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.
Showing posts with label broadcast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label broadcast. Show all posts
Monday, April 2, 2012
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
The Broadcast Booth - July 28 update.....
All 1500 ESPN in the Twin Cities did was air a fascinating interview and generate some newsworthy quotes. Frankly, it's about time the sports "reporting" media made some news instead of spending endless hours touting rumors about trades and signings that fail to come to pass and acting as if they are "news" stories.
Timberwolves team President David Kahn went on the air last week and said that forward Michael Beasley "smoked too much marijuana", prompting a $50,000 fine against Kahn by the NBA.
The actual comment was, "He's a very young and immature kid who smoked too much marijuana and has told me that he's not smoking anymore, and I told him that I would trust him as long as that was the case."
Whether it was right or wrong for Kahn to make that comment is not the point. I can understand the NBA being concerned. However, the sports "reporting" media should be concerned about a $50,000 fine resulting from that comment.
Had Mr. Kahn's comment come during or within an NBA environment, such as a team or league press conference, I would understand this fine completely. However, Kahn's choice and willingness to go on a local sports talk show is and was not an NBA environment.
If Michael Beasley and/or his representatives felt the comment was not appropriate or not true, it should be their decision to pursue legal action. Such an action could include the radio station which broadcast the comment if the legal team so determines. As of this writing, I am not aware of any such action or even a complaint from Beasley, to whom the comments were associated with.
However, the NBA, by declaring this fine against a team representative for "outside" comments, is doing some harm to the very media which supports it, along with us fans.
Too many of the sports radio stations emphasize the local callers giving their often uninformed opinions about the teams and players way too much as it is. Many sports fans listen to get information about the teams and players and to learn more.
I'm afraid that as word of this fine gets out, that more of the players, owners, and team management members will start to think twice before going on a live radio or TV interview. Now that he has been fined $50,000, do you think Mr. Kahn will EVER do another live media interview he doesn't have to?
Guess what. As players and team officials stop doing live interviews, the result will be these sports stations having no choice but to put boring and clueless fans on the air instead of the participants.
Certainly I can understand the NBA wanting to reprimand a team executive, especially an owner, for the comment. It should have been done in private, or with only a public apology and no consequences. Instead, the NBA could well be cutting off one of its best forms of publicity around the nation.
Yet, that is not all that should have been done. Stations such as 1500 ESPN and others like it should be expressing their anger over this fine. This will make it more of a challenge to bring the fans live interviews, since players and team execs will have to be fearful of making a comment, outside of a team or league setting, that could take money out of their pocket.
Now the NBA has $50,000 extra, and the millions of listeners to sports radio station have "Joe from the south side to talk about whether Michael Beasley should be traded". That is not the fault of Mr. Kahn. While the fans will really be the ones to suffer the consequences.
This all comes on top of the increased insanity of sports stations featuring the callers instead of information and interviews. Now this trend continues to spread in baseball as well. It has been bad enough that WSCR The Score has been doing what they call "interactive" Chicago White Sox broadcasts during the past couple of spring trainings. The station actually stops doing play-by-play in the middle of some exhibition broadcasts to instead let the game announcers take calls from the fans. As if listeners would rather hear some fan talking about who should make the team instead of how the specific players are performing at that very moment?
Last week WEEI Boston suddenly restructured their Red Sox pre-game programming to enable John Ryder to take more calls from fans. The Terry Francona Show and a player interview segment continue to air, but now are treated like a throw-in. Station officials are bent on continuing this "at least" through this season. Pardon me, but I thought the other 20 hours out of the day were already more than enough to hear the same fans calling in with the same complaints about "last night's game". Now fans have to wait to hear what the team's manager has to say? Worse yet, there are rumblings that WEEI might also subject Celtics fans to this when their broadcasts start up again in October.
If we must be subjected to fan comment overload, at least KTRB, the flagship station of the Oakland A's, had a better idea. Because of its syndicated and brokered time programming commitments, the A's games often create havoc on the program lineup. Last Wednesday (7/21), the A's victory over the Red Sox ran a bit late. As a result, Chris Townsend was on the air with the post-game show and took phone calls from fans for a longer than usual period. As in 4 hours. The game ended around 3:30 PM, and Townsend's post-game show was on the air all the way until 7:30 PM. Since that was a later extension of the post-game programming, I have no problem with that. It pre-empted other station programming, but, significantly, not any of the player or manager interviews that provide fans with information they care to hear.
Meanwhile, Fox Sports Radio will begin syndication of an Indianapolis based sports show each Saturday, beginning this week. The "Zakk and Jack Show" features host Zakk Tyler (former WLUP Chicago music host and later managing editor of an Indianapolis based sports web site) and former NFL QB Jack Trudeau will air on Fox stations including WNDE Indianapolis.
While it lacks the thunder of the recent ACC and Big 12 Conference TV announcements, Conference USA has extended its partnership with CBS College Sports Network. Although this channel only appears primarily on extended cable and satellite packages around the country, this deal includes football and basketball through 2016.
CHICAGO: Corey McPherrin becomes the latest TV sports anchor to jump over the news side. As of next week, he will co-host WFLD TV's expanded morning news show, "Good Day Chicago" along with Anna Davlantes. McPherrin has done sports at WFLD and before that WBBM-TV for many years. Jill Carlson will take over as lead sportscaster on the station's weeknight newscasts.
MILWAUKEE: It's as though baseball season returned for Brewers fans with the return to the booth last Friday (7/23) of Bob Uecker following a successful recovery from heart surgery. It may not be a coincidence that the always strong ratings for flagship station WTMJ 620 took a drop during the evening daypart during his abscence.
On the TV side, Fox Sports Wisconsin is cooperating with the Brewers with a special telecast of the Brewers vs. Arizona game on August 10. The entire game telecast will not have commercials, instead focusing on a live charity auction to benefit the Brewers Community Foundation. Some amazing bid packages are planned, including a pitching clinic with Trevor Hoffman and pitching coach Rick Peterson. (As an aside, I'd have to think a "Father of the Year" Award might as well be included in that package.)
DENVER: The sports radio competition is now a mile high as of this week. KCKK 1510 Mile High Sports Radio started its revised lineup this week. This includes Eric Goodman and columnist Mark Kiszla in morning drive, Rico & Romano late mornings, and Mark McIntosh and Jimmy Doogan from 3 to 6 PM.
KCUV The Ticket has moved from 102.3 to 87.7 FM as of this week but has not made any noticeable schedule changes. Vic Lombardi and Gary Miller continue in morning drive, and the afternoon show adds a third co-host and is now with Shapiro, Goins, and JoJo. The Ticket will air one of the national NFL games packages this season.
KKFN 104.3 The Fan had already announced the addition of former Broncos lineman Mark Schlereth to its afternoon drive show starting next week (Aug. 2).
KPEN 1600 continues with the same lineup, including Irv and Joe in the afternoon.
WASHINGTON D.C.: The start of NFL training camps is especially important to Redskins fans, and one of the big "transactions" for them comes in the form of Redskins beat reporter Chris Russell. ESPN 980 has hired Russell away from rival 106.7 The Fan as of this week.
Russell will be a regular on the afternoon Sports Reporters Show with Steve Czaban and Andy Pollin. His expanded role includes co-hosting the halftime show on the game radio broadcasts during the season. In addition, he will be the sideline reporter for the local pre-season telecasts.
The Fan is expected to name its own Redskins beat reporter any minute now, but had not as of press time.
HOUSTON: KTRK Channel 13 will be making good use of its additional digital channel for NASCAR fans on August 21st. The Sprint Cup race telecast moves to Channel 13.2 due to its telecast of the Texans vs. New Orleans pre-season game.
KTBU Channel 55 will again carry SEC a group of selected SEC football games this fall, with the broadcast crew of Dave Neal and Andre Ware.
SEATTLE: Bob Rondeau will have a new analyst for his radio broadcasts of University of Washington football this season, as he begins his 31st season of calling the games. Former UW and NFL QB Damon Huard joins the crew, replacing Chuck Nelson in the role that Nelson held for 17 seasons. KJR 950 continues its 11-hour game day radio coverage, with game coverage to be streamed on GoHuskies.com.
KANSAS CITY: Speaking of NFL camps opening, WHB 810 Sports Radio made Tuesday (July 27) a full day of Chiefs coverage going live from training camp for most of the day. Play-by-play voice Mitch Hothus co-hosted in morning drive and provided interviews throughout the day.
SALT LAKE: ESPN 700 host Bill Riley has been named to return to handling play-by-play of University of Utah football and basketball for the coming seasons after a 3-year abscence from the booth. He replaces Mike Lageschulte, who will continue to work for the school's Athletic Department. Riley will also handle both head coach radio shows each week in season.
TOLEDO: Former University of Toledo head coach Tom Amstutz will join the school's radio crew and be the analyst this season for play-by-play voice Mark Beier, starting with the Sept. 3 game vs. Arizona. If only we knew where to find him. The official Press Release issued by the school with this announcement failed to include mention of a radio station airing the games, nor whether or not the broadcasts will stream. Ooops.
Timberwolves team President David Kahn went on the air last week and said that forward Michael Beasley "smoked too much marijuana", prompting a $50,000 fine against Kahn by the NBA.
The actual comment was, "He's a very young and immature kid who smoked too much marijuana and has told me that he's not smoking anymore, and I told him that I would trust him as long as that was the case."
Whether it was right or wrong for Kahn to make that comment is not the point. I can understand the NBA being concerned. However, the sports "reporting" media should be concerned about a $50,000 fine resulting from that comment.
Had Mr. Kahn's comment come during or within an NBA environment, such as a team or league press conference, I would understand this fine completely. However, Kahn's choice and willingness to go on a local sports talk show is and was not an NBA environment.
If Michael Beasley and/or his representatives felt the comment was not appropriate or not true, it should be their decision to pursue legal action. Such an action could include the radio station which broadcast the comment if the legal team so determines. As of this writing, I am not aware of any such action or even a complaint from Beasley, to whom the comments were associated with.
However, the NBA, by declaring this fine against a team representative for "outside" comments, is doing some harm to the very media which supports it, along with us fans.
Too many of the sports radio stations emphasize the local callers giving their often uninformed opinions about the teams and players way too much as it is. Many sports fans listen to get information about the teams and players and to learn more.
I'm afraid that as word of this fine gets out, that more of the players, owners, and team management members will start to think twice before going on a live radio or TV interview. Now that he has been fined $50,000, do you think Mr. Kahn will EVER do another live media interview he doesn't have to?
Guess what. As players and team officials stop doing live interviews, the result will be these sports stations having no choice but to put boring and clueless fans on the air instead of the participants.
Certainly I can understand the NBA wanting to reprimand a team executive, especially an owner, for the comment. It should have been done in private, or with only a public apology and no consequences. Instead, the NBA could well be cutting off one of its best forms of publicity around the nation.
Yet, that is not all that should have been done. Stations such as 1500 ESPN and others like it should be expressing their anger over this fine. This will make it more of a challenge to bring the fans live interviews, since players and team execs will have to be fearful of making a comment, outside of a team or league setting, that could take money out of their pocket.
Now the NBA has $50,000 extra, and the millions of listeners to sports radio station have "Joe from the south side to talk about whether Michael Beasley should be traded". That is not the fault of Mr. Kahn. While the fans will really be the ones to suffer the consequences.
This all comes on top of the increased insanity of sports stations featuring the callers instead of information and interviews. Now this trend continues to spread in baseball as well. It has been bad enough that WSCR The Score has been doing what they call "interactive" Chicago White Sox broadcasts during the past couple of spring trainings. The station actually stops doing play-by-play in the middle of some exhibition broadcasts to instead let the game announcers take calls from the fans. As if listeners would rather hear some fan talking about who should make the team instead of how the specific players are performing at that very moment?
Last week WEEI Boston suddenly restructured their Red Sox pre-game programming to enable John Ryder to take more calls from fans. The Terry Francona Show and a player interview segment continue to air, but now are treated like a throw-in. Station officials are bent on continuing this "at least" through this season. Pardon me, but I thought the other 20 hours out of the day were already more than enough to hear the same fans calling in with the same complaints about "last night's game". Now fans have to wait to hear what the team's manager has to say? Worse yet, there are rumblings that WEEI might also subject Celtics fans to this when their broadcasts start up again in October.
If we must be subjected to fan comment overload, at least KTRB, the flagship station of the Oakland A's, had a better idea. Because of its syndicated and brokered time programming commitments, the A's games often create havoc on the program lineup. Last Wednesday (7/21), the A's victory over the Red Sox ran a bit late. As a result, Chris Townsend was on the air with the post-game show and took phone calls from fans for a longer than usual period. As in 4 hours. The game ended around 3:30 PM, and Townsend's post-game show was on the air all the way until 7:30 PM. Since that was a later extension of the post-game programming, I have no problem with that. It pre-empted other station programming, but, significantly, not any of the player or manager interviews that provide fans with information they care to hear.
Meanwhile, Fox Sports Radio will begin syndication of an Indianapolis based sports show each Saturday, beginning this week. The "Zakk and Jack Show" features host Zakk Tyler (former WLUP Chicago music host and later managing editor of an Indianapolis based sports web site) and former NFL QB Jack Trudeau will air on Fox stations including WNDE Indianapolis.
While it lacks the thunder of the recent ACC and Big 12 Conference TV announcements, Conference USA has extended its partnership with CBS College Sports Network. Although this channel only appears primarily on extended cable and satellite packages around the country, this deal includes football and basketball through 2016.
CHICAGO: Corey McPherrin becomes the latest TV sports anchor to jump over the news side. As of next week, he will co-host WFLD TV's expanded morning news show, "Good Day Chicago" along with Anna Davlantes. McPherrin has done sports at WFLD and before that WBBM-TV for many years. Jill Carlson will take over as lead sportscaster on the station's weeknight newscasts.
MILWAUKEE: It's as though baseball season returned for Brewers fans with the return to the booth last Friday (7/23) of Bob Uecker following a successful recovery from heart surgery. It may not be a coincidence that the always strong ratings for flagship station WTMJ 620 took a drop during the evening daypart during his abscence.
On the TV side, Fox Sports Wisconsin is cooperating with the Brewers with a special telecast of the Brewers vs. Arizona game on August 10. The entire game telecast will not have commercials, instead focusing on a live charity auction to benefit the Brewers Community Foundation. Some amazing bid packages are planned, including a pitching clinic with Trevor Hoffman and pitching coach Rick Peterson. (As an aside, I'd have to think a "Father of the Year" Award might as well be included in that package.)
DENVER: The sports radio competition is now a mile high as of this week. KCKK 1510 Mile High Sports Radio started its revised lineup this week. This includes Eric Goodman and columnist Mark Kiszla in morning drive, Rico & Romano late mornings, and Mark McIntosh and Jimmy Doogan from 3 to 6 PM.
KCUV The Ticket has moved from 102.3 to 87.7 FM as of this week but has not made any noticeable schedule changes. Vic Lombardi and Gary Miller continue in morning drive, and the afternoon show adds a third co-host and is now with Shapiro, Goins, and JoJo. The Ticket will air one of the national NFL games packages this season.
KKFN 104.3 The Fan had already announced the addition of former Broncos lineman Mark Schlereth to its afternoon drive show starting next week (Aug. 2).
KPEN 1600 continues with the same lineup, including Irv and Joe in the afternoon.
WASHINGTON D.C.: The start of NFL training camps is especially important to Redskins fans, and one of the big "transactions" for them comes in the form of Redskins beat reporter Chris Russell. ESPN 980 has hired Russell away from rival 106.7 The Fan as of this week.
Russell will be a regular on the afternoon Sports Reporters Show with Steve Czaban and Andy Pollin. His expanded role includes co-hosting the halftime show on the game radio broadcasts during the season. In addition, he will be the sideline reporter for the local pre-season telecasts.
The Fan is expected to name its own Redskins beat reporter any minute now, but had not as of press time.
HOUSTON: KTRK Channel 13 will be making good use of its additional digital channel for NASCAR fans on August 21st. The Sprint Cup race telecast moves to Channel 13.2 due to its telecast of the Texans vs. New Orleans pre-season game.
KTBU Channel 55 will again carry SEC a group of selected SEC football games this fall, with the broadcast crew of Dave Neal and Andre Ware.
SEATTLE: Bob Rondeau will have a new analyst for his radio broadcasts of University of Washington football this season, as he begins his 31st season of calling the games. Former UW and NFL QB Damon Huard joins the crew, replacing Chuck Nelson in the role that Nelson held for 17 seasons. KJR 950 continues its 11-hour game day radio coverage, with game coverage to be streamed on GoHuskies.com.
KANSAS CITY: Speaking of NFL camps opening, WHB 810 Sports Radio made Tuesday (July 27) a full day of Chiefs coverage going live from training camp for most of the day. Play-by-play voice Mitch Hothus co-hosted in morning drive and provided interviews throughout the day.
SALT LAKE: ESPN 700 host Bill Riley has been named to return to handling play-by-play of University of Utah football and basketball for the coming seasons after a 3-year abscence from the booth. He replaces Mike Lageschulte, who will continue to work for the school's Athletic Department. Riley will also handle both head coach radio shows each week in season.
TOLEDO: Former University of Toledo head coach Tom Amstutz will join the school's radio crew and be the analyst this season for play-by-play voice Mark Beier, starting with the Sept. 3 game vs. Arizona. If only we knew where to find him. The official Press Release issued by the school with this announcement failed to include mention of a radio station airing the games, nor whether or not the broadcasts will stream. Ooops.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Sports Media Update - March 31.....................
The story of Ohio State University selling "media rights" for its sports programs in a $110,000,000 deal came and went on Monday as if it was just another sports and media story. IMG marketing, along with RadiOhio will have a 10 year deal to market Ohio State play-by-play, coaches shows, available TV games (as in those not on a national network or the Big Ten Network), and programs and related school print and online publications.
110 million dollars?? That is staggering. First, I thought about how risky I think this is for IMG, at least for the near future based on today's economic conditions. School spirit or not, I don't see major advertisers forking over the big bucks easily enough for extra radio and TV spots. I say "extra" because this is not a year-round and consistently scheduled opportunity. It is not as though a sponsor would have, for example, 2 hours of time every Saturday between 2 and 4 PM no matter what.
Next, I naturally wonder how much ticket prices for the games will drop, and how much tuition will drop, since the University will be receiving an "extra" $11,000,000 per year, not counting revenue such as more than 88,000 people buying tickets for each home football game. Of course, tuition won't drop and ticket prices will hold steady or rise during the next 11 years. That is my point here.
And then, in reading the Associated Press story about this, it reports Athletic Director Gene Smith saying "the arrangement will help maintain the financial stability of Ohio State's 36 sports".
Maintain? Did I miss something here? Is this kind of money necessary to "maintain" financial stability? Does this mean that if this contract hadn't come along, Ohio State might not have been able to continue its sports programs?
I don't think so, either. And that is my point. Sorry, but way too few people will benefit from this arrangement. Yet, other large schools will now start to command a similar arrangement, and this, too, will get out of control.
Yes, this is a media column. But I fail to see the benefit for electronic media from this agreement. Right now we have radio stations cutting corners at every opportunity when not creating opportunities to cut corners. We are seeing pro teams accepting revenue shares and doing their own audience research as they recognize that radio stations can no longer justify hefty rights fees.
Between ESPN/ABC and the Big Ten Network, any meaningful football or basketball game will be picked up. I don't see TV stations bidding against each other to be able to televise OSU whipping North Podunk State 72-3 in a non-conference game every September. And frankly, TV stations shouldn't have to. This is college sports. Or, at least it should be. This just doesn't seem right.
While this is going on with college sports, pro sports continue to become way too much marketing and less about competition and results. The teams continue to forget that all regular season games count equally in the standings. Yet, from one day to the next teams force us to endure different uniforms for the same teams, "premium" ticket prices against certain teams, and forcing even the most avid fan to have to search to find what station his or her favorite team is seen on that night.
The uniform thing is getting out of hand. Last week, the Chicago Bulls supposedly honored a Latino target promotion by wearing uniforms for a nationally televised game saying "Los Bulls" on them. Say what? Like they couldn't have shown a pre-game ceremony and a speech or two. Does it have to disrupt the game itself with a different uniform. This while practically every spring training telecast I have seen has both teams wearing dark jerseys and making it near impossible to tell which team is which. But the media goes along with this as if it is no big deal.
As a real kicker, the NFL wants to honor the 50th Anniversary of the American Football League this coming season. So here we go again. Believe it or not, the Houston Oilers will be honored by a team wearing the old Oilers jerseys for 3 regular season games. That team? The Tennessee Titans, which used to be the Houston Oilers. Tennessee has no connection to that, while the fans in Houston will see that and get further distanced from the Texans.
BALTIMORE: 105.7 The Fan in Baltimore got national publicity for its Orioles broadcasts over this past weekend. By not finishing what they started. The spring training game being broadcast by Joe Angel and Fred Manfra went into a rain delay after just 1 inning. After about 90 minutes, the game resumed and was finished. But fans never heard the remainder of the game. Management sent the announcing and production team back to the hotel, not wanting to wait out the delay. On Monday, the station finally apologized and admitted it was a management error, after Angel and Manfra were taken to task in the media as if they had themselves decided to give it up.
Congrats to Dick Enberg from the announcement that Enberg will receive the 2nd annual Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting on May 6 in New York City.
Always great to see the baseball season get underway, and baseball fans welcome in the MLB Network and its extensive nightly coverage. MLB Network will be showing a live game each Thursday night (instead of the originally touted Saturday night telecast). The Network will originate 2 of its telecasts during April. On April 16, Bob Costas, Harold Reynolds, and Jim Kaat will call the Yankees vs. Cleveland in the opener at the new Yankee Stadium. On April 23, Matt Vasgersian and Joe Magrane will call the Dodgers vs. Astros game from Houston.
ESPN kicks the season off big time. In addition to the Sunday opener from Philadelphia, ESPN and ESPN2 combine to show 5 games on Monday, with these all Eastern time:
1:00: N.Y. Mets at Cincinnati, ESPN
2:00: Tampa Bay at Boston, ESPN2
4:00: N.Y. Yankees at Baltimore, ESPN
7:00: Chicago Cubs at Houston, ESPN2
9:00: Oakland at L.A. Angels, ESPN
However, games will be blacked out in the local markets. Sorry, but I still contend that us fans pay a lot of money for cable, which in turn pays these networks for programming, and we should not have any telecasts blacked out. If viewers prefer a national to a local telecast, then make the local telecasts more appealing.
On the football side, ESPN has moved another college telecast time for this fall. The Ole Miss vs. Memphis opener has been moved from the night of Saturday Sept. 5 to Sunday Sept. 6 at 2:30 PM local time. Yes - a Sunday afternoon NCAA football telecast in September. (Keep in mind that is the day before Labor Day and the week before the NFL openers.)
NEW YORK - WPEN 1050 has officially moved Brandon Tierney into the 10 AM to Noon hosting spot.
Ageless Warner Wolf is now doing double duty on Saturday mornings. Wolf is on from 6 to 8 AM on WEPN 1050, and then appears with Mark Simone on WABC 770 during the 8 to 9 AM hour. Fine, as long as Warner doesn't do a "like I said before" on Simone's show.
CHICAGO - WGN Radio has officially named Judd Sirott as its third member of the Cubs radio team. Sirott will handle pre and post-game duties as well as up to one inning of play-by-play each game to relieve Pat Hughes. Sirott is better known for his work on hockey, having previously done PBP for the NHL and for the minor league Chicago Wolves. He also handles studio segments during WGN's NHL Blackhawks broadcasts, which began on WGN this season. It is not yet known how Sirott will handle conflicts during Blackhawks playoff time, when WGN will have to move one of the broadcasts.
DALLAS - KTCK 1310 The Ticket dominated the local sports radio scene again during the February ratings. The Ticket literally had double the audience over ESPN 103.3 in the 25-54 age group from 6 AM to 7 PM.
HOUSTON - KBME 790 AM has extended its coverage of University of Houston football and basketball for another 3 years. Unlike the Ohio State deal, this is a more typical revenue share even though the school actually retains a portion of the broadcast inventory. KBME is expanding the football coverage to include broadcasting the spring game on April 18th. Tom Franklin continues as play-by-play voice for both sports,
DES MOINES - As we figured last week, the two broadcasters involved in the profanity filled argument which wound up on the air were both dismissed by KXNO. Being a Clearance Channel station, this rift provided an excuse to get rid of two more contracts, so they did. For Marty Tirrell, the matter was made worse when he also lost his weekly TV spot on KCCI-TV. Larry Cotlar, the other who was let go, still may or may not lose his gig as play-by-play voice for Drake University basketball. Cotlar does have time on his side, since the next hoops broadcast isn't until November.
PROVIDENCE - Congrats to George Duffy, the voice of the Rhode Island Reds hockey team for almost 40 years from the 40's into the 80's. At the age of 88, George is being inducted into the Rhode Island Radio Hall of Fame. Maybe we can all make Rhode Island one of the biggest states in the country for just one night in his honor.
Play ball!
110 million dollars?? That is staggering. First, I thought about how risky I think this is for IMG, at least for the near future based on today's economic conditions. School spirit or not, I don't see major advertisers forking over the big bucks easily enough for extra radio and TV spots. I say "extra" because this is not a year-round and consistently scheduled opportunity. It is not as though a sponsor would have, for example, 2 hours of time every Saturday between 2 and 4 PM no matter what.
Next, I naturally wonder how much ticket prices for the games will drop, and how much tuition will drop, since the University will be receiving an "extra" $11,000,000 per year, not counting revenue such as more than 88,000 people buying tickets for each home football game. Of course, tuition won't drop and ticket prices will hold steady or rise during the next 11 years. That is my point here.
And then, in reading the Associated Press story about this, it reports Athletic Director Gene Smith saying "the arrangement will help maintain the financial stability of Ohio State's 36 sports".
Maintain? Did I miss something here? Is this kind of money necessary to "maintain" financial stability? Does this mean that if this contract hadn't come along, Ohio State might not have been able to continue its sports programs?
I don't think so, either. And that is my point. Sorry, but way too few people will benefit from this arrangement. Yet, other large schools will now start to command a similar arrangement, and this, too, will get out of control.
Yes, this is a media column. But I fail to see the benefit for electronic media from this agreement. Right now we have radio stations cutting corners at every opportunity when not creating opportunities to cut corners. We are seeing pro teams accepting revenue shares and doing their own audience research as they recognize that radio stations can no longer justify hefty rights fees.
Between ESPN/ABC and the Big Ten Network, any meaningful football or basketball game will be picked up. I don't see TV stations bidding against each other to be able to televise OSU whipping North Podunk State 72-3 in a non-conference game every September. And frankly, TV stations shouldn't have to. This is college sports. Or, at least it should be. This just doesn't seem right.
While this is going on with college sports, pro sports continue to become way too much marketing and less about competition and results. The teams continue to forget that all regular season games count equally in the standings. Yet, from one day to the next teams force us to endure different uniforms for the same teams, "premium" ticket prices against certain teams, and forcing even the most avid fan to have to search to find what station his or her favorite team is seen on that night.
The uniform thing is getting out of hand. Last week, the Chicago Bulls supposedly honored a Latino target promotion by wearing uniforms for a nationally televised game saying "Los Bulls" on them. Say what? Like they couldn't have shown a pre-game ceremony and a speech or two. Does it have to disrupt the game itself with a different uniform. This while practically every spring training telecast I have seen has both teams wearing dark jerseys and making it near impossible to tell which team is which. But the media goes along with this as if it is no big deal.
As a real kicker, the NFL wants to honor the 50th Anniversary of the American Football League this coming season. So here we go again. Believe it or not, the Houston Oilers will be honored by a team wearing the old Oilers jerseys for 3 regular season games. That team? The Tennessee Titans, which used to be the Houston Oilers. Tennessee has no connection to that, while the fans in Houston will see that and get further distanced from the Texans.
BALTIMORE: 105.7 The Fan in Baltimore got national publicity for its Orioles broadcasts over this past weekend. By not finishing what they started. The spring training game being broadcast by Joe Angel and Fred Manfra went into a rain delay after just 1 inning. After about 90 minutes, the game resumed and was finished. But fans never heard the remainder of the game. Management sent the announcing and production team back to the hotel, not wanting to wait out the delay. On Monday, the station finally apologized and admitted it was a management error, after Angel and Manfra were taken to task in the media as if they had themselves decided to give it up.
Congrats to Dick Enberg from the announcement that Enberg will receive the 2nd annual Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting on May 6 in New York City.
Always great to see the baseball season get underway, and baseball fans welcome in the MLB Network and its extensive nightly coverage. MLB Network will be showing a live game each Thursday night (instead of the originally touted Saturday night telecast). The Network will originate 2 of its telecasts during April. On April 16, Bob Costas, Harold Reynolds, and Jim Kaat will call the Yankees vs. Cleveland in the opener at the new Yankee Stadium. On April 23, Matt Vasgersian and Joe Magrane will call the Dodgers vs. Astros game from Houston.
ESPN kicks the season off big time. In addition to the Sunday opener from Philadelphia, ESPN and ESPN2 combine to show 5 games on Monday, with these all Eastern time:
1:00: N.Y. Mets at Cincinnati, ESPN
2:00: Tampa Bay at Boston, ESPN2
4:00: N.Y. Yankees at Baltimore, ESPN
7:00: Chicago Cubs at Houston, ESPN2
9:00: Oakland at L.A. Angels, ESPN
However, games will be blacked out in the local markets. Sorry, but I still contend that us fans pay a lot of money for cable, which in turn pays these networks for programming, and we should not have any telecasts blacked out. If viewers prefer a national to a local telecast, then make the local telecasts more appealing.
On the football side, ESPN has moved another college telecast time for this fall. The Ole Miss vs. Memphis opener has been moved from the night of Saturday Sept. 5 to Sunday Sept. 6 at 2:30 PM local time. Yes - a Sunday afternoon NCAA football telecast in September. (Keep in mind that is the day before Labor Day and the week before the NFL openers.)
NEW YORK - WPEN 1050 has officially moved Brandon Tierney into the 10 AM to Noon hosting spot.
Ageless Warner Wolf is now doing double duty on Saturday mornings. Wolf is on from 6 to 8 AM on WEPN 1050, and then appears with Mark Simone on WABC 770 during the 8 to 9 AM hour. Fine, as long as Warner doesn't do a "like I said before" on Simone's show.
CHICAGO - WGN Radio has officially named Judd Sirott as its third member of the Cubs radio team. Sirott will handle pre and post-game duties as well as up to one inning of play-by-play each game to relieve Pat Hughes. Sirott is better known for his work on hockey, having previously done PBP for the NHL and for the minor league Chicago Wolves. He also handles studio segments during WGN's NHL Blackhawks broadcasts, which began on WGN this season. It is not yet known how Sirott will handle conflicts during Blackhawks playoff time, when WGN will have to move one of the broadcasts.
DALLAS - KTCK 1310 The Ticket dominated the local sports radio scene again during the February ratings. The Ticket literally had double the audience over ESPN 103.3 in the 25-54 age group from 6 AM to 7 PM.
HOUSTON - KBME 790 AM has extended its coverage of University of Houston football and basketball for another 3 years. Unlike the Ohio State deal, this is a more typical revenue share even though the school actually retains a portion of the broadcast inventory. KBME is expanding the football coverage to include broadcasting the spring game on April 18th. Tom Franklin continues as play-by-play voice for both sports,
DES MOINES - As we figured last week, the two broadcasters involved in the profanity filled argument which wound up on the air were both dismissed by KXNO. Being a Clearance Channel station, this rift provided an excuse to get rid of two more contracts, so they did. For Marty Tirrell, the matter was made worse when he also lost his weekly TV spot on KCCI-TV. Larry Cotlar, the other who was let go, still may or may not lose his gig as play-by-play voice for Drake University basketball. Cotlar does have time on his side, since the next hoops broadcast isn't until November.
PROVIDENCE - Congrats to George Duffy, the voice of the Rhode Island Reds hockey team for almost 40 years from the 40's into the 80's. At the age of 88, George is being inducted into the Rhode Island Radio Hall of Fame. Maybe we can all make Rhode Island one of the biggest states in the country for just one night in his honor.
Play ball!
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