The Sports Media Thread

[Crabcake]

Spanish announcers are usually awesome to listen to anyways, even if you can’t understand what they’re saying. 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I watch a lot of Sounders games in Spanish because local Univision comes in better over antenna than JoeTV.

[Tracy Jordan]

Super Bowl ratings are in...

 

http://deadline.com/2018/02/super-bowl-ratings-eagles-patriots-this-is-us-nbc-1202278181/

 

103.4 million people tuned in last night, down from 111 million last year and the lowest rated Super Bowl since 2009 (Steelers-Cardinals). 

[MJWalker45]

On 2/1/2018 at 11:45 AM, the admiral said:

I knew that part, but I thought Thanksgiving weekend was the end of college football so it was all clear. I don't follow college football.

Technically, Armyvs Navy is the last game of the year and is now played the week after conference championships. I think CBS did this so they wouldn't have issues with the SEC Championship being delayed, or Army and Navy specifically decided they want a day to themselves. 

[MJWalker45]

On 2/1/2018 at 3:48 PM, Crabcake47 said:

Spanish announcers are usually awesome to listen to anyways, even if you can’t understand what they’re saying. 

And you can always hit the SAP button to get an English feed if you don't go through YouTube, unless they blocked it.

[MadmanLA]

http://variety.com/2018/tv/news/sinclair-tribune-fox-station-deal-seattle-1202707565/

 

Fox's continual quest to own stations in several key NFL markets (and uber-ally markets) may come to fruition, once the Sinclair-Tribune merger is completed.  Fox is set to buy at least six stations from Sinclair/Tribune, including three of the stations they sold in 2008 to help finance News Corp's purchase of the Wall Street Journal (WJW Cleveland, KDVR Denver, and KSTU Salt Lake City), plus Sacramento's KTXL, the long-awaited prize in Seattle's KCPQ (it didn't mention sister KZJO, which likely means they'll stay with Sinclair-owned KOMO-TV), and a wild card--WSFL-TV, the CW station in Miami/Fort Lauderdale. 

 

I can't see Fox running a standalone CW affiliate in South Florida, which ultimately means incumbent Fox affiliate WSVN (much like their sister station in Boston, WHDH) will be forced to go independent, and in turn current MyNetworkTV affiliate WBFS, owned by CBS, will more than likely take the CW affiliation.  That also means Miami would undergo its third affiliation/channel swap in the last thirty years, two occasions of which WSVN was a part of (losing NBC in 1989, due to the Peacock buying WTVJ, and now possibly losing Fox to WSFL).

[dfwabel]

On 2/23/2018 at 11:45 AM, MadmanLA said:

http://variety.com/2018/tv/news/sinclair-tribune-fox-station-deal-seattle-1202707565/

 

Fox's continual quest to own stations in several key NFL markets (and uber-ally markets) may come to fruition, once the Sinclair-Tribune merger is completed.  Fox is set to buy at least six stations from Sinclair/Tribune, including three of the stations they sold in 2008 to help finance News Corp's purchase of the Wall Street Journal (WJW Cleveland, KDVR Denver, and KSTU Salt Lake City), plus Sacramento's KTXL, the long-awaited prize in Seattle's KCPQ (it didn't mention sister KZJO, which likely means they'll stay with Sinclair-owned KOMO-TV), and a wild card--WSFL-TV, the CW station in Miami/Fort Lauderdale. 

 

I can't see Fox running a standalone CW affiliate in South Florida, which ultimately means incumbent Fox affiliate WSVN (much like their sister station in Boston, WHDH) will be forced to go independent, and in turn current MyNetworkTV affiliate WBFS, owned by CBS, will more than likely take the CW affiliation.  That also means Miami would undergo its third affiliation/channel swap in the last thirty years, two occasions of which WSVN was a part of (losing NBC in 1989, due to the Peacock buying WTVJ, and now possibly losing Fox to WSFL).

FOX, or what's left of it after the RSN sale to ESPN, is totally all in on the NFL long term after getting Thursday Night Football

[MadmanLA]

18 hours ago, dfwabel said:

FOX, or what's left of it after the RSN sale to ESPN, is totally all in on the NFL long term after getting Thursday Night Football

 

Yep...once they get those stations, that only leaves Boston as the only top-20 TV DMA where Fox doesn't own a station (which they traded to Cox Media [along with Memphis' WHBQ] to get San Francisco/Oakland a few years ago).  They could get back into Boston, if they offer Sunbeam TV (which also owns WSVN) an offer they couldn't refuse.  Sunbeam owns also WLVI in Boston, which now lives on as a subchannel of WHDH...Fox could offer a king's ransom for the whole group, and might in essence keep WSVN as a Fox station (and WSFL as a CW station), and force another network switch in Boston.

[Still MIGHTY]

For tomorrow's NHL trade deadline, ESPN will simulcast TSN's TradeCentre on ESPN 2 (2-4 p.m. EST, deadline at 3 p.m. EST) and WatchESPN/ESPN 3. (8 a.m. - 6 p.m. EST).

 

Frankly, I'm absolutely shocked by this.

 

ESPN doesn't have any NHL game rights (there is a roundabout connection with MLBAM and the NHL and WatchESPN/ESPN 3.) NBCSN, who actually does have the rights, doesn't do any trade deadline coverage. NHL Network simulcasts Sportsnet's Canadian coverage (they previously did it with TSN's coverage when TSN had the Canadian national NHL rights).

 

It's quite the interesting move, but I'm not mad about it.

[goalieboy82]

http://variety.com/2018/tv/news/fox-o-j-simpson-interview-1202714842/

[dfwabel]

I did subscribe for The Athletic for a year, I really like it, but this isn't sustainable. 

 

http://awfulannouncing.com/athletic/the-athletic-raises-another-20-million-plans-to-double-staff-expand.html

 

Going from 120 employees to 300+ by the end of the year and expanding to 45 markets?  Granted, they don't have to worry about real estate in each city, but that's a lot of salaries. 

 

 

[The_Admiral]

There appears to have been a bloody Stick To Sports coup at 670 the Score in Chicago. Entercom bought CBS Radio, as some may know, and after assessing the station, decided there was too much Deadspin/basketblogger/blue-checkmark regurgitation, firings and demotions all around, station now seems to be getting back to its roots of talking about point spreads and cocaine. Technically a loss in the culture war, but what was all that crap doing on dinosaur-ass AM, anyway? Take it to podcasts, come on.

[CS85]

6 minutes ago, the admiral said:

There appears to have been a bloody Stick To Sports coup at 670 the Score in Chicago. Entercom bought CBS Radio, as some may know, and after assessing the station, decided there was too much Deadspin/basketblogger/blue-checkmark regurgitation, firings and demotions all around, station now seems to be getting back to its roots of talking about point spreads and cocaine. Technically a loss in the culture war, but what was all that crap doing on dinosaur-ass AM, anyway? Take it to podcasts, come on.

 

The Berns/Goff combo was never going to function.  I'm glad it's ended.  I can only take so much national NBA talk. 

 

Parkins has done a decent job and he should do well in the afternoons until Mac departs sometime this summer. 

 

 

[The_Admiral]

On 10/25/2017 at 6:46 PM, the admiral said:

I don't even know that Barstool has great content, I'm guessing they don't, but they have something that there's a market for, which is sports talk as frat house/corner bar/whatever. That's what sports radio as a 24-hour format was built on, not people telling you how stupid you are.

 

Vindicated prior to the two-year deadline.

[Sodboy13]

Goff said their show was #3 in Males 25-54 in the ratings, which is great, unless ESPN 1000 was #1 or #2, in which case it's awful.

 

It's obviously better listening to have people who know how to talk and know what they're talking about on the radio. Jason Goff and Spiegel worked well together, and Jason on his own had some excellent moments of being more of a real person than probably anyone else in the lineup. But I can see how it becomes a hard sell with ad breaks stuffed full of strip clubs, football betting tip lines, and sketchy dick pills. You need to engage and placate the knuckle-draggers if that's where you're making your money. Might as well bring back Mike North in mornings and hand the midday over to Chet Coppock and Mancow.

 

It's gotta suck to work at The Score and see Dan McNeil darkening the doorstep again, though. Guy's burned every bridge, can't handle his substances, can't handle his temper, won't show up to work for weeks because of perceived mistreatment, and bombed out on his last gig - so hey, here's our afternoon drive shift for you!

 

50/50 he doesn't make it to the end of the Bears' season.

[The_Admiral]

23 minutes ago, Sodboy13 said:

It's obviously better listening to have people who know how to talk and know what they're talking about on the radio. Jason Goff and Spiegel worked well together, and Jason on his own had some excellent moments of being more of a real person than probably anyone else in the lineup. But I can see how it becomes a hard sell with ad breaks stuffed full of strip clubs, football betting tip lines, and sketchy dick pills. You need to engage and placate the knuckle-draggers if that's where you're making your money.

 

Yeah, I mean, the spot load in afternoons got so light that they were doing an entire hour commercial-free. That was probably a bad sign. Shame they fell into the Twitter trap. Twitter is not the world.

[Sec19Row53]

Damn - I haven't listened to the Score in quite awhile. I wish I had to hear some of this trainwreck before and after.

[CubsFanBudMan]

Late to this 670 The Score commentary, but since we're all here... I'll say the first transition with the partners between shows was odd, if only because it started with a clip of "How 'bout that whole deal?" from one of the ousted hosts, Matt Spiegel.

 

He's the one I feel worst for, but that might be my baseball bias showing. He kept the Bears at bay in the summer. Of course, good Cubs baseball on the new flagship helped, too. But the guy had four co-hosts in 7? years and he and Parkins were just finding their groove. (My listening is limited these days, though.) Is he great? Probably not. But he seemed like a good soldier and for various coincidental personal reasons I seem to identify with him the most. So again, some bias there.

 

Bernstein had become a caricature of himself and overdid the rip-the-caller bit that was hilarious in its early days when horrible people called in on occasion and got served. I think Goff -- who is good -- was too like-minded of a partner and Bernstein needs someone to challenge him. I like that Goff got his shot on that show for nostalgia reasons, but in all honesty that wasn't enough to keep it together. He'll be fine somewhere. And lest you think politics have no place on sports radio, it was my genuine shock that the midday show on Miami's WQAM was a politics show back in the day. In this climate it can be hard to stick to sports, especially when they intersect. But I'll be honest, I prefer it when they do.

 

As for McKnight... okay. Score guy returns, as I'm sure Finfer will as soon as Mac can get him back. I hated McNeil on ESPN 1000 with Yurko and Harry and his shtick was tired in that first transition when -- as mentioned above -- he went right for the gambling and cocaine references and foreshadowed the absences to come by having a hoarse voice on his first day back. For whatever reason, Spiegel made Mac tolerable for me somehow, so I'll look forward to his fill-in shifts and hopefully a baseball show gig. And I'm curious if his Cubs tune stays for 2018.

 

Anyone know why Jimmy DeCastro is calling the shots? Isn't his record pretty bad, as in constantly losing to The Score? Perhaps the execs in radio are as recycled as the hosts. FWIW, Coppock commented on Feder that DeCastro has no love for him, so that casket is staying closed. (EDIT: I was thinking he was still living off The Loop legacy but it seems he's done a great deal more than that. Dan Patrick was a good call. The WGN era was not his best... losing the Cubs and was The Game FM his baby?)

 

And speaking of the World's Greatest Newspaper...

 

Chicago media side note: Shots fired by the Sun Times today over the Trib's firing of Sox and Blackhawks beat writers. Hopefully this latest website redesign doesn't crash my browser.

[The_Admiral]

1 hour ago, CubsFanBudMan said:

Anyone know why Jimmy DeCastro is calling the shots? Isn't his record pretty bad, as in constantly losing to The Score?

 

His record is actually very good other than losing the Cubs, and from what I've come to understand, WGN never stood a chance against CBS beckoning the Rickettses with a full complement of pop/rock/country concert promotions and promising Tom that Lin Brehmer would hang out with him. But DeCastro did do a lot of good work in rehabilitating WGN from the vision that Randy Michaels and Pig Vomit had for the station, which was a confrontational right-wing talk station you'd expect in Milwaukee or St. Louis or Cincinnati but not here. But he got the job because Entercom bought CBS Radio and needed someone who knew Chicago radio to mind the store.

 

As for why he's calling the shots at the Score when his job is to oversee six different stations, well, from what I can tell of the CBS cluster, the Score has always been the stupid baby that needs the most attention. He's not the first executive who's had to roll up his sleeves down there. And as for Jason being fine somewhere else, well, maybe. He was doing some NBA show on SiriusXM after the first of the two times he's been fired for doing an insufficient Dan Bernstein impersonation; that's probably his calling seeing as he was trying to transition an over-the-air show in a football/baseball market into an around-the-NBA podcast that happened to also be on AM radio, right down to the tedious I'm-not-owned-you're-owned Twitter exchanges and everything.

[CubsFanBudMan]

Yeah, I did a little more research and made a minor edit after I posted that last night. I didn't realize he was the guy behind Dan Patrick's move. I always associated him with losing the Cubs, WGN and The Game, but you raise a good point about the Sam Zell / Randy Michaels / Kevin Metheny era. That was a hole to dig out of.

 

Goff will find something, I'd think. Whether it sticks is likely up to him and the adjustments he makes, but yes, he and Bernstein had created an echo chamber of sorts that was not sustainable.