95% over last year's.
Many credit the stronger (than recent months) performance of Tiger Woods for drawing the added interest. Here, I'll credit something totally different. The NFL. After another very strong ratings season, this past Sunday was the first one since August without NFL football on. Sports fans are used to having "must see" TV every Sunday, and settled on golf. Frankly, ABC/ESPN blew it by only having one NBA telecast during the afternoon on ABC which didn't start until 3:30 PM ET, and then putting a doubleheader on ESPN that night.
ABC does not seem to be pushing the NBA as much this season. There was no "early" telecast on Super Bowl Sunday, as networks have done in the past (other than a so-so game on NBA-TV instead that day). Then, they should have had a marquee matchup doubleheader this past Sunday in an effort to establish the NBA as "must see". Even with the shortened season after the lockout, TNT is among the networks showing noticeable ratings increases so far.
Not to pick on televised golf, but if the Pebble Beach National had gone up against the NFL, these paragraphs would have been about something completely different.
NBC is beefing up its NHL coverage, showing what is essentially an NHL tripleheader next Sunday (2/19). Starting at Noon ET with 3 regional games, NBC will then show the Boston at Minnesota game at 3 PM ET nationally. Then NBC Sports Network will carry the New Jersey vs. Montreal game with coverage starting at 6 PM ET.
NBC Sports Group also announced a 5-year contract to televise Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) football and basketball games. The new contract includes NBC Sports Network and its Comcast SportsNet regional networks. This announcement seems much overblown. Those that made a big deal about this announcement seem to have overlooked that the CAA includes the likes of Towson University, George Mason, Northeastern, Drexel, Hofstra, and others. These are all excellent institutions. That is not in question. It's just that the 'typical' college basketball fan isn't waiting for the schedule to come out to alter their days for the Delaware vs. North-Carolina-Wilmington telecasts. What this "announcement" really means is that NBC Sports Group is seeking live programming for its networks in place of informercials for fitness products and some of the other oddities taking up time on their sports networks during odd hours.
Along those same lines, PlayOn Sports Network announced plans to debut a high school sports related TV channel later this year including high school sports events from what is already 21 states. While I understand and appreciate increased coverage of high school football and basketball, it should be on a local or regional (at most) level and not on a national platform. The network's release points out the millions of high school sports participants and how many millions attend or watch high school sports across the country. While those statistics are true, they are due to the local schools and clearly not because there is a demand for high school sports across the board, especially for a 24-hour network.
Somebody will be expected to help defray the costs of producing live telecasts from around the country. And you can easily guess that the PlayOn Sports people expect it to be paid from cable and satellite subscribers each month whether they care or not. I'm already paying my local cable provider each month for their local access channels which showcase an occasional local high school game. I don't wish to pay to see high school games from hundreds of miles away with schools and players I have never heard of and have no interest in.
My other problem with this is how it takes away from local radio stations. If and as even more high school football and basketball games are televised, it tells even more local radio stations they don't need to broadcast the local high school games anymore. And instead of going with live programming from their studios, the radio stations will continue to pick up syndicated and network shows.
MLB Network is adding to its on-air studio staff in time for the start of spring training. Alanna Rizzo joins MLB Network from ROOT Sports Rocky Mountain where she appeared on Rockies telecasts, and previously covered the Brewers as weekend sports anchor at WISC-TV Madison. Scott Braun also joins MLB Network, coming over from ESPN where he handled college basketball play-by-play for ESPN and covered the Miami Heat for the ESPN web site. Also joining is Lauren Shehadi, who comes over from the CBS Sports web site. Shehadi has also been a sports anchor at KXMC-TV in Minot ND and worked at Comcast SportsNet Washington.
Sorry to learn that "The Fabulous Sports Babe", Nanci Donnellan, has left Tampa's ESPN 1040 due to serious health issues. She was one of those "love her or hate her" broadcasters when she became the first female to host a national sports show in the mid-90's. Whitney Johnson, formerly with WDAE 620, has taken over the Noon to 3 PM show from Donnellan on ESPN 1040.
NEW YORK: It is now official that Josh Lewin joins Howie Rose in the Mets' radio booth starting with the coming season on WFAN, replacing Wayne Hagin. Lewin plans to continue handling San Diego Chargers radio, which will make for some long weekends both in the air and on the air.
JACKSON: Still another loss in the sports media world. Frank Underwood of WBFG 96.5, who covered sports for nearly 10 years, passed away on Sunday (2/12) after a brief but undisclosed illness.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
When Sportscaster Comments Get Too Personal....
Sportscasters are hired and fired on (seemingly) a daily basis around the country. It's part of life, and especially a part of the radio & TV industry. However, it seems that terminations are happening (or not happening) for some strange reasons over the past few months.
Last year, we had the female sportscaster fired from an Arkansas station after she wore an out of state school's cap to a local press conference and the head coach got upset. Last month, a CBS Sports employee was fired for "reporting" Joe Paterno's death prematurely, while a Fox Sports employee was not publicly disciplined for "reporting" Joe Frazier's death prematurely.
Just last week, San Diego's XX Radio's Scott Kaplan was terminated from his morning show he co-hosted with ex-Charger Billy Ray Smith. This termination came within days of his comments about Andrea Lloyd, the women's basketball Hall of Fame member who serves as an analyst for Mountain West Sports. Kaplan referred to Lloyd on the air as a "beast", "animal" and a "sasquatch of a woman".
Don't get me wrong. I'm not supporting Kaplan for his comments, since (based on what I heard and read) they appear to have been more of a personal nature than a sports or broadcasting related comment. Yet, a large number of sports talk broadcasts include comments from hosts about specific players. "He can't catch anything thrown his way." "He couldn't hit the water if he fell out of the boat." And on it goes. Granted, these are not "personal" comments such as the ones referenced to Kaplan.
Perhaps Kaplan's comments were overstated or not phrased in the way he really meant them. He is entitled to dislike Andrea Lloyd no matter which sex she is. If Lloyd were a man, chances are these comments might have gotten a giggle or two from some listeners and no one would have thought anything of them. Hosts and callers criticize players, coaches, managers, and team executives for what they can and can't do all of the time.
It's just that calling someone a few inappropriate names is not as serious as reporting a death that hadn't happened yet or any other story which is proven to not be factual at the time.
Of course, XEPRS-AM Radio officials had not commented (as of press time) about the reason for the change of their morning show. Yet, Billy Ray Smith remains with the station, and "Dave and Jeff" have taken over the morning show.
LOS ANGELES: Normally a spring training broadcast schedule wouldn't be a big story, but when it's the Dodgers it is. A big part of the story is that Vin Scully will only describe one exhibition game this year, and that will be from Dodger Stadium on April 3 vs. the Angels. Again this season, Scully will call Dodger regular season home games and only those road games at division opponents except for Colorado. Yet, the Dodgers are among the leaders in baseball by televising 18 of their exhibition games on either Prime Ticket or KCAL-TV. Eric Collins, who handles the regular season road telecasts which Scully does not call, will handle the Arizona spring training telecasts with Steve Lyons.
HOUSTON: Even with 4 sports stations battling over a comparably smaller sports audience (compared with all other top 10 markets besides L.A.), the University of Houston has taken to streaming to provide thorough coverage of its Cougars teams. Each Friday from 9 to 11 AM the "Mo-Jo Sports Radio Show" is heard online at coogradio.com and features all U of H sports coverage. It isn't really radio, but this idea bears watching (or should I say listening?) because it fills a niche for fans of the school and its teams. The hosts plan to continue the show into spring semester even after the end of basketball season.
PHILADELPHIA: WIP AM and FM continue to split up for different sports programming, which expands on this excellent idea. Now comes the announcement that WIP-FM will also carry the FM simulcast of all Phillies baseball broadcasts from WPHT-AM starting with the spring training broadcasts by Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen. It seems a waste of a signal to always have the same programming on 2 stations. As WIP-FM adds more play-by-play separate from the AM signal, it gives listeners more options many evenings and weekends.
BANGOR: When WAEI-FM lost out on carrying WEEI from Boston and switched over to Fox Radio Sports back in 2010, the moved turned out to be the beginning of the end. The station has just changed to WBAK-FM and has dropped Fox Sports to switch to a music format.
RAPID CITY: As smaller market stations continue to saturate with network and syndicated programming, the amount of local programming continues to drop. This proved especially frustrating for local basketball fans on Wednesday (2/8) when the basketball game between South Dakota and South Dakota State was not aired on any of the local stations. KRKI-FM, which changed from ESPN Radio to Fox Sports Radio in late 2011, now only airs South Dakota State football, having decided to drop the school's basketball broadcasts prior to this season. Coincidentally, KIMM-AM and FM only carries University of South Dakota football. KIMM airs Stevens High School basketball games, as in both boys and girls games, and thus cites the added number of conflicts with USD basketball game. However, they do have both the AM and FM station. I would like to believe that fans would understand if one station carried the high school games and the other carried the college games when there are conflicts.
OKLAHOMA CITY: Still another loss among the sports media this week. This past Sunday (2/5) saw the passing of Ken Post, who held a variety of sports broadcast related roles in the area. Post, who was only 43, served as Operations Manager at Sports KEBC-AM and a produce at WKY and KTOK.
Last year, we had the female sportscaster fired from an Arkansas station after she wore an out of state school's cap to a local press conference and the head coach got upset. Last month, a CBS Sports employee was fired for "reporting" Joe Paterno's death prematurely, while a Fox Sports employee was not publicly disciplined for "reporting" Joe Frazier's death prematurely.
Just last week, San Diego's XX Radio's Scott Kaplan was terminated from his morning show he co-hosted with ex-Charger Billy Ray Smith. This termination came within days of his comments about Andrea Lloyd, the women's basketball Hall of Fame member who serves as an analyst for Mountain West Sports. Kaplan referred to Lloyd on the air as a "beast", "animal" and a "sasquatch of a woman".
Don't get me wrong. I'm not supporting Kaplan for his comments, since (based on what I heard and read) they appear to have been more of a personal nature than a sports or broadcasting related comment. Yet, a large number of sports talk broadcasts include comments from hosts about specific players. "He can't catch anything thrown his way." "He couldn't hit the water if he fell out of the boat." And on it goes. Granted, these are not "personal" comments such as the ones referenced to Kaplan.
Perhaps Kaplan's comments were overstated or not phrased in the way he really meant them. He is entitled to dislike Andrea Lloyd no matter which sex she is. If Lloyd were a man, chances are these comments might have gotten a giggle or two from some listeners and no one would have thought anything of them. Hosts and callers criticize players, coaches, managers, and team executives for what they can and can't do all of the time.
It's just that calling someone a few inappropriate names is not as serious as reporting a death that hadn't happened yet or any other story which is proven to not be factual at the time.
Of course, XEPRS-AM Radio officials had not commented (as of press time) about the reason for the change of their morning show. Yet, Billy Ray Smith remains with the station, and "Dave and Jeff" have taken over the morning show.
LOS ANGELES: Normally a spring training broadcast schedule wouldn't be a big story, but when it's the Dodgers it is. A big part of the story is that Vin Scully will only describe one exhibition game this year, and that will be from Dodger Stadium on April 3 vs. the Angels. Again this season, Scully will call Dodger regular season home games and only those road games at division opponents except for Colorado. Yet, the Dodgers are among the leaders in baseball by televising 18 of their exhibition games on either Prime Ticket or KCAL-TV. Eric Collins, who handles the regular season road telecasts which Scully does not call, will handle the Arizona spring training telecasts with Steve Lyons.
HOUSTON: Even with 4 sports stations battling over a comparably smaller sports audience (compared with all other top 10 markets besides L.A.), the University of Houston has taken to streaming to provide thorough coverage of its Cougars teams. Each Friday from 9 to 11 AM the "Mo-Jo Sports Radio Show" is heard online at coogradio.com and features all U of H sports coverage. It isn't really radio, but this idea bears watching (or should I say listening?) because it fills a niche for fans of the school and its teams. The hosts plan to continue the show into spring semester even after the end of basketball season.
PHILADELPHIA: WIP AM and FM continue to split up for different sports programming, which expands on this excellent idea. Now comes the announcement that WIP-FM will also carry the FM simulcast of all Phillies baseball broadcasts from WPHT-AM starting with the spring training broadcasts by Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen. It seems a waste of a signal to always have the same programming on 2 stations. As WIP-FM adds more play-by-play separate from the AM signal, it gives listeners more options many evenings and weekends.
BANGOR: When WAEI-FM lost out on carrying WEEI from Boston and switched over to Fox Radio Sports back in 2010, the moved turned out to be the beginning of the end. The station has just changed to WBAK-FM and has dropped Fox Sports to switch to a music format.
RAPID CITY: As smaller market stations continue to saturate with network and syndicated programming, the amount of local programming continues to drop. This proved especially frustrating for local basketball fans on Wednesday (2/8) when the basketball game between South Dakota and South Dakota State was not aired on any of the local stations. KRKI-FM, which changed from ESPN Radio to Fox Sports Radio in late 2011, now only airs South Dakota State football, having decided to drop the school's basketball broadcasts prior to this season. Coincidentally, KIMM-AM and FM only carries University of South Dakota football. KIMM airs Stevens High School basketball games, as in both boys and girls games, and thus cites the added number of conflicts with USD basketball game. However, they do have both the AM and FM station. I would like to believe that fans would understand if one station carried the high school games and the other carried the college games when there are conflicts.
OKLAHOMA CITY: Still another loss among the sports media this week. This past Sunday (2/5) saw the passing of Ken Post, who held a variety of sports broadcast related roles in the area. Post, who was only 43, served as Operations Manager at Sports KEBC-AM and a produce at WKY and KTOK.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
A Not So Super Sports Week
Competition among networks is one thing, but completely different handling of a similar situation is another. In an unfortunate coincidence, both CBS and Fox Sports have been faced with a reporter putting out a premature death story within 24 hours of the actual occurence. Yet, the aftermath was the opposite for each network.
On Saturday Jan. 21, a report from CBS Sports that Joe Paterno had passed away was denied by the Paterno family. However, Paterno passed away the following morning. The reporter, Adam Jacobi, was dismissed from his position by CBS within the following week because of this. To his credit, Jacobi went on Twitter and (over the course of multiple posts) told his followers "CBS had to let me go for the Paterno story going out the way it did, and I understand completely. I had an awesome 17 months with CBSSports.com. I'm sorry to everyone, most importantly the Paterno family, for how it ended."
In this instance, not even the dismissed employee questioned the move and why CBS had do make it.
We flash back to November 7, 2011, less than 3 months ago. The sports world and especially the boxing world lost Joe Frazier who passed away that day. Yet, the night before (Nov. 6), Fox Sports Radio host Mike North went on the air on his national radio show and reported that Frazier had already passed away. North, realizing his error before the show was over, apologized for going with the then erroneous report. Since that time, North has been promoted to more on-air work on Fox Sports Network, while no word of any disciplinary action was announced, if any was even taken.
Although I have my opinion on how both networks should have handled this situation, what is noteworthy is that these two major networks each took a separate road out of this. North not only remained on the air without any publicly known consequences, while Jacobi lost his job, for the very same infraction.
My hope is that reporters and news and sports directors will learn from these incidents. The idea is not always to be "first" to report a story. Rather, it is to use your sources and check your facts. It's not as though these were local radio station guys reporters fresh out of school. As a sports fan, I would like to think that the likes of CBS and Fox would have and use their vast resources to check the facts before they report anything. Instead, we all continue to get far too many of the "ESPN is reporting that......" going out on other major networks, most of which should be using their internal resources instead of taking the lazy approach of stealing a possible story from another source.
Meanwhile, ESPN Radio and Fox Sports Radio are among those providing fans around the country with wall-to-wall coverage leading into Sunday's Super Bowl, whether they want it or not. Other than in the participating teams' markets, I can't believe that the casual football fan needs to hear a full-length story about an offensive lineman's personal life, hotel prices in the host city, and other such "stories" that fill up the airwaves in place of the NBA, NHL, and college basketball games and results. The vast majority of sports fans I talk with, both within and outside of the media, don't care what commercials will be shown during the telecast either. That sports specific radio stations and TV networks spend any time on this fluff amazes me (but not in a good way). Most of this material is fine for Entertainment Tonight or shows which are not targeted specifically toward sports fans.
Within the Giants and Patriots markets, the Super Bowl hype all week is a different story. Many fans can't get enough. (Except for things such as actual news reports that Chris Mad Dog Russo "said hello" to WFAN's Mike Francesa on radio row on Monday.)
On the New York side, WFAN has Craig Carton and Boomer Esiason (morning team), Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts (middays), and Mike Francesa (afternoons) all broadcasting for at least some of this week from Indianapolis. Since WFAN is also the Giants' flagship station, the broadcast team of Bob Papa, Carl Banks, and Howard Cross will also appear throughout the week, as well as beat reporters Paul Dottino and Peter Schwartz. Benigno and Roberts will host a local WFAN pre-game show from 2 to 5 PM on Sunday.
In addition, WFAN and sister station WBZ-FM The Sports Hub Boston are doing some sharing and on air "mingling" with the hosts on each station.
WEPN 1050, New York's ESPN station is also on the scene at Indy along with its national coverage from ESPN Radio. This leads up to what WEPN plans as the "world's longest post-game show" with Bill Daughtry hosting for the entire overnight.
In Boston, both WEEI and WBZ-FM will broadcast the game to top off their week of non-stop coverage.
SAN ANTONIO: KZDC 1250 plans to continue with Jason Minnix as the lone host of its afternoon drive show after dismissing Chris Duel, who had been co-host until last week. The station cited ratings as the reason over and above cost-cutting, pointing out that ESPN's Mike & Mike morning show has been drawing higher ratings than the local afternoon show. We shall see if taking off one co-host instead of both makes a difference in the ratings over the next few months.
MINNEAPOLIS: Michelle Tafoya is heading for sidelines. Not just for the Super Bowl coverage on NBC. From her afternoon drive show on WCCO Radio after nearly three years. Tafoya will do occasional fill-ins for the station but is expected to increase her duties with NBC.
HOUSTON: Another big change on the Houston sports landscape. Just before the Astros relocate to the American League at the end of this year, Bob Allen will no longer be handling sports on KTRK Channel 13, or any other station. Allen has been Sports Director since 1975 (having joined Channel 13 in 1974), but announced last week (on Jan. 24th) that he plans to retire toward the end of this year. Allen began in Houston in 1971 at KPRC-AM. He joined KTRK-TV as a weekend anchor, replacing Dan Lovett when he (Lovett) left for WABC New York.
CHICAGO: While the Bulls are off to the best start in the shortened NBA season, the TV ratings are off to just as good of a start this season. Comcast SportsNet has been setting ratings records for the Bulls telecasts this season. Although it did not exist during the Michael Jordan era, last Wednesday's (Jan. 25) against Indiana had the highest regular season ratings for any Comcast SportsNet Chicago telecast (including Blackhawks, White Sox, and Cubs) in its history. Overall, through last week, CSN's Bulls telecasts are up more than 50% over last season's.
LOS ANGELES: Local NBA telecast ratings are also soaring for one of the city's local teams. That isn't the story. That the "team" is the Clippers certainly is. After all these years, it appears people are actually watching the Clippers to see the Clippers. Now Fox Sports West has actually expanded its Clippers pre-game show to a full hour. It's news to a lot of local basketball fans that they actually had a Clippers pre-game show before this season.
NEW YORK: The near future of Kim Jones is still up in the air (but not on the air - yet) after she reportedly has left the YES Network. Although she has appeared with Mike Francesa on occasion, the word is she will go with a national source, possibly NFL Network.Still another loss for the sports media, as Channel 5's Oren Stevens, most recently a contributor on Sunday's "Sports Extra" has passed away from cancer at the age of 73. People around the country might remember Stevens from his acting role in the movie "Downhill Racer" with Robert Redford and Gene Hackman from the late 60's.
NEW ORLEANS: Just as Bob Allen is leaving Houston TV, a similar change in New Orleans where WWL-TV's Sports Director Jim Henderson is retiring this week after 34 years. The good news for Saints fans is that Henderson is not retiring. He plans to continue indefinitely as the radio voice of the Saints, which he has done since 1982. WWL-TV is presenting reflections of Henderson's career with the station on all of its nightly newscasts this week in a fitting tribute.
BOSTON: Former first baseman Matt Stairs has been added as a part-time studio analyst for its Red Sox telecasts. NESN will also add Jenny Dell as its field reporter for Red Sox games. Dell comes from ESPN where she has appeared on the X Games and events on ESPN.com, and replaces Heidi Watney who has moved to Los Angeles.
HARTFORD: WPKX-FM has officially relocated from Enfield CT to Windsor Locks, which is closer to Hartford, and now carries ESPN Radio. The station is reportedly developing a local afternoon drive show. WPOP 1410 already carries ESPN on the AM side out of Hartford.
On Saturday Jan. 21, a report from CBS Sports that Joe Paterno had passed away was denied by the Paterno family. However, Paterno passed away the following morning. The reporter, Adam Jacobi, was dismissed from his position by CBS within the following week because of this. To his credit, Jacobi went on Twitter and (over the course of multiple posts) told his followers "CBS had to let me go for the Paterno story going out the way it did, and I understand completely. I had an awesome 17 months with CBSSports.com. I'm sorry to everyone, most importantly the Paterno family, for how it ended."
In this instance, not even the dismissed employee questioned the move and why CBS had do make it.
We flash back to November 7, 2011, less than 3 months ago. The sports world and especially the boxing world lost Joe Frazier who passed away that day. Yet, the night before (Nov. 6), Fox Sports Radio host Mike North went on the air on his national radio show and reported that Frazier had already passed away. North, realizing his error before the show was over, apologized for going with the then erroneous report. Since that time, North has been promoted to more on-air work on Fox Sports Network, while no word of any disciplinary action was announced, if any was even taken.
Although I have my opinion on how both networks should have handled this situation, what is noteworthy is that these two major networks each took a separate road out of this. North not only remained on the air without any publicly known consequences, while Jacobi lost his job, for the very same infraction.
My hope is that reporters and news and sports directors will learn from these incidents. The idea is not always to be "first" to report a story. Rather, it is to use your sources and check your facts. It's not as though these were local radio station guys reporters fresh out of school. As a sports fan, I would like to think that the likes of CBS and Fox would have and use their vast resources to check the facts before they report anything. Instead, we all continue to get far too many of the "ESPN is reporting that......" going out on other major networks, most of which should be using their internal resources instead of taking the lazy approach of stealing a possible story from another source.
Meanwhile, ESPN Radio and Fox Sports Radio are among those providing fans around the country with wall-to-wall coverage leading into Sunday's Super Bowl, whether they want it or not. Other than in the participating teams' markets, I can't believe that the casual football fan needs to hear a full-length story about an offensive lineman's personal life, hotel prices in the host city, and other such "stories" that fill up the airwaves in place of the NBA, NHL, and college basketball games and results. The vast majority of sports fans I talk with, both within and outside of the media, don't care what commercials will be shown during the telecast either. That sports specific radio stations and TV networks spend any time on this fluff amazes me (but not in a good way). Most of this material is fine for Entertainment Tonight or shows which are not targeted specifically toward sports fans.
Within the Giants and Patriots markets, the Super Bowl hype all week is a different story. Many fans can't get enough. (Except for things such as actual news reports that Chris Mad Dog Russo "said hello" to WFAN's Mike Francesa on radio row on Monday.)
On the New York side, WFAN has Craig Carton and Boomer Esiason (morning team), Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts (middays), and Mike Francesa (afternoons) all broadcasting for at least some of this week from Indianapolis. Since WFAN is also the Giants' flagship station, the broadcast team of Bob Papa, Carl Banks, and Howard Cross will also appear throughout the week, as well as beat reporters Paul Dottino and Peter Schwartz. Benigno and Roberts will host a local WFAN pre-game show from 2 to 5 PM on Sunday.
In addition, WFAN and sister station WBZ-FM The Sports Hub Boston are doing some sharing and on air "mingling" with the hosts on each station.
WEPN 1050, New York's ESPN station is also on the scene at Indy along with its national coverage from ESPN Radio. This leads up to what WEPN plans as the "world's longest post-game show" with Bill Daughtry hosting for the entire overnight.
In Boston, both WEEI and WBZ-FM will broadcast the game to top off their week of non-stop coverage.
SAN ANTONIO: KZDC 1250 plans to continue with Jason Minnix as the lone host of its afternoon drive show after dismissing Chris Duel, who had been co-host until last week. The station cited ratings as the reason over and above cost-cutting, pointing out that ESPN's Mike & Mike morning show has been drawing higher ratings than the local afternoon show. We shall see if taking off one co-host instead of both makes a difference in the ratings over the next few months.
MINNEAPOLIS: Michelle Tafoya is heading for sidelines. Not just for the Super Bowl coverage on NBC. From her afternoon drive show on WCCO Radio after nearly three years. Tafoya will do occasional fill-ins for the station but is expected to increase her duties with NBC.
HOUSTON: Another big change on the Houston sports landscape. Just before the Astros relocate to the American League at the end of this year, Bob Allen will no longer be handling sports on KTRK Channel 13, or any other station. Allen has been Sports Director since 1975 (having joined Channel 13 in 1974), but announced last week (on Jan. 24th) that he plans to retire toward the end of this year. Allen began in Houston in 1971 at KPRC-AM. He joined KTRK-TV as a weekend anchor, replacing Dan Lovett when he (Lovett) left for WABC New York.
CHICAGO: While the Bulls are off to the best start in the shortened NBA season, the TV ratings are off to just as good of a start this season. Comcast SportsNet has been setting ratings records for the Bulls telecasts this season. Although it did not exist during the Michael Jordan era, last Wednesday's (Jan. 25) against Indiana had the highest regular season ratings for any Comcast SportsNet Chicago telecast (including Blackhawks, White Sox, and Cubs) in its history. Overall, through last week, CSN's Bulls telecasts are up more than 50% over last season's.
LOS ANGELES: Local NBA telecast ratings are also soaring for one of the city's local teams. That isn't the story. That the "team" is the Clippers certainly is. After all these years, it appears people are actually watching the Clippers to see the Clippers. Now Fox Sports West has actually expanded its Clippers pre-game show to a full hour. It's news to a lot of local basketball fans that they actually had a Clippers pre-game show before this season.
NEW YORK: The near future of Kim Jones is still up in the air (but not on the air - yet) after she reportedly has left the YES Network. Although she has appeared with Mike Francesa on occasion, the word is she will go with a national source, possibly NFL Network.Still another loss for the sports media, as Channel 5's Oren Stevens, most recently a contributor on Sunday's "Sports Extra" has passed away from cancer at the age of 73. People around the country might remember Stevens from his acting role in the movie "Downhill Racer" with Robert Redford and Gene Hackman from the late 60's.
NEW ORLEANS: Just as Bob Allen is leaving Houston TV, a similar change in New Orleans where WWL-TV's Sports Director Jim Henderson is retiring this week after 34 years. The good news for Saints fans is that Henderson is not retiring. He plans to continue indefinitely as the radio voice of the Saints, which he has done since 1982. WWL-TV is presenting reflections of Henderson's career with the station on all of its nightly newscasts this week in a fitting tribute.
BOSTON: Former first baseman Matt Stairs has been added as a part-time studio analyst for its Red Sox telecasts. NESN will also add Jenny Dell as its field reporter for Red Sox games. Dell comes from ESPN where she has appeared on the X Games and events on ESPN.com, and replaces Heidi Watney who has moved to Los Angeles.
HARTFORD: WPKX-FM has officially relocated from Enfield CT to Windsor Locks, which is closer to Hartford, and now carries ESPN Radio. The station is reportedly developing a local afternoon drive show. WPOP 1410 already carries ESPN on the AM side out of Hartford.
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