NFL fans want their football once again this season. The Sunday Night Football opener finished with extremely high ratings, even higher than expected since Dallas and a New York team were included. But I have to wonder if some viewers were burned out by Monday night. Just maybe the Monday Night Football doubleheader was too much for some folks, as the early ratings report for the night was down a bit, although still fairly strong. Not as many viewers as expected were watching when Ron Jaworski used the s-word on ESPN following a play.
At least Jaworski issued his own apology. That's better than ESPN's Bobby Knight who did the same type of slip last college hoops season and then did not apologize, instead leaving that to the play-by-play voice. Since Knight was not knowingly disciplined, I wouldn't expect Jaworski to be either.
Speaking of ESPN, it's interesting that they allow Erin Andrews to be hired as a commercial spokesperson for any entity, let alone a ticket reseller. It seems that a large national ticket reseller has signed Andrews for a sales program targeted toward women. I'm not sure what happened that makes it so acceptable for a reporter to be a 'pitch person' at the same time.
Meanwhile, it is interesting to note how the initial news of the Peyton Manning injury which kept him out of the Colts' opener (and then some) was announced on a national level even before the media which regularly covers the Colts did.
It seems that Colts Vice Chairman Bill Polian, who has not been known as being gracious toward the local media over the years, went on ESPN 1050 in New York before any other media to comment about Manning being out for at least the then upcoming opening game. Hours later, Chris Mortensen of ESPN (nationally) was the one who broke the news about Manning's surgery. While I give major kudos to ESPN 1050 in NYC for breaking this story (as opposed to going with speculation or rumors), this raises the question of why The Fan 1070 in Indianapolis was not the first with this story.
Not only is 1070 The Fan the station which broadcasts the Colts games, but it also happens to be the ESPN Radio affiliate for Indianapolis.
To me, this is an instance where someone should get the blame. However, it's tough to say who. It might not be right to flat out blame The Fan 1070 for not having this story when a member of the team's upper management volunteers to unveil the initial information to a New York station. It's understandable that Mortensen would then get access to the follow up information. After all, ESPN is paying millions and millions of dollars currently, with it getting into the billions, for NFL telecasts and related programming for years to come.
If anything, some degree of blame should go to ESPN in New York because it scooped Indy's 1070 The Fan. If 1070 The Fan was not an ESPN affiliate, I could understand this to some extent. But they are. You would think the ESPN "family" would stick together on what was a huge local and national story. If ESPN's higher ups truly went along with Colts upper management and kept this as a national story, as a few media folks have speculated, then The Fan and other local station management should keep this in mind when the next local rights bidding comes up.
While on one hand, I'm wondering why 1070 The Fan wasn't more on top of the story, on the other I'm thinking about how much NFL fans (and even consumers who don't care about football) actually spend on NFL coverage, and thinking that the local Colts fans were cheated out of coverage.
Yet, we go back to radio station strategies. With the recent trend of moving news and sports AM stations onto FM simulcasts in Philadelphia (WIP) and Chicago (news WBBM added to FM including Bears broadcasts), WEEI in Boston has hopped aboard that bandwagon. Mike-FM turned off the mic, so to speak, and made room for WMKK-FM to simulcast WEEI-AM. This is to compete with WBZ 98.5 the Sports Hub.
While these moves could well increase the ratings of these stations due to combining, I continue to see this as having long term consequences. If and as the AM and FM dials wind up being the same stations with fewer local choices, it will result in even fewer reasons for consumers to keep from jumping to satellite or internet radio. Or, from continuing to listen to streams on phones and other portable devices which totally bypass radio as we knew it.
Yes, this is similar to the music stations selling listeners downloads of the songs they play. While the stations figure they have another revenue stream, encouraging listeners to download the songs they like best gives them reasons to use a device other than radio, have a playlist they really like, and not have to wait through clusters of commercials, contests, voice tracked shows, and the rest.
If it were up to me, these AM/FM combos would not be true simulcasts. What about one station airing the game broadcast as usual, and the other taking phone calls from outside analysts and even a few from fans about the game and the plays as it progresses? Or the "second" station could provide fantasy updates, details about out of town games, highlights from earlier in the game. If radio stations continue to take away and stop innovation, they won't survive against the competition they have allowed to take over.
WEEI did show an increase for the August ratings period, going up .8 in overall audience compared with July. But if the Red Sox September slump continues, it could be an interesting September ratings period even with the FM simulcast.
Still another example of radio giving up some of its uniqueness, and this courtesy of ESPN. As of this week (9/12), ESPNews now carries the video of The Herd with Colin Cowherd and the first two hours of the Scott Van Pelt Show between 10 AM and 3 PM on weekdays.
While I know the "argument" from ESPN is that they air SportsCenter and variations on ESPN and ESPN2 during that time and considered ESPNews as duplicate programming during that time. That's valid. But whether or not you like TV simulcasts of radio shows, these shows should not be carried on ESPNews.
This is the start of another example of how cable TV channels/networks stop doing what they did to gain placement on the various cable and satellite systems. (This is the how MTV rarely shows music programming, TVLand is not "classic TV" that often anymore, argument translating to sports.) ESPNews has had the sole purpose of always having SportsCenter available for fans wanting to get caught up on the latest. Yet, ESPNews has been afraid of "competing" with ESPN, ESPN2, and sometimes ESPNU, rather than compliment these and other channels.
These new TV simulcasts of radio shows mean that for at least 5 hours every weekday ESPNews is no longer doing what they set out to do. Just like ESPN Classic rarely shows the "big 4" sports games of the past like they did when that channel first started. We deserve better than poker and Bulgarian tiddly winks or whatever they put on in prime time these days. Again, whether consumers care about sports or not, millions of people are paying significantly more for our monthly cable or satellite bills, and ESPN is the single biggest factor in that taking place. We should expect each channel to fulfill the role they were created for.
TBS has a rainout to make up for, and has decided to do an MLB doubleheader on Sunday Sept. 25th. After the shock set in that ESPN is actually not going to televise a Yankees-Red Sox game, TBS has indeed scheduled the Boston vs. New York game for 1 PM ET on the 25th. Then, they will televise the San Francisco at Arizona possible showdown at 4 PM ET.
I'm afraid the TBS doubleheader will not go over well, yet is an idea they should seriously look at for next season and beyond. The NFL rules the TV roost, and the AZ vs. S.F. telecast will be going head to head with the Packers vs. the Bears (NFC Championship Game rematch) as the doubleheader game on Fox.
What TBS should look at is the 4 PM ET start time for next season. The TBS Sunday ratings have not set the world on fire. The TBS "argument" is that they go up against local telecasts. My argument to that is how TBS staggers its start times for the telecasts from week to week. I'd bet that many casual fans flip by at 1:30 ET some Sundays and they find a game going on one week and then not for the next 2 weeks. You never know. By always showcasing a west coast game, they would have three American League and three National League stadiums to show games from with multiple choices every week. Fans in the Eastern, Central, and Mountain time zones would know they could always tune in after their earlier local telecasts on Sundays and catch the action on TBS. It would provide them a consistent window.
On the college football scene, CBS has selected the Arkansas at Alabama game as its 3:30 ET featured game on Saturday Sept. 24th.
Fox Sports Radio has moved to replace Tony Bruno on its FSR Evenings show as of this week. Mike North, formerly of Chicago's The Score 670 morning show has been teamed with Rob Dibble for the 3-hour weeknight spot after the two have done some fill-in work on the network. Tony Bruno left his Fox Sports gig to return to Philadelphia and host middays on The Fanatic WPEN 950 and 97.5 starting October 3rd. His simulcast show will be going up against the simulcast of WIP. Both sports stations are gearing up for a busy October as the Phillies begin their post-season run while the Eagles season will be in full swing.
CLEVELAND: Great to have Jim Donovan back in the radio booth calling the Browns games on radio after missing several weeks due to having undergone a bone marrow transplant. Donovan, joined by analyst Doug Dieken, came back for the opener to begin his 13th season of calling the Browns game. In addition, Donovan returns to handle the sportscasts once again on WKYC-TV for the 6 PM and 7 PM newscasts. The 55 year old Donovan has been with Channel 3 since 1985.
VANCOUVER: David Pratt is out from CHUM The Team 1040 after years of co-hosting afternoons. No details given by either Pratt or the station, but it will be interesting to see how this impacts the audience without his "love him or dislike him" style.
TYLER TX: ESPN Radio continues to add affiliates after losing several to Fox Sports Radio earlier this year. KTBB-FM is dropping their talk format to become ESPN 92.1, while sister station KYZS 1490 has changed to ESPN Deportes.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Weathering The TV Networks
Even for all those millions of dollars the sports media still can't control the weather. But the sports media can control itself. It's too soon to know if this will happen more often, but the past weekend's weather delays for football games and a key NASCAR race raise some interesting questions for those in charge of the TV coverage.
Rain or weather delays have been a factor regarding baseball telecasts for years, but very rarely has it come up during football telecasts, only to have several college football games delayed (with one stopped completely) due to severe storm conditions.
Granted, ESPN has an advantage over most other networks during weather delays since it has immediate studio and game resources on which to rely, even when not expected during a football telecast.
On Saturday (9/3) NBC was put in the rare position of what turned out to be lengthy rain delays during its Notre-Dame vs. South Florida telecast that began during the late afternoon hours. The network began by doing an excellent job given the unusual circumstances. It was one instance where having a "reporter" in addition to the broadcast booth actually enhanced the telecast, as Alex Flanagan was able to secure an interview with N.D. Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick. Viewers were brought up to date on what the players could and could not do during the weather delay. Tom Hicks, filling in for Tom Hammond on play-by-play (odd that Hammond would have another NBC assignment ahead of the N.D. season opener), was able to interview Terry McAulay of the Big East Conference regarding the rules and procedures for such weather delays.
Granted, the weather delays totaled more than 2 1/2 hours, NBC wasn't expecting this, and it was not a full slate of other NCAA games on Saturday. Yet, NBC instead opted to replay much of a past Notre Dame game while keeping the South Bend radar and delay information on the screen during a large portion of these delays. I know I'll get the responses that NBC's contract is for Notre Dame games and not with the NCAA. My point is that replaying a past game, no matter how enjoyable at the time it happened for N.D. fans, leaves much of the audience hanging. Or should I say looking for something else to watch. During this time period, there were several other live games still being televised just about everywhere in the country in addition to the ESPN and ABC games.
As one who complains because the networks tend to have way too many studio analysts for pre-game, halftime, and post-game segments because the good ones don't get enough time to comment, this was a situation where it would have helped. Sorry, NBC, but the idea should be to stay live and current. This was the season opener for N.D. No reason there shouldn't have been profiles of players at key positions, an in-depth look at the remaining schedule (at the very least the home games), and more scoreboard updates. Heck, even more info about future opponents would likely have retained the viewing audience ahead of a recorded game from a past season.
NBC was fortunate to have Versus to take over the live coverage into prime time. Normally, I'd be upset about them moving the game, but in this instance I certainly understand that weather delays of this magnitude could not have been anticipated in time to make revised programming arrangements.
On Sunday (9/4)ESPN wound up with weather delays during both its Marshall at West VA football coverage and the its NASCAR rate scheduled for Atlanta. The football game was delayed, and later not completed with the score at the time standing as the final, during its late afternoon time slot. The telecast was scheduled to have ended in time for the NASCAR race, which was also delayed and eventually postponed. Although ESPN hoped to fill the NASCAR delay with the conclusion of the football game, neither took place.
The saving grace is that ESPN has so many "live" resources immediately available, including its College GameDay coverage crew and its NASCAR studio crew. Thus, ESPN was able to offer the live updates, analysis, and coverage of scores, other games, and sports events, that NBC didn't.
I'm sure that there will be more discussion and perhaps policy discussed by the NCAA, member schools, and likely TV network officials, in the very near future, regarding ways to handle these weather delays. Storms such as these do impact player and fan safety, and it's good that the schools consider fan safety given the high cost of attending a game these days.
Hopefully the networks other than ESPN/ABC will be ready with live programming, interviews, and features in the event of future delays.
Meanwhile, while the fallout understandably continues about the startup of the Texas Longhorn Network, the University of Missouri is moving forward with its own TV presentation. To its credit, Missouri is doing it much differently. The Mizzou Network is scheduled to debut on December 1st (thus not for this new football season), and will be internet based. Most of the content will be free, including some live telecasts of lesser sports events. Word is there will also be some shows from football and basketball practices and other behind-the-scenes sports activities, with the idea being for branding rather than revenue, as it should be.
The Mizzou Network will have the rights to show one football game per season (starting in 2012) and any basketball games not already picked up by TV stations or regional/national networks, but may do so as a pay-per-view. Normally, I'm not in favor of pay-per-view of sports events, but if the cost is reasonable, it makes more sense than the Longhorn Network expecting people who do not support the U. of Texas to cough up still more dollars each month to have the channel they might not want. When even some of the large cable/satellite companies aren't carrying the Longhorn Network because of the revenue concerns, it shows you how much out of proportion TV costs have become.
Yet, the Longhorn Network snuck through another aggravating announcement late last week. Now that it won't easily be able to show high school games live as it hoped, the Longhorn Network will now show five home football games of UTSA (University of Texas San Antonio) starting this Saturday (9/10) vs. McMurry. They seem to have overlooked how UTSA is part of the University of Texas. Now it is as though the Network was limited to UT in Austin, and not even for the entire university system. Yes, how nice of the University of Texas to be willing to share some of the millions and millions of dollars it is trying to soak people for with a part of its own system.
On the NHL side, NBC and Versus continue to be aggressive about the NHL on TV for this season, especially as the NBA lockout continues while NHL teams open training camp. Versus now plans to air at least 4 exhibition games nationally. In the past few years, only the NHL Network showed some. It is possible that these will be national feeds of local Comcast SportsNet telecasts to reduce production costs, but understandable since the CSN family is also part of the NBC Sports Network family. Three of the telecasts are Flyers games, already scheduled to be shown on CSN Philadelphia, while the fourth is a Chicago Blackhawks game already scheduled for CSN Chicago:
Sept. 21, 7:00 p.m. – Toronto vs. Philadelphia
Sept. 26, 7:00 p.m. – NY Rangers vs. Philadelphia
Sept. 28, 8:30 p.m. – Detroit vs. Chicago
Sept. 29, 7:00 p.m. – New Jersey vs. Philadelphia (VERSUS)
On the Canadian side, CBC and TSN will each air at least 4 exhibition games, with all featuring at least one of the Canadian teams in action.
In the Atlanta market, efforts are underway to maintain an NHL presence on the regional sports networks. As of press time, an announcement is pending regarding the market receiving a steady diet of Nashville Predators games this coming season. If so, it will be most interesting to see the audience measurements, and see if fans have given up on the NHL or would rally to indicate that Atlanta should again have a team in the league.
SAN DIEGO: As a disappointing season comes to an end for the Padres, it could be end of an era for the team's local radio and TV coverage. The XX Sports Radio contract for the broadcasts is up at the end of this season, with no renewal announced as of yet. Last week, Channel 4 confirmed that it will not televise the Padres after this season. Dick Enberg is, as of press time, the only announcer under contract for 2012, and that's as far as his agreement goes. Mark Grant, Ted Leitner, and Andy Masur have not yet been renewed.
CHICAGO: We have another instance of a current player being signed to a paid media deal, as Comcast SportsNet Chicago has hired White Sox pitcher Jack Peavy for a "Jake's Take" segment to appear as a weekly video diary. The segments are expected to air on White Sox pre-game shows along with some of the network's nightly sports recap shows. Have to wonder about the demand for such a feature, given that the fans have heard enough excuses for Peavy earning close to $2 million per pitching victory this season.
MILWAUKEE: It's not just "any" football for Milwaukee area TV viewers. It's the Super Bowl champion Packers, obviously. This past Thursday (9/1) the Packers final exhibition game vs. Kansas City was on up against the University of Wisconsin's season opener head-to-head. Yet, the meaningless Packers telecast more than doubled the audience of the Badgers' opener of what could be a big bowl season.
PORTLAND ME: WPEI 95.9 has increased area coverage thanks to WLOB-FM 95.5 Topsham dropping its talk format (which continues on its AM) and picking up a simulcast of WPEI as of this week.
CORPUS CHRISTI TX and PENSACOLA FL: After losing several affiliates to Fox Sports Radio, ESPN Radio is taking steps to add more affiliates once again. Corpus Christi's 1440 KEYS went from news/talk to ESPN Radio on Thursday (9/1), while Pensacola's WBSR 1450 dropped its light music format to become "1450 ESPN) this week.
Rain or weather delays have been a factor regarding baseball telecasts for years, but very rarely has it come up during football telecasts, only to have several college football games delayed (with one stopped completely) due to severe storm conditions.
Granted, ESPN has an advantage over most other networks during weather delays since it has immediate studio and game resources on which to rely, even when not expected during a football telecast.
On Saturday (9/3) NBC was put in the rare position of what turned out to be lengthy rain delays during its Notre-Dame vs. South Florida telecast that began during the late afternoon hours. The network began by doing an excellent job given the unusual circumstances. It was one instance where having a "reporter" in addition to the broadcast booth actually enhanced the telecast, as Alex Flanagan was able to secure an interview with N.D. Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick. Viewers were brought up to date on what the players could and could not do during the weather delay. Tom Hicks, filling in for Tom Hammond on play-by-play (odd that Hammond would have another NBC assignment ahead of the N.D. season opener), was able to interview Terry McAulay of the Big East Conference regarding the rules and procedures for such weather delays.
Granted, the weather delays totaled more than 2 1/2 hours, NBC wasn't expecting this, and it was not a full slate of other NCAA games on Saturday. Yet, NBC instead opted to replay much of a past Notre Dame game while keeping the South Bend radar and delay information on the screen during a large portion of these delays. I know I'll get the responses that NBC's contract is for Notre Dame games and not with the NCAA. My point is that replaying a past game, no matter how enjoyable at the time it happened for N.D. fans, leaves much of the audience hanging. Or should I say looking for something else to watch. During this time period, there were several other live games still being televised just about everywhere in the country in addition to the ESPN and ABC games.
As one who complains because the networks tend to have way too many studio analysts for pre-game, halftime, and post-game segments because the good ones don't get enough time to comment, this was a situation where it would have helped. Sorry, NBC, but the idea should be to stay live and current. This was the season opener for N.D. No reason there shouldn't have been profiles of players at key positions, an in-depth look at the remaining schedule (at the very least the home games), and more scoreboard updates. Heck, even more info about future opponents would likely have retained the viewing audience ahead of a recorded game from a past season.
NBC was fortunate to have Versus to take over the live coverage into prime time. Normally, I'd be upset about them moving the game, but in this instance I certainly understand that weather delays of this magnitude could not have been anticipated in time to make revised programming arrangements.
On Sunday (9/4)ESPN wound up with weather delays during both its Marshall at West VA football coverage and the its NASCAR rate scheduled for Atlanta. The football game was delayed, and later not completed with the score at the time standing as the final, during its late afternoon time slot. The telecast was scheduled to have ended in time for the NASCAR race, which was also delayed and eventually postponed. Although ESPN hoped to fill the NASCAR delay with the conclusion of the football game, neither took place.
The saving grace is that ESPN has so many "live" resources immediately available, including its College GameDay coverage crew and its NASCAR studio crew. Thus, ESPN was able to offer the live updates, analysis, and coverage of scores, other games, and sports events, that NBC didn't.
I'm sure that there will be more discussion and perhaps policy discussed by the NCAA, member schools, and likely TV network officials, in the very near future, regarding ways to handle these weather delays. Storms such as these do impact player and fan safety, and it's good that the schools consider fan safety given the high cost of attending a game these days.
Hopefully the networks other than ESPN/ABC will be ready with live programming, interviews, and features in the event of future delays.
Meanwhile, while the fallout understandably continues about the startup of the Texas Longhorn Network, the University of Missouri is moving forward with its own TV presentation. To its credit, Missouri is doing it much differently. The Mizzou Network is scheduled to debut on December 1st (thus not for this new football season), and will be internet based. Most of the content will be free, including some live telecasts of lesser sports events. Word is there will also be some shows from football and basketball practices and other behind-the-scenes sports activities, with the idea being for branding rather than revenue, as it should be.
The Mizzou Network will have the rights to show one football game per season (starting in 2012) and any basketball games not already picked up by TV stations or regional/national networks, but may do so as a pay-per-view. Normally, I'm not in favor of pay-per-view of sports events, but if the cost is reasonable, it makes more sense than the Longhorn Network expecting people who do not support the U. of Texas to cough up still more dollars each month to have the channel they might not want. When even some of the large cable/satellite companies aren't carrying the Longhorn Network because of the revenue concerns, it shows you how much out of proportion TV costs have become.
Yet, the Longhorn Network snuck through another aggravating announcement late last week. Now that it won't easily be able to show high school games live as it hoped, the Longhorn Network will now show five home football games of UTSA (University of Texas San Antonio) starting this Saturday (9/10) vs. McMurry. They seem to have overlooked how UTSA is part of the University of Texas. Now it is as though the Network was limited to UT in Austin, and not even for the entire university system. Yes, how nice of the University of Texas to be willing to share some of the millions and millions of dollars it is trying to soak people for with a part of its own system.
On the NHL side, NBC and Versus continue to be aggressive about the NHL on TV for this season, especially as the NBA lockout continues while NHL teams open training camp. Versus now plans to air at least 4 exhibition games nationally. In the past few years, only the NHL Network showed some. It is possible that these will be national feeds of local Comcast SportsNet telecasts to reduce production costs, but understandable since the CSN family is also part of the NBC Sports Network family. Three of the telecasts are Flyers games, already scheduled to be shown on CSN Philadelphia, while the fourth is a Chicago Blackhawks game already scheduled for CSN Chicago:
Sept. 21, 7:00 p.m. – Toronto vs. Philadelphia
Sept. 26, 7:00 p.m. – NY Rangers vs. Philadelphia
Sept. 28, 8:30 p.m. – Detroit vs. Chicago
Sept. 29, 7:00 p.m. – New Jersey vs. Philadelphia (VERSUS)
On the Canadian side, CBC and TSN will each air at least 4 exhibition games, with all featuring at least one of the Canadian teams in action.
In the Atlanta market, efforts are underway to maintain an NHL presence on the regional sports networks. As of press time, an announcement is pending regarding the market receiving a steady diet of Nashville Predators games this coming season. If so, it will be most interesting to see the audience measurements, and see if fans have given up on the NHL or would rally to indicate that Atlanta should again have a team in the league.
SAN DIEGO: As a disappointing season comes to an end for the Padres, it could be end of an era for the team's local radio and TV coverage. The XX Sports Radio contract for the broadcasts is up at the end of this season, with no renewal announced as of yet. Last week, Channel 4 confirmed that it will not televise the Padres after this season. Dick Enberg is, as of press time, the only announcer under contract for 2012, and that's as far as his agreement goes. Mark Grant, Ted Leitner, and Andy Masur have not yet been renewed.
CHICAGO: We have another instance of a current player being signed to a paid media deal, as Comcast SportsNet Chicago has hired White Sox pitcher Jack Peavy for a "Jake's Take" segment to appear as a weekly video diary. The segments are expected to air on White Sox pre-game shows along with some of the network's nightly sports recap shows. Have to wonder about the demand for such a feature, given that the fans have heard enough excuses for Peavy earning close to $2 million per pitching victory this season.
MILWAUKEE: It's not just "any" football for Milwaukee area TV viewers. It's the Super Bowl champion Packers, obviously. This past Thursday (9/1) the Packers final exhibition game vs. Kansas City was on up against the University of Wisconsin's season opener head-to-head. Yet, the meaningless Packers telecast more than doubled the audience of the Badgers' opener of what could be a big bowl season.
PORTLAND ME: WPEI 95.9 has increased area coverage thanks to WLOB-FM 95.5 Topsham dropping its talk format (which continues on its AM) and picking up a simulcast of WPEI as of this week.
CORPUS CHRISTI TX and PENSACOLA FL: After losing several affiliates to Fox Sports Radio, ESPN Radio is taking steps to add more affiliates once again. Corpus Christi's 1440 KEYS went from news/talk to ESPN Radio on Thursday (9/1), while Pensacola's WBSR 1450 dropped its light music format to become "1450 ESPN) this week.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Universities With Too Much Control
For all of the time the sports media spends on rumors and speculation, it's hard to believe the story about a true reporter in Kentucky has not received the attention it deserves. It seems that Aaron Smith, a reporter for the Kentucky Kernel (which is a student newspaper for the University of Kentucky), is being punished because he interviewed two basketball students "without permission" from the school. As long as there is nothing illegal or in violation, how does a University have this authority?
The first I heard of this story was because it was published via Rueters news wire. The wire service claims in its story that Smith called two basketball players who planned to join the U.K. basketball team as walk-ons, after a U.K. player "leaked" the information on Twitter. Nothing wrong with that. Frankly, it's nice to see a reporter at any level go after the facts instead of going with a "speculation" story that these players would do this.
As a result of Smith's reporting, the University of Kentucky has decided that Smith has "lost his access to interview members of the university's basketball team", acting as if this is some privilege. Keep in mind this is the same school (though not the same personnel) that almost literally ran sportscaster Phil Foster out of town in the mid-70's because he reported a negative RUMOR about Kentucky basketball players.
The sports media should be in an uproar about this, instead of speculating about baseball moves and fantasy football picks this week. If the large conference schools can really determine who gets to interview whom, how much "reporting" do we sports fans really get?
My point is that these colleges and universities have gained too much control when it comes to media. Go back to earlier this year when the U. of Texas TV network was announced. It's only in recent weeks that others in the media and other schools finally realized the consequences. Decisions about what can and can't be televised now need to be made. Thousands of alum of other schools (besides the U. of Texas) are actually contributing to Texas because of part of their cable/satellite monthly fees being used to fund this venture. While these universities pump in millions of dollars - even though tuition and other costs continue to rise.
It's a shame this starts to ruin the excitement many share about the college football season starting within a matter of hours. I guess we can continue to enjoy the games. Just be wary of the interviews.
Speaking of enjoying football, a study by Catalyst Public Relations shows that 42% of NFL fans are using social media DURING games, while 51.5% of college football fans are doing the same during college games. The percentages are, understandably, even higher after the games have ended. There are a couple of ways to look at this trend.
One is that the TV coverage other than the camera shots and replays leaves something to be desired and that viewers would rather concentrate on their phones or computers than what the announcers are saying. Another is that the TV networks and stations should look at ways to become more a part of this participation.
The large networks have not (yet) embraced the possibilities. Suppose there is a time-out leading into a 4th down and 1 yard to go play. Instead of speculating among 3 announcers in the booth and seemingly hundreds "back in the studio", it would be interesting to know what fans of the team on offense would call in that situation. Ask the fans to comment on the televising station or network's social pages, and gather the information. The viewers might pay more attention to the announcing team if they said that "42% of the (offensive team) fans want to see Smith run the ball here", and then see if it happens.
We also are coming up on the NFL season openers, with most of the teams opening on September 11th. As we said a few weeks back when Marv Albert joined the CBS-TV announcing team, Marv could be in competition with son Kenny Albert in a few midwest markets on opening Sunday.
Marv Albert makes his regular season debut with the CBS-TV NFL staff when he calls the early game from Kansas City against Buffalo. At the same time, Kenny Albert will be on Fox-TV calling the Atlanta Falcons at Chicago Bears opener.
Here are the opening Sunday (Sept. 11) announcing assignments:
Detroit Lions @ Tampa Bay Bucs, 1 p.m. ET - FOX -- Chris Myers, Tim Ryan
Atlanta Falcons @ Chicago Bears, 1 p.m. FOX -- Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston
Philadelphia Eagles @ St. Louis Rams, 1 p.m. FOX -- Thom Brennaman, Brian Billick
Pittsburgh Steelers @ Baltimore Ravens, 1 p.m. CBS -- Jim Nantz, Phil Simms
Buffalo Bills @ Kansas City Chiefs, 1 p.m. CBS -- Marv Albert, Rich Gannon
Tennessee Titans @ Jacksonville Jaguars, 1 p.m. CBS -- Ian Eagle, Dan Fouts
Indianapolis Colts @ Houston Texans, 1 p.m. CBS -- Greg Gumbel, Dan Dierdorff
Cincinnati Bengals @ Cleveland Browns, 1 p.m. CBS -- Kevin Harlan, Soloman Wilcots
New York Giants @ Washington Redskins, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Joe Buck, Troy Aikman
Seattle Seahawks @ San Francisco 49ers, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Dick Stockton, John Lynch
Minnesota Vikings @ San Diego Chargers, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Ron Pitts, Jim Mora
Carolina Panthers @ Arizona Cardinals, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Sam Rosen, Chad Pennington
Westwood One begins its national college football broadcasts this week (starting with the 9/2 TCU at Baylor game). The network will have two announcing teams to cover its 26 broadcasts including regular season and some post-season games. John Tautges and Terry Donahue will team up, as will Brian Davis and Eddie George. Brian Davis, who has done Seattle Seahawks play-by-play, is also the voice of the NBA Oklahoma City Thunder telecasts. At least Davis knows for sure he'll be calling games somewhere come November.
Versus continues to beef up its "fresh" sports programming on weeknights with a 6 PM ET block of live studio shows starting next week. Each weeknight will feature a different primary theme, with those being ProFootballTalk, HardballTalk, ProBasketballTalk, ProHockeyTalk, CollegeFootballTalk, InsidetheIrish and ProGolfTalk. When the NHL regular season gets underway in October, the specialty show on game telecast nights will be shortened by 1/2 hour to make way for the network's hockey pre-game shows. Russ Thaler will host "NBC SportsTalk" during that slot on selected nights.
CHICAGO: WLS 890 will continue as the radio home of Notre Dame football for the new season and for at least the two seasons to follow. The station will also air at least 25 N.D. basketball games.
Since the Bears broadcasts are now simulcast on FM and with other larger stations having sports and other programming conflicts, a group of three suburban radio stations will carry at least one NFL broadcast each Sunday for the coming season. WCPY-FM 92.5 serves the west suburbs, WCPQ-FM 99.9 serves the south suburbs, and WCPT 92.7 serves the north suburbs.
WMAQ-TV's digital channel 5.2 has a deal to carry Illinois High School Association football and basketball starting this season, including state playoff games. These telecasts were previously over-the-air.
NEW JERSEY: Eric LeGrand has been named to participate in pre-game, post-game, and halftime of Rutgers football broadcasts for this season. Yet, Eric is not your typical sportscaster-in-waiting. LeGrand was, unfortunately, paralyzed last season during a game while playing for the Rutgers football team, and suffers from a spinal cord injury. A wonderful gesture by the school.
WINNIPEG: Only days away from the start of training camp, the new Winnipeg Jets of the NHL now have their radio and TV deals in place. SportsRadio 1290 will, as expected, carry every exhibition and regular season (and post-season if it happens) game. TSN will televise at least 60 regular season games on "TSN Jets" a part-time TV channel covering portions of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories. TSN will also televise at least five Jets games as part of its national Canadian TV package.
OTTAWA Senators games will continue to air on Team 1200 radio through the 2013-14 season as part of a just announced contract extension. Dean Brown, Gord Wilson, and Dave Schreiber will continue as the broadcast team.
HARRISBURG: Thursday (9/1) marked the debut of 95.3 as ESPN Radio and the end of its time as an R & B station. The sports station will also simulcast on 1400 AM.
GULFPORT: WUJM 96.7 has also changed to ESPN Radio and is now known (as of Monday 8/29) as "Champ 96.7". No word, as of press time, regarding specific local programming.
The first I heard of this story was because it was published via Rueters news wire. The wire service claims in its story that Smith called two basketball players who planned to join the U.K. basketball team as walk-ons, after a U.K. player "leaked" the information on Twitter. Nothing wrong with that. Frankly, it's nice to see a reporter at any level go after the facts instead of going with a "speculation" story that these players would do this.
As a result of Smith's reporting, the University of Kentucky has decided that Smith has "lost his access to interview members of the university's basketball team", acting as if this is some privilege. Keep in mind this is the same school (though not the same personnel) that almost literally ran sportscaster Phil Foster out of town in the mid-70's because he reported a negative RUMOR about Kentucky basketball players.
The sports media should be in an uproar about this, instead of speculating about baseball moves and fantasy football picks this week. If the large conference schools can really determine who gets to interview whom, how much "reporting" do we sports fans really get?
My point is that these colleges and universities have gained too much control when it comes to media. Go back to earlier this year when the U. of Texas TV network was announced. It's only in recent weeks that others in the media and other schools finally realized the consequences. Decisions about what can and can't be televised now need to be made. Thousands of alum of other schools (besides the U. of Texas) are actually contributing to Texas because of part of their cable/satellite monthly fees being used to fund this venture. While these universities pump in millions of dollars - even though tuition and other costs continue to rise.
It's a shame this starts to ruin the excitement many share about the college football season starting within a matter of hours. I guess we can continue to enjoy the games. Just be wary of the interviews.
Speaking of enjoying football, a study by Catalyst Public Relations shows that 42% of NFL fans are using social media DURING games, while 51.5% of college football fans are doing the same during college games. The percentages are, understandably, even higher after the games have ended. There are a couple of ways to look at this trend.
One is that the TV coverage other than the camera shots and replays leaves something to be desired and that viewers would rather concentrate on their phones or computers than what the announcers are saying. Another is that the TV networks and stations should look at ways to become more a part of this participation.
The large networks have not (yet) embraced the possibilities. Suppose there is a time-out leading into a 4th down and 1 yard to go play. Instead of speculating among 3 announcers in the booth and seemingly hundreds "back in the studio", it would be interesting to know what fans of the team on offense would call in that situation. Ask the fans to comment on the televising station or network's social pages, and gather the information. The viewers might pay more attention to the announcing team if they said that "42% of the (offensive team) fans want to see Smith run the ball here", and then see if it happens.
We also are coming up on the NFL season openers, with most of the teams opening on September 11th. As we said a few weeks back when Marv Albert joined the CBS-TV announcing team, Marv could be in competition with son Kenny Albert in a few midwest markets on opening Sunday.
Marv Albert makes his regular season debut with the CBS-TV NFL staff when he calls the early game from Kansas City against Buffalo. At the same time, Kenny Albert will be on Fox-TV calling the Atlanta Falcons at Chicago Bears opener.
Here are the opening Sunday (Sept. 11) announcing assignments:
Detroit Lions @ Tampa Bay Bucs, 1 p.m. ET - FOX -- Chris Myers, Tim Ryan
Atlanta Falcons @ Chicago Bears, 1 p.m. FOX -- Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston
Philadelphia Eagles @ St. Louis Rams, 1 p.m. FOX -- Thom Brennaman, Brian Billick
Pittsburgh Steelers @ Baltimore Ravens, 1 p.m. CBS -- Jim Nantz, Phil Simms
Buffalo Bills @ Kansas City Chiefs, 1 p.m. CBS -- Marv Albert, Rich Gannon
Tennessee Titans @ Jacksonville Jaguars, 1 p.m. CBS -- Ian Eagle, Dan Fouts
Indianapolis Colts @ Houston Texans, 1 p.m. CBS -- Greg Gumbel, Dan Dierdorff
Cincinnati Bengals @ Cleveland Browns, 1 p.m. CBS -- Kevin Harlan, Soloman Wilcots
New York Giants @ Washington Redskins, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Joe Buck, Troy Aikman
Seattle Seahawks @ San Francisco 49ers, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Dick Stockton, John Lynch
Minnesota Vikings @ San Diego Chargers, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Ron Pitts, Jim Mora
Carolina Panthers @ Arizona Cardinals, 4:15 p.m. FOX -- Sam Rosen, Chad Pennington
Westwood One begins its national college football broadcasts this week (starting with the 9/2 TCU at Baylor game). The network will have two announcing teams to cover its 26 broadcasts including regular season and some post-season games. John Tautges and Terry Donahue will team up, as will Brian Davis and Eddie George. Brian Davis, who has done Seattle Seahawks play-by-play, is also the voice of the NBA Oklahoma City Thunder telecasts. At least Davis knows for sure he'll be calling games somewhere come November.
Versus continues to beef up its "fresh" sports programming on weeknights with a 6 PM ET block of live studio shows starting next week. Each weeknight will feature a different primary theme, with those being ProFootballTalk, HardballTalk, ProBasketballTalk, ProHockeyTalk, CollegeFootballTalk, InsidetheIrish and ProGolfTalk. When the NHL regular season gets underway in October, the specialty show on game telecast nights will be shortened by 1/2 hour to make way for the network's hockey pre-game shows. Russ Thaler will host "NBC SportsTalk" during that slot on selected nights.
CHICAGO: WLS 890 will continue as the radio home of Notre Dame football for the new season and for at least the two seasons to follow. The station will also air at least 25 N.D. basketball games.
Since the Bears broadcasts are now simulcast on FM and with other larger stations having sports and other programming conflicts, a group of three suburban radio stations will carry at least one NFL broadcast each Sunday for the coming season. WCPY-FM 92.5 serves the west suburbs, WCPQ-FM 99.9 serves the south suburbs, and WCPT 92.7 serves the north suburbs.
WMAQ-TV's digital channel 5.2 has a deal to carry Illinois High School Association football and basketball starting this season, including state playoff games. These telecasts were previously over-the-air.
NEW JERSEY: Eric LeGrand has been named to participate in pre-game, post-game, and halftime of Rutgers football broadcasts for this season. Yet, Eric is not your typical sportscaster-in-waiting. LeGrand was, unfortunately, paralyzed last season during a game while playing for the Rutgers football team, and suffers from a spinal cord injury. A wonderful gesture by the school.
WINNIPEG: Only days away from the start of training camp, the new Winnipeg Jets of the NHL now have their radio and TV deals in place. SportsRadio 1290 will, as expected, carry every exhibition and regular season (and post-season if it happens) game. TSN will televise at least 60 regular season games on "TSN Jets" a part-time TV channel covering portions of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories. TSN will also televise at least five Jets games as part of its national Canadian TV package.
OTTAWA Senators games will continue to air on Team 1200 radio through the 2013-14 season as part of a just announced contract extension. Dean Brown, Gord Wilson, and Dave Schreiber will continue as the broadcast team.
HARRISBURG: Thursday (9/1) marked the debut of 95.3 as ESPN Radio and the end of its time as an R & B station. The sports station will also simulcast on 1400 AM.
GULFPORT: WUJM 96.7 has also changed to ESPN Radio and is now known (as of Monday 8/29) as "Champ 96.7". No word, as of press time, regarding specific local programming.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
August 23 Update.....
Here we are getting ready for the barrage of sports on TV during the month of September, including the start of the NFL and college football seasons while the baseball races for the post-season will come to an end. But it's also time to look ahead to the October-November period. Although it's too early to tell, it's not a certainty that the NBA will have its scheduled season underway on time at the end of October, just as the World Series is coming to an end.
Yet, NBC and its family of networks are surging forward at high speed to have plenty of NHL action ready for an increasing viewing audience. It could be NBC wishing to show a more aggressive approach toward televising major sports, or it could be positioning for a weeknight audience that may not have a steady diet of NBA telecasts. It is probably a combination of the two.
Whatever the reason, NBC is very active in preparing to cover the upcoming hockey season and kick off its 10-year agreement with the NHL. Versus (which will be called NBC Sports Network starting Jan. 2) now plans 90 nights of "exclusive" NHL coverage, a significant over 54 nights from last season, along with expanded pre and post-game programming.
Even NBC itself is starting earlier than usual, planning an "original six" matchup for the Friday after Thanksgiving between Boston and Detroit during the afternoon. Versus will start the regular season with a doubleheader on opening night, Thursday Oct. 6th and show a total of 7 live games over the season's first 7 nights. NBC and (by then) NBC Sports Network alrady plan to televise 10 games during the final 7 days of the regular season to gear up for next spring's Stanley Cup playoffs. In a significant upgrade, NBC and NBC Sports Network will have telecasts of every Stanley Cup playoff game, even if on a regional basis, for the first two rounds of the post-season. Then, they will carry exclusive telecasts of the both Conference semi-finals and, as always, the Stanley Cup Finals.
NBC Sports Network will also have flex scheduling for its new Sunday Night NHL games. This is all in addition to an increased schedule of games picked up by NHL Network, bringing NHL action to many hockey fans just about every night during the season. If the NBA isn't ready, the NHL will be.
If and as the NBA season gets going, TNT and NBA-TV have added a new studio host for their telecasts. But he's a familiar face. Vince Cellini returns to Turner Sports and will host "GameTime" on NBA-TV during the season, working on nights Ernie Johnson doesn't. Cellini anchored sports on CNN in the late 80's back when CNN had regularly scheduled extended sportscasts.
MIAMI: The replacing of the late Jim Mandich on the Dolphins' radio team took all the way into the exhibition game season, but it's hard to question the choice. None other than Bob Griese will be the third man in the booth, joining Jimmy Cefalo and Joe Rose on WINZ 940. The team was able to talk Griese out of retirement, since Bob had left ABC/ESPN after 24 years as an analyst there. Of course, Griese stayed close to the Dolphins, using his Augusts to appear on Dolphins exhibition game telecasts for more than 20 years.
DETROIT: Local fans want to watch a winner, or in the case of this past Friday (8/19), two of them. The Tigers were playing the first game of their big weekend series vs. the Cleveland Indians at home, while the Lions happened to be playing in Cleveland at the same time. The Tigers game had a slightly higher rating for its Fox Sports Detroit telecast, made even more impressive when you realize that more than 40,000 attended the game in Detroit. (That would be at least one more ratings point if they could only watch on TV instead.) The Lions' win over Cleveland ran about an hour after the Tigers game ended, and the football ratings on WXYZ-TV increased more than 20% during that period.
Fox Sports Detroit is adding a weekly half-hour high school football score and highlights show, starting this coming Friday (8/26). Friday Football Overtime will air at Midnight late Friday and again at 11 AM each Saturday. FSD will also air the high school football state playoffs in October and November.
While Philadelphia adds an FM simulcast to its all-sports station there, Detroit is losing its version. The highly rated WXYT-FM The Ticket will lose its simulcast on 1270 AM after four years as of September 12th. The AM station will air syndicated (non-sports) talk shows, while 97.1 continues as is.
PITTSBURGH: Penguins telecasts will again have the announcing team of Paul Steigerwald and Bob Errey calling at least 70 games on Root Sports. The pair was without a contract following last season and just signed what was announced as a multi-year deal.
LOS ANGELES: It's a long long way from his 25+ seasons of calling Dodgers games, but 72-year old Ross Porter has taken an assignment to call some high school football and basketball games for a streaming web site operated by IBN. Porter will do a "prep football game of the week" most Friday nights, along with some basketball games and other program features for the site.
MEMPHIS: ESPN 680 + 92.9 has added the Memphis Grizzlies play-by-play to its lineup starting, well, whenever the next season does. To beef up its Grizzlies coverage, play-by-play voice Eric Hasseltine now hosts the 2 to 4 PM sports talk show. The station also carries Tennessee Titans football.
SARASOTA: WTMY 1280 has changed to all sports and become The Sports Fanatic. At this point, its weekday local shows are Rich Spedaliere with "Spitz On Sports" from 6 to 9 AM and "The Sports Ministry" from 3 to 6 PM, with Fox Sports Radio filling up the remainder. It will also air Florida State football along with Riverview High School games.
Yet, NBC and its family of networks are surging forward at high speed to have plenty of NHL action ready for an increasing viewing audience. It could be NBC wishing to show a more aggressive approach toward televising major sports, or it could be positioning for a weeknight audience that may not have a steady diet of NBA telecasts. It is probably a combination of the two.
Whatever the reason, NBC is very active in preparing to cover the upcoming hockey season and kick off its 10-year agreement with the NHL. Versus (which will be called NBC Sports Network starting Jan. 2) now plans 90 nights of "exclusive" NHL coverage, a significant over 54 nights from last season, along with expanded pre and post-game programming.
Even NBC itself is starting earlier than usual, planning an "original six" matchup for the Friday after Thanksgiving between Boston and Detroit during the afternoon. Versus will start the regular season with a doubleheader on opening night, Thursday Oct. 6th and show a total of 7 live games over the season's first 7 nights. NBC and (by then) NBC Sports Network alrady plan to televise 10 games during the final 7 days of the regular season to gear up for next spring's Stanley Cup playoffs. In a significant upgrade, NBC and NBC Sports Network will have telecasts of every Stanley Cup playoff game, even if on a regional basis, for the first two rounds of the post-season. Then, they will carry exclusive telecasts of the both Conference semi-finals and, as always, the Stanley Cup Finals.
NBC Sports Network will also have flex scheduling for its new Sunday Night NHL games. This is all in addition to an increased schedule of games picked up by NHL Network, bringing NHL action to many hockey fans just about every night during the season. If the NBA isn't ready, the NHL will be.
If and as the NBA season gets going, TNT and NBA-TV have added a new studio host for their telecasts. But he's a familiar face. Vince Cellini returns to Turner Sports and will host "GameTime" on NBA-TV during the season, working on nights Ernie Johnson doesn't. Cellini anchored sports on CNN in the late 80's back when CNN had regularly scheduled extended sportscasts.
MIAMI: The replacing of the late Jim Mandich on the Dolphins' radio team took all the way into the exhibition game season, but it's hard to question the choice. None other than Bob Griese will be the third man in the booth, joining Jimmy Cefalo and Joe Rose on WINZ 940. The team was able to talk Griese out of retirement, since Bob had left ABC/ESPN after 24 years as an analyst there. Of course, Griese stayed close to the Dolphins, using his Augusts to appear on Dolphins exhibition game telecasts for more than 20 years.
DETROIT: Local fans want to watch a winner, or in the case of this past Friday (8/19), two of them. The Tigers were playing the first game of their big weekend series vs. the Cleveland Indians at home, while the Lions happened to be playing in Cleveland at the same time. The Tigers game had a slightly higher rating for its Fox Sports Detroit telecast, made even more impressive when you realize that more than 40,000 attended the game in Detroit. (That would be at least one more ratings point if they could only watch on TV instead.) The Lions' win over Cleveland ran about an hour after the Tigers game ended, and the football ratings on WXYZ-TV increased more than 20% during that period.
Fox Sports Detroit is adding a weekly half-hour high school football score and highlights show, starting this coming Friday (8/26). Friday Football Overtime will air at Midnight late Friday and again at 11 AM each Saturday. FSD will also air the high school football state playoffs in October and November.
While Philadelphia adds an FM simulcast to its all-sports station there, Detroit is losing its version. The highly rated WXYT-FM The Ticket will lose its simulcast on 1270 AM after four years as of September 12th. The AM station will air syndicated (non-sports) talk shows, while 97.1 continues as is.
PITTSBURGH: Penguins telecasts will again have the announcing team of Paul Steigerwald and Bob Errey calling at least 70 games on Root Sports. The pair was without a contract following last season and just signed what was announced as a multi-year deal.
LOS ANGELES: It's a long long way from his 25+ seasons of calling Dodgers games, but 72-year old Ross Porter has taken an assignment to call some high school football and basketball games for a streaming web site operated by IBN. Porter will do a "prep football game of the week" most Friday nights, along with some basketball games and other program features for the site.
MEMPHIS: ESPN 680 + 92.9 has added the Memphis Grizzlies play-by-play to its lineup starting, well, whenever the next season does. To beef up its Grizzlies coverage, play-by-play voice Eric Hasseltine now hosts the 2 to 4 PM sports talk show. The station also carries Tennessee Titans football.
SARASOTA: WTMY 1280 has changed to all sports and become The Sports Fanatic. At this point, its weekday local shows are Rich Spedaliere with "Spitz On Sports" from 6 to 9 AM and "The Sports Ministry" from 3 to 6 PM, with Fox Sports Radio filling up the remainder. It will also air Florida State football along with Riverview High School games.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
August 16th Update
For some Philadelphia area radio listeners, it may not seem like football season during weekday afternoons following the announcement that Howard Eskin will no longer be hosting afternoon drive on WIP 610 after Labor Day. Some listeners will be disappointed, and it's likely that others will be pleased. Eskin has been talking sports in Philadelphia regulary for 25 years, longer than there have been any full-time sports stations in most markets.
Eskin's final 3 to 7 PM show is scheduled for September 2nd. As of press time, WIP has yet to announce a replacement, as the station needs to continue its battle against The Phanatic 97.5 and (Eskin's former co-host) Mike Missanelli.
For all of the tradition and ratings Eskin has delivered over the years, there seems to be some degree of mutual benefit from this announcement. Eskin will continue hosting the station's Eagles coverage and is expected to fill in for vacationing hosts. He also has done some fill-in work on Fox Sports Radio and rumors have begun circulating that Eskin has national aspirations in mind, and now has the time to devote to that.
WIP figures to have listeners check out the new afternoon drive show once the host or hosts are announced, and hopes to gain listeners who did not like Eskin's outbursts. Among those rumored for consideration are Anthony Gargano and Glenn Kacknow. I have to think that the announcement will be made prior to Labor Day. Going with interim hosts during the week leading into the NFL opening weekend would not be a good choice, especially with nearly 3 weeks to arrange for a replacement.
It's been a busy few days overall in sports media, even in the courtroom. Or out of the courtroom in this instance. The lawsuit over Conference USA Football TV rights has been resolved via settlement. While Fox Sports Media Group retains the majority of the rights, the settlement results in ESPN having telecast and distribution rights to the Conference USA Championship game for this year and through the 2015 football season. ESPN2 will air this year's game at Noon ET on December 3rd. Fox Sports Media will hold the regular season telecast rights during the same period.
Meanwhile, it was a sad day for long-time baseball fans upon learning of the death of Ernie Johnson Sr. this past Friday (8/12) at the age of 87. Ernie Sr. came to Atlanta with the Braves in 1966 (as did Milo Hamilton) to begin the team's tenure in Atlanta, and called Braves games until 1990. Ernie actually was part of the Milwaukee Braves broadcast team before the team moved to Atlanta.
Fans growing up during the late 60's and 70's around the eastern half of the country could hear Ernie, along with Skip Caray, call the Braves by picking up WSB from Atlanta. In the late 70's when cable TV started to grow, the WTBS (at the time) Atlanta telecasts of the Braves gradually grew to be seen in millions of homes, associating Ernie, Skip, and Pete Van Wieren.
Ernie enabled a lot of viewers around the country to watch and listen to him every day for years, and I'm sure helped to get a lot of TV viewers hooked on regularly watching baseball. Keep in mind this was years before we had practically every MLB game televised and regional and national networks showing games almost every day. For years it was "Braves or nothing" for a lot of cable TV viewers. He will be very much missed.
On the same day (Friday), Montreal sports fans lost Ted Tevan at the age of 78 due to a heart attack following hip surgery. Tevan hosted sports talk on CFOX going back to the 70's, and also worked on CKO, CFMB, and CKGM. Recently, he hosted a weekly sports show on The Team 990.
Two of our long-time play-by-play voices have been awarded more honors. Brent Musburger and Vern Lundquist have been named as co-recipients of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame's "Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football" Award. Each will be honored at an Awards Dinner in New York City on December 6th.
DETROIT: Speaking of the end of an era, it is still hard to believe that it was a struggle to get University of Michigan games on a Detroit radio station. The school was without a radio station there until last week, when CBS Radio went for a five-year renewal after all. WWJ 950 will now carry the football and basketball games, starting in September (in place of WOMC 104.3), while WXYT-AM 1270 will also air some hockey and women's hoops broadcasts.
MINNEAPOLIS: KSTP ESPN 1500 has added local programming from 9 AM to Noon and has pulled Colin Cowherd's show. Judd Zulgad, who joined the station in February from the Star-Tribune, is leaving the newspaper (after more than 20 years!) to devote his full-time attention to the radio show.
ATLANTA: The hiring of David Pollack (former Cincinnati Bengal and U. of Georgia player) by ESPN means that Pollack is leaving his 3 to 7 PM co-hosting gig on The Zone 790. "The Pollack & Bell Show" with Mike Bell had become the highest rated show on The Zone, which just added the 4th hour to the show a few weeks ago. No word, as of press time, as to whether or not another co-host will be named, or if the show will continue to be four hours. Speculation has "2 Live Stews" moving back to afternoon drive and Bell to middays.
PITTSBURGH: The Pirates' recent fade in the N.L. Central standings started after the most recent ratings period. WPGB-FM certainly hopes the Pirates can jump back into September contention, as the station jumped up into 3rd place in the market during the July ratings period.
LOS ANGELES: KSPN 710 has decided to air all New York Jets regular season games this year instead of one of the national packages, and will carry the Jets broadcasts with Bob Wischusen and Marty Lyons. After being perplexed at first, I can see the reasoning behind this.
In addition to the following that Jets QB Mark Sanchez has in Southern California, there are a lot of transplanted New Yorkers in the area who would welcome this. Since the L.A. market is, for some reason, now considered a primary market for the Chargers telecasts, it means that not many of the Jets games would be shown there on Sunday TV. By taking one of the "national" NFL packages, KSPN would often be airing a game also shown on TV.
DENVER: The Ticket 102.3 has moved Joel Klatt and Charles Johnson into afternoon drive, while Les Shapiro and JoJo now air in the Noon to 3 PM position. A cost-cutting move via the buyout of Rich "G-Man" Goins from the afternoon show is part of the reason for the change. Yet, as still happens in radio, Goins, who left the station on July 15th, was not replaced, and may return to the station in a part-time or fill-in role.
BALTIMORE: WJZ 105.7 is adding Glenn Younes, who has been on the Sirius/XM Mad Dog Channel to its pre-game and post-game Ravens coverage.
LOUISVILLE: WHAS-TV has added Kent Spencer as a sports reporter, who comes over from WTVQ-TV Lexington. Also in Lexington, WLEX-TV sports anchor Mary Jo Perino takes over the Sunday morning sports talk show on WVLK 590 from Larry Glover, who continues his weekday afternoon show with the station.
NATIONAL: The Big Ten Network announced its football telecast play-by-play teams for the coming season. Eric Collins and Chris Martin will be the lead team. Other play-by-play and color teams are Tom Hart and Derek Rackley as well as Matt Devlin and Glen Mason.
Yahoo Sports Radio Network (formerly Sporting News Radio) has added "The Arian Foster Show" for Thursday nights at 7 PM ET for the rest of this year, naming the former running back as the host of a new weekly show, focused on the NFL.
Eskin's final 3 to 7 PM show is scheduled for September 2nd. As of press time, WIP has yet to announce a replacement, as the station needs to continue its battle against The Phanatic 97.5 and (Eskin's former co-host) Mike Missanelli.
For all of the tradition and ratings Eskin has delivered over the years, there seems to be some degree of mutual benefit from this announcement. Eskin will continue hosting the station's Eagles coverage and is expected to fill in for vacationing hosts. He also has done some fill-in work on Fox Sports Radio and rumors have begun circulating that Eskin has national aspirations in mind, and now has the time to devote to that.
WIP figures to have listeners check out the new afternoon drive show once the host or hosts are announced, and hopes to gain listeners who did not like Eskin's outbursts. Among those rumored for consideration are Anthony Gargano and Glenn Kacknow. I have to think that the announcement will be made prior to Labor Day. Going with interim hosts during the week leading into the NFL opening weekend would not be a good choice, especially with nearly 3 weeks to arrange for a replacement.
It's been a busy few days overall in sports media, even in the courtroom. Or out of the courtroom in this instance. The lawsuit over Conference USA Football TV rights has been resolved via settlement. While Fox Sports Media Group retains the majority of the rights, the settlement results in ESPN having telecast and distribution rights to the Conference USA Championship game for this year and through the 2015 football season. ESPN2 will air this year's game at Noon ET on December 3rd. Fox Sports Media will hold the regular season telecast rights during the same period.
Meanwhile, it was a sad day for long-time baseball fans upon learning of the death of Ernie Johnson Sr. this past Friday (8/12) at the age of 87. Ernie Sr. came to Atlanta with the Braves in 1966 (as did Milo Hamilton) to begin the team's tenure in Atlanta, and called Braves games until 1990. Ernie actually was part of the Milwaukee Braves broadcast team before the team moved to Atlanta.
Fans growing up during the late 60's and 70's around the eastern half of the country could hear Ernie, along with Skip Caray, call the Braves by picking up WSB from Atlanta. In the late 70's when cable TV started to grow, the WTBS (at the time) Atlanta telecasts of the Braves gradually grew to be seen in millions of homes, associating Ernie, Skip, and Pete Van Wieren.
Ernie enabled a lot of viewers around the country to watch and listen to him every day for years, and I'm sure helped to get a lot of TV viewers hooked on regularly watching baseball. Keep in mind this was years before we had practically every MLB game televised and regional and national networks showing games almost every day. For years it was "Braves or nothing" for a lot of cable TV viewers. He will be very much missed.
On the same day (Friday), Montreal sports fans lost Ted Tevan at the age of 78 due to a heart attack following hip surgery. Tevan hosted sports talk on CFOX going back to the 70's, and also worked on CKO, CFMB, and CKGM. Recently, he hosted a weekly sports show on The Team 990.
Two of our long-time play-by-play voices have been awarded more honors. Brent Musburger and Vern Lundquist have been named as co-recipients of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame's "Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football" Award. Each will be honored at an Awards Dinner in New York City on December 6th.
DETROIT: Speaking of the end of an era, it is still hard to believe that it was a struggle to get University of Michigan games on a Detroit radio station. The school was without a radio station there until last week, when CBS Radio went for a five-year renewal after all. WWJ 950 will now carry the football and basketball games, starting in September (in place of WOMC 104.3), while WXYT-AM 1270 will also air some hockey and women's hoops broadcasts.
MINNEAPOLIS: KSTP ESPN 1500 has added local programming from 9 AM to Noon and has pulled Colin Cowherd's show. Judd Zulgad, who joined the station in February from the Star-Tribune, is leaving the newspaper (after more than 20 years!) to devote his full-time attention to the radio show.
ATLANTA: The hiring of David Pollack (former Cincinnati Bengal and U. of Georgia player) by ESPN means that Pollack is leaving his 3 to 7 PM co-hosting gig on The Zone 790. "The Pollack & Bell Show" with Mike Bell had become the highest rated show on The Zone, which just added the 4th hour to the show a few weeks ago. No word, as of press time, as to whether or not another co-host will be named, or if the show will continue to be four hours. Speculation has "2 Live Stews" moving back to afternoon drive and Bell to middays.
PITTSBURGH: The Pirates' recent fade in the N.L. Central standings started after the most recent ratings period. WPGB-FM certainly hopes the Pirates can jump back into September contention, as the station jumped up into 3rd place in the market during the July ratings period.
LOS ANGELES: KSPN 710 has decided to air all New York Jets regular season games this year instead of one of the national packages, and will carry the Jets broadcasts with Bob Wischusen and Marty Lyons. After being perplexed at first, I can see the reasoning behind this.
In addition to the following that Jets QB Mark Sanchez has in Southern California, there are a lot of transplanted New Yorkers in the area who would welcome this. Since the L.A. market is, for some reason, now considered a primary market for the Chargers telecasts, it means that not many of the Jets games would be shown there on Sunday TV. By taking one of the "national" NFL packages, KSPN would often be airing a game also shown on TV.
DENVER: The Ticket 102.3 has moved Joel Klatt and Charles Johnson into afternoon drive, while Les Shapiro and JoJo now air in the Noon to 3 PM position. A cost-cutting move via the buyout of Rich "G-Man" Goins from the afternoon show is part of the reason for the change. Yet, as still happens in radio, Goins, who left the station on July 15th, was not replaced, and may return to the station in a part-time or fill-in role.
BALTIMORE: WJZ 105.7 is adding Glenn Younes, who has been on the Sirius/XM Mad Dog Channel to its pre-game and post-game Ravens coverage.
LOUISVILLE: WHAS-TV has added Kent Spencer as a sports reporter, who comes over from WTVQ-TV Lexington. Also in Lexington, WLEX-TV sports anchor Mary Jo Perino takes over the Sunday morning sports talk show on WVLK 590 from Larry Glover, who continues his weekday afternoon show with the station.
NATIONAL: The Big Ten Network announced its football telecast play-by-play teams for the coming season. Eric Collins and Chris Martin will be the lead team. Other play-by-play and color teams are Tom Hart and Derek Rackley as well as Matt Devlin and Glen Mason.
Yahoo Sports Radio Network (formerly Sporting News Radio) has added "The Arian Foster Show" for Thursday nights at 7 PM ET for the rest of this year, naming the former running back as the host of a new weekly show, focused on the NFL.
Monday, August 8, 2011
August 8th Update.......
The July radio ratings are starting to come out, and based on the top 3 markets (released as of press time), it means that we'll see what impact the return of the NFL will have on the sports radio audience.
In New York, WFAN held steady while WEPN dropped .2 overall. The result is that The Fan now has literally 4 times the overall audience (all ages) that WEPN has. In Chicago, WSCR is only 19th overall, but did rise .2 compared with the June numbers. That's impressive given the lackluster season the White Sox are having, and WSCR is the team's flagship station. However, WMVP ESPN 1000 dropped .3 overall. The two stations had been close together in the ratings for the past couple of years but now WSCR has opened a gap.
In Los Angeles, where is no NFL team, it's tough to be polite in reporting. KSPN dropped again and has now lost half of its overall audience since the May numbers. And while KLAC held steady, neither station made the top 30 ranked stations in overall audience for the July ratings. Yikes!
While fans await the start of the NFL exhibition season within the week, the sports media around the country begins to benefit from the financial frenzy the NFL costs us all along getting their share of the audiences of football fans.
After all, the end of the lockout enables millions of people who are not even NFL fans to help subsidize the league and its thorough media coverage along with the millions who are fans. A big part of the reason that cable/satellite TV bills continue to rise across the country is due to ESPN/ABC being the most expensive programming package for most cable and satellite companies to carry. The cable and satellite companies "must" carry ESPN due to consumer demand. However, the high cost of this programming is, of course, passed along to customers, whether they are NFL fans or not.
Then, Comcast has filed a lawsuit against DirecTV regarding the market of its Sunday Ticket package, specifically regarding the methods that DirecTV uses to make the package an incentive for new subscribers. This is because Comcast also competes for sports fans to subscribe. No matter how this lawsuit turns out, it shows how much money is at stake just so that fans can watch the NFL games on TV. The number of TV viewers and subscribers is more important to NFL revenue than tickets sold, since millions of fans are paying more because of these telecasts.
Meanwhile, some of the sports radio stations are finding ways to provide information beneficial for NFL fans. ESPN Radio Chicago, WMVP 1000, is involved in a Fantasy Football Convention to be held in the Chicago area on August 27th. Two of the stations' hosts will lead the convention, which features a panel including Mike Ditka and others providing information and analysis for putting together an NFL fantasy team. As part of the day's convention, attendees will be able to break out into 10 team fantasy leagues and draft their players on location for a 13-week competition for prizes. Although this will be a paid ticket event, I like the idea of a radio station being involved with fantasy leagues to this extent, and providing football fans with information and presumably more reasons to listen to the station.
My point here is to bring across the idea of how many millions of dollars change hands because of fans' interesting in following NFL games, without factoring in ticket prices and betting, and why so much media competition for the audience exists. If only it wasn't so expensive whether consumers are interested or not.
Westwood One Radio has determined its announcing teams for the coming season, including Kevin Harlan calling its Monday Night Football broadcasts while Howard David will continue to call one of the network's Sunday afternoon games. Harlan will have either Boomer Esiason or Dan Fouts as analyst on Monday nights. Dave Sims and James Lofton will call the radio broadcasts of Sunday Night Football, while Kevin Kugler will call the Sunday afternoon game which Howard David does not. Westwood One will also air the Thursday Night Football games, assigning Ian Eagle and Trent Green to those.
On the baseball side, ESPN is taking an interest in Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals during August. The network has announced that the Cardinals will appear on 2 more Sunday Night Baseball telecasts, making it 3 times within 5 weeks. Just after Fox announced that it was dropping the Cardinals vs. Colorado game from its Saturday Aug. 13th regional game (in favor of picking up the Pirates game despite their recent losing streak) comes word that ESPN will show St. Louis vs. Colorado on Sunday night August 14. Then for Sunday August 21st, ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball again shows the Cardinals hosting the Cubs, the same matchup it featured on July 31st (but from St. Louis this time).
NEW YORK: Now that the recent DWI incident has passed, the N.Y. Knicks went ahead with the hiring of former L.A. Lakers voice Spero Dedes as their radio play-by-play voice beginning with the coming season (whenever that may be). Dedes will handle selected Knicks TV games when Mike Breen has conflicts with his ESPN/ABC responsibilities.
CLEVELAND: WKNR 850 will have competition by the end of this month. CBS Radio will enter the sports radio scene in Cleveland by starting "The Fan" on 92.3, replacing modern rock WKRK. The new station has already teamed Chuck Booms and Kevin Kiley for "Kiley & Booms" for the 6 to 10 AM weekday spot starting August 29th.. The station will shoot The Bull in afternoon drive, as "Adam The Bull", formerly of WFAN in New York, will host the 3 to 7 PM slot. In addition, the station plans to go football heavy by carrying Big Ten football and Westwood One's NFL lineup on weekends.
The Cavaliers have not announced who their new radio play-by-play voice will be (after Joe Tait), although it is probably due to the NBA lockout. If and when the lockout ends, most observers expect that WTAM 1100 Sports Director Mike Snyder, who filled in for Tait most of last season, to be named to the position.
MINNEAPOLIS: ESPN 1500 is reportedly planning to go local with its late morning weekday slot as the station tries to make inroads against Paul Allen on rival KFAN. The station wants to increase its Vikings talk instead of continuing with Colin Cowherd, whose show has a considerable audience drop following Mike & Mike's morning show.
MILWAUKEE: While it's a problem the local sports fans enjoy having, WTMJ 620 appears to be flexible when it comes to scheduling for its play-by-play conflicts. The Brewers' success in leading the National League Central puts more importance into their games over the next few weeks, which includes games scheduled at the same time as the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers exhibition and regular season games. Usually, WTMJ gives priority to the Packers broadcasts, but the Brewers aren't usually in serious contention.
Word is that WTMJ will go with the "most important" game during conflicts, and will move the other broadcast over to WLWK 94.5 FM. It is likely that 94.5 will carry University of Wisconsin football broadcasts until the Brewers season is over when Saturday conflicts occur.
It's good to see that this will be a week-to-week decision, since WTMJ's signal covers a wider area and the station is the #1 rated station in the market.
CINCINNATI: The Bengals continue to expand their radio coverage, while WLW also increases its team related program on Sundays for the coming season. Alan Cuter, also the Sports Director of WLEX-TV Lexington KY, has been brought back to handle the "Countdown to Kickoff" show starting 90 minutes before kickoff, as well as halftime and the "Locker Room Report" for approximately 90 minutes after each game. Cutler was studio host for Bengals broadcasts until 2009. Ken Broo, who hosted the radio post-game for the past two seasons, will host "Sunday Sports Talk" on WLW starting at 9 AM and then return for "Bengals Feedback" following the post-game show and continue until 8 PM.
WLW will again broadcast those Bengals games which do not conflict with its Reds baseball broadcasts, while all Bengals games will air on WCKY 1510 and WEBN 102.7. The new radio broadcast team of Dan Hoard with Dave Lapham begins on Friday (8/14) with the exhibition opener vs. Detroit, while Brad Johansen and Anthony Munoz call the game on Channel 12.
INDIANAPOLIS: WNDE 1260 is changing its afternoon drive show in an effort to gain on WFNI 1070. Mark Patrick is out and former WXLW host Derek Schultz and IMS Radio Network's Jake Query will team up from 3 to 7 PM starting on August 15th.
OKLAHOMA CITY / TULSA: Cox Communications will be providing extensive high school football coverage this season, announcing a total of 17 telecasts on Friday nights, not to mention replays on Satudays, serving both the Oklahoma City and Tulsa regions. Steve Marshall will call the games shown in the OK City area, while Mike Wolfe will handle the games shown in Tulsa. Plans include one game from both region to be shown on Sept. 16 and 30th.
In New York, WFAN held steady while WEPN dropped .2 overall. The result is that The Fan now has literally 4 times the overall audience (all ages) that WEPN has. In Chicago, WSCR is only 19th overall, but did rise .2 compared with the June numbers. That's impressive given the lackluster season the White Sox are having, and WSCR is the team's flagship station. However, WMVP ESPN 1000 dropped .3 overall. The two stations had been close together in the ratings for the past couple of years but now WSCR has opened a gap.
In Los Angeles, where is no NFL team, it's tough to be polite in reporting. KSPN dropped again and has now lost half of its overall audience since the May numbers. And while KLAC held steady, neither station made the top 30 ranked stations in overall audience for the July ratings. Yikes!
While fans await the start of the NFL exhibition season within the week, the sports media around the country begins to benefit from the financial frenzy the NFL costs us all along getting their share of the audiences of football fans.
After all, the end of the lockout enables millions of people who are not even NFL fans to help subsidize the league and its thorough media coverage along with the millions who are fans. A big part of the reason that cable/satellite TV bills continue to rise across the country is due to ESPN/ABC being the most expensive programming package for most cable and satellite companies to carry. The cable and satellite companies "must" carry ESPN due to consumer demand. However, the high cost of this programming is, of course, passed along to customers, whether they are NFL fans or not.
Then, Comcast has filed a lawsuit against DirecTV regarding the market of its Sunday Ticket package, specifically regarding the methods that DirecTV uses to make the package an incentive for new subscribers. This is because Comcast also competes for sports fans to subscribe. No matter how this lawsuit turns out, it shows how much money is at stake just so that fans can watch the NFL games on TV. The number of TV viewers and subscribers is more important to NFL revenue than tickets sold, since millions of fans are paying more because of these telecasts.
Meanwhile, some of the sports radio stations are finding ways to provide information beneficial for NFL fans. ESPN Radio Chicago, WMVP 1000, is involved in a Fantasy Football Convention to be held in the Chicago area on August 27th. Two of the stations' hosts will lead the convention, which features a panel including Mike Ditka and others providing information and analysis for putting together an NFL fantasy team. As part of the day's convention, attendees will be able to break out into 10 team fantasy leagues and draft their players on location for a 13-week competition for prizes. Although this will be a paid ticket event, I like the idea of a radio station being involved with fantasy leagues to this extent, and providing football fans with information and presumably more reasons to listen to the station.
My point here is to bring across the idea of how many millions of dollars change hands because of fans' interesting in following NFL games, without factoring in ticket prices and betting, and why so much media competition for the audience exists. If only it wasn't so expensive whether consumers are interested or not.
Westwood One Radio has determined its announcing teams for the coming season, including Kevin Harlan calling its Monday Night Football broadcasts while Howard David will continue to call one of the network's Sunday afternoon games. Harlan will have either Boomer Esiason or Dan Fouts as analyst on Monday nights. Dave Sims and James Lofton will call the radio broadcasts of Sunday Night Football, while Kevin Kugler will call the Sunday afternoon game which Howard David does not. Westwood One will also air the Thursday Night Football games, assigning Ian Eagle and Trent Green to those.
On the baseball side, ESPN is taking an interest in Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals during August. The network has announced that the Cardinals will appear on 2 more Sunday Night Baseball telecasts, making it 3 times within 5 weeks. Just after Fox announced that it was dropping the Cardinals vs. Colorado game from its Saturday Aug. 13th regional game (in favor of picking up the Pirates game despite their recent losing streak) comes word that ESPN will show St. Louis vs. Colorado on Sunday night August 14. Then for Sunday August 21st, ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball again shows the Cardinals hosting the Cubs, the same matchup it featured on July 31st (but from St. Louis this time).
NEW YORK: Now that the recent DWI incident has passed, the N.Y. Knicks went ahead with the hiring of former L.A. Lakers voice Spero Dedes as their radio play-by-play voice beginning with the coming season (whenever that may be). Dedes will handle selected Knicks TV games when Mike Breen has conflicts with his ESPN/ABC responsibilities.
CLEVELAND: WKNR 850 will have competition by the end of this month. CBS Radio will enter the sports radio scene in Cleveland by starting "The Fan" on 92.3, replacing modern rock WKRK. The new station has already teamed Chuck Booms and Kevin Kiley for "Kiley & Booms" for the 6 to 10 AM weekday spot starting August 29th.. The station will shoot The Bull in afternoon drive, as "Adam The Bull", formerly of WFAN in New York, will host the 3 to 7 PM slot. In addition, the station plans to go football heavy by carrying Big Ten football and Westwood One's NFL lineup on weekends.
The Cavaliers have not announced who their new radio play-by-play voice will be (after Joe Tait), although it is probably due to the NBA lockout. If and when the lockout ends, most observers expect that WTAM 1100 Sports Director Mike Snyder, who filled in for Tait most of last season, to be named to the position.
MINNEAPOLIS: ESPN 1500 is reportedly planning to go local with its late morning weekday slot as the station tries to make inroads against Paul Allen on rival KFAN. The station wants to increase its Vikings talk instead of continuing with Colin Cowherd, whose show has a considerable audience drop following Mike & Mike's morning show.
MILWAUKEE: While it's a problem the local sports fans enjoy having, WTMJ 620 appears to be flexible when it comes to scheduling for its play-by-play conflicts. The Brewers' success in leading the National League Central puts more importance into their games over the next few weeks, which includes games scheduled at the same time as the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers exhibition and regular season games. Usually, WTMJ gives priority to the Packers broadcasts, but the Brewers aren't usually in serious contention.
Word is that WTMJ will go with the "most important" game during conflicts, and will move the other broadcast over to WLWK 94.5 FM. It is likely that 94.5 will carry University of Wisconsin football broadcasts until the Brewers season is over when Saturday conflicts occur.
It's good to see that this will be a week-to-week decision, since WTMJ's signal covers a wider area and the station is the #1 rated station in the market.
CINCINNATI: The Bengals continue to expand their radio coverage, while WLW also increases its team related program on Sundays for the coming season. Alan Cuter, also the Sports Director of WLEX-TV Lexington KY, has been brought back to handle the "Countdown to Kickoff" show starting 90 minutes before kickoff, as well as halftime and the "Locker Room Report" for approximately 90 minutes after each game. Cutler was studio host for Bengals broadcasts until 2009. Ken Broo, who hosted the radio post-game for the past two seasons, will host "Sunday Sports Talk" on WLW starting at 9 AM and then return for "Bengals Feedback" following the post-game show and continue until 8 PM.
WLW will again broadcast those Bengals games which do not conflict with its Reds baseball broadcasts, while all Bengals games will air on WCKY 1510 and WEBN 102.7. The new radio broadcast team of Dan Hoard with Dave Lapham begins on Friday (8/14) with the exhibition opener vs. Detroit, while Brad Johansen and Anthony Munoz call the game on Channel 12.
INDIANAPOLIS: WNDE 1260 is changing its afternoon drive show in an effort to gain on WFNI 1070. Mark Patrick is out and former WXLW host Derek Schultz and IMS Radio Network's Jake Query will team up from 3 to 7 PM starting on August 15th.
OKLAHOMA CITY / TULSA: Cox Communications will be providing extensive high school football coverage this season, announcing a total of 17 telecasts on Friday nights, not to mention replays on Satudays, serving both the Oklahoma City and Tulsa regions. Steve Marshall will call the games shown in the OK City area, while Mike Wolfe will handle the games shown in Tulsa. Plans include one game from both region to be shown on Sept. 16 and 30th.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Broadcast Booth - August 1st Update....
August just arrived and already it signals change in sports media. Normally a change of name without a change in the "product" is overrated. But certainly not in the case of Sporting News Radio making way to be known as Yahoo Sports. This one is a surprise, at least to the "over 40" generations.
Once upon a time, and a land that is still here but at times seems so far away, The Sporting News was as important to sports fans as the internet is today. Years ago, long before cable TV and the internet, TSN was our link to sports teams beyond our local teams' coverage area. Fans would practically wait at the mailbox for the new issue for the weekly sports newspaper to arrive. It had every box score of every MLB game, reports on each team, and excellent columnists. More importantly, it had credibility among sports fans.
In later years, the onslaught of ESPN, regional cable sports networks, and even newspapers such as (the former) The National and USA Today came along and took away from the impact of The Sporting News as a magazine. Yet, the brand name held up as TSN moved more to radio and other ways of being an information source.
As a result, those in the "over 40" age range most likely consider The Sporting News to have more credibility as a sports news and information source than Yahoo, which has come along within the past 15 years, and is not solely a sports reporting entity. Sure, it's merely a name change, as the Yahoo Sports Radio Network will have the same content. But to the "over 40" range, this takes away from the Sporting News credibility. It's as if this should be the other way around, with Yahoo Sports movin' on up to become a part of TSN's stable.
Yet, to those under the age of 40, they are seeing this as a growth of Yahoo Sports, and see it as taking over for "some newspaper" or a source they never had the opportunity to worship.
Yahoo Sports Radio will continue with the same shows and content, and continue to broadcast from the network's Houston studios. It's nothing more than still another name change for this network, which was known as "One on One Sports Network" in the 90's before The Sporting News purchased it. To me, it's the same content with a "lesser" name behind it.
On the other hand, NBC is upgrading its brand by finally eliminating the Versus name from the sports TV scene at the end of this year. There will be little to no impact on the cable network's programming. This, too, is just a name change. It took until the past 12 to 18 months for the audience to find this network, and that was due to NHL fans finally finding where most of the games are televised. Sports fans rarely, if ever, use the term "Versus", and the name never caught on. Once it becomes known as NBC Sports Network, it should make a difference, given NBC's presence with the NFL and NHL.
It will be interesting to see how NBC Sports Network works to increase their presence starting in 2012. Perhaps they will look to supplement Sunday Night Football with expanded pre and post-game coverage only on the cable channel, and more NFL related programming during the week. I'm sure that TNT and ESPN/ABC are now pleased they have longer term deals with the NBA, since you would think NBC will start bidding for other major sports once again.
Meanwhile, there must be a logical explanation for the big audience that NFL Network received last week for its coverage of the start of the free agent and trading period which began as the lockout was settled. NFL Network jumped in with 12+ hours per day of live "coverage" of the signing and trading period, which resulted in an audience increase of more than 200% over the same time period last year. One explanation is that fantasy players have less time to track the players before their drafts.
On the baseball side, we have the Red Sox vs. Yankees coming up this weekend (Aug. 5 - 7). At times, it seems as though the networks expect the rest of MLB to shut down completely so that the entire nation can focus on nothing but the Yankees - Red Sox series. It's as if it's in the national contracts that these two teams can't play a game not shown nationally or regionally.
This Friday's game will be on MLB Network, Saturday on Fox, and Sunday night, of course, on ESPN. What makes this weekend "different" is that this time around it really is the best series in baseball as the two teams are in a battle for first place (at press time). For once, the hype for this series is legit. Let's see how the audiences respond. Many are so used to the overhype of this matchup that it might take an adjustment to get more people to tune in this time around.
Of course, this means that TBS gets shut out from showing either team this Sunday on its supposed "national" package. Oh my! So, TBS will show the NY Mets hosting Atlanta on Sunday Aug. 7th. Not to worry. On Aug. 14 TBS shows the Yankees hosting Tampa. (This past Sunday 7/31 it was Boston at Chicago.)
In some ways it's the end of an era in southeast Michigan. A month away from the start of the college football season, and (as of press time) the University of Michigan still does not have a radio deal finalized for the Detroit area. WOMC 104.3 still has not renewed its deal for football, nor has WWJ 950 for the school's basketball games. WJR 760 continues with Michigan State football. Yikes.
DALLAS: The Fan 105.3 will have a major presence for fans attending Cowboys games at Cowboys Stadium for this new season. Roger Emrich is taking over as the new Public Address announcer at the stadium. In addition, the station's Armen Williams will act as "In-Game Emcee". This is expected to include fan interaction, contests, and probably commercials. Seems to be a growing trend in the Dallas market, as Jim Knox has been doing this during Rangers games. Here's hoping that Williams' role doesn't get overbearing and acts as a quick promo for the station rather than becoming an annoyance to fans who spend a ton of money on game tickets.
St. LOUIS: Now that the NFL exhibition season is upon us, KTVI-TV 2 is preparing to televise all four of the Rams' exhibition games, since none were picked up by national networks. The new play-by-play crew consists of Andrew Siciliano (an NFL Network host) on play-by-play with former Rams all-pro Marshall Faulk hired as the analyst. Their opening telecast will be the Rams vs. Indianapolis Colts on August 13th.
ALBANY: With the growth of the NFL on TV, it might not matter as much, but it seems that area radio listeners will not have as many choices for the upcoming season. The NY Giants broadcasts will again by on WPYX 106.5, and the NY Jets will air on WTMM 104.5 when there are no Yankees baseball conflicts. WOFX 980 is able to air the Westwood One NFL doubleheaders, but airs Mets baseball as a priority. And, WQBK 103.9 has chosen not to carry the Buffalo Bills broadcasts. Thus, on September Sundays when both the Mets and Yankees are playing, local NFL on radio choices will be very limited.
BRYAN TX: KZNE 1150 The Zone will begin airing a 2-hour weekday show dedicated to Texas A & M sports starting Aug. 22. Gabe Bock will host the show, which will air from 9 to 11 AM Monday through Friday.
LUBBOCK TX: Sorry to learn of the passing of former Texas Tech football and basketball play-by-play voice Jack Dale. He lost his battle with cancer at the age of 79 this past Friday (7/29). Dale actually began his broadcast career in Lubbock in 1952, and was hosting a morning sports show on 1340 AM until he was hospitalized a few weeks ago.
Once upon a time, and a land that is still here but at times seems so far away, The Sporting News was as important to sports fans as the internet is today. Years ago, long before cable TV and the internet, TSN was our link to sports teams beyond our local teams' coverage area. Fans would practically wait at the mailbox for the new issue for the weekly sports newspaper to arrive. It had every box score of every MLB game, reports on each team, and excellent columnists. More importantly, it had credibility among sports fans.
In later years, the onslaught of ESPN, regional cable sports networks, and even newspapers such as (the former) The National and USA Today came along and took away from the impact of The Sporting News as a magazine. Yet, the brand name held up as TSN moved more to radio and other ways of being an information source.
As a result, those in the "over 40" age range most likely consider The Sporting News to have more credibility as a sports news and information source than Yahoo, which has come along within the past 15 years, and is not solely a sports reporting entity. Sure, it's merely a name change, as the Yahoo Sports Radio Network will have the same content. But to the "over 40" range, this takes away from the Sporting News credibility. It's as if this should be the other way around, with Yahoo Sports movin' on up to become a part of TSN's stable.
Yet, to those under the age of 40, they are seeing this as a growth of Yahoo Sports, and see it as taking over for "some newspaper" or a source they never had the opportunity to worship.
Yahoo Sports Radio will continue with the same shows and content, and continue to broadcast from the network's Houston studios. It's nothing more than still another name change for this network, which was known as "One on One Sports Network" in the 90's before The Sporting News purchased it. To me, it's the same content with a "lesser" name behind it.
On the other hand, NBC is upgrading its brand by finally eliminating the Versus name from the sports TV scene at the end of this year. There will be little to no impact on the cable network's programming. This, too, is just a name change. It took until the past 12 to 18 months for the audience to find this network, and that was due to NHL fans finally finding where most of the games are televised. Sports fans rarely, if ever, use the term "Versus", and the name never caught on. Once it becomes known as NBC Sports Network, it should make a difference, given NBC's presence with the NFL and NHL.
It will be interesting to see how NBC Sports Network works to increase their presence starting in 2012. Perhaps they will look to supplement Sunday Night Football with expanded pre and post-game coverage only on the cable channel, and more NFL related programming during the week. I'm sure that TNT and ESPN/ABC are now pleased they have longer term deals with the NBA, since you would think NBC will start bidding for other major sports once again.
Meanwhile, there must be a logical explanation for the big audience that NFL Network received last week for its coverage of the start of the free agent and trading period which began as the lockout was settled. NFL Network jumped in with 12+ hours per day of live "coverage" of the signing and trading period, which resulted in an audience increase of more than 200% over the same time period last year. One explanation is that fantasy players have less time to track the players before their drafts.
On the baseball side, we have the Red Sox vs. Yankees coming up this weekend (Aug. 5 - 7). At times, it seems as though the networks expect the rest of MLB to shut down completely so that the entire nation can focus on nothing but the Yankees - Red Sox series. It's as if it's in the national contracts that these two teams can't play a game not shown nationally or regionally.
This Friday's game will be on MLB Network, Saturday on Fox, and Sunday night, of course, on ESPN. What makes this weekend "different" is that this time around it really is the best series in baseball as the two teams are in a battle for first place (at press time). For once, the hype for this series is legit. Let's see how the audiences respond. Many are so used to the overhype of this matchup that it might take an adjustment to get more people to tune in this time around.
Of course, this means that TBS gets shut out from showing either team this Sunday on its supposed "national" package. Oh my! So, TBS will show the NY Mets hosting Atlanta on Sunday Aug. 7th. Not to worry. On Aug. 14 TBS shows the Yankees hosting Tampa. (This past Sunday 7/31 it was Boston at Chicago.)
In some ways it's the end of an era in southeast Michigan. A month away from the start of the college football season, and (as of press time) the University of Michigan still does not have a radio deal finalized for the Detroit area. WOMC 104.3 still has not renewed its deal for football, nor has WWJ 950 for the school's basketball games. WJR 760 continues with Michigan State football. Yikes.
DALLAS: The Fan 105.3 will have a major presence for fans attending Cowboys games at Cowboys Stadium for this new season. Roger Emrich is taking over as the new Public Address announcer at the stadium. In addition, the station's Armen Williams will act as "In-Game Emcee". This is expected to include fan interaction, contests, and probably commercials. Seems to be a growing trend in the Dallas market, as Jim Knox has been doing this during Rangers games. Here's hoping that Williams' role doesn't get overbearing and acts as a quick promo for the station rather than becoming an annoyance to fans who spend a ton of money on game tickets.
St. LOUIS: Now that the NFL exhibition season is upon us, KTVI-TV 2 is preparing to televise all four of the Rams' exhibition games, since none were picked up by national networks. The new play-by-play crew consists of Andrew Siciliano (an NFL Network host) on play-by-play with former Rams all-pro Marshall Faulk hired as the analyst. Their opening telecast will be the Rams vs. Indianapolis Colts on August 13th.
ALBANY: With the growth of the NFL on TV, it might not matter as much, but it seems that area radio listeners will not have as many choices for the upcoming season. The NY Giants broadcasts will again by on WPYX 106.5, and the NY Jets will air on WTMM 104.5 when there are no Yankees baseball conflicts. WOFX 980 is able to air the Westwood One NFL doubleheaders, but airs Mets baseball as a priority. And, WQBK 103.9 has chosen not to carry the Buffalo Bills broadcasts. Thus, on September Sundays when both the Mets and Yankees are playing, local NFL on radio choices will be very limited.
BRYAN TX: KZNE 1150 The Zone will begin airing a 2-hour weekday show dedicated to Texas A & M sports starting Aug. 22. Gabe Bock will host the show, which will air from 9 to 11 AM Monday through Friday.
LUBBOCK TX: Sorry to learn of the passing of former Texas Tech football and basketball play-by-play voice Jack Dale. He lost his battle with cancer at the age of 79 this past Friday (7/29). Dale actually began his broadcast career in Lubbock in 1952, and was hosting a morning sports show on 1340 AM until he was hospitalized a few weeks ago.
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