Fans are pleased to have their NFL football coming back and knowing that the regular season will open as scheduled and plans can be made. We also saw an example of the NFL's media partners jumping on the end of the lockout and adding to the positive vibes felt by the fans. Within 24 hours of the end of the lockout, the networks began to announce their TV schedules for the regular season, as well as pre-season TV schedules.
I mention this because it came at a time when fans knew they could get enthusiastic about the upcoming games knowing they will be played as scheduled. This is exactly what I pointed out last week regarding the NBA's TV partners. While it is understandable that the NBA needs to have a schedule in place, the publicity surrounding its release was tamed due to the current lockout status of the players. Yet, ESPN/ABC, TNT, and the NBA Network came out with their national TV schedules, even within the uncertainty. The NFL took advantage of the timing to announce national TV games, whereas the NBA wasted the opportunity.
Speaking of announcing upcoming telecasts, the Pac-12 Conference TV deal just announced has become more thorough than most originally thought. The Conference is planning to have a national cable network as well as six regional networks including pay-per-view possibilities.
This will all begin next August (2012), with the regional networks based in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and "mountain regions". The Conference will show about 850 live events each year, including approximately 350 events on the national feed. This will include every football and basketball game not carried on a national telecast partner.
ESPN/ABC used this week to, in addition to its NFL telecast schedule, announce its extensive plans for the upcoming college football season. This season will be the first of its 12 season agreement with the ACC, a new 8-year exclusive on BYE home games, and at least 50 games (various conferences) which will only be available via stream on ESPN3.com.
In addition, there will be an increase in games shown on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, along with a "Kickoff Week" stretch of 32 telecasts in 5 days from September 1 thru 5.
BOSTON: WEEI wasted no time in expanding its Patriots and NFL coverage once the lockout ended. Former Pats linebacker, and ESPN analyst, Ted Bruschi will join "The Big Show" with Michael Holley and Glen Ordway on Mondays from 4 to 6 PM during "Patriots Monday". He will also help with the Coach Belichick interview segments each week.
CHICAGO: WMAQ-TV Channel 5 went internal to replace sportscaster Daryl Hawks who passed away this past May. The station is returning Mike Adamle to full-time status. Paula Faris and Peggy Kusinski will continue in their roles.
CINCINNATI: Andy Furman is moving back to afternoons to talk sports on WQRT 1160 starting next Monday (8/1), moving from 7 to 9 AM (which he occupied since January) to the 5 to 7 PM spot. Furman's show is the only pure sports show on the station, and station officials reason that he will be able to secure more guests with the later time slot.
PITTSBURGH: The success of the Pirates this season will also likely impact the team's future on local radio. Now that people care that the team's radio contract is up after the current season, word is that KDKA-FM The Fan is about to enter the bidding for the rights for next season and beyond. However, this may not be the typical bidding war. It will be interesting to see if the Pirates wish to continue to control the advertising, the announcers, and the overall broadcasts, as opposed to selling the rights to the highest bidder.
TAMPA: Now that the NFL is all systems go, WTSP-TV 10 takes over as the pre-season station for the Buccaneers starting a new 2-year agreement. Chris Myers and John Lynch remain as the announcing team. However, the home pre-season games WTSP can televise are not sold out yet. Thus, the possibility remains that the games will not be able to be shown live, thus reducing the overall value of the package. If and as these exhibition games do not sell out, the station would be forced to air the games on tape delay.
SEATTLE/TACOMA: KJR 950 is planning a push for the minor league Tacoma Rainiers by broadcasting its Friday afternoon drive show with Mike Gastineau and Elise Woodward from Cheney Stadium on July 28th and again on August 12th. The game broadcasts air on sister station South Sound Sports 850.
PENSACOLA: While ESPN Radio is leaving some markets. Pensacola will have a full-time AM/FM combo for ESPN Radio starting on August 8th. WBSR 1450 and 101.1 will become the markets only full-time sports station.
Showing posts with label cincinnati. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cincinnati. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
The Broadcast Booth - September 28th Update.....
The Monday Night Football game between Chicago and Green Bay drew the highest viewership for Monday Night Football for this young season around the country.
Chicago area viewers proved once again that the Bears remain the big media draw on TV even as the Blackhawks prepare to defend their Stanley Cup championship. The Bears' last second win over the Green Bay Packers on Monday night (9/27) drew a rating of more than 38 even with some fans struggling to find the telecast.
WLS-TV Channel 7, owned by ABC/ESPN, originally had the rights to show this game (and retains for a later Monday game vs. Minnesota), but elected not to in order to show the series "Dancing With The Stars" live during the same evening. WLS-TV "sold" the game to WCIU-TV instead. WCIU, with a limited promotional budget and no sports staff, hired WGN-TV's sports team of Dan Roan and Rich King to host its local pre-game show. This while WLS-TV was able to use its #1 ranking in overall audience and late night news to promote the ESPN originated telecast.
The result made ABC/ESPN a bigger winner than the Bears. The ESPN version of the telecast outdrew the WCIU-TV simulcast by more than 10 rating points (reported to be 24.2 rating on ESPN compared with 14.1 for WCIU). At the same time, "Dancing..." drew a 17 rating, meaning that it technically had a larger audience than WCIU during that hour.
Thus, ABC/ESPN won big time. ESPN dominated the ratings over a local station's telecast, while "Dancing...." also killed in the ratings. Plus, they made money by selling the rights to WCIU-TV, which in turn spent for staff to get a pre-game show in the mix.
Then I took a look at the (early) Milwaukee ratings, and found that the market scored a 55 rating. (Not as many households as the Chicago area, but a higher percentage of sets in use.) Yet in the Milwaukee market, WISN-TV's simulcast scored a 38+ rating while ESPN came in with just under 17.
Let this underscore my recent point about how fans need to know where their games are being telecast and broadcast. With more and more pro teams going with "split" packages including different TV and radio stations throughout a given week, this should prove that teams need to do more to be sure they are in a consistent location. Viewers and listeners who can't find the games are less likely to purchase tickets and so on.
Back to the Bears vs. Packers game. A major "ooops" for the Packers Radio Network. During the 4th quarter, just prior to the Bears kicking a go-ahead field goal (not the game winner), a signal for a timeout was reversed. However, the Packers Radio Network had already cut away to a commercial. The Bears had already kicked the go-ahead field goal before the Packers' broadcast cut into the first commercial and came back on with the roar of the Chicago crowd still going to then inform listeners of what they had just missed.
Once again, they grow 'em big in Texas. This time it is a big ticket contract extension between Fox Sports Southwest and the Texas Rangers. The two announced a reported 20-year extension of their current deal that doesn't even start until the 2015 season and is worth at least $1 billion even with disputed reports of the total value.
The Rangers obviously benefit the most, knowing they will take in millions upon millions for years to come, regardless of the number of victories the team achieves each season.
This is really about Fox Sports taking steps to remain a force in the marketplace and not wanting to lose out on another top 10 market. Fox Sports already went through the pro teams partnering with Comcast in Chicago (among other cities) and having their local and regional network there disappear a few years ago. By sewing up a deal for more than 20 years, they put themselves in the game for the long run.
While this is understandable, a lot of consumers are panning this story, without realizing that this is the sort of thing that means continued inflated cable and satellite bills each month.
Fox Sports Radio has added an innovative show to its early Saturday morning lineup, at least for the next few weeks. "Stox 'n Jocks", which debuted this past Saturday (9/25) from 7 to 9 AM ET attempts to combine sports and investment topics. Brothers Jon and Pete Najarian (former NFL players turned traders) and Guy Adami co-host the show. This addition comes just after Chicago's WBBM-TV canceled an early morning TV show of the same nature (due to poor ratings), with co-host Mike North then signing to host some weekend shows on Fox Sports Radio.
DALLAS: KRLD has killed off some talk programming to become full-time all news, which includes sports updates at :15 and :45 as of this week. The station remains as the flagship station for Rangers baseball, including the upcoming post-season games. The Rangers have been one of the teams jumping around with its radio broadcasts due to programming conflicts, although it is not yet certain that every Rangers game for next season will be carried by one station.
The Ticket 1310 scored an impressive interview on Monday (9/27) morning when George Dunham and Craig Miller interviewed Rangers GM Jon Daniels. The hosts pulled no punches, getting Daniels to comment on topics such as possibly having post-season games without Josh Hamilton and the current state of the pitching staff.
CHICAGO: The Cubs radio booth could well be changed for the start of the 2011 season. Ron Santo's failing health prevented him from making the Cubs' final road trip to the west coast this week. There has been talk that Santo will be limited to home games plus "close" road games (Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cincinnati) at best for next season. Former pitcher Dave Otto is replacing Santo this week. Meanwhile, play-by-play voice Pat Hughes has yet to be re-signed for next season, although this is reported to be a formality. What is not certain is whether or not Hughes would get more help with actual play-by-play and if Santo would return as a third man in the booth for games he works.
BOSTON: WEEI has extended its radio partnership with the NBA Celtics by announcing a multi-year extension. Sean Grande and Cedric Maxwell are about to return for their 10th season as the broadcast team. The station is also creating "Celtics Thursday", which will include Head Coach Doc Rivers appearing on the Dennis & Callahan Show, Danny Ainge (team President) on with Glenn Ordway and player appearances on the Dale & Holley Show. Certainly a much better approach than the station's adding more fan phone calls within its Red Sox programming. Hopefully they will get the distinction between team personnel on the air ahead of what some fan thinks the team should have done.
PITTSBURGH: While 1250 ESPN continues to phase out local programming between now and the end of the year, the station continues to carry Penn State football and some Steelers related programming including with linebackers James farrior, LaMarr Woodley, and Larry Foote. Sources expect ESPN Radio to be picked up by another station in the market come January.
BALTIMORE: Even with the Orioles playing better since changing managers, it might be too late for 105.7 FM. This is the final week of their radio contract with the team after 4 years. At this point, there aren't even any strong rumors about major interest in the contract, including previous rights holder WBAL 1090.
SAN DIEGO: Change continues on the San Diego sports radio scene. It won't seem like late afternoon anymore as Lee Hamilton shifts to middays on XX Sports starting on Monday (10/4). Darren Smith and Marty Caswell are taking over the 2 to 6 PM slot with Hamilton moving up to 10 AM to 2 PM. The Scott Kaplan and Billy Ray Smith morning show moves back to 6 to 10 AM. Part of the reason for these changes is because XX Sports will no longer carry Jim Rome's show, which also starts next Monday on XTRA Sports 1360. Thus, the Hacksaw is being moved up to presumably keep listeners from following Jim Rome over.
XEPE-AM 1700 will begin carrying ESPN Radio in the San Diego area next Wednesday (10/6) from 2 PM until 9 AM on weekdays and the majority of weekend hours, including all ESPN Radio play-by-play. As a result, the station will air the entire baseball post-season, except for a couple of division playoff games which would start prior to 4 PM ET. The weekday 9 AM to 2 PM times will continue to air financial programming.
CINCINNATI: The area's fans love their local teams on TV, especially when they are doing well. This past Saturday (9/25), the baseball telecast on Fox between the Reds and Padres came in at #1 in the market as the Reds closed in on their first N.L. Central title in years scoring a 5.8 rating. This figure bested the Ohio State vs. Eastern Michigan telecast which scored a 3.2 rating, along with beating the Notre Dame telecast on NBC and Alabama vs. Arkansas on CBS.
Then, on Sunday (9/26) the Bengals' win over Carolina finished as the top rated TV show for all of Sunday in the market with a 60% audience share. By comparison, the local telecast of the CBS doubleheader game between Indianapolis and Denver finished with a 28% share.
The Fox Sports Ohio telecast of the Reds from San Diego (which coincidentally aired after the Bengals game had ended) also was the final "fill-in" broadcast assignment for George Grande, who came out of retirement to call some TV games for the Reds due to Thom Brennaman's football conflicts for Fox Sports.
MIAMI: WQAM 560 is ready for the NHL Panthers season with more surrounding programming than ever before. The station has planned a live special from a local sports bar for next Wednesday (10/6) and will debut the Coach Pete DeBoer Show each Thursday at 4:00 (with Sid Rosenberg). In addition. GM Dale Tallon will have a show with Joe Rose each Tuesday at 9 AM. Tallon's broadcast knack should make a nice fit, given his 15+ seasons as analyst with Pat Foley on Chicago Blackhawks telecasts in the 80's and 90's.
SEATTLE: KIXI 880 has added Washington State Cougar football as of this past Saturday (9/25). This adds signal coverage along with KKOL 1300, KRKO 1380, and KHHO 850 for the Seattle region. The school also streams its broadcasts this season on WSUCougars.com.
In Longview WA KEDO 1400 has gone all Fox Sports Radio from 6 PM to 6 AM on weekdays and starting at Noon on weekends. In addition, KEDO continues to air Seahawks football and Mark Morris and R.A. Long High School football and basketball games.
WINNIPEG: CFRW 1290 has launched an all-sports format including importing ESPN Radio in an attempt to compete with CJOB and its coverage of the Moose and Blue Bomber games. It will be interesting to see if the locals take to NFL broadcasts and coverage as well as Mike & Mike.
BEMIDJI MN: KBUN has added "College Hockey Tonight" to its schedule as of October 15th. The show, co-hosted by Scott Williams and Moose Richards, will air Fridays at 5 PM and be replayed Saturday mornings at 9, and will focus on Bemidji State hockey and the WCHA.
Meanwhile, next week begins the NHL regular season and the NBA pre-season. NBA-TV has announced a full slate of pre-season games, including the Miami Heat's pre-season opener on Oct. 5th vs. Detroit.
Here is the tentative NBA-TV pre-season schedule (ET):
Oct. 4 3 p.m. L.A. Lakers vs. Minnesota Timberwolves at London, England
Oct. 5 7:30 p.m. Detroit at Miami
Oct. 6 2 p.m. New York Knicks vs. Minnesota Timberwolves at Paris
Oct. 7 7 p.m. Boston at New Jersey
Oct. 8 8:30 p.m. Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Miami Heat at Kansas City, Mo.
Oct. 9 7:00 p.m. Indiana Pacers at Houston Rockets
Oct. 10 6:00 p.m. New Orleans Hornets at Orlando Magic
Oct. 11 8:30 p.m. Cleveland Cavaliers at Dallas Mavericks
Oct. 12 7:00 p.m. Boston Celtics at Philadelphia 76ers
Oct. 12 9:30 p.m. L.A. Clippers vs. San Antonio Spurs at Mexico City
Oct. 13 8:00 a.m. New Jersey Nets vs. Houston Rockets at Beijing
Oct. 13 8:00 p.m. Miami Heat at New Orleans Hornets
Oct. 14 7:00 p.m. Milwaukee Bucks at Washington Wizards
Oct. 15 8:00 p.m. Dallas Mavericks at Chicago Bulls
Oct. 16 7:30 a.m. Houston Rockets vs. New Jersey Nets at Guangzhou, China
Oct. 16 10:30 p.m. Denver Nuggets at L.A. Lakers
Oct. 17 10:30 p.m. Utah Jazz or L.A. Clippers at L.A. Lakers
Oct. 18 7:00 p.m. Orlando Magic at Atlanta Hawks
Oct. 19 10:30 p.m. Sacramento Kings at L.A. Clippers
Oct. 20 7:00 p.m. Dallas Mavericks at Orlando Magic
Chicago area viewers proved once again that the Bears remain the big media draw on TV even as the Blackhawks prepare to defend their Stanley Cup championship. The Bears' last second win over the Green Bay Packers on Monday night (9/27) drew a rating of more than 38 even with some fans struggling to find the telecast.
WLS-TV Channel 7, owned by ABC/ESPN, originally had the rights to show this game (and retains for a later Monday game vs. Minnesota), but elected not to in order to show the series "Dancing With The Stars" live during the same evening. WLS-TV "sold" the game to WCIU-TV instead. WCIU, with a limited promotional budget and no sports staff, hired WGN-TV's sports team of Dan Roan and Rich King to host its local pre-game show. This while WLS-TV was able to use its #1 ranking in overall audience and late night news to promote the ESPN originated telecast.
The result made ABC/ESPN a bigger winner than the Bears. The ESPN version of the telecast outdrew the WCIU-TV simulcast by more than 10 rating points (reported to be 24.2 rating on ESPN compared with 14.1 for WCIU). At the same time, "Dancing..." drew a 17 rating, meaning that it technically had a larger audience than WCIU during that hour.
Thus, ABC/ESPN won big time. ESPN dominated the ratings over a local station's telecast, while "Dancing...." also killed in the ratings. Plus, they made money by selling the rights to WCIU-TV, which in turn spent for staff to get a pre-game show in the mix.
Then I took a look at the (early) Milwaukee ratings, and found that the market scored a 55 rating. (Not as many households as the Chicago area, but a higher percentage of sets in use.) Yet in the Milwaukee market, WISN-TV's simulcast scored a 38+ rating while ESPN came in with just under 17.
Let this underscore my recent point about how fans need to know where their games are being telecast and broadcast. With more and more pro teams going with "split" packages including different TV and radio stations throughout a given week, this should prove that teams need to do more to be sure they are in a consistent location. Viewers and listeners who can't find the games are less likely to purchase tickets and so on.
Back to the Bears vs. Packers game. A major "ooops" for the Packers Radio Network. During the 4th quarter, just prior to the Bears kicking a go-ahead field goal (not the game winner), a signal for a timeout was reversed. However, the Packers Radio Network had already cut away to a commercial. The Bears had already kicked the go-ahead field goal before the Packers' broadcast cut into the first commercial and came back on with the roar of the Chicago crowd still going to then inform listeners of what they had just missed.
Once again, they grow 'em big in Texas. This time it is a big ticket contract extension between Fox Sports Southwest and the Texas Rangers. The two announced a reported 20-year extension of their current deal that doesn't even start until the 2015 season and is worth at least $1 billion even with disputed reports of the total value.
The Rangers obviously benefit the most, knowing they will take in millions upon millions for years to come, regardless of the number of victories the team achieves each season.
This is really about Fox Sports taking steps to remain a force in the marketplace and not wanting to lose out on another top 10 market. Fox Sports already went through the pro teams partnering with Comcast in Chicago (among other cities) and having their local and regional network there disappear a few years ago. By sewing up a deal for more than 20 years, they put themselves in the game for the long run.
While this is understandable, a lot of consumers are panning this story, without realizing that this is the sort of thing that means continued inflated cable and satellite bills each month.
Fox Sports Radio has added an innovative show to its early Saturday morning lineup, at least for the next few weeks. "Stox 'n Jocks", which debuted this past Saturday (9/25) from 7 to 9 AM ET attempts to combine sports and investment topics. Brothers Jon and Pete Najarian (former NFL players turned traders) and Guy Adami co-host the show. This addition comes just after Chicago's WBBM-TV canceled an early morning TV show of the same nature (due to poor ratings), with co-host Mike North then signing to host some weekend shows on Fox Sports Radio.
DALLAS: KRLD has killed off some talk programming to become full-time all news, which includes sports updates at :15 and :45 as of this week. The station remains as the flagship station for Rangers baseball, including the upcoming post-season games. The Rangers have been one of the teams jumping around with its radio broadcasts due to programming conflicts, although it is not yet certain that every Rangers game for next season will be carried by one station.
The Ticket 1310 scored an impressive interview on Monday (9/27) morning when George Dunham and Craig Miller interviewed Rangers GM Jon Daniels. The hosts pulled no punches, getting Daniels to comment on topics such as possibly having post-season games without Josh Hamilton and the current state of the pitching staff.
CHICAGO: The Cubs radio booth could well be changed for the start of the 2011 season. Ron Santo's failing health prevented him from making the Cubs' final road trip to the west coast this week. There has been talk that Santo will be limited to home games plus "close" road games (Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cincinnati) at best for next season. Former pitcher Dave Otto is replacing Santo this week. Meanwhile, play-by-play voice Pat Hughes has yet to be re-signed for next season, although this is reported to be a formality. What is not certain is whether or not Hughes would get more help with actual play-by-play and if Santo would return as a third man in the booth for games he works.
BOSTON: WEEI has extended its radio partnership with the NBA Celtics by announcing a multi-year extension. Sean Grande and Cedric Maxwell are about to return for their 10th season as the broadcast team. The station is also creating "Celtics Thursday", which will include Head Coach Doc Rivers appearing on the Dennis & Callahan Show, Danny Ainge (team President) on with Glenn Ordway and player appearances on the Dale & Holley Show. Certainly a much better approach than the station's adding more fan phone calls within its Red Sox programming. Hopefully they will get the distinction between team personnel on the air ahead of what some fan thinks the team should have done.
PITTSBURGH: While 1250 ESPN continues to phase out local programming between now and the end of the year, the station continues to carry Penn State football and some Steelers related programming including with linebackers James farrior, LaMarr Woodley, and Larry Foote. Sources expect ESPN Radio to be picked up by another station in the market come January.
BALTIMORE: Even with the Orioles playing better since changing managers, it might be too late for 105.7 FM. This is the final week of their radio contract with the team after 4 years. At this point, there aren't even any strong rumors about major interest in the contract, including previous rights holder WBAL 1090.
SAN DIEGO: Change continues on the San Diego sports radio scene. It won't seem like late afternoon anymore as Lee Hamilton shifts to middays on XX Sports starting on Monday (10/4). Darren Smith and Marty Caswell are taking over the 2 to 6 PM slot with Hamilton moving up to 10 AM to 2 PM. The Scott Kaplan and Billy Ray Smith morning show moves back to 6 to 10 AM. Part of the reason for these changes is because XX Sports will no longer carry Jim Rome's show, which also starts next Monday on XTRA Sports 1360. Thus, the Hacksaw is being moved up to presumably keep listeners from following Jim Rome over.
XEPE-AM 1700 will begin carrying ESPN Radio in the San Diego area next Wednesday (10/6) from 2 PM until 9 AM on weekdays and the majority of weekend hours, including all ESPN Radio play-by-play. As a result, the station will air the entire baseball post-season, except for a couple of division playoff games which would start prior to 4 PM ET. The weekday 9 AM to 2 PM times will continue to air financial programming.
CINCINNATI: The area's fans love their local teams on TV, especially when they are doing well. This past Saturday (9/25), the baseball telecast on Fox between the Reds and Padres came in at #1 in the market as the Reds closed in on their first N.L. Central title in years scoring a 5.8 rating. This figure bested the Ohio State vs. Eastern Michigan telecast which scored a 3.2 rating, along with beating the Notre Dame telecast on NBC and Alabama vs. Arkansas on CBS.
Then, on Sunday (9/26) the Bengals' win over Carolina finished as the top rated TV show for all of Sunday in the market with a 60% audience share. By comparison, the local telecast of the CBS doubleheader game between Indianapolis and Denver finished with a 28% share.
The Fox Sports Ohio telecast of the Reds from San Diego (which coincidentally aired after the Bengals game had ended) also was the final "fill-in" broadcast assignment for George Grande, who came out of retirement to call some TV games for the Reds due to Thom Brennaman's football conflicts for Fox Sports.
MIAMI: WQAM 560 is ready for the NHL Panthers season with more surrounding programming than ever before. The station has planned a live special from a local sports bar for next Wednesday (10/6) and will debut the Coach Pete DeBoer Show each Thursday at 4:00 (with Sid Rosenberg). In addition. GM Dale Tallon will have a show with Joe Rose each Tuesday at 9 AM. Tallon's broadcast knack should make a nice fit, given his 15+ seasons as analyst with Pat Foley on Chicago Blackhawks telecasts in the 80's and 90's.
SEATTLE: KIXI 880 has added Washington State Cougar football as of this past Saturday (9/25). This adds signal coverage along with KKOL 1300, KRKO 1380, and KHHO 850 for the Seattle region. The school also streams its broadcasts this season on WSUCougars.com.
In Longview WA KEDO 1400 has gone all Fox Sports Radio from 6 PM to 6 AM on weekdays and starting at Noon on weekends. In addition, KEDO continues to air Seahawks football and Mark Morris and R.A. Long High School football and basketball games.
WINNIPEG: CFRW 1290 has launched an all-sports format including importing ESPN Radio in an attempt to compete with CJOB and its coverage of the Moose and Blue Bomber games. It will be interesting to see if the locals take to NFL broadcasts and coverage as well as Mike & Mike.
BEMIDJI MN: KBUN has added "College Hockey Tonight" to its schedule as of October 15th. The show, co-hosted by Scott Williams and Moose Richards, will air Fridays at 5 PM and be replayed Saturday mornings at 9, and will focus on Bemidji State hockey and the WCHA.
Meanwhile, next week begins the NHL regular season and the NBA pre-season. NBA-TV has announced a full slate of pre-season games, including the Miami Heat's pre-season opener on Oct. 5th vs. Detroit.
Here is the tentative NBA-TV pre-season schedule (ET):
Oct. 4 3 p.m. L.A. Lakers vs. Minnesota Timberwolves at London, England
Oct. 5 7:30 p.m. Detroit at Miami
Oct. 6 2 p.m. New York Knicks vs. Minnesota Timberwolves at Paris
Oct. 7 7 p.m. Boston at New Jersey
Oct. 8 8:30 p.m. Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Miami Heat at Kansas City, Mo.
Oct. 9 7:00 p.m. Indiana Pacers at Houston Rockets
Oct. 10 6:00 p.m. New Orleans Hornets at Orlando Magic
Oct. 11 8:30 p.m. Cleveland Cavaliers at Dallas Mavericks
Oct. 12 7:00 p.m. Boston Celtics at Philadelphia 76ers
Oct. 12 9:30 p.m. L.A. Clippers vs. San Antonio Spurs at Mexico City
Oct. 13 8:00 a.m. New Jersey Nets vs. Houston Rockets at Beijing
Oct. 13 8:00 p.m. Miami Heat at New Orleans Hornets
Oct. 14 7:00 p.m. Milwaukee Bucks at Washington Wizards
Oct. 15 8:00 p.m. Dallas Mavericks at Chicago Bulls
Oct. 16 7:30 a.m. Houston Rockets vs. New Jersey Nets at Guangzhou, China
Oct. 16 10:30 p.m. Denver Nuggets at L.A. Lakers
Oct. 17 10:30 p.m. Utah Jazz or L.A. Clippers at L.A. Lakers
Oct. 18 7:00 p.m. Orlando Magic at Atlanta Hawks
Oct. 19 10:30 p.m. Sacramento Kings at L.A. Clippers
Oct. 20 7:00 p.m. Dallas Mavericks at Orlando Magic
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
The Broadcast Booth - September 1 update
Always a catch, and not of the on-the-field variety. MLB Advanced Media has announced a partnership with YouTube to provide free streaming of MLB games within 36 hours of completion along with on-demand feeds of what it terms "every game" from the current season, along with 2009. But before you say "It's about time!", there is that 'catch'.
It looks like you have to be in Japan to have this feature. While fans here in the U.S. still have to pay for it. Isn't it time we ask why?
Shouldn't it be the other way around? To me, fans in Japan should incur a small charge for this service since they have little to no way of viewing MLB games throughout the season. And it should be FREE here in the U.S.
This wouldn't bother me if it weren't for the fact that I, along with millions of other baseball fans, are paying for cable/satellite each month at inflated costs partially because of the sports networks which use our money to pay MLB for the rights to carry the games. Yet, we are subject to blackouts. If only we were refunded for days on which a network we "subscribe" to is blacked out for 3 or more hours.
Now, fans in Japan, thousands of miles away, will be able to watch these games for free?
While techies begin searching for the site that will allow this, here is the actual story:
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=134682&nid=118143
Of course, baseball is not the only sport where fans are subjected to having little to no choice about receiving telecasts.
Still another example in the Denver area and parts of Colorado for this coming Saturday (9/4). The Colorado vs. Colorado State football game kicks off the season in a highly anticipated matchup. And guess what? Local fans of either team have to have DirecTV OR an expanded digital (more expensive) package from Comcast Cable in order to see this game. It will not be shown on a "basic" cable service or over-the-air. Fans around the state don't care about ESPN/ABC covering a ton of other games. For all they collectively contribute each month to cable and (other) satellite provders, they have no choice in the matter.
The technicality here is that Colorado State is considered the home team for the Denver game, thus giving the rights to The MTN.
Thus, for what is estimated to be half of the local TV market, they either have to pony up in a hurry for one telecast or won't be able to watch the game at home.
For those paying the piper, James Bates and Todd Christenson will have the call.
Otherwise, it will be like the old days when you relied on radio to listen to the game. Both KOA 850 and KLZ 560 will have the broadcast. Mark Johnson and Larry Zimmer will have the Colorado call on KOA while Brian Roth makes his State play-by-play debut (replacing Jerry Schemmel who joined the Rockies' baseball booth for this season) with Kevin McGlue on KLZ. At least the radio stations aren't limiting the broadcasts to HD Radio stations and forcing listeners to purchase HD radios in order to hear the game. Sound far fetched? That's what the cable and satellite companies are doing to us.
MIAMI:
As the sports radio competition heats up with the new Dolphins season and a new flagship station, WQAM took the steps to protect its morning drive. Big Dog Joe Rose has reportedly signed a 2-year extension to continue on its morning show.
SAN FRANCISCO: The Bay Area's radio "Big Dog" Gary Radnich of KNBR 680 was very well replaced while on vacation last week. F.P. Santangelo (yes, the former pitcher) filled in for Radnich on the 9 AM to Noon show and handled the shift extremely well. It turned out to be great timing since this was also the week that the Giants' pitching collapsed.
DALLAS: As The Ticket 1310 gets ready for NHL season and its Stars coverage, the station has assigned Matt McClearin to host the pre-game and post-game coverage along with intermissions for the coming season. McClearin will continue to co-host "The Scrubs" from Noon to 2 PM each Saturday.
PHILADELPHIA: Comcast SportsNet has added Lisa Hillary to add to its extensive Flyers coverage for the coming season with John Boruk moving over to the anchor desk. Hillary has plenty of NHL coverage experience, having served with Comcast SportsNet in D.C. on Capitals coverage and on Canada's TSN in the past.
MINNEAPOLIS: Kudos to the NHL's Wild. They are actually making it easy for fans this season. Fans with basic cable or satellite should be able to see all 82 regular season games. Fox Sports North has 50 telecasts scheudled, KSTC-TV has 24 games, and the other 8 are scheduled for national telecasts on Versus.
BALTIMORE: Comcast SportsNet has named Julie Donaldson as an anchor and reporter for its SportsNite shows following a 3-month freelance tryout. Donaldson has anchor experience with SNY New York as well as WHDH-TV Boston. The network has named Jill Sorenson as the beat reporter for the Capitals.
CINCINNATI: Fox Sports Ohio has added the Sept. 16th home game against Arizona to its schedule after losing the Sept. 25th telecast vs. San Diego to Fox Sports as either a regional or national telecast. This means that all but one of the Reds games for the remainder of the season will be televised locally. Their big series against the Cardinals this weekend includes Fox Sports showing the Saturday game at 4:10 ET. The only Reds game not scheduled to be televised is the Sept. 9th afternoon game against Colorado.
TAMPA: No word (as of press time) regarding a new afternoon drive host for ESPN 1040 to start next Tuesday (9/7). The station is running ESPN national programming this week after Marc Benarzyk left the station in a reported "mutual decision".
LOS ANGELES: Congrats to Lawrence Tanter, the long time Public Address voice of the Lakers on being named Program Director of public station K-Jazz KKJZ 88.1. Tanter had been doing weekends at KTWV The Wave.
SCRANTON: Plenty of high school football, including The Game 1340 beginning its play-by-play of 18 games this season including every Friday night. WQMY-TV 53 is also televising a series of games. Yet, the local coverage doesn't stop there. Four of the area schools will have audio of their games online, while the NorthEastPAFootball.com site will carry some of the games along with live scoreboard updates on Friday nights.
SCHEDULE: While college football fans prepare for the season opening feast of televised games, MLB Network again steps up to the plate to provide some key playoff race telecasts this week:
Thursday, Sept. 2 (7 p.m.) N.Y. Mets at Atlanta
Friday, Sept. 3 (8 p.m.) Cincinnati at St. Louis
Saturday, Sept. 4 (7 p.m.) Chicago White Sox at Boston
Have a great and safe Labor Day weekend!
It looks like you have to be in Japan to have this feature. While fans here in the U.S. still have to pay for it. Isn't it time we ask why?
Shouldn't it be the other way around? To me, fans in Japan should incur a small charge for this service since they have little to no way of viewing MLB games throughout the season. And it should be FREE here in the U.S.
This wouldn't bother me if it weren't for the fact that I, along with millions of other baseball fans, are paying for cable/satellite each month at inflated costs partially because of the sports networks which use our money to pay MLB for the rights to carry the games. Yet, we are subject to blackouts. If only we were refunded for days on which a network we "subscribe" to is blacked out for 3 or more hours.
Now, fans in Japan, thousands of miles away, will be able to watch these games for free?
While techies begin searching for the site that will allow this, here is the actual story:
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=134682&nid=118143
Of course, baseball is not the only sport where fans are subjected to having little to no choice about receiving telecasts.
Still another example in the Denver area and parts of Colorado for this coming Saturday (9/4). The Colorado vs. Colorado State football game kicks off the season in a highly anticipated matchup. And guess what? Local fans of either team have to have DirecTV OR an expanded digital (more expensive) package from Comcast Cable in order to see this game. It will not be shown on a "basic" cable service or over-the-air. Fans around the state don't care about ESPN/ABC covering a ton of other games. For all they collectively contribute each month to cable and (other) satellite provders, they have no choice in the matter.
The technicality here is that Colorado State is considered the home team for the Denver game, thus giving the rights to The MTN.
Thus, for what is estimated to be half of the local TV market, they either have to pony up in a hurry for one telecast or won't be able to watch the game at home.
For those paying the piper, James Bates and Todd Christenson will have the call.
Otherwise, it will be like the old days when you relied on radio to listen to the game. Both KOA 850 and KLZ 560 will have the broadcast. Mark Johnson and Larry Zimmer will have the Colorado call on KOA while Brian Roth makes his State play-by-play debut (replacing Jerry Schemmel who joined the Rockies' baseball booth for this season) with Kevin McGlue on KLZ. At least the radio stations aren't limiting the broadcasts to HD Radio stations and forcing listeners to purchase HD radios in order to hear the game. Sound far fetched? That's what the cable and satellite companies are doing to us.
MIAMI:
As the sports radio competition heats up with the new Dolphins season and a new flagship station, WQAM took the steps to protect its morning drive. Big Dog Joe Rose has reportedly signed a 2-year extension to continue on its morning show.
SAN FRANCISCO: The Bay Area's radio "Big Dog" Gary Radnich of KNBR 680 was very well replaced while on vacation last week. F.P. Santangelo (yes, the former pitcher) filled in for Radnich on the 9 AM to Noon show and handled the shift extremely well. It turned out to be great timing since this was also the week that the Giants' pitching collapsed.
DALLAS: As The Ticket 1310 gets ready for NHL season and its Stars coverage, the station has assigned Matt McClearin to host the pre-game and post-game coverage along with intermissions for the coming season. McClearin will continue to co-host "The Scrubs" from Noon to 2 PM each Saturday.
PHILADELPHIA: Comcast SportsNet has added Lisa Hillary to add to its extensive Flyers coverage for the coming season with John Boruk moving over to the anchor desk. Hillary has plenty of NHL coverage experience, having served with Comcast SportsNet in D.C. on Capitals coverage and on Canada's TSN in the past.
MINNEAPOLIS: Kudos to the NHL's Wild. They are actually making it easy for fans this season. Fans with basic cable or satellite should be able to see all 82 regular season games. Fox Sports North has 50 telecasts scheudled, KSTC-TV has 24 games, and the other 8 are scheduled for national telecasts on Versus.
BALTIMORE: Comcast SportsNet has named Julie Donaldson as an anchor and reporter for its SportsNite shows following a 3-month freelance tryout. Donaldson has anchor experience with SNY New York as well as WHDH-TV Boston. The network has named Jill Sorenson as the beat reporter for the Capitals.
CINCINNATI: Fox Sports Ohio has added the Sept. 16th home game against Arizona to its schedule after losing the Sept. 25th telecast vs. San Diego to Fox Sports as either a regional or national telecast. This means that all but one of the Reds games for the remainder of the season will be televised locally. Their big series against the Cardinals this weekend includes Fox Sports showing the Saturday game at 4:10 ET. The only Reds game not scheduled to be televised is the Sept. 9th afternoon game against Colorado.
TAMPA: No word (as of press time) regarding a new afternoon drive host for ESPN 1040 to start next Tuesday (9/7). The station is running ESPN national programming this week after Marc Benarzyk left the station in a reported "mutual decision".
LOS ANGELES: Congrats to Lawrence Tanter, the long time Public Address voice of the Lakers on being named Program Director of public station K-Jazz KKJZ 88.1. Tanter had been doing weekends at KTWV The Wave.
SCRANTON: Plenty of high school football, including The Game 1340 beginning its play-by-play of 18 games this season including every Friday night. WQMY-TV 53 is also televising a series of games. Yet, the local coverage doesn't stop there. Four of the area schools will have audio of their games online, while the NorthEastPAFootball.com site will carry some of the games along with live scoreboard updates on Friday nights.
SCHEDULE: While college football fans prepare for the season opening feast of televised games, MLB Network again steps up to the plate to provide some key playoff race telecasts this week:
Thursday, Sept. 2 (7 p.m.) N.Y. Mets at Atlanta
Friday, Sept. 3 (8 p.m.) Cincinnati at St. Louis
Saturday, Sept. 4 (7 p.m.) Chicago White Sox at Boston
Have a great and safe Labor Day weekend!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Sports Media Report - Feb. 16th update
We have all heard the old expression, "Sometimes I don't know my own strength!", but Dallas SportsRadio 1310 The Ticket certainly has the radio version of that expression to deal with first hand.
The station's annual "Ticketstock" free fan festival this weekend proved to be too popular, especially with Barry Sanders as the headliner. It seems that the crowd that turned out hoping to be one of the lucky ones to score an autograph from the NFL legend was too much for police and security to handle. In years past, this event went smooth and was a tremendous promotion for the station and even the local teams, which send players and management each year to participate.
This past weekend, many fans left disappointed as the crowd became large and partially unruly. What was supposed to be another great promotion for Dallas' most established sports station had station officials huddled up by the end of the weekend and turned into a lesson in crisis management.
Here is the official statement issued by The Ticket on their web site:
"The Staff and Management of Sportsradio 1310 the Ticket is aware of many issues regarding the line up, camping out and policing of the Barry Sanders autograph tickets at Ticketstock this past weekend.
We apologize to anyone that feels slighted or that was left out in securing an autograph ticket for any of our guests after investing many hours waiting in line.
We also apologize to all of our listeners and fans who were disappointed in the way the autograph tickets were handed out. Tickets for all guests are limited, and based on individual agreements with each guest. There is no "standard" number.
Ticketstock is a free event that we have produced for the past 16 years. Over that time, we have been fortunate to have many big name celebrity athletes come out to meet P1s, sign autographs and go on the air— all for free. We charge no admission fee, we don’t charge for autographs like many memorabilia shows do. We are also fortunate that these athletes create such huge demand amongst the general public.
That being said, we unfortunately didn’t have the manpower in place to police the line for 24 hours during the event to prevent line jumpers, line place holders and the like. We have used the honor system in all pervious years with a good deal of success. Unfortunately this year, the honor system didn’t work and a few bad apples spoiled the whole bunch.
Ticket Management has already begun discussing and planning ways in which the autograph distribution will be handled next year and for all upcoming Ticketstock events to avoid these issues in the future. Once final decisions have been made about our changes in policy, that information will be prominently publicized well in advance to all of our listeners, to the general public and to all sports memorabilia dealers.
Thank you for your support of Sportsradio 1310 The Ticket, and of Ticketstock."
I give the station a lot of credit for directly addressing the matter with its listeners and fans, and for promising action so that it does not happen again. When I first heard what had happened, I would have bet the ranch that all we would hear about it would be a quiet cancelation announcement of this event from this point on. Frankly, this is a good lesson in crisis management and reaches above being a radio station.
MINNEAPOLIS: While local sports fans wait to see what will happen while the Twins and Vikings both try to overcome challenges to return to the post-season during 2010, the local sports radio competition could now prove just as interesting.
As the Twins prepare to begin play in a real baseball facility (new outdoor stadium) in just a few weeks, the team also begins the 4th and final year of its radio contract with 1500 KSTP. The station is making it obvious that it wants to retain the Twins for years to come. They did so by announcing that KSTP is prying ESPN Radio away from KFAN 1130, which could be effective by the end of April.
KFAN was the Twin Cities' first sports radio station, starting in 1991 and has had more than its share of success. Now it will face its biggest challenge to date. KSTP could even move long established personalities such as Patrick Reusse and Joe Soucheray, although as of press time there has not been anything further. KSTP has been struggling in recent ratings books, so even a parital format change is no surprise.
Yet, it will be interesting to see how the Twins fare this season, especially early, with weather and a real baseball facility now in play for home games. If the team does not get off to a fast start, retaining the radio rights might not be as hot of an item as it was the past few seasons.
CINCINNATI: In addition to Minneapolis, ESPN is also on the move in Cinci. As of this week (Monday Feb. 15), ESPN Radio has moved to 50,000 watt 1530 AM, including Mike & Mike. In addition to the stronger signal, the ESPN brand will be built around a lot of local and regional play-by-play.
In addition to the Cincinnati Bengals broadcasts, the station will also continue to carry University of Kentucky football and basketball, along with selected University of Louisville football and basketball games. When possible, the station plans to carry play-by-play of ESPN Radio games.
Personally, this sounds like a winner. A ton of local play-by-play, a nice selection of national game broadcasts, and a lot of sports related information shows to surround.
But what of WSAI 1360? It will remain sports, becoming Fox Sports 1360 and will now carry Dan Patrick, Jim Rome, etc. on that frequency.
Further up the dial, Andy Furman began his 5 to 7 PM "Real Talk" show last week (Feb. 8) on WQRT 1160. His first guest was none other than Pete Rose, who reportedly contacted Furman personally and offered to be his first guest.
DETROIT: Another honor for Ernie Harwell. The voice of the Tigers for 42 seasons will receive the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting in New York on May 5th. Word is that Al Kaline will attend the presentation. Harwell is only the 3rd receipient of the sports award, with the others being Scully himself and Dick Enberg. Here's hoping Ernie's health allows him to attend.
OREGON: The radio dial has never and still is not exactly filled to the rim with college baseball broadcasts. Yet, Oregon State baseball will be heard on as many as 8 stations on its baseball network starting in just a few days. KEJO 1240 Corvallis will air every game, with weekend games heard on KPAM 860 in the Portland area. Football and basketball voice Mike Parker will call the games.
FARGO: It is the end of an era, as WDAY-AM will no longer carry North Dakota State football and basketball broadcasts after 27 consecutive years and 43 of the past 46 years. The Fan 740 and The Flag 1100 are reportedly among the other stations now bidding for the package.
GENERAL: This past weekend and much of this week are a nightmare for sports radio stations. At least they make it seem that way. The NFL season ended with the Super Bowl and we didn't have the Pro Bowl to kick around the week after. The NBA All-Star Game took away 4 days of league action. Worse yet, the NHL season is on vacation until next month. The "casual" sports fan had no choice but to try the Olympics and/or NASCAR racing practically unopposed for TV viewing.
Yet, sports radio stations rarely if ever focus on either, at least in the larger markets. I understand that there are still hours and hours to fill, but I contend it doesn't have to be for the purpose of beating a dead horse.
I happened to travel to Philadelphia last week and got a rare chance to tune to Howard Eskin on WIP. I anticipated hearing how a respected and often controversial host would handle "the drought" of very little NBA and NHL action, with baseball still a few days off from training camp. I should have known. All I heard was nearly 2 hours worth of Donovan McNabb and Eagles talk. There was no news. The football season is over.
This is not to pick on Eskin. It was the same thing on other sports stations I sampled, including WSCR Chicago talking about Jay Cutler and the Bears, and WFAN talking about the Giants.
I'm not suggesting I would rather have heard people talking about bobsledding or the speed of the pit crew of their favorite drivers, but I would like to think there is something more exciting to talk about on sports stations when there is a lull.
Meanwhile, it's still mid-February, but ESPN is already starting to unveil its college football schedule for the fall. It kicks off on Labor Day with a pair of college games being played in nearby NFL stadiums. Maryland vs. Navy will meet in Baltimore with Boise State taking on Virginia Tech from D.C.
Here is what has been announced so far, with tons more to come:
Sat, Sep 4 TBD LSU vs. North Carolina (from Atlanta) ESPN
Mon, Sep 6 4 p.m. Navy vs. Maryland (from Baltimore) ESPN
8 p.m. Boise State vs. Virginia Tech (from Landover, Md.) ESPN
Thu, Sep 16 7:30 p.m. Cincinnati at North Carolina State ESPN
Thu, Sep 23 7:30 p.m. Miami at Pittsburgh ESPN
Thu, Oct 28 7:30 p.m. Florida State at North Carolina State ESPN
Thu, Nov 4 7:30 p.m. Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech ESPN
The station's annual "Ticketstock" free fan festival this weekend proved to be too popular, especially with Barry Sanders as the headliner. It seems that the crowd that turned out hoping to be one of the lucky ones to score an autograph from the NFL legend was too much for police and security to handle. In years past, this event went smooth and was a tremendous promotion for the station and even the local teams, which send players and management each year to participate.
This past weekend, many fans left disappointed as the crowd became large and partially unruly. What was supposed to be another great promotion for Dallas' most established sports station had station officials huddled up by the end of the weekend and turned into a lesson in crisis management.
Here is the official statement issued by The Ticket on their web site:
"The Staff and Management of Sportsradio 1310 the Ticket is aware of many issues regarding the line up, camping out and policing of the Barry Sanders autograph tickets at Ticketstock this past weekend.
We apologize to anyone that feels slighted or that was left out in securing an autograph ticket for any of our guests after investing many hours waiting in line.
We also apologize to all of our listeners and fans who were disappointed in the way the autograph tickets were handed out. Tickets for all guests are limited, and based on individual agreements with each guest. There is no "standard" number.
Ticketstock is a free event that we have produced for the past 16 years. Over that time, we have been fortunate to have many big name celebrity athletes come out to meet P1s, sign autographs and go on the air— all for free. We charge no admission fee, we don’t charge for autographs like many memorabilia shows do. We are also fortunate that these athletes create such huge demand amongst the general public.
That being said, we unfortunately didn’t have the manpower in place to police the line for 24 hours during the event to prevent line jumpers, line place holders and the like. We have used the honor system in all pervious years with a good deal of success. Unfortunately this year, the honor system didn’t work and a few bad apples spoiled the whole bunch.
Ticket Management has already begun discussing and planning ways in which the autograph distribution will be handled next year and for all upcoming Ticketstock events to avoid these issues in the future. Once final decisions have been made about our changes in policy, that information will be prominently publicized well in advance to all of our listeners, to the general public and to all sports memorabilia dealers.
Thank you for your support of Sportsradio 1310 The Ticket, and of Ticketstock."
I give the station a lot of credit for directly addressing the matter with its listeners and fans, and for promising action so that it does not happen again. When I first heard what had happened, I would have bet the ranch that all we would hear about it would be a quiet cancelation announcement of this event from this point on. Frankly, this is a good lesson in crisis management and reaches above being a radio station.
MINNEAPOLIS: While local sports fans wait to see what will happen while the Twins and Vikings both try to overcome challenges to return to the post-season during 2010, the local sports radio competition could now prove just as interesting.
As the Twins prepare to begin play in a real baseball facility (new outdoor stadium) in just a few weeks, the team also begins the 4th and final year of its radio contract with 1500 KSTP. The station is making it obvious that it wants to retain the Twins for years to come. They did so by announcing that KSTP is prying ESPN Radio away from KFAN 1130, which could be effective by the end of April.
KFAN was the Twin Cities' first sports radio station, starting in 1991 and has had more than its share of success. Now it will face its biggest challenge to date. KSTP could even move long established personalities such as Patrick Reusse and Joe Soucheray, although as of press time there has not been anything further. KSTP has been struggling in recent ratings books, so even a parital format change is no surprise.
Yet, it will be interesting to see how the Twins fare this season, especially early, with weather and a real baseball facility now in play for home games. If the team does not get off to a fast start, retaining the radio rights might not be as hot of an item as it was the past few seasons.
CINCINNATI: In addition to Minneapolis, ESPN is also on the move in Cinci. As of this week (Monday Feb. 15), ESPN Radio has moved to 50,000 watt 1530 AM, including Mike & Mike. In addition to the stronger signal, the ESPN brand will be built around a lot of local and regional play-by-play.
In addition to the Cincinnati Bengals broadcasts, the station will also continue to carry University of Kentucky football and basketball, along with selected University of Louisville football and basketball games. When possible, the station plans to carry play-by-play of ESPN Radio games.
Personally, this sounds like a winner. A ton of local play-by-play, a nice selection of national game broadcasts, and a lot of sports related information shows to surround.
But what of WSAI 1360? It will remain sports, becoming Fox Sports 1360 and will now carry Dan Patrick, Jim Rome, etc. on that frequency.
Further up the dial, Andy Furman began his 5 to 7 PM "Real Talk" show last week (Feb. 8) on WQRT 1160. His first guest was none other than Pete Rose, who reportedly contacted Furman personally and offered to be his first guest.
DETROIT: Another honor for Ernie Harwell. The voice of the Tigers for 42 seasons will receive the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting in New York on May 5th. Word is that Al Kaline will attend the presentation. Harwell is only the 3rd receipient of the sports award, with the others being Scully himself and Dick Enberg. Here's hoping Ernie's health allows him to attend.
OREGON: The radio dial has never and still is not exactly filled to the rim with college baseball broadcasts. Yet, Oregon State baseball will be heard on as many as 8 stations on its baseball network starting in just a few days. KEJO 1240 Corvallis will air every game, with weekend games heard on KPAM 860 in the Portland area. Football and basketball voice Mike Parker will call the games.
FARGO: It is the end of an era, as WDAY-AM will no longer carry North Dakota State football and basketball broadcasts after 27 consecutive years and 43 of the past 46 years. The Fan 740 and The Flag 1100 are reportedly among the other stations now bidding for the package.
GENERAL: This past weekend and much of this week are a nightmare for sports radio stations. At least they make it seem that way. The NFL season ended with the Super Bowl and we didn't have the Pro Bowl to kick around the week after. The NBA All-Star Game took away 4 days of league action. Worse yet, the NHL season is on vacation until next month. The "casual" sports fan had no choice but to try the Olympics and/or NASCAR racing practically unopposed for TV viewing.
Yet, sports radio stations rarely if ever focus on either, at least in the larger markets. I understand that there are still hours and hours to fill, but I contend it doesn't have to be for the purpose of beating a dead horse.
I happened to travel to Philadelphia last week and got a rare chance to tune to Howard Eskin on WIP. I anticipated hearing how a respected and often controversial host would handle "the drought" of very little NBA and NHL action, with baseball still a few days off from training camp. I should have known. All I heard was nearly 2 hours worth of Donovan McNabb and Eagles talk. There was no news. The football season is over.
This is not to pick on Eskin. It was the same thing on other sports stations I sampled, including WSCR Chicago talking about Jay Cutler and the Bears, and WFAN talking about the Giants.
I'm not suggesting I would rather have heard people talking about bobsledding or the speed of the pit crew of their favorite drivers, but I would like to think there is something more exciting to talk about on sports stations when there is a lull.
Meanwhile, it's still mid-February, but ESPN is already starting to unveil its college football schedule for the fall. It kicks off on Labor Day with a pair of college games being played in nearby NFL stadiums. Maryland vs. Navy will meet in Baltimore with Boise State taking on Virginia Tech from D.C.
Here is what has been announced so far, with tons more to come:
Sat, Sep 4 TBD LSU vs. North Carolina (from Atlanta) ESPN
Mon, Sep 6 4 p.m. Navy vs. Maryland (from Baltimore) ESPN
8 p.m. Boise State vs. Virginia Tech (from Landover, Md.) ESPN
Thu, Sep 16 7:30 p.m. Cincinnati at North Carolina State ESPN
Thu, Sep 23 7:30 p.m. Miami at Pittsburgh ESPN
Thu, Oct 28 7:30 p.m. Florida State at North Carolina State ESPN
Thu, Nov 4 7:30 p.m. Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech ESPN
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Clearance Channel strikes again
Sorry to start off with a sports and media loss, but sorry to learn of the passing of Glen Gondrezick from complications after a September heart transplant at the age of 53. Gondrezick spent 17 years as commentator on UNLV basketball broadcasts following a 6 year NBA career. He had even returned to the microphone this past season after the transplant to join play-by-play voice Jon Sandler. Glen played at UNLV under coach Jery Tarkanian during Tark's first season at UNLV back in 1973-74. He will be missed.
While this past weekend's NFL Draft telecast is not a ratings leader, it does attract a loyal audience over the course of 2 days of coverage. But perhaps the most interesting statistic isn't about the career of a high draft pick. It is the finding that the market that had the highest single market rating for ESPN's coverage during the first five hours on Saturday does not have an NFL team. What it does have is a local university which regularly sends its top players to pro football and obviously adds to its following.
The top local market for the NFL Draft coverage was Columbus OH. The next 4 cities on the list were all NFL cities, as New Orleans, Cleveland, Indianapolis, and Milwaukee round out the top 5 cities.
DALLAS - The long anticipated announcement about Cowboys radio has been made, and it turns out the Cowboys will return to the FM dial, as 105.3 FM The Fan will carry the pre-season, regular season, and any post-season broadcasts starting with the coming season. The Ticket 1310 AM had carried the games for the past 3 seasons but stopped after the originally 5 year rights deal was shortened to 3. The Ticket had won the bidding away from KLUV 98.7 FM which had the previous deal, and remains a sister CBS station to The Fan. This will reportedly be a revenue share, and this time the actual length of the contract has not been disclosed.
We look for long time voices Brad Sham and Babe Laufenberg to continue to anchor the broadcasts, but word is that The Fan will hire the announcers, whereas Sham and Laufenberg have worked for the team itself in recent years. It should be a formality.
The timing is ideal for The Fan, based on the March ratings and how it shows the current state of sports radio in the Metroplex. The key demographic of Men 25-54 showed The Ticket with almost double the daily audience of ESPN 103.3, and more than a 4 ratings point lead over The Fan. Long timer Norm Hitzges continues as a sports talk ratings leader for The Ticket. Got to believe that The Fan is counting down the days until the first Cowboys broadcast.
PHILADELPHIA - After a nearly 4 year rivalry, ESPN 950 and its Mike Massanelli afternoon show has overtaken rival WIP 610 with former partner Howard Eskin in the Men 25-54 demographic for the recently announced March ratings. Actually, Massanelli's increase happened in just one year. Overall WIP continues to whip ESPN 950 but 950 is showing signs of growth over the past couple of months.
MINNEAPOLIS - The minor league baseball St. Paul Saints are considered as being in the biggest market of any minor league team in the country, but now boast major league coverage. Not only are all 96 regular season games broadcast on 1330 AM with Sean Aronson(while some minor league teams do not cover all of the road games), but Saints games will all be televised in some form. The team will have 8 of its Saturday games shown on KSTC-TV 46 (which also shows Timberwolves and Wild games), with Ron Johnson and Dana Kiecker on the call. But the coverage won't stop there. The non-Saturday away games will be seen on the "Saints Cable Network" which consists of local access channels on various systems in the Twin Cities area. In addition, Saints home games can be viewed (free) on www.SaintsBaseball.com.
DENVER - There is hope for fans in nearby Boulder and Parker who have had problems receiving Mile High Sports from KCKK 1510 AM which has carried most Nuggets and Avalanche broadcasts. The station has received FCC approval to increase its night signal from 5,000 to 25,000 watts. The increase will be gradual, with the signal expected to be at 19,000 watts within the month.
HOUSTON - As you probably know by now, Clearance Channel was at it again earlier this week with cutbacks on still more local personalities across the country. Houston sports radio felt the pain as Brad Davies and Craig Roberts are now gone from morning drive on KBME 790. Typical of the Clearance Channel hodge-podge left in its wake is the revised KBME weekday schedule. They now carry Dan Patrick's syndicated show live (which at least is better than those stations which delay it for several hours and air it after previewed games on the show have been played) from 8 to 11 AM. Surviving hosts Ted DeLuca and John Lopez now regularly work a split shift all week, airing from 6 to 8 AM and then coming back from 11 AM to 3 PM.
KTRK-TV Channel 13 laid off Sports Executive Producer Robert Leake.
CINCINNATI - More from Clearance Channel. Sports blogger C. Trent Rosecrans and 3 producers are gone. On the air, WCKY morning host Alan Cutler is gone. At least Cutler still has a position to keep him busy, as he continues in his Sports Director role for nearby WLEX-TV in Lexington.
The adding of still more syndicated programming on WCKY means that only Lance McAlister will be the only local host, handling 3 to 6 PM some weekdays. Of course, with Clearance Channel involved, Lance will share duties among 2 stations, instead hosting the 6 to 9 PM sports talk show on WLW on nights when the Reds do not play. When that happens, Mo Egger will handle the afternoon spot on WCKY. More sports adjustments will be made, as Cutler is also reportedly out as Bengals Radio Network host after 8 seasons. Scott Sloan remains on WLW, but will now handle the "Extra Innings" Reds post-game call-in show.
At this rate, I suppose if a Reds game gets rained out after the scheduled start time, Clearance Channel will probably air a voice tracked sports talk show from another market talking about an American League team for 3 hours.
While this past weekend's NFL Draft telecast is not a ratings leader, it does attract a loyal audience over the course of 2 days of coverage. But perhaps the most interesting statistic isn't about the career of a high draft pick. It is the finding that the market that had the highest single market rating for ESPN's coverage during the first five hours on Saturday does not have an NFL team. What it does have is a local university which regularly sends its top players to pro football and obviously adds to its following.
The top local market for the NFL Draft coverage was Columbus OH. The next 4 cities on the list were all NFL cities, as New Orleans, Cleveland, Indianapolis, and Milwaukee round out the top 5 cities.
DALLAS - The long anticipated announcement about Cowboys radio has been made, and it turns out the Cowboys will return to the FM dial, as 105.3 FM The Fan will carry the pre-season, regular season, and any post-season broadcasts starting with the coming season. The Ticket 1310 AM had carried the games for the past 3 seasons but stopped after the originally 5 year rights deal was shortened to 3. The Ticket had won the bidding away from KLUV 98.7 FM which had the previous deal, and remains a sister CBS station to The Fan. This will reportedly be a revenue share, and this time the actual length of the contract has not been disclosed.
We look for long time voices Brad Sham and Babe Laufenberg to continue to anchor the broadcasts, but word is that The Fan will hire the announcers, whereas Sham and Laufenberg have worked for the team itself in recent years. It should be a formality.
The timing is ideal for The Fan, based on the March ratings and how it shows the current state of sports radio in the Metroplex. The key demographic of Men 25-54 showed The Ticket with almost double the daily audience of ESPN 103.3, and more than a 4 ratings point lead over The Fan. Long timer Norm Hitzges continues as a sports talk ratings leader for The Ticket. Got to believe that The Fan is counting down the days until the first Cowboys broadcast.
PHILADELPHIA - After a nearly 4 year rivalry, ESPN 950 and its Mike Massanelli afternoon show has overtaken rival WIP 610 with former partner Howard Eskin in the Men 25-54 demographic for the recently announced March ratings. Actually, Massanelli's increase happened in just one year. Overall WIP continues to whip ESPN 950 but 950 is showing signs of growth over the past couple of months.
MINNEAPOLIS - The minor league baseball St. Paul Saints are considered as being in the biggest market of any minor league team in the country, but now boast major league coverage. Not only are all 96 regular season games broadcast on 1330 AM with Sean Aronson(while some minor league teams do not cover all of the road games), but Saints games will all be televised in some form. The team will have 8 of its Saturday games shown on KSTC-TV 46 (which also shows Timberwolves and Wild games), with Ron Johnson and Dana Kiecker on the call. But the coverage won't stop there. The non-Saturday away games will be seen on the "Saints Cable Network" which consists of local access channels on various systems in the Twin Cities area. In addition, Saints home games can be viewed (free) on www.SaintsBaseball.com.
DENVER - There is hope for fans in nearby Boulder and Parker who have had problems receiving Mile High Sports from KCKK 1510 AM which has carried most Nuggets and Avalanche broadcasts. The station has received FCC approval to increase its night signal from 5,000 to 25,000 watts. The increase will be gradual, with the signal expected to be at 19,000 watts within the month.
HOUSTON - As you probably know by now, Clearance Channel was at it again earlier this week with cutbacks on still more local personalities across the country. Houston sports radio felt the pain as Brad Davies and Craig Roberts are now gone from morning drive on KBME 790. Typical of the Clearance Channel hodge-podge left in its wake is the revised KBME weekday schedule. They now carry Dan Patrick's syndicated show live (which at least is better than those stations which delay it for several hours and air it after previewed games on the show have been played) from 8 to 11 AM. Surviving hosts Ted DeLuca and John Lopez now regularly work a split shift all week, airing from 6 to 8 AM and then coming back from 11 AM to 3 PM.
KTRK-TV Channel 13 laid off Sports Executive Producer Robert Leake.
CINCINNATI - More from Clearance Channel. Sports blogger C. Trent Rosecrans and 3 producers are gone. On the air, WCKY morning host Alan Cutler is gone. At least Cutler still has a position to keep him busy, as he continues in his Sports Director role for nearby WLEX-TV in Lexington.
The adding of still more syndicated programming on WCKY means that only Lance McAlister will be the only local host, handling 3 to 6 PM some weekdays. Of course, with Clearance Channel involved, Lance will share duties among 2 stations, instead hosting the 6 to 9 PM sports talk show on WLW on nights when the Reds do not play. When that happens, Mo Egger will handle the afternoon spot on WCKY. More sports adjustments will be made, as Cutler is also reportedly out as Bengals Radio Network host after 8 seasons. Scott Sloan remains on WLW, but will now handle the "Extra Innings" Reds post-game call-in show.
At this rate, I suppose if a Reds game gets rained out after the scheduled start time, Clearance Channel will probably air a voice tracked sports talk show from another market talking about an American League team for 3 hours.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Sports Media Report - November 25th Update
As we prepare for a busy Thanksgiving weekend of sports, just a moment to wish everyone a wonderful holiday weekend. While we complain a lot about how certain things are going in sports these days, fans have a lot to be thankful for in terms of the shear number of sports events available to us from Wednesday night right through Sunday night.
We have an abundance of pro and college football telecasts, along with NBA and college hoops, and more hockey than usual, all over the radio and TV. Much of it overlapping, and some at unconventional times.
For example, fans of the Chicago pro sports teams will have the NHL Blackhawks playing late afternoon games on Friday and Saturday. Other than an occasional Saturday and Sunday afternoon back-to-back, I don't recall an NHL team playing day games on both a Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, coincidence has the NBA Bulls playing at Philadelphia at 4:00 PM Chicago time, with the NFL Bears to follow as the Sunday Night NBC game. This is far from the only example, but with earlier games on the NBA and NHL docket plus college tournaments with multiple games, it will be hard to not find something live being shown or broadcast over the next few days. Again, something to be thankful for.
CINCINNATI - A change in the morning on WCKY 1530 as Richard Skinner is out. He is being replaced by Tim Lewis, once known as Big Dog from the former BOB-AM, who moves over from sister station WLW's overnight show. Lewis is now on from 5:30 to 9:00 on weekday mornings.
St. LOUIS - As expected, Pat Parris, known for hosting Cardinals and Blues pre and post-game programming on Fox Sports Midwest, will begin on the new KMVN 101.1 FM on New Year's. He will team with Bryan Burwell on the midday show.
SACRAMENTO: F. P. Santangelo will be back for his fifth season of handling the Giants pre and post-game shows on Comcast SportsNet for 2009, but will not be back on his morning radio gig. The former Giants and A's player has been let go by KHTK 1140 from their morning show in what is believed to be a cost cutting measure by the station. Santangelo was often responsible for getting big name guests on the local show, including Kings co-owner Joe Maloof earlier this month.
TAMPA - WHTO 1470 is no longer sports radio. The station has already flipped to holiday music. However, word is that the station will return with a new format by the first of the year.
MILWAUKEE - The moves by the local CBS-TV affiliate to carry as many of Brett Favre and the N.Y. Jets games as possible this season is becoming a popular one after all. This past Sunday when the Jets ended Tennessee's unbeaten season, the WDJT-TV telecast was the Milwaukee market's most watched sports event of the past weekend. (Granted, the "weekend" does not include the Packers telecast on Monday Night Football.) The N.Y. - Tennessee telecast more than doubled the ratings of the Chicago vs. St. Louis telecast on WITI-TV, even though Chicago entered the game tied for first with the Packers, while Favre and the Jets play in the other Conference.
LOUISVILLE - Change in and on the air at WQKC 93.9. The sports format is being shifted to WAVG 1450 AM within the month and be known as "The Ticket 1450". The station is also expected to increase its ESPN Radio programming roster and decrease use of local personalities. This switch could end the Scott Padgett and Dave Ragone morning drive show, which was also simulcast on WBKI-TV. The 93.9 frequency will begin airing a music oriented format.
We have an abundance of pro and college football telecasts, along with NBA and college hoops, and more hockey than usual, all over the radio and TV. Much of it overlapping, and some at unconventional times.
For example, fans of the Chicago pro sports teams will have the NHL Blackhawks playing late afternoon games on Friday and Saturday. Other than an occasional Saturday and Sunday afternoon back-to-back, I don't recall an NHL team playing day games on both a Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, coincidence has the NBA Bulls playing at Philadelphia at 4:00 PM Chicago time, with the NFL Bears to follow as the Sunday Night NBC game. This is far from the only example, but with earlier games on the NBA and NHL docket plus college tournaments with multiple games, it will be hard to not find something live being shown or broadcast over the next few days. Again, something to be thankful for.
CINCINNATI - A change in the morning on WCKY 1530 as Richard Skinner is out. He is being replaced by Tim Lewis, once known as Big Dog from the former BOB-AM, who moves over from sister station WLW's overnight show. Lewis is now on from 5:30 to 9:00 on weekday mornings.
St. LOUIS - As expected, Pat Parris, known for hosting Cardinals and Blues pre and post-game programming on Fox Sports Midwest, will begin on the new KMVN 101.1 FM on New Year's. He will team with Bryan Burwell on the midday show.
SACRAMENTO: F. P. Santangelo will be back for his fifth season of handling the Giants pre and post-game shows on Comcast SportsNet for 2009, but will not be back on his morning radio gig. The former Giants and A's player has been let go by KHTK 1140 from their morning show in what is believed to be a cost cutting measure by the station. Santangelo was often responsible for getting big name guests on the local show, including Kings co-owner Joe Maloof earlier this month.
TAMPA - WHTO 1470 is no longer sports radio. The station has already flipped to holiday music. However, word is that the station will return with a new format by the first of the year.
MILWAUKEE - The moves by the local CBS-TV affiliate to carry as many of Brett Favre and the N.Y. Jets games as possible this season is becoming a popular one after all. This past Sunday when the Jets ended Tennessee's unbeaten season, the WDJT-TV telecast was the Milwaukee market's most watched sports event of the past weekend. (Granted, the "weekend" does not include the Packers telecast on Monday Night Football.) The N.Y. - Tennessee telecast more than doubled the ratings of the Chicago vs. St. Louis telecast on WITI-TV, even though Chicago entered the game tied for first with the Packers, while Favre and the Jets play in the other Conference.
LOUISVILLE - Change in and on the air at WQKC 93.9. The sports format is being shifted to WAVG 1450 AM within the month and be known as "The Ticket 1450". The station is also expected to increase its ESPN Radio programming roster and decrease use of local personalities. This switch could end the Scott Padgett and Dave Ragone morning drive show, which was also simulcast on WBKI-TV. The 93.9 frequency will begin airing a music oriented format.
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