Even for all those millions of dollars the sports media still can't control the weather. But the sports media can control itself. It's too soon to know if this will happen more often, but the past weekend's weather delays for football games and a key NASCAR race raise some interesting questions for those in charge of the TV coverage.
Rain or weather delays have been a factor regarding baseball telecasts for years, but very rarely has it come up during football telecasts, only to have several college football games delayed (with one stopped completely) due to severe storm conditions.
Granted, ESPN has an advantage over most other networks during weather delays since it has immediate studio and game resources on which to rely, even when not expected during a football telecast.
On Saturday (9/3) NBC was put in the rare position of what turned out to be lengthy rain delays during its Notre-Dame vs. South Florida telecast that began during the late afternoon hours. The network began by doing an excellent job given the unusual circumstances. It was one instance where having a "reporter" in addition to the broadcast booth actually enhanced the telecast, as Alex Flanagan was able to secure an interview with N.D. Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick. Viewers were brought up to date on what the players could and could not do during the weather delay. Tom Hicks, filling in for Tom Hammond on play-by-play (odd that Hammond would have another NBC assignment ahead of the N.D. season opener), was able to interview Terry McAulay of the Big East Conference regarding the rules and procedures for such weather delays.
Granted, the weather delays totaled more than 2 1/2 hours, NBC wasn't expecting this, and it was not a full slate of other NCAA games on Saturday. Yet, NBC instead opted to replay much of a past Notre Dame game while keeping the South Bend radar and delay information on the screen during a large portion of these delays. I know I'll get the responses that NBC's contract is for Notre Dame games and not with the NCAA. My point is that replaying a past game, no matter how enjoyable at the time it happened for N.D. fans, leaves much of the audience hanging. Or should I say looking for something else to watch. During this time period, there were several other live games still being televised just about everywhere in the country in addition to the ESPN and ABC games.
As one who complains because the networks tend to have way too many studio analysts for pre-game, halftime, and post-game segments because the good ones don't get enough time to comment, this was a situation where it would have helped. Sorry, NBC, but the idea should be to stay live and current. This was the season opener for N.D. No reason there shouldn't have been profiles of players at key positions, an in-depth look at the remaining schedule (at the very least the home games), and more scoreboard updates. Heck, even more info about future opponents would likely have retained the viewing audience ahead of a recorded game from a past season.
NBC was fortunate to have Versus to take over the live coverage into prime time. Normally, I'd be upset about them moving the game, but in this instance I certainly understand that weather delays of this magnitude could not have been anticipated in time to make revised programming arrangements.
On Sunday (9/4)ESPN wound up with weather delays during both its Marshall at West VA football coverage and the its NASCAR rate scheduled for Atlanta. The football game was delayed, and later not completed with the score at the time standing as the final, during its late afternoon time slot. The telecast was scheduled to have ended in time for the NASCAR race, which was also delayed and eventually postponed. Although ESPN hoped to fill the NASCAR delay with the conclusion of the football game, neither took place.
The saving grace is that ESPN has so many "live" resources immediately available, including its College GameDay coverage crew and its NASCAR studio crew. Thus, ESPN was able to offer the live updates, analysis, and coverage of scores, other games, and sports events, that NBC didn't.
I'm sure that there will be more discussion and perhaps policy discussed by the NCAA, member schools, and likely TV network officials, in the very near future, regarding ways to handle these weather delays. Storms such as these do impact player and fan safety, and it's good that the schools consider fan safety given the high cost of attending a game these days.
Hopefully the networks other than ESPN/ABC will be ready with live programming, interviews, and features in the event of future delays.
Meanwhile, while the fallout understandably continues about the startup of the Texas Longhorn Network, the University of Missouri is moving forward with its own TV presentation. To its credit, Missouri is doing it much differently. The Mizzou Network is scheduled to debut on December 1st (thus not for this new football season), and will be internet based. Most of the content will be free, including some live telecasts of lesser sports events. Word is there will also be some shows from football and basketball practices and other behind-the-scenes sports activities, with the idea being for branding rather than revenue, as it should be.
The Mizzou Network will have the rights to show one football game per season (starting in 2012) and any basketball games not already picked up by TV stations or regional/national networks, but may do so as a pay-per-view. Normally, I'm not in favor of pay-per-view of sports events, but if the cost is reasonable, it makes more sense than the Longhorn Network expecting people who do not support the U. of Texas to cough up still more dollars each month to have the channel they might not want. When even some of the large cable/satellite companies aren't carrying the Longhorn Network because of the revenue concerns, it shows you how much out of proportion TV costs have become.
Yet, the Longhorn Network snuck through another aggravating announcement late last week. Now that it won't easily be able to show high school games live as it hoped, the Longhorn Network will now show five home football games of UTSA (University of Texas San Antonio) starting this Saturday (9/10) vs. McMurry. They seem to have overlooked how UTSA is part of the University of Texas. Now it is as though the Network was limited to UT in Austin, and not even for the entire university system. Yes, how nice of the University of Texas to be willing to share some of the millions and millions of dollars it is trying to soak people for with a part of its own system.
On the NHL side, NBC and Versus continue to be aggressive about the NHL on TV for this season, especially as the NBA lockout continues while NHL teams open training camp. Versus now plans to air at least 4 exhibition games nationally. In the past few years, only the NHL Network showed some. It is possible that these will be national feeds of local Comcast SportsNet telecasts to reduce production costs, but understandable since the CSN family is also part of the NBC Sports Network family. Three of the telecasts are Flyers games, already scheduled to be shown on CSN Philadelphia, while the fourth is a Chicago Blackhawks game already scheduled for CSN Chicago:
Sept. 21, 7:00 p.m. – Toronto vs. Philadelphia
Sept. 26, 7:00 p.m. – NY Rangers vs. Philadelphia
Sept. 28, 8:30 p.m. – Detroit vs. Chicago
Sept. 29, 7:00 p.m. – New Jersey vs. Philadelphia (VERSUS)
On the Canadian side, CBC and TSN will each air at least 4 exhibition games, with all featuring at least one of the Canadian teams in action.
In the Atlanta market, efforts are underway to maintain an NHL presence on the regional sports networks. As of press time, an announcement is pending regarding the market receiving a steady diet of Nashville Predators games this coming season. If so, it will be most interesting to see the audience measurements, and see if fans have given up on the NHL or would rally to indicate that Atlanta should again have a team in the league.
SAN DIEGO: As a disappointing season comes to an end for the Padres, it could be end of an era for the team's local radio and TV coverage. The XX Sports Radio contract for the broadcasts is up at the end of this season, with no renewal announced as of yet. Last week, Channel 4 confirmed that it will not televise the Padres after this season. Dick Enberg is, as of press time, the only announcer under contract for 2012, and that's as far as his agreement goes. Mark Grant, Ted Leitner, and Andy Masur have not yet been renewed.
CHICAGO: We have another instance of a current player being signed to a paid media deal, as Comcast SportsNet Chicago has hired White Sox pitcher Jack Peavy for a "Jake's Take" segment to appear as a weekly video diary. The segments are expected to air on White Sox pre-game shows along with some of the network's nightly sports recap shows. Have to wonder about the demand for such a feature, given that the fans have heard enough excuses for Peavy earning close to $2 million per pitching victory this season.
MILWAUKEE: It's not just "any" football for Milwaukee area TV viewers. It's the Super Bowl champion Packers, obviously. This past Thursday (9/1) the Packers final exhibition game vs. Kansas City was on up against the University of Wisconsin's season opener head-to-head. Yet, the meaningless Packers telecast more than doubled the audience of the Badgers' opener of what could be a big bowl season.
PORTLAND ME: WPEI 95.9 has increased area coverage thanks to WLOB-FM 95.5 Topsham dropping its talk format (which continues on its AM) and picking up a simulcast of WPEI as of this week.
CORPUS CHRISTI TX and PENSACOLA FL: After losing several affiliates to Fox Sports Radio, ESPN Radio is taking steps to add more affiliates once again. Corpus Christi's 1440 KEYS went from news/talk to ESPN Radio on Thursday (9/1), while Pensacola's WBSR 1450 dropped its light music format to become "1450 ESPN) this week.
Showing posts with label notre dame. Show all posts
Showing posts with label notre dame. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Universities With Too Much Control
For all of the time the sports media spends on rumors and speculation, it's hard to believe the story about a true reporter in Kentucky has not received the attention it deserves. It seems that Aaron Smith, a reporter for the Kentucky Kernel (which is a student newspaper for the University of Kentucky), is being punished because he interviewed two basketball students "without permission" from the school. As long as there is nothing illegal or in violation, how does a University have this authority?
The first I heard of this story was because it was published via Rueters news wire. The wire service claims in its story that Smith called two basketball players who planned to join the U.K. basketball team as walk-ons, after a U.K. player "leaked" the information on Twitter. Nothing wrong with that. Frankly, it's nice to see a reporter at any level go after the facts instead of going with a "speculation" story that these players would do this.
As a result of Smith's reporting, the University of Kentucky has decided that Smith has "lost his access to interview members of the university's basketball team", acting as if this is some privilege. Keep in mind this is the same school (though not the same personnel) that almost literally ran sportscaster Phil Foster out of town in the mid-70's because he reported a negative RUMOR about Kentucky basketball players.
The sports media should be in an uproar about this, instead of speculating about baseball moves and fantasy football picks this week. If the large conference schools can really determine who gets to interview whom, how much "reporting" do we sports fans really get?
My point is that these colleges and universities have gained too much control when it comes to media. Go back to earlier this year when the U. of Texas TV network was announced. It's only in recent weeks that others in the media and other schools finally realized the consequences. Decisions about what can and can't be televised now need to be made. Thousands of alum of other schools (besides the U. of Texas) are actually contributing to Texas because of part of their cable/satellite monthly fees being used to fund this venture. While these universities pump in millions of dollars - even though tuition and other costs continue to rise.
It's a shame this starts to ruin the excitement many share about the college football season starting within a matter of hours. I guess we can continue to enjoy the games. Just be wary of the interviews.
Speaking of enjoying football, a study by Catalyst Public Relations shows that 42% of NFL fans are using social media DURING games, while 51.5% of college football fans are doing the same during college games. The percentages are, understandably, even higher after the games have ended. There are a couple of ways to look at this trend.
One is that the TV coverage other than the camera shots and replays leaves something to be desired and that viewers would rather concentrate on their phones or computers than what the announcers are saying. Another is that the TV networks and stations should look at ways to become more a part of this participation.
The large networks have not (yet) embraced the possibilities. Suppose there is a time-out leading into a 4th down and 1 yard to go play. Instead of speculating among 3 announcers in the booth and seemingly hundreds "back in the studio", it would be interesting to know what fans of the team on offense would call in that situation. Ask the fans to comment on the televising station or network's social pages, and gather the information. The viewers might pay more attention to the announcing team if they said that "42% of the (offensive team) fans want to see Smith run the ball here", and then see if it happens.
We also are coming up on the NFL season openers, with most of the teams opening on September 11th. As we said a few weeks back when Marv Albert joined the CBS-TV announcing team, Marv could be in competition with son Kenny Albert in a few midwest markets on opening Sunday.
Marv Albert makes his regular season debut with the CBS-TV NFL staff when he calls the early game from Kansas City against Buffalo. At the same time, Kenny Albert will be on Fox-TV calling the Atlanta Falcons at Chicago Bears opener.
Here are the opening Sunday (Sept. 11) announcing assignments:
Detroit Lions @ Tampa Bay Bucs, 1 p.m. ET - FOX -- Chris Myers, Tim Ryan
Atlanta Falcons @ Chicago Bears, 1 p.m. FOX -- Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston
Philadelphia Eagles @ St. Louis Rams, 1 p.m. FOX -- Thom Brennaman, Brian Billick
Pittsburgh Steelers @ Baltimore Ravens, 1 p.m. CBS -- Jim Nantz, Phil Simms
Buffalo Bills @ Kansas City Chiefs, 1 p.m. CBS -- Marv Albert, Rich Gannon
Tennessee Titans @ Jacksonville Jaguars, 1 p.m. CBS -- Ian Eagle, Dan Fouts
Indianapolis Colts @ Houston Texans, 1 p.m. CBS -- Greg Gumbel, Dan Dierdorff
Cincinnati Bengals @ Cleveland Browns, 1 p.m. CBS -- Kevin Harlan, Soloman Wilcots
New York Giants @ Washington Redskins, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Joe Buck, Troy Aikman
Seattle Seahawks @ San Francisco 49ers, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Dick Stockton, John Lynch
Minnesota Vikings @ San Diego Chargers, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Ron Pitts, Jim Mora
Carolina Panthers @ Arizona Cardinals, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Sam Rosen, Chad Pennington
Westwood One begins its national college football broadcasts this week (starting with the 9/2 TCU at Baylor game). The network will have two announcing teams to cover its 26 broadcasts including regular season and some post-season games. John Tautges and Terry Donahue will team up, as will Brian Davis and Eddie George. Brian Davis, who has done Seattle Seahawks play-by-play, is also the voice of the NBA Oklahoma City Thunder telecasts. At least Davis knows for sure he'll be calling games somewhere come November.
Versus continues to beef up its "fresh" sports programming on weeknights with a 6 PM ET block of live studio shows starting next week. Each weeknight will feature a different primary theme, with those being ProFootballTalk, HardballTalk, ProBasketballTalk, ProHockeyTalk, CollegeFootballTalk, InsidetheIrish and ProGolfTalk. When the NHL regular season gets underway in October, the specialty show on game telecast nights will be shortened by 1/2 hour to make way for the network's hockey pre-game shows. Russ Thaler will host "NBC SportsTalk" during that slot on selected nights.
CHICAGO: WLS 890 will continue as the radio home of Notre Dame football for the new season and for at least the two seasons to follow. The station will also air at least 25 N.D. basketball games.
Since the Bears broadcasts are now simulcast on FM and with other larger stations having sports and other programming conflicts, a group of three suburban radio stations will carry at least one NFL broadcast each Sunday for the coming season. WCPY-FM 92.5 serves the west suburbs, WCPQ-FM 99.9 serves the south suburbs, and WCPT 92.7 serves the north suburbs.
WMAQ-TV's digital channel 5.2 has a deal to carry Illinois High School Association football and basketball starting this season, including state playoff games. These telecasts were previously over-the-air.
NEW JERSEY: Eric LeGrand has been named to participate in pre-game, post-game, and halftime of Rutgers football broadcasts for this season. Yet, Eric is not your typical sportscaster-in-waiting. LeGrand was, unfortunately, paralyzed last season during a game while playing for the Rutgers football team, and suffers from a spinal cord injury. A wonderful gesture by the school.
WINNIPEG: Only days away from the start of training camp, the new Winnipeg Jets of the NHL now have their radio and TV deals in place. SportsRadio 1290 will, as expected, carry every exhibition and regular season (and post-season if it happens) game. TSN will televise at least 60 regular season games on "TSN Jets" a part-time TV channel covering portions of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories. TSN will also televise at least five Jets games as part of its national Canadian TV package.
OTTAWA Senators games will continue to air on Team 1200 radio through the 2013-14 season as part of a just announced contract extension. Dean Brown, Gord Wilson, and Dave Schreiber will continue as the broadcast team.
HARRISBURG: Thursday (9/1) marked the debut of 95.3 as ESPN Radio and the end of its time as an R & B station. The sports station will also simulcast on 1400 AM.
GULFPORT: WUJM 96.7 has also changed to ESPN Radio and is now known (as of Monday 8/29) as "Champ 96.7". No word, as of press time, regarding specific local programming.
The first I heard of this story was because it was published via Rueters news wire. The wire service claims in its story that Smith called two basketball players who planned to join the U.K. basketball team as walk-ons, after a U.K. player "leaked" the information on Twitter. Nothing wrong with that. Frankly, it's nice to see a reporter at any level go after the facts instead of going with a "speculation" story that these players would do this.
As a result of Smith's reporting, the University of Kentucky has decided that Smith has "lost his access to interview members of the university's basketball team", acting as if this is some privilege. Keep in mind this is the same school (though not the same personnel) that almost literally ran sportscaster Phil Foster out of town in the mid-70's because he reported a negative RUMOR about Kentucky basketball players.
The sports media should be in an uproar about this, instead of speculating about baseball moves and fantasy football picks this week. If the large conference schools can really determine who gets to interview whom, how much "reporting" do we sports fans really get?
My point is that these colleges and universities have gained too much control when it comes to media. Go back to earlier this year when the U. of Texas TV network was announced. It's only in recent weeks that others in the media and other schools finally realized the consequences. Decisions about what can and can't be televised now need to be made. Thousands of alum of other schools (besides the U. of Texas) are actually contributing to Texas because of part of their cable/satellite monthly fees being used to fund this venture. While these universities pump in millions of dollars - even though tuition and other costs continue to rise.
It's a shame this starts to ruin the excitement many share about the college football season starting within a matter of hours. I guess we can continue to enjoy the games. Just be wary of the interviews.
Speaking of enjoying football, a study by Catalyst Public Relations shows that 42% of NFL fans are using social media DURING games, while 51.5% of college football fans are doing the same during college games. The percentages are, understandably, even higher after the games have ended. There are a couple of ways to look at this trend.
One is that the TV coverage other than the camera shots and replays leaves something to be desired and that viewers would rather concentrate on their phones or computers than what the announcers are saying. Another is that the TV networks and stations should look at ways to become more a part of this participation.
The large networks have not (yet) embraced the possibilities. Suppose there is a time-out leading into a 4th down and 1 yard to go play. Instead of speculating among 3 announcers in the booth and seemingly hundreds "back in the studio", it would be interesting to know what fans of the team on offense would call in that situation. Ask the fans to comment on the televising station or network's social pages, and gather the information. The viewers might pay more attention to the announcing team if they said that "42% of the (offensive team) fans want to see Smith run the ball here", and then see if it happens.
We also are coming up on the NFL season openers, with most of the teams opening on September 11th. As we said a few weeks back when Marv Albert joined the CBS-TV announcing team, Marv could be in competition with son Kenny Albert in a few midwest markets on opening Sunday.
Marv Albert makes his regular season debut with the CBS-TV NFL staff when he calls the early game from Kansas City against Buffalo. At the same time, Kenny Albert will be on Fox-TV calling the Atlanta Falcons at Chicago Bears opener.
Here are the opening Sunday (Sept. 11) announcing assignments:
Detroit Lions @ Tampa Bay Bucs, 1 p.m. ET - FOX -- Chris Myers, Tim Ryan
Atlanta Falcons @ Chicago Bears, 1 p.m. FOX -- Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston
Philadelphia Eagles @ St. Louis Rams, 1 p.m. FOX -- Thom Brennaman, Brian Billick
Pittsburgh Steelers @ Baltimore Ravens, 1 p.m. CBS -- Jim Nantz, Phil Simms
Buffalo Bills @ Kansas City Chiefs, 1 p.m. CBS -- Marv Albert, Rich Gannon
Tennessee Titans @ Jacksonville Jaguars, 1 p.m. CBS -- Ian Eagle, Dan Fouts
Indianapolis Colts @ Houston Texans, 1 p.m. CBS -- Greg Gumbel, Dan Dierdorff
Cincinnati Bengals @ Cleveland Browns, 1 p.m. CBS -- Kevin Harlan, Soloman Wilcots
New York Giants @ Washington Redskins, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Joe Buck, Troy Aikman
Seattle Seahawks @ San Francisco 49ers, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Dick Stockton, John Lynch
Minnesota Vikings @ San Diego Chargers, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Ron Pitts, Jim Mora
Carolina Panthers @ Arizona Cardinals, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Sam Rosen, Chad Pennington
Westwood One begins its national college football broadcasts this week (starting with the 9/2 TCU at Baylor game). The network will have two announcing teams to cover its 26 broadcasts including regular season and some post-season games. John Tautges and Terry Donahue will team up, as will Brian Davis and Eddie George. Brian Davis, who has done Seattle Seahawks play-by-play, is also the voice of the NBA Oklahoma City Thunder telecasts. At least Davis knows for sure he'll be calling games somewhere come November.
Versus continues to beef up its "fresh" sports programming on weeknights with a 6 PM ET block of live studio shows starting next week. Each weeknight will feature a different primary theme, with those being ProFootballTalk, HardballTalk, ProBasketballTalk, ProHockeyTalk, CollegeFootballTalk, InsidetheIrish and ProGolfTalk. When the NHL regular season gets underway in October, the specialty show on game telecast nights will be shortened by 1/2 hour to make way for the network's hockey pre-game shows. Russ Thaler will host "NBC SportsTalk" during that slot on selected nights.
CHICAGO: WLS 890 will continue as the radio home of Notre Dame football for the new season and for at least the two seasons to follow. The station will also air at least 25 N.D. basketball games.
Since the Bears broadcasts are now simulcast on FM and with other larger stations having sports and other programming conflicts, a group of three suburban radio stations will carry at least one NFL broadcast each Sunday for the coming season. WCPY-FM 92.5 serves the west suburbs, WCPQ-FM 99.9 serves the south suburbs, and WCPT 92.7 serves the north suburbs.
WMAQ-TV's digital channel 5.2 has a deal to carry Illinois High School Association football and basketball starting this season, including state playoff games. These telecasts were previously over-the-air.
NEW JERSEY: Eric LeGrand has been named to participate in pre-game, post-game, and halftime of Rutgers football broadcasts for this season. Yet, Eric is not your typical sportscaster-in-waiting. LeGrand was, unfortunately, paralyzed last season during a game while playing for the Rutgers football team, and suffers from a spinal cord injury. A wonderful gesture by the school.
WINNIPEG: Only days away from the start of training camp, the new Winnipeg Jets of the NHL now have their radio and TV deals in place. SportsRadio 1290 will, as expected, carry every exhibition and regular season (and post-season if it happens) game. TSN will televise at least 60 regular season games on "TSN Jets" a part-time TV channel covering portions of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories. TSN will also televise at least five Jets games as part of its national Canadian TV package.
OTTAWA Senators games will continue to air on Team 1200 radio through the 2013-14 season as part of a just announced contract extension. Dean Brown, Gord Wilson, and Dave Schreiber will continue as the broadcast team.
HARRISBURG: Thursday (9/1) marked the debut of 95.3 as ESPN Radio and the end of its time as an R & B station. The sports station will also simulcast on 1400 AM.
GULFPORT: WUJM 96.7 has also changed to ESPN Radio and is now known (as of Monday 8/29) as "Champ 96.7". No word, as of press time, regarding specific local programming.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Sports Media Report - June 2nd update.......
Some very nice innovation from a radio station? Believe it or not, it is taking place this baseball season courtesy of Richmond VA Sports Radio 910.
The sports station wants to compete for the baseball audience at night and on weekends, and the possibilities are endless since other stations in the market carry the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals broadcasts. Neither team is having anything close to a compelling season once again, even if this offers listeners a game from each league most nights.
Fortunately, radio rights are not as ridiculous as TV (where teams literally more than 100 miles away are blacked out under certain circumstances) and a market without an MLB team such aa Richmond has choices.
Before the season, the station encouraged fans to vote on which (remaining) team to carry. Even after an extended voting period, the Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox were too close to call. So the station decided to please the vast majority and acquired the rights to BOTH teams games.
On days when the Braves and Red Sox play at different times (such as one during the afternoon and the other at night), the market can choose among 4 live MLB broadcasts locally.
Better yet, 910 AM has taken the vote one step further. When the Red Sox and Braves play at the same time, listeners can vote before hand via the station's web site. As of late May, the Red Sox games had "won" the majority of conflicts and their games have aired.
What a great idea!
In other "non-MLB" city radio news, the Dodgers games are now back on a local Las Vegas station for the rest of this season and all of 2010, complete with a 10 minute pre and post-game show. KBET 790 will air the games in celebration of changing to a sports radio format. Until last Friday when the broadcasts started, KWWN 1100 was airing one Dodgers game per week, but that ends now that another station has taken over all of the games.
Speaking of great ideas, MLB Network continues to impress and improve since its January debut. The Network plans to televise the baseball amateur draft next week (Tuesday June 9 starting at 6:00 PM ET) and even had it moved to start later in the day than ever before to reach a potentially larger audience. That's a first round decision in more ways than one.
The Network also picked up points again last Thursday night. Since they couldn't show the Dodgers vs. Cubs game in Los Angeles or Chicago (which was thankfully televised locally in both markets), MLB Network showed the Detroit at Baltimore game from the Orioles feed in both of those markets. This made a lot of sense since National League fans in both markets would be watching the Dodgers vs. Cubs anyway. This gave White Sox and Angels fans (and the White Sox were idle that night) the opportunity to watch an American League game. This is the second time I know for sure that MLB Network picked up a "back-up" game feed so that all markets could have live baseball.
Sports Business Journal compiled data about the increase and decrease in the local baseball on TV audience into the later part of May. It showed the top 10 teams in terms of increased local TV ratings thus far this season are (in alphabetical order) the Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Royals, L A Dodgers, N Y Mets, Milwaukee Brewers, Phillies, San Francisco Giants, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, and Washington Nationals.
Of the "2 team" markets, only Chicago showed viewer increases for both teams, although the White Sox have the bigger increase thus far. In New York City, the Mets are up and Yankees viewership is down, in Los Angeles the Dodgers are up but the Angels have dropped, and in San Francisco the Giants are up with the A's significantly down from last year.
It will be interesting to see how ABC-TV does with the NBA Finals. TNT and ESPN are each coming off ratings success with their respective Conference Finals series telecasts. Yet many fear that ABC-TV will lose out because they didn't get the Cleveland and LeBron James vs. Kobe and Lakers marquee matchup.
On the NHL side, the ratings were good for NBC-TV's first 2 telecasts of the Stanley Cup Finals this past weekend. Never mind that after off days between games even since the start of the opening round, the network forced back-to-back nights to start the championship series.
Sorry, but I can't picture a Pete Rozelle (I know he is long gone - just making the point) or David Stern allowing their leagues to compromise like that. NBC-TV supposedly did this to not lose interest by waiting until this coming weekend to start - and protecting the scheduled starting time for the "new" Tonight show this week.
On the NFL side, Fox-TV Sports has dropped Brian Baldinger as one of its game analysts after 10+ seasons. Former safety John Lynch has been added, but nothing yet about which play-by-play voice he will be paired with to start the season.
SEATTLE: All the hype for months about KIRO 710 going all sports in April and having the Mariners and Seahawks broadcasts. Plus the former news-talk format moving over to KIRO-FM only. Even with a relatively good start by the Mariners, the sports station has come in 17th in the most recent ratings, starting below long time sports radio KJR. The news-talk format switched to the FM side dropped significantly overall and didn't fare much better than the AM station did.
PHILADELPHIA: After mainstay Howard Eskin's ratings continue to drop on WIP 610, Eskin now has a co-host. Rob Ellis started working with Eskin last week, the first time since 2002 that Eskin has not hosted solo. The reason? Mike Missanelli on ESPN Radio 950 has passed him up. By the way, Missanelli was Eskin's previous "partner" on WIP from 1999 into 2002. The Ellis stint has not been made permanent, but I think it's safe to say the ratings will decide that battle.
DALLAS: What pitcher gave up Barry Bonds' historic 756th homerun? I'll save you the time. It was Mike Bacsik. You are now wondering what this has to do with the Dallas sports media. It seems that Bacsik is looking to make sports headlines in a more positive way for himself. Not signed by a Major League team for this season, Bacsik started last week as a producer of Norm Hitzges' midday show on KTCK The Ticket in Dallas. Looks as though Bacsik will benefit more in the long run from that historic homerun than Bonds ever will.
DES MOINES: Following up from last week and the story that Marty Tirrell was scheduled to begin a sports talk show broadcasting from an auto dealer on 1700 AM. It didn't happen - at least not yet. It's not because of so many auto dealers closing up shop around the country. It is because of the non-compete clause in his contract that KXNO-AM, which fired him a few weeks ago, is trying to enforce.
This could keep Tirrell off the air until September. I could understand this being a concern if Marty had left KXNO to go elsewhere. But KXNO fired him due to the profanity laced argument that leaked onto the air. KXNO is a Clearance Channel station. While the parent company is fighting against paying musicians for performing rights on the music they have played for years and made millions from, they fight to keep someone off the air they fired.
SAN DIEGO: Even though there is some question about Compass Media Networks' plan to broadcast some NFL games for the coming season, Compass has hired Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton as one of its play-by-play voices. ESPN 800 San Diego is among the stations lined up to carry the broadcasts. This would put Hamilton back on in San Diego where he handled local sports talk for more than 20 years.
JACKSONVILLE: Those of us who have worked for radio stations within the past 40 years will believe this story, but it keeps happening. Even if you can afford a vacation these days, be careful.
After 13 years at WOKV 690, Cole Pepper returned from a 10 day trip to Hawaii to learn that his position as Sports Director was eliminated.
The kicker is that trip to Hawaii was sponsored by the station and included some advertisers and listeners.
Wish I could say I am surprised at this story. But then I thought back to the time in the late 70's when I learned that a news reporter with another station was let go the day before and was about to be hired by the same station I was working for. Fine and dandy, except that the guy had been on a week long camping trip without phone contact (years before cell phones). Several of us knew what was up before he was reached at home after his trip and told to come into a different company's radio station to work the next day.
Ft. MYERS/NAPLES: 770 ESPN Radio continues to crush 1200 AM Fox Sports, which showed up with overall ratings less than 0.5, yet has yet to indicate it will change format.
GRAND RAPIDS: "The ball" is rolling from the AM to the FM dial as of this week. WBBL moved from 1340 AM to 107.3 FM, and will continue to carry the Pistons, Red Wings, and most Michigan State football and basketball games. The station is also picking up non-conflicting Westwood One broadcasts. "The ball" has been on the air since 1994. At least it didn't get bounced.
LIMA, OH: Another AM to FM move for sports, although this one is for much improved signal coverage. ESPN Radio 940 AM has just moved (as of Monday June 1) to 93.1. The station will continue to carry the Indians, Browns, and Cavaliers play-by-play, as well as Notre Dame football. 940 AM has become an oldies station. While the change makes sense due to what were signal problems, the irony is that an FM station goes talk while an AM station adds music.
The sports station wants to compete for the baseball audience at night and on weekends, and the possibilities are endless since other stations in the market carry the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals broadcasts. Neither team is having anything close to a compelling season once again, even if this offers listeners a game from each league most nights.
Fortunately, radio rights are not as ridiculous as TV (where teams literally more than 100 miles away are blacked out under certain circumstances) and a market without an MLB team such aa Richmond has choices.
Before the season, the station encouraged fans to vote on which (remaining) team to carry. Even after an extended voting period, the Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox were too close to call. So the station decided to please the vast majority and acquired the rights to BOTH teams games.
On days when the Braves and Red Sox play at different times (such as one during the afternoon and the other at night), the market can choose among 4 live MLB broadcasts locally.
Better yet, 910 AM has taken the vote one step further. When the Red Sox and Braves play at the same time, listeners can vote before hand via the station's web site. As of late May, the Red Sox games had "won" the majority of conflicts and their games have aired.
What a great idea!
In other "non-MLB" city radio news, the Dodgers games are now back on a local Las Vegas station for the rest of this season and all of 2010, complete with a 10 minute pre and post-game show. KBET 790 will air the games in celebration of changing to a sports radio format. Until last Friday when the broadcasts started, KWWN 1100 was airing one Dodgers game per week, but that ends now that another station has taken over all of the games.
Speaking of great ideas, MLB Network continues to impress and improve since its January debut. The Network plans to televise the baseball amateur draft next week (Tuesday June 9 starting at 6:00 PM ET) and even had it moved to start later in the day than ever before to reach a potentially larger audience. That's a first round decision in more ways than one.
The Network also picked up points again last Thursday night. Since they couldn't show the Dodgers vs. Cubs game in Los Angeles or Chicago (which was thankfully televised locally in both markets), MLB Network showed the Detroit at Baltimore game from the Orioles feed in both of those markets. This made a lot of sense since National League fans in both markets would be watching the Dodgers vs. Cubs anyway. This gave White Sox and Angels fans (and the White Sox were idle that night) the opportunity to watch an American League game. This is the second time I know for sure that MLB Network picked up a "back-up" game feed so that all markets could have live baseball.
Sports Business Journal compiled data about the increase and decrease in the local baseball on TV audience into the later part of May. It showed the top 10 teams in terms of increased local TV ratings thus far this season are (in alphabetical order) the Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Royals, L A Dodgers, N Y Mets, Milwaukee Brewers, Phillies, San Francisco Giants, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, and Washington Nationals.
Of the "2 team" markets, only Chicago showed viewer increases for both teams, although the White Sox have the bigger increase thus far. In New York City, the Mets are up and Yankees viewership is down, in Los Angeles the Dodgers are up but the Angels have dropped, and in San Francisco the Giants are up with the A's significantly down from last year.
It will be interesting to see how ABC-TV does with the NBA Finals. TNT and ESPN are each coming off ratings success with their respective Conference Finals series telecasts. Yet many fear that ABC-TV will lose out because they didn't get the Cleveland and LeBron James vs. Kobe and Lakers marquee matchup.
On the NHL side, the ratings were good for NBC-TV's first 2 telecasts of the Stanley Cup Finals this past weekend. Never mind that after off days between games even since the start of the opening round, the network forced back-to-back nights to start the championship series.
Sorry, but I can't picture a Pete Rozelle (I know he is long gone - just making the point) or David Stern allowing their leagues to compromise like that. NBC-TV supposedly did this to not lose interest by waiting until this coming weekend to start - and protecting the scheduled starting time for the "new" Tonight show this week.
On the NFL side, Fox-TV Sports has dropped Brian Baldinger as one of its game analysts after 10+ seasons. Former safety John Lynch has been added, but nothing yet about which play-by-play voice he will be paired with to start the season.
SEATTLE: All the hype for months about KIRO 710 going all sports in April and having the Mariners and Seahawks broadcasts. Plus the former news-talk format moving over to KIRO-FM only. Even with a relatively good start by the Mariners, the sports station has come in 17th in the most recent ratings, starting below long time sports radio KJR. The news-talk format switched to the FM side dropped significantly overall and didn't fare much better than the AM station did.
PHILADELPHIA: After mainstay Howard Eskin's ratings continue to drop on WIP 610, Eskin now has a co-host. Rob Ellis started working with Eskin last week, the first time since 2002 that Eskin has not hosted solo. The reason? Mike Missanelli on ESPN Radio 950 has passed him up. By the way, Missanelli was Eskin's previous "partner" on WIP from 1999 into 2002. The Ellis stint has not been made permanent, but I think it's safe to say the ratings will decide that battle.
DALLAS: What pitcher gave up Barry Bonds' historic 756th homerun? I'll save you the time. It was Mike Bacsik. You are now wondering what this has to do with the Dallas sports media. It seems that Bacsik is looking to make sports headlines in a more positive way for himself. Not signed by a Major League team for this season, Bacsik started last week as a producer of Norm Hitzges' midday show on KTCK The Ticket in Dallas. Looks as though Bacsik will benefit more in the long run from that historic homerun than Bonds ever will.
DES MOINES: Following up from last week and the story that Marty Tirrell was scheduled to begin a sports talk show broadcasting from an auto dealer on 1700 AM. It didn't happen - at least not yet. It's not because of so many auto dealers closing up shop around the country. It is because of the non-compete clause in his contract that KXNO-AM, which fired him a few weeks ago, is trying to enforce.
This could keep Tirrell off the air until September. I could understand this being a concern if Marty had left KXNO to go elsewhere. But KXNO fired him due to the profanity laced argument that leaked onto the air. KXNO is a Clearance Channel station. While the parent company is fighting against paying musicians for performing rights on the music they have played for years and made millions from, they fight to keep someone off the air they fired.
SAN DIEGO: Even though there is some question about Compass Media Networks' plan to broadcast some NFL games for the coming season, Compass has hired Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton as one of its play-by-play voices. ESPN 800 San Diego is among the stations lined up to carry the broadcasts. This would put Hamilton back on in San Diego where he handled local sports talk for more than 20 years.
JACKSONVILLE: Those of us who have worked for radio stations within the past 40 years will believe this story, but it keeps happening. Even if you can afford a vacation these days, be careful.
After 13 years at WOKV 690, Cole Pepper returned from a 10 day trip to Hawaii to learn that his position as Sports Director was eliminated.
The kicker is that trip to Hawaii was sponsored by the station and included some advertisers and listeners.
Wish I could say I am surprised at this story. But then I thought back to the time in the late 70's when I learned that a news reporter with another station was let go the day before and was about to be hired by the same station I was working for. Fine and dandy, except that the guy had been on a week long camping trip without phone contact (years before cell phones). Several of us knew what was up before he was reached at home after his trip and told to come into a different company's radio station to work the next day.
Ft. MYERS/NAPLES: 770 ESPN Radio continues to crush 1200 AM Fox Sports, which showed up with overall ratings less than 0.5, yet has yet to indicate it will change format.
GRAND RAPIDS: "The ball" is rolling from the AM to the FM dial as of this week. WBBL moved from 1340 AM to 107.3 FM, and will continue to carry the Pistons, Red Wings, and most Michigan State football and basketball games. The station is also picking up non-conflicting Westwood One broadcasts. "The ball" has been on the air since 1994. At least it didn't get bounced.
LIMA, OH: Another AM to FM move for sports, although this one is for much improved signal coverage. ESPN Radio 940 AM has just moved (as of Monday June 1) to 93.1. The station will continue to carry the Indians, Browns, and Cavaliers play-by-play, as well as Notre Dame football. 940 AM has become an oldies station. While the change makes sense due to what were signal problems, the irony is that an FM station goes talk while an AM station adds music.
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