Miami sports night in the national spotlight this past Wednesday (4/4) night surprised those who pay attention to the TV ratings. ESPN had the Marlins' season opener and debut regular season game in their new stadium starting an hour before ESPN2 had the highly anticipated matchup between the Heat and the Oklahoma City Thunder, also shown from Miami.
Even with the shortened season coming off of the lockout, the Heat vs. Thunder telecast came in with a 67% increase in the ratings over last year and had a higher audience than the baseball telecast. In fact, the late "doubleheader" NBA telecast between the L.A. Lakers and Clippers, which aired on ESPN after the baseball telecast, also outdrew the baseball telecast.
In the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale market, the Heat telecast also outdrew the Marlins' opener by more than 2 to 1 in terms of total audience, including both the ESPN2 and Sun Network (local) telecasts. The folks at TNT and ESPN/ABC are certain to be keeping this in mind with the start of the NBA playoffs now less than 3 weeks away.
Fox Sports is looking at establishing a new prime time habit for sports fans, having scheduled the majority of Saturday nights with live prime-time sports telecasts, including baseball, NASCAR, and college football. This is in addition to the baseball telecasts almost every Saturday (all but 2 total) which will air during the afternoon prior to the prime-time sports event on those Saturdays when there is not a prime-time baseball telecast during the MLB season.
NASCAR events will air on the next two Saturday nights, with Fox airing its baseball telecast during the 1:00 PM time slot this Saturday to assure its regional telecasts are finished well in advance of the NASCAR telecast. Fox had to gain additional cooperation from Major League Baseball to gear up for eight prime-time telecasts this season, up from two last year. The prime-time baseball telecasts will also include the new and expanded pre-game show produced in conjunction with MLB Network.
College football season will have Fox Sports showing Pac-10 Conference games during the 12 week regular season, including the ability to select which game airs nationally. Fox Sports' regional networks will carry other Conference games, although these telecasts will often go head-to-head with ABC's nationally televised games in Saturday prime-time.
In addition, there will be a couple of Saturday night Ultimate Fighting Challenge telecasts. The concept of having one night out of the week to show live sports in prime-time on most Saturdays is not new, but a network (Fox) promoting it as aggressively as it appears they will is new. ABC-TV had sports in prime-time for at least half of the year back in the 1970's when they aired Monday Night Baseball during the summer weeks and then went into Monday Night Football from September into December.
NEW YORK: Baseball telecasts did prove popular in NYC, as SNY reports the Mets' season opening telecast vs. the Atlanta Braves set a ratings record which was established in 2002.
Michael Kay's afternoon show on local ESPN Radio has an interesting addition for once each week, as Red Sox Manager Bobby Valentine has been signed on to appear only for the New York audience. We can certainly understand the move from Kay's and the station's point of view to want the rival manager on its airwaves as a draw to the audience of Yankees fans. However, it is tough to understand Valentine being so open and willing to address fans of "his" team's biggest rival on a regular basis.
It is not as though Valentine has no other media outlet, as he will also appear on a weekly basis on WEEI Boston's "The Big Show", which is perfectly understandable. If Valentine wanted to continue to have this much media exposure, he should have stayed with ESPN and done additional commentary on their various local stations. I'd say Red Sox fans have a right to be upset about the fact that their new manager is taking time away from his team to talk to the play-by-play voice of and fans of "his" team's biggest rival on a regular basis to supplement his income.
LOS ANGELES: KLAA 830's Roger Lodge is now getting plenty of air time when it comes to the Angels' new season. Although Lodge continues to co-host the station's morning show, he is also hosting the additional pre-game talk show which begins about 90 minutes before each Angels home game and usually airs from Gate 5 of The Big A. Lodge actually hosted the morning show live from outside the stadium on Opening Day (this past Friday 4/6) and later returned to the same location for his pre-game talk show. Word is that he had about 100 or so fans on hand with him by the time his morning segment ended.
CHICAGO: WSCR The Score 670's Dan McNeil returned to the station's midday show on Monday (4/9) after a 6-week absence due to what he termed "depression and substance abuse". Other station hosts and reporters filled in for McNeil during his time away, during which no specific reasons were given until his return.
St. LOUIS: With the Blues in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the Cardinals' season in full swing, both KMOX Radio and Fox Sports Midwest will have some conflicts regarding which game to air live. In both instances, the Cardinals' management reportedly has agreed to be flexible, unlike several situations around the country where one team clearly has priority in the event of a conflict.
On the radio side, if and when Cardinals and Blues conflicts occur, one will air as usual on KMOX 1120 while the other broadcast moves to KEZK 102.5. On the TV side, Fox Sports Midwest has indicated that conflicting telecasts, not handled by Channel 5 (the local NBC affiliate) will air on FSM Plus. FSM reports that Blues' telecast ratings were up about 14% over last season.
PHILADELPHIA: Sorry to learn of the passing of Steve Fredericks on Saturday at the age of 72. The long-time Philadelphia area sportscaster is probably best remembered for his stint on WIP-AM when he co-hosted afternoons with Mike Missanelli. Fredericks also held numerous local play-by-play assignments over his 44 years in the business, and had retired in 2004.
RAPID CITY: K-TALK 1340 has now officially become the local ESPN Radio affiliate after a 3 month abscence from the market when KRKI switched to Fox Sports Radio. In addition, K-TALK will continue to carry University of Nebraska football and select local high school broadcasts.St. GEORGE UT: Another market has gone to making sports radio into an AM-FM combo, now with 102.3 and 107.3 FM carrying the ESPN programming and extensive play-by-play. The stations will continue to carry Utah Jazz games, BYU, Dixie State College, and selected local high school games.
BLOOMINGTON/NORMAL IL: WZIM 99.5 has become "The Ticket" and is a Fox Sports Radio affiliate, dropping its music format last week in time for the opening of the baseball season. The station continues to carry Chicago Cubs baseball.
SCHEDULES: Finally, for those looking ahead to NFL Football, the networks have announced the bulk of their pre-season national TV schedules:
Sunday August 5 Hall of Fame Game: Arizona Cardinals - New Orleans Saints (NFL Network 8PM ET)
Week 1
Thursday August 9 Green Bay Packers - San Diego Chargers (ESPN 8PM)
Monday, August 13 Dallas Cowboys - Oakland Raiders (ESPN 8PM)
Week 2
Thursday August 16 Cincinnati Bengals - Atlanta Falcons (FOX 8PM)
Friday August 17 Detroit Lions - Baltimore Ravens (FOX 8PM)
Sunday August 19 Indianapolis Colts - Pittsburgh Steelers (NBC 8PM)
Monday August 20 Philadelphia Eagles - New England Patriots (ESPN 8PM)
Week 3
Thursday August 23 Arizona Cardinals - Tennessee Titans (ESPN 8PM)
Friday August 24 Chicago Bears - New York Giants (CBS 8PM)
Saturday August 25 Houston Texans - New Orleans Saints (CBS 8PM)
Sunday August 26 San Francisco 49ers - Denver Broncos (FOX 4PM)
Carolina Panthers - New York Jets (NBC 8PM)
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Showing posts with label cbs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cbs. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
The Hosts With The Least
For as much as sports coverage on TV has increased and generally improved over the past few years, there are a few things that could use improvement for the benefit of sports fans. Now it seems another possible trend is emerging by way of ESPN, and it's time to point it out.
A sports reporter or analyst, especially at the network level, is knowledgeable and brings most sports fans a lot of information and insight. However, this does not automatically make him or her an established broadcast professional. ESPN seems to be forgetting this.
Perhaps it is a coincidence. I hope so. But I'm wondering whatever happened to the idea of a true "host" for a program or studio segment. On Friday night I was watching portions of the NBA doubleheader on ESPN, when the studio segments, including pre-game and half time, went on without a true host. What ever happened to Stuart Scott? For those not tuned in, the studio portion was "hosted" by Michael Wilbon. Wilbon is very good with sharing his knowledge of all things NBA. Yet, for some strange reason, it was just Wilbon with Jon Barry and Magic Johnson and one other analyst and no true host. No one to moderate the discussion. If Stuart Scott wasn't available, what was so difficult about having another ESPN 'broadcast' personality handle the hosting?
This was national TV. It's bad enough that ESPN, along with most of the other networks, provide so many studio analysts that the better ones don't get enough air time. Now they seem to think it is acceptable for one to act as a professional broadcaster and "host" the proceedings.
Then, on Sunday morning, on The Sports Reporters on ESPN, Mike Lupicka was acting as program host AND giving his usual commentaries and thoughts on the topics discussed. Same thoughts. As much as I appreciate Lupicka's thoughts, whether I agree with them or not, I also appreciate having a moderator to run the show as if it is a professional presentation at the network level.
About the only redeeming factor for both of these shows is that they are not like College GameDay during which analysts are often drowned out by the annoying and screeching crowds cheering as if it is just fine to distract the viewers.
Here's hoping that the networks and stations show more respect to "true" broadcast professionals. Not just anybody can host a studio show. And not just anybody has to watch them if they are not done to our satisfaction.
As we easily guessed last week, CBS scored major ratings with the Denver Broncos in the playoffs and running into prime time on Sunday (1/8). The overtime win over Pittsburgh finished as the highest rated Wild Card playoff game since 1988 (on any network). Although the final numbers were not available as of press time, prelimary reports show a 56 rating (that's rating - the share was about 77) for the Pittsburgh market, with a 49 (and a share near 78%) for the Denver market.
Tim Tebow is having that much impact on the TV audiences, as those who love him and those who don't all seem to be watching. The ratings were not as kind to NBC on Saturday, especially for the opening Cincinnati vs. Houston telecast. Early word from Cincinnati is that the ratings, for this post-season game, locally were lower than a couple of the regular season telecasts were in that market. Keep in mind that the Bengals failed to sell out all of their home games this season and had some local telecasts blacked out.
The lower interest in Cincinnati didn't stop a couple of the TV stations from going for the Bengals fans. On Friday (1/6) night, WKRC-TV aired a one hour special (7 to 8 PM) previewing the playoff game, while WLWT-TV aired a half hour special between 7:30 and 8, making Bengals fans choose between the two shows.
For the regular season, the NFL (nationally) reached its second highest viewership in more than 20 seasons, including a record 37 game telecasts which reached at least 20,000,000 viewers.
Meanwhile, on the day (1/9) that Barry Larkin was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as a shortstop, the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association announced its Assocation Hall of Fame awards and inductees. (Larkin has been broadcasting for MLB Network and prior for ESPN since his playing days.)
Bob Costas, now of NBC Sports and MLB Network was named to the NSSA Hall of Fame, along with sports writer John Feinstein, while ESPN's Dan Shulman was named "National Sportscaster of the Year". The NSSA Hall of Fame celebrates its 50th year in 2012, capped off with the induction for Costas and Feinstein on June 11th. The California Sportscaster of the Year is Vin Scully, named to this honor for the 31st time. So far.
On the radio side, an interesting report published by writer Chris Huff regarding the audience ratings of News/Talk stations which carry play-by-play and the sports talk stations around the country.
His analysis shows that from November (2011) to December, WLW Cincinnati took over the national "lead" among News/Talk stations which air play-by-play from WTMJ Milwaukee. This despite the reduced interest in the Bengals during their drive to reach post-season play while the Packers were on their way to the NFL's best record. Cleveland's WTAM-AM 1100 and Atlanta's WSB-AM 750 also finished in the top 5 despite a decrease into December.
Among full-time sports stations, WGFX Nashville again finished with the biggest overall audience share of any major market sports station in the country, with WXYT-FM The Ticket Detroit and WBNS-FM Columbus now tied for 2nd (although The Ticket dropped and WBNS went up in December). In Boston, WBZ-FM The Sports Hub was #9 nationally.
This ranking signals another victory of sorts for The Sports Hub and for sports radio in the Boston market overall. Both WBZ-FM and WEEI 850 and 93.7 showed audience gains over the past three months, including increases for both stations in the morning, midday, and afternoon time slots. Dennis and Callahan showed a bigger increase in the morning than the gains posted by Sports Hub's Toucher and Rich, but both stations should be pleased.
While Fox Sports Radio has been developing into a contender over the past few months based on adding more affiliates and adding stronger programming, it seems that Fox Sports is also looking to upgrade its regional cable networks as well. Fox is starting a new programming division to produce more sports related programming in order to make more productive use of what is currently dead time. It is possible that some of the programming from this new wing could also appear on over-the-air Fox affiliates prior to weekend sports events such as NFL and NASCAR telecasts.
NEW YORK: YES Network is adding at least four telecasts of Fordham University basketball games starting on January 28th, with Ryan Ruocco (who is a Fordham grad) and Jim Spanarkel calling the majority of these telecasts.
PHILADELPHIA: Although it's not exactly a ratings producer for WIP 610, the station now airs "Hawk Talk", dedicated to St. Joseph's University basketball, from 10 to 11 PM on Mondays for the remainder of the current basketball season. Hosts Phil Martelli and Joe Lundardi record the show with audience questions earlier each Monday evening at a restaurant in Havertown.
St. LOUIS: KFNS 590 now has Kevin Slaten working as the sole host of the 3 to 6 PM weekday show, and it will be interesting to see if this gives the ratings a boost. Slaten's co-host for the past year was 25 year-old Ashlee Feldman, who was a part of MTV's "Real World" show in 2010 prior to coming to KFNS last January, departs the station. Perhaps the audience will return and stick around now that the "real world" of Slaten's show will be sports.
BATON ROUGE: Even the football national championship contention by LSU couldn't sway The Score 1210 from dropping its sports talk format on New Year's Day. To the point of the station changing to a gospel music format. However, it appears that none of the on-air hosts will be dismissed, as some of the sports programming moves over to sister station WJBO 1150, including Richard Condon who now hosts a Sunday morning sports talk show.
MITCHELL S.D.: KUQL 98.3 becomes an affiliate for the University of South Dakota football and basketball beginning in August.
A sports reporter or analyst, especially at the network level, is knowledgeable and brings most sports fans a lot of information and insight. However, this does not automatically make him or her an established broadcast professional. ESPN seems to be forgetting this.
Perhaps it is a coincidence. I hope so. But I'm wondering whatever happened to the idea of a true "host" for a program or studio segment. On Friday night I was watching portions of the NBA doubleheader on ESPN, when the studio segments, including pre-game and half time, went on without a true host. What ever happened to Stuart Scott? For those not tuned in, the studio portion was "hosted" by Michael Wilbon. Wilbon is very good with sharing his knowledge of all things NBA. Yet, for some strange reason, it was just Wilbon with Jon Barry and Magic Johnson and one other analyst and no true host. No one to moderate the discussion. If Stuart Scott wasn't available, what was so difficult about having another ESPN 'broadcast' personality handle the hosting?
This was national TV. It's bad enough that ESPN, along with most of the other networks, provide so many studio analysts that the better ones don't get enough air time. Now they seem to think it is acceptable for one to act as a professional broadcaster and "host" the proceedings.
Then, on Sunday morning, on The Sports Reporters on ESPN, Mike Lupicka was acting as program host AND giving his usual commentaries and thoughts on the topics discussed. Same thoughts. As much as I appreciate Lupicka's thoughts, whether I agree with them or not, I also appreciate having a moderator to run the show as if it is a professional presentation at the network level.
About the only redeeming factor for both of these shows is that they are not like College GameDay during which analysts are often drowned out by the annoying and screeching crowds cheering as if it is just fine to distract the viewers.
Here's hoping that the networks and stations show more respect to "true" broadcast professionals. Not just anybody can host a studio show. And not just anybody has to watch them if they are not done to our satisfaction.
As we easily guessed last week, CBS scored major ratings with the Denver Broncos in the playoffs and running into prime time on Sunday (1/8). The overtime win over Pittsburgh finished as the highest rated Wild Card playoff game since 1988 (on any network). Although the final numbers were not available as of press time, prelimary reports show a 56 rating (that's rating - the share was about 77) for the Pittsburgh market, with a 49 (and a share near 78%) for the Denver market.
Tim Tebow is having that much impact on the TV audiences, as those who love him and those who don't all seem to be watching. The ratings were not as kind to NBC on Saturday, especially for the opening Cincinnati vs. Houston telecast. Early word from Cincinnati is that the ratings, for this post-season game, locally were lower than a couple of the regular season telecasts were in that market. Keep in mind that the Bengals failed to sell out all of their home games this season and had some local telecasts blacked out.
The lower interest in Cincinnati didn't stop a couple of the TV stations from going for the Bengals fans. On Friday (1/6) night, WKRC-TV aired a one hour special (7 to 8 PM) previewing the playoff game, while WLWT-TV aired a half hour special between 7:30 and 8, making Bengals fans choose between the two shows.
For the regular season, the NFL (nationally) reached its second highest viewership in more than 20 seasons, including a record 37 game telecasts which reached at least 20,000,000 viewers.
Meanwhile, on the day (1/9) that Barry Larkin was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as a shortstop, the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association announced its Assocation Hall of Fame awards and inductees. (Larkin has been broadcasting for MLB Network and prior for ESPN since his playing days.)
Bob Costas, now of NBC Sports and MLB Network was named to the NSSA Hall of Fame, along with sports writer John Feinstein, while ESPN's Dan Shulman was named "National Sportscaster of the Year". The NSSA Hall of Fame celebrates its 50th year in 2012, capped off with the induction for Costas and Feinstein on June 11th. The California Sportscaster of the Year is Vin Scully, named to this honor for the 31st time. So far.
On the radio side, an interesting report published by writer Chris Huff regarding the audience ratings of News/Talk stations which carry play-by-play and the sports talk stations around the country.
His analysis shows that from November (2011) to December, WLW Cincinnati took over the national "lead" among News/Talk stations which air play-by-play from WTMJ Milwaukee. This despite the reduced interest in the Bengals during their drive to reach post-season play while the Packers were on their way to the NFL's best record. Cleveland's WTAM-AM 1100 and Atlanta's WSB-AM 750 also finished in the top 5 despite a decrease into December.
Among full-time sports stations, WGFX Nashville again finished with the biggest overall audience share of any major market sports station in the country, with WXYT-FM The Ticket Detroit and WBNS-FM Columbus now tied for 2nd (although The Ticket dropped and WBNS went up in December). In Boston, WBZ-FM The Sports Hub was #9 nationally.
This ranking signals another victory of sorts for The Sports Hub and for sports radio in the Boston market overall. Both WBZ-FM and WEEI 850 and 93.7 showed audience gains over the past three months, including increases for both stations in the morning, midday, and afternoon time slots. Dennis and Callahan showed a bigger increase in the morning than the gains posted by Sports Hub's Toucher and Rich, but both stations should be pleased.
While Fox Sports Radio has been developing into a contender over the past few months based on adding more affiliates and adding stronger programming, it seems that Fox Sports is also looking to upgrade its regional cable networks as well. Fox is starting a new programming division to produce more sports related programming in order to make more productive use of what is currently dead time. It is possible that some of the programming from this new wing could also appear on over-the-air Fox affiliates prior to weekend sports events such as NFL and NASCAR telecasts.
NEW YORK: YES Network is adding at least four telecasts of Fordham University basketball games starting on January 28th, with Ryan Ruocco (who is a Fordham grad) and Jim Spanarkel calling the majority of these telecasts.
PHILADELPHIA: Although it's not exactly a ratings producer for WIP 610, the station now airs "Hawk Talk", dedicated to St. Joseph's University basketball, from 10 to 11 PM on Mondays for the remainder of the current basketball season. Hosts Phil Martelli and Joe Lundardi record the show with audience questions earlier each Monday evening at a restaurant in Havertown.
St. LOUIS: KFNS 590 now has Kevin Slaten working as the sole host of the 3 to 6 PM weekday show, and it will be interesting to see if this gives the ratings a boost. Slaten's co-host for the past year was 25 year-old Ashlee Feldman, who was a part of MTV's "Real World" show in 2010 prior to coming to KFNS last January, departs the station. Perhaps the audience will return and stick around now that the "real world" of Slaten's show will be sports.
BATON ROUGE: Even the football national championship contention by LSU couldn't sway The Score 1210 from dropping its sports talk format on New Year's Day. To the point of the station changing to a gospel music format. However, it appears that none of the on-air hosts will be dismissed, as some of the sports programming moves over to sister station WJBO 1150, including Richard Condon who now hosts a Sunday morning sports talk show.
MITCHELL S.D.: KUQL 98.3 becomes an affiliate for the University of South Dakota football and basketball beginning in August.
Monday, December 19, 2011
The High Cost of Sports Media
Sports media is supposed to be to serve and support the fans who follow their favorite teams and sports, yet as 2011 comes toward an end, it seems to be switching toward sports fans supporting the media, and I'm talking financially. That's not how it is supposed to be.
With all of the technology now available to sports fans which didn't exist 20 years ago, this should be a period of time during which the fans could rejoice at all of the coverage and information available to follow favorite leagues, teams, games, and even individual players for fantasy sports. Instead, we sports fans keep having to open our wallets further and further to have it. Without a vote.
The big "sports media" stories of these past couple of weeks show this. The NFL contracts to the TV networks figures to significantly raise the cost of cable/satellite bills over the next few months. Worse yet, even the millions of consumers who are not sports fans will wind up helping to pay for the new NFL package.
In the New York area, the bickering continues between Time Warner Cable and MSG Networks regarding the prices MSG Networks wants to charge Time Warner per subscriber starting January 1st. Time Warner is looking to play "hero" (as of press time on Monday 12/19) via its media release that it intends to continue to carry MSG Networks through the duration of the Knicks' and Rangers' current seasons while it negotiates.
What we have is MSG Networks raising the prices to watch coverage of teams which may not even be serious title contenders. Yet, it's difficult to be on the side of Time Warner, since it decides which channels and groups will be on which packages and what the prices will be - often whether its paying customers want them or not. TW, as with other cable and satellite providers, continue to demand that customers pay for channels for different languages, religions, and programming choices than what they necessarily want or use.
Not only are us "fans" put in this position, but we also have to watch telecasts cluttered with advertisements, network promotions, and other solicitations.
Now, it's more than TV and radio. With the NBA season now less than a week from starting, the NBA has announced that it has a new "official wireless service provider of the NBA". Complete with the press releases about what a great service this is for NBA fans who can get live game broadcasts and video on their phones. The NBA seems to overlook that consumers already pay extra for plans that allow them online and "radio" access via their phones. However, we now have Sprint paying the NBA for exclusive rights to offer this, after T-Mobile was the "official" carrier for the past six seasons. If the NBA truly wants to provide its fan base with phone access for the coming season (and after the lockout they should be bending over backwards to make this available) it should allow this access via all of the national wireless carriers.
The sports media has become more important to many consumers because it costs too much for many people to attend games due to huge ticket prices. The media is supposed to "cover" the sports events that fans are interested, and not be so worried about making money off every fan that is or isn't interested.
CBS is pleased after winning the battle (against NBC which tried to flex the telecast into prime time) to keep the New England vs. Denver telecast on Sunday (12/18). The telecast scored the highest regular season rating of the entire season thus far, and was CBS' highest rated regular season telecast since 2007.
BALTIMORE / D.C.: The Ravens have a new local radio & TV contract extension for five more seasons. WBAL-AM and 98 Rock-FM will continue to air the games, with Gerry Sandusky (who has to remind people that he is not 'that' Gerry Sandusky), Stan White, and Qadry Ismail handling the broadcasts. On the TV side, WBAL-TV Channel 11 will air the pre-season games not picked up by any of the national networks.
WTEM ESPN 980 (D.C.) will need a new co-host along with Doc Walker on its 2 - 4 PM weekday show. Former Georgetown University coach John Thompson, who has been co-hosting the show with Walker since 1999, is leaving the show. As of press time, Thompson only said "It's time to move on", and had not announced any intention of giving up any of his other current broadcast duties.
CINCINNATI: WQTR-AM 1160 will continue with sports talk programming from 5 to 7 PM weekdays, starting a new show "The Other Guys" with Fox Sports Ohio's Jeff Piecoro and Rick "The Brick" Wall. The "Guys" replace Andy Furman, who resigned on December 5th after two years of hosting on WQTR. Furman continues his Fox Sports Radio Sunday night show, while speculation is that he will have another Cincinnati media gig to announce within the next 60 days.
PITTSBURGH: WWCS 540 is ending its Spanish language programming to become "Fox Sports 540" by January 1st. However, its initial announcement shows all network and syndicated programming on both weekdays and weekends, at least to start. Fox Sports Radio had been dumped by WBGG 970 which is now Pittsburgh's ESPN Radio.
TAMPA: Congrats to Nel Solondz on being named as the Rays broadcasts pre and post-game host starting for the upcoming season. Solondz had been the voice of the Rays' AAA Durham Bulls for the previous 8 seasons, and had been used to fill in on some of the Rays' related programming.
With all of the technology now available to sports fans which didn't exist 20 years ago, this should be a period of time during which the fans could rejoice at all of the coverage and information available to follow favorite leagues, teams, games, and even individual players for fantasy sports. Instead, we sports fans keep having to open our wallets further and further to have it. Without a vote.
The big "sports media" stories of these past couple of weeks show this. The NFL contracts to the TV networks figures to significantly raise the cost of cable/satellite bills over the next few months. Worse yet, even the millions of consumers who are not sports fans will wind up helping to pay for the new NFL package.
In the New York area, the bickering continues between Time Warner Cable and MSG Networks regarding the prices MSG Networks wants to charge Time Warner per subscriber starting January 1st. Time Warner is looking to play "hero" (as of press time on Monday 12/19) via its media release that it intends to continue to carry MSG Networks through the duration of the Knicks' and Rangers' current seasons while it negotiates.
What we have is MSG Networks raising the prices to watch coverage of teams which may not even be serious title contenders. Yet, it's difficult to be on the side of Time Warner, since it decides which channels and groups will be on which packages and what the prices will be - often whether its paying customers want them or not. TW, as with other cable and satellite providers, continue to demand that customers pay for channels for different languages, religions, and programming choices than what they necessarily want or use.
Not only are us "fans" put in this position, but we also have to watch telecasts cluttered with advertisements, network promotions, and other solicitations.
Now, it's more than TV and radio. With the NBA season now less than a week from starting, the NBA has announced that it has a new "official wireless service provider of the NBA". Complete with the press releases about what a great service this is for NBA fans who can get live game broadcasts and video on their phones. The NBA seems to overlook that consumers already pay extra for plans that allow them online and "radio" access via their phones. However, we now have Sprint paying the NBA for exclusive rights to offer this, after T-Mobile was the "official" carrier for the past six seasons. If the NBA truly wants to provide its fan base with phone access for the coming season (and after the lockout they should be bending over backwards to make this available) it should allow this access via all of the national wireless carriers.
The sports media has become more important to many consumers because it costs too much for many people to attend games due to huge ticket prices. The media is supposed to "cover" the sports events that fans are interested, and not be so worried about making money off every fan that is or isn't interested.
CBS is pleased after winning the battle (against NBC which tried to flex the telecast into prime time) to keep the New England vs. Denver telecast on Sunday (12/18). The telecast scored the highest regular season rating of the entire season thus far, and was CBS' highest rated regular season telecast since 2007.
BALTIMORE / D.C.: The Ravens have a new local radio & TV contract extension for five more seasons. WBAL-AM and 98 Rock-FM will continue to air the games, with Gerry Sandusky (who has to remind people that he is not 'that' Gerry Sandusky), Stan White, and Qadry Ismail handling the broadcasts. On the TV side, WBAL-TV Channel 11 will air the pre-season games not picked up by any of the national networks.
WTEM ESPN 980 (D.C.) will need a new co-host along with Doc Walker on its 2 - 4 PM weekday show. Former Georgetown University coach John Thompson, who has been co-hosting the show with Walker since 1999, is leaving the show. As of press time, Thompson only said "It's time to move on", and had not announced any intention of giving up any of his other current broadcast duties.
CINCINNATI: WQTR-AM 1160 will continue with sports talk programming from 5 to 7 PM weekdays, starting a new show "The Other Guys" with Fox Sports Ohio's Jeff Piecoro and Rick "The Brick" Wall. The "Guys" replace Andy Furman, who resigned on December 5th after two years of hosting on WQTR. Furman continues his Fox Sports Radio Sunday night show, while speculation is that he will have another Cincinnati media gig to announce within the next 60 days.
PITTSBURGH: WWCS 540 is ending its Spanish language programming to become "Fox Sports 540" by January 1st. However, its initial announcement shows all network and syndicated programming on both weekdays and weekends, at least to start. Fox Sports Radio had been dumped by WBGG 970 which is now Pittsburgh's ESPN Radio.
TAMPA: Congrats to Nel Solondz on being named as the Rays broadcasts pre and post-game host starting for the upcoming season. Solondz had been the voice of the Rays' AAA Durham Bulls for the previous 8 seasons, and had been used to fill in on some of the Rays' related programming.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Red Sox Reporters Left Red Handed
Sorry, but I found the Terry Francona and Red Sox manager story this past Friday (9/30) setting a new low for sports "reporting" across the board. That morning, reports and rumors were rampant from newspaper, radio, TV, and online sources that Francona was being let go, most likely at a late morning press conference.
Several sources I thought were credible and reliable reported that Francona had met with team officials, and there were multiple reports on Twitter about a time and supposed live coverage of a press conference to announce that Francona would be out as Red Sox manager.
Later that same morning, media reports came out that Francona had left the building, there would not be a press conference, and that "no decision had been announced". That was bad enough, but I left it at that and went on to other things.
Imagine my surprise a couple hours later when a friend told me that Francona had been let go. There I was practically arguing with him because I saw that there was no press conference. Shortly after that, I began hearing and seeing the reports that he really had been dismissed as Red Sox manager.
It's not about what I think of the dismissal or the significance of the story. But it is about how members of the media need to be held accountable. I don't care that some of the biggest names among the media who cover baseball or just the Red Sox were fooled. A lot of people screwed up this story by jumping to conclusions and confusing their putting possibilities together and reporting them as if they were fact. If this continues to happen, it could get to the point where I'll wind up only checking team and league web sites for "official" news. I, for one, no longer care who is first with a sports story. It's more important to wait and get it right - every time.
Looks as though it's too early to tell if the return of the NFL regular season will bring additional listeners back to sports talk radio. Personally, I'm going to be watching the ratings even more between now and the end of the year, and so far it's a mixed bag.
The top 3 markets were without impact from the overall audience on radio ratings from mid-August into mid-September and the start of NFL season play. In New York, both WFAN and WEPN held steady. In Chicago, WSCR and WMVP both showed little change, although both stations did go up in cumes, which means that those listening were tuned in for longer periods of time last month.
In Los Angeles, well, it's still a big mess. Granted, there is no "home" NFL team, but with the Dodgers making so much news due to the ownership controversy, sports is more prominent in the news. Yet, we still need a magnifying glass to find the sports radio stations. Neither KSPN, KLAC, or KLAA, could do any better than a .7. Combined they would barely make the top 25. Yet, the Dodgers radio broadcasts will move to KLAC 570 starting next season. Clearly the station hopes that having the Dodgers will finally bring them an audience. No telling what the Dodgers are thinking by burying their broadcasts. While there is nothing wrong with the 570 AM frequency for broadcasts, I have to wonder why they would not have gone for a station or stations that have enough listeners. The new radio deal is reportedly for 3 seasons, making this a big gamble for the team.
Yet, if you look at the 4,5, and 6 markets for sports radio ratings, the case could be made that the NFL season does have an impact on sports radio ratings. In San Francisco, KNBR 680 continues to be a major force for sports radio, this time coming in tied for 4th in overall audience. Yet, their audience is down from what it was for the July ratings, which was prior to even the NFL pre-season. The audience drop is probably because of the Giants not making it to the post-season to defend their World Series title while the A's continue to fall to oblivion.
In Dallas, the start of Cowboys season always brings a positive impact to sports radio. It's practically the law in Texas. KTCK The Ticket increased .3 overall, doing so impressively for the 2nd month in a row, and came in tied for #10 overall. KESN and KRLD-FM both showed increases. Even though much of this increase is due to Cowboys season, the Rangers being back in the baseball playoffs also plays a part in this.
And in Houston, KILT and KBME have both more than doubled their overall listening audiences since the July ratings period, and that's impressive. Even KFNC-FM was gone up .3 during that time. This is clearly due to the Texans, as this team could contend for the Super Bowl this season. It certainly wasn't due to the Astros disaster of a season.
I mention these markets because I had received several responses earlier this year when I began to question the future with competing sports radio stations in many markets. Some said the lower spring ratings were due the NFL and college football being the big seasons for these stations. We shall see.
The NFL season is already attracting record TV viewing audiences and strong support across the board, especially when less appealing NFL games are holding their own against baseball post-season telecasts.
However, some odd instances have been going on during NFL telecasts of late.
The Detroit vs. Dallas telecast last Sunday (10/2) was down to the final 11 seconds, when Fox's Joe Buck and Troy Aikman acted as if the coming play was 3rd down for Dallas at the same time viewers could see on the screen that it was really 4th down. Buck caught the error while the play unfolded, but didn't correct the mistake until the play was over and it meant the Lions would win the game. Thus, the worst possible time for an error like that, since that was the most important play of the final minutes of the game. I have to wonder where the production crew was that they didn't instantly tell Buck at the time.
Another mystery from Fox took place moments earlier when the Carolina vs. Chicago game ended. Even though the Lions play in the same NFC North as the Bears and the game against Dallas was then in its final 4 minutes, those watching that regional telecast were instead sent to the St. Louis vs. Washington game instead. What made that move even more perplexing is that neither the Rams or Redskins plays in the same division as either the Panthers or the Bears. Yet, that telecast was switched to Bears fans ahead of the division rival Lions, and ahead of the Cowboys at any point in time.
Los Angeles NFL viewers (watching via the local stations) could be innocent victims of CBS's policy about "secondary market" telecasts again this season. CBS continues to include L.A. as a "secondary market" for the San Diego Chargers, which means their telecast have priority. Even over the Oakland Raiders, who called Los Angeles home for a few seasons. This coming Sunday (10/9), the Raiders play in Houston in the early CBS telecast. However, the Chargers are the regional doubleheader game on CBS playing at Denver. As a "secondary market", this means that if the Raiders game is still going or in overtime, CBS is "forced" to leave that game prior to kickoff of the Chargers game. CBS already had this happen on Sept. 18th and it could happen again on November 20th when the Chargers are a late game in Chicago with the Raiders early at Minnesota.
Howard Eskin, now serving as an Eagles reporter for Philadelphia's NBC 10-TV has been having a rough go since leaving his afternoon drive show on WIP Radio earlier this month. Last week, Eskin "reported" that Michael Vick would be out 2 to 4 weeks due to a hand injury, which turned out to not be the case. Then, he went on KNBR San Francisco with Gary Radnich and Larry Krueger, and said on the air that he would ride a bicycle across the country if the Eagles lost to the 49ers last Sunday, which it so happened they did.
Actually, those two scenarios are only related because they are both from Eskin. The bike ride comment may come back to haunt him, but that was clearly in support of a prediction and not misreporting something, like he did with Michael Vick. Luckily, he wasn't on the air when the Terry Francona situation was unfolding last Friday. Although, he couldn't have done any worse than some far more reliable reporters did. It does underline that opinions and facts are two different things, and it's time for the reporting media to step up and realize that.
PITTSBURGH: The Post-Gazette reported that the Pirates will no longer be heard on WPGB 104.7 after 5 seasons. Either The Fan KDKA-FM or KDKA-AM is expected to carry the games starting next season. The Fan currently carries Pitt football. The entire radio and TV announcing crew is employed by the team, so the only thing that will change will be the flagship radio station.
SOUTH BEND: While Notre Dame football season is in full swing, the market has lost its ESPN Radio affiliation. Yet, WDND 1620 didn't switch to Fox Sports or program anything else sports to replace it. Instead, the station began simulcasting a sister FM station's music instead. It will be, ummmmm, interesting to see how many people go to 1620 AM to hear music, won't it?
Several sources I thought were credible and reliable reported that Francona had met with team officials, and there were multiple reports on Twitter about a time and supposed live coverage of a press conference to announce that Francona would be out as Red Sox manager.
Later that same morning, media reports came out that Francona had left the building, there would not be a press conference, and that "no decision had been announced". That was bad enough, but I left it at that and went on to other things.
Imagine my surprise a couple hours later when a friend told me that Francona had been let go. There I was practically arguing with him because I saw that there was no press conference. Shortly after that, I began hearing and seeing the reports that he really had been dismissed as Red Sox manager.
It's not about what I think of the dismissal or the significance of the story. But it is about how members of the media need to be held accountable. I don't care that some of the biggest names among the media who cover baseball or just the Red Sox were fooled. A lot of people screwed up this story by jumping to conclusions and confusing their putting possibilities together and reporting them as if they were fact. If this continues to happen, it could get to the point where I'll wind up only checking team and league web sites for "official" news. I, for one, no longer care who is first with a sports story. It's more important to wait and get it right - every time.
Looks as though it's too early to tell if the return of the NFL regular season will bring additional listeners back to sports talk radio. Personally, I'm going to be watching the ratings even more between now and the end of the year, and so far it's a mixed bag.
The top 3 markets were without impact from the overall audience on radio ratings from mid-August into mid-September and the start of NFL season play. In New York, both WFAN and WEPN held steady. In Chicago, WSCR and WMVP both showed little change, although both stations did go up in cumes, which means that those listening were tuned in for longer periods of time last month.
In Los Angeles, well, it's still a big mess. Granted, there is no "home" NFL team, but with the Dodgers making so much news due to the ownership controversy, sports is more prominent in the news. Yet, we still need a magnifying glass to find the sports radio stations. Neither KSPN, KLAC, or KLAA, could do any better than a .7. Combined they would barely make the top 25. Yet, the Dodgers radio broadcasts will move to KLAC 570 starting next season. Clearly the station hopes that having the Dodgers will finally bring them an audience. No telling what the Dodgers are thinking by burying their broadcasts. While there is nothing wrong with the 570 AM frequency for broadcasts, I have to wonder why they would not have gone for a station or stations that have enough listeners. The new radio deal is reportedly for 3 seasons, making this a big gamble for the team.
Yet, if you look at the 4,5, and 6 markets for sports radio ratings, the case could be made that the NFL season does have an impact on sports radio ratings. In San Francisco, KNBR 680 continues to be a major force for sports radio, this time coming in tied for 4th in overall audience. Yet, their audience is down from what it was for the July ratings, which was prior to even the NFL pre-season. The audience drop is probably because of the Giants not making it to the post-season to defend their World Series title while the A's continue to fall to oblivion.
In Dallas, the start of Cowboys season always brings a positive impact to sports radio. It's practically the law in Texas. KTCK The Ticket increased .3 overall, doing so impressively for the 2nd month in a row, and came in tied for #10 overall. KESN and KRLD-FM both showed increases. Even though much of this increase is due to Cowboys season, the Rangers being back in the baseball playoffs also plays a part in this.
And in Houston, KILT and KBME have both more than doubled their overall listening audiences since the July ratings period, and that's impressive. Even KFNC-FM was gone up .3 during that time. This is clearly due to the Texans, as this team could contend for the Super Bowl this season. It certainly wasn't due to the Astros disaster of a season.
I mention these markets because I had received several responses earlier this year when I began to question the future with competing sports radio stations in many markets. Some said the lower spring ratings were due the NFL and college football being the big seasons for these stations. We shall see.
The NFL season is already attracting record TV viewing audiences and strong support across the board, especially when less appealing NFL games are holding their own against baseball post-season telecasts.
However, some odd instances have been going on during NFL telecasts of late.
The Detroit vs. Dallas telecast last Sunday (10/2) was down to the final 11 seconds, when Fox's Joe Buck and Troy Aikman acted as if the coming play was 3rd down for Dallas at the same time viewers could see on the screen that it was really 4th down. Buck caught the error while the play unfolded, but didn't correct the mistake until the play was over and it meant the Lions would win the game. Thus, the worst possible time for an error like that, since that was the most important play of the final minutes of the game. I have to wonder where the production crew was that they didn't instantly tell Buck at the time.
Another mystery from Fox took place moments earlier when the Carolina vs. Chicago game ended. Even though the Lions play in the same NFC North as the Bears and the game against Dallas was then in its final 4 minutes, those watching that regional telecast were instead sent to the St. Louis vs. Washington game instead. What made that move even more perplexing is that neither the Rams or Redskins plays in the same division as either the Panthers or the Bears. Yet, that telecast was switched to Bears fans ahead of the division rival Lions, and ahead of the Cowboys at any point in time.
Los Angeles NFL viewers (watching via the local stations) could be innocent victims of CBS's policy about "secondary market" telecasts again this season. CBS continues to include L.A. as a "secondary market" for the San Diego Chargers, which means their telecast have priority. Even over the Oakland Raiders, who called Los Angeles home for a few seasons. This coming Sunday (10/9), the Raiders play in Houston in the early CBS telecast. However, the Chargers are the regional doubleheader game on CBS playing at Denver. As a "secondary market", this means that if the Raiders game is still going or in overtime, CBS is "forced" to leave that game prior to kickoff of the Chargers game. CBS already had this happen on Sept. 18th and it could happen again on November 20th when the Chargers are a late game in Chicago with the Raiders early at Minnesota.
Howard Eskin, now serving as an Eagles reporter for Philadelphia's NBC 10-TV has been having a rough go since leaving his afternoon drive show on WIP Radio earlier this month. Last week, Eskin "reported" that Michael Vick would be out 2 to 4 weeks due to a hand injury, which turned out to not be the case. Then, he went on KNBR San Francisco with Gary Radnich and Larry Krueger, and said on the air that he would ride a bicycle across the country if the Eagles lost to the 49ers last Sunday, which it so happened they did.
Actually, those two scenarios are only related because they are both from Eskin. The bike ride comment may come back to haunt him, but that was clearly in support of a prediction and not misreporting something, like he did with Michael Vick. Luckily, he wasn't on the air when the Terry Francona situation was unfolding last Friday. Although, he couldn't have done any worse than some far more reliable reporters did. It does underline that opinions and facts are two different things, and it's time for the reporting media to step up and realize that.
PITTSBURGH: The Post-Gazette reported that the Pirates will no longer be heard on WPGB 104.7 after 5 seasons. Either The Fan KDKA-FM or KDKA-AM is expected to carry the games starting next season. The Fan currently carries Pitt football. The entire radio and TV announcing crew is employed by the team, so the only thing that will change will be the flagship radio station.
SOUTH BEND: While Notre Dame football season is in full swing, the market has lost its ESPN Radio affiliation. Yet, WDND 1620 didn't switch to Fox Sports or program anything else sports to replace it. Instead, the station began simulcasting a sister FM station's music instead. It will be, ummmmm, interesting to see how many people go to 1620 AM to hear music, won't it?
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
The Broadcast Booth - June 8th Update.....
Washington D.C.'s ESPN 980 has begun a 24-hour delay for show podcasts, rather than stream them live. From a radio standpoint, I personally think this is a positive move. I love the internet as much as anyone, especially as a sports fan, but in general radio stations have not handled this technology as well as they could. It's good to see this station acknowledge that the over-the-air station is the priority and that other forms of media should spin off from there.
Thus, if you want to hear what the station is doing, you need your radio. That's the way it was originally designed. I do understand that the station is streamed live over cell phones, which can be measured in terms of the audience ratings.
By doing this, the online site becomes a supplement to the station itself. Now, only if you miss a particular show or segment you wanted to hear, you can go back to it the next day or for a few days after for only those parts you missed. Until now, when "listeners" would instantly download the podcast of a just completed show, it took away from actually listening to the station and therefore being "measured" as part of the audience. In addition, same day listeners would then get scores and comments which were hours old and might have already been outdated, which could somewhat impact the credibility of the station in the listener's mind.
Whereas, going back a day or two later, you are going for something specific and understand the other information is outdated. This also frees you up to listen to what is live and current. It's the same thing as the amazingly large number of music stations which sell downloads of the songs they play. Once listeners download the songs they really like and can carry them around, they no longer need to listen to that station.
They are and plan to be a live radio station, and the priority should be placed on giving listeners as many reasons as possible to tune in and listen live.
KSL Radio Salt Lake City has unveiled a creative innovation, albeit geared slightly more toward current and potential advertisers than listeners. The station has taken to the web and its partnership with BYU to air its football and basketball games to boast about its listening audience. A new web page details the specifics about the popularity of its BYU broadcasts compared with University of Utah games on another station.
This story comes after the ESPN 980 story for a reason. These are both examples of radio stations using the internet to boost listening to the station instead of taking away from it. Looking at the KSL information leaves one with a more powerful impression of KSL and its BYU broadcasts for the future.
That link is: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=498&sid=15841829
Meanwhile, NFL fans could have a choice among father and son play-by-play voices next season (whenver that may be). Marv Albert has indeed joined the CBS-TV roster of NFL play-by-play voices, likely handling early Sunday games. He will have the same duties as son Kenny Albert, who calls regional NFL games for Fox TV. Depending on which games go to which markets, there figures to be Sunday afternoons when viewers will choose between Alberts in the same markets. Marv will continue his NBA duties with TNT next season. However, he will no longer call the New Jersey Nets games locally for YES. Ironically, when the Nets move to their new NYC arena next year, we can say that Albert won't be calling the games "from down..........town".
Of course, Marv is no stranger to calling NFL games, having done AFC telecasts for NBC-TV for 19 years and several seasons calling Monday Night Football on Westwood One Radio.
Speaking of NBA on TNT play-by-play voices who also call NFL games, Verne Lundquist has also picked up another assignment. Verne will handle up to three exhibition games for Denver Broncos TV in August, if there is a pre-season. Lundquist will call some football for certain, as he will be calling SEC Football telecasts starting in September.
Sporting News Radio is closer to changing its weekday afternoon offering. It appears that the network has decided to drop Two Live Stews (brothers Ryan & Doug Stewart) at the end of this month of June. The show continues as usual in Atlanta on WQXI, presumably with an even more local Atlanta focus, which is a positive for the WQXI listeners. No replacement show has been announced by SNR, with speculation leaning toward them picking up the KGOW Houston afternoon show, since the network is now based from Houston.
ESPN/ABC are thinking more and more about beefing up college football programming for lack of NFL games in September. Whether appearing on ABC, ESPN, or ESPN2 (which may vary due to individual market location), the network has added more regional non-conference games for the first three weeks of the season:
Saturday, Sept 3 (noon): Akron at Ohio State
(3:30 p.m.): Western Michigan at Michigan
Saturday, Sept. 10 (noon): Florida Atlantic at Michigan State
(noon): Oregon State at Wisconsin
(3:30 p.m.): Alabama at Penn State
Saturday, Sept. 17 (noon): Pittsburgh at Iowa
(3:30 p.m.) Washington at Nebraska
This announcement 'just happens' to go through three weeks and be made when the NFL exhibition games are now being threatened by the current (at press time) NFL lockout.
HOUSTON: KILT 610 will carry the Rockets broadcasts with Craig Ackerman for a 10th consecutive season, with Joel Blank continuing as studio host for the 2011-12 season.
PHOENIX: Bruce Jacobs has returned to sports talk. After nearly seven years as a conservative talk show host (on KFYI), Jacobs has joined KDUS 1060 The Fan as of this week (6/6), replacing Kevin McCabe. He was popular as an afternoon sports talk host on XTRA 910 for several years prior. Mike Muraco and Dan Manucci continue with "Calling All Sports" from 3 to 6 PM on KDUS.
SEATTLE: Sister stations KTTH-AM and KIRO ESPN 710 have teamed up for a new three-year deal in support of Washington State University Cougars football and basketball. KTTH-AM will air play-by-play of both sports, while KIRO will feature regular segments with the coaches and related game information.
ANCHORAGE: KUDO 1080 has returned to the airwaves, and it is now Sports 1080 The Ticket. The signal had literally been off the air from December until this week (6/6). They will air Anchorage Bucs baseball, and are expected to carry college football and Dallas Cowboys football if and when there is a NFL season. At this point, the majority of the programming will be from Fox Sports Radio.
MUNCIE IN: Still another sports station got fed up with the demands of ESPN Radio at contract time, and WXFN 1340 dropped ESPN in favor of Fox Sports. With practically zero warning, listeners on Monday (6/6) heard Fox's Zakk & Jack Show instead of Mike & Mike. I'm told the change came literally at 12:01 AM.
WXFN will continue to carry Ball State football and basketball, as well as (non-conflicting) Pacers basketball and Cincinnati Reds baseball broadcasts.
SPRINGFIELD IL: The Central IL market lost a pioneer on Sunday (6/5) with the passing of 84 year-old Coley Cowan. After a stint in Huntington WV in the 50's calling Marshall University football, Cowan was hired in Springfield in 1960, eventually shifting to sports including play-by-play. Fans also know Cowan from his fill-in roles as P.A. announcer at U. of Illinois, Bradley, Illinois State, and Southern Illinois basketball games over the years. He also called minor league baseball when the Springfield Redbirds were a St. Louis Cardinals affiliate.
Thus, if you want to hear what the station is doing, you need your radio. That's the way it was originally designed. I do understand that the station is streamed live over cell phones, which can be measured in terms of the audience ratings.
By doing this, the online site becomes a supplement to the station itself. Now, only if you miss a particular show or segment you wanted to hear, you can go back to it the next day or for a few days after for only those parts you missed. Until now, when "listeners" would instantly download the podcast of a just completed show, it took away from actually listening to the station and therefore being "measured" as part of the audience. In addition, same day listeners would then get scores and comments which were hours old and might have already been outdated, which could somewhat impact the credibility of the station in the listener's mind.
Whereas, going back a day or two later, you are going for something specific and understand the other information is outdated. This also frees you up to listen to what is live and current. It's the same thing as the amazingly large number of music stations which sell downloads of the songs they play. Once listeners download the songs they really like and can carry them around, they no longer need to listen to that station.
They are and plan to be a live radio station, and the priority should be placed on giving listeners as many reasons as possible to tune in and listen live.
KSL Radio Salt Lake City has unveiled a creative innovation, albeit geared slightly more toward current and potential advertisers than listeners. The station has taken to the web and its partnership with BYU to air its football and basketball games to boast about its listening audience. A new web page details the specifics about the popularity of its BYU broadcasts compared with University of Utah games on another station.
This story comes after the ESPN 980 story for a reason. These are both examples of radio stations using the internet to boost listening to the station instead of taking away from it. Looking at the KSL information leaves one with a more powerful impression of KSL and its BYU broadcasts for the future.
That link is: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=498&sid=15841829
Meanwhile, NFL fans could have a choice among father and son play-by-play voices next season (whenver that may be). Marv Albert has indeed joined the CBS-TV roster of NFL play-by-play voices, likely handling early Sunday games. He will have the same duties as son Kenny Albert, who calls regional NFL games for Fox TV. Depending on which games go to which markets, there figures to be Sunday afternoons when viewers will choose between Alberts in the same markets. Marv will continue his NBA duties with TNT next season. However, he will no longer call the New Jersey Nets games locally for YES. Ironically, when the Nets move to their new NYC arena next year, we can say that Albert won't be calling the games "from down..........town".
Of course, Marv is no stranger to calling NFL games, having done AFC telecasts for NBC-TV for 19 years and several seasons calling Monday Night Football on Westwood One Radio.
Speaking of NBA on TNT play-by-play voices who also call NFL games, Verne Lundquist has also picked up another assignment. Verne will handle up to three exhibition games for Denver Broncos TV in August, if there is a pre-season. Lundquist will call some football for certain, as he will be calling SEC Football telecasts starting in September.
Sporting News Radio is closer to changing its weekday afternoon offering. It appears that the network has decided to drop Two Live Stews (brothers Ryan & Doug Stewart) at the end of this month of June. The show continues as usual in Atlanta on WQXI, presumably with an even more local Atlanta focus, which is a positive for the WQXI listeners. No replacement show has been announced by SNR, with speculation leaning toward them picking up the KGOW Houston afternoon show, since the network is now based from Houston.
ESPN/ABC are thinking more and more about beefing up college football programming for lack of NFL games in September. Whether appearing on ABC, ESPN, or ESPN2 (which may vary due to individual market location), the network has added more regional non-conference games for the first three weeks of the season:
Saturday, Sept 3 (noon): Akron at Ohio State
(3:30 p.m.): Western Michigan at Michigan
Saturday, Sept. 10 (noon): Florida Atlantic at Michigan State
(noon): Oregon State at Wisconsin
(3:30 p.m.): Alabama at Penn State
Saturday, Sept. 17 (noon): Pittsburgh at Iowa
(3:30 p.m.) Washington at Nebraska
This announcement 'just happens' to go through three weeks and be made when the NFL exhibition games are now being threatened by the current (at press time) NFL lockout.
HOUSTON: KILT 610 will carry the Rockets broadcasts with Craig Ackerman for a 10th consecutive season, with Joel Blank continuing as studio host for the 2011-12 season.
PHOENIX: Bruce Jacobs has returned to sports talk. After nearly seven years as a conservative talk show host (on KFYI), Jacobs has joined KDUS 1060 The Fan as of this week (6/6), replacing Kevin McCabe. He was popular as an afternoon sports talk host on XTRA 910 for several years prior. Mike Muraco and Dan Manucci continue with "Calling All Sports" from 3 to 6 PM on KDUS.
SEATTLE: Sister stations KTTH-AM and KIRO ESPN 710 have teamed up for a new three-year deal in support of Washington State University Cougars football and basketball. KTTH-AM will air play-by-play of both sports, while KIRO will feature regular segments with the coaches and related game information.
ANCHORAGE: KUDO 1080 has returned to the airwaves, and it is now Sports 1080 The Ticket. The signal had literally been off the air from December until this week (6/6). They will air Anchorage Bucs baseball, and are expected to carry college football and Dallas Cowboys football if and when there is a NFL season. At this point, the majority of the programming will be from Fox Sports Radio.
MUNCIE IN: Still another sports station got fed up with the demands of ESPN Radio at contract time, and WXFN 1340 dropped ESPN in favor of Fox Sports. With practically zero warning, listeners on Monday (6/6) heard Fox's Zakk & Jack Show instead of Mike & Mike. I'm told the change came literally at 12:01 AM.
WXFN will continue to carry Ball State football and basketball, as well as (non-conflicting) Pacers basketball and Cincinnati Reds baseball broadcasts.
SPRINGFIELD IL: The Central IL market lost a pioneer on Sunday (6/5) with the passing of 84 year-old Coley Cowan. After a stint in Huntington WV in the 50's calling Marshall University football, Cowan was hired in Springfield in 1960, eventually shifting to sports including play-by-play. Fans also know Cowan from his fill-in roles as P.A. announcer at U. of Illinois, Bradley, Illinois State, and Southern Illinois basketball games over the years. He also called minor league baseball when the Springfield Redbirds were a St. Louis Cardinals affiliate.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
The Broadcast Booth - March 15th Update......
This figures to be a wonderful week for college hoops fans with the NCAA Tournament starting with every game finally shown live. No more gripes to the local TV stations across the country about which game was chosen over that game. Granted, many will have a challenge finding Tru-TV which gets to carry a couple of unopposed games. However, the important fact that every game will also be streamed live and free should make up for that.
There are other benefits for the fans. All of the first week's games are scheduled to be completed by midnight ET (with the possible exception of the last games of the day going into overtime). This is better than past years when CBS would show games starting after the late local newscasts which sometimes wouldn't start until after 11:30 ET.
The more casual fan may not enjoy this as much, as there will not be the switching to the endings of games and a "primary" telecast as in past years. CBS, TBS, TNT, and Tru-TV do each plan on cross-promoting other telecasts and keeping viewers very much updated on other games being played at the same time. Have remote will travel!
Where is the reprimand for Bobby Knight due to his use of an obscenity on ESPN earlier this month? It was back on March 5th when Knight was on College Gameday and refered to a "chicken s--- defense". The only apology came moments later on the show, but from host Rece Davis. Thus, there was no apology from Knight himself, who is a member of the media and is employed by ESPN. Why was Davis the only one to apologize?
It is bad enough that some media members continue to bow down to Knight even after his childish antics ruined the success he had as a coach. The fact that Knight (to the best of my knowledge) was not reprimanded and did not apologize for his own serious error is, well, chicken s---.
This was different from the incident last week in Philadelphia. Sports radio personality Mike Missanelli was on Fox-TV during a 5:00 newscast, and supposedly "didn't realize" he was on the air when he let loose with the f-word among others while anchor Lauren Cohn continued with her segment.
AT&T U-Verse cable subscribers are finally getting MLB Network after more than 2 years on the air. Earlier this year, the regional Fox Sports Networks were quietly pulled (except for those viewers paying up to $10 per month additional for AT&T's sports package), yet AT&T failed to reduce the price for its sports package even with around half of the channels pulled.
It was good to have proof that ESPN did not air a "report" from another media source without checking first. It seems that sports radio host Bob McCown "reported" last Friday on The Fan 590 Toronto that he heard that Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins was considering retirement while looking to comeback from his current injury. ESPN got denials from both Troy Crosby (Sidney's father) and from Sidney Crosby's agent. Good to know that at least one major source of sports news is doing their follow up.
On the other hand, there was the attempted "joke" report from Jim Crandell on Sacramento's KTXL-TV 10:00 PM News last week. Basketball fans in the Sacramento area have been concerned about the rumored move of the NBA Kings to Anaheim, especially since the Kings are the only "big 4" pro sports team in the city.
Yet, Crandell ran a clip of NBA Commissioner David Stern from the 1985 announcement that the Kings were moving TO Sacramento and dubbed in a voice to make it appear, however jokingly, that the announcement was about a move from Sacramento to Anaheim. (Again, this was on the 10 PM news.) As if this wasn't bad enough, Crandell had promoted the "announcement for Kings fans" earlier in the evening on the station. How awful for the team, its fans, and I would think eventually on the station's ratings for their newscasts.
There is still more of this "reporting" insanity. Talk show host Scott Moore is gone from WZZN 97.7 The Zone. Moore supposedly had tapes with Auburn star Cam Newton reportedly knowing about the "pay-for-play" controversy. It took WAAY-TV's Cole Cubelic to ask Moore if Cam was actually heard on the tapes, to which Moore said "no". The tapes also never aired.
On a positive note, The Library of Congress has acquired The John Miley Collection of sports broadcasts made between 1920 and 1972. The collection now cosists of more than 6,000 TV and radio broadcasts, and the Library plans to eventually digitally preserve and make them available for listening or viewing at the Library of Congress. Included are Wilt Chamberlain's last college game at Kansas, Arnold Palmer winning his first pro golf tournament from 1955, Curt Gowdy calling Oklahoma University football games from the late 1940's while at KOMA, and SMU's "near upset" of Notre Dame in 1949.
ATLANTA: The Falcons finishing with the best record in the NFC last season didn't help in the post-season, but it did for radio rights. The Falcons are moving to WQXI 790 The Zone for the coming season, with plans to add Falcons related programming to its lineup. Wes Durham and Dave Archer will continue as the broadcast team, with the game broadcasts also simulcast on WSTR Star 94 FM.
CHICAGO: WLS-TV gains a new sports anchor starting next week (3/21), even if it is a partially familiar name. Rafer Weigel leaves Headline News' "Morning Express" to join the station's sports staff. Rafer's late father Tim Weigel was both a sports and news anchor for the station for 17 years.
The NBA Bulls' surge to the top of the Eastern Conference has also surged the TV ratings. Bulls regular season telecasts on Comcast SportsNet are now up more than 65% over last season (as of late last week). The team's Monday (3/7) win over New Orleans was Comcast SportsNet's highest rated Bulls telecast ever (regular or post-season), even higher than the 3-overtime game vs. the Celtics in the memorable 2009 opening round NBA Playoff series.
MINNEAPOLIS: How the mighty have fallen. WCCO 830 has now lost University of Minnesota football and basketball, leaving it with only the NHL Wild among its play-by-play schedule.
KFAN 1130 will carry Gophers football on Saturdays along with the NFL Vikings most Sundays, with Gophers broadcasts also airing on KTLK-FM 100.3. KSTP-AM 1500 will carry basketball and hockey broadcasts as part of this 3-year package deal.
WASHINGTON DC: MASN will add a baseball oriented show weekdays at 5 PM starting on March 31 (the day of the MLB season openers). The show expects to devote segments to the Nationals, Orioles, and baseball in general. On many weeknights it will lead into the pre-game show of Orioles or Nationals telecasts.
CINCINATTI: Congrats to Xavier University play-by-play voice Joe Sunderman on winning the 2011 Bob Vetrone Atlantic 10 Media Award as he wraps up his 30th season on the Xavier broadcast team. The former Xavier player (and a member of the school's Hall of Fame) began his broadcast career as the analyst before switching over to play-by-play.
HILTON HEAD: 1130 AM has dropped ESPN Radio and gone to a music format as WHHW.
MACON: WPLA-AM Sports 1670 is adding a local morning show as of March 28. Charles Olson and Daniel Shirley will air from 7 to 9 AM. Hopefully the "And don't call me Shirley" jokes will stop after the first show. The station is already local from 3 to 6 PM with Bill Shanks.
There are other benefits for the fans. All of the first week's games are scheduled to be completed by midnight ET (with the possible exception of the last games of the day going into overtime). This is better than past years when CBS would show games starting after the late local newscasts which sometimes wouldn't start until after 11:30 ET.
The more casual fan may not enjoy this as much, as there will not be the switching to the endings of games and a "primary" telecast as in past years. CBS, TBS, TNT, and Tru-TV do each plan on cross-promoting other telecasts and keeping viewers very much updated on other games being played at the same time. Have remote will travel!
Where is the reprimand for Bobby Knight due to his use of an obscenity on ESPN earlier this month? It was back on March 5th when Knight was on College Gameday and refered to a "chicken s--- defense". The only apology came moments later on the show, but from host Rece Davis. Thus, there was no apology from Knight himself, who is a member of the media and is employed by ESPN. Why was Davis the only one to apologize?
It is bad enough that some media members continue to bow down to Knight even after his childish antics ruined the success he had as a coach. The fact that Knight (to the best of my knowledge) was not reprimanded and did not apologize for his own serious error is, well, chicken s---.
This was different from the incident last week in Philadelphia. Sports radio personality Mike Missanelli was on Fox-TV during a 5:00 newscast, and supposedly "didn't realize" he was on the air when he let loose with the f-word among others while anchor Lauren Cohn continued with her segment.
AT&T U-Verse cable subscribers are finally getting MLB Network after more than 2 years on the air. Earlier this year, the regional Fox Sports Networks were quietly pulled (except for those viewers paying up to $10 per month additional for AT&T's sports package), yet AT&T failed to reduce the price for its sports package even with around half of the channels pulled.
It was good to have proof that ESPN did not air a "report" from another media source without checking first. It seems that sports radio host Bob McCown "reported" last Friday on The Fan 590 Toronto that he heard that Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins was considering retirement while looking to comeback from his current injury. ESPN got denials from both Troy Crosby (Sidney's father) and from Sidney Crosby's agent. Good to know that at least one major source of sports news is doing their follow up.
On the other hand, there was the attempted "joke" report from Jim Crandell on Sacramento's KTXL-TV 10:00 PM News last week. Basketball fans in the Sacramento area have been concerned about the rumored move of the NBA Kings to Anaheim, especially since the Kings are the only "big 4" pro sports team in the city.
Yet, Crandell ran a clip of NBA Commissioner David Stern from the 1985 announcement that the Kings were moving TO Sacramento and dubbed in a voice to make it appear, however jokingly, that the announcement was about a move from Sacramento to Anaheim. (Again, this was on the 10 PM news.) As if this wasn't bad enough, Crandell had promoted the "announcement for Kings fans" earlier in the evening on the station. How awful for the team, its fans, and I would think eventually on the station's ratings for their newscasts.
There is still more of this "reporting" insanity. Talk show host Scott Moore is gone from WZZN 97.7 The Zone. Moore supposedly had tapes with Auburn star Cam Newton reportedly knowing about the "pay-for-play" controversy. It took WAAY-TV's Cole Cubelic to ask Moore if Cam was actually heard on the tapes, to which Moore said "no". The tapes also never aired.
On a positive note, The Library of Congress has acquired The John Miley Collection of sports broadcasts made between 1920 and 1972. The collection now cosists of more than 6,000 TV and radio broadcasts, and the Library plans to eventually digitally preserve and make them available for listening or viewing at the Library of Congress. Included are Wilt Chamberlain's last college game at Kansas, Arnold Palmer winning his first pro golf tournament from 1955, Curt Gowdy calling Oklahoma University football games from the late 1940's while at KOMA, and SMU's "near upset" of Notre Dame in 1949.
ATLANTA: The Falcons finishing with the best record in the NFC last season didn't help in the post-season, but it did for radio rights. The Falcons are moving to WQXI 790 The Zone for the coming season, with plans to add Falcons related programming to its lineup. Wes Durham and Dave Archer will continue as the broadcast team, with the game broadcasts also simulcast on WSTR Star 94 FM.
CHICAGO: WLS-TV gains a new sports anchor starting next week (3/21), even if it is a partially familiar name. Rafer Weigel leaves Headline News' "Morning Express" to join the station's sports staff. Rafer's late father Tim Weigel was both a sports and news anchor for the station for 17 years.
The NBA Bulls' surge to the top of the Eastern Conference has also surged the TV ratings. Bulls regular season telecasts on Comcast SportsNet are now up more than 65% over last season (as of late last week). The team's Monday (3/7) win over New Orleans was Comcast SportsNet's highest rated Bulls telecast ever (regular or post-season), even higher than the 3-overtime game vs. the Celtics in the memorable 2009 opening round NBA Playoff series.
MINNEAPOLIS: How the mighty have fallen. WCCO 830 has now lost University of Minnesota football and basketball, leaving it with only the NHL Wild among its play-by-play schedule.
KFAN 1130 will carry Gophers football on Saturdays along with the NFL Vikings most Sundays, with Gophers broadcasts also airing on KTLK-FM 100.3. KSTP-AM 1500 will carry basketball and hockey broadcasts as part of this 3-year package deal.
WASHINGTON DC: MASN will add a baseball oriented show weekdays at 5 PM starting on March 31 (the day of the MLB season openers). The show expects to devote segments to the Nationals, Orioles, and baseball in general. On many weeknights it will lead into the pre-game show of Orioles or Nationals telecasts.
CINCINATTI: Congrats to Xavier University play-by-play voice Joe Sunderman on winning the 2011 Bob Vetrone Atlantic 10 Media Award as he wraps up his 30th season on the Xavier broadcast team. The former Xavier player (and a member of the school's Hall of Fame) began his broadcast career as the analyst before switching over to play-by-play.
HILTON HEAD: 1130 AM has dropped ESPN Radio and gone to a music format as WHHW.
MACON: WPLA-AM Sports 1670 is adding a local morning show as of March 28. Charles Olson and Daniel Shirley will air from 7 to 9 AM. Hopefully the "And don't call me Shirley" jokes will stop after the first show. The station is already local from 3 to 6 PM with Bill Shanks.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Broadcast Booth - February 15th Update.....
Sports media makes headlines on Tuesday with the announcement that Time Warner Cable has an upcoming 20-year agreement to air every Los Angeles Lakers game it can (other than national TV exclusives) starting in less than 2 years. This gives the team only the remainder of the current season and all of next on KCAL-TV and Fox Sports West.
The deal is expected to total as much as $3 billion. That's billion. There is a lot to this deal. This will not be just one network, as there will be both an English and Spanish version. The cable company has the rights to the complete Lakers TV territory, which in addition to much of Southern California also includes portions of Nevada as well as Hawaii. Pre-season games as well as early round playoff games (as allowed) will also be included.
The Lakers obviously benefit from this deal, and Time Warner Cable has the potential for regional and local ad revenue, plus revenue for distribution to other cable and satellite systems. But what about the fans?
Face it, this will cost sports fans, and for that matter those who are not sports fans. This doesn't exactly mean that Time Warner costs will be dropping anytime soon, and everyone will have to pony up whether they like the Lakers or not. Then there is the matter of distribution to other cable and satellite systems. Those systems will, of course, have to pay Time Warner for these games. Don't think that price increase won't get passed along. And don't think that Fox Sports West, even with the loss of Lakers basketball, is going to lower their costs accordingly either.
A positive for sports radio last week when the major story broke in Salt Lake that Jerry Sloan had resigned as coach of the Jazz, ending the longest head coach or manager tenure in pro sports. THE FAN Radio got right on it, and by the end of that dramatic afternoon brought their listeners live interviews with Sloan and with Deron Williams of the Jazz. (Reports indicated that incidents between Sloan and Williams played a big role in Sloan's decision to suddenly resign.) While both Sloan and Williams denied any serious rift between the two, it made for compelling radio, and let the listeners hear it for themselves. That's how it should be, with the sports station getting the reaction from those involved, and THEN getting some fan reaction.
We'll see how this Sunday (2/20) and the NHL spectacular do in the ratings. After the NBC-TV doubleheader, Versus takes over with its live prime-time coverge of the Montreal vs. Calgary game, to be played outdoors at the University of Calgary's football stadium.
Thus, a live NHL triple-header complete with studio updates and cut-ins to other games. We shall see.
Looking ahead to baseball, Fox Sports was so pleased with their 2 nights of Saturday prime-time telecasts that they have decided to go with 3 for the coming season. Whereas last season the 2 Saturday night games were over a month apart, this year they will be for 3 consecutive Saturdays in May. Why? Ask the New York decision makers. The May 14th schedule includes Yankees vs. Red Sox and May 21st Yankees vs. Mets. On May 28th, which is during Memorial Day weekend and thus not a heavy viewing night, there will be as many as 6 regional games featured. No word, yet, as to whether or not more prime time games might be added later in the season. This could be a step toward doing a prime-time game on a weekly basis, based on the ratings generated by the NFL and NBA of late.
ESPN will air 10 spring training games this season, starting in just 2 weeks on Thursday afternoon March 3 with Detroit vs. Atlanta. Somehow the Braves rate being on 3 of the telecasts, putting them right up with the 3 telecasts involving the Yankees (surprised?) and Red Sox. The one prime time game is on Monday March 14 with the Yankees vs. the Red Sox. Nine of the ten telecasts will be on weekdays, with Sat. March 26 Texas vs. Chicago Cubs telecast being the exception.
Barry Larkin is the newest addition to the ESPN roster for Baseball Tonight and possible analyst assignments. Larkin leaves MLB Network to take on this new role.
ESPNU is adding more college baseball to its lineup, announcing a Thursday night national game from the SEC from April 7th through May 19th. The Big Ten Network will televise between 25 and 30 games, including the conference tourney (the reason for the uncertain number). In addition, BTN hopes to stream at least 50 other baseball games involving Conference teams on BigTenNetwork.com.
Nice innovation for NBA-TV, which is enhancing the upcoming All-Star Weekend with more coverage surrounding TNT's programming. Included on the schedule is showing Commissioner David Stern's press conference this Saturday (2/19) at 7 PM ET. This probably won't be the typical goody-goody session, as reporters are sure to ask Stern about the potential labor dispute. If this is not brought up, there will be reason for suspicion.
College football TV schedules are in the works. ESPN has announced a Labor Day prime time game (Monday Sept. 5) with Miami at Maryland. The Thursday night games will include five other telecasts also involving at least one ACC team. The coming season will be the first of that 12-year agreement between ESPN and the ACC including all conference "controlled" football and basketball games.
Although it has been covered over the past few days, the NCAA Tournament next month should draw even better as this season begins every game being shown live nationally. CBS, TNT, TBS, and Tru-TV will handle the entire schedule, including games airing at times not used in the past due to CBS local news and programming allotments. The surprise is Tru-TV already being scheduled in for several of the early tournament games, even though it is not carried in as many households as TNT and TBS.
NEW YORK: It's almost as if media rights news is getting to be like player contact news. At least to the N.Y. Daily News. The paper published an in-depth speculation last week about the Yankees beginning the final season of the current radio contract with WCBS-AM. The story just happened to point out that the Red Sox radio rights are generating approximately $5 million more for the Red Sox this coming season than the WCBS contract will for the Yankees.
BALTIMORE/D.C.: The Orioles will be like the Red Sox and Yankees in one respect this season. On a big-time AM radio station. The O's have returned to WBAL 1090 after 4 seasons on WJZ-FM 105.7. In D.C., the Orioles games will air on ESPN 980 and SportsTalk 570. The Washington Nationals games will again air on at least one of three local stations, lacking priority over the Wizards and Capitals games early in their season. Ouch.
LOS ANGELES: In addition to the Time Warner and Lakers deal, KABC 790 and the Dodgers have named Joe Block as a co-host on DodgerTalk, which surrounds the radio broadcasts during spring training and the season. Block was studio host surrounding New Orleans Hornets broadcasts for four seasons. He will co-host with Josh Suchon, and replaces Ken Levine who left to join the Seattle Mariners' play-by-play lineup.
CHICAGO: WGN-TV has a 5-year extension of its Blackhawks contract, keeping the defending Stanley Cup Champions in the fold through the 2015-16 season. Now just over half way through the third season of telecasts, ratings have increased more than 85%. Due to NHL restrictions, each of the 20 regular season telecasts will only be local to Chicago.
As of press time on Tuesday evening, WGN Radio had still not announced a partner for Pat Hughes for its Cubs radio broadcasts, which begin in less than 2 weeks. The position opened up due to the unfortunate passing of Ron Santo in December. However, word is that another former Cubs player will be brought in more for analysis, meaning that Pat Hughes would continue to do as many as 8 innings of each game on radio. Hard to believe that one announcer would again have to carry such a heavy load in Chicago and for WGN.
Local NASCAR fans lost their primary radio outlet of the past few years last week. WUSN US99 FM decided to drop the NASCAR package after 5 years, and it is effective immediately. Thus, there might not be a local radio outlet for the Daytona 500. Neither of the sports radio stations is expected to pick up any of the auto racing. WSCR carries local college basketball and soon begins White Sox broadcasts, while WMVP ESPN 1000 is highly unlikely to move ESPN Radio play-by-play such as the NBA for racing.
INDIANAPOLIS: Speaking of auto racing, sorry to learn of the death of Tom Carnegie. Locally he was known from his 32 years on WRTV-TV sports, but to auto race fans everywhere he was the voice of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since 1946.
He called the Indy 500 some 61 times, along with 12 Brickyard 400's and 6 Grand Prix races.
PHOENIX: KBMB 710 will carry all 162 Diamondbacks games this season in Spanish, replacing KSUN 1400 and adding the rest of the schedule. Oscar Soria, Miguel Quintana, and Richard Seanz remain as the Spanish broadcast team.
St. LOUIS: We can definitely say that long time sportscaster Howard Balzer has kept himself current. Balzer, known nationally from his days of representing The Sporting News on radio, has left his early afternoon show on KSLG 1380 to join WXOS 101.1. But his new role is running the station's web site. Not quite what Howard envisioned more than 20 years ago, I'm sure. Local sports writer Rob Rains and his son B.J. began in the 1 to 3 PM spot on KSLG on Monday (2/14).
HOUSTON: Rice University baseball coach Wayne Graham will host a weekly show on KGOW 1560 beginning in March, which may include some non-sports topics.
SHEBOYGAN WI: WCLB 950 has completed its switch from ESPN to Fox Sports. The only local show is now from 3 to 5 PM on weekdays.
The deal is expected to total as much as $3 billion. That's billion. There is a lot to this deal. This will not be just one network, as there will be both an English and Spanish version. The cable company has the rights to the complete Lakers TV territory, which in addition to much of Southern California also includes portions of Nevada as well as Hawaii. Pre-season games as well as early round playoff games (as allowed) will also be included.
The Lakers obviously benefit from this deal, and Time Warner Cable has the potential for regional and local ad revenue, plus revenue for distribution to other cable and satellite systems. But what about the fans?
Face it, this will cost sports fans, and for that matter those who are not sports fans. This doesn't exactly mean that Time Warner costs will be dropping anytime soon, and everyone will have to pony up whether they like the Lakers or not. Then there is the matter of distribution to other cable and satellite systems. Those systems will, of course, have to pay Time Warner for these games. Don't think that price increase won't get passed along. And don't think that Fox Sports West, even with the loss of Lakers basketball, is going to lower their costs accordingly either.
A positive for sports radio last week when the major story broke in Salt Lake that Jerry Sloan had resigned as coach of the Jazz, ending the longest head coach or manager tenure in pro sports. THE FAN Radio got right on it, and by the end of that dramatic afternoon brought their listeners live interviews with Sloan and with Deron Williams of the Jazz. (Reports indicated that incidents between Sloan and Williams played a big role in Sloan's decision to suddenly resign.) While both Sloan and Williams denied any serious rift between the two, it made for compelling radio, and let the listeners hear it for themselves. That's how it should be, with the sports station getting the reaction from those involved, and THEN getting some fan reaction.
We'll see how this Sunday (2/20) and the NHL spectacular do in the ratings. After the NBC-TV doubleheader, Versus takes over with its live prime-time coverge of the Montreal vs. Calgary game, to be played outdoors at the University of Calgary's football stadium.
Thus, a live NHL triple-header complete with studio updates and cut-ins to other games. We shall see.
Looking ahead to baseball, Fox Sports was so pleased with their 2 nights of Saturday prime-time telecasts that they have decided to go with 3 for the coming season. Whereas last season the 2 Saturday night games were over a month apart, this year they will be for 3 consecutive Saturdays in May. Why? Ask the New York decision makers. The May 14th schedule includes Yankees vs. Red Sox and May 21st Yankees vs. Mets. On May 28th, which is during Memorial Day weekend and thus not a heavy viewing night, there will be as many as 6 regional games featured. No word, yet, as to whether or not more prime time games might be added later in the season. This could be a step toward doing a prime-time game on a weekly basis, based on the ratings generated by the NFL and NBA of late.
ESPN will air 10 spring training games this season, starting in just 2 weeks on Thursday afternoon March 3 with Detroit vs. Atlanta. Somehow the Braves rate being on 3 of the telecasts, putting them right up with the 3 telecasts involving the Yankees (surprised?) and Red Sox. The one prime time game is on Monday March 14 with the Yankees vs. the Red Sox. Nine of the ten telecasts will be on weekdays, with Sat. March 26 Texas vs. Chicago Cubs telecast being the exception.
Barry Larkin is the newest addition to the ESPN roster for Baseball Tonight and possible analyst assignments. Larkin leaves MLB Network to take on this new role.
ESPNU is adding more college baseball to its lineup, announcing a Thursday night national game from the SEC from April 7th through May 19th. The Big Ten Network will televise between 25 and 30 games, including the conference tourney (the reason for the uncertain number). In addition, BTN hopes to stream at least 50 other baseball games involving Conference teams on BigTenNetwork.com.
Nice innovation for NBA-TV, which is enhancing the upcoming All-Star Weekend with more coverage surrounding TNT's programming. Included on the schedule is showing Commissioner David Stern's press conference this Saturday (2/19) at 7 PM ET. This probably won't be the typical goody-goody session, as reporters are sure to ask Stern about the potential labor dispute. If this is not brought up, there will be reason for suspicion.
College football TV schedules are in the works. ESPN has announced a Labor Day prime time game (Monday Sept. 5) with Miami at Maryland. The Thursday night games will include five other telecasts also involving at least one ACC team. The coming season will be the first of that 12-year agreement between ESPN and the ACC including all conference "controlled" football and basketball games.
Although it has been covered over the past few days, the NCAA Tournament next month should draw even better as this season begins every game being shown live nationally. CBS, TNT, TBS, and Tru-TV will handle the entire schedule, including games airing at times not used in the past due to CBS local news and programming allotments. The surprise is Tru-TV already being scheduled in for several of the early tournament games, even though it is not carried in as many households as TNT and TBS.
NEW YORK: It's almost as if media rights news is getting to be like player contact news. At least to the N.Y. Daily News. The paper published an in-depth speculation last week about the Yankees beginning the final season of the current radio contract with WCBS-AM. The story just happened to point out that the Red Sox radio rights are generating approximately $5 million more for the Red Sox this coming season than the WCBS contract will for the Yankees.
BALTIMORE/D.C.: The Orioles will be like the Red Sox and Yankees in one respect this season. On a big-time AM radio station. The O's have returned to WBAL 1090 after 4 seasons on WJZ-FM 105.7. In D.C., the Orioles games will air on ESPN 980 and SportsTalk 570. The Washington Nationals games will again air on at least one of three local stations, lacking priority over the Wizards and Capitals games early in their season. Ouch.
LOS ANGELES: In addition to the Time Warner and Lakers deal, KABC 790 and the Dodgers have named Joe Block as a co-host on DodgerTalk, which surrounds the radio broadcasts during spring training and the season. Block was studio host surrounding New Orleans Hornets broadcasts for four seasons. He will co-host with Josh Suchon, and replaces Ken Levine who left to join the Seattle Mariners' play-by-play lineup.
CHICAGO: WGN-TV has a 5-year extension of its Blackhawks contract, keeping the defending Stanley Cup Champions in the fold through the 2015-16 season. Now just over half way through the third season of telecasts, ratings have increased more than 85%. Due to NHL restrictions, each of the 20 regular season telecasts will only be local to Chicago.
As of press time on Tuesday evening, WGN Radio had still not announced a partner for Pat Hughes for its Cubs radio broadcasts, which begin in less than 2 weeks. The position opened up due to the unfortunate passing of Ron Santo in December. However, word is that another former Cubs player will be brought in more for analysis, meaning that Pat Hughes would continue to do as many as 8 innings of each game on radio. Hard to believe that one announcer would again have to carry such a heavy load in Chicago and for WGN.
Local NASCAR fans lost their primary radio outlet of the past few years last week. WUSN US99 FM decided to drop the NASCAR package after 5 years, and it is effective immediately. Thus, there might not be a local radio outlet for the Daytona 500. Neither of the sports radio stations is expected to pick up any of the auto racing. WSCR carries local college basketball and soon begins White Sox broadcasts, while WMVP ESPN 1000 is highly unlikely to move ESPN Radio play-by-play such as the NBA for racing.
INDIANAPOLIS: Speaking of auto racing, sorry to learn of the death of Tom Carnegie. Locally he was known from his 32 years on WRTV-TV sports, but to auto race fans everywhere he was the voice of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since 1946.
He called the Indy 500 some 61 times, along with 12 Brickyard 400's and 6 Grand Prix races.
PHOENIX: KBMB 710 will carry all 162 Diamondbacks games this season in Spanish, replacing KSUN 1400 and adding the rest of the schedule. Oscar Soria, Miguel Quintana, and Richard Seanz remain as the Spanish broadcast team.
St. LOUIS: We can definitely say that long time sportscaster Howard Balzer has kept himself current. Balzer, known nationally from his days of representing The Sporting News on radio, has left his early afternoon show on KSLG 1380 to join WXOS 101.1. But his new role is running the station's web site. Not quite what Howard envisioned more than 20 years ago, I'm sure. Local sports writer Rob Rains and his son B.J. began in the 1 to 3 PM spot on KSLG on Monday (2/14).
HOUSTON: Rice University baseball coach Wayne Graham will host a weekly show on KGOW 1560 beginning in March, which may include some non-sports topics.
SHEBOYGAN WI: WCLB 950 has completed its switch from ESPN to Fox Sports. The only local show is now from 3 to 5 PM on weekdays.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
The Broadcast Booth - October 26th Update.....
Cleveland Cavaliers basketball won't be the same as the season starts, and that has nothing whatsoever to do with LeBron James. All but 2 of the past 40 NBA seasons have brought us Joe Tait as the voice of the Cavs. This new season was supposed to be Joe's final season leading into a well deserved retirement, and a chance for fans and media around the league to honor him on his last visit to each NBA venue.
However, Joe is having heart surgery this week, and it comes after a bout with pneumonia. Tait is not expected back until at least 2 months into the season, and that is considered "best case" at this time. Mike Snyder will step out of the pre-game and post-game studio role and handle radio play-by-play (along with Jim Chones on color), most likely for as long as he is needed on WTAM 1100 Cleveland and WAKR 1590 Akron.
Hardcore Cavs fans bemoan the loss of LeBron James. Longtime basketball fans have the loss of one of the best basketball play-by-play voices for an indefinite period of time. Here's hoping for a great recovery by Tait, and that it be enough to keep him around for one more FULL season after that.
Football and baseball continue to rack up the TV viewers during this busy sports month of October. TBS finished its post-season baseball coverage with a 9% increase in overall viewership for its Division Series and ALCS coverage. The New York vs. Texas ALCS Game 6 telecast finished as the 2nd most watched program in 34 years of TBS, helping the network achieve its highest viewership for any post-season series it has televised.
NBC-TV continues to soar in the Sunday Night Football ratings, with its Green Bay vs. Minnesota telecast (Oct. 24) winning the entire evening and being the most watched SNF telecast of the season to date.
In Milwaukee, WTMJ-TV's initial overnights showed a 53 rating and better than a 68 share, increasing to a 57 rating during the game's later stages. The curious trend continued with Norfolk and Oklahoma City (both cities without NFL franchises) each finished in the Top 10 of metered markets.
This ratings surge may not be limited to MLB and the NFL. Versus reports improved ratings for its early season NHL telecasts, and this week marks the start of the new NBA season, with TNT and ESPN each featuring 2 nights of doubleheaders.
Yet, all is not well in some of the NFL's TV markets. WTOC-TV Savannah had to defend itself on its own web site and in the media after NFL TV policy prohibited it from showing this past Sunday's Atlanta Falcons game vs. Cincinnati. The market is technically within 75 miles of Jacksonville FL, and as a result, the Jaguars game had to be shown. Since it was an away day for the Jags, the game had to be shown (since home games are not selling out). Granted, that is the rule under the current TV policy set forth by the NFL. One would think that given the staggering amount of money the networks pay the league for TV rights that the fans in various markets would be entitled to the games they would most like to see.
This past Sunday (10/24) also had a telecast schedule changed in San Diego, and it may not have been due to the Chargers. The Chargers' home game vs. New England managed to sell out and the game was shown in the local San Diego market. Hours later it came out that it was the (road team) New England Patriots that used a social media site to announce the availability of tickets for the game in San Diego, targeting fans in Southern California, to help get the remaining tickets sold in time.
With Gus Johnson out of handling New York Knicks play-by-play, his role for the Big Ten Network will expand for the coming college hoops season. Johnson will call approximately 23 games this season, nearly double the number of games his schedule allowed last season. Jim Jackson will return for studio analysis and occasional work on game telecasts. Quinn Buckner has been added to the BTN roster for color commentary when his schedule allows (in addition to color on Indiana Pacers telecasts). BTN has also signed Brian Anderson to call some games. Anderson just completed a full season of baseball for the Milwaukee Brewers TV and TBS Division Series coverage. Wayne Larrivee (Packers), Eric Collins (Dodgers), Dave Revsine, Tom Hart, and Tom Hamilton will also handle play-by-play assignments.
CBS-TV's Greg Gumbel will be the featured speaker on January 18th at the 46th Red Smith Sports Award Banquet in Appleton WI.
MIAMI: The Miami Heat radio station battle remains unsettled (at press time) hours before their much-anticipated season begins. What started over a battle over whether the Heat or the Dolphins would have priority next Sunday (10/31) when both the Heat and Dolphins games are both scheduled to begin at 1 PM ET has resulted in the Heat attempting to terminate their contract with WINZ 940.
While the contract status appears headed to court, WINZ may only be airing the Heat games through next week (Nov. 5). This includes the conflict on Sunday, when the Dolphins broadcast is reportedly being moved to WIOD 610 to give the Heat priority. Mike Inglis and John Crotty are set as the radio team regardless of where the Heat broadcasts wind up. Word is that The Ticket 790 has shown interest in taking over the rights.
NEW YORK: Seth Everett has been added to WFAN's broadcasts of the Nets effective in time for opening night. Everett has previously handled surrounding coverage of the Mets for SNY and for Fox Sports surrounding both Knicks and Nets games, along with hosting shows on ESPN 1050. Chris Carrino and Tim Capstraw continue on play-by-play and analysis.
Ft. MYERS/NAPLES: Florida Gulf Coast University is receiving additional local TV college. "The FGCU Sports Report" will air on Saturday mornings on the local ABC-TV affiliate, and then in the evening on the local NBC-TV sub-station from now until May. Tom James, former Channel 2 sports anchor, hosts the show.
However, Joe is having heart surgery this week, and it comes after a bout with pneumonia. Tait is not expected back until at least 2 months into the season, and that is considered "best case" at this time. Mike Snyder will step out of the pre-game and post-game studio role and handle radio play-by-play (along with Jim Chones on color), most likely for as long as he is needed on WTAM 1100 Cleveland and WAKR 1590 Akron.
Hardcore Cavs fans bemoan the loss of LeBron James. Longtime basketball fans have the loss of one of the best basketball play-by-play voices for an indefinite period of time. Here's hoping for a great recovery by Tait, and that it be enough to keep him around for one more FULL season after that.
Football and baseball continue to rack up the TV viewers during this busy sports month of October. TBS finished its post-season baseball coverage with a 9% increase in overall viewership for its Division Series and ALCS coverage. The New York vs. Texas ALCS Game 6 telecast finished as the 2nd most watched program in 34 years of TBS, helping the network achieve its highest viewership for any post-season series it has televised.
NBC-TV continues to soar in the Sunday Night Football ratings, with its Green Bay vs. Minnesota telecast (Oct. 24) winning the entire evening and being the most watched SNF telecast of the season to date.
In Milwaukee, WTMJ-TV's initial overnights showed a 53 rating and better than a 68 share, increasing to a 57 rating during the game's later stages. The curious trend continued with Norfolk and Oklahoma City (both cities without NFL franchises) each finished in the Top 10 of metered markets.
This ratings surge may not be limited to MLB and the NFL. Versus reports improved ratings for its early season NHL telecasts, and this week marks the start of the new NBA season, with TNT and ESPN each featuring 2 nights of doubleheaders.
Yet, all is not well in some of the NFL's TV markets. WTOC-TV Savannah had to defend itself on its own web site and in the media after NFL TV policy prohibited it from showing this past Sunday's Atlanta Falcons game vs. Cincinnati. The market is technically within 75 miles of Jacksonville FL, and as a result, the Jaguars game had to be shown. Since it was an away day for the Jags, the game had to be shown (since home games are not selling out). Granted, that is the rule under the current TV policy set forth by the NFL. One would think that given the staggering amount of money the networks pay the league for TV rights that the fans in various markets would be entitled to the games they would most like to see.
This past Sunday (10/24) also had a telecast schedule changed in San Diego, and it may not have been due to the Chargers. The Chargers' home game vs. New England managed to sell out and the game was shown in the local San Diego market. Hours later it came out that it was the (road team) New England Patriots that used a social media site to announce the availability of tickets for the game in San Diego, targeting fans in Southern California, to help get the remaining tickets sold in time.
With Gus Johnson out of handling New York Knicks play-by-play, his role for the Big Ten Network will expand for the coming college hoops season. Johnson will call approximately 23 games this season, nearly double the number of games his schedule allowed last season. Jim Jackson will return for studio analysis and occasional work on game telecasts. Quinn Buckner has been added to the BTN roster for color commentary when his schedule allows (in addition to color on Indiana Pacers telecasts). BTN has also signed Brian Anderson to call some games. Anderson just completed a full season of baseball for the Milwaukee Brewers TV and TBS Division Series coverage. Wayne Larrivee (Packers), Eric Collins (Dodgers), Dave Revsine, Tom Hart, and Tom Hamilton will also handle play-by-play assignments.
CBS-TV's Greg Gumbel will be the featured speaker on January 18th at the 46th Red Smith Sports Award Banquet in Appleton WI.
MIAMI: The Miami Heat radio station battle remains unsettled (at press time) hours before their much-anticipated season begins. What started over a battle over whether the Heat or the Dolphins would have priority next Sunday (10/31) when both the Heat and Dolphins games are both scheduled to begin at 1 PM ET has resulted in the Heat attempting to terminate their contract with WINZ 940.
While the contract status appears headed to court, WINZ may only be airing the Heat games through next week (Nov. 5). This includes the conflict on Sunday, when the Dolphins broadcast is reportedly being moved to WIOD 610 to give the Heat priority. Mike Inglis and John Crotty are set as the radio team regardless of where the Heat broadcasts wind up. Word is that The Ticket 790 has shown interest in taking over the rights.
NEW YORK: Seth Everett has been added to WFAN's broadcasts of the Nets effective in time for opening night. Everett has previously handled surrounding coverage of the Mets for SNY and for Fox Sports surrounding both Knicks and Nets games, along with hosting shows on ESPN 1050. Chris Carrino and Tim Capstraw continue on play-by-play and analysis.
Ft. MYERS/NAPLES: Florida Gulf Coast University is receiving additional local TV college. "The FGCU Sports Report" will air on Saturday mornings on the local ABC-TV affiliate, and then in the evening on the local NBC-TV sub-station from now until May. Tom James, former Channel 2 sports anchor, hosts the show.
Monday, September 20, 2010
The Broadcast Booth - September 21 update......
One NFL trend is on track for the young 2010 season. TV viewing is already at maximum levels, and the cold weather season has yet to attack the northern states.
CBS-TV is already up about 12% for its Sunday afternoon telecasts compared with last season after these two weeks, while NBC again won the prime-time ratings on Sunday night (9/19) with the Giants vs. Colts game, even though it was not close during the second half.
This really is media "news" as the fans are speaking up that they plan to enjoy this football season.
However, not everything related to the NFL on television is really "news". I cannot believe the number of stories devoted to whether or not certain NFL games sell out and whether or not they will be on TV in local markets. Where a game is televised does not impact my interest in a game as a fan, nor does it have any impact on the outcome, betting lines, or fantasy.
I'm sure the NFL likes these stories plastered all over the media on Thursdays and Fridays - even when games don't sell out. From a marketing standpoint, it hypes the NFL game in the sense that it is "news" when a game is not a complete sellout. But unless there is a betting line somewhere for football fans about certain games selling out or not or an over/under on the number of sellouts each week, there is no reason for this.
What irks me even more is some of the reporters now calling for changes in the NFL's blackout policy, as if this is a crisis because more and more games are not selling out.
More than any other pro sport, the NFL has successfully sold "out of town" games. Maybe too well for their own good in certain NFL markets. When the local NFL team is doing poorly, NOT buying the tickets has become a positive for local NFL fans. Instead of being saddled with a miserable home team performance late in the season, fans instead get to see a matchup with playoff implications, and get to see more meaningful (if not more exciting) games instead.
I, for one, can tell that I have never watched (or not watched) an NFL game because it was or wasn't on in another market. It is not "news" in the sense that some of media continue to make it out to be.
This is not only because of seeing "better" games. These same reporters continue to overlook the cost of these games for NFL fans who do not attend any games in person. They overlook that we are stuck paying inflated cable or satellite bills each month to help pay for the NFL (and other sports) packages. Worse this year is they are now gearing the score and stats boxes on the screen to HD viewers, leaving those still watching in Low Def to struggle to read the scores and information as it appears on the screen.
With higher costs to watch the games, interactive media to help follow, and now for HD TV's and the like, the budget has to come from somewhere. With it really costing this much to watch the NFL (and other leagues) on TV, it's no wonder that people won't spend $200 plus to attend an NFL game in person, and then not have nearly the same amount of information (let alone the personal comfort level) available to them.
It is not news when certain games don't sell out.
On the baseball side, MLB Network emphasizes the Yankees vs. Tampa Bay series during the early part of the week, showing every game it can through Thursday (9/23) when it originates with Bob Costas on the call.
TBS has named Ernie Johnson Jr. as the lead voice for its Division Series and ALCS coverage, working with Ron Darling and John Smoltz. The number-2 crew will feature Red Sox TV voice Don Orsillo along with Buck Martinez.
Additional crews for the Division Series will be Dick Stockton and Bob Brenly, as well as Brian Anderson and Joe Simpson.
TBS will also have its usual cast of thousands in the studio. I might be the only one who finds fault with the "A" team this season. Why are there 2 pitchers on that crew but no "hitters" to comment from the game site? Are they expecting a string of 1 - 0 games?
The AAA Baseball National Championship Game will air on Versus on Tuesday (9/21) night from Oklahoma City in the first of a multi-year deal for Versus to show this.
Versus has already shown a minor league game live this season, when it showed the professional debut of Stephen Strasburg during the Buffalo vs. Syracuse game on June 3rd.
Mike Capps, who just completed his 11th season as the voice of the AAA Round Rock Express, will call the game, while Charlotte Knights Manager (and former Yankees post-season hero) Chris Chambliss will provide analysis.
BOSTON: The Sports Hub 98.5 has come a long way after just one year on the air. The most recent ratings show The Sports Hub finishing ahead of rival WEEI in 25-54 men during both morning and afternoon drive. WEEI won during the 7 to Midnight period, bolstered by Red Sox broadcasts while the team was still in contention.
CHICAGO: The musical chairs game of local TV sportscasters continues. Jill Carlson, whose contract was recently not renewed at WFLD-TV, has emerged as a once per week fill in at WGN Radio, handling Thursday mornings to relieve Northwestern football and basketball voice Dave Eanet. And now filling in on a freelance basis on WFLD-TV is Kerry Sayers. She recently joined The Score 670 for morning updates and also appears on the Big Ten Network after having worked at Comcast SportsNet Chicago.
DETROIT: While the area's pro teams all continue to struggle, it seems to be the talk of the town. 97.1 The Ticket has turned up at number one in the market in the recently released July-August ratings for the 2nd straight month.
WASHINGTON D.C.: WTNT 570 turned all sports as of this week with the focus being on airing ESPN's national lineup.
PHILADELPHIA: With WPHT 1210 airing the Phillies game this coming Saturday (9/25), the Temple vs. Penn State game will be moved to WIP 610. And WIP plans to take advantage, scheduling Rob Charry and Hugh Douglas to do a studio pre-game show starting at 2:00 (for the 3:30 kickoff) before Harry Donahue and Steve Joachim call the game as usual. WIP is also planning an expanded post-game show.
MIAMI: An interesting change of pace was scheduled on Monday (9/20) for the Marlins local broadcast of their late afternoon game vs. the Cardinals. As of press time, 3 of the middle innings were scheduled to have been called by The Ticket 790 afternoon team of Dan LeBatard and Jon Wiener, along with Marlins President David Samson.
Normally, station promotional gimmicks such as this can be annoying to the hardcore fans. In this instance, the addition of the team President is the attraction. After all, we are now into the final two weeks of a failed season for the team.
The LeBatard and Wiener team just beat out WQAM's Sid Rosenberg in men 25-54 in the latest ratings after Rosenberg had finished ahead of them in the 3 prior head-to-head matchups.
St. LOUIS: The wonderful welcome that the Cardinals broadcasts will get for going back to KMOX for next season will create some conflicts. KMOX will continue to carry the NHL Blues and University of Missouri football. The early word is that KMOX will utilize the other CBS Group stations to handle the overflow with KMOX giving priority on a case-by-case basis.
The NFL Rams and St. Louis University basketball remain on WXOS 101.1.
COLUMBUS: This doesn't seem to bother the Blue Jackets, but I continue to believe that these scattered radio arrangements drive the fans nuts. Blue Jacket fans will have to check both the radio and TV listings to find their team's games for the coming season.
97.1 WBNS-FM The Fan will air many of the games. At some point. You see, some of the pre-season contests and then the season opener (against San Jose from Stockholm) will air on WBNS-AM 1460 instead. WWCD 102.5 will carry a couple of pre-season and regular season Saturday broadcasts early on due to conflicts with Ohio State football. George Matthews and Bob McElligott return as the broadcast team for the 10th season (the duration of the team). However, including the pre-season and first week of the regular season, 97.1's first Blue Jackets broadcast won't be until October 15th. "Blue Jackets Sunday Morning Skate" will air on Sundays from 10 to 11 AM on 97.1.
Ft. MYERS/NAPLES: Sister stations WMYR 1410 (Ft. Myers) and WCNZ 1660 (Naples) are serving the transplanted Chicagoans by carrying Chicago Bears broadcasts this season, making these the only stations more than 200 miles away from Chicago to air the Bears Radio Network. These will be in addition to an NFL "Game of the Week" broadcasts and Miami Hurricanes football on Saturdays.
The stations will also air Florida Everblades hockey for the upcoming season, the team's third radio outlet in 3 seasons.
CINCINNATI: WKRC-TV 12 has announced Zach Wells as its new weekend sports anchor and reporter. Wells had a similar position with WXIX-TV until July. He replaces Tara Pachmayer.
HOUSTON: As the NBA Rockets season approaches, it turns out that KTXH-TV 20 will air only 6 regular season games, with Fox Sports Houston carrying as many as 75 games.
The latest radio ratings show KILT taking the lead among men 25-54 passing up KFNC 97.5, but it is a very close race. KFNC retains a slight lead in morning drive, with middays and afternoons being a tight race.
RENO: 94.5 made its debut last week (9/13) with mostly ESPN Radio programming and play-by-play. The station is also carrying Oakland Raiders football this season.
On the schedule side, the SEC television packages get into full swing for this coming Saturday (9/25):
SEC Network, 12:15 ET, UAB at Tennessee
CBS, 3:30 ET, Alabama at Arkansas
ESPNU, 7:00 ET, Kentucky at Florida
FSN, 7:00 ET, Georgia at Miss. State
CSS, 7:30 ET, Fresno State at Ole Miss
ESPN, 7:45 ET, South Carolina at Auburn
ESPN2, 9:00 ET, West Virginia at LSU
CBS-TV is already up about 12% for its Sunday afternoon telecasts compared with last season after these two weeks, while NBC again won the prime-time ratings on Sunday night (9/19) with the Giants vs. Colts game, even though it was not close during the second half.
This really is media "news" as the fans are speaking up that they plan to enjoy this football season.
However, not everything related to the NFL on television is really "news". I cannot believe the number of stories devoted to whether or not certain NFL games sell out and whether or not they will be on TV in local markets. Where a game is televised does not impact my interest in a game as a fan, nor does it have any impact on the outcome, betting lines, or fantasy.
I'm sure the NFL likes these stories plastered all over the media on Thursdays and Fridays - even when games don't sell out. From a marketing standpoint, it hypes the NFL game in the sense that it is "news" when a game is not a complete sellout. But unless there is a betting line somewhere for football fans about certain games selling out or not or an over/under on the number of sellouts each week, there is no reason for this.
What irks me even more is some of the reporters now calling for changes in the NFL's blackout policy, as if this is a crisis because more and more games are not selling out.
More than any other pro sport, the NFL has successfully sold "out of town" games. Maybe too well for their own good in certain NFL markets. When the local NFL team is doing poorly, NOT buying the tickets has become a positive for local NFL fans. Instead of being saddled with a miserable home team performance late in the season, fans instead get to see a matchup with playoff implications, and get to see more meaningful (if not more exciting) games instead.
I, for one, can tell that I have never watched (or not watched) an NFL game because it was or wasn't on in another market. It is not "news" in the sense that some of media continue to make it out to be.
This is not only because of seeing "better" games. These same reporters continue to overlook the cost of these games for NFL fans who do not attend any games in person. They overlook that we are stuck paying inflated cable or satellite bills each month to help pay for the NFL (and other sports) packages. Worse this year is they are now gearing the score and stats boxes on the screen to HD viewers, leaving those still watching in Low Def to struggle to read the scores and information as it appears on the screen.
With higher costs to watch the games, interactive media to help follow, and now for HD TV's and the like, the budget has to come from somewhere. With it really costing this much to watch the NFL (and other leagues) on TV, it's no wonder that people won't spend $200 plus to attend an NFL game in person, and then not have nearly the same amount of information (let alone the personal comfort level) available to them.
It is not news when certain games don't sell out.
On the baseball side, MLB Network emphasizes the Yankees vs. Tampa Bay series during the early part of the week, showing every game it can through Thursday (9/23) when it originates with Bob Costas on the call.
TBS has named Ernie Johnson Jr. as the lead voice for its Division Series and ALCS coverage, working with Ron Darling and John Smoltz. The number-2 crew will feature Red Sox TV voice Don Orsillo along with Buck Martinez.
Additional crews for the Division Series will be Dick Stockton and Bob Brenly, as well as Brian Anderson and Joe Simpson.
TBS will also have its usual cast of thousands in the studio. I might be the only one who finds fault with the "A" team this season. Why are there 2 pitchers on that crew but no "hitters" to comment from the game site? Are they expecting a string of 1 - 0 games?
The AAA Baseball National Championship Game will air on Versus on Tuesday (9/21) night from Oklahoma City in the first of a multi-year deal for Versus to show this.
Versus has already shown a minor league game live this season, when it showed the professional debut of Stephen Strasburg during the Buffalo vs. Syracuse game on June 3rd.
Mike Capps, who just completed his 11th season as the voice of the AAA Round Rock Express, will call the game, while Charlotte Knights Manager (and former Yankees post-season hero) Chris Chambliss will provide analysis.
BOSTON: The Sports Hub 98.5 has come a long way after just one year on the air. The most recent ratings show The Sports Hub finishing ahead of rival WEEI in 25-54 men during both morning and afternoon drive. WEEI won during the 7 to Midnight period, bolstered by Red Sox broadcasts while the team was still in contention.
CHICAGO: The musical chairs game of local TV sportscasters continues. Jill Carlson, whose contract was recently not renewed at WFLD-TV, has emerged as a once per week fill in at WGN Radio, handling Thursday mornings to relieve Northwestern football and basketball voice Dave Eanet. And now filling in on a freelance basis on WFLD-TV is Kerry Sayers. She recently joined The Score 670 for morning updates and also appears on the Big Ten Network after having worked at Comcast SportsNet Chicago.
DETROIT: While the area's pro teams all continue to struggle, it seems to be the talk of the town. 97.1 The Ticket has turned up at number one in the market in the recently released July-August ratings for the 2nd straight month.
WASHINGTON D.C.: WTNT 570 turned all sports as of this week with the focus being on airing ESPN's national lineup.
PHILADELPHIA: With WPHT 1210 airing the Phillies game this coming Saturday (9/25), the Temple vs. Penn State game will be moved to WIP 610. And WIP plans to take advantage, scheduling Rob Charry and Hugh Douglas to do a studio pre-game show starting at 2:00 (for the 3:30 kickoff) before Harry Donahue and Steve Joachim call the game as usual. WIP is also planning an expanded post-game show.
MIAMI: An interesting change of pace was scheduled on Monday (9/20) for the Marlins local broadcast of their late afternoon game vs. the Cardinals. As of press time, 3 of the middle innings were scheduled to have been called by The Ticket 790 afternoon team of Dan LeBatard and Jon Wiener, along with Marlins President David Samson.
Normally, station promotional gimmicks such as this can be annoying to the hardcore fans. In this instance, the addition of the team President is the attraction. After all, we are now into the final two weeks of a failed season for the team.
The LeBatard and Wiener team just beat out WQAM's Sid Rosenberg in men 25-54 in the latest ratings after Rosenberg had finished ahead of them in the 3 prior head-to-head matchups.
St. LOUIS: The wonderful welcome that the Cardinals broadcasts will get for going back to KMOX for next season will create some conflicts. KMOX will continue to carry the NHL Blues and University of Missouri football. The early word is that KMOX will utilize the other CBS Group stations to handle the overflow with KMOX giving priority on a case-by-case basis.
The NFL Rams and St. Louis University basketball remain on WXOS 101.1.
COLUMBUS: This doesn't seem to bother the Blue Jackets, but I continue to believe that these scattered radio arrangements drive the fans nuts. Blue Jacket fans will have to check both the radio and TV listings to find their team's games for the coming season.
97.1 WBNS-FM The Fan will air many of the games. At some point. You see, some of the pre-season contests and then the season opener (against San Jose from Stockholm) will air on WBNS-AM 1460 instead. WWCD 102.5 will carry a couple of pre-season and regular season Saturday broadcasts early on due to conflicts with Ohio State football. George Matthews and Bob McElligott return as the broadcast team for the 10th season (the duration of the team). However, including the pre-season and first week of the regular season, 97.1's first Blue Jackets broadcast won't be until October 15th. "Blue Jackets Sunday Morning Skate" will air on Sundays from 10 to 11 AM on 97.1.
Ft. MYERS/NAPLES: Sister stations WMYR 1410 (Ft. Myers) and WCNZ 1660 (Naples) are serving the transplanted Chicagoans by carrying Chicago Bears broadcasts this season, making these the only stations more than 200 miles away from Chicago to air the Bears Radio Network. These will be in addition to an NFL "Game of the Week" broadcasts and Miami Hurricanes football on Saturdays.
The stations will also air Florida Everblades hockey for the upcoming season, the team's third radio outlet in 3 seasons.
CINCINNATI: WKRC-TV 12 has announced Zach Wells as its new weekend sports anchor and reporter. Wells had a similar position with WXIX-TV until July. He replaces Tara Pachmayer.
HOUSTON: As the NBA Rockets season approaches, it turns out that KTXH-TV 20 will air only 6 regular season games, with Fox Sports Houston carrying as many as 75 games.
The latest radio ratings show KILT taking the lead among men 25-54 passing up KFNC 97.5, but it is a very close race. KFNC retains a slight lead in morning drive, with middays and afternoons being a tight race.
RENO: 94.5 made its debut last week (9/13) with mostly ESPN Radio programming and play-by-play. The station is also carrying Oakland Raiders football this season.
On the schedule side, the SEC television packages get into full swing for this coming Saturday (9/25):
SEC Network, 12:15 ET, UAB at Tennessee
CBS, 3:30 ET, Alabama at Arkansas
ESPNU, 7:00 ET, Kentucky at Florida
FSN, 7:00 ET, Georgia at Miss. State
CSS, 7:30 ET, Fresno State at Ole Miss
ESPN, 7:45 ET, South Carolina at Auburn
ESPN2, 9:00 ET, West Virginia at LSU
Monday, March 8, 2010
Sports Media Report - March 8th update........
Hopefully it's not 'too little too late' for HD Radio, but WJFK 106.7 The Fan in Washington DC is making the effort to make HD Radio appeal to area sports fans. As I suggested months ago, the station has added 2 out-of-area sports stations to its HD mix, along with nearby WJZ-FM from Baltimore. The Fan's HD3 channel now broadcasts WFAN from New York and its HD4 carries WIP from Philadelphia.
Sports fans in the DC area come out winners, at least those few that actually have HD radios. They add at least two more choices for sports talk and information at any given time, while WJFK helps to keep listeners from going to WTEM if they are not enjoying the currently airing topic or program.
Moves such as this, and a couple of pro teams going to HD channels specific to a team, such as the HD radio channel in Pittsburgh devoted to the Penguins, are excellent uses of the HD radio concept which allows for more targeted and niche programming.
Yet, I still contend that sports stations can increase their HD Radio presence with more local flavor. An HD channel programmed locally seems the perfect place to air local high school sports, with the ability to replay games the next day. Let the family of the guy that makes the game-winning shot and his entire family hear the description a couple of times more the next day! In addition, stations could use an HD channel to replay their local pro and college broadcasts. I have to believe that an overnight worker might enjoy hearing the entire broadcast of an hours old game without knowing the score ahead of time to help him or her get through an overnight shift.
This DC addition is a start. I would like to believe that CBS stations elsewhere around the country will also start picking up sports stations from around the country as well to provide more options. Maybe this is the idea that could jump start HD Radio sales and participation.
On another matter, this began as a private e-mail based on a previous commentary, but now deserves to be brought up for discussion. More and more I am hearing sports stations across the country promoting "additional" parts to stories they are covering and discussing on their station web sites.
I can certainly understand the sports stations wanting to increase traffic to the station web site. Depending on who you talk to, the purpose ranges from keeping the audience involved (and from tuning to a competitor) to driving potential customers to more revenue opportunities for the station.
Personally, I'm finding this new practice to be in the early stages of becoming another aggravation. Sorry, but shouldn't "have to" go to the station's web site to hear more about a story or more of an interview. This tells me that the station I have chosen isn't willing to provide me with as complete of coverage as they can.
My feeling is there is a huge difference between "If you missed any of this interview, you can hear it again at www....." and "for more on this story visit www.......".
If a station's web site gives me its coverage and "extra" from the radio station itself, then I now have more reason to ONLY visit the web site when I am online to get the "complete" coverage of those stories I want. It means I don't have to listen to 'partial' coverage of stories I'm interested in and full coverage of stories I am not interested in by taking the time to tune to the sports station in the first place.
Pardon me, but I still would like to think that radio stations are in business to attract listeners, and not to drive them to another media form which does not count toward their primary audience measurement source.
I have long wondered why radio stations which play music often promote how you can purchase what they play from the station's web site. While the station looks at it as another needed revenue source, I look at it as the station giving you fewer reasons to listen to their station. If I can buy just the songs I like and listen to them at my convenience, then I have fewer reasons to listen to that station. Same theory with the sports reports.
Unless the radio exec who disagreed with me via private e-mail is planning to work for a music web site sometime soon, I think he will soon find a declining audience for his station.
Meanwhile, it is a loss for the great MLB Network, but a gain for the L. A. Angels with the hiring of Victor Rojas to become their TV play-by-play voice effective immediately. The opening came about due to the sudden and untimely death of Rory Markas earlier this year. Rojas will work with Mark Gubicza on both FS West and Channel 13 telecasts. Ironically, the outside hiring of Rojas comes after the Angels' decision to reduce to one TV team after a couple years of more than one broadcast team just for television.
Rojas has previously done play-by-play for the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks, having left the Texas job last year to come to MLB Network. Angels radio continues with Terry Smith and Jose Mota on the call.
ESPN Radio is adjusting its daytime lineup as of baseball opening day. Starting on April 5th Scott Van Pelt expands to 3 hours from 1 to 4 PM ET, with Colin Cowherd moving back to its original 10 AM to 1 PM spot.
NASSAU: The Bahamas are about to get their first ever sports talk station, which will begin by the end of this year. Matt Sampsell, most recently with KRIV-TV Houston as a sports reporter until late 2008, has been named Program Director and is expected to hire local talent. The station could also debut in Nassau as the only full-time talk station there.
On the TV side, Versus is preparing to debut "The Daily Line" on April 5th. The nightly one-hour show is scheduled for 6 PM ET and will preview each night's upcoming sports action. What the network hopes will set this show apart is that they plan to include fan participation via phone calls, e-mails, and text messages. In many markets, this show will be on prior to the local or regional 30 minute sports reports which preview the local teams.
Before you dismiss this as Versus doing something to fill the time with sports during the NHL off-season, keep in mind that Comcast owns a stake in Versus. If Comcast allows Versus' "The Daily Line" to make use of the various regional Comcast SportsNet operations (such as SNY in New York and Comcast SportsNet in Philadelphia and Chicago, for example), this actually could become a valuable commodity for early evening sports viewers. Liam McHugh, Jenn Sterger, Reese Waters and Rob DeAngelis will be the hosts.
LOS ANGELES: KSPN 710, the ESPN station, is also making a lineup change on April 5th. "In The Zone" with Brian Long and A. Martinez will broadcast from the ESPN studios at LA Live most weeknights from 6 to 9 PM, and will follow the local "Mason & Ireland" which airs from 2 to 6 PM. To its credit, the station plans to continue to air Mike & Mike live from 3 to 7 AM local time.
SAN DIEGO: Since Dick Enberg's college basketball commitments continue with CBS, Mark Neely will call most of the televised Padres exhibition games this month, with the first one being this coming Sunday (Mar. 14). Neely, who was the Padres' TV voice last season, will then replace Steve Quis on the TV pre and post-game shows when Enberg takes over.
On the radio side, the end of the Padres broadcast tradition may be coming after this season. Not only is Jerry Coleman now working a reduced number of games, but Ted Leitner is back for his 31st and possibly final season in the Padres' booth. For that matter, Andy Masur's contract is also up at the end of this season.
OAKLAND: The Oakland A's not only have a stronger signal this season with KTRB 860 now handling the broadcasts, but will have increased adjacent coverage. Chris Townsend, known for hosting "Sports Overnight America" on the Sports Byline Network, has been brought in to host a one-hour "A's Talk" post-game show. Ken Korach, Ray Fosse, and Vince Cotroneo continue to call the games. Townsend replaces Marty Lurie who recently went across the Bay to join the Giants broadcast team at KNBR.
HOUSTON: David Dalati joined KFNC 97.5 as sports update reporter during afternoon drive, and will provide a daily feature on the Carl Dukes Show. Dalati is well known among sports fans with his having been with KILT and KBME during his 25+ years in the Houston market.
Sports fans in the DC area come out winners, at least those few that actually have HD radios. They add at least two more choices for sports talk and information at any given time, while WJFK helps to keep listeners from going to WTEM if they are not enjoying the currently airing topic or program.
Moves such as this, and a couple of pro teams going to HD channels specific to a team, such as the HD radio channel in Pittsburgh devoted to the Penguins, are excellent uses of the HD radio concept which allows for more targeted and niche programming.
Yet, I still contend that sports stations can increase their HD Radio presence with more local flavor. An HD channel programmed locally seems the perfect place to air local high school sports, with the ability to replay games the next day. Let the family of the guy that makes the game-winning shot and his entire family hear the description a couple of times more the next day! In addition, stations could use an HD channel to replay their local pro and college broadcasts. I have to believe that an overnight worker might enjoy hearing the entire broadcast of an hours old game without knowing the score ahead of time to help him or her get through an overnight shift.
This DC addition is a start. I would like to believe that CBS stations elsewhere around the country will also start picking up sports stations from around the country as well to provide more options. Maybe this is the idea that could jump start HD Radio sales and participation.
On another matter, this began as a private e-mail based on a previous commentary, but now deserves to be brought up for discussion. More and more I am hearing sports stations across the country promoting "additional" parts to stories they are covering and discussing on their station web sites.
I can certainly understand the sports stations wanting to increase traffic to the station web site. Depending on who you talk to, the purpose ranges from keeping the audience involved (and from tuning to a competitor) to driving potential customers to more revenue opportunities for the station.
Personally, I'm finding this new practice to be in the early stages of becoming another aggravation. Sorry, but shouldn't "have to" go to the station's web site to hear more about a story or more of an interview. This tells me that the station I have chosen isn't willing to provide me with as complete of coverage as they can.
My feeling is there is a huge difference between "If you missed any of this interview, you can hear it again at www....." and "for more on this story visit www.......".
If a station's web site gives me its coverage and "extra" from the radio station itself, then I now have more reason to ONLY visit the web site when I am online to get the "complete" coverage of those stories I want. It means I don't have to listen to 'partial' coverage of stories I'm interested in and full coverage of stories I am not interested in by taking the time to tune to the sports station in the first place.
Pardon me, but I still would like to think that radio stations are in business to attract listeners, and not to drive them to another media form which does not count toward their primary audience measurement source.
I have long wondered why radio stations which play music often promote how you can purchase what they play from the station's web site. While the station looks at it as another needed revenue source, I look at it as the station giving you fewer reasons to listen to their station. If I can buy just the songs I like and listen to them at my convenience, then I have fewer reasons to listen to that station. Same theory with the sports reports.
Unless the radio exec who disagreed with me via private e-mail is planning to work for a music web site sometime soon, I think he will soon find a declining audience for his station.
Meanwhile, it is a loss for the great MLB Network, but a gain for the L. A. Angels with the hiring of Victor Rojas to become their TV play-by-play voice effective immediately. The opening came about due to the sudden and untimely death of Rory Markas earlier this year. Rojas will work with Mark Gubicza on both FS West and Channel 13 telecasts. Ironically, the outside hiring of Rojas comes after the Angels' decision to reduce to one TV team after a couple years of more than one broadcast team just for television.
Rojas has previously done play-by-play for the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks, having left the Texas job last year to come to MLB Network. Angels radio continues with Terry Smith and Jose Mota on the call.
ESPN Radio is adjusting its daytime lineup as of baseball opening day. Starting on April 5th Scott Van Pelt expands to 3 hours from 1 to 4 PM ET, with Colin Cowherd moving back to its original 10 AM to 1 PM spot.
NASSAU: The Bahamas are about to get their first ever sports talk station, which will begin by the end of this year. Matt Sampsell, most recently with KRIV-TV Houston as a sports reporter until late 2008, has been named Program Director and is expected to hire local talent. The station could also debut in Nassau as the only full-time talk station there.
On the TV side, Versus is preparing to debut "The Daily Line" on April 5th. The nightly one-hour show is scheduled for 6 PM ET and will preview each night's upcoming sports action. What the network hopes will set this show apart is that they plan to include fan participation via phone calls, e-mails, and text messages. In many markets, this show will be on prior to the local or regional 30 minute sports reports which preview the local teams.
Before you dismiss this as Versus doing something to fill the time with sports during the NHL off-season, keep in mind that Comcast owns a stake in Versus. If Comcast allows Versus' "The Daily Line" to make use of the various regional Comcast SportsNet operations (such as SNY in New York and Comcast SportsNet in Philadelphia and Chicago, for example), this actually could become a valuable commodity for early evening sports viewers. Liam McHugh, Jenn Sterger, Reese Waters and Rob DeAngelis will be the hosts.
LOS ANGELES: KSPN 710, the ESPN station, is also making a lineup change on April 5th. "In The Zone" with Brian Long and A. Martinez will broadcast from the ESPN studios at LA Live most weeknights from 6 to 9 PM, and will follow the local "Mason & Ireland" which airs from 2 to 6 PM. To its credit, the station plans to continue to air Mike & Mike live from 3 to 7 AM local time.
SAN DIEGO: Since Dick Enberg's college basketball commitments continue with CBS, Mark Neely will call most of the televised Padres exhibition games this month, with the first one being this coming Sunday (Mar. 14). Neely, who was the Padres' TV voice last season, will then replace Steve Quis on the TV pre and post-game shows when Enberg takes over.
On the radio side, the end of the Padres broadcast tradition may be coming after this season. Not only is Jerry Coleman now working a reduced number of games, but Ted Leitner is back for his 31st and possibly final season in the Padres' booth. For that matter, Andy Masur's contract is also up at the end of this season.
OAKLAND: The Oakland A's not only have a stronger signal this season with KTRB 860 now handling the broadcasts, but will have increased adjacent coverage. Chris Townsend, known for hosting "Sports Overnight America" on the Sports Byline Network, has been brought in to host a one-hour "A's Talk" post-game show. Ken Korach, Ray Fosse, and Vince Cotroneo continue to call the games. Townsend replaces Marty Lurie who recently went across the Bay to join the Giants broadcast team at KNBR.
HOUSTON: David Dalati joined KFNC 97.5 as sports update reporter during afternoon drive, and will provide a daily feature on the Carl Dukes Show. Dalati is well known among sports fans with his having been with KILT and KBME during his 25+ years in the Houston market.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Sports Media Update - Jan. 27th
Sports radio and the Super Bowl. For this column, these are both the "big game" over the next 10 days. We may actually find out how "big".
The game itself is always a huge audience draw capping off a day which is really more of a national holiday than some of the true national holidays. Over the last few years, especially, many of the local sports stations in larger markets, including some without NFL teams, set up shop for the week leading into the game on press row covering the Super Bowl. Members of the participating teams, along with players and coaches from NFL teams past and present also attend and go up and down the rows of station tables.
Over the years, unless my favorite team is in the game, I have personally reduced the amount of time I spend listening and watching sportcasts during the days leading in to the Super Bowl. I don't like being tired of hearing about the game long before it happens. And from talking with others around the country, I'm definitely not alone in feeling that way.
Why is this year different? I'm sure it's not, at least as far as the sports stations staffing radio row in Miami. But this year we have many of the NFL markets being measured monthly with the PPM system. We have seen steady growth among many of the sports stations, including some markets with more than one sports radio station increase their audience in recent months.
I, for one, will be curious to see if or how the ratings are impacted for the sports stations emphasizing the Super Bowl during the last week of January. The ones not in Indiana or Louisiana, that is.
If the out-of-market sports stations with a table at Super Bowl week show an audience drop after months of increase, maybe we will finally see the end of the hour after hour about the Super Bowl by next year. But if the increase continues, well, then I guess I'll continue my tradition of not listening and watching the endless Super Bowl hype for years to come. But now we will know. The ratings information is distributed every month, rather than every quarter so we will benefit with more specific audience information.
Then again, the TV ratings for the AFC and NFC Championship telecasts were sensational. But that is game action, and not a talk show. Early reports show that Fox had the biggest audience for the NFC game than any TV program (sports or not) other than a Super Bowl since 1998, and that was the Seinfeld finale.
The Colts vs. Jets game was the highest rated AFC Championship game in 24 years.
Now we'll see if those viewers prefer to wait until the Super Bowl game itself, or if they really want to talk about it day after day.
NBA-TV is making more strides this season, its first on some of the larger cable systems. I am looking forward to a new show the network is producing called "Making the Call". The show will focus on rules and regulations. The debut show premieres on Wednesday (Jan. 27) with Ronnie Nunn, the NBA Director of Officiating, as the primary guest. I'm sure there a few head coaches who would have liked to have done the questioning!
The network will be showing plenty of games over the next few days, picking up local telecasts:
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 27 Los Angeles Lakers @ Indiana Pacers
FRIDAY, JAN. 29 Boston Celtics @ Atlanta Hawks
SATURDAY, JAN. 30 Atlanta Hawks @ Orlando Magic
SUNDAY, JAN. 31 Phoenix Suns @ Houston Rockets
It will be interesting to see if the true basketball fans prevail over the big market casual fans for next Tuesday (Feb. 2), when NBA-TV presents its "Fan Night" game. One of the choices is Detroit at New Jersey. That game is only news because one of the those teams will probably win a game. Yet, those are both huge TV markets. The logical choice is Atlanta vs. Oklahoma City in a battle of 2 hot teams making strong playoff runs.
On the baseball side, ESPN has announced some of its upcoming Sunday Night Baseball matchups:
April 4 Opening Night: New York Yankees at Boston
April 11 St. Louis at Milwaukee
April 18 New York Mets at St. Louis
April 25 Atlanta at N.Y. Mets
May 2 N.Y. Mets at Philadelphia
May 9 N.Y. Yankees at Boston
May 16 Philadelphia at Milwaukee
May 23 N.Y. Yankees at N.Y. Mets
May 30 Texas at Minnesota
July 4 Kansas City at L.A. Angels
July 11 Chicago Cubs at L.A. Dodgers
July 18 Philadelphia at Chicago Cubs
Yes, 2 of the first 6 weeks are Yankees vs. Red Sox. As if that is a surprise.
Spring training games could be abundant this season more than ever. No official word yet from MLB Network, which picked up about 30 telecasts last March. ESPN has announced it will televise 10 exhibition games from March 22 through Friday April 2, during the last 2 weeks of exhibition play.
ESPN will kick off the regular season with 5 games on Monday April 5 (making it 6 opening games counting the April 4 Yankees vs. Red Sox telecast). American League fans will enjoy Cleveland at Chicago White Sox and Minnesota at L A Angels. National League fans will enjoy St. Louis at Cincinnati, Chicago Cubs at Atlanta, and San Francisco at Houston.
In addition to its Saturday Game of the Week, Fox-TV might be moving 2 of its telecasts into prime time. USA Today reports that one would be in May and the other in June. As good as that sounds for baseball fans, that seems too early in the season to offer a compelling matchup for prime time.
BOSTON: Baseball fans in the Boston area get an interesting opportunity this Thursday (Jan. 28) evening. The Cambridge Center for Adult Education begins its "Homerun in Harvard Square" seminar series at 6 PM. The guest will be none other than Peter Gammons, now with MLB Network. Upcoming confirmed guests are Tom DiBenedetto, Red Sox partner; Jed Lowrie, Red Sox infielder; and Larry Silverstein, attorney/special counsel to the LA Dodgers. Details at www.ccae.org.
CINCINNATI: Great idea from Fox Sports Ohio to promote the upcoming Reds season. The Network has taken a group of telecasts of significant Reds games from the past 40 years and synced the audio of the radio broadcasts with Marty Brennaman and Joe Nuxhall.
Included in the Monday night series will be Game 4 of the 1970 World Series, Tom Browning's perfect game, the clinching 1976 NLCS game vs. Philadelphia, Tom Seaver's no-hitter vs. St. Louis from 1978, the 1985 game in which Pete Rose breaks the all-time hit record, and Game 7 of the memorable 1975 World Series.
It's too bad that the rest of the country can't enjoy these, especially with the hometown flavor of "Marty and Joe on Reds radio". Here is a regional network producing this, while the nationally available ESPN Classic sticks us with poker, bowling, boxing, and probably tiddly winks in prime time.
BALTIMORE: Anita Marks is no longer a part of afternoon drive on The Fan 105.7, and also shown on MASN, after nearly 4 years. She had been co-hosting the show with Scott Garceau.
SAN FRANCISCO: Extra Sports 860 will no longer be living up to its name as of next week. KTRB will begin running the syndicated Michael Savage show from 3 to 6 PM as of Monday (Feb. 1). No other changes have been announced as of press time, but it seems odd to only take out the afternoon drive sports show.
KANSAS CITY: Former Royals pitcher Paul Splittorff continues to make good progress recovering from the infection which took him away from the majority of Royals telecasts last season. He recently joined Dave Armstrong and Jon Sundvold on a Kansas University basketball broadcast, and plans to join them again for a game or two during February. The number of Royals games Splittorff will work during the upcoming season has yet to be finalized.
LINCOLN: Former Nebraska University linebacker Adrian Fiala will no longer be a part of the Nebraska football broadcast team, which he had been a part of since 1996. He worked with current play-by-play voice Greg Sharpe, as well as Jim Rose and Warren Swain. Sharpe and Matt Davison will handle the call for the 2010 season.
Lincoln's KLMS 1480 AM has officially dumped ESPN Radio and its sports programming after 12 years as a sports station. Whether temporary or not, the station has gone oldies.
The game itself is always a huge audience draw capping off a day which is really more of a national holiday than some of the true national holidays. Over the last few years, especially, many of the local sports stations in larger markets, including some without NFL teams, set up shop for the week leading into the game on press row covering the Super Bowl. Members of the participating teams, along with players and coaches from NFL teams past and present also attend and go up and down the rows of station tables.
Over the years, unless my favorite team is in the game, I have personally reduced the amount of time I spend listening and watching sportcasts during the days leading in to the Super Bowl. I don't like being tired of hearing about the game long before it happens. And from talking with others around the country, I'm definitely not alone in feeling that way.
Why is this year different? I'm sure it's not, at least as far as the sports stations staffing radio row in Miami. But this year we have many of the NFL markets being measured monthly with the PPM system. We have seen steady growth among many of the sports stations, including some markets with more than one sports radio station increase their audience in recent months.
I, for one, will be curious to see if or how the ratings are impacted for the sports stations emphasizing the Super Bowl during the last week of January. The ones not in Indiana or Louisiana, that is.
If the out-of-market sports stations with a table at Super Bowl week show an audience drop after months of increase, maybe we will finally see the end of the hour after hour about the Super Bowl by next year. But if the increase continues, well, then I guess I'll continue my tradition of not listening and watching the endless Super Bowl hype for years to come. But now we will know. The ratings information is distributed every month, rather than every quarter so we will benefit with more specific audience information.
Then again, the TV ratings for the AFC and NFC Championship telecasts were sensational. But that is game action, and not a talk show. Early reports show that Fox had the biggest audience for the NFC game than any TV program (sports or not) other than a Super Bowl since 1998, and that was the Seinfeld finale.
The Colts vs. Jets game was the highest rated AFC Championship game in 24 years.
Now we'll see if those viewers prefer to wait until the Super Bowl game itself, or if they really want to talk about it day after day.
NBA-TV is making more strides this season, its first on some of the larger cable systems. I am looking forward to a new show the network is producing called "Making the Call". The show will focus on rules and regulations. The debut show premieres on Wednesday (Jan. 27) with Ronnie Nunn, the NBA Director of Officiating, as the primary guest. I'm sure there a few head coaches who would have liked to have done the questioning!
The network will be showing plenty of games over the next few days, picking up local telecasts:
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 27 Los Angeles Lakers @ Indiana Pacers
FRIDAY, JAN. 29 Boston Celtics @ Atlanta Hawks
SATURDAY, JAN. 30 Atlanta Hawks @ Orlando Magic
SUNDAY, JAN. 31 Phoenix Suns @ Houston Rockets
It will be interesting to see if the true basketball fans prevail over the big market casual fans for next Tuesday (Feb. 2), when NBA-TV presents its "Fan Night" game. One of the choices is Detroit at New Jersey. That game is only news because one of the those teams will probably win a game. Yet, those are both huge TV markets. The logical choice is Atlanta vs. Oklahoma City in a battle of 2 hot teams making strong playoff runs.
On the baseball side, ESPN has announced some of its upcoming Sunday Night Baseball matchups:
April 4 Opening Night: New York Yankees at Boston
April 11 St. Louis at Milwaukee
April 18 New York Mets at St. Louis
April 25 Atlanta at N.Y. Mets
May 2 N.Y. Mets at Philadelphia
May 9 N.Y. Yankees at Boston
May 16 Philadelphia at Milwaukee
May 23 N.Y. Yankees at N.Y. Mets
May 30 Texas at Minnesota
July 4 Kansas City at L.A. Angels
July 11 Chicago Cubs at L.A. Dodgers
July 18 Philadelphia at Chicago Cubs
Yes, 2 of the first 6 weeks are Yankees vs. Red Sox. As if that is a surprise.
Spring training games could be abundant this season more than ever. No official word yet from MLB Network, which picked up about 30 telecasts last March. ESPN has announced it will televise 10 exhibition games from March 22 through Friday April 2, during the last 2 weeks of exhibition play.
ESPN will kick off the regular season with 5 games on Monday April 5 (making it 6 opening games counting the April 4 Yankees vs. Red Sox telecast). American League fans will enjoy Cleveland at Chicago White Sox and Minnesota at L A Angels. National League fans will enjoy St. Louis at Cincinnati, Chicago Cubs at Atlanta, and San Francisco at Houston.
In addition to its Saturday Game of the Week, Fox-TV might be moving 2 of its telecasts into prime time. USA Today reports that one would be in May and the other in June. As good as that sounds for baseball fans, that seems too early in the season to offer a compelling matchup for prime time.
BOSTON: Baseball fans in the Boston area get an interesting opportunity this Thursday (Jan. 28) evening. The Cambridge Center for Adult Education begins its "Homerun in Harvard Square" seminar series at 6 PM. The guest will be none other than Peter Gammons, now with MLB Network. Upcoming confirmed guests are Tom DiBenedetto, Red Sox partner; Jed Lowrie, Red Sox infielder; and Larry Silverstein, attorney/special counsel to the LA Dodgers. Details at www.ccae.org.
CINCINNATI: Great idea from Fox Sports Ohio to promote the upcoming Reds season. The Network has taken a group of telecasts of significant Reds games from the past 40 years and synced the audio of the radio broadcasts with Marty Brennaman and Joe Nuxhall.
Included in the Monday night series will be Game 4 of the 1970 World Series, Tom Browning's perfect game, the clinching 1976 NLCS game vs. Philadelphia, Tom Seaver's no-hitter vs. St. Louis from 1978, the 1985 game in which Pete Rose breaks the all-time hit record, and Game 7 of the memorable 1975 World Series.
It's too bad that the rest of the country can't enjoy these, especially with the hometown flavor of "Marty and Joe on Reds radio". Here is a regional network producing this, while the nationally available ESPN Classic sticks us with poker, bowling, boxing, and probably tiddly winks in prime time.
BALTIMORE: Anita Marks is no longer a part of afternoon drive on The Fan 105.7, and also shown on MASN, after nearly 4 years. She had been co-hosting the show with Scott Garceau.
SAN FRANCISCO: Extra Sports 860 will no longer be living up to its name as of next week. KTRB will begin running the syndicated Michael Savage show from 3 to 6 PM as of Monday (Feb. 1). No other changes have been announced as of press time, but it seems odd to only take out the afternoon drive sports show.
KANSAS CITY: Former Royals pitcher Paul Splittorff continues to make good progress recovering from the infection which took him away from the majority of Royals telecasts last season. He recently joined Dave Armstrong and Jon Sundvold on a Kansas University basketball broadcast, and plans to join them again for a game or two during February. The number of Royals games Splittorff will work during the upcoming season has yet to be finalized.
LINCOLN: Former Nebraska University linebacker Adrian Fiala will no longer be a part of the Nebraska football broadcast team, which he had been a part of since 1996. He worked with current play-by-play voice Greg Sharpe, as well as Jim Rose and Warren Swain. Sharpe and Matt Davison will handle the call for the 2010 season.
Lincoln's KLMS 1480 AM has officially dumped ESPN Radio and its sports programming after 12 years as a sports station. Whether temporary or not, the station has gone oldies.
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