The Sports Media Thread

[McCall]

1 hour ago, Cujo said:

BRING BACK PRIME SPORTS

 

 

 

[MJWalker45]

On 2/12/2023 at 4:42 PM, GDAWG said:

A-Rod and Jeter will be teammates again:

 

 

Derek Jeter doesn't need to be on TV. As great as a player that he was, he's blander than unflavored yogurt. 

 

[TBGKon]

4 hours ago, Indigo said:

So what happens to all the regional FOX Sports channels?

I know this article is Tampa-centric, but it does share some details that might come about across the board.

 

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/lightning/2023/02/15/bally-diamond-sinclair-rays-lightning-bankruptcy/

[The_Admiral]

RIP Dave Wills, a pure South Side guy who had to go to Tampa to get the play-by-play job he ought to have had here. 

[Marcos Flamengo]

On 2/15/2023 at 6:19 PM, TBGKon said:

I know this article is Tampa-centric, but it does share some details that might come about across the board.

 

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/lightning/2023/02/15/bally-diamond-sinclair-rays-lightning-bankruptcy/

Will FOX Corp. get back the RSNs they sell out?

[TBGKon]

13 hours ago, Marcos Flamengo said:

Will FOX Corp. get back the RSNs they sell out?

Doubtful.  From what I've understood, the RSNs were acquired by Disney when Disney acquired that portion 20th Century Fox.  Because Disney already had ESPN, it was viewed that Disney had to spin off the RSN's to avoid a monopoly.

[McCall]

If MLB took over all broadcasting and offered streaming options, like one team + MLB Network, I'd probably sign up. Then you could also have an option for the entire league + MLB Network at higher price point, as well.

[TrueYankee26]

CBS launching 24/7 Soccer streaming channel called Golazo on April 11

 

https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/cbs-sports-golazo-network-a-247-streaming-channel-dedicated-to-soccer-to-launch-april-11/

[DG_ThenNowForever]

1 hour ago, TrueYankee26 said:

CBS launching 24/7 Soccer streaming channel called Golazo on April 11

 

https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/cbs-sports-golazo-network-a-247-streaming-channel-dedicated-to-soccer-to-launch-april-11/

 

Quote

UEFA Europa League, UEFA Europa Conference League, Serie A, NWSL, Concacaf national team competitions, Barclays Women's Super League, Campeonato Brasileirão Série A, Scottish Professional Football League, Argentina Liga Profesional de Fútbol and the AFC Champions League.

 

I appreciate what they're going for, but basically none of that interests me outside of Concacaf.

[Gary]

 

https://arizonasports.com/story/3516273/phoenix-suns-2022-23-season-will-be-al-mccoys-last/

 

 

Al McCoy the legendary voice of the Phoenix Suns announced he will be retiring this year. Won't be the same hearing "Shazam" After every 3 pointer tye Suns made

[The_Admiral]

The NBA is pretty short on legendary voices relative to the other three leagues, which is interesting considering its strength as a media product. Neil Funk retired from the Bulls and no one really cared; compare with the Viking funerals for Pat Foley and Hawk Harrelson around the same time. Caring about who does the broadcasts, especially at a local level, just doesn't seem to be part of NBA fan culture by and large.

[Digby]

6 hours ago, the admiral said:

The NBA is pretty short on legendary voices relative to the other three leagues, which is interesting considering its strength as a media product. Neil Funk retired from the Bulls and no one really cared; compare with the Viking funerals for Pat Foley and Hawk Harrelson around the same time. Caring about who does the broadcasts, especially at a local level, just doesn't seem to be part of NBA fan culture by and large.

Until Tom Heinsohn died it was him and Mike Gorman my entire life, so can’t relate.

 

interestingly this year the Celtics have half-promoted Sean Grande to the TV cast since Gorman no longer travels to most road games. Which is good because he’s an excellent broadcaster, but a little bittersweet in that he and Cedric Maxwell doing radio have become almost as iconic a duo and it’s a shame to break them up. Should promote Max too; seems like we’re stuck with Brian Scalabrine for the foreseeable future, which is horrible.

[who do you think]

Gorman plans on retiring next year (after over 40 years) according to a recent Boston.com article. I wouldn't dare say that this is a good thing, because he's an excellent voice and broadcaster, but he has sounded tired and flat on a lot of telecasts since 2017 or so, and especially since Tommy passed away.

[BBTV]

On 3/18/2023 at 4:26 AM, the admiral said:

Caring about who does the broadcasts, especially at a local level, just doesn't seem to be part of NBA fan culture by and large.

 

I think Mark Zumoff retiring was (locally) a pretty big deal (albeit not nearly as big a deal as when Gene Hart was replaced or Harry Kalas died or when Merrill Reese and even Scott Franzke eventually go.)

 

Is part of it that NBA games are broadcast not only locally, but also on ESPN, TNT, ABC, and have different broadcast teams on each?  So unless your team blows and they're never on national TV, you're listening to different guys all the time anyway?  I'm not going to look it up, but I'd bet that out of the 4 major sports, a fewer percentage of NBA games are broadcast only by the local names vs any of the other sports (obviously for NFL I'm referring to radio only.)

 

 

[Digby]

12 minutes ago, BBTV said:

Is part of it that NBA games are broadcast not only locally, but also on ESPN, TNT, ABC, and have different broadcast teams on each?  So unless your team blows and they're never on national TV, you're listening to different guys all the time anyway?  I'm not going to look it up, but I'd bet that out of the 4 major sports, a fewer percentage of NBA games are broadcast only by the local names vs any of the other sports (obviously for NFL I'm referring to radio only.)

 

 

I don't think that's too big a deal as a lot of those national TV games are simulcast on the local affiliate. I *think* it's only the weekend ABC/ESPN games and the Thursday TNT games that are exclusive to the national network; other nights the national teams pick up whatever looks good but the RSNs carry on as normal as well, so you have a choice.

 

It might be that there's more movement between teams/networks, like Fratello bouncing around between the Cavs and Clippers broadcasts and doing national games on top of it. Announcer empowerment! But again I'm not sure I really buy the premise here.

[The_Admiral]

3 hours ago, BBTV said:

Is part of it that NBA games are broadcast not only locally, but also on ESPN, TNT, ABC, and have different broadcast teams on each?  So unless your team blows and they're never on national TV, you're listening to different guys all the time anyway?  I'm not going to look it up, but I'd bet that out of the 4 major sports, a fewer percentage of NBA games are broadcast only by the local names vs any of the other sports (obviously for NFL I'm referring to radio only.)

 

No, there are healthy slates of local NBA games for every team, probably 70+ per team. Except, of course, the Raptors, who I think run all 82 on a nationwide TSN/Rogers split. I don't know how "locally" they treat them, but I will say that TSN is pretty neutral with the Leafs.

 

But I think we came to the same conclusion, eventually, with both of our examples, which is that local broadcasters just don't seem to have as much a place in NBA lore relative to the other sports. That's not to say that there aren't exceptions, but that sort of interest in the idiosyncrasies and year-over-year continuity on the broadcast side doesn't seem to be there in the same way. I think part of it is that to care about the guy calling the games every year is to put the organization over the players in a way that's unpalatable to modern NBA sensibilities. I agree that Gorman and Heinsohn test that rule, but then again it is the Celtics, maybe the least "modern NBA sensibilities" fandom around.

[RyanMcD29]

New York's an interesting case cause you have Knick fans that feel Breen's that way for them on MSG and Net fans with Eagle on YES.... but both of them are much more known for their national TV work

[The_Admiral]

I think New York is a great example of what I'm talking about with the way that calling Mets games has Meant Something from pretty much day one. 

[BBTV]

I wonder what the average tenure-per-team is for NBA broadcasters vs other sports.  For example, on average, is a baseball radio guy with the same team for 9 seasons, while the average NBA broadcaster is with his/her team for 5?

 

I'm in mid 40s, and I've only known :

• Two Phillies lead TV guys (Harry Kalas / Tom McCarthy), and mostly 2 radio broadcasters (Kalas / Scott Franzke... with a couple of weird Scott Graham seasons in the middle), 
• ONE Eagles announcer (Reese),
• mostly one Sixers TV announcer (the afore-mentioned Zumoff and now Kate Scott, who I haven't actually listened to yet), and they've had the same radio voice for 25 years.
• Two Flyers TV/Radio voices (Gene Hart and Jim Jackson, with a few weird Mike Emerick years in the middle.)

I think that's why at least here, it's kind of a big deal when one retires or leaves, but I know that type of tenure is probably the exception rather than the rule, though there's certainly other very notable examples of announcers that have been with their teams for even longer.

 

 

[BBTV]

Also, supporting your point, I'll listen to Phillies games on the radio even when they suck, simply because I like the banter between Franzke and Larry Andersen, and i'll listen to Merrill Reese games even in the rare cases I'm not that interested, mostly because of him.  But with basketball, does anyone tune into a game just for the broadcaster?  I think maybe for basketball, people watch the players and don't need the announcer for anything other than supplementary information?   There's not nearly as much time for them to inject much of their personalities into the game as there is in the other sports, so maybe people don't get "addicted" to them like they might with other broadcasters.