The Sports Media Thread

[CubsFanBudMan]

To me, that show seems less like a conversation between two hosts, and more like a sports show with one guest every day: Jalen Rose. 

 

Best for me in small doses, few and far between.

On 6/2/2016 at 4:28 PM, WSU151 said:

 

"Jalen and Jacoby" is essentially this ^^.

[CubsFanBudMan]

Also, Fox Sports Florida Rays and Magic sideline reporter Emily Austen did a live show with Barstool Sports and now has no job.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/06/10/tampa-bay-rays-and-orlando-magic-sideline-reporter-cut-loose-for-racist-remarks/

 

[dfwabel]

B1G stays with ESPN for half of their media rights until 2022-23.

[Sodboy13]

Looks like Strombo will have more time on weekends for choking parties with Jian Ghomeshi: He's gone from HNiC, and Ron McLean is back to anchor the faltering enterprise. Of course, you could put Ernie Johnson in charge there, and it wouldn't matter as long as Healy, Cox, and Stock are still farting over the vast majority of your airtime.

[2001mark]

9 hours ago, Sodboy13 said:

Looks like Strombo will have more time on weekends for choking parties with Jian Ghomeshi: He's gone from HNiC, and Ron McLean is back to anchor the faltering enterprise. Of course, you could put Ernie Johnson in charge there, and it wouldn't matter as long as Healy, Cox, and Stock are still farting over the vast majority of your airtime.

 

Meh, I've quit pre & post game tv... going on about 4yrs now.  

I didn't mind Strombo because Rogers put too many ppl on tv at once & at least George was agile enough to keep it from being a trainwreck.  

I don't mind Ron, though he has to cease his inane anecdotes that go nowhere...

'This game reminds me of the time my letter carrier brought me my 4th book about hockey back in the 5th grade... can't remember what street I was living on because childhood is so magical like that, often the facts escape us.  Tonight's game is like that, we'll all be watching in our cozy homes, with a cold one or a warm friend (lols) & forget the little nuances that won't matter.  But I digress/what were we talking about?/anyway/that's just my story/which game are we throwing to now?/etc/etc/etc'

 

21st century production values out the door.  Rogers wants Jay Leno's viewership back.  Good luck.

[Cujo]

Today's Skip's last day on First Take for those who want to see him in the public eye for the last time.

 

Nobody watches FS1. A total cash grab/career killer. Perhaps Twitter will still keep him relevant...

[CS85]

I have a feeling this contract will drastically outlive Fox Sports 1.

[Nyk33]

1 hour ago, Cujo said:

Today's Skip's last day on First Take for those who want to see him in the public eye for the last time.

 

Nobody watches FS1. A total cash grab/career killer. Perhaps Twitter will still keep him relevant...

 

Skip Bayless is an expert troll. 

 

He will always find a way to get attention. 

[Cujo]

Yea, soooo, how's fellow loudmouth Colin Cowherd doing at FS1? He's been over there about year now and I haven't heard a single word from him since ESPN sent him packing. Ok, so he's making more money and still has his handful of loyal followers, but his prominence has severely dwindled since leaving the Worldwide Leader. Where's he gonna go when FS1 folds shop? Nomad around the radio like the Dan Patricks of the world? Back to ESPN like Stephen A. Smith (wisely) did?

 

This is the same question I pose for Skip's future.  At least he was wise enough to not burn his bridges on the way out of Bristol like Cowherd....Moron.

[MadmanLA]

1 hour ago, Cujo said:

This is the same question I pose for Skip's future.  At least he was wise enough to not burn his bridges on the way out of Bristol like Cowherd....Moron.

 

...or Bill Simmons--his departure is pretty much up there with Keith Olbermann's first departure from Bristol.  Little Billy, to paraphrase a quote, didn't just burn his bridge to Bristol, he napalmed it.

 

Speaking of Skip, Ryen Russillo didn't exactly hide his feelings about Bayless leaving for Fox...supposedly according to Russillo, ESPN basically put an edict towards the personalities that they weren't allowed to publicly disagree with Bayless.

 

Quote

Russillo: “Here’s my thing, If I had a position where I kept saying Tom Brady was the worst all the time and there’s really a lot of evidence that tells you he’s not the worst – or if I say Brady’s Super Bowl, you know, he could have done it without David Patten, that kind of stuff. If [Dan] LeBatard went out and said “I can’t believe Russillo said this, or Mike & Mike can’t believe Russillo said this, I would be OK with this, but I may disagree with them, but I would be OK with it. The problem is when you disagree with Skip, you’re not allowed to. Then he gets mad at you about it. So like, nobody wants to deal with it. And that’s why when the LeBron stuff comes up, if you’re going to be so clearly doctoring the results to keep pushing that you don’t like LeBron or you don’t think he’s any good, then go ahead and keep doing it because it’s clearly great for business, but you can’t get mad at other opinion people for being like ‘Well, that’s just insane and I don’t even know if you believe it.’ That’s always been my point with any of that stuff.”

 

Kanell: “Isn’t there a time, where you have to go ‘I was wrong’. Isn’t there a time? It’s probably not after the NBA Finals when LeBron was just so dominant.

 

Russillo: But that’s not good for business. It’s not good for business. You’re right, Danny, but it’s not good for business. And do you know what? Business is good, so I respect that part of it, but we’re all big boys, we all say stuff, and all of us, since we’re opinion guys, disagree with each other all the time. But when you disagree with Skip, it’s handled a different way and a lot of us are just like, whatever. So that’s why we never bring it up.

 

Kanell: Well, we don’t have to worry about it anymore.

 

 

[pmoehrin]

4 hours ago, MadmanLA said:

 

...or Bill Simmons--his departure is pretty much up there with Keith Olbermann's first departure from Bristol.  Little Billy, to paraphrase a quote, didn't just burn his bridge to Bristol, he napalmed it.

 

Speaking of Skip, Ryen Russillo didn't exactly hide his feelings about Bayless leaving for Fox...supposedly according to Russillo, ESPN basically put an edict towards the personalities that they weren't allowed to publicly disagree with Bayless.

 

 

Reminds of someone I know. Guy talks more smack than anyone I know, but the second you try to answer back he just goes into the corner and cries. Almost literally in some cases. So if you want to be friends with him, you just have to let him rip on you constantly and not say anything back, because if you do say something, he can't handle it. Not a whole lot else you can really do.

 

Needless were not really friends anymore, but if its a similar situation I can definitely sympathize. I wouldn't be sad to see someone like that go either. Someone that outspoken and that sensitive is bound to get on anyone's nerves at some point.

[dfwabel]

2 hours ago, Cujo said:

Yea, soooo, how's fellow loudmouth Colin Cowherd doing at FS1? He's been over there about year now and I haven't heard a single word from him since ESPN sent him packing. Ok, so he's making more money and still has his handful of loyal followers, but his prominence has severely dwindled since leaving the Worldwide Leader. Where's he gonna go when FS1 folds shop? Nomad around the radio like the Dan Patricks of the world? Back to ESPN like Stephen A. Smith (wisely) did?

 

This is the same question I pose for Skip's future.  At least he was wise enough to not burn his bridges on the way out of Bristol like Cowherd....Moron.

He owns his own content.  He has a TV contract with FS1 and a digital contract with iHeart.  He owns 40% of the radio show and 100% of his podcast and his website.

He went into detail earlier this month on The Podcast About Sports Radio.  As you hear him, he is taking the Glen Beck, Carolla, Stern approach to content ownership and didn't have any of that at ESPN.  The fact that ESPNU doesn't have its own sales staff was bothering him and went to say that his offer from ESPN was basically a sports radio contract only. 

 

Colin also has a bit of an entrepreneurial streak since he co-owns a couple of liquor stores.

 

[Sodboy13]

Savvy businessman. That face alone will drive me to drink.

 

Also, I realize the business model on Cowherd's end isn't about the ratings, but his show averaged 52,000 viewers nationwide last week. 19,000 in the Adults 18-49 demo. That's dang close to "nobody's watching" territory. I wish the same success upon his and Whitlock's joint venture.

[The_Admiral]

http://miketothmedia.com/2016/06/20/if-strombo-does-go-its-a-no-brainer/

This blog post is an interesting look at the unsurprisingly insular world of Toronto media, but buried in there is this solid gold nugget of prime Strombo:

 

Quote

As mentioned, I didn’t buy in from the start but Strombo officially lost me during a telecast last fall to promote the upcoming World Cup of Hockey in Toronto. Strombo was up on stage interviewing a number of international NHL stars such as Zdeno Chara, the Slovakian-born captain of the Boston Bruins. Whether he forgot Chara’s first name, didn’t know how to pronounce it, or perhaps wanted to appear “hip and cool”, Strombo spent the whole conversation calling him “Chara”; as in, “Chara, where does the World Cup rank on your list of thrills?” and “What’s the key to success when you’re playing international hockey, Chara?”

I am real-life laughing out loud at the mental picture of Strombo circumlocuting "Zdeno" by just calling him "Chara." The best part is that Canadian broadcasters take a steaming dump all over foreign pronunciations every time they air a hockey game, so short of calling him "Steve," how wrong could he have even gotten it?

 

This is choice, too:

Quote

George will continue to host his Sunday music show on CBC radio and it won’t be long before he lands another prominent TV gig in either Canada or the U.S., as he spends most of his time these days living in Los Angeles.

I've said it time and time again, there is nothing more Canadian than moving to the States.

[infrared41]

19 hours ago, Sodboy13 said:

Savvy businessman. That face alone will drive me to drink.

 

Also, I realize the business model on Cowherd's end isn't about the ratings, but his show averaged 52,000 viewers nationwide last week. 19,000 in the Adults 18-49 demo. That's dang close to "nobody's watching" territory. I wish the same success upon his and Whitlock's joint venture.

 

This isn't bragging, this is just an example of how truly small Cowherd's national TV audience is. In 1997-98, I in was working as the Program Director at a small market country station in Ohio. Our target market was a three county area with a population of about 150,000. I did afternoon drive (3-7p) and my average audience at any given time was about 18,000 people. That's 1000 fewer people than Cowherd's national TV audience in his target demo. I'm sure Cowherd's radio audience is a lot bigger than his TV audience, but still, 52,000 overall and 19,000 in the target demo is pathetic. Seriously, he's getting the same numbers nationally as some small radio station in podunk Ohio? 

[2001mark]

The Ringer has solid podcasts except for the woman on their NBA pod, who has a severe vocal fry.  I've nothing at all against her intelligence & NBA IQ, but a podcast is an audio escape & 40mins of like totally is too much.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

9 minutes ago, 2001mark said:

The Ringer has solid podcasts except for the woman on their NBA pod, who has a severe vocal fry.  I've nothing at all against her intelligence & NBA IQ, but a podcast is an audio escape & 40mins of like totally is too much.

 

I actually can't listen to the Ringer's NBA podcast. All of the hosts sound like a bunch of geeks; there's not enough gravitas there. Or, more to the point, why I should care what any of those people have to say. The Ringer might have a "who are you?" problem on its hands, especially when everyone has the same kind of nerdy, over-eager timbre to their voices.

 

 

I recommend the two recent Zack Lowe podcasts with Brian Windhorst and Ethan Sherwood Strauss, each speaking from the Cavs and Warriors coverage perspective respectively. Windhorst had an interesting comment about reporters in the champions' locker room; namely, they shouldn't be. He felt like that was a space for the team to be together and all of the hangers on just get in the way. Lowe, displaying the same lack of grace he always does, said he likes being there because it's really fun. (Though Windhorst rightly pointed out some iconic moments captured from the winners' locker room, so who knows.)

 

Ethan Strauss -- podcast star of 2016 -- is generally very good. I look forward to seeing what he does in 2016/17. 

[The_Admiral]

Over-eager geeks talking about the NBA, my dick is so hard right now.

[dfwabel]

12 minutes ago, DG_Now said:

 

Ethan Strauss -- podcast star of 2016 -- is generally very good. I look forward to seeing what he does in 2016/17. 

Only "Radio Ethan" is quality. The rest is just typical team talk and that team is the Warriors.

 

This board has members who hate Windhorst like he is the new Joe Buck, but I really think he is good and has really improved since being signed by ESPN and put on TV in 2011. TrueHoop is best with him and Bontemps.

Bontemps' own NBA podcast is good too.

 

I don't have time for Ringer podcasts not hosted by Simmons or Juliette Littman. Those two know how to carry a conversation and lead it.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

4 minutes ago, dfwabel said:

 

I don't have time for Ringer podcasts not hosted by Simmons or Juliette Littman. Those two know how to carry a conversation and lead it.

 

 

Bingo. That's in. With the right guest, Simmons is really good at asking a question and getting out of the way. So many podcasts hosts can't help themselves from stepping all over their guests. Woj and Lowe do this constantly: "So, [guest], tell me what you think about this teams chances this year, because I know they have a good PG, need a PF, and have good coaching, but anything could happen if they get the right breaks, so how do you react to that?" It's so much more annoying once you know they're doing it.

 

Windhorst is great. He's so earnest.