Fang's Bites

Sports Media Weekly No. 135, Brian Berger, Sports Business Radio & Amy Van Dyken, Fox Sports Radio

Back with another edition of Sports Media Weekly. Now I forgot to link to last week’s edition and I’ll rectify that at end of this post, but first let’s go over this week’s podcast.

We begin with what Keith Thibault of Sports Media Journal and I have dubbed “Third Man In,” a guest from the sports business or sports media world to discuss the News of the Week. For this week’s edition, Keith and I have invited Brian Berger of the Sports Business Radio podcast and his Everything is on the Record media training firm to talk both sports business and sports media.

We all started with the latest on the Manti Te’o story and how it progressed from our last edition when it just broke to what we have now with the Notre Dame linebacker appearing on his first television interview with Katie Couric and doing his very first Q&A session off-camera with ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap last week. We also talked about ESPN being lapped by Deadspin on the Te’o story and how the Te’o camp failed in many aspects to give closure.

And it led to a discussion of the Lance Armstrong interview with Oprah Winfrey and how it didn’t help his cause with the American people.

From there, we went to a talk about the NFL’s ratings for Conference Championship Sunday which were down compared to last year, but probably won’t give advertisers a reason to abandon ship. Plus we looked at Super Bowl storylines and advertising.

We ended the “Third Man In” segment with a talk about the return of the NHL to high ratings (for the NHL).

Our guest this week is the delightful Amy Van Dyken of Fox Sports Radio, co-host of Fox Sports Tonight with Rob Dibble. With Amy, Keith and I asked her about her transition from being a gold medal-winning athlete to being in the sports media.

We talked to her about how she got into broadcasting and covered her first Olympics in 2002 as a reporter and how she went from being a part of a morning show to sports radio.

And we also talked about her co-hosting Fox Sports Tonight.

Another fun edition of the podcast and you can find it on iTunes by doing a search for “Sports Media Journal” or going right here to listen right away.

Edition 134 of the podcast was a New York Capital Region episode featuring Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union who was the inaugural “Third Man In” for our News of the Week segment and Andrew Catalon of WNYT-TV in Albany and a host of networks including CBS Sports Network, NBC and Tennis Channel. Details of that podcast are at Sports Media Journal and of course, downloadable at iTunes and found here.

Your Thursday Linkage

Let’s do a few links for you.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today looks at the local MLB TV ratings.

Mike Ozanian from Forbes explains what the new national MLB TV deals mean for the upcoming bids for the Los Angeles Dodgers TV rights.

Georg Szalai of the Hollywood Reporter has an NBC Sports executive defending its decision not to air live coverage of the Paralympics.

ESPN Ombudsman Jason Fry at the Poynter Institute discusses ESPN taking credit for the work of others and standardizing its editorial policies.

Bradley Klein of Golfweek was not enamored with the amount of commercials in NBC’s Ryder Cup coverage. Thanks to Ed Sherman for the link.

Speaking of Ed, he wonders if this season will be the last for the partnership of Chicago White Sox TV announcers Ken Harrelson and Steve Stone.

Jill Goldsmith from Variety discusses the new carriage deal between Disney and Cablevision that includes WatchESPN, Longhorn Network and other ESPN platforms.

Broadcasting & Cable reports on Golf Channel’s record viewership for the third quarter of 2012.

Dan Daly from Sports Video Group explores how Fox and Turner are preparing to pick up audio during the MLB Postseason.

ESPN’s Kristi Dosh looks at the next Manchester United cash deal.

ESPN’s Darren Rovell wonders how much Master Swindler Curt Schilling can receive for selling his bloody sock. I live in Rhode Island and I’m an angry taxpayer on the hook thanks to Curt’s 38 Studios deal.

Rocco Pendoia at The Street wonders if national sports radio can generate revenue for CBS.

Jordan Rabinowitz at SportsGrid has the painful video of actor Liam Neeson’s appearance on ESPN’s SportsCenter as Mike Hill asked him about Tim Tebow. You can only imagine the results.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks with SiriusXM’s Chris Russo.

Jerry Barmash at FishbowlNY says YES has received its best ratings in two years for the last two Red Sox-Yankees games.

The Schenectady Gazette’s Ken Schott says local sports anchor Andrew Catalon will call UConn women’s basketball on SNY this season.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union has the Week 5 NFL TV schedule for the Capital Region.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record looks at the SNY UConn Women’s basketball schedule.

Tom Luicci of the Newark Star-Ledger talks with ESPN analyst John Congemi about Saturday’s UConn-Rutgers game.

Keith Groller at the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says IndyCar racing returns next year to Pocono Raceway, but in a shorter form and with ABC televising the race over NBC Sports Network.

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun has a slideshow in which he gives grades to the MASN Orioles broadcasters for this season.

David notes the O’s home finale’s ratings on MASN almost doubled from the last season.

In the Washington Post, Dan Steinberg wants to know why former WaPo columnist Michael Wilbon trashed DC in ESPN The Magazine.

Dan also responds to Michael’s trashing of him.

David Barron at the Houston Chronicle says the final day of the Astros season meant saying goodbye on both TV and radio.

Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman writes that several Oklahoma City Thunder players were gripped by ESPN’s “Broke” 30 for 30 documentary.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says the Reds set a ratings record on Fox Sports Ohio.

In the Los Angeles Times, Joe Flint writes about the Disney carriage deal with Cablevision.

Joe Eskanazi of San Francisco explains how the Bleacher Report became so big.

John Carvalho at ChuckOliver.net delves into the feud between South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier and a newspaper columnist.

Andrew Kameka of Mobile Play says WatchESPN is now adding support for Apple AirPlay through iOS6.

Dave Kohl has some various sports media thoughts in The Broadcast Booth.

I’m going to end it there.

Bringing Out Some Tuesday Links

Let’s do some linkage for you on this Tuesday.

Earlier today, actually very early today, I wrote Some Tuesday Olympic Sports Media Thoughts. I hope it makes sense.

Austin Karp of the Sports Business Daily says NBC saw its second drop in the overnight ratings for the 2012 Olympics.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says a new poll finds that Americans want to watch their Olympics live. Well, well, NBC.

Reid Cherner of USA Today has video of someone on Fox News complaining that gold medal-winning gymnast Gabby Douglas and other US Olympic athletes aren’t being patriotic because they aren’t wearing red, white and blue. Did someone really think that was a serious complaint?

Etan Vlessing at the Hollywood Reporter says CTV received its biggest Olympic ratings to date with Usain Bolt’s gold medal-winning performance in the 100 meters dash.

Gary Holmes from MediaPost says Olympic viewers want to see the Games one way. On TV.

John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable says a poll finds a majority pleased with NBC’s coverage of the Olympics. Really?

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News looks at NBC’s Olympic primetime ratings for Sunday.

Mike also delves into the online numbers visiting NBC’s Olympics website.

Jeannine Poggi of Advertising Age explains why Turner Broadcasting purchased the Bleacher Report.

Jeannine says people might be complaining about NBC’s tape delays, but the network and advertisers are benefiting the most.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine says NBC’s viewership for the Olympics on Sunday was a triumph for the network.

Ed Sherman at The Sherman Report talks with ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap.

Glenn Davis at SportsGrid has video of Vin Scully carefully translating an argument during last night’s Colorado-Los Angeles Dodgers game.

Timothy Burke has a freeze frame of NBC’s Al Michaels. This is so funny.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times goes over the sale of the Bleacher Report to Turner Sports.

Newsday’s Neil Best writes about some of NBC’s Olympic operations being handled out of New York.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette says local native Joe Tessitore gets a college football promotion from ESPN.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union talks with local sports anchor Andrew Catalon who called tennis history during the Olympics.

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun interviews NBC Olympics director Bucky Gunts.

Adam H. Beasley of the Miami Herald says the premiere of Hard Knocks with Dolphins is set for tonight.

Mel Bracht at The Oklahoman goes over ESPN’s college football announcing teams for 2012.

Bob Wolfley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes that the Olympics continue to do well locally.

The San Diego Union-Tribune says the blackout has been lifted for the Chargers’ preseason opener on Thursday.

Sports Media Watch looks at the UFC on Fox ratings on Saturday.

Guyism notes that Kelly Tilghman created a new country on MSNBC today.

The Toronto Sports Media Blog looks at the media openly rooting during the Olympics.

That will be it for now.

It’s A Friday Megalink Day

And can you believe I’ve been able to do linkage for most of the week? Hasn’t been like that in a long while. Glad I’ve been able to get it done.

Time for your Friday megalinks. As usual, we provide the Weekend Viewing Picks which has plenty of MLB and U.S. Olympic Trials action.

Let’s go to the links.

National

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand looks at ESPN extending its current deal with the Rose Bowl.

Michael looks at Erin Andrews’ departure from ESPN.

Sports Business Journal has a sampling of what some sports business and sports media figures addressed to the graduating Class of 2012 at the nation’s colleges and universities.

At the Sherman Report, Ed Sherman explores the strange dispute between the Arizona Diamondbacks and TV voice Daron Sutton.

Ed also notes some media bashing of Chris Berman a few months in advance of his Monday Night Football debut.

Stuart Kemp of the Hollywood Reporter writes that the BBC has launched a new Facebook app to allow UK users to watch the Olympics online.

John Eggerton from Broadcasting & Cable says the Supreme Court has let stand a lower court ruling throwing out the FCC fine against CBS for the infamous Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. Man, that was a long time ago.

Tim Baysinger of B&C says NASCAR Digital Media has hired five executives in advance of the sport’s takeover of its digital rights from Turner Sports next year.

Jason Dachman of Sports Video Group notes ESPN’s X Games production evolution.

The Nielsen Wire blog ponders the question of whether NBA Draft picks can do well in marketing products.

Deadline reports that ESPN’s ratings for the EURO 2012 semifinals this week are way up from EURO 2008.

One more week of writing, “CNBC’s Darren Rovell”. Today, CNBC’s Darren Rovell writes that with less than a month to go until the Olympics, a major ticket dispute has erupted.

Joe Favorito notes how Delta Airlines’ sponsorship of English Premier League team Chelsea shows that the company wants to go outside of the US to gain awareness.

Sports Media Watch has a look at some of NBC’s Olympic assignments for London.

The Big Lead notes that ESPN and Bill Simmons removed a potential offensive part of his NBA Draft diary that is way too long for anyone to read.

Ryan Yoder of Awful Announcing has the winners and losers from Thursday’s night’s NBA Draft coverage on ESPN.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe writes about a documentary on an Olympic hopeful who is attempting to gain a spot on the US women’s gymnastics team.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram and Gazette talks with the Voice of the Worcester Tornadoes minor league baseball team.

Jerry Barmash at Fishbowl NY talks with WFAN’s Mike Francesa on whether he’ll return to the station when his contract expires in two years.

Phil Mushnick in the New York Post is not happy about Chris Berman calling Monday Night Football.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette notes that local sports anchor Andrew Catalon gets another Olympics assignment.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union notes that the NBA Draft’s ratings on ESPN were down from the year before.

Pete looks at 25 years of WFAN.

Ken McMillan from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record analyzes the NBC Olympic assignments.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call talks about the later start time for the NFL national Sunday afternoon game.

Keith has some fun facts about WFAN’s 25th anniversary.

Jonathan Tannenwald of Philly.com says Philadelphia Union voice JP Dellacamera will be calling Olympic soccer games for NBC.

DCRTV’s Dave Hughes in Press Box says the Baltimore Orioles’ ratings on MASN are up.

Dan Steinberg from the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog has the Nationals’ radio ratings.

Jim Williams at the Washington Examiner speaks with NBC’s Phil Liggett about the Tour de France which kicks off this weekend.

South

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald culls media opinions regarding the Heat’s chances to repeat.

Jimmie E. Gates of the Jackson (MS) Clarion Ledger says a lawsuit against ESPN over a 30 for 30 documentary can proceed in state court.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle says the Rockets are changing radio stations.

David writes the person who helped launch Houston’s original regional sports network will be part of the team that launches the city’s newest RSN.

Mel Bracht in The Oklahoman says a local sports radio network will be slightly affiliated with the new CBS Sports Radio.

More links later.

UPDATE, 9:20 p.m.: Time for more linkage.

Midwest

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Bob Wolfley says Fox has replaced Daron Sutton from this Saturday’s Arizona-Brewers game.

Robert Channick of the Chicago Tribune says WMAQ sports anchor Mike Adamle who’s been on leave from the station is expected to return soon.

Paul Christian in the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin goes over the NFL Network’s Top 100 Players of 2012 series.

West

John Maffei of the North County Times talks with TBS’ Cal Ripken about the MLB All-Star Game.

Jim Carlisle in the Ventura County Star rails against the current format of the All-Star Game.

Jim reviews some of this week’s sports media news in his notebook.

Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times says the NFL has laid down guidelines for the league to return to the nation’s second biggest market.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News isn’t thrilled about NBC pulling tape delayed shenanigans for the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Tom has more notes in his blog.

And we are finally done.

2012 NBC Olympics Hosts and Commentators

Ok, NBC’s press release on its 2012 Olympics hosts and announcers has yet to arrive. Thanks to an alert reader, I was tipped off to NBC Sports Group’s press release website which has the talent bios of its announcers for London. I’m not sure if NBC wants to make that site public, so I won’t link to it for now. But through this website, I’ll be able to piece together the announcing teams for you.

We already know the hosts for NBC and the hosts for Bravo (tennis), CNBC (boxing) and MSNBC. And this week, we learned the hosts for NBC Sports Network.

Ok, let’s list everything I’m able to compile. This is not complete as some sports are missing analysts and one is missing a play-by-play person, but it’s based on what I’ve been able to piece together from NBC’s PR site. I’ll provide reactions to the announcers later.

Randy Moss and Steve Schlanger will call multiple events during the Olympics. There are a couple of analysts who will provide color on multiple sports.

And when NBC finally sends its official press release with the complete announcing teams, I’ll publish that in a separate post.

Here we go.

STUDIO HOSTS

NBC
Today at the Olympics: Matt Lauer, Meredith Viera, Ann Curry, Al Roker
Weekdays/Weekend: Al Michaels, Dan Patrick
Primetime: Bob Costas
Late Night: Mary Carillo

Correspondents: Mary Carillo (primetime), Jimmy Fallon (primetime), Bela Karolyi (primetime) John McEnroe (primetime), Jimmy Roberts (daytime), Ryan Seacrest (primetime),  Shaun White (primetime)

MSNBC
Kelly Tilghman

NBC Sports Network
Morning: Michelle Beadle
Midday: Willie Geist
Afternoon: Liam McHugh

Olympic Sports Desk Reporters
Tamron Hall
Marshall Harris
Lester Holt
Carolyn Manno
Pierre McGuire
Carolyn Peck
Dr. Nancy Snyderman
Michele Tafoya

VENUE COMMENTATORS

Badminton
Jim Kozimor (play-by-play)
Steve Kearney (analyst)

Basketball (men’s & women’s)
Chris Carrino (play-by-play)
Bob Fitzgerald (play-by-play)
Dave Strader (play-by-play)
Doug Collins (analyst)
Lisa Leslie (analyst)
Ann Meyers (analyst)
Craig Sager (reporter)

Beach Volleyball
Chris Marlowe (play-by-play)
Kevin Wong (analyst)
Heather Cox (reporter)

Boxing (CNBC)
Fred Roggin (venue host)
Bob Papa (blow-by-blow)
Teddy Atlas (analyst)
Russ Thaler (reporter)

Canoe
Randy Moss (play-by-play)

Cycling
Todd Harris (play-by-play)
Steve Schlanger (play-by-play)

Diving
Ted Robinson (play-by-play)
Cynthia Potter (analyst)
Alex Flanagan (reporter)

Equestrian
Tim Ryan (play-by-play)
Melanie Smith Taylor (analyst)

Field Hockey
Mike Corey (play-by-play)
Missy Meharg (analyst)

Gymnastics
Al Trautwig (play-by-play)
Tim Dagget (analyst)
Elfi Schlegel (analyst)
Andrea Joyce (reporter)

Handball
Mike Gorman (play-by-play)
Dawn Allinger Lewis (analyst)

Judo
Leo White, Jr. (analyst)

Open Water
Steve Schlanger (play-by-play)
Rowdy Gaines (analyst)

Race Walk
Randy Moss (play-by-play)
Chris Maddocks (analyst)

Rowing
Terry Gannon (play-by-play)
Yasmin Farooq (analyst)

Shooting
Shari Legate (analyst)

Soccer
Steve Cangialosi (play-by-play)
Glenn Davis (play-by-play)
JP Dellacamera (play-by-play)
Arlo White (play-by-play)
Marcelo Balboa (analyst)
Brandi Chastain (analyst)
Allen Hopkins (analyst)
Cobi Jones (analyst)
Kyle Martino (analyst)
Shep Messing (analyst)

Swimming
Dan Hicks (play-by-play)
Rowdy Gaines (analyst)
Andrea Kremer (reporter)

Synchronized Swimming
Randy Moss (play-by-play)
Heather Olson (analyst)

Table Tennis
Ari Wolfe (play-by-play)
Sean O’Neill (analyst)

Tennis (Bravo)
Pat O’Brien (venue host)
Andrew Catalon (play-by-play)
Brett Haber (play-by-play)
Ted Robinson (play-by-play)
Justin Gimelstob (analyst)
Rennae Stubbs (analyst)
Jon Wertheim (reporter)

Track & Field
Tom Hammond (play-by-play)
Ato Boldon (analyst)
Craig Masback (analyst)
Dwight Stones (analyst)
Tim Hutchings (analyst -Marathon)
Lewis Johnson (reporter)

Trampoline
Al Trautwig (play-by-play)
Tim Dagget (analyst)

Triathlon
Steve Schlanger (play-by-play)
Julie Swail (analyst)

Volleyball
Paul Sunderland (play-by-play)
Kevin Barnett (analyst)

Water Polo
Mike Emrick (play-by-play)
Julie Swail (analyst)
Wolf Wigo (analyst)

Weightlifting
Jim Watson (play-by-play)

White Water
Randy Moss (play-by-play)

Wrestling
Jason Knapp (play-by-play)

That is your list for now. As stated above, when NBC provides the press release with the complete teams, I’ll put that on the site.

UPDATE, 1:35 a.m.: Through a check of Twitter and hearing from sources, I’ve added NBC MLS voice Arlo White to soccer, and through Drea Avent’s account and in particular, her tweet to me directly, she’ll be a reporter during the Games, in what capacity, we have not been able to confirm just yet. More to follow when it becomes available.

Bringing Out The Monday Links

With this being Columbus Day, it’s a holiday for some of you. Not for me, but for some. I hope you’re able to enjoy the day. Let’s do some links.

Sports Business Journal has a look at some of the important women in sports business.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says former Red Sox manager Terry Francona doesn’t see television in his future.

Reid Cherner of USA Today writes that overzealous NFL agent Drew Rosenhaus is clarifying his “I’m a Golden God”-like comment to “60 Minutes”.

Phil Swann of TV Predictions says it’s a swing.. and a miss for Fox’s HD picture at the American League Championship Series.

Lindsay Powers from the Hollywood Reporter notes that Green Bay-Atlanta steered NBC to a big ratings win on Sunday.

Etan Vlessing at the Reporter writes that Don Cherry is out of step with CBC’s public position on head shots in the NHL.

Laura Martinez of Multichannel News reports that ESPN2 will air two episodes of a Spanish-language ESPN Deportes scripted series following a soccer doubleheader on Tuesday.

Daniel Frankel and Lucas Shaw of The Wrap tell us that ESPN and TNT could stand to lose a lot of revenue if the NBA doesn’t settle its lockout soon.

As the NBC gremlins force YouTube to take down the infamous hot dog thrown at Tiger Woods video, we note that it’s still up at SportsGrid as Dan Fogarty informs us.

Ben Koo of Awful Announcing has video of Gus Johnson’s classic touchdown call from Saturday’s Texas A&M-Texas Tech game.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell speaks with movie director Cameron Crowe on who was really the inspiration for movie character superagent Jerry Maguire. Last night, “60 Minutes” falsely said it was Drew Rosenhaus.

Pat Gordon of Cape Cod Online wishes Hank Williams, Jr. would go away.

Kevin Paul Dupont from the Boston Globe writes that Hank Williams, Jr. got it wrong by invoking Adolf Hitler when speaking of President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner.

Mark Blaudshun of the Globe has Boston College athletic director Gene DeFilippo saying ESPN was behind the Syracuse and Pittsburgh defections from the Big East to the ACC.

Pete Thamel of the New York Times says the college sports upheaval is also effecting mid-major conferences.

From the New York Daily News, Eric Barrow says ESPN NFL analyst Merril Hoge advises how you should tie a tie.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick seems to just get the notion that “You Can’t Predict Baseball.”

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union talks with Andrew Catalon who recently filled in on CBS for an NFL game. Andrew did a very good job, too.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette says a local radio legend has retired.

Ken McMillan at the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says ESPN viewers will get multi-lingual coverage of the Pan American Games.

To the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog where Dan Steinberg notes that Capitals and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis wants to bring cell phone concessions to the Verizon Center.

The Washington Examiner’s Jim Williams says the Nationals’ TV ratings are looking up despite finishing dead last among all MLB teams in 2011.

Tom Jones at the St. Petersburg Times looks back at the weekend in sports television.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says the Texans have signed a long-term extension with CBS Radio.

David says Texans voice Marc Vandermeer took yesterday’s loss to the Raiders quite hard.

Tim Twentyman of the Detroit News says Mike Tirico is able to drive his own car to call tonight’s Monday Night Football game instead of flying in ahead of time.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel talks with Brewers TV voice Brian Anderson who’s calling the NLCS on TBS.

Bob says the Brewers and Packers got a lot of national airtime on Sunday.

Bob has the local ratings for the Brewers and Packers.

Ed Sherman from Crain’s Chicago Business speaks with ESPN’s Mike Tirico who gets to call a “home” game tonight.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that embattled announcer Dan McLaughlin has lost one of gigs in the wake of his second DUI arrest.

Dusty Saunders at the Denver Post says Broncos QB Tim Tebow perked up an otherwise moribund sports weekend in the Rocky Mountain region.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says LA was not switched from Raiders-Texans yesterday to join the Chargers as it would have in the past.

Tom has the SoCal sports calendar for this week.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail writes that CBC’s Ron MacLean chose to cover for Don Cherry rather than challenge his comments on fighting from last week.

The Toronto Star’s Raju Mudhar notes that Cherry is doing what he does best, stir the pot.

Sports Media Watch looks at the NBA’s lockout strategy.

SMW says last week’s NASCAR race on ESPN had a slight ratings uptick.

Steve Lepore’s Puck The Media has a profile of Los Angeles Kings Hall of Fame announcer Bob Miller.

Joe Favorito says UFC continues to steadily build its brand.

And we’ll end it there for today.

Friday Megalinks Just For You

Let’s do some linkage.

The Weekend Viewing Picks give you everything to you need for your viewing pleasure.

Let’s do this.

National

Michael Hiestand of USA Today writes that primetime is the right time for college football.

Tripp Mickle of Sports Business Daily reports that ESPN has sold out its ad inventory for its new NASCAR non-stop initiative which will allow fans to see continuous race action while commercials run.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says NFL Network used some creative methods in Boston to promote its Bill Belichick documentary.

If you watched the Belichick documentary, then you probably know about the best scene which was the coach yelling at the Baltimore Ravens’ Derrick Mason who was trash talking. Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid has the video.

Brandon Costa from Sports Video Group notes that Sports Illustrated has released a new Football Rivals mobile app.

Sports Media Watch says ABC is doing well with college football in its first two weeks of the season.

SMW notes that last Saturday’s Notre Dame-Michigan game on ESPN in primetime did better than the previous week’s Fighting Irish game on NBC.

SMW says last week’s NASCAR race in Richmond garnered a four year ratings high for ABC.

Tony Manfred of the Business Insider Sports Page says sports bars got hit the hardest by DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket technical difficulties last week.

Steve Lepore from Puck The Media has NHL Network’s preseason schedule that begins next week.

Joe Favorito says sports brands are now jumping into the corn field maze craze.

Awful Announcing has this week’s network TV on-screen typos.

Parade talks with ESPN’s Erin Andrews.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn from the Boston Globe writes about some ex-Patriots players who have made the transition to TV.

Jessica Heslam of the Boston Herald talks about 98.5 The Sports Hub winning the prestigious Marconi for Best Sports Station in the country over a former winner, WEEI.

Bill Doyle at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette praises the NFL Films documentary on Bill Belichick.

The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir looks at a rare film that followed the late Yankees announcer Phil Rizzuto and other ex-Pinstripers to Austria for an exhibition game in 1994.

Daniel E. Slotnick of the Times writes that former New York Jet and broadcaster Sam DeLuca has passed away.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks with statistician Steve Hirdt about his career and getting to work a “home” game for this week’s edition of Monday Night Football.

Neil says SNY is fortunate to have the Jets as a partner to help viewers forget about the Mets.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post is angry at everyone.

The Post’s Justin Terranova has five questions for YES analyst Ken Singleton.

Jerry Barmash in Fishbowl NY writes that MSG Network brings back its signature hockey studio show for another season.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union notes that local sports anchor Andrew Catalon gets a call-up to the NFL on CBS in October.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record talks with MLB Network’s Brian Kenny about why he left ESPN after almost a decade and a half.

Ken has more with Brian Kenny in his column.

Ken is tired of NHL Network rerunning last season’s playoffs.

South

Serena Moyle of the Tallahassee (FL) Democrat profiles ESPN’s Erin Andrews as she’s in town for the Oklahoma-Florida State game.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says you watched the NFL in droves last week.

David says ESPN is treating Longhorn Network differently than its other entities.

Mel Bracht from the Daily Oklahoman writes that Longhorn Network will pick up one Oklahoma State basketball game.

Mel has some news and notes.

Gina Mizell of the Oklahoman says ESPN is keeping a close eye on Oklahoma State and Texas A&M for a potential College GameDay visit.

Midwest

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes that Fox Sports Ohio expands its pregame show tomorrow to air highlights of Johnny Bench Night.

John says a local radio station has fired a long-time sports reporter and other parts of its staff.

Michael Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press talks with a long-time Division II college football radio voice.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says some local Time Warner Cable subscribers will have access to this Saturday’s Wisconsin game.

Bob explains why the Wisconsin game isn’t on TV.

Bob says the Brewers’ Prince Fielder will be seen in a profile on TBS Sunday.

Ed Sherman at Crain’s Chicago Business has his winners and losers in sports business and media.

Dan Caesar in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says all of the Blues games will be televised for the first time ever.

West

Jay Drew of the Salt Lake Tribune writes that ESPN’s deal with BYU has now become a recruiting tool for the school.

Matt Solinsky of the Desert (CA) Sun says the NFL Network documentary on Patriots coach Bill Belichick is definitely “must see TV”.

John Maffei from the North County Times tries to discover what the holdup is for the San Diego Padres’ TV and radio rights.

Jim Carlisle at the Ventura County Star says Time Warner Cable has signed a long-term deal for California’s high school championships.

Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times talks with the Fox NFL Sunday crew.

T.J. Simers of the Times writes that Vin Scully can cause trouble at home.

Also from the Times, Eric Sondheimer has details of the Time Warner deal with the California Interscholastic Federation.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says Jay “The Rat” Mariotti is determined to get the last word on his tumultuous year.

Tom has some media moves that didn’t make his column.

Tom says MLB Network will air a special on statistics.

Canada

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says an 8 year delay will help Steve Moore in his lawsuit against Todd Bertuzzi and the NHL stemming from an incident in Vancouver.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog notes that CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada has finally made some moves to fill some personnel holes.

And that’s going to conclude the links for this Friday.

Jerry Rice Reportedly Joins ESPN & Andrew Catalon To Call Browns Preseason Games

A couple of NFL TV news and notes for you. Let’s start with news that broke late Monday afternoon.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitch tweeted and subsequently reported on SI.com that Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice will join ESPN’s constantly growing army of NFL studio analysts next month. A formal announcement is expected later this week. According to Richard, Rice will appear on NFL Live, SportsCenter and Audibles and he will be based on the West Coast for ESPN. Over the last year or so, Rice has ventured into the sports media where he co-hosted a Sunday night sports show for NBC’s San Francisco affiliate and co-hosted a show on Sirius NFL Radio. And other fans know him from being a finalist on the 2nd cycle of Dancing With the Stars in 2006.

Rice is part of huge hiring spree by ESPN as the network announced last week that Hugh Douglas, Eric Mangini and Damien Woody would be joining as new studio analysts. They’re part of a rather large contingent of analysts that seem to be growing by leaps and bounds. It seems that ESPN is attempting to hire everyone who played in the NFL from 2000 — 2008.

Our other piece of NFL TV news comes from my favorite team. You may know that the Voice of the Cleveland Browns, WKYC-TV Sports Director Jim Donovan had to take a leave of absence starting in May stating that he would undergo a bone marrow transplant for leukemia. He updated viewers back in June, but was silent for the most part as he recovered from the operation.

Today, WKYC announced that with Jim still recovering and progressing well, he’s still not able to travel and fulfill his Browns duties. So Andrew Catalon, the Sports Director of WNYT-TV in Albany, NY, freelancer for CBS and NBC as well as a guest on last week’s Sports Media Weekly podcast, will call the team’s preseason games on television in Jim’s place. WKYC Senior Director Frank Macek writes in his blog that Andrew will work with former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar for the preseason.

Andrew has called a New York Giants preseason game in 2009 on WNBC-TV as well as Team Handball during the 2008 Olympics and Curling in the 2010 Olympics for NBC. And he’s called the U.S. Open 3-D telecast and The Masters secondary broadcast for CBS Sports.

It’s hoped that Donovan can return in time for the beginning of the regular season in September.

Sports Media Weekly Podcast No. 66 — Andrew Catalon, WNYT-TV/NBC Sports

Tonight is another edition of the Sports Media Weekly podcast with Keith Thibault of Sports Media Journal and your humble blogger. Our guest is Andrew Catalon, sports anchor for WNYT-TV, Newschannel 13 in Albany, NY as well as freelancer for NBC Sports and CBS Sports. I’ll go into our segment with Andrew later, but as always, Keith and I did our usual news of the week segment.

We began discussing the rebranding of Versus to NBC Sports Network by the NBC Sports Group and what it could mean down the road as a potential competitor to ESPN.

Keith and I then opined on the rebranding of Sporting News Radio to Yahoo! Sports Radio, updating the name to make it more familiar to today’s generation of sports fans and also talking about what that means for ESPN Radio.

We broached the merger between Westwood One Radio and Dial-Global and what it means for WW1′s contracts with the NFL and the NCAA.

From there we went to the hiring of two new NFL studio analysts by ESPN including Eric Manmoron Mangini, former butcher of the Cleveland Browns.

And we finished off the segment with looking into the future of the Big East Conference as it hopes to lasso a big TV payday from either ESPN, NBC Sports Group or Fox.

With Andrew, Keith and I asked him about his experience during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver calling curling and how he rode the sport as it became popular during the 17 Days of Glory. In addition, we found out how Andrew got the gig with NBC Sports as it led to him calling handball in the 2008 Olympics in China.

We also talked about his other gigs for CBS calling The Masters and the U.S. Open 3-D broadcast.

We broached Andrew’s full-time gig for WNYT and how his bosses have allowed him to work on the national gigs which have also included calling the New York Giants preseason games. In addition, Keith and I asked him how he approaches his local sportscasts with the influence of ESPN and 24 hour access to sports.

And we asked Andrew what he reads and sites he visits to do his job.

A very enjoyable podcast. You can find it on iTunes by doing a search for “Sports Media Journal” or go right here to listen.