Fang's Bites

Some Sunday Sports Media Thoughts

I need to be posting more. I’ve been busy during the day and find myself trying to catch up on Viewing Picks at night and it’s been a losing proposition. I’ll do my best to update more often here in the coming weeks.

Let’s do some thoughts while I can. As usual, they come in bullet form.

• CBC’s Don Cherry, the King of Media Firestorms, has another one on his hands after he said CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada that female reporters should not be allowed access to locker rooms. Cherry was defending Chicago’s Duncan Keith who snapped at a female reporter in Vancouver last week. Keith has since apologized and said he was not singling out the woman in particular. However, it did not stop Cherry from advocating for women to be excluded. Ron MacLean’s reaction to Cherry’s diatribe is perfect.
  

  Courtesy Steve Faguy, Montreal Gazette

  While some may agree with Cherry, we’re past the point of banning people from the locker room. Jeff Blair at the Toronto Globe and Mail correctly points out that many sports have specific rooms for postgame interviews and some teams have separate changing areas that are off limits to all reporters.

  I’ve liked Don since he was a Bruins coach in the 1970′s and have always enjoyed his Coach’s Corner segments, but he’s managed to survive many controversies whether it’s been for previous comments about women, European players, environmentalists, writers or the Iraq War. While Cherry has stayed at CBC while analysts at other media outlets in the United States and Europe have been fired for less controversial remarks, Canada’s public broadcaster may be seeing the moment that provides the excuse to let “Grapes” go at the end of the season. Coach’s Corner is one of the highest rated segments in Canada and Cherry has become one of the most popular Canadians to the point he was listed in the Top Ten of CBC’s series “The Greatest Canadian” last decade.

  I can’t see Cherry apologizing for his remarks because he truly believes what he says. We’ll see if the story grows legs over the next week.

• The 2013 NFL Draft is over. I concentrated my viewing solely on the first round on Thursday night and on NFL Network. While it was the network to watch in 2012, something was a bit off this year. Rich Eisen and Mike Mayock were solid. However, it appeared Michael Irvin who normally is animated was muted. Steve Mariucci whom I always like also seemed off. The ratings for NFL Network on the first day was up 23% from last year, but I really can’t put my finger on what was different for its coverage this year.

  One aspect that was definitely missing was the tweeting of draft picks by ESPN insider Adam Schefter. Under orders not to “spoil” draft picks prior to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s announcement, the Draft was actually quite dull. And you add that to the fact that neither ESPN nor NFL Network showed any draft picks on the phone prior to their selections, you have productions that were not compelling at all.

  Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports did tip off picks and while some of his followers got angry at him for doing so, I thought his tweets added to the experience. However, he was in the minority. I’m hoping the NFL changes this policy next year.

• Bob Socci replaces Gil Santos as the Voice of the New England Patriots. Socci just joined the Pawtucket Red Sox this season and he’s been one of the college basketball announcers on CBS Sports Network as well as being the long-time voice of Navy football. He’ll team with Scott Zolak on 98.5 The Sports Hub.
• Got to hear Friend of Fang’s Bites Jen Royle’s debut on WEEI. Her first Saturday afternoon show was yesterday on the station. While I missed it in real time, I had the chance to listen on its website. She’s the first woman to host a regular show on the station since Janet Prensky co-hosted a midday show with Glenn Ordway in the early 1990′s. Glad to hear her and I’m hoping it leads to bigger things for her in Boston.

That will do it for now.

Sports Media Weekly No. 127 — Jen Royle, Sports Reel Boston

Another week and it means another podcast with my friend and podcast partner, Southern New England media mogul Keith Thibault of Sports Media Journal.

As usual, Keith and I discuss the news of the week. We began with the news about ESPN buying the rights to the new college football playoff for 12 years beginning in January 2015.

In a related note, Keith and traded thoughts on Notre Dame’s impact on ESPN’s ratings for the BCS National Championship Game.

Continuing our football theme, we transitioned to the Thanksgiving NFL games and their high viewership.

We both looked at the new CBS Sports Radio morning show to be hosted by Brandon Tierney, Dana Jacobsen and Tiki Barber.

And we completed this segment with a discussion on the increase of fresh morning programming in sports television.

Our guest this week is Jen Royle who’s launching a new Boston-based website, Sports Reel Boston.

Jen tells us what led her to start the site. She lets us know some of the ex-Major League Baseball players and executives who will be contributing to the site. Jen gave us some background on her strategy for the website and the sponsors.

Some great stuff and Jen gives good insight on launching a site. You can download the podcast by searching for “Sports Media Journal” or you can go to download and listen right away by

Some Monday Sports Media Thoughts

Time to provide some sports media thoughts as we begin another workweek. Of course, they will be in bullet form.

• What was once the place for sports networks to convene to put pressure on cable has suddenly become the place to hold out. DirecTV was once the provider to pick up sports networks before anyone else. It was one of the first providers in the country to pick up NFL Network, the Big Ten Network, the mtn., CBS Sports Network (when it was known as CSTV then CBS College Sports), Outdoor Life Network and others. Now, it has become a holdout like Time Warner Cable which was the last major cable provider to pick up NFL Network and still refuses to carry MASN in North Carolina.

  Now, DirecTV has refused to pick up the Pac-12 Networks and Time Warner SportsNet citing fiscal responsibility. It has not talked with the Pac-12 lately and has no new talks scheduled for Time Warner, thus preventing West Coast fans from seeing college sports and the Los Angeles Lakers. DirecTV says it does not want to pick up all of the Pac-12 Networks (it has seven overall) and wants to charge an extra fee for anyone who wants to watch it. And the satellite provider is balking at Time Warner’s price per subscriber ($3.95) for the Lakers channel.

  DirecTV appears to have drawn its line in the sand. The Athletic Director at Cal-Berkeley changed her TV subscription from DirecTV to Comcast so she can watch Pac-12 Network and the Lakers training facility changed its subscription from DirecTV to Time Warner Cable as ESPN LA’s Arash Markazi tweeted on Sunday.

  Not a great sign that the Lakers’ practice facility switched to TWC from DirecTV this week. They probably wouldn’t if a deal was imminent.

  — Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) November 4, 2012

  So whenever DirecTV decides to pick either or both of the channels, it could very well be at its own terms.

  Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times reports that Cox Cable is the latest to agree to carry Time Warner SportsNet’s English and Spanish channels. It leaves DirecTV and Dish as the last remaining holdouts and of those two, only DirecTV would probably pick up TWSN as Dish has not been willing to carry sports networks as freely as DirecTV.

• NFL Network’s A Football Life has scored touchdowns in each and all of its episodes this season. From the season premiere on Ray Lewis to the look at the final year of the Cleveland Browns 1.0 to the Los Angeles Rams Fearsome Foursome to the latest edition on Chris Spielman, the documentaries from NFL Films have been of high quality. This all began last year when it spent one season with Patriots coach Bill Belichick and showed viewers some humanity behind the man inside the hoodie.

  The access NFL Films has received with each of its subjects, plus the archival footage it has culled through its own library or through news footage or personal home movies, A Football Life has become appointment viewing. The next one on coach Jimmy Johnson during his Dallas years should prove to be quite compelling television.

• There’s been 10 weeks of the college football season and I can now provide a review of the Fox College Saturday pregame show. I’ve been waiting for improvement since Week 2 (Week 1 was pre-empted in most of the country by a Fox Saturday Baseball overrun), but it hasn’t been there. Erin Andrews is not suited to be a studio host. She’s been better on the sidelines, although the MLB Postseason in October wasn’t her best work.

  There is no chemistry between Erin and analysts Eddie George and Joey Harrington. They struggle to get through highlights and there’s doesn’t appear to be any real energy. Oddly, when Patrick O’Neal is teamed with George and Harrington on FX, they have much better chemistry and energy.

  I have a feeling Fox will try this studio team for one more season before making any changes. Fox has too much money invested in Andrews to take her off the show after one season, however, the show remains a train wreck.

• Heard Friend of Fang’s Bites, Jen Royle on WEEI in Boston auditioning last week to become the update anchor for the station’s morning show, Dennis & Callahan. I felt she had the best chemistry among all those trying out. Here’s hoping she gets a gig out of it.
• I wish there was a way to get KT Tunstall’s “Suddenly I See” off ads and TV shows. This song is the bane of my existence. And as it was pointed out on the old “Best Week Ever” on VH1 that it was overused on a slew of ABC’s shows as a female empowerment song in 2006. And don’t ask me why I can remember these references off the top of my head.

  As I digress, if the song can be removed from commercials and movies, it would make me very happy.

Ok, I’m done.

Some Sunday Linkage

I have some time on this NFL Sunday to provide some rare weekend linkage. Let’s get to it.

Chris Chase at USA Today’s Game On blog notes that Minnesota Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder has confirmed that he’s dating ESPN College GameDay’s Samantha Steele.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News talks about the Pac-12 Networks being made available to Apple mobile devices as long as they’re subscribers of participating cable and satellite providers.

Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report reviews this week’s 30 for 30 documentary which has a Chicago slant.

Sports Media Watch says expect Fox to be a player for the rights to the second half of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season if ESPN and Turner falter in their negotiations next year.

SportsRantz says Jen Royle is owed an apology by Toronto Blue Jays fans after she correctly reported that John Farrell was a target of the Red Sox for its managerial opening.

Brandon Costa of Sports Video Group says Fox Sports is ready to launch its New Orleans channel with the rights to the Hornets in hand.

Ty Duffy at The Big Lead notes that actress Natalie Portman turned heads at the Baylor-Texas game last night.

Stephen Douglas of The Big Lead has video evidence of Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Ryan Lochte being dumber than you and me.

Tom Ley at Deadspin notes that ESPN’s Rick Reilly got fooled by web satire once again.

Once again, Phil Mushnick at the New York Post finds something to hate.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog recaps President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s comments on DC NFL team QB Robert Griffin III on Fox NFL Sunday.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner talks with Doug Gottlieb about his new CBS Sports Network late night show.

Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times rates the commissioners‘ of MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL.

Nice to have Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News back in Fang’s Bites. He wonders where are the Cowboys fans as the team’s TV ratings have fallen like a rock this season.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle bids farewell to Big Tex, the huge statue that adorned the Texas State Fair outside Dallas that burned down on Friday and the voice of Big Tex.

Mel Bracht of The Oklahoman reviews Fox Sports Net’s production of last night’s Oklahoma blowout of Kansas.

The Oklahoman notes that ESPN’s College GameDay will be at the Notre Dame-Oklahoma game in Norman next Saturday.

The Cincinnati Enquirier’s John Kiesewetter talks with NBC’s Al Michaels who got his big break in the Queen City.

John has some outtakes with Al that didn’t make the newspaper story.

Joe Reedy of the Enquirer talks with Cris Collinsworth who will have a heavy heart working with Al Michaels tonight.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Big East Commissioner Mike Aresco has his work cut out for him in negotiating a new TV contract for the conference.

At TimeOut Chicago, Robert Feder discusses Jenny McCarthy joining the Sun-Times as a columnist, the Tribune going behind the dreaded paywall, and Bob Brenly’s replacement as Cubs analyst.

At the Los Angeles Daily News, Tom Hoffarth recalls the 31st Anniversary of “Blue Monday” for the Dodgers with Vin Scully.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog enjoys the MLB International productions over TBS and Fox in the postseason.

And that will do it.

Some Really Quick Tuesday Sports Media Thoughts

Due to that stupid office move that prevented me from updating the site regularly over the last two two weeks, I wasn’t able to provide some regular features here. I’m slowly getting back on track. Thanks for your patience and continued readership during this period. I’ll make it up to you somehow.

I’ll do some very quick sports media thoughts. They’ll be in bullet form as always. Just quick hits this time, just one or two sentences in this post. I’ll expound the next time around.

• A few new shows have premiered over the last month. Both in the morning daypart which had been untapped by the sports networks until the last few years. Some thoughts on two new shows
  • NFL AM debuted in late July on NFL Network right as the Olympics were getting underway. Based on the searches landing on Fang’s Bites since the premiere, co-host Nicole Zaloumis has become popular with viewers. I like what I have seen thus far in the only morning show totally devoted to the NFL.
  • NBC Sports Network’s no-frills answer to ESPN’s SportsCenter, The ‘Lights premiered earlier this month with a disembodied voice hosting the show and narrating the highlights in twenty minute blocks. It’s a good concept that has been executed well by NBCSN.
• Earlier in August, it was discovered that Comcast SportsNet affiliates in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, DC had stopped carrying Fox Sports Net programming as of July 30 and that included the daily simulcast of the Dan Patrick Show. While an agreement could easily be forged between Fox and NBC, I have a feeling that this could be part of a bigger play by NBC for Dan not only as a radio show simulcast on NBC Sports Network, but also as an attempt to lure him to the NBC Sports Radio Network. Keep that in mind as Dan’s contract with DirecTV, the company that owns his radio show and markets his TV show to Fox Sports Net is up soon.
• Friday Night Football on ESPN/ESPN2 won’t be the same without Joe Tessitore.
• We need Michelle Beadle back on sports TV soon.
• It’s time to ignore Skip Bayless and stop writing and tweeting the outrageous things he says. Attention is exactly what he and ESPN want.
• The Big East got a very good Commissioner in former CBS Sports Vice President Mike Aresco. No pressure on Mike now, he only has to keep the conference from being poached and get a big TV contract on par with the ACC, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC.
• DirecTV is no longer providing its free sports “Experience” programming to Standard Definition subscribers. NASCAR Hot Pass, PGA Championship and now the U.S. Open Experience, extra channels that allowed fans to see additional coverage beyond the network coverage are no longer available in SD. And there was no announcement either. That was sneaky, DirecTV. Makes me wonder if NFL Sunday Ticket is next. All are still available in HD.
• If you have a chance, listen to two Friends of Fang’s Bites tonight on 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston. Jen Royle will do a guest spot on the Damon Amendolara show tonight at 9. The station does stream so you can listen right here.
• Best of luck to another Friend of Fang’s Bites, Courtney Fallon. Monday was her last day as weekend sports anchor at WLNE in Providence. Here’s hoping she lands in a major market really soon.

That’s going to do it for the thoughts.

Some Very Quick Friday Morning Sports Media Thoughts

I’m going to down a few quick thoughts as I’m going to busy during the day so I don’t know if I’ll be able to post much. I’ll give you some thoughts to tie you in the interim.

• I was saddened to hear that USA Today laid off reporters in its sports section. Those cut included media and business writer Mike McCarthy who became a friend to your humble blogger, Tom Weir of the extraordinary Game Om! blog and Tom Pedulla who described his surreal experienceof losing his job to Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report.A piece of disclosure here. Fang’s Bites is part of the USA Today Media Group, but is an independently-owned blog. I was not aware of the layoffs until they were reported. I certainly hate to see anyone lose a job, especially in this economy. Here’s hoping Mike and Tom W. will find new positions soon.
• The move by the New Orleans Times-Picayune to reduce printing its newspaper to three days a week this fall stinks to high heaven. I know we’re in a digital age, but journalism is not about how many clicks you can attract. It’s about serving the community and acting as a check on local government. I hope the Times-Picayune can find a balance that keeps the organization alive.
• With NBC announcing the amount of hours it will provide on its various platforms for the London Olympics it’s a step in the right direction. With some 272½ hours on the main network, plus another 5,262½ hours on cable and online combined, we’ll see a plethora of Olympic coverage this summer. I hope NBCUniversal will step up. I’m still dreading seeing Ryan Seacrest while looking forward to seeing Michelle Beadle in London.
• I heard through a couple of sources that Friend of Fang’s Bites Jen Royle was approached by ESPN for an unspecified role. Not sure if it means TV or radio. She nor ESPN are officially talking. I’ll let you know if anything develops.
• And congratulations to Steve Lepore of Puck The Media. He’s moved his site to SB Nation where he’ll continue to provide his quality work.

And that will end the thoughts. Enjoy your Friday.

Making Time For The Wednesday Linkage

I haven’t been able to links for a couple of days. I have a few leftover stuff since Monday, but nothing totally clogging up my browser, but I do want to give you a full set of stories today.

I’ve done my best to summarize the whole bizarre Sarah Phillips/ESPN.com/Scamming people story and that’s over here. If there any updates today, I’ll try to bring them to you, but it appears that there’s a new development every hour or so.

Let’s try to get what I have to you now.

Tom Weir of USA Today also looks into the Sarah Phillips saga.

Mike McCarthy of USA Today says Tiger Woods is being criticized for doing an end run around the news media and answering questions from fans via social media.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deistch critiques ESPN’s and NFL Network’s coverage of the NFL Draft.

Kurt Soller of Esquire catches up with TNT’s Craig Sager and discusses his loud wardrobe.

Multichannel News reports on ESPN’s ratings for its first weekday English Premier League game.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life notes the NFL Draft was the second most watched in history.

Former ESPN’er Dana Jacobsen has started her own blog and says she’ll keep us up to date on where she lands next.

Greg Wyshynski at Yahoo’s Puck Daddy notes that HBO has renewed 24/7 for another NHL season and will get more input from the league’s media arm.

Greg talks with NHL Chief Operating Officer John Collins about the league’s Stanley Cup Playoff ratings and other matters.

Jeff John Roberts at paidContent wonders if Bleacher Report can make its writers into viable media stars.

ESPN Ombudsman Jason Fry of the Poynter Review Project looks at one man who oversees the Alleged Worldwide Leader’s interviewing technique.

Ed Sherman at the Sherman Report warns how not to use Twitter like the Chicago Sun-Times’ columnist Joe Cowley.

Jason Dachman of Sports Video Group writes that Harris Corp. which done a lot in developing broadcast equipment and had a hand in sports will now get out of the business.

Timothy Burke at Deadspin has the audio of Gus Johnson calling MLS action over the weekend. That’s right, MLS.

John Koblin at Deadspin says pariah Sarah Phillips and her partner-in-crime, Nilesh Prasad have been career scammers.

Deadspin’s Erik Malinowski has a parody Tweeter breaking character and giving his side of the story in the Sarah Phillips saga.

To Ben Koo of Awful Announcing who notes that the Tuesday late night edition of SportsCenter ended in silence.

Erin Gloria Ryan at Jezebel says the Crossing Broad blog posted an upskirt pic that was shown on TV and the site’s editor doesn’t get why the uproar.

Neil Best of Newsday talks with New York Knicks TV voice and ESPN NBA play caller Mike Breen.

Congrats to Neil as he celebrates 5 years of his WatchDog blog. Neil and I share a milestone today.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette writes that MLB Network will air seven Minor League Baseball games this season.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says CBS has made one announcement for its SEC football schedule for the fall.

Jonathan Tannenwald of Philly.com talks with Gus Johnson about him calling soccer games.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog is amused at boring and extremely verbose ESPN.com columnist Gregg Easterbrook’s fears about DC NFL Team QB Robert Grifffin III’s play in the rain. I used to love Easterbrook’s TMQ columns, but they now grate on me. Can’t read them anymore.

Barry Jackson at the Miami Herald has some South Florida sports radio moves.

Jerry Garcia at the San Antonio Express-News goes over the Sports Emmy winners.

Mel Bracht from The Oklahoman says the Thunder continue to set local ratings records.

Mel says TNT’s Charles Barkley is squarely in the Thunder’s camp.

Robert Feder at Time Out Chicago says the Chicago Sun-Times have put sexist columnist Joe Cowley on what’s called “Final Notice.”

Paul M. Banks at Chicago Sports Media Watch did not like how one female TV host kept hitting on St. Louis Cardinals World Series hero David Freese during a morning show segment.

Scott D. Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune has TNT’s Kenny “The Jet” Smith discussing the Utah Jazz’s future.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail isn’t too thrilled about having the Maple Leafs on the next season of HBO’s 24/7.

Sports Media Watch says the Manchester Derby scored for ESPN on Monday.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says CNBC is doing well with the NHL Stanley Cup Conference Semifinals.

Dave Kohl at the Broadcast Booth has a look at the sports radio scene across the country.

Normally I don’t link to Bleacher Report slideshows and it’s one of the things I’ve disliked about the site for a long time, but I will link to the 20 Hottest Redheads slideshow only for the fact that they used a pic that I posted of Jen Royle from last year’s Five Women Who Make Me Stop Flipping The Remote post. Actually that pic came from Jen herself so they should really credit her and not me.

And that’s going to do it.

Some Selection Sunday Sports Media Thoughts

On this NCAA Tournament Selection Sunday, it’s time to present some sports media thoughts and as usual, they come in bullet form.

• With college basketball’s conference tournaments wrapping up and we get ready for three awesome weeks of the NCAA Tournament, ESPN’s coverage of Championship Week (11 days in reality) has been nothing short of stellar. Whether it be the mid-major tournaments or the BCS conferences, for the most part, the production of the games has been clean, and the transitions from game to game have been quite good. Some of the announcing on the mid-major tournaments have been lacking, but overall, it’s been good. I wish CBS/Turner could bring over the Big East team of Sean McDonough, Jay Bilas and Bill Raftery as one of its crews. Sean and Jay have worked for CBS in the past and Raft currently works with Uncle Verne Lundquist on the Tournament, but I feel Sean, Jay and Raft give ESPN its best college basketball team.

  The studio with Rece Davis leading as the main host along with Karl Ravech and Ryan Burr have done well. I like Hubert Davis as one of the studio analysts, but Digger Phelps has been grating on me in recent years.

  But overall, I give ESPN an A for its Championship Week coverage. College basketball is one of the sports that the Alleged Worldwide Leader does well from beginning to end.

• With CBS/Turner taking over the main college basketball stage starting on Tuesday, it means Jim Nantz will be the lead announcer once again. Up until Saturday when he called the Big Ten Tournament semifinals, he had only called one regular season game this season. In recent years, Nantz has called one regular season college basketball game. Granted, he’s busy in December and January calling the NFL and he also does the PGA Tour’s West Coast swing in February. But is it necessary to sacrifice college basketball in the process? I’ve gotten on Joe Buck for calling half of the MLB on Fox schedule, but in Nantz’s case, it’s even less.

  I think it’s time for CBS to name either Kevin Harlan or Ian Eagle as the #1 college basketball play-by-play man or have Jim Nantz commit to more games. CBS can contend that by the time the NCAA Tournament ends, Nantz will have called 12 games, but that’s not good enough.

  If ESPN had the tournament, it would have Dan Shulman as the lead and he would have called over 20 regular season games along with the ACC Tournament. That’s what the lead announcer should do, call a full slate of regular season games, not just one. Just as I do with Joe Buck on Fox’s MLB schedule, I will keep track of how many regular season college basketball games Jim Nantz calls for CBS.

• Lastly, I want to give shoutouts to two Friends of Fang’s Bites for work over the last two days. Jen Royle made her first appearance on Comcast SportsNet New England’s Sports Tonight program on Friday night. She discussed baseball with co-hosts Michael Holley and Lou Merloni. I thought she did a very good job and looked comfortable on the air. Here’s hoping for more appearances on CSN for Jen. And CSN should not have Merloni co-host. Brutal.

  On Saturday, Courtney Fallon had the rare extended local sports segment on WLNE (ABC6) in Providence, a whopping six and a half minutes. And she used the time wisely focusing on the RI high school championship hockey and basketball games. This is the way local sports can differentiate itself from ESPN and not lose time by keeping hyperlocal and finding compelling stories. Courtney did a bang up job in her segment.

Just three topics for Sunday. I hope you’ve turned your clocks ahead one hour. Back later tonight with NCAA Tournament announcing assignments.

Your Monday Linkage

Back to work for many of you. Let’s get some Monday links in.

Mike McCarthy at USA Today says the networks have missed a competitive Tiger Woods.

Tom Weir of USA Today adds that Cleveland Cavs owner Dan Gilbert has pulled his Quicken Loans ads from Rush Limbaugh’s radio show over a budding controversy.

The independent Gannett Blog notes that all of USA Today’s sports staffers have been told to reapply for their jobs as part of a newsroom reorganization. Oh, that’s nice.

At Forbes, Douglas Alden Warshaw says Comcast is going all in on sports and chronicles how it survived the loss of NBC Sports Emperor Dick Ebersol last year.

To Mashable where Sam Laird notes that ESPN is opening up its source code so developers can build apps around the Alleged Worldwide Leader’s sports information.

Michael Schottey at Bleacher Report says it’s time to end the archaic NFL blackout rules.

Nat Ives with Advertising Age writes that magazines like Sports Illustrated are finding at what price is best to bundle print and tablet subscriptions.

Also at AdAge, Brian Steinberg looks at NBC’s ad sales pitch for the London Olympics.

To Adweek where Anthony Crupi says car rental company Enterprise will ramp up a new March Madness spot for the NCAA Tournament.

Dan Daley at Sports Video Group says MLB Network is gearing up for this week’s Cleveland-Arizona telecast which will feature nearly real-time audio from the field.

Double G Sports interviews Friend of Fang’s Bites Jen Royle.

To Comcast SportsNet New England’s Tom Curran who says the Boston Globe treats the Red Sox and Patriots differently when it comes to their off-the-field business deals.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick says it may take civil action to finally put an end to bounties in the NFL.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that the ratings for the final round of the Honda Classic were good.

From the New Jersey Newsroom, Evan Weiner writes that a U.S. Senator is seeking an end to NFL blackouts.

Kevin Callahan of the Cherry Hill (NJ) Courier-Post talks with ESPN’s Ron Jaworski about being booted out of the Monday Night Football booth.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog says ESPN’s Bram Weinstein is forever grateful to former Georgetown coach John Thompson.

Tom Jones at the Tampa Bay Times writes that a new sports radio talk show premieres today.

Tom also reviews the weekend in sports television.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the Green Bay Packers have changed flagship TV stations.

In Crain’s Chicago Business, Ed Sherman says local MLB teams are cashing in on huge rights fees, except for the Cubs and White Sox.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that the Cardinals have set their spring training radio schedule.

Dan says this week, Joe Buck is co-hosting a local radio show that could lead to a podcast or a nationally syndicated show.

Dusty Saunders at the Denver Post writes that quarterbacks help drive the NFL engine.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has your sports calendar for this week.

Tom FitzGerald of the San Francisco Chronicle says NBC Sports Group will attempt to attract viewers to the 2013 America’s Cup.

Steve Ladurantaye of the Toronto Globe and Mail writes that Yahoo is considering a bid for the Canadian TV and online rights for the 2014/16 Olympics after two combined efforts by CBC/CTV were thrown by the International Olympic Committee for being too low.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Globe and Mail wonders if CBC will pay a price with the NHL for Don Cherry’s candor on Coach’s Corner.

Damien Cox of the Toronto Star says Cherry’s criticisms of Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke are getting out of hand.

Joseph Hall at the Star says Cherry remains at odds with Burke.

Sports Media Watch says Tiger Woods helped drive the Honda Classic’s overnight ratings to a 10 year high.

SMW says North Carolina-Duke gave ESPN its highest college basketball overnight ratings in 3 years despite a blowout.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says the NHL on NBC’s overnight ratings continue on a steady upward trend.

And we’ll end the links there for today. Enjoy the rest of your Monday.

Wringing Out Some Friday Megalinks

Let’s do your media megalinks since last week you did not get any.

Hard to believe that college baseball, college lacrosse and NASCAR seasons are starting up, but they are and they’re included in the Weekend Viewing Picks along with the regular Golf, NBA, NHL, Skiing, Soccer, Tennis and Entertainment recommendations.

To your links now.

National

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says Jeremy Lin will make his nationwide broadcast network debut this weekend.

Tim Baysinger from Broadcasting & Cable notes that Floyd Mayweather’s next pay per view fight has been set by HBO for the spring.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News writes that Jeremy Lin continues to drive the MSG Network ratings engine.

Mike Shields of Adweek looks at CBS/Turner Sports’ plans to charge to view the NCAA Tournament online.

Ted Johnson of Variety talks with Ken Solomon of Tennis Channel on his ongoing battle to get a better footing with Comcast.

Michael Bradley at the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center says the Jeremy Lin media coverage is over the top.

Sports Media Watch notes the increased viewership for the NHL on NBC Sports Network.

SMW says Pardon the Interruption’s Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon have lent their voices to a Disney XD cartoon series.

Andy Hall at ESPN Front Row PR blog celebrates the 5th anniversary of NASCAR’s return to the network.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell speaks with Jeremy Lin’s agent.

Andrew Bucholtz writing his first article for Awful Announcing looks at the reaction to Jeremy Lin in Canada.

Mat Yoder at AA says the ratings for last weekend’s Pebble Beach National Pro-Am show fans are still interested in Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

Joe Favorito explores the steady growth of college lacrosse.

Mark J. Miller of Brandchannel says NASCAR fans don’t like it when drivers juggle sponsor logos throughout the Sprint Cup season.

The Big Lead has ESPN’s Erin Andrews out and about during New York’s Fashion Week.

Chris Chase at Yahoo’s Shutdown Corner notes that ESPN has been coaching Jon Gruden to use his words judiciously.

Harrison Mooney of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy says Jeremy Lin’s drawing power might indirectly benefit the New York Rangers, Islanders, Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils which have been missing from Time Warner Cable systems in addition to the Knicks.

David B. Wilkerson at MarketWatch wonders if the MSG/Time Warner Cable feud will eventually push sports into a premium tier.

East and Mid-Atlantic

The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn gets some advice for new NESN Red Sox field reporter Jenny Dell from MSG’s Tina Cervasio.

At SB Nation Boston, Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch pays tribute to Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan who announced he’s retiring after the London Olympics.

Surviving Grady has a podcast with Jen Royle.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks at the new charge for viewing the NCAA Tournament online.

Richard writes about the increased ratings for Knicks games since Jeremy Lin arrived on the scene.

Phil Mushnick at the New York Post is in rare form today even for him.

Brett Cyrgalis of the Post has five questions for CBS college basketball analyst Bill Raftery.

The Post’s David Seifman reports that the New York City Council is pressuring MSG Network and Time Warner Cable to work out a deal.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News writes that ESPN bumped tonight’s Hornets-Knicks game not realizing it would be another opportunity to showcase Jeremy Lin.

Jerry Barmash from Fishbowl NY has reaction from various NYC sports anchors to the death of former Mets catcher Gary Carter.

Mike Silva at the Sports Media Watchdog feels hockey coverage in New York is woefully inadequate.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that a local sports TV reporter received a New York Emmy nomination.

Pete lists his top studio analysts.

DCRTV’s Dave Hughes has the latest in Baltimore-Washington DC sports media news in Press Box.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog has a clip of Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon as cartoon characters.

Jim Williams at the Washington Examiner says talks with sports business writer Evan Weiner about the NFL’s antiquated blackout rules.

South

Barry Jackson at the Miami Herald has some thoughts on Shaquille O’Neal’s rookie season at TNT and ESPN’s decision to remove Ron Jaworski from Monday Night Football.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says the Astros plan to bring in former players to their radio booth to celebrate the team’s 50th season.

Mel Bracht at the Daily Oklahoman notes the first network appearance of Jeremy Lin is this Sunday.

Midwest

The Detroit Free Press notes that all of the Tigers games will be on TV this season.

Bob Wolfey of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Dick Enberg told a captive audience at Marquette University about the art of the pause and when to use it in broadcasting.

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

To the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin where Paul Christian writes that Fox Sports North will be all over the Minnesota Twins this season.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says the Cardinals have mostly put the kybosh on late afternoon games at Busch Stadium this season.

Dan says a local sports radio host is recovering after undergoing heart bypass surgery.

West

Jay Posner at the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that the new Fox Sports San Diego is set to launch next month.

Jay writes the San Diego Padres stand to double their rights fees from Fox as compared to Cox a year ago.

John Maffei at the North County Times says the official announcement between Fox Sports San Diego carrying the Padres is due any time now.

At the Ventura County Star, Jim Carlisle says NBC and the NHL have become very good partners.

Jim feels ESPN should not have jettisoned Ron Jaworski from Monday Night Football.

Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times notes that ESPN college football analyst Ed Cunningham is up for a Best Documentary Oscar.

Bill Shakin of the Times says Frank McCourt’s legal problems are holding up Fox’s announcement with the Padres.

Tom Hoffarth from the Los Angeles Daily News recaps a lecture from three noted network broadcasters discussing TV coverage of the Olympics.

And that’s going to conclude the megalinks for today.

Tuesday Night Linkage

I owe you linkage. I’m in a bad stretch so linkage is scarce. I try to give you breaking news when I can.

Let’s start with Michael Hiestand of USA Today who reports that MLB on Fox will go eight straight weeks in primetime during the upcoming 2012 season.

Sports Illustrated’s Peter King says it’s time for him to step down as a voter for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Matt Pepin of Boston.com announces that legendary writer Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe plans to retire after the London Summer Olympics. Ryan will be missed, but I have a feeling we’ll still be seeing him around.

At Sports Business Journal, John Ourand looks at how sports talk radio is thriving while other formats  in the medium are failing.

John talks with a DC-based sports radio show on how it focuses on doing its program the old fashioned way.

SBJ lists some of the markets where sports radio wars are hot and heavy.

And SBJ has a look at sports talk radio by the numbers.

Dave Kindred at the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center has hope for the future of sports journalism.

Joe Lucia of Awful Announcing has the MSG Network and TSN calls of the Jeremy Lin three pointer to beat Toronto to guide the New York Knicks to their 6th straight win.

Kelly Dwyer at Yahoo’s Ball Don’t Lie blog says Jason Whitlock is backtracking after his racist Jeremy Lin tweet from last Friday.

Edmund Lee of Capital New York goes inside the “hard-working” descriptions for Jeremy Lin.

Advertising Age notes that NBC is utilizing Google and ComScore to measure how people watch this year’s London Olympics.

Todd Spangler of Multichannel News looks at a new internet streaming TV service that will challenge copyright laws, but has the support of rich investors and one particular media mogul.

Tim Nudd of Adweek talks about Ford creating a fake Sports Illustrated swimsuit model for an ad in this year’s issue.

Tim looks at Samsung’s Super Bowl ad which poked fun Apple groupies.

Timothy Burke at Deadspin has the awkward video of CNBC’s Darren Rovell asking SI Swimsuit Issue Cover Girl Kate Upton to be his Valentine.

Darren says SI had to put Kate Upton on the cover or suffer the consequences.

Jason Brough at Pro Hockey Talk has New York Rangers fans angry over the MSG/Time Warner Cable dispute.

Tom Lorenzo at SportsGrid says Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton will grant his first post-relapse interview to … Glenn Beck TV?

Larry Mahoney of the Bangor (ME) Daily News says Maine native Ricky Craven will be a NASCAR analyst for ESPN this season.

NESN has a behind-the-scenes video with its Boston Bruins rinkside reporter Naoko Funayama on her gameday preparation.

NESN also has Friends of Fang’s Bites Jen Royle and ABC6′s Courtney Fallon talking about their dream dates as they attended a charity event in Boston last weekend. Former NESN Red Sox reporter Heidi Watney was also there.

Over to Richard Sandomir of the New York Times who says NBC is hoping the London Olympics will outpace the ad sales for the Vancouver Winter Games which ended up at a loss for the network.

Jerry Barmash at Fishbowl NY says WFAN has made it official that Josh Lewin replaces Wayne Hagin on Mets broadcasts this year.

Bob’s Blitz looks at the overhyped CBS Radio mobile app for WFAN’s Mike Francesa who once proclaimed it to be a “Twitta Killa.”

Pete Dougherty from the Albany Times Union writes that despite not having Time Warner Cable subscribers watching, MSG Network’s ratings for Knicks games featuring Jeremy Lin are red hot.

Ken McMillan at the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record states that MSG will simulcast Knicks games in Spanish.

Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer says the Phillies are hoping to cash in when their TV rights go up for bid after this season.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog has samples of Washington Wizards and Capitals owner Ted Leonsis’ takes on the print media.

Jose Lambiet of the Miami Herald notes that local sports radio talk host Sid Rosenberg owes a lot of money to an illegal offshore gambling site.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says Hall of Fame Astros announcer Milo Hamilton is expected to announce his retirement on Wednesday.

David speculates on who could replace Hamilton in 2013.

Steve Campbell of the Chronicle writes that Hamilton’s retirement is just one of the many changes expected for the ‘Stros.

Mel Bracht at the Daily Oklahoman looks at the local ratings.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says local viewers watched golf over the weekend.

Tom Hoffarth at the Los Angeles Daily News notes one of the finalists for this year’s MLB Fan Cave inhabitants.

John Daly at The Daly Planet feels NBC SportsTalk should bring NASCAR into the mix.

John also looks at ESPN’s NASCAR announcing lineup.

Sports Media Watch gives us last week’s sports television ratings.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says the NHL on NBC Sports Network drew decently last Sunday.

Steve looks inside the numbers of Sunday’s NHL on NBC Sports Network game.

Dave Kohl of the Broadcast Booth looks at Sid Rosenberg’s alleged gambling debts.

And we’ll end it there for now.

Sports Media Weekly Podcast No. 91, Jen Royle

With our regularly scheduled podcast, Keith Thibault of Sports Media Journal are back to discuss the sports media news of the week.

Having already discussed the Super Bowl earlier this week, Keith and I put a wrap on the Big Game by noting the record online numbers for the first-ever legal online stream of the Super Bowl and the amount of people listening to the Giants-Patriots on radio.

We also talked about the myth that NFL TV analysts are supposed to forget about their former team loyalties and be totally objective. Our examples are current WEEI and WBZ-TV Patriots analyst Steve DeOssie and Fox NFL Sunday’s Michael Strahan pointedly showing their Giants tendencies this week.

And we also looked at ESPN’s response to the discovery that it had a comment section on a viewer response form for female commentators, allowing people to leave negative comments about the network’s female on-air staff.

Our guest this week is Jen Royle who recently returned to Boston after leaving Baltimore’s 105.7 ESPN Radio. We got an update on what she’s doing now, her departure from the Charm City and how the Baltimore Ravens gave her a nice sendoff. And we discussed the Project Cupid charity event that Jen will be taking part in this Saturday in Boston.

We had fun on this podcast and it certainly comes across. You can find it on iTunes doing a search for “Sports Media Journal” or listen to it directly

Tuesday Links with Some Overdue Monday Linkage

I was hoping to do links on Monday featuring reviews of the Super Bowl and the ads, but real life got in the way. Plus, a link from SI.com to my Biff Henderson post temporarily knocked my site down. Much appreciated to Jimmy Traina and Hot Clicks for the link.

The links begin with Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch who doles out his grades for the Super Bowl production.

Michael Hiestand from USA Today says Al Michaels was on top of his game on Sunday.

Bruce Horovitz of USA Today has the results of the paper’s Super Bowl Ad Meter. The results may or may not surprise you.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek notes that Super Bowl XLVI on NBC set a viewership record.

Tim Nudd of Adweek lists the five best Super Bowl commercials according to the publication.

Adweek’s David Griner has the five most debated Super Bowl adverts.

Todd Cunningham at The Wrap says NBC has apologized for the now-infamous middle finger from M.I.A. during the Madonna halftime performance.

Kristi Dosh at ESPN.com has some off-the-field winners for Super Bowl XLVI.

Sports Business Daily notes that dogs were a favorite of the Super Bowl ads.

SBD notes that NBC’s Super Bowl pregame show was mostly praised.

Michael Smith and John Ourand of Sports Business Journal say the ACC is looking for a big payday from ESPN with two new members entering the conference.

Eriq Gardner of the Hollywood Reporter says the FCC likely won’t fine NBC for M.I.A’s middle appendage.

The Hollywood Reporter says Super Bowl XLVI set a Twitter record.

George Winslow of Broadcasting & Cable says the Super Bowl was the biggest event ever on social media.

John Eggerton of B&C writes that the FCC has ruled a Chicago NBC affiliate was within its rights to reject an anti-abortion Super Bowl ad.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News writes about the ratings and viewership standards set by Super Bowl XLVI.

Mike writes that MSG Network will air the February 11 Buffalo Sabres-Tampa Bay Lightning game on NBC affiliates in Buffalo and Rochester as an end run around Time Warner Cable.

Simon Dumenco of Advertising Age has the 10 Super Bowl ads that set social media afire.

Ad Age’s Rich Thomaselli notes that Giants Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning is now expected to equal or surpass his brother Peyton as a commercial endorser.

Ad Age’s experts break down the Super Bowl ads.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid has video of ESPN’s Rick Reilly making a preposterous statement following Super Bowl XLVI.

Jason Dachman of Sports Video Group says Super Bowl XLVI lived up to the ratings hype.

SVG notes that Super Bowl XLVI garnered its highest audience ever in Canada even beating the CFL Grey Cup.

The With Leather blog has some pictures from the infamous Playboy Super Bowl party where CNBC’s Darren Rovell got into trouble with women.

Stephen Douglas at The Big Lead notes that Extra host and Massachusetts Maria Menounos native paid up on a Super Bowl bet and hosted yesterday’s show in a Giants bikini in the middle of Times Square.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says NBC’s Cris Collinsworth stepped up in the biggest moment of the Super Bowl.

The Times’ Brian Stelter has NBC calling its online stream of Super Bowl XLVI a success.

Stuart Elliot of the Times says the Super Bowl ads were meh.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post feels NBC covered up Rob Gronkowski’s ankle injury when the game began. You’re reaching, Phil.

Jerry Barmash of Fishbowl NY says WCBS-TV scored impressive numbers for its post-Super Bowl coverage.

Howard Megdal of the Journal News’ LoHud Mets Blog says the team, invoking memories of the Soviet Union, has revoked his media credential for the 2012 season.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union feels Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth weren’t up to par on Sunday.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call notes that the Philadelphia Phillies will be heard on the FM dial starting this season.

Laura Nachman has her Super Bowl XLVI highlights.

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun says NBC’s Super Bowl telecast rose above the ads and the halftime show.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog says a local sports radio producer is getting out of the business to become a restauranteur.

Barry Jackson from the Miami Herald praises NBC for its coverage of the Big Game.

Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times feels NBC got the job done on Super Bowl Sunday.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says the Super Bowl got another huge rating.

David provides his thoughts on the NBC Super Bowl production.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer lists his best and worst Super Bowl ads.

Robert King of the Indianapolis Star has the national media heaping praise on the city for hosting the Super Bowl.

King writes that the earliest Indy could host the Super Bowl again would be in 2017.

Lou Harry and Anthony Schoette of the Indianapolis Business Journal review Madonna’s Super Bowl halftime performance.

Anthony and Cory Schouten say Lucas Oil Stadium passed the test of holding its first Super Bowl.

Bob Wolfley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel feels Aaron Rodgers did well in his guest stint on NBC.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business has his wrap of the Super Bowl.

Dan Caesar from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says the Gateway City lagged behind the national average ratings for the Super Bowl.

Dusty Saunders at the Denver Post writes NBC did yeoman’s work and then some on Super Bowl Sunday.

Scott D. Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune lists his favorite Super Bowls XLVI ads.

Jay Posner in the San Diego Union-Tribune feels NBC was good, but not Super on Sunday.

John Maffei of the North County Times for the most part enjoyed NBC’s Super Bowl coverage.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News also liked NBC’s broadcast.

Tom has a longer review on his blog.

Bruce Dowbiggin in the Toronto Globe and Mail wonders why the Super Bowl has so many prop bets.

Slate’s Matthew Black was stuck watching the lackluster Canadian Super Bowl ads.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog notes the Super Bowl did really well in Canada.

Leah Goldman at the Business Insider Sports Page keeps an eye out for ESPN’s Erin Andrews and Fox’s Troy Aikman as a potential sports media power couple.

Sports Media Watch has some other Super Bowl ratings news.

Mike Silva of the Sports Media Watchdog has suggestions on how to handle fan taunts unlike Gisele Bündchen.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media notes that NBC Sports Network will have a hockey doubleheader on Wednesday.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing gives his bests and worsts of Super Bowl XLVI.

Matt also looks at the running feud between ESPN Radio’s Ryen Russillo and WEEI’s John Dennis.

Surviving Grady speaks with Friend of Fang’s Bites Jen Royle.

And those are your links. Got them done before noon. I’m happy.

A Few Friday Morning Sports Media Thoughts

As my computer churns away with another silly Windows Update, it’s time for a few thoughts on the sports media. They are in bullet form as always.

• The signing of Jim Rome by CBS Sports is a big one. As CBS Sports Network attempts to expand from its regular diet of college sports, it nabs Rome away from ESPN for a nightly 6 p.m. ET show that will be its signature studio show. In addition, Rome becomes a contributor to CBS’ coverage of the NCAA Tournment, US Open Tennis and the NFL. I didn’t realize it at the time of the announcement, but the CBS press release made no mention of The Masters or other CBS golf tournaments. While CBS does want to reach a younger audience, I don’t think the membership at Augusta National want Rome as part of CBS’ coverage, but I digress.

  CBS hopes Rome will bring his core audience to its cable channel and expand the reach to beyond a sports tier where CBS Sports Network lies on some cable systems.

• This leads to a story which The Big Lead broke today, that NBC Sports Network could go after another ESPN’er, Scott Van Pelt. As the story states, Van Pelt’s contract is up in April and NBC using the Golf Channel and possibly the Olympics, could try to lure him away from ESPN. You may remember Van Pelt came to ESPN from Golf Channel so if he leaves, it would be a return to his former home. This is a story that bears watching.
• Another ESPN’er whose contract is expiring is SportsNation’s Michelle Beadle. Her contract is about to expire this month. I have not heard anything in regards to her negotiations. Suffice to say that she is well liked in the Bristol headquarters. We’ll keep you posted if Michelle is offered another gig.
• It was reported Thursday in Dave Hughes’ DCRTV.com site that Jen Royle who’s about to leave her current gig at 105.7 FM in Baltimore, will be part of a new show at Comcast SportsNet New England. A CSNNE spokesman told me that the info reported was incorrect and that Jen is expected to make a couple of appearances on the network’s talk show, Sports Tonight, although no dates have been set. I tried to contact Jen through her Twitter account, but as of the time of this post, I haven’t heard back. The CSNNE spokesman said reports of a new show at the network are erroneous.
• And one non-sports media thought, I can officially say I’m hooked on Downton Abbey. The miniseries about life of an English family and its servants during the Edwardian era and into World War I has been absolutely addicting and infectious. The cast is excellent and the drama is well-written. Thanks to the PBS iPad app, I watched the entire 1st season and first episode paid Season 2 in two nights. And I can’t wait for the third season in the fall.

And those are your thoughts for today.

Some Tuesday Morning Sports Media Thoughts

I haven’t written a sports media thoughts post in quite some time. I owe you one do let’s do this without further delay. As always, they come in bullet form.

• Last night’s BCS National Championship Game between Alabama and LSU was another dull affair, just like their first game in the regular season. ESPN did its best to step up for the game. Brent Musburger seemed to be in hype mode more than usual. Kirk Herbstreit was on his game as analyst. As Alabama’s defense was in lockdown mode, not allowing LSU past mid-field until midway of the 4th quarter, Brent and Kirk were quick to point out the differences in approach by coaches Nick Saban and Les Miles.Production of the game was also championship-worthy. Replays were sharp and close calls were resolved through ESPN showing the correct angles.However, ESPN overused last year’s BCS National Championship Game coaches, Gene Chizik of Auburn and Chip Kelly of Oregon. Both were dull and in need of personality transfusions. ESPN barely used their own analysts for College GameDay.Because the game was so dull, Musburger could not make a tie-in to sponsor Allstate as he did last year for Tostitos. He did overuse “Honey Badger.” What last night’s game did was to assist the skeptics’ screams for a college football playoff or at least a Plus One game. Overall, I give ESPN a B+ for the game.
• Still no word on whether NESN is any closer to a replacement for Heidi Watney as Red Sox field reporter. Of the candidates NESN has conducted interviews and those I’ve been able to confirm through several sources include Erin Hawksworth of Fox Seattle, Courtney Fallon of ABC6 in Providence, and Britt McHenry from WJLA-TV in Washington. I told you last month that Friend of Fang’s Bites Jen Royle was interviewed and is not believed to be a candidate at this time. If anything happens, I’ll certainly let you know.
• You have to believe that CBS is happy to be riding the Tim Tebow wave as it heads to Foxboro, MA this weekend as Denver takes on the New England Patriots in the NFL Divisional Playoff round. The only game during Wild Card Weekend to see massive gains over last year was Sunday’s Pittsburgh-Denver game, garnering an amazing 25.9/43 overnight number for CBS. This would mark the 5th straight week CBS and its number one team, Jim Nantz and Phil Simms will have called the Broncos and Tebow. No matter how you feel about Tebow, he draws ratings and makes people watch. I don’t expect Saturday night’s game to draw near the Wild Card ratings because Saturday is not a big TV night, however, if Denver-New England is close going down to the wire, expect big numbers.
• Here’s looking forward to ESPN2/Tennis Channel’s coverage of the Australian Open starting Sunday night. Coverage will begin every night at 7 p.m. ET. Finals will take place in the wee hours of the morning at 3:30 a.m. on the East Coast, but it will lead to some very good tennis. The 16 hour time difference between Melbourne and the US Eastern time zone means for some disjointed viewing, but it’s always fun to see the summer weather from the Southern Hemisphere. Here’s looking forward to hearing from Chris Fowler, Cliff Drysdale, Pam Shriver, Patrick McEnroe, Darren Cahill, Bill Macatee, Martina Navratilova and Justin Gimelstob for two weeks.

And that’s going to it for the thoughts this morning.

Some End of the Year Links

Time to provide you some links to close out 2011. Thanks for visiting the blog this year. I moved from my old Blogger site to a new server, only to get kicked off the new place because it couldn’t handle the traffic from you. But then I was able to find HostMonster in a pinch and they’ve been absolutely wonderful in hosting the site and it’s been smooth sailing ever since. Thanks to you, I keep plugging along at the site and will continue to do so.

Let’s do some linkage on this New Year’s Eve.

If you haven’t seen it yet, check out my Big Dozen Sports Media

We’ll begin with USA Today’s Michael Hiestand who looks at Versus turning into NBC Sports Network on Monday.

Over to Adweek and Anthony Crupi who says the deadline to hash out an agreement between MSG Network and Time Warner Cable is fast approaching.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News says Time Warner Cable subscribers in New York may not be seeing Knicks and Rangers games for a while.

Todd Spangler of Multichannel writes that AT&T U-Verse is also fighting with MSG, but at least can provide the network in HD for its subscribers.

Mike talks with ESPN’s Chris Fowler about the bowl system and how it might lead to a “Plus One” playoff.

And Mike writes that CBS Sports Network provides a Tim Tebow programming marathon  starting tonight.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing has the site’s Best & Worst in Sports Media for 2011.

My podcast partner, Keith Thibault from Sports Media Journal lists his biggest sports media stories for 2011.

Timothy Burke at Deadspin has the video of ESPN’s SkyCam crashing down to the field at last night’s Insight Bowl causing a short delay. I like one of the bands doing a SportsCenter sting as the camera was being dragged off the field.

And Ben Koo at Awful Announcing even has video of how the SkyCam works and how it could snap as it did last night.

The great Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch has a Year-in-Review of Boston media at SB Nation.

Max Tedford at WEEI.com has some of the top Boston sports media controversies.

Peter Abraham at the Boston Globe notes that the Red Sox AAA farm team, the Pawtucket Red Sox have found their replacement for announcer Dan Hoard who became the radio voice of the Cincinnati Bengals earlier this year.

At Sports Media Watchdog, the great Mike Silva has his 2011 “Stock Up/Stock Down” for New York sports media personalities.

Newsday’s Neil Best has a quick sports media roundup.

Neil has a few columns mixed into one for his year-end thoughts.

Neil notes how the NHL Winter Classic became exactly that in a short period of time.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union notes that Friend of Fang’s Bites Ian Eagle is a busy man.

Ken McMillan at the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says through radio and TV, local NFL fans will have access to most of the 16 games played on Sunday.

Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun says one of the year’s highlights in local broadcasting was also one of the saddest.

David Zurawik of the Sun talks with Friend of Fang’s Bites Jen Royle about her decision to leave Baltimore and return to her native Boston.

And David has some quotes from CBS’ Dan Fouts who will call Sunday’s Baltimore-Cincinnati game with the aforementioned Ian Eagle.

In Press Box, Dave Hughes from DCRTV.com has his top sports media stories in 2011 for DC-Baltimore.

At the Washington City Paper, Dave McKenna who was embroiled in a legal battle with DC NFL Team owner Dan Snyder is leaving the publication, but not before he fires a few more shots.

Ira Kaufman at the Tampa Tribune gets Jon Gruden to say that he’s not leaving ESPN and will remain with Monday Night Football for the foreseeable future.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says one of Jim Rome’s long-time radio affiliates has dropped the show in favor of local programming.

John Carzano of The Oregonian doesn’t like how ESPN covers the Rose Bowl.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog notes that the World Junior Hockey Championships are doing well on TSN.

In his sports business blog, Joe Favorito provides some thoughts for 2012.

Sports Media Watch reviews its predictions for 2011.

The Business Insider Sports Page provides its Winners and Losers in Sports for 2011.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media has some ratings numbers from Versus’ various programming.

Dave Kohl of The Broadcast Booth has his last review of the week in sports media for 2011.

And that will end our linkage for 2011. I know I haven’t been providing as many links lately due to my personal schedules. I hope to do better in 2012. Again, thanks for visiting. I have a couple of more features to provide before 2011 is out. Keep your feeds updated.

Some Quick Sports Media Thoughts

I’ll do a few thoughts on what’s transpired in sports media this week. As always, they come in bullet form.

• The NFL came out smelling like roses after the league’s owners approved the new 9 year agreements with CBS, Fox, and NBC. Not only does the league have stability with its players with a long-term Collective Bargaining Agreement, but also with its TV partners. Some fascinating tidbits have come out in the new contracts including increased flex scheduling allowing CBS to air a handful of NFC games and Fox airing some AFC games to give more attractive matchups a wider audience.Also, NBC gets to air a Divisional Playoff game in addition to a Wild Card. It looks like ESPN will get a Wild Card Playoff game and NBC Sports Network will air a Sunday morning pregame show making a crowded landscape even more so.

  I like the Thanksgiving Night game going to NBC from the NFL Network. In fact one thing that’s been overlooked is the fact that NBC will have a Thanksgiving Night NFL game and a Black Friday NHL game during the November holiday weekend. The NHL game will get plenty of promotion the night before which is a very good thing.

  We also know that there will be more Thursday Night Football next season. And even if the NFL decides to have 10-12 games on the in-house NFL Network permanently, I’m okay with that. It won’t happen because the NFL wants a third cable partner (NBC Sports Network or TNT) and the cash it will receive for an 8 game package for the first half of the season.

  Overall, we learned that with CBS, Fox and NBC each shelling out an average of $1 billion/year and ESPN almost $2 billion/year for Monday Night Football, the four networks have in essence said that they cannot do without the NFL.

• HBO’s season premiere of 24/7 Flyers/Rangers on Wednesday was another success. Already, Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov has made an impression with his takes on the universe and life in general. In addition, HBO’s cameras catching Sean Avery’s all-too-knowing “I know you’re in trouble” look at the Rangers’ Artem Anisimov after last week’s mock sniper rifle incident against the Tampa Bay Lightning was priceless. With HBO’s stellar production values, Liev Schreiber’s tremendous narration and some interesting personalities like Flyers coach Peter Laviolette, it looks like the second edition of HBO’s NHL 24/7 is another hit.
• I had the opportunity to watch a bevy of sports media reporters on the New York regional sports network, SNY on Wednesday as they all opined on the year in sports. SNY split the reporters into a NYC and National sports media panel. Newsday’s Neil Best, the New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman and Phil Mushnick of the New York Post comprised the NYC panel. Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch, USA Today’s Mike McCarthy, Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand and the New York Times’ Richard Sandomir formed the national panel. Chris Carlin was the host and did a very good job as moderator, weaving between the two different panels throughout the show. He adroitly asked questions and allowed the reporters to talk without interjecting.Some of the topics discussed included the Penn State and Syracuse media coverage, announcers and the stories they predict will be big in 2012. I thought Ourand, Best and Deitsch came well during the discussions. I thought Mushnick came off as pious and nitpicky. Overall, it was a good show and fast-paced. I hope it has an opportunity to air in other parts of the country.
• And I’ll end with news on the search to replace NESN’s Heidi Watney as Red Sox field reporter. Fang’s Bites has learned that Jen Royle is no longer in consideration for the job. Apparently the position is Erin Hawksworth’s to lose. Here’s hoping that Jen gets the opportunity to return to Boston as she wishes.

I think I went longer than expected as these thoughts were quite extensive. Check out the regular Friday features, Primetime & Late Night Viewing Picks, College Basketball Viewing Picks, NFL Viewing Picks and Weekend Viewing Picks all throughout the morning.

Back with you later.

A Few Sunday Morning Sports Media Thoughts

I’ll be away for most of the day as my Sunday has been planned behind my back once again. I’ll have the Sunday NFL pregame quotage later in the afternoon.

Let’s provide some sports media thoughts. As always, they’ll go in bullet form.

• In its first college football conference championship weekend, Fox Sports had a mixed bag. Not only was the Pac-12 Championship Game on Friday between UCLA and Oregon not a good game, Fox’s production was very choppy. While the announcing team of Gus Johnson, Charles Davis and Tim Brewster were fine, the audio for the Pac-12 was at times muffled and the crowd sometimes overpowered Davis’ analysis. Gus went into breaks rather awkwardly and there were times the replay didn’t show the proper angle. It wasn’t until the second half when the production hit its stride, but by that time, the game was already decided and most of the audience had probably tuned out.

  For the Big Ten Championship, the regular College Football on Fox production crew that had been working with Gus, Charles and Tim all season on FX was on hand in Indianapolis and this was a much better production. Replays were sharp, the picture was much better than in Eugene for the Pac-12.

  As for the other parts of the production, the college football studio needs improvement. Lots of improvement. Kevin Frazier is an awful host. He’s bad on Tennis Channel. He’s bad on Fox. He comes off unprepared. Marcus Allen is a very weak analyst. John Lynch did a decent job at the Pac-12 and Dhani Jones when he wasn’t trying to ask questions was ok at the Big Ten. Last year, Fox utilized Darrin Horton for its college football host and I don’t know it didn’t keep him for this season. Kevin Frazier must go.

  And I want to talk about why Tim Brewster starts off every question with “talk about.” It’s almost as annoying as when Paul McGuire started off every replay with “Ha ha! I’ll tell you what!” on ESPN’s Sunday Night Football. It’s obvious Tim Brewster wants to coach again because he’s not polished on TV.

  As for Gus Johnson and Charles Davis, they were on their “A” game for both the Pac-12 and Big Ten. They’ve formed one of the best announcing teams in college football. Gus was back in his realm in the national spotlight especially with a barnburner in the Big Ten. If Gus was auditioning for Joe Buck’s spot on the NFL on Fox, he passed with flying colors. While it’s great to have Gus in college football, he really belongs back on the NFL.

• If Tennis Channel wants to be taken seriously, it really should send announcing crews to the events rather than having them call matches off a monitor in its Los Angeles studios. For tournaments like the WTA World Tour Finals and this weekend’s Davis Cup Finals between Spain and Argentina, Tennis Channel has had Brett Haber, Ted Robinson and Leif Shiras call matches off a TV. You may not notice the difference, but when the satellite picture is lost, the announcers have to vamp and act like they’re there. Tennis Channel does send crews to the Grand Slam tournaments, but it should start treating other tournaments the same way as it does the Australian, French, US Opens and Wimbledon. In addition, the announcers are held hostage to the world feeds and cannot give us a sense for the atmosphere or giving us a sense of how the players look off camera. Tennis Channel needs to step up its game or it will continue to be treated as a bastard stepchild.
• The Big Lead is reporting that Sports Illustrated baseball writer Jon Heyman is leaving to take a job with CBSSports.com. That would be a huge get for CBS which has brought in Bruce Feldman from ESPN.com and a couple of other writers. I’m thinking this is part of a bigger picture upgrade for CBS and to possibly set up content for CBS Sports Network which currently is stuck in the ghosts of its previous brand, CBS College Sports. Maybe CBS decides to bid for baseball for CBS Sports Network. It would certainly help as the channel currently doesn’t have much summer programming besides from college sports repeats.
• ESPN is trying to sell us the BCS as a major event. While the ratings for the BCS National Championship Game have been good, until the college presidents decides on a way to decide on a legitimate postseason playoff system, we’re going to be stuck with the potential of an LSU-Alabama game every year. Not the two teams, but the way the final teams for the mythical college football national championships are chosen. The NCAA has over 60 championships including college football, but not in what is called the Football Bowl Subdivision or whatever they’ll name it in the future. As ESPN has so much invested in college sports, it may be up to the Alleged Worldwide Leader to throw some money around to help develop a way for a college football tournament to come to fruition. Until then, we’ll hear BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock give infuriating explanations as to why the BCS is good for college football.
• Nothing new to report on the continuing soap opera that is NESN’s search to replace Heidi Watney. Jen Royle of 105.7 FM in Baltimore was brought in for an interview last week. I heard it went well. Erin Hawksworth of the Fox affiliate in Seattle is also in the running. I believe it’s down to these two and as you know, I’m fully behind Jen in this. If you need any further convincing, let us remind you of Erin’s most famous moment from two months ago.

  I don’t think I need to add anything more.

Enjoy your Sunday

A Few Late Tuesday Night/Wednesday Morning Sports Media Thoughts

Since the posts were sparse on Tuesday, I’ll give you some sports media thoughts here. All in bullet form as usual.

• I haven’t said much about ESPN’s handling of the Bernie Fine Syracuse story. I wanted to get some facts before commenting. I’m really distressed that ESPN held onto the tape of what was reportedly Fine’s wife telling accuser Bobby Davis that she knew of her husband’s transgressions. The fact that it held the tape dating back to 2003 makes the network look bad. While Vice President for news content, Vince Doria, said in ESPN’s public relations blog that it had no obligation to present it to the authorities, ESPN may have played an inadvertent role in allowing Fine to allegedly molest more children and it also looks like it was protecting an interest. ESPN may not have been doing so, but the implication is there.
• I’m hearing more and more that NESN is leaning towards Erin Hawksworth as the replacement for Heidi Watney as Red Sox field reporter. I’m not familiar with her work. She has worked in Boston for the local Fox affiliate from 2008-2010. She’s currently working for the Fox Seattle affiliate. Friend of Fang’s Bites Jen Royle interviewed with NESN earlier this week. I still hold out hope that Jen will get the job. I also hope Courtney Fallon from WLNE in Providence gets an interview as well.
• Can you imagine five NBA games on Christmas Day? That appears to be the case. Richard Sandomir of the New York Times is reporting that TNT as under its contract with the league will get the season opener which will be Boston-New York at noon Eastern. Then ABC will have an afternoon doubleheader with ESPN getting a primetime double dip.
• On Thursday, the paperback edition of “Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside the World of ESPN” will be released. There are 50 new pages of material. Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated recounts one new story from author James Andrew Miller involving SportsCenter anchor Hannah Storm. And Keith Thibault of Sports Media Journal and I will interview James in this week’s Sports Media Weekly Podcast about the additional material. I look forward to the new edition.

That’s going to complete the thoughts for tonight.

Some Monday Morning Sports Media Thoughts

While I’m away from a computer this morning, I provide these thoughts to you so you have some fresh material here. I hope you had a good Thanksgiving weekend.

As usual, I’ll go in bullet form.

• We’re three games into NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football schedule and the duo of Brad Nessler and Mike Mayock have already made my list of favorite announcing teams. After five years of juggling announcers, NFL Network may have finally found some stability in the broadcast booth. And the problems that plagued its production: missed replays, coming out of replays late and graphics that made no sense seemed to have disappeared. If NFL Network gets an expanded schedule next season, I look forward to hearing Nessler and Mayock on more games.
• With the NBA Lockout seemingly settled, the big beneficiary would be ESPN/ABC as the league’s new Opening Day would be Christmas, December 25. The networks would divide three games on that day. Also, TNT which has desperately missed the NBA on Thursday nights will be happy to have doubleheaders again. While I’m not an NBA watcher, I could get behind a 66 game schedule and a Christmas Opening Day every year. This is something the NBA should seriously consider, but it won’t.
• With the college football conference championship games coming up this weekend, I’ll be interested to see how Fox handles the Pac-12 and Big Ten Championships on successive nights with the same announcing crew of Gus Johnson, Charles Davis and Tim Brewster. While Fox’s last foray into college football with the BCS was next to disastrous, at least this trio has worked an entire season on FX. I feel Fox should have assigned two crews, but I know the network wants to gain as much mileage from having Gus call both games. Still, flying from Eugene, OR to Indianapolis overnight is not going to be much fun.
• As NESN is considering candidates to replace Heidi Watney as its Red Sox field reporter, I can tell you that an early favorite, Molly Sullivan, sideline reporter for the mtn., is no longer in the running. I’ve heard NESN felt she wasn’t right for the job. Plus Molly said on Twitter that she’s comfortable with her current gig and staying in Las Vegas where she currently lives.
• I hear NESN is considering Jen Royle of 105.7 FM in Baltimore. Good article on her Sunday by Mark Farinella of the Attleboro Sun-Chronicle. Jen was back in New England to do another guest stint on WEEI. Once again, she killed co-hosting with Kirk Minehane. I don’t know if Jen is a top candidate on NESN, but as I’ve said in the past, she should be.

  Another person NESN should consider if it already hasn’t is Courtney Fallon of WLNE in Providence. Just on the job for three months, Courtney has already made an impression here. She would be good on NESN. And if it doesn’t want to hire her for the Red Sox reporter’s job, the network should at least consider her for its NESN Daily show.

• I’ve seen just a few episodes, but Brian Kenny seems to have found a signature show in Clubhouse Confidential on MLB Network. Now if only Brian could find that boxing gig to go with his baseball assignments.
• Speaking of MLB Network, I miss Trenni Kusnierek. I know she’s happy co-hosting a sports show on WTMJ-AM in Milwaukee.

And we’re done. Enjoy your Monday

Various Sports Media Thoughts

I haven’t done a thoughts column in quite some time. And to boot, I’m doing this on the iPad. Not that you should care, but this will cause me to pause and think which is dangerous. Anyway, I’ll do this in bullet form.

Thanks for your indulgence.

• The Penn State media coverage has not been over the top as I had feared when the story went national. There has been great reporting from the Harrisburg Patriot-News, the Daily Collegian, the New York Times and NBC News. Bob Costas’ interview of Jerry Sandusky was excellent. In contrast, CBS’ overhyped 24 second interview of Mike McQuery gave us nothing. Not Armen Keteyian’s fault for the overhype, but we expected more. This story will not be going away any time soon. It will be interesting to see how the national outlets handle it as it moves into months and maybe even years.

• In my native area of New England, the big news is twofold, Don Orsillo staying as NESN Red Sox voice through 2015. He had been pursued by both Turner Sports and MLB Network. To be honest, I was convinced he would take the Turner job to be their main voice for Sunday Afternoon Baseball and the MLB Postseason on TBS, but on Wednesday, the news leaked that he would stay in New England to continue to be teamed with Jerry Remy, a pairing that dates back to 2001. Orsillo will continue to call the MLB Postseason for TBS. Sometimes, the best move is the one you don’t make.

• The other news from New England also involves NESN and the third member of the Red Sox team, Heidi Watney. It was reported that she’ll join Time Warner Cable to be the sideline reporter for the Los Angeles Lakers starting in the 2012-13 season. Heidi had been with NESN since 2008 and became popular with many male fans. Women were another story as she was polarizing. I was under the impression from several sources that the 2011 season would the last for Heidi at NESN. A native of California, Heidi returns to the West Coast. I thought she did a good job on NESN. She will be missed.

  The attention now turns to who will replace Heidi for 2012. One good candidate would be Boston native Jen Royle who has been cooling her heels in Baltimore for CBS Radio and has covered the Orioles the last two seasons on both MASN and 105.7 The Fan. Jen did a successful weekend guest spot on WEEI last month and has made it no secret that she yearns to return to Boston. A perfect way to bring her back would be as Heidi’s replacement on NESN or as a host on WEEI. Let’s get this done.

• I thought Fox did a decent job in its UFC debut last Saturday. Curt Menefee is a competent host and got the job done as pre and post fight host. UFC President Dana White was ok as an analyst, but the man who impressed me was Brock Lesnar who showed no fear challenging his boss on the set. While the UFC Heavyweight fight lasted just over a minute, it was better than having five rounds of boring action with the crowd booing. Fox’s production was good. UFC announcers Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan were on top of everything although Rogan seemed to be high on something as he was yelling more than normal. I expect bigger and better things from Fox in the next UFC event in January.

• I watched Wednesday’s New Jersey Devils-Buffalo Sabres game on Versus. Dave Strader and Ed Olzyck did their usual bang-up job. However, Pierre McGuire needs a muzzle. He talks too much and continues to be abrasive during interviews. I would prefer Darren Pang or even Mike Milbury as the ice level analyst, anyone but Pierre McGuire. NBC Sports is doing a disservice to hockey fans by continuing to use this butcher on the air.

And that’s going to do it for now. Enjoy your Thursday.

Sports Media Weekly Podcast No. 73 — Jen Royle, 105.7 The Fan, Baltimore

Our guest this week is the lovely Jen Royle of sports radio station The Fan, 105.7 in Baltimore. Before that, Southern New England media mogul Keith Thibault and I discussed the news of the week in sports media.

Our top story was of course, the Hank Williams, Jr. mess and how ESPN dealt with it by pulling his open from this week’s Monday Night Football game.

Then, we talked about TBS and its coverage of the League Division Series. We talked about TBS’ ratings and we also discussed our thoughts on its coverage including the announcers.

We then moved to the start of the NHL season and what we can expect to see from the NBC Sports Group and the NBA lockout could affect viewership.

And we also talked about former Red Sox manager Terry Francona joining Fox for the first two games of the American League Championship Series.

The lovely Jen Royle, part of this year’s edition of the Five Women Who Can Make Me Stop The Remote.

Keith and I talked with Jen about her start with the YES Network in New York, then her move to Baltimore where she’s covered the Orioles and the Ravens. Plus, we touched upon her difficulties in dealing with haters when she began in the Charm City. And we also talked about her desire to return to her native Boston.

Overall, a very good podcast. You can download it at iTunes by doing a search for Sports Media Journal, or you do the simple thing by listening to it

Five Women Who Can Make Me Stop Flipping The Remote — 2011

Time to bring the annual Hot Chicks Post back again. The original post in 2007 had what can be considered a Mount Rushmore of Women on TV. In 2008, we had another strong list featuring Fang’s Bites fave Charissa Thompson and Heidi Watney. The 2009 list had Olivia Munn, Trenni Kusnierek and NFL Network’s Lindsay Soto. And last year had Trenni, Michelle Beadle and Kate Walsh.

This year, we have a new list. I like the women we have for 2011.

5. Jaime Maggio — CBS/Turner Sports

Had her coming out party during the NCAA Tournament this year on CBS and Turner Sports. She’s also working for Turner in the League Division Series. We certainly welcome more national assignments for Jaime. She’s currently working full-time with KCAL-TV in Los Angeles. Does a great job reporting on the sidelines and would love to see Jaime more in 2012.

4. Erin Sharoni — CNBC SportsBiz: Game On!

In just four shows of the new series hosted by Darren Rovell, Erin hits this list. Previously a sideline reporter for St. John’s basketball on RedStormSports.com, Erin has made quite the impression on viewers to NBC’s new sports business show on Versus. I’m quite impressed with her on-air style and her rapport with Darren. I was told that Darren wanted to get someone new and fresh for his show and he certainly did that. I predict big things for Erin down the road.

3. Jen Royle — 105.7 The Fan, Baltimore

Ok, technically Jen is not on TV right now, but she was earlier this year on MASN. She left the regional sports network before this baseball season, so in the range from last year to this year’s list, she qualifies as having been on TV. As she hosted an Orioles pregame show on 105.7 FM The Fan this season and is currently covering the Ravens, Jen is also a candidate to return to her native Boston possibly on NESN and perhaps one of the sports radio stations. New England would certainly welcome her back with open arms. And if NESN wants to bring her in to possibly replace Heidi Watney on Red Sox broadcasts (more on that in another post down the road), that would be welcomed too!

2. Tina Cervasio, MSG Network

Tina returns to the list after being on the original list in 2007. After leaving NESN in 2008, she joined MSG Network where she’s the reporter for both the Knicks of the NBA and the Red Bulls of MLS. Tina is also doing work for CBSSports.com on college football. Tina has been anchoring sports at WNYW-TV and sister station, WWOR-TV. I’ve heard rumors that Tina is about to get another gig. I don’t know where it is, but if it’s national, it’s well deserved. And Tina is lovelier than ever having seen her at Blogs with Balls 4 this year.

And here’s a pic of our #2 and #3 picks together. This comes courtesy of Jen so I thank her for giving me permission to post this.

Very lovely pic of Jen and Tina together.

1. Maggie Q — Nikita

Last year, we had our first Asian representation with Betty Nguyen of CBS News. This year, it’s Maggie Q of The CW’s Nikita. Trained in Hong Kong by Jackie Chan to become an action star, Q had a rather meteoric rise and now is the star of her own series. Not only is Maggie gorgeous, but she can also kick your ass. I respect that. In addition, she’s a strict vegetarian and a member of PETA. I’m glad in the 5th edition of this list that an Asian sister is finally number one.

And that will conclude the list for this year. Back again next year.

Getting The Friday Megalinks Done

Let’s get these megalinks done as I hope to give you a weekend full of posts for the three day holiday. That’s my plan, at least. They could get changed due to family or weather. You never know.

I have the sports and entertainment programming in the Weekend Viewing Picks. Let’s get to the linkage now.

National

Michael Hiestand of USA Today discusses the NFL Films documentary on Bill Belichick that followed him for the entire 2009 season and got some rather interesting footage.

Sports Business Daily’s John Ourand speaks with a Fox Soccer exec about having English Premier League games air on the Fox mothership.

John Eggerton from Broadcasting & Cable reports that President Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress next Thursday will not cut into the NFL regular season opener on NBC.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News writes that Big Ten Network’s BTN2Go service has been picked up by four cable and satellite providers.

Timothy Burke of SportsGrid says former NFL cheap shot artist Chuck Cecil got off to an inauspicious start to his broadcasting career on Thursday.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing has some really bad network typos from the last week.

Sports Media Watch looks at the extension of the PGA Tour’s deal with CBS Sports, Golf Channel and NBC Sports.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media says the NHL’s TV partners should lead the discussion on head injuries and how they could lead to tragedies such as the deaths of Wade Belak, Derek Boogaard and Rick Rypien.

Joe Favorito says the Los Angeles Dodgers are using social media this month to try to get closer to the fans.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn from the Boston Globe looks at the PGA Tour’s extension with its TV partners and he talks about Friend of Fang’s Bites Jen Royle talking with various area radio stations.

In SBNation Boston, Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch has the ESPN Monday Night Football crew previewing this season’s Patriots team.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes about college football writer “Free Bruce” Feldman leaving ESPN.com to go to CBS Sports.

Larry Dorman of the Times writes about the PGA Tour’s new contract with CBS, Golf Channel and NBC.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post continues to plaster hate all over his wretched columns.

Justin Terranova of the Post has five questions for Monday Night Football’s Jon “This Guy” Gruden and Ron “I’m Telling You, Jaws” Jaworski.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says a local TV station is in its 13th year producing a high school football highlights show.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call tells football fans not to worry about President Obama’s speech interrupting the Saints-Packers NFL season opener on Thursday.

Laura Nachman has a press release announcing the winner of a Philadelphia sports radio talk show host contest.

DCTRV.com’s Dave Hughes in Press Box notes that Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic’s Russ Thaler moves to Versus for a national gig.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner has a few notes about this Sunday’s Baltimore Grand Prix.

Jim has Fox’s college football crew discussing the potential departure of Oklahoma from the Big 12.

South

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald looks at some of the changes in the NFL TV broadcast booths for this season.

Tom Jones at the St. Petersburg Times has a preview of the weekend on sports television.

Bud Kennedy of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says the Longhorn Network will help Texas down the road, but it’s already hurting its relationship with other schools.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle reveals that Texas and Texas A&M were in talks to create a joint TV network four years ago.

David says University of Houston quarterback Case Keenum gets a national showcase on Fox Sports Net this weekend.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman talks with the new voice of the Oklahoma Sooners.

In his notebook, Mel looks at the new Fox Sports studio team for college football.

Gina Mizell of the Oklahoman talks with ESPN Sport Science host John Brenkus about how an Oklahoma State athlete was chosen for a feature.

Midwest

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer is still rooting for the late Reds announcer Joe Nuxhall to get into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

And John has a couple of local TV news and notes.

Mike Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press talks with ESPN college football analyst Chris Spielman about the rivalry that is Michigan-Ohio State.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel asks if social media has a place in sports broadcasts.

Scott Cooper Williams of the Green Bay Gazette says a bunch of NBC shows will be town to help hype the Saints-Packers NFL season opener on Thursday.

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

Tina Akouris of the Chicago Sun-Times writes about Dick Vitale’s new children’s book.

West

Scott D. Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune says Utah fans should be happy that a local TV station is picking up the team’s games for this season.

J. Patrick Coolican of the Las Vegas Sun says UNLV’s TV contract through the Mountain West Conference just plain sucks.

Jay Posner from the San Diego Union-Tribune says Padres fans should expect to watch games on a new channel next season.

John Maffei of the North County Times says there will be a plethora of college football games this weekend.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star notes the return of former Dodgers broadcaster Ross Porter to play-by-play, but this time online.

Jim says Fox Sports West will be extensively covering high school football online.

Helene Elliot of the Los Angeles Times says Hall of Fame Kings announcer Bob Miller has signed a new contract that will bring him to 40 seasons with the team.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News also writes about Miller’s new deal.

Tom talks to network executives and producers about how and when to incorporate Twitter into a sports broadcast.

And that’s going to do it for the megalinks. If you’re traveling this weekend, be safe and if you’re still recovering from Hurricane Irene, I hope all returns to normal soon.

Some Late Thursday Afternoon Linkage

Came home a bit early from work so let me provide you with some linkage today.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today writes that Marcus Allen will join Fox Sports Media Group’s coverage of college football.

Ryan Ballengee of Pro Golf Talk discusses the new 9 year deal signed between the PGA Tour and its TV partners.

Philiana Ng of the Hollywood Reporter also looks at the PGA Tour’s deal with CBS, NBC and Golf Channel.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News says NFL RedZone has been picked up by a small cable provider.

Emma Bazilian reviews a new Burger King ad featuring UFC’s Anderson Silva lip syncing Minnie Ripperton’s “Lovin’ You” to shill a heart attack-waiting-to-happen.

Alex Weprin writes the final farewell for SportsNewser as it shut down for good on Wednesday.

Jason Dachman of the Sports Video Group notes that Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic and Philadelphia will have a decent schedule of college and high school football.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid has video of UK Channel 4 host Otis Deley having trouble hosting the IAAF World Athletics Championships. This is why the BBC usually airs these events.

NESN says the always screaming Kevin Millar will be wired on the network during tonight’s Yankees-Red Sox game.

Newsday’s Neil Best says the sports cameos will be hot and heavy on HBO’s Entourage this Sunday.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union has the college football TV schedule for this weekend.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette notes that Time Warner Cable is back with high school football this weekend.

Ken McMillan from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record writes about Versus getting some new original programming starting next week.

Ken writes that an Army hockey game has been selected by CBS Sports Network.

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun writes about radio reporter Jen Royle dropping her lawsuit against a local radio station.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner looks at the new PGA Tour rights deal with its TV partners.

Jim takes a look at the beginning of the college football season tonight.

John Kiesewetter at the Cincinnati Enquirer says the Bengals will be blacked out on NFL Network tonight, but they will be seen live locally.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes about the PGA Tour keeping the status quo with its TV partners.

Bob says Big Ten Network sees Wisconsin doing well in the conference this football season.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News wonders what’s up with ESPN’s “Jim Rome is Burning” show.

Ed Tait from the Winnipeg Free Press says the Jets have signed a new 10 year deal with TSN for TV rights.

The Toronto Sports Media Blog reviews the Toronto media coverage of former Maple Leafs enforcer Wade Belak’s death.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog has some mid-week thoughts on what’s going on.

Dave Kohl at The Broadcast Booth doesn’t like Universities throwing their weight around on school newspapers.

Sports Media Watch says the NFL Preseason Week 3 didn’t bring as strong ratings as the last two weeks.

SMW has various ratings news and notes.

Awful Announcing has a new podcast with the great Timothy Burke from SportsGrid and Mocksession.

And I’ll end it there for now.

With the college football season kicking off, the College Football Viewing Picks return on Friday. And next week, we’ll have the NFL Viewing Picks so the schedule for viewing picks on Friday will be:

Primetime & Late Night Viewing Picks — 8 a.m.
College Football Viewing Picks — 9 a.m.
NFL Viewing Picks — 10 a.m.
Weekend Viewing Picks — 11 a.m.

You can look for that throughout the fall months.

Sounding Off On The Thursday Linkage

Let’s do the linkage on this Thursday morning. Some good stuff is already out.

The Financial Times has a look at how European TV money is now either catching up or surpassing US TV dollars for the bidding for certain global sports events.

Todd Spangler from Multichannel News reports that ESPN has released a new app for the iPhone and iPod Touch which allows Time Warner and Verizon FiOS TV subscribers to watch live TV on their devices.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel notes that SNY is now taking shots at Dish Network after being dropped by the satellite provider.

Mike says YES Network and DirecTV continue their negotiations as a deadline that was extended to today is staring them in the face.

Lindsay Rubino from Broadcasting & Cable says ESPN’s E:60 is being nominated for an award that honors diversity in communications.

Louisa Ada Seltzer of Media Life writes that Tiger Woods appears to be an afterthought for ESPN’s and CBS’ coverage of The Masters^®.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, the St. Petersburg Times’ Eric Deggans feels Mark Cuban’s idea to ban all internet writers to improve sports coverage is quite silly.

Ronald Grover, Brian Womack and Andy Fixmer of Bloomberg report that YouTube is in talks with several Hollywood companies to provide original content including sports.

Marcus Vanderberg of SportsNewser says DirecTV is all over The Masters^® this year.

Marcus says since ESPN’s Captain Blowhard promised not to tweet until the Red Sox won, an online betting site is taking wagers on whether he will indeed keep quiet.

Sports Video Group has provided a site that outlines how to produce live golf in the third dimension.

At the Biz of Baseball, Maury Brown says MLB isn’t serving its Extra Innings and MLB.TV subscribers well through its archaic blackout policies.

Dan Frommer of the Business Insider has a look at the new WatchESPN iPhone app.

Pete Dougherty from the Albany Times Union writes that a local sports TV anchor will be part of the online and DirecTV coverage of The Masters^®.

Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tells us that NFL Films visited the Steelers last week to film several interviews.

CBS Radio Baltimore’s Jen Royle talks with the Baltimore Sun’s Simon Habtemariam.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog says former Nationals analyst Rob Dibble has come out stating that it was a letter from the father of pitcher Stephen Strasburg that led to him being fired from MASN last year.

Dan talks to a local man who came close to winning ESPN.com’s NCAA Tournament Bracket Challenge.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says CBS and Augusta National Country Club have a unique partnership for The Masters^®.

Iliana Limon in the Orlando Sentinel talks with Conference USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky about the future of the league.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman discusses online coverage of The Masters^®.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer has an update on what happened with Fox Sports Ohio’s feed of the Astros-Reds game from earlier in the week.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that the Bucks will be pushed to another radio station due to conflicts with the Brewers.

Neal Justin of the Minneapolis Star Tribune says four cable and satellite providers are not carrying the full schedule of Twins games from Fox Sports North.

Tim Engstrom in the Albert Lea (MN) Tribune writes that Charter Communications is at an impasse with Fox Sports North over 45 Twins games that Fox Sports North picked up.

Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times says while the Lakers will not bring back TV play-by-play man Joel Myers, they will bring back analyst Stu Lantz.

That’s where I’ll end it for now.

A Friday Megalink Post

I’m going to try to post some of the Friday megalinks. This won’t be an entire post. Unless something happens, I should be able to get most of them in.

Of course, you can find the Weekend Viewing Picks for your sports and primetime programs.

National

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand and Mike McCarthy debate whether ESPN’s harsh criticism over VCU’s selection to the NCAA Tournament was sour grapes over losing the games to CBS/Turner.

Mike McCarthy says ESPN has pulled NBA analyst Jalen Rose off the air following last month’s arrest on DUI charges.

Bob Velin of USA Today notes that boxing returns to network television on Saturday in the form of a new Showtime reality series on the Manny Pacquaio-Sugar Shane Mosley fight.

This being April Fools’ Day, we hearken back to 1985 and one of the greatest April 1 sports media pranks, The Curious Case of Sidd Finch, written by George Plimpton of Sports Illustrated which fooled many fans back in the day.

And Christopher Borelli of the Chicago Tribune has found the man who posed as Sidd Finch for SI, a retired Chicago-area schoolteacher.

Phil Orlins, coordinating producer of ESPN 3D, writes in ESPN Front Row about how watching The Masters^® in the third dimension is an experience unlike any other.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News writes that SNY has been pulled by Dish Network in the latest dispute among regional sports networks and a content provider.

Marcus Vanderberg of SportsNewser says ESPN Radio hack Colin Cowherd has set his target again on Washington Wizards rookie guard John Wall.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell wonders if nutrition chain GNC is a good stock buy as it went public today.

Darren has an extensive look at how going paperless could change the ticket industry.

At Digital Spy UK, Andrew Laughlin says ESPN Classic has obtained the BBC Sport archives.

The Big Lead speculates on the replacement for Josh Elliot at the morning SportsCenter anchor desk.

The metgrrl blog is the latest to take MLB to task for catering to the lowest common denominator at its Fan Cave.

The Sports Media Watch has various ratings news and notes.

And SMW has some sports media news as well.

East and Mid-Atlantic

The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn talks with Red Sox radio announcer Dave O’Brien about signing a new multiyear contract extension.

At the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Bill Doyle interviews NESN Red Sox voice Don Orsillo.

ESPN Boston says it will be launching an internet radio show next Friday.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post for all intents and purposes calls Kentucky’s John Calipari and UConn’s Jim Calhoun crooks.

George Willis of the Post remembers former boxing trainer and CBS/MSG/HBO analyst Gil Glancy who died this week.

Justin Terranova of the Post has five questions for CBS college basketball analyst Clark Kellogg.

Pete Dougherty from the Albany Times Union says YES and DirecTV have a midnight deadline to keep the regional sports network on the satellite provider.

Pete says baseball should embrace technology to help make calls and speed up the game.

Tim Schooley of the Pittsburgh Business Times looks at FSN Pittsburgh making the transition to a new name.

Gary Haber of the Baltimore Business Journal says radio host Jen Royle is suing a competing radio station for defamation.

In Press Box, Dave Hughes of DCRTV.com also looks at Royle’s lawsuit as well as other DC-Baltimore sports media news.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog says the Nationals were the butt of Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue last night.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner talks with CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus about this year’s coverage of the NCAA Tournament.

Jim says MASN is making a couple of programming changes.

South

Mitch Vingle of the Charleston (WV) Gazette says the ESPN lawsuit against Conference USA bears watching.

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald recaps the Sports Business Journal’s World Congress of Sports that took place in South Florida this week.

Laken Litman at the Dallas Morning News says ESPN will air Texas’ spring football game this weekend.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle talks with CBS Sports director Bob Fishman about the Final Four’s he called from the production truck.

David has a story on ESPN’s lawsuit against Conference USA.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman talks about the expanded announcing crews at the Final Four thanks to CBS/Turner collaboration for the NCAA Tournament.

Midwest

George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal says STO is ready to air the Cleveland MLB team’s season opener today.

Michael Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press has CBS/Turner’s crew surprised about the VCU run during the NCAA Tournament.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says this year’s Final Four will be called by a three man booth as opposed to two over the last 29 on CBS.

Don Walker of the Journal Sentinel says MLB has unveiled an unconventional epic ad campaign.

Paul Christian at the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin writes about the Twins going all-cable this season and for the foreseeable future.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says Fox Sports Midwest screwed up the Cardinals’ Opening Day ceremonies for the second year in a row.

Evan Binns from the St. Louis Business Journal says the Cardinals season opener was the most watched ever on Fox Sports Midwest.

West

Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune has CBS/Turner’s Steve Kerr excited about calling his first Final Four tomorrow.

John Maffei of the North County Times says MLB’s national TV partners aren’t giving the Padres any respect.

Jim Carlisle at the Ventura County Star writes that this year’s NCAA Tournament has been a different viewing experience.

Jim has his sports media notebook which includes news about ESPN’s Josh Elliot’s departure for Good Morning America.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News gets comments from other announcers on the great Vin Scully.

Tom also handicaps the Pac 12 media rights negotiations.

Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News says the Pac 12′s rights are now up for grabs as the conference let its exclusive window to negotiate with Fox expire last night.

Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times says FSN Northwest may have changed to Root Sports, but will be found on the same place on the cable dial.

Canada

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says TSN has fired its first shots in its new sports radio war with Rogers.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog also talks about the TSN/Rogers Sportsnet radio war.

And that is all for today.