The Sports Media Thread

[Digby]

Was pleasantly surprised that ESPN reported on Enes Kanter's criticism of LeBron and Nike during the Lakers/Celtics game the other night, but then the sideline reporter threw it back to Doris Burke and Mike Breen, and they totally ruined it. The real problem is that Kanter didn't privately talk to LeBron first? As if LeBron is taking calls from Enes Kanter? Pretty embarrassing and feckless.

[The_Admiral]

Well, if Kanter's social credit score wasn't already too low for LeBron to pick up the phone, it sure is now.

[Kramerica Industries]

2 hours ago, Digby said:

Was pleasantly surprised that ESPN reported on Enes Kanter's criticism of LeBron and Nike during the Lakers/Celtics game the other night, but then the sideline reporter threw it back to Doris Burke and Mike Breen, and they totally ruined it. The real problem is that Kanter didn't privately talk to LeBron first? As if LeBron is taking calls from Enes Kanter? Pretty embarrassing and feckless.

 

Well, that and the fact that Doris Burke took exception to Kanter making Lebron kinda/sorta the "face" of things, like Lebron didn't out himself as a massive China stooge the moment his slacktivism on the subject began to hurt his bank account.

[The_Admiral]

LeBron should go full Online Chinese and respond to his detractors by saying "you stupid American dog, you smell like onions and sour milk, you white whore-mother, you have hurt the feelings of the Chinese people. u bum!"

[Sec19Row53]

54 minutes ago, the admiral said:

LeBron should go full Online Chinese and respond to his detractors by saying "you stupid American dog, you smell like onions and sour milk, you white whore-mother, you have hurt the feelings of the Chinese people. u bum!"

Sounds more like the Iron Sheik

[SFGiants58]

11 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Sounds more like the Iron Sheik

Well, Twitter Iron Sheik.
 

That reminds me, somebody wrote in to Cornette’s podcast with this:

 

 

Corny was smart to shut it down before he got a CWCki entry. You know, a CWC-inspired heel would’ve likely gotten over in Smokey Mountain. 

[The_Admiral]

It's hilarious that Cornette shut it down not because he didn't want to open that can of worms, but rather because he didn't think a person named "Christian Weston Chandler" could be real. Buddy, you don't know the half of it.

[Red Comet]

2 hours ago, SFGiants58 said:

Well, Twitter Iron Sheik.
 

That reminds me, somebody wrote in to Cornette’s podcast with this:

 

 

Corny was smart to shut it down before he got a CWCki entry. You know, a CWC-inspired heel would’ve likely gotten over in Smokey Mountain. 

 

2 minutes ago, the admiral said:

It's hilarious that Cornette shut it down not because he didn't want to open that can of worms, but rather because he didn't think a person named "Christian Weston Chandler" could be real. Buddy, you don't know the half of it.

Reality can be a real mother:censored:er sometimes. 

[SFGiants58]

Well, Chris-Chan is basically the XPW version of Eugene. More violent, more horny, and somehow more disabled.

[Ridleylash]

6 minutes ago, SFGiants58 said:

Well, Chris-Chan is basically the XPW version of Eugene. More violent, more horny, and somehow more disabled.

Don't forget to add a bit of Beaver Cleavage for the incestual angle, too.

[SFGiants58]

20 minutes ago, Ridleylash said:

Don't forget to add a bit of Beaver Cleavage for the incestual angle, too.

Throw in a feud with XPW’s The Messiah to determine who the real Messiah is (obviously XPW Messiah).

[Red Wolf]

10 hours ago, Ridleylash said:

Don't forget to add a bit of Beaver Cleavage for the incestual angle, too.

 

I would have preferred to forget, so thanks.

[Digby]

Hot damn, 7.2 million viewers for the Thanksgiving Day MLS playoff game. Wish it was a bit more of an open flowing game, probably didn't win many "soccer is boring" converts. But that's a massive number for MLS. https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-thursday-11-25-2021-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html

[The_Admiral]

 

Whenever people aren't arguing about Dave Portnoy, all the other blue-checks should be asking "where's arguing about Dave Portnoy?"

[Red Comet]

Again, who let Keith Olbermann out of the mental hospital?

[The_Admiral]

It's weird to see Olbermann in on the crusade to destroy Dave Portnoy, not because of anything ideological, but just because the crusade to destroy Dave Portnoy is a young man's game. Have some dignity and let some dullard like Albert Burneko fail for you instead! You earned it! He was instrumental in ending the public life of George W. Bush but is ineffective in ending the public life of a guy who makes pizza vlogs. Just another unevenness in the career arc of Keith Olbermann, I suppose.

[SFGiants58]

55 minutes ago, the admiral said:

Just another unevenness in the career arc of Keith Olbermann, I suppose.

 

He's like if MovieBob was about 150 lbs lighter, considerably better-looking, and could tap into temporary lucidity. 

[TheBigFiz21]

I'm guessing it's been discussed here in some capacity, but I wonder....what's the future of local sports radio looking like? WJZ-FM in Baltimore that comes to mind when I think about this; in the last several years, for the most part, since Entercom took over CBS Radio, I've seen them struggle with bringing in new voices to host, but more telling to me is the lack of weekend shows assuming no Orioles baseball, UMD hoops or football that day. Or maybe it's the fact that the executive producer has to go on air sometimes to poll what the viewers think of what they hear daily or turning to national sports radio and Westwood One games as filler time for late nights and weekends.

 

Now, I'm well aware that radio in general is struggling to co-exist with the rise of podcasts, livestreams, etc. combined with mobile devices and data plans making other media platforms more accessible everywhere. And of coarse, the domino effect of having older audience that's tuning in, at the very least, just for non-top-40 stations, I'd like to think.

 

I fear that station is gonna crumble to nothing more than just a CBS Sports Radio repeat 24/7 + whatever games they like to put on, whether local or national. I just feel curious as to if that's a country-side problem or is it gonna be a thing where only the big cities like NYC, Chicago, Philly, and LA can afford to have local sports radio down the line...

[infrared41]

26 minutes ago, TheBigFiz21 said:

I fear that station is gonna crumble to nothing more than just a CBS Sports Radio repeat 24/7 + whatever games they like to put on, whether local or national. I just feel curious as to if that's a country-side problem or is it gonna be a thing where only the big cities like NYC, Chicago, Philly, and LA can afford to have local sports radio down the line...

 

Setting aside podcasts, etc. - The short answer is local radio is on the way out because radio doesn't like to spend money. As a result, you're not getting hosts capable of bringing in an audience which results in low ratings which results in less ad revenue which results in less money to get good hosts. When faced with the choice, radio management will almost always choose to pay someone 10 bucks an hour to board-op a national show over paying a local host real money to do a local show. Frankly, I'm kinda surprised local sports shows still exist and I say that as someone who worked in radio for a long time. FWIW, I haven't listened to a local sports talk show in years.

 

 

[Digby]

2 hours ago, TheBigFiz21 said:

I'm guessing it's been discussed here in some capacity, but I wonder....what's the future of local sports radio looking like? WJZ-FM in Baltimore that comes to mind when I think about this; in the last several years, for the most part, since Entercom took over CBS Radio, I've seen them struggle with bringing in new voices to host, but more telling to me is the lack of weekend shows assuming no Orioles baseball, UMD hoops or football that day. Or maybe it's the fact that the executive producer has to go on air sometimes to poll what the viewers think of what they hear daily or turning to national sports radio and Westwood One games as filler time for late nights and weekends.

 

Now, I'm well aware that radio in general is struggling to co-exist with the rise of podcasts, livestreams, etc. combined with mobile devices and data plans making other media platforms more accessible everywhere. And of coarse, the domino effect of having older audience that's tuning in, at the very least, just for non-top-40 stations, I'd like to think.

 

I fear that station is gonna crumble to nothing more than just a CBS Sports Radio repeat 24/7 + whatever games they like to put on, whether local or national. I just feel curious as to if that's a country-side problem or is it gonna be a thing where only the big cities like NYC, Chicago, Philly, and LA can afford to have local sports radio down the line...

 

98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston just set a bunch of listenership records I think. First across the board, at least with that men 25-54 demographic. Of course that's share and not raw listeners, so I don't know how that shakes out, but it seems like they're the one last big radio station that everyone will flock to when all the other radio, incl. non-sports, fizzles out. That may back up your last sentence, Boston being a major market for sports at least.

 

Worth noting that that's one of the stations CBS Radio had to divest separately during the Entercom sale; I'm not even sure who owns 98.5 now... but it's just been the same story for the past decade regardless of ownership, slowly sucking up market share, and media rights to everyone but the Red Sox, away from WEEI.

 

WEEI continues to circle the drain, and also cycle through the same voices who've been doing milquetoast radio in Boston since the 90s (plus Lou Merloni who fits right in). Doesn't seem like anyone's at the wheel or knows what to do anymore. Gave up on their half-hearted pivot to right-wing talk radio once Callahan and Minihane each departed for podcastland and took their audiences of racist uncles and domestic abusers with them, and I don't know what the mission's been ever since.