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CubsFanBudMan

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CubsFanBudMan last won the day on April 12 2013

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  1. Just catching up on this thread and I think NIL in college offers a sidebar to the UFC "reporter" conversation. Media "access" has always been the line in the sand, and social media has erased that gap for many, while some institutions clung to gatekeeping by banning it. The pandemics's Zoom interviews and credential limits leveled the playing field even more. Not sure if "normal" reporter scrums and locker room access will ever return for everyone. Now with NIL, another line has been crossed, media outlets paying for "exclusive" access: https://awfulannouncing.com/ncaa/texas-am-players-paid-10000-exclusive-interviews-texags-nil.html The newspapers *would* *never* - and in all honesty, these websites will likely stop after the shock value (or sponsors for it) disappears - but paying to play certainly caused a ripple effect among journalists. Maybe not Addison Rae-level (lol), but...
  2. I only ever liked Mac with Spiegel. Just not my style, although I realize I must be in the minority since they just kept bringing him back. Forcing it, at times. I'd hope he's kept enough from his radio glory days and side deals to leave for his son. But I can't say I was sorry to see him leave 670 - even if I was surprised that incident is what finally passed the threshold. Hard to see him as a sympathetic figure, though. He generally came and went as he pleased for a decade. Maybe I switched the dial too often to learn why he should be.
  3. One of two Blackhawks games I ever went to at the United Center -- it's expensive! -- I deliberately picked a seat in the last row in front of the road radio booth so I could hear some of that nonsense live. Final score: Blackhawks 4, Panthers 0.
  4. When the Tribune owned the Cubs and both WGN TV and radio -- and soon they will own none of the three -- I thought the move was to at least brand the TV station as a sports product. They had Cubs, Sox, Bulls & Blackhawks and a decent chunk of games not so long ago. Instead, they tried to be TBS -- by their own admission -- with the WGN America move with original programming and nothing else but comedy reruns that every other TBS wannabe had. They even pulled the WGN News off the WGN America air, along with all of the Chicago sports teams. I'm sure the leagues loved it but the WGN brand -- or a big piece of it, Chicago sports -- was destroyed. But I guess after many misses with random in-house witch shows, they are starting to turn a profit by re-airing Canadian or British shows or something.
  5. I'm expecting trouble as well. Maybe not Dodgers-level, but I think the Cubs will see resistance. Especially with NBC Sports Chicago extending White Sox, Bulls & Blackhawks partnerships -- what incentive do they have to put the Cubs on a basic tier? Add it to a premium level and they'll have the same reach as the Brewers and Cardinals in Illinois. I could see the Iowa cable companies and "downstate" Illinois companies getting in on Marquee early and the actual city be a slow adopter. Hope they have a good streaming app planned. (Or a loophole for MLB.TV blackouts.)
  6. Byron has always been low-key banking. I used to watch all those syndicated entertainment/sports interview shows he hosted when my work shift had me up late nights. "Commmmmmin' up next..." an awkward greeting with a celebrity that should have hit the editing room floor, but never, ever did, because Allen wanted to convince you they were all longtime friends. (They weren't.)
  7. The Arena League got too big, tried to be major with 7-figure salaries and left their smaller markets behind -- or worse -- banished them to the af2. It's better as several regional leagues. Might be cool to have a 4-team IFL-AFL-CIF-NAL-whoever champion playoff someday. Or if even two leagues did it. But everybody needs the rebound nets. The patent expired! The sport is not what it used to be at its peak -- or rise. But it can be entertaining. Just not electrifying, in my experience. I mean aren't some leagues paying $500 a game these days? Rough way to chase a dream.
  8. Yeah, The Athletic hired the Land of 10 Iowa Hawkeyes beat writer, too. I like what they're doing -- and the fact that their paywall comes with no ads and no auto-play videos as opposed to newspapers that just tried to add one right after bringing back pop-up ads -- but not enough to pay... yet.
  9. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution just ended SEC Country, Land of 10 and the rest of their "Diehards" sports verticals. They killed off the NFL one -- All 22 -- right before the playoffs. I'm sure many hadn't heard of them, but they hired away legit beat writers of college teams and that makes me wonder if The Athletic is about to expand beyond pro markets (and national college sites). Still, if they really want to "replace the underappreciated newspaper sports section," I'm not sure how they get there without dipping into preps. Maybe those are the scraps that will be left to print.
  10. Whoever had 12 in the "Mac misses work" pool wins. Hoarse voice getting worse, is the official word.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. This excerpt from that article sums it up so well: "As Horowitz started outlining his digital vision for Fox Sports, he candidly explained that content that had performed well for Fox and was a key part of the site’s turnaround were to be no longer part of the strategy. With a very matter-of-the-fact delivery, Horowitz shared his distaste of the legacy content strategy in place to a room full of employees who had taken great pride in making FoxSports.com a much more trafficked website over the last year (upwards of 50 percent by most accounts)." Ignoring what works, backed by traffic analytics, and going in a direction not supported by those same analytics, I suspect. Topped off by this quote from Horowitz' presentation: "The written word is still relevant, but the advertising value of written content, what we call display, is not growing." So many execs get hung up on the value of pre-roll ads for video without acknowledging that online readers don't actually watch video on traditional news websites. Someone above (EDIT: It was Cosmic) summarized it so well (paraphrasing): "Why watch an ad and a 3-minute video to tell me something I can read in 30 seconds?"
  14. The Peoria Chiefs' conversion from Cubs affiliate to Cardinals affiliate -- while not as drastic as this Bees' example -- has some odd combos that seem a bit forced in order to downplay blue in favor of red. Guess minor league teams have to do what they have to do to keep uniform costs down, especially when affiliates can shift every two years. Better to have your own identity lest you end up winning the Southern League championship as a Twins affiliate dressed as the Dodgers with a red-billed road cap on to appear more Twins-like. (Chattanooga Lookouts in 2015.) I don't remember this Burlington Bees era, but I'm sure I saw it live back in the day. Thanks for sharing.
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