Fang's Bites

Some Quick Tuesday Linkage

I know. I haven’t done links in a very long time. Let me provide some for you. I won’t make promises about providing them regularly as every time I do, something happens to make me break that promise. But I hope to bring linkage to you more often.

I’ll begin with John Ourand of Sports Business Journal who talks with CBS’ Jim Nantz about the crazy moments that occurred in Super Bowl XLVII, the NCAA Tournament and The Masters.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch informs us on NFL Draft coverage plans for both ESPN and NFL Network.

Ed Sherman at The Sherman Report talks with ESPN’s NFL insider Adam Schefter about the network not tipping off draft picks on Twitter. And Ed asks Adam about Twitter in general and other issues.

Mike McCarthy at Advertising Age says the National Football League plans to provide airline frequent flier-type perks to season ticket holders.

The ESPN Front Row PR blog announces that former New York Times writer Robert Lipsyte will become the network’s newest Ombudsman.

Louisa Ada Seltzer of Media Life Magazine previews tonight’s ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on the 1983 NFL Draft.

Ben Koo of Awful Announcing reviews the 30 for 30 doc.

Michael Bradley at the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center says newspapers showed their value during the coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says the NBA is lifting the blackout in the Capital Region for Thursday night’s Game 2 of the Chicago-Brooklyn series.

From the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer, Andrew Carter writes about the ACC’s new media policy that will prevent further defections.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner interviews Friend of Fang’s Bites Amy Van Dyken about her Fox Sports Radio show.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times discusses the potential suitor for Tennis Channel.

Also from the Times, Sam Farmer relives the 1983 NFL Draft through tonight’s 30 for 30 documentary.

I hope to provide you with regular linkage down the line.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our Monday Linkage

Time for some Monday links. Let’s get to them.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch talks with CBS Evening News anchorman Scott Pelley about interviewing President Obama for the network’s Super Bowl coverage and also reviews the performances of the NFL “B” analysts during the weekend.

Michael Smith and John Ourand at Sports Business Journal note that the Atlantic Coast Conference is exploring the potential of a new league-owned network.

Chris Chase of USA Today’s Game On blog reports that tennis superstar Maria Sharapova has joined Twitter.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today talks with ESPN’s Hannah Storm about returning to SportsCenter this week after the holiday season grilling fire that left her singed.

Hiestand also talks with Michelle Beadle about her upcoming show on NBC Sports Network.

UK journalist David Walsh who was the first writer to investigate disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong after his first Tour de France “win”, has an article in the Sunday Times looking back at his long journey.

Ed Sherman in The Sherman Report notes that the Times placed an ad in the Chicago Tribune calling on Oprah Winfrey to ask certain questions to Armstrong when they tape their “interview” this week. Here’s a closeup look at the ad courtesy of Deadspin.

Ed interviews Dana Jacobson of CBS Sports Radio.

Philiana Ng of the Hollywood Reporter says USA Network and the NFL will team up for their second annual special that will air after the Super Bowl.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says the NHL is back.

Christopher Heine of Adweek writes that Lincoln has shot a social media-driven spot that will air during Super Bowl XLVII.

Brian Steinberg from Advertising Age says social media might be spoiling Super Bowl advertisers’ suspense and full impact.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times talks about Hockey Hall of Famer Mike Emrick calling a girls’ 12-and-under game last week.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post wants to know why Lance Armstrong thought he could cheat and get away with it.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says no one is happier about the end of the NHL Lockout than NBC.

In an upset, David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun actually has some praise for CBS’ Dan Dierdorf from Saturday’s Ravens-Broncos game.

In the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg notes that the much-maligned Vinny Cerrato is part of CBS Sports Radio’s weekend lineup.

Dan notes that Fox Sports Radio’s Steve Czaban has quit Twitter cold turkey.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner talks about ESPN2′s Australian Open coverage which will run late into the night.

Tom Jones at the Tampa Bay Times has a review of the weekend in sports TV.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says Texans-Patriots drew big numbers in H-Town.

John Kiesewetter at the Cincinnati Enquirer says Time Warner Cable is picking up college basketball games from Sports Time Ohio.

Bob Wolfley with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the NFL playoffs played big in Sudstown.

Paul M. Banks of Chicago Sports Media Watch says Comcast SportsNet is tapping a Milwaukee sports reporter to fill a position.

The Denver Post’s Dusty Saunders writes that Ravens-Broncos got big numbers in the Rocky Mountain region.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has this week’s SoCal sports calendar.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says Americans shouldn’t expect to see small market NHL teams on NBC.

Brad Gagnon of Awful Announcing has the grades for the NFL’s top broadcasting teams.

Because I’ve been in and out today, I’m finally getting the links to you after 6 p.m. I have been trying to get these up since before 11 a.m.

Jay Mohr Becomes Midday Host For Fox Sports Radio

Finally received the official press release from Fox Sports Radio on Jay Mohr becoming the new noon-3 p.m. ET host replacing Jim Rome. Mohr will begin on January 2, the same day Rome starts his new gig with CBS Sports Radio.

Mohr has sports radio experience being a guest host for Rome, but hasn’t been a daily host as Rome or his brethren on Fox Sports Radio. We’ll see if Mohr will be able to do a daily grind for three hours a day and keep things fresh when talk is slow.

Here’s the press release.

FOX SPORTS RADIO SIGNS JAY MOHR AS NEW MIDDAY HOST

–Jay Mohr Sports Debuts Nationwide January 2, 2013–

LOS ANGELES, December 19, 2012 – FOX Sports Radio is pleased to announce the addition of actor, comedian and radio personality Jay Mohr as its new midday host. Airing live on weekdays from 12 p.m. – 3 p.m. ET/9 a.m. – 12 p.m. PT, Jay Mohr Sportswill feature sports talk and entertainment highlighted by Mohr’s trademark comedic style and unique perspective as a multi-media star, in addition to conversations with top athletes and celebrities.  Originating from FOX Sports Radio’s Los Angeles studios, Jay Mohr Sports will debut on radio stations nationwide Wednesday, January 2, 2013.

“After spending the last 15 years guest hosting, I couldn’t be happier to get the opportunity to host my own show!” said Mohr. “I’m looking forward to talking sports, connecting with listeners, and interviewing amazing guests every day, while being a part of the FOX Sports Radio family.  It was worth the wait.”

With a career that has spanned over three decades, Jay has always pushed himself to be more than just a comic. After landing his dream job of Saturday Night Live, and launching his career with Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire, he has become a best-selling author, appeared in more than 200 episodes of network television and starred in more than 25 feature films, working with a plethora of Academy Award-winning actors, including Christopher Walken, Renée Zellweger, Al Pacino, Angelina Jolie, Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, Cuba Gooding Jr., Ellen Burstyn, Forest Whitaker, Kim Basinger, Matt Damon, and Clint Eastwood.

“Jay has done a great job guest hosting for Premiere Sports and FOX Sports Radio’s flagship station AM570 FOX Sports LA, and I know his sense of humor and extensive sports knowledge will provide just what our listeners are looking for,” stated Carl Anderson, Executive Vice President of News, Talk and Sports Programming for Premiere Networks. “He’s a perfect addition to our leading, multi-platform, sports entertainment lineup.”

There you go.

Fox Sports Radio Announces Jay Mohr to Replace Jim Rome

In an announcement that was made just after midnight Eastern time, Fox Sports Radio has finally unveiled the choice to replace Jim Rome in the noon-3 p.m. ET timeslot. As you’re probably aware, Rome will join CBS Sports Radio when it launches its weekday lineup on January 2 on CBS and Cumulus-owned radio stations across the country.

Taking Rome’s place on Fox Sports Radio will be long-time Rome substitute host and so-called comedian Jay Mohr. He’ll become a daily sports radio host starting in January. And his show will compete with Rome directly. The tweet from FSR came after the clock struck midnight on the East Coast and it’s really a strange time to make an announcement. Mohr’s show will follow Dan Patrick on Fox Sports Radio.

I wonder how long Mohr will be motivated to do a daily grind for three hours a day plus prep time. Being a guest host for once or twice in a week every six months or so is one thing, but doing it every day for about 48 weeks each year is another story. We’ll see if he can keep it up.

Mohr hosted a nightly sports talk show on ESPN2 called Mohr Sports that ran for about 20 minutes. He’s also hosted the NHL Awards in 2010 and 2011 and his jokes were as funny as postage stamp price increases.

As you can tell, I’m not a big fan of Jay Mohr, but he has loyal fans. Let’s see if it translates to a national sports radio audience.

Looking at the Next Generation of Olympic Announcers

As we go into the second week of the 2012 London Olympics or the Games of the XXX Summer Olympiad, I thought I would take the opportunity on this middle Sunday to look ahead for the next set of Games on television.

We know that NBCUniversal will carry the Olympics through 2020, that’s two Winter and two Summer Games in that timespan. While the network has been served well by its current crop of announcers, some of whom date back as far back as 1988, it’s time to replace them with a new generation of hosts, play-by-play callers and analysts who can carry the network through 2020 and possibly beyond.

I’ll focus this post on the Summer Games since that’s what we’ve been watching for the last 8 days. I’ll do a Winter Olympics announcing post at a later date. I’ll start with hosts, then go by the glamor sports.

HOSTS

Bob Costas — Bob is 60 this year and while his youthful look betrays his age, he’ll be 64 in 2016 for Rio and 68 in 2020 at a site yet to be determined. ABC’s Jim McKay hosted his last Olympics in 1988 at age 65. Costas remains the best interviewer on sports television and should be allowed to host the Olympics on NBC for as long as he wants. I don’t think he’s going anywhere.

Dan Patrick — Dan is just four years younger than Bob, but if Costas decides to leave, DP could step into his shoes as Primetime host.

Liam McHugh — For 2016, I would think this is where NBC could tap Liam McHugh and put him in Al Michaels’ place on Daytime. Al would be 71 in Rio and while he would still be very good at calling Sunday Night Football in four years, I would not put him in the host’s chair in Rio. McHugh has proven he can be very versatile hosting the NHL Postseason, the Stanley Cup Final, the Tour de France and the Olympics over a four month span. That is not easy, but Liam has made it look easy and that’s the sign of a very good host.

Bonnie Bernstein — ESPN’s Bonnie Bernstein is the best personality not to have an Olympic gig. This is like saying she’s the Best Golfer Not To Win A Major. She has proven as a substitute host for Dan Patrick and on Twitter that she can discuss multiple sports. And Bonnie’s also a former gymnast. Watching BBC’s coverage of the London Games, the network utilizes both studio and venue hosts. Making Bonnie a venue host at Gymnastics with Nastia Liukin as her analyst would work to one of her strengths. She was a five-time host of the NCAA Gymnastics Championship when she was at CBS. I would love to see her work an Olympic Games.

Ryan Burr — Ryan will be coming to the NBCUniversal family to work at Golf Channel and at NBC Sports Network. We could see him host on either MSNBC or NBCSN.

Michelle Beadle — Michelle’s done a great job thus far in London. She has shown she can talk Olympic sports and bring some humor as well.

Kelly Tilghman — I’ve liked her work on MSNBC. I can see her on future Olympics as well.

ANNOUNCERS

Let’s do this by sport.

BASKETBALL — If the NBA continues sending players to the Olympics, then NBC could continue utilizing Bob Fitzgerald from Comcast SportsNet Bay Area and Chris Carrino. This is where NBC should tap Turner Sports for a Steve Kerr or even Reggie Miller for analysts.

If basketball becomes an Under 23 tournament as speculated, NBC may have to hire college basketball announcers. Borrowing Ian Eagle from CBS and YES to call games would be a good move. Jay Bilas from ESPN would forge a strong team with Ian throughout the Games. And NBC should still utilize Craig Sager as the reporter although he looks muted with a regular wardrobe.

On the women’s side, if NBC could get Doris Burke on loan from ESPN, that would be ideal. She could work men’s games too as she’s proven over the past few years. If NBC can’t get Doris Burke, why not former ESPN’er Stacey Dales or Fox Sports Net’s Debbie Antonelli?

BOXING — Bob Papa and Teddy Atlas are a very good team and should remain, but I’d love for NBC to bring in its old friend Jim Lampley with Larry Merchant and Emmanuel Steward from HBO to call one or two bouts a day. What could be better than that? And bring in Harold Lederman for judging analysis while we’re at it.

Host Fred Roggin should be replaced with boxing fan Brian Kenny of MLB Network.

CYCLING — If it’s not Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen, NBC should go announcer-less.

DIVING — Can you believe Cynthia Potter has worked every Summer Olympics on network television since 1984? She’s been solid, but it’s time to bring in some new blood. 2000 gold medalist Laura Wilkinson who worked the Diving Trials for NBC Sports Network in June is a potential candidate.

GYMNASTICS — Utilizing a favorite word of Tim Daggett’s, the announcing on this sport over the last two Olympiads has been catastrophic. Normally, I like Al Trautwig, but his calls of gymnastics in 2008 in Beijing and this year in London is reaching John Tesh disastrous proportions in 1996. Al makes everything seems at life or death levels. In addition, his penchant to focus on crying gymnasts borders on creepy.

Tim Daggett’s constant talking and use of the word “catastrophic” is annoying. Elfi Schlegel has been reduced to short sentences. NBC needs to replace this team for 2016.

This is where NBC can utilize a venue host (see Bonnie Bernstein above) with an analyst. Nastia Liukin could fill that role very nicely. Bela Karolyi has proven to be Must See TV and should be one of the studio analysts. And if his wife, Marta retires, imagine the fireworks on the set between those two.

NBC is using Terry Gannon this year to call rowing. Why not have Terry call Olympic Gymnastics in 2016? He has called the sport for ABC and did it well. And having watched the World Feed this year through NBC’s Olympics Live Extra app, I’m very impressed with Shannon Miller from 1996′s Magnificent Seven Team. She’s been the sole analyst for Olympic Broadcasting Services and has done very well in explaining certain moves, the scoring system and their implications without sounding overdramatic. Terry Gannon and Shannon Miller would make an excellent team.

GOLF — Remember, golf makes its return to the Olympics in Rio in 2016, having made its last appearance in 1904. NBC/Golf Channel has an established team with Dan Hicks, Johnny Miller, Nick Faldo, Roger Maltbie, Brandell Chamblee, Frank Nobilo, Rich Lerner, the aforementioned Kelly Tilghman, David Feherty, the incoming Ryan Burr and so many others who could work this event.

Some people have asked me on Twitter if Dan would stop calling swimming to do golf. I think Dan could do both especially if the IOC (with the help of NBC) decides to schedule golf in the second week of the Olympics, so that it doesn’t interfere with swimming, tennis, gymnastics and other sports in the first week. This is where a venue host would come in handy, perhaps Kelly or Ryan with one or two of the many Golf Channel analysts. And we could expect Golf Channel to have a role in picking up the first two rounds of Olympic Golf with NBC coming in for the last two rounds.

SOCCER — NBC used its MLS crew, Arlo White and Kyle Martino on the men’s games along with JP Dellacamera, Glenn Davis, Steve Cangialosi and Allen Hopkins. I’d love to see English Premier League announcers Martin Tyler and Ian Darke on US TV calling some Olympic action.

Brandi Chastain despite Hope Solo’s complaints last week is doing well on women’s games and I would keep her in the booth.

SWIMMING — Dan Hicks has made this one of his signature sports along with golf throughout his career at NBC. I can’t see him leaving the sport unless golf is scheduled in the first week, but I don’t think that would happen. Rowdy Gaines has been a good salesman for swimming and he’s doing yeoman’s work to raise money for the sport to establish a training center. However, I’ve grown tired of his screaming and his voice raising over 50 octaves. This is where NBC could bring in a plethora of gold medalists to replace Gaines. This is also a sport that could utilize a venue host and it’s where Liam McHugh could go if NBC decides to keep Al Michaels in Daytime.

While Phelps has said he’s retiring, NBC would like to see him in Rio either as a swimmer or perhaps an analyst. If the network uses him on TV, I’d prefer to see him in the studio. At first thought, I felt putting Phelps on camera would be a bad move, but this was based on his interviews in Beijing where he looked uncomfortable. During his NBC interviews in London, Michael has looked more at ease, but that does not necessarily make for a good analyst. If he wants to go the TV route, putting him in the studio for short spurts might be best for 2016.

As for the races, I’d go with Amy Van Dyken to replace Rowdy. For the past year, Amy has been co-hosting Fox Sports Tonight with Rob Dibble on Fox Sports Radio and she’s been in London analyzing the Olympic swimming for FoxSports.com. Amy is not only funny, but she speaks her mind. She knows the mind of an Olympic athlete and I think she’d be perfect with Dan in calling the races.

TENNIS — This sport finally received some glamor treatment from NBC this year. However, it was treated badly with Pat O’Brien as the venue host. Not only did Pat demonstrate a huge lack of knowledge, he conducted awkward interviews as well. Brett Haber and Andrew Catalon did very well on the play-by-play and I liked Rennae Stubbs to want her to return in Rio. Justin Gimelstob was a weak link in the crew. I’d replace him with ESPN’s Darren Cahill or have John McEnroe call more matches.

TRACK & FIELD — There’s not much I would replace here. Tom Hammond is about as classy an announcer as you will find. Ato Boldon has become a very strong analyst. And NBC has brought back Craig Masback, long a staple of track coverage in the 1980′s and 1990′s. But for 2016, I think Lolo Jones would make for a good studio analyst. And Michael Johnson who has been on the last few Olympics for the BBC would work well too. Having Bob host Primetime from the Athletics venue would be a nice change of pace from being in the studio. And he could mix it up with Lolo and Michael.

Those are my suggestions. If you have some of your own, put them in the comments below.

Going For Some More Overdue Sports Media Thoughts

Thursday turned out to be quite the crazy day for those of us who follow the sports media beat. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. On any given day, you just don’t know when sports media news will break. We had two stories throw us for a loop. I’ll do the thoughts as always in bullet form.

• We knew the Michelle Beadle story was going to come to a head, we just didn’t know what direction it would take. Finally, we did hear about some movement. And it all moved around 4 p.m. ET on Thursday. Whether Michelle decides to leave ESPN and go to NBC as SportsbyBrooks tweeted on Thursday or remain at the Alleged Worldwide Leader (highly unlikely), she’s going to get paid. I do believe that she will leave, take the job at NBC and be featured on the Olympics this summer, either as a contributor on the Today show, or as a host on one of NBCUniversal’s cable networks, most likely NBC Sports Network.

  I’ve said all along that Michelle’s future is not in sports and if SportsbyBrooks’ tweet is correct, then being a co-host on Access Hollywood with Billy Bush would be right up her alley. And Michelle could always return to sports every two years during the Olympics. But as Michelle herself once told me, the truth will come out soon.

• Now the other piece of sports media news from Thursday was the surprising move by Jason La Canfora to leave NFL Network and join CBS in July to become an NFL insider at its dot com site and on television. As Michael Hiestand of USA Today discovered for Friday’s edition, not only will La Canfora replace Charley Casserly on The NFL Today, he’ll also appear on CBS Sports Network which could have its own Sunday morning NFL pregame show plus other NFL-related programming.

  I thought La Canfora did a good job on NFL Network especially in replacing Adam Schefter in 2009 after he bolted for ESPN. In regards to replacing Jason, NFL Network has recently hired a trio of on-air reporters who could conceivably take his place or it could fill the insider by committee. Whatever direction NFL Network goes in the Insider position, I’m sure it will be someone solid.

• I watched some of ESPNU’s coverage of the SEC Softball Tournament. Beth Mowins did a very good job on the play-by-play. She’s called college football, the Women’s World Cup in Germany in addition to the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament and she’s called each sport quite well.
• I’m looking forward to Sunday morning when Fox Sports goes all out for the final day of the English Premier League season. All ten games on Sunday will be aired on ESPN2 and nine Fox platforms including Fox Soccer, Fox Soccer Plus, Fox Sports Net, Fuel, FX, Speed, Fox Deportes as well as online. It’s going to be bedlam, but in a good way.

That’s going to conclude the thoughts for now.

The Wednesday Links

Let’s do some linkage today. Been doing pretty good in providing links this week and I don’t want to stop.

Starting with Michael Hiestand of USA Today, he talks with ESPN bloviator Chris Berman who compares himself to Ted Williams, then tries not to compare himself to Ted Williams, claims he doesn’t pay attention to criticism when he clearly does and then makes no sense about cameras. Yes, I’m showing my anti-Chris Berman bias.

Tom Weir of USA Today’s Game On writes that Jose Canseco’s Twitter account is back up and running. Oh joy.

At The Sherman Report, Ed Sherman looks at some classic anti-Mel Kiper rants from ESPN’s past coverage of the NFL Draft.

Sports Business Daily notes that Los Angeles Lakers nutjob Metta World Peace was a no-show on Conan O’Brien TBS program after his 7 game suspension for elbowing Oklahoma City Thunder forward James Harden.

John Ourand of Sports Business Journal writes about Fox’s deal with Golden Boy Promotions that will put live fights on Fuel and Fox Deportes.

Michael Bradley at the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center says NHL ratings are up significantly for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which seemingly condones violence on the rink.

Tim Baysinger at Broadcasting & Cable notes that ABC’s ratings for the NBA are up 10% over last year despite the lockout that wiped out the first month of the season.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News says the Stanley Cup Playoffs are good to the NBC Sports Network.

Multichannel News says Speed has renewed the rights to the 24 Hours of LeMans road race.

Tony Manfred of the Business Insider Sports Page has video of Chelsea’s goal that put them in the UEFA Champions League Final, but the best part was Gary Neville’s on-air orgasm for Sky Sports.

Jim Edwards of the Business Insider Sports Page looks into NBC’s reasons for an almost $1 million price tag for a 30 second ad for its Thanksgiving Night NFL game.

Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing has Mike “Doc” Emrick in the latest edition of his podcast.

Matt has great video of some awkward banter between SportsCenter anchors Steve Weissman and Sage Steele. Poor Sage.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell tells us that Shake Shack could be in more MLB parks around the country.

Leah Michaels of GoLocal Providence says ESPN’s Chris Berman was at his alma mater to honor Brown University’s athletic director.

All Access has Fox Sports Radio’s coverage plans for the NFL Draft.

Steven Beardsley of Stars and Stripes says NFL Network will feature cutaways during the NFL Draft to a battalion of troops based in Germany.

Kevin Paul Dupont in the Boston Globe provides a brief history on the greatest tradition in sports, the hockey handshake at the end of every playoff series.

In the New York Post, Phil Mushnick reports that ESPN Radio is close to deal with the New York Yankees that would put the team on FM after ten years of being on WCBS-AM.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks at the ratings for the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Newsday’s Neil Best says the ESPN and NFL Network made the right call in not spoiling draft picks before they’re announced.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union says we’re still waiting for the start times for the NHL Games 7 on Thursday.

Rick Bozich of the Louisville Courier-Journal says he listened to the radio on Saturday over waiting for Fox to switch to Philip Humber’s perfect game.

Glenn Guilbeau in the Monroe (LA) News Star has New Orleans Saints interim coach Joe Vitt blasting ESPN for its latest story on the team.

KBTX in College Station, TX says Fox Sports Southwest received record ratings for the Pudge Rodriguez retirement ceremony before Monday’s Yankees-Rangers game.

George M. Thomas in the Akron Beacon Journal tells us that the networks are all over the NFL Draft.

Philip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune says swimmer Missy Franklin has become of the face of NBC’s Olympic promotional campaign.

Robert Kurson at Chicagoside Sports explains why after 25 years, he no longer listens to sports radio.

Matt Solinsky of the Desert (CA) Sun writes that Time Warner Cable and Fox Sports San Diego continue carriage talks that would put Padres games back on the provider.

Jamie Sturgeon of the Financial Post has CBC vowing in an increasingly expensive world to keep Hockey Night in Canada.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media talks about NBC Sports Group’s ratings for the NHL Playoffs on Monday.

Sports Media Watch explores ABC’s second straight year for record NBA TV ratings.

Joe Favorito looks at how sports brands can tap into National Train Day next month.

And that will put a wrap on the links.

Doing Some Friday Megalinks

With a rainy day in Southern New England, it’s time to provide you with some media links. Lots of them on a Friday.

You can check out the Weekend Viewing Picks for the sports and entertainment programming suggestions.

Now to the links.

National

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand talks with NBC’s Al Michaels about calling his 8th Super Bowl and 2nd for NBC.

Mike Ozanian from Forbes says NFL TV rightsholders will be able to reap financial benefits while non-rightsholders end up holding the bag.

Sam Mamudi of Marketwatch.com says you can follow along the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter results in real time thanks to a new Facebook app.

Michael O’Connell from the Hollywood Reporter has a sneak peek at some of the Super Bowls ads.

Kelly McBride of the ESPN Poynter Review Project looks at why ESPN made so much of Tim Tebow.

Alex Klein at Romanesko looks into why the Yale Daily News sat on a story for several months and how it took the New York Times to report on former quarterback Patrick Witt’s alleged sexual assault on campus. You may remember that Witt was a candidate to become a Rhodes Scholar but then skipped his interview. Now we know why.

Todd Spangler at Multichannel News says ESPN will let viewers see additional highlights and material from the Winter X Games via the Shazam mobile app.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel writes that NBC Sports Network goes into the NHL All-Star Weekend with increased ratings for the games.

Austin Karp of Sports Business Daily also has a story on the increased NHL ratings for NBC Sports Network.

Gabriel Beltrone from Adweek says Coke will have a Super Bowl microsite where its famous polar bears will react to the game and ads in real time.

David Gianatasio of Adweek writes one local Super Bowl spot will urge you to pee during its commercial.

E.J. Schultz at Advertising Age has Anheuser-Busch’s Super Bowl plans.

Matt Hardigree at Jalopnik says he’s solved the mystery behind the advertiser behind the Ferris Bueller-themed Super Bowl spot.

Adam Jacobi, the college football writer at CBSSports.com, who put the link to Onward State’s erroneous tweet about Joe Paterno’s death last Saturday has been fired. Jacobi says he understands the decision and has apologized to the Paterno family for his mistake.

Brandon Costa of Sports Video Group says NBC will take a lighter approach for Sunday’s NFL Pro Bowl in Hawaii.

Harry A. Jessell at TV NewsCheck notes that while the national TV ratings for the NFL are good, go inside the local numbers and they’re even better.

ESPN PR man Bill Hofheimer gives you an inside look at the network’s Super Bowl studios in Indianapolis.

Sports Media Watch says college basketball ratings are up on both ESPN and ESPN2.

SMW has some news and notes on some various people in the sports media.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing goes into some of the on-screen typos on TV this week.

Jeff Pearlman gets vindication from Chris “Mad Dog” Russo.

Steven Crist from the Daily Racing Form feels returning the Breeders Cup to NBC can only help horse racing.

All Access says a Hartford, CT FM station has flipped to all-sports.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe says NESN has selected the replacement for Heidi Watney on its Red Sox broadcasts.

Chad says of all of the local TV outlets, Comcast SportsNet New England will have the largest contingent covering the Super Bowl in Indianapolis.

Johnny Diaz from the Globe says Boston DirecTV subscribers will see the Super Bowl after all.

Bill Doyle from the Worcester Telegram & Gazette talks with NBC’s Rodney Harrison about Super Bowl XLII and how some present New England Patriots still remaining from the game want revenge.

Stuart Elliot at the New York Times says some Super Bowl advertisers are returning buyers.

Richard Sandomir of the Times has Joe Namath’s reaction to the HBO/NFL Films documentary on his career that premieres tomorrow.

Richard adds that Namath is right now estranged from his former team, the New York Jets.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post says the Namath documentary for the most part is good.

Justin Terranova of the Post speaks with NBC NHL charlatan Pierre McGuire.

Mike Silva at Sports Media Watchdog wonders why Kim Jones left YES.

Pete Dougherty from the Albany Times Union says a local sports talk show will broadcast live from the Super Bowl next week.

Pete talks with the host of that talk show who also wears other hats in the Albany market.

Ken McMillan from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says NYC residents will be able to hear the local and national radio calls of the Super Bowl next Sunday.

The Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News notes the firing of a CBSSports.com writer for falsely reporting Joe Paterno’s death.

DCRTV’s Dave Hughes at Press Row has media notes from the Baltimore-DC area.

South

The Tallahassee (FL) Democrat writes that a local sports talk show host who left his former station this week will be back on the air at another station later this year.

Billy Cox of the Sarasota (FL) Herald Tribune says ESPN’s Dick Vitale will be the subject of a profile produced by ….. ESPN!

Josh Bowe of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says Fox Sports Southwest will stream Lone Star Conference football games and a highlight show over the internet.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle talks with a retiring local sports anchor who looks back at the 2011 Texans rather fondly.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman reviews the HBO/NFL Films documentary on Joe Namath.

Mel says ESPNU will be all over National Signing Day.

Midwest

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer talks with former Bengal Artrell Hawkins who is now co-hosting Fox Sports Radio’s national morning show.

Jeff Moss of the Detroit Sports Rag looks into the new program director and on-air host of a local sports radio station.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Wisconsin sports teams did well in the national TV ratings last year.

Dan McGrath of the Chicago News Cooperative notes the 20 year anniversary of sports talk radio in the Windy City.

Paul Christian of the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin says new Minnesota Twins radio voice Cory Provus has big shoes to fill.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch talks with Bob Costas about returning to host his familiar town hall format next week.

West

Thomas Harding of MLB.com says Root Sports Rocky Mountain’s Alana Rizzo is leaving the network’s Colorado Rockies broadcast team and heading for MLB Network.

John Maffei at the North County Times says HBO’s documentary on Joe Namath is on par with previous efforts.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star also reviews the documentary.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News talks with Kings radio analyst Daryl Evans and also lists his best/worst LA broadcast analysts.

Tom has more on Evans in his blog.

Canada

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says it’s time to play the NHL All-Star Game outdoors.

And that will do it.

Some Back To Work Tuesday Links

On this day when many of you head back to work after the lazy holiday season, let’s provide some links as we get into the New Year.

I’m still saddened today by the passing of Turner Sports and PGA.com essayist Jim Huber. Reading the tributes on Twitter from those who knew him and those who did not, the man was widely well-liked. Jim gave us the facts, was willing to let the events come to him and never was one to call attention to himself. And when you finished reading or watching one of Jim’s essays, you felt the richer for having seen it.

Some links for you.

Scott Michaux from the Augusta (GA) Chronicle says Jim Huber’s passing was so sudden.

Michael Schulder, an Senior Executive Producer at CNN writes at SI.com, that Jim was not only a great writer, he was also a poet.

Ryan Ballengee at Golf Channel mourns Jim’s passing.

John Kim at PGA.com has an obit.

Carla Caldwell at the Atlanta Business Chronicle also has an obituary.

And the Turner Sports-run NBA.com has a story plus a video tribute to Jim Huber.

Other sports media links.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch says ESPN has responded to a column written by The Oregonian’s John Canzano saying the network has bought access to the Rose Bowl while sacrificing journalism.

John Ourand & Michael Smith from Sports Business Journal report that Oklahoma University will have plenty of its sports programming seen in the Sooner State as well as Texas thanks to a new deal signed with Fox Sports.

Brian Steinberg at Advertising Age says NBC has sold out its Super Bowl XLVI ad inventory in sharp contrast to the last time it aired the Big Game when it was selling ads in the week leading up to the event.

And Brian writes that some Super Bowl advertisers are looking to make a big splash like Apple did with its famous “1984″ ad.

Alex Sherman of Bloomberg Business Week writes that NBC is getting as much as $4 million per 30 second ad for the Super Bowl. That’s a lot of money.

At the Hollywood Reporter, Georg Szalai writes about the neverending dispute between MSG Network and Time Warner Cable.

If you watched the NHL Winter Classic yesterday, you may have noticed a new ad from Bridgestone Tires with a fake press conference involving various ESPN personalities, one TNT analyst and if you’re really sharp-eyed, a reporter from Sports Business Journal. Shirley Brady of Brand Channel looks at the ad campaign that will climax at the Super Bowl.

To Greg Wyshynski at Yahoo’s Puck Daddy where he laments the death of Versus.

Jeff Sonderman at the Poynter Institute looks at how Philly.com handled comments in the reporting of Philadelphia Daily News columnist Bill Conlin’s alleged molestation of seven children.

Ken Kerschbaumer of Sports Video Group mourns the passing of an ABC Sports production legend.

Dan Daley of SVG looks at how Turner Sports wired its NBA broadcasts when the league returned to play on Christmas Day.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes that Time Warner Cable has put NBA TV in MSG Network’s channel slot.

Richard says HBO’s 24/7 on the NHL Winter Classic is another part of the network’s winning formula in sports documentaries.

Richard looks at the Super Bowl ads selling out and setting a revenue record for NBC.

Newsday’s Neil Best says NBC did its best to sell hockey during yesterday’s Winter Classic.

At Fishbowl NY, Jerry Barmash catches up with former WABC-TV sports anchor Scott Clark.

Will Leitch at New York Magazine wants to know what’s going on with the MSG/Time Warner Cable spat.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette tells Time Warner Cable subscribers what they’re missing tonight on MSG and MSG Plus.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union notes that two ESPN’ers and also Capital Region natives get an on-air reunion during this week’s Orange Bowl broadcast.

Pete says Fox Sports Radio has debuted yet another morning show.

WCAU-TV in Philadelphia has announced a deal to pick up ACC Network basketball games this season.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog has highlights of the DC NFL Team Radio Network’s season finale from Sunday.

Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times has some thoughts on the holiday weekend in sports television.

At the Houston Chronicle, David Barron writes that Jim Rome is promising a return to H-Town in the near future after his local affiliate dropped his radio show.

To the Daily Oklahoman where Mel Bracht says ESPN got the job done for last night’s Fiesta Bowl.

Dusty Saunders from the Denver Post is a fan of NFL RedZone.

Jason Quick of The Oregonian says Comcast SportsNet Northwest has struck a deal allowing fans without access to the channel to view Portland Trail Blazers games online. For a fee, of course.

Danny O’Neil of the Seattle Times feels Fox Sports NFL rules analyst Mike Pereira should call things both ways.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says the NHL Winter Classic drew its lowest overnight rating ever.

Sports Media Watch notes that TNT is putting Charles Barkley courtside this week.

SMW notes the Rose Bowl saw its lowest overnight rating in years.

Jason McIntyre of The Big Lead says Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer is banning his players from Twitter and CNBC’s Darren Rovell is pissed.

Barry Janoff from The Big Lead looks at the aforementioned Bridgestone ad campaign.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing has tweets from people angry over Matt Millen’s analysis during last night’s Fiesta Bowl. Millen was really awful last night.

Lots of good links for you today. That will do it.

Let’s Do Some Linkage, Shall We?

I was in between offices yesterday and could not do the links as I had wanted. Let’s provide some now while I can.

Nate Davis at USA Today writes about ESPN extending the rights to air Monday Night Football and keep the series on cable through 2021.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that tonight’s Presidential jobs speech has forced the networks to change their schedules including NBC regarding tonight’s NFL season opener.

Marisa Guthrie of the Reporter talks about ESPN’s new MNF deal.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says ESPN is in position to air an NFL Wild Card Playoff game sometime in the future.

Adweek’s Anthony Crupi notes ESPN’s eight year NFL extension includes a whole host of digital rights.

Lucia Moses of Adweek says Sports Illustrated is tapping into younger readers’ appetites by going high-tech.

All Access notes that Boston’s sports radio WEEI announced an FM simulcast today.

Also from All Access, Fox Sports Radio nighttime host Tony Bruno is leaving to take a midday hosting job in Philadelphia.

It’s rare that I get a sports media story from Women’s Wear Daily, but I have one today. John Koblin of WWD talks with ESPN tennis courtside reporter Pam Shriver.

Hey, we link to Grantland! Jonah Keri writes that the Texas Rangers are positioning themselves to be an MLB power for the long-term thanks to its mega rights deal with Fox Sports Southwest.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid says The Onion’s online parody of ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption is everything its TV sports shows were not.

Timothy Burke at SportsGrid examines the new ESPN/Monday Night Football deal and what it really means.

Congrats to former Yardbarker Managing Editor Alana G. who has left the company and becomes Executive Producer for the San Francisco Chronicle’s website.

Brandon Costa of Sports Video Group writes that ESPN’s “SpiderCam”, the overhead camera providing spectacular shots at the U.S. Open has been added to the tournament’s world TV feed.

Karen Hogan of SVG notes that NBC is pulling out all of the technical stops for Sunday Night Football this season.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell writes that an injured Peyton Manning could cost fantasy players some money.

Darren says the University of Michigan has inserted an audio chip for this week’s game program for the Notre Dame contest.

Jorge Rivas at Colorlines says FoxSports.com has pulled the web series that made fun of Asian USC students not knowing football and also mocking their accents.

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe reviews the NFL Films documentary focusing on Patriots coach Bill Belichick.

Jessica Heslam of the Boston Herald says WEEI is ramping up for the next phase of its sports radio war with 98.5 The Sports Hub.

Ian Rapoport of the Herald has some interesting tidbits from the NFL Films Bill Belichick doc.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks inside the ESPN MNF deal.

Newsday’s Neil Best looks at the particulars of the ESPN Monday Night Football contract extension.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union reports on the Fox Sports Radio show that will replace Tony Bruno.

Pete notes that MSG Network will be New York Giants-heavy this fall.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner interviews Russ Thaler who goes from Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic to Versus as the host of NBC SportsTalk.

David Barron at the Houston Chronicle writes about the local college football ratings.

Bob Finnan of the News-Herald (OH) talks with Cleveland Browns radio voice and sports anchor Jim Donovan about returning to work after taking the summer off for a bone marrow transplant.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has CBS’ Phil Simms and Dan Dierdorf extolling the virtues of having a running game in the NFL.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business writes about Bears games being broadcast on FM for the first time this season.

Ed says the Chicago Tribune is bolstering the Bears beat.

Scott Dochterman at the Cedar Rapids (IA) Gazette says those who want to watch this Saturday’s Iowa-Iowa State game will have to do a little searching.

Robin Carlin at Mile High Sports says yesterday’s plane crash in Russia that killed all but two on board was truly a dark day for hockey.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily Herald likes the 9/11 commemorative football jerseys.

The Canadian Sports Media blog notes that Rogers is pulling out of the Canadian Olympics Broadcasting Consortium for the 2014/16 Games.

Joe Favorito says the BCS conferences might want to consider picking up one of the Service Academies.

And that’s going to do it for today’s linkage.

The Friday Night Megalinks

I’ve been to Newton, MA and back, South Kingstown, RI and back and all over my hometown of North Kingstown, RI and all of this today. It’s time to do the megalinks and get them all done in one sitting.

There’s the Weekend Viewing Picks for your sports and entertainment programming.

National

Sports Business Daily goes over the UFC/Fox agreement that will put four live MMA events on network TV and plenty of ancillary programming on Fox’s cable networks.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand writes that Fox Sports Media Group El Presidente Por Vida David Hill has done an about face on airing Mixed Martial Arts.

Sergio Non of USA Today writes that UFC will revamp its shows when they move from Spike and Versus to Fox’s networks.

Sergio has those who will take part in the first UFC on Fox card in November.

Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times writes in the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center that the success of the UFC on Fox all depends on whether the sport can have a breakout star.

Dave Meltzer at Yahoo! says UFC President Dana White couldn’t be happier in making this deal with Fox.

Also from Yahoo!, Kevin Iole says it will be the fighters who will benefit the most from the new UFC on Fox contract.

Cam Martin of SportsNewser has Spike announcing that the new season of UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter will be the last on its airwaves, naturally.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek looks into the particulars of the UFC on Fox deal.

Bill Cromwell of Media Life Magazine writes that the Fox contract gives UFC some instant mainstream credibility.

There will be more UFC on Fox stories sprinkled throughout the megalinks. Let’s move on to other stories now.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Tim Goodman wonders if Showtime’s “The Franchise” is bringing down the San Francisco Giants this season.

Georg Szalai of the Reporter reports that Comcast has withdrawn a lawsuit against DirecTV over an ad campaign for NFL Sunday Ticket.

David Goetzl of MediaPost notes that DirecTV plans to expand its fantasy offerings for NFL Sunday Ticket.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News looks at Versus/NBC Sports Network’s new exclusive NHL night in the first year of its new 10 year contract with the league.

Andrew McMains of Adweek looks at a new inspiring web video produced for the US Olympic Committee.

All Access says the ESPN Radio affiliate in Minnesota’s Twin Cities has chosen the hosts for its midday show.

Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy explores which teams won and lost in the new NHL TV schedules.

Cam Martin of SportsNewser writes that former voice of the North Carolina Tar Heels, Woody Durham, will be honored for his contributions to college football.

The Big Lead wonders if Jay Bilas is the most respected voice at ESPN.

Timothy Burke of SportsGrid investigates how former 2 Live Crew leader Luther Campbell managed to appear to appear on the Dan Patrick Show and the Colin Cowherd Show at the same time.

And Tim presents the Atlanta Braves’ Shake Cam and how it can make fans a bit too excited.

Sports Media Watch says the U-20 World Cup is scoring for Galavision.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing has a look at some interesting sports media typos.

Matt shows us how the Baseball Tonight crew had trouble demonstrating its new touchscreen.

Joe Favorito looks at what’s new with professional lacrosse.

Patrick Stafford of Smart Company in Australia speaks with the owner of Footytips.com about how he sold his site to ESPN.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe says the limited classic programming on NBA TV during the current league lockout can only take the channel so far.

Sox & Dawgs has the video of NESN’s Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy wearing chicken hats in the booth.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes on how regional sports networks have increasing power and money to be a game changer for some professional teams.

Richard looks at the UFC on Fox deal that puts Mixed Martial Arts into the mainstream.

Dan Levin from the Times has a good story on how some athletes in Communist China are trying to buck their archaic system.

Mark DeCambre of the New York Post notes that the new Meadowlands Stadium now will have a sponsor when the new NFL season begins.

Justin Terranova in the Post looks at how Fordham University was a training ground for several NYC announcers.

Justin has five questions for SNY Jets analyst Anthony Becht.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes about Fox signing UFC for seven years.

Pete says local sports anchor Andrew Catalon’s call of tonight’s Browns-Lions game will be seen on NFL Network this weekend.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette says a local radio station will air a full high school football schedule.

Ken says the NBC Sports Group is increasing its commitment to horse racing this fall.

And Ken writes that a new local sports radio talk show will be debuting soon.

To Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record who says the New York Rangers will be featured extensively on the national NHL TV schedules.

Crossing Broad has the audio of Philadelphia’s sports radio station WIP announcement that it’s taking over WYSP’s FM frequency killing off a heritage rock station.

Dan Gross of the Philadelphia Daily News says ‘YSP staffers were melancholy about CBS Radio’s announcement killing off the station.

Jeff Wolfe of the Delaware County Times writes about WIP’s displacement of WYSP just as the rocker’s ratings were increasing.

Mike White in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says two local high school games hit the ESPN family of networks this fall.

Shelly Anderson of the Post-Gazette says the Penguins TV announcing crew will return for another season.

In the Baltimore Sun, David Zurawik explains where Ravens fans can find the team on TV and radio.

Dave Hughes of DCRTV.com writes in Press Box that the Ravens did extremely well in the ratings in both Baltimore and Washington, DC in their NFL preseason opener.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner talks with DC NFL Team radio voice Larry Michael.

And Jim writes that the Washington Capitals will have plenty of appearances on NBC/Versus (NBC Sports Network).

Mike Madden in the Washington City Paper says the local sports anchor is becoming a thing of the past.

Keith Loria of the Fairfax (VA) Times says native Lindsay Czarniak is about to make her debut on ESPN.

South

The Charleston (WV) Gazette notes that Root Sports Pittsburgh will carry some West Virginia and Marshall programming.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that Bob Griese will be joining the Miami Dolphins radio broadcast team replacing the late Jim Mandich.

Andy Kent of the Miami Dolphins website has Griese’s thoughts about joining the broadcast team and also sharing thoughts about Mandich.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times has some thoughts on the UFC/Fox deal, the Little League World Series on TV and CBS’ production of the PGA Championship.

Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel says Yahoo! Sports does a better job of investigating college sports than the NCAA.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle notes that Saturday’s US National Gymnastics championships get a network primetime slot.

Mike Finger and Brent Zwerneman of the San Antonio Express-News says the Longhorn Network hasn’t given up on airing high school football games in one form or another.

The Daily Oklahoman’s Mel Bracht looks at UFC getting a big payday from Fox.

Midwest

John Kiesewetter in the Cincinnati Enquirer talks with NBC’s Cris Collinsworth who’s going into his third season as Sunday Night Football analyst.

George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal now knows why DirecTV was so willing to give him a free subscription to NFL Sunday Ticket after learning that the service will be offered to Sony Playstation 3 owners.

The Grand Rapids (MI) Press’ Michael Zuidema notes that a Big Ten Network analyst feels Nebraska is a perfect fit for the conference.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is amazed at ESPN’s ever-expanding army of NFL analysts and mountain of NFL programming.

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

Scott Dochterman in the Iowa City Gazette says NFL Network has picked up Mediacom for cable subscribers in the Hawkeye State.

West

Scott D. Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune says it’s not known which network will air the October 15th contest between BYU and Oregon State.

Dick Harmon of the Deseret (UT) News speaks with BYUtv’s Executive Director in a lengthy interview. Part I of which is here. Read Part II here.

Larry Bohannan at the Desert (CA) Sun says there’s evidence of not much live golf shown in a PGA Tour telecast.

John Maffei of the North County Times weighs the pros and cons of airing the Little League World Series.

In the Ventura County Star, Jim Carlisle looks at the contrasting opinions that John and Patrick McEnroe had on the state of American tennis on HBO’s Real Sports this week.

Jim explores the UFC on Fox deal.

Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times says Fox paid a pretty penny to get UFC into the fold.

Meg James of the Times also writes about the UFC on Fox deal.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says when it came down to it, Fox didn’t have much of a choice but to sign UFC.

Tom says one sidebar to the UFC on Fox deal is the fact that Fox Sports Radio will also air MMA events.

Tom writes that former Dodgers radio voice Ross Porter has found his latest gig, calling high school sports online.

Canada

The Toronto Globe and Mail’s Bruce Dowbiggin feels TSN Radio isn’t getting the job done.

The Winnipeg Free Press notes that the Jets will get 22 games aired on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada.

And the number of links today are hearken back to the first two years of this blog. Lots of links. That’s it.

Back With Monday Links

This past weekend was spent preparing for my sister’s baby shower and then grilling for those in attendance so I was very busy after posting last Friday’s megalinks. My apologies for not being able to blog as I wanted this past weekend, but I do appreciate your patience. Let’s get to the linkage as we have quite a few stories to provide today.

First, USA Today’s Michael Hiestand reports that Fox Sports will unveil their NFL announcing lineup today with a few revamps and reboots, but nothing new in their top three teams.

John Ourand at Sports Business Journal notes that talks with potential suitors are heating up on the new Thursday Night Football package.

Dan Rafael of ESPN.com writes that boxer Manny Pacquaio’s next fight will be heading back to HBO after a one bout hiatus to Showtime.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek notes that while the NFL lockout was ongoing, advertisers still continued to buy commercials on the networks showing their confidence that there would be a season.

Over to Kristi Dosh, the SportsBizMiss, in the Business of College Sports who looks at ESPN’s contract for the Longhorn Network.

Dan Fogarty of SportGrid notes that Stephen A. “A is for Anguish” Smith increased his vocal volume over Tiger Woods’ former caddie, Steve Williams jumping for joy over helping Adam Scott win over the weekend.

Timothy Burke at SportsGrid has video of yesterday’s NASCAR Countdown pre-race show which was a complete mess.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell feels college football coaches who ban their team from tweeting are missing the point.

Jim Romanesko at the Poynter Institute has former Los Angeles Times NBA beat writer Mark Heisler writing about how he was laid off from the paper and how he was not too unhappy about it.

Cam Martin of SportsNewser notes that ESPN saw its best overnight ratings of the season for Sunday Night Baseball thanks to another Yankees-Red Sox matchup.

Richard Lawler at Engadget says ESPN 3D is doubling its college football schedule from last year.

The Radio & TV Business Report has Westwood One Radio’s NFL announcing crews for this season.

Brian Straight of the Hartford Business Journal writes about the long-standing relationship between ESPN and Bristol, CT.

Joe Brescia from the New York Times speaks with new NFL Hall of Famer and NFL Network analyst Marshall Faulk.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick is not a fan of YES’ Michael Kay.

Phil wants TNT to spill the beans on the Tiger Woods-Charles Barkley split. Like that will ever happen and who really cares?

The New York Daily News’ Gatecrasher tells us that Lifetime (a.k.a. The Network That Hates Men) has pulled the plug on a Serena Williams reality TV project.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette has the transcript and video of caddie Steve Williams’ interview with CBS’ David Feherty following Adam Scott’s win in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

Jim Williams at the Washington Examiner looks at CBS/Showtime’s new reality show on the Army-Navy rivalry.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times feels ESPN’s Merril Hoge may have an agenda against Denver quarterback Tim Tebow.

Stephen F. Holder and Rick Stroud of the Times write that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers may fall victim to more local blackouts this season.

Ed Sherman from Crain’s Chicago Business wishes the Bears would take care of their turf.

Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post talks with Colorado Rockies analyst George Frazier.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has this week’s sports calendar.

Tom reviews the incendiary comments Fox Sports Radio’s Tony Bruno made on his Twitter account Friday night as the San Francisco Giants and Philadelphia Phillies had a full-scale brawl.

Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle has Giants manager Bruce Bochy irate over Bruno’s tweet.

Bruce Dowbiggin in the Toronto Globe and Mail looks at the Canadian sports media battle between giants Rogers and Bell.

Raju Mudhar from the Toronto Star previews Rogers’ entry into the sports magazine market.

Ben Koo of Awful Announcing says the NFL pregame shows are inundated with Hall of Famers.

Sports Media Watch has some ratings news and notes.

And SMW has more ratings news here.

Joe Favorito has a primer on keeping notes and how they could save you in the long run.

And that is all for today.

A Quiet Wednesday Linkfest

Was out of the office again earlier today so I’m getting to these rather late. Let’s look at what we have today.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand says the new CBS Sports/Showtime documentary on this year’s Army-Navy football game will have touches of reality TV.

Mike McCarthy of USA Today notes that TNT’s Shaquille O’Neal and ESPN bloviator Skippy Bayless are throwing insults at each other.

At the Hollywood Reporter, Carolyn Giardina and Adrian Pennington report that at least 10 Olympic venues in London are expected to get the 3-D TV treatment. About 16 people in the US will be able to watch that.

George Winslow of Broadcasting & Cable says ESPN will make its news feeds available to the Pulse mobile app.

Gregg Rosenthal at Pro Football Talk cites a Phil Mushnick report that the man who helped ruin the Cleveland Browns, Eric Manmoron Mangini will be an ESPN NFL analyst this season.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Eric Deggan of the St. Petersburg Times previews the ESPN Films documentary on the real-life Rocky Balboa who got his shot at the championship.

Lauren Indvik of Mashable looks at how Sports Illustrated is on top of digital technology by publishing a tablet edition of its magazine.

In SportsNewser, Marcus Vanderberg talks with Bomani Jones about the end of his morning show at The Score on Sirius Satellite Radio in Canada.

Cam Martin at SportsNewser tells us to get ready for the NASCAR-themed drama “Tits in the Pits”. You can’t make this shit up.

Dan Fogarty at SportsGrid notes that ESPN’s Merril Hoge took to Twitter to say that Tim Tebow isn’t going to be a good NFL quarterback.

Former Boston Sports Media Watch blogger David Scott writes in ESPN’s Front Row about the Alleged Worldwide Leader breaking ground on a new building and pledging to create an additional 200-800 new jobs in Connecticut over the next five years.

Kristi Dosh, the SportsBizMiss, of the Business of College Sports tries to predict the future and creates four potential BCS “Superconferences” out of the remains of the Big 12 and the Big East.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell notes that video game manufacturer EA Sports could stand to lose one billion dollars if a lawsuit by college athletes goes against it.

Darren talks with Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott about the league’s upcoming regional sports networks.

And Darren looks at a new venture that could bring fans closer to their favorite athletes by consolidating social media and personal websites into one site.

John Talty of the International Business Times writes that the NBA lockout won’t be much of a drain on the economy, only to the league’s fans.

Kevin McNamara of the Providence Journal writes about the Big East Conference looking forward to a potential huge media rights payday in two years.

Kevin says Big East Commissioner John Marinatto is denying reports that the conference may have to drop a few schools in order to get big TV money.

Jeff Jacobs of the Hartford Courant says the next TV negotiations for the Big East will be the league’s most important in its history.

Mara Lee of the Courant talks about ESPN’s planned expansion in Connecticut.

JC Reindl of the Day of New London (CT) writes that Connecticut came up with plenty of tax breaks so ESPN could expand its Bristol headquarters.

Pete Thamel of the New York Times writes that despite conventional wisdom, the Big East is a big player in college sports.

Lenn Robbins of the New York Post says a lucrative TV contract will ensure the Big East’s success in the long term.

Sean Daly of the Post says NBC is really going after ESPN with its rebranding of Versus.

Newsday’s Neil Best notes that the winner of SNY’s Kidcaster contest got to call a Mets home run last night.

Neil says ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit is now downplaying reports that overzealous Ohio State fans forced him to move from his native Columbus to Tennessee.

Neil writes that there appears to be a cease fire between WFAN’s Mike Francesa and the New York Jets.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says two local radio stations will pick up Compass Media’s NFL schedule this fall.

Ken says this month’s US Open tennis coverage will be divided among three networks again.

And Ken has the preliminary Westwood One Radio NFL schedule for the first six weeks of the season.

In the New Jersey Newsroom, Evan Weiner says the NFL and the league’s Players Association may not be done negotiating yet.

To the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog where Dan Steinberg notes previews from Sports Illustrated’s Peter King and ESPN Radio Hack Colin Cowherd on the DC NFL Team.

Bridget Cary of the Miami Herald says ESPN Deportes Radio is changing stations to get a better signal in South Florida.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman looks at the local ratings from the weekend.

Berry Tramel of the Oklahoman says the Longhorn Network has made Texas untouchable to other BCS conferences.

Jim Thomas of the Canton (OH) Repository profiles local native Dan Dierdorf on his second career as an NFL analyst.

Shane Hoover of the Repository notes that the NFL continues to find new fans via social and new media.

Steve Ballard of the Indianapolis Star notes that Sunday’s Brickyard 400 scored for ESPN.

David Brauer of MinnPost says the Twin Cities’ ESPN Radio affiliate is pulling Colin Cowherd and inserting a local talk show in his place.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says it’s not known if the NHL’s marriage to Versus will pay off in the long run.

To the Biz of Baseball and Maury Brown who reports that one section of Ohio that was hit with blackouts of the Cleveland Indians and the Pittsburgh Pirates won’t be blacked out anymore.

Larry Brown Sports has former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach sticking up for suspended ESPN.com writer Bruce Feldman on Fox Sports Radio last night.

The Days of Y’Orr Boston Bruins blog notes the creation of a new Jack Edwards soundboard. It’s tremendous.

Kissing Suzy Kolber notes that ESPN’s sponsored segments are getting a bit out of hand.

Melina Travis of Pro Sports Communications talks about the power of sports documentaries.

Ty Duffy at The Big Lead wonders if the Big East has any juice with fans.

Awful Announcing kicks around some ideas for the next batch of ESPN Films documentaries.

We have a lot of links today. That’s good for you. I’ll be back later tonight.

On To The Tuesday Links

Let’s get your Tuesday linkage up and posted today. Good stuff to get to.

Variety’s Stuart Levine talks with NBC Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus about the Versus rebrand to NBC Sports Network and other subjects.

The Associated Press has Lazarus hopeful that he can make former NBC Sports Emperor Dick Ebersol proud.

Brian Steinberg at Advertising Age writes that NBC’s rebrand of Versus plus having the Super Bowl this season puts the network in position to be a real challenger to ESPN.

Marisa Guthrie in the Hollywood Reporter’s Live Feed blog says NBC’s top brass was never worried about losing NFL games this season.

Etan Vlessing of the Hollywood Reporter writes that Canada’s Rogers Communications will stream live video of Toronto Blue Jays games online and on smartphones starting this month.

Georg Szalai of the Reporter notes that Fox Sports is protesting a plan to sell the Los Angeles Dodgers’ media rights. Fox says it agreed to a long-term extension of its current deal with the team, but MLB has rejected it.

To Adweek and Emma Bazilian who says Fox is going to war over the Dodgers’ media rights.

Todd Spangler at Multichannel News writes about AT&T U-verse suddenly dropping ESPN3D citing the high carriage fees and lack of subscribers.

George Winslow of Broadcasting & Cable notes that ESPN has promoted one of its executives.

Marcus Vanderberg of SportsNewser notes that Chicago sportscaster Mike Adamle was cleared of DUI charges.

Cam Martin of SportsNewser looks at Awful Announcing’s Joe Morgan Memorial Tournament that left Craig James as its “winner”.

Ken Kerschbaumer at Sports Video Group wonders if 3-D will have a role in the 2012 London Olympics.

At Outkick The Coverage, Clay Travis says it’s Yahoo! that’s poised to be ESPN’s true sports media rival in the 2nd decade of the 21st Century.

The Sports Biz Miss, Kristi Dosh in the Business of College Sports explains why BCS Automatic Qualifying conferences are not knocking down Boise State’s doors to have the school join their leagues.

Kristi also looks at how the Pac-12 Network will be distributed to several Top 100 media markets within the Conference footprint.

To Yahoo’s Puck Daddy where Sean Leahy talks with ESPN’s John Buccigross about his NHL guilty pleasures.

Jose Martinez of Complex speaks with ESPN’s Erin Andrews about her country music and Saturday Night Live obsessions.

USA Today’s Mike McCarthy also talks with Erin, this time about Twitter and her assessment of her first year on the anchor desk at College GameDay.

All Access reports that Fox Sports Radio is hooking up with Mastercard for a Stand Up to Cancer promotion.

Greg Bordonaro of Hartford Business writes that ESPN plans to take advantage of a Connecticut tax break incentive offer to add more jobs in the state.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union looks at NBC/Versus NHL voice Mike “Doc” Emrick receiving another honor.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call catches up with iconic Philadelphia Eagles radio voice Merrill Reese.

Paul Farhi of the Washington Post speaks with outgoing local sports anchor Brett Haber about his decision to leave his local station.

Adam Kilgore of the Post writes that MASN has not exercised the option on Washington Nationals TV voice Bob Carpenter’s contract, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that he won’t be back next season.

ESPN3.com will be streaming a Georgia rivalry high school football game later this month.

Jimmy Burch of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says Big 12 schools decided to compromise on the Longhorn Network for one season.

Randy Riggs of the Austin (TX) American-Statesman writes that means no high school football games on the Longhorn Network for now.

Mike Finger in the Houston Chronicle says the Big 12 did leave open the possibility of having a conference game aired on the Longhorn Network this season.

Anthony Schoettle of the Indianapolis Business Journal says an NBC Sports Group deal to put NFL games on Versus would be a big help to the channel’s IndyCar package.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes that NFL Network and companion RedZone were picked up by Charter Communications.

Bob says Chicago Cubs radio voice Pat Hughes regales in telling stories about the late Marquette coach Al McGuire and their time calling the school’s games together.

In OnMilwaukee, Andy Tarnoff goes behind the scenes during a Brewers game production with the Fox Sports Wisconsin crew.

Aaron Barnhart of the Kansas City Star writes that NBC’s Sunday Night Football crew is ready for the NFL season to start.

Shad Powers of the Desert (CA) Sun says MLB Network came through on Sunday.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News discusses the rebranding of Versus to NBC Sports Network.

In the Daly Planet, John Daly notes that ESPN NASCAR analyst Rusty Wallace has a conflict of interest when calling Nationwide Series races.

Toronto Sports Media says Sirius and XM in Canada might be pulling the plug on The Score radio channel.

The Canadian Sports Media blog has some thoughts on the last week in Canadian sports media.

Sports Media Watch notes that ESPN has brought in former Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Hugh Douglas as a studio NFL analyst.

Dave Kohl at Major League Programs looks at the moves to rebrand of Sporting News Radio and Versus.

And we’re done with the linkage for today.

Dragging Out The Monday Linkage

Lots of stuff coming out today. Rebranding news galore as we found out that Versus will undergo a name change on January 2, 2012. Then there’s Sporting News Radio changing its name to Yahoo! Sports Radio as of today. And Westwood One Radio has merged with Dial-Global today. Crazy day. Let’s do some linkage and hope nothing else breaks.

First, Mike McCarthy of USA Today broke the news last night of the Versus rebrand.

We have the reason for the rebrand to NBC Sports Network directly from NBC.

Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand has a story on the Versus rebrand.

Bob Fernandez of the Philadelphia Inquirer says the goal of the Versus rebrand is to gain more access for NBC Sports Network and to raise subscriber fees.

Georg Szalai at the Hollywood Reporter says NBC Sports hopes to provide marketers and affiliates with a better value for the channel.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News writes that the new name for Versus will launch on January 2.

Stuart Levine from Variety says NBC Sports hopes the new name will give the channel better footing in competing against ESPN.

All Access looks at Sporting News Radio becoming Yahoo! Sports Radio as of today.

The Houston Chronicle’s David Barron explores the rebranding of Sporting News Radio.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer say local SNR affiliates were informed of the new name today.

To other stories now.

ESPN Ombudsman Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute wonders if ESPN got too entrenched in its NFL lockout coverage.

Eric Morath of the Wall Street Journal says Fox Sports is protesting an MLB-backed plan to sell media rights for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Overseas, Current’s Keith Olbermann writes in the London (UK) Guardian how News Corp. President Rupert Murdoch hired and fired him from Fox Sports Net.

Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com says Texas A&M is appealing to the NCAA to use a 17 year old rule to block Texas and the Longhorn Network from airing high school football games.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid says a Seattle sports radio host gave former Mariners pitcher Erik Bedard a real parting shot as he heads to Boston in a trade to the Red Sox.

Also at SportsGrid, Timothy Burke has a mashup of horrible Tim McCarver analysis from Saturday.

To Cam Martin of SportsNewser who writes is ESPN is renaming its RISE brand to reflect its true focus.

Louisa Ada Seltzer of Media Life Magazine notes the return of fans to NFL team websites which bodes well for the regular season.

Richard Lawler from Engadget HD notes that AT&T U-verse suddenly booted ESPN 3D off its lineup last night without any warning.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says the NFL fantasy business seems to have recovered from the lockout.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post is calling out some sports reporters for being lapdogs.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has his reaction to NBC changing Versus’ name.

Pete also has the MLB Network schedule of games for early August.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette writes NBC/Versus NHL voice Mike Emrick will be honored by the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.

In the New Jersey Newsroom, Evan Weiner says football may be back, and so will the stadium hostage game.

The Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg in the DC Sports Bog says former ESPN’er Brett Haber is leaving his local DC gig to spend more time with his family.

Here’s the announcement of Haber’s departure from his local station.

Mark Washburn of the Charlotte (NC) Observer says two local radio stations are swapping their national ESPN and Fox Sports Radio affiliations.

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

In his blog, David Barron of the Houston Chronicle briefly touches upon the Sporting News Radio rebrand and discusses the passing of a legendary Texas play-by-play man.

The Pittsburg (KS) Morning Sun has a story from Jesse Cordova that ESPN will air a high school football game in neighboring Missouri.

The Denver Post’s Dusty Saunders says despite having a losing record last season, the Broncos will be covered aplenty on TV.

In the Salt Lake Tribune, Scott D. Pierce says Utah fans are already screaming about the lack of TV exposure in this year’s Pac-12 football schedule.

Brian T. Smith of the Tribune talks with new Fox Sports college football announcer Craig Bolerjack who comes over from CBS.

Tom Hoffarth in the Los Angeles Daily News has this week’s sports calendar.

Jon Wilner at the San Jose Mercury News looks at how TV rights and market size come into play for any future Pac-12 expansion.

Jonathan Okanes in the Mercury News says there’s a new FM sports radio station in the Bay Area.

Rachel Bachman of The Oregonian talks with ESPN’s Desmond Howard, Kirk Herbstreit and Erin Andrews about the 25th anniversary of College GameDay.

Raju Mudhar of the Toronto Star says sports seems to be getting the reality TV treatment throughout visual mediums.

Bruce Dowbiggin from the Toronto Globe and Mail says TSN seems to be a retraining ground for coaches.

To The Big Lead and Jason Lisk where he looks at the rather interesting tweets by NFL insiders Peter King and Adam Schefter.

Sports Media Watch learns that Turner Sports’ Marc Fein is leaving to pursue other opportunities.

That’s going to do it. Lots of links today.

Quick Saturday Links

I keep getting interrupted at work. I wrote a post earlier today on Brent Musburger’s night in Las Vegas, but I kept being recruited to the leave the office and something that should have taken 20 minutes to write ended up being three hours. And now I’m trying to do some linkage and keep getting interrupted as well. Who said Saturday’s are easy? Who said weekends are for relaxing? Who said you’re not supposed to work on weekends?

Anyway, you don’t want to read my complaints. Let’s do some linkage.

This won’t be as big as the recent news of the deaths in Norway or the just reported death of Amy Winehouse, but legendary boxing promoter Butch Lewis passed away today at the age of 65. He was a prolific promoter of fights in the 1980′s and had his signature tux with no shirt look. Lewis also produced movies and TV shows. He will be missed.

Michael Hiestand and Mike McCarthy of USA Today debate whether US coverage of global sporting events should be neutral or American-centric.

Rebeca Ford of the Hollywood Reporter says comedian Artie Lange is getting closer to co-hosting a Fox Sports Radio show with fellow comic Nick DiPaolo.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says the NBA released its national TV schedules this week to a lot of fanfare, but little buzz.

Andy Lewis at the Hollywood Reporter reports that Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt has been ordered to negotiate a new bankrupcty loan with MLB after a judge ruled voided one negotiated with another party.

To Sports Grid where Dan Fogarty notes that Jim Rome decided to dredge up some old street slang that people thought was dead for several years.

Glen Davis at SportsGrid says Fox Sports Detroit MLB analyst Rod Allen tried to make a joke about the Tigers’ large Latino contingent, but it came out very wrong.

James Jahnke of the Detroit Free Press had Allen trying to clarify that remark.

Cam Martin of SportsNewser writes that legendary announcer Dick Enberg will be honored by the Rhode Island-based International Tennis Hall of Fame for 50 years in broadcasting.

Newsday’s Neil Best looks at NBC/Versus getting into summer horse racing at Saratoga starting today.

Neil says athletes will miss getting their 15 minutes on HBO’s Entourage as the last season airs starting tomorrow.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes that Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspapers could lose special access to the London 2012 Olympics due to the News of the World phone hacking scandal.

To Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette who reports that Versus may be interested in airing college hockey games to supplement its NHL schedule.

Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review notes that Fox has selected the Pirates for its Saturday Baseball package for the first time since last decade.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner writes that MASN gives Mid-Atlantic baseball fans a show to watch.

Jeff Weiner in the Orlando Sentinel says ESPN is pulling out its ESPN the Weekend event out of Walt Disney World.

Jon Solomon of the Birmingham (AL) News writes that the SEC Media Days event has outgrown Birmingham.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News looks at some of the developments that occurred in sports media over the week.

Mac Engel of the Fort Worth Star Telegram notes that TCU is now keeping a watchful eye the Longhorn Network.

Eric Bailey of the Tulsa World says the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes are looking forward to increased TV exposure this football season.

To the St. Louis Post-Dispatch where Dan Caesar writes that you need a scorecard to keep up with the Cardinals’ TV and radio broadcast teams.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports a local TV station will air selected University of Utah football games starting this season.

Richard Ruelas of the Arizona Republic chronicles how the Fiesta Bowl made it to TV.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog looks at the announcers CTV could employ for the London 2012 Olympics.

The CSM also looks back at the week in Canadian sports media.

Sports Media Watch says Fox got off to a fast start of the second half of the MLB season last Saturday.

The Business Insider Sports Page lists the 10 worst sportscasters on the planet.

Brady Green at Awful Announcing has audio of Yankees voice John Sterling singing crazily about “The Grandy Man.”

That’s going to do it for today. Lots of links for a Saturday.

Comedian Artie Lange Could Be Headed To Fox Sports Radio

A story that’s breaking this evening, TMZ is reporting that former Howard Stern Show comedian Artie Lange, off the air since December 2009 following a suicide attempt that almost took his life, could be heading back to the airwaves as soon as this fall.

TMZ says Artie and fellow comedian Nick DiPaolo would possibly team for a show that would be simulcast on DirecTV and Fox Sports Radio, similar to how the Dan Patrick Show is run. In fact, the people behind the DP Show would produce this new effort. Nothing is set in stone as of yet.

Last week, Lange and DiPaolo guest hosted on Fox Sports Radio where Artie said he would be willing to return to the Stern show. So far, no feelers from Stern, but if this show comes to fruition, it would be great to listen to Artie regularly once again. We’ll keep you posted as this story develops.

Unveiling The Thursday Links

Been a busy day at work once again. Doing these late and I’ll try to put forth as many links as I can before being told to leave the office.

Sports Business Daily takes a look at the one year anniversary of the infamous “The Decision” that made LeBron James a pariah in Cleveland and most of the country.

Patrick Kemp at the Buffalo News reports that ESPN NHL analyst Matthew Barnaby will perform 500 hours of community service as he was sentenced Wednesday for a domestic disturbance case involving his estranged wife and her boyfriend. I asked ESPN for a statement on this matter and received this response: “Now that its (sic) gotten to the point in the process, we need to regroup and have follow up conversations.” This means that ESPN is evaluating Barnaby’s employment for the upcoming NHL season.

At The Sweet Science, boxing writer Thomas Hauser remembers fellow colleague and former Boston Herald columnist George Kimball who has passed at the age of 69.

Michael Woods of The Sweet Science also pauses to reflect on Kimball.

Another former Kimball colleague, Michael Gee gives his thoughts on his friend’s passing in the Boston Herald.

Lesley Goldberg of the Hollywood Reporter has a preview of Showtime’s MLB reality show, “The Franchise” focusing on the San Francisco Giants.

Tim Baysinger at Broadcasting & Cable looks at CBS’ Jim Nantz getting an award from the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times says ESPN winning the Wimbledon media rights is just a small part of a big battle between ESPN/Disney and Comcast/NBC.

Sheldon Spencer at ESPN Front Row talks with original ESPN’er Bob Ley on who he follows on Twitter. I’m honored to be one of those to be followed by Mr. Ley.

Last night, comedian Artie Lange made his first radio appearance since his suicide attempt and subsequent departure from the Howard Stern Show. Dylan P. Gadino of Punchline live blogged the guest spot Artie did with fellow comic Nick DiPaolo on Fox Sports Radio. Reading Gadino’s writing, it’s apparent he is not a sports fan.

Fox Sports Radio host Ben Maller writing in Yahoo’s The Post Game chronicles how he lost 200 pounds.

Dan Fogarty has audio of ESPN Radio hack Colin Cowherd blaming Canada for its health care system and insinuating Tiger Woods takes steroids.

CTV has finally relaunched its Olympics site for the 2012 London Games.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell marvels at how 2018 Olympics host Pyeongchang, Sout Korea is already halfway finished in building venues and it was just awarded the Games on Wednesday.

Marc Berman at the New York Post writes that Spero Dedes’ deal to become the radio voice could be in limbo stemming from his DWI arrest over the weekend.

Newsday’s Neil Best says ticket prices remain high for upcoming Yankees games as fans try to see the contest where Derek Jeter gets his 3,000th career hit.

From the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg notes that a Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic anchor gave a tongue-in-cheek motivational speech to interns.

Writer John Feinstein explains why he quit doing Navy football radio broadcasts effective immediately.

Gary Dinges of the Austin American-Statesman says the ESPN-owned Longhorn Network has chosen the site for its studios and named three of its on-air staffers.

Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Bengals writes that former radio voice Brad Johansen will call the team’s preseason games on TV starting this season, provided there is a preseason.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the Pro Football Hall of Fame is ready to say hello to CBS’ Jim Nantz.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News feels the Pro Football Hall of Fame redeemed itself with Jim Nantz after selecting Chris Berman as its TV-Radio Award recipient last year.

Tom transcribes what Colin Cowherd said about the Dodgers today.

The Toronto Sports Media Blog notes that former CBC Hockey Night in Canada Radio host Jeff Marek has officially joined Rogers Sportsnet.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog writes about Jeff Marek’s role with Sportsnet.

Canadian Sports Media Blog notes that TSN has picked up the Canadian rights to Wimbledon starting next year.

And Canadian Sports Media tells us that TSN’s arrangement to air The Championships, Wimbledon is similar to ESPN’s.

Barry Pachesky of Deadspin says ESPN’s deal with Wimbledon is the future of sports television.

Deadspin’s Brian Hickey notes that Versus had a big, blue phallic symbol creep into its Tour de France coverage.

SportsbyBrooks has word on some college football network TV on-air hires.

Sports Media Watch has some various ratings news and notes here and here.

SMW notes that the ratings for last weekend’s NASCAR Daytona 400 on TNT fell from last year.

EPL Talk notices that FIFA is considering to break up the 2022 World Cup in Qatar into three 30-minute periods due to the oppressive heat and humidity.

The latest Awful Announcing podcast has the great Darren Rovell of CNBC.

That’s going to do it for today.

Some Quick Thursday Links

Trying to squeeze linkage in while I can. This won’t be a full set of links. I will do the megalinks tomorrow, but today will be a quickie links day.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today reports that the ratings for the USA-North Korea game in the Women’s World Cup drew decently for ESPN.

Todd Spangler of Multichannel News says industry analysts expect 3-D TV sales to be very slow this year, but eventually ramp up by mid-decade.

Edmund Lee of Advertising Age talks with the publisher and co-founder of The Awl, Bill Cho, who’s leaving to go to join Captain Blowhard’s Grantland site.

Phil Swann at TV Predictions explains why the sales of TV’s in the 3rd dimension are tanking.

David Goetzl from MediaPost says NBC Sports is raising its profile for the Tour de France which begins this weekend.

The St. Petersburg Times’ Eric Deggans writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center says David Tyree’s anti-gay stance brings some strong challenges for journalists.

This story has been burning up the sports blogosphere since Wednesday afternoon. A.J. Daulerio of Deadspin says Hollywood movie producers are thinking of making a movie from the tome, “Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside The World of ESPN”.

Alexandra Kuczynski-Brown of SportsGrid says the BBC has developed a product that will reduce the grunting and shrieking at Centre Court in Wimbledon.

Andy Blesser at Beet TV talks about the Watch ESPN mobile app.

Brandon Costa of the Sports Video Group discusses ESPN 3D going live from Wimbledon this week.

Dave Nagle of ESPN’s Front Row PR blog talks with ESPN2′s Chris Evert on her return to TV at SW19 for the fortnight.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell looks at what lies ahead of NBA Communist China Sympathizer David Stern as the lockout is now in full effect.

Kurt Helin of NBC’s Pro Basketball Talk has the organizers of last year’s “The Decision” starring LeBron James and his talents, surprised by the backlash against the made-for-TV event. Really? C’mon, man.

All Access reports that personalities from Philadelphia’s sports radio WIP will guest host Comcast SportsNet’s Daily News Live starting next week.

The Around the Rings blog says BBC Sport has been named as the UK rightsholder for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir writes about General Electric’s increased sponsorship of the Olympics.

Newsday’s Neil Best wonders why NBC did not air today’s Maria Sharapova-Sabine Lisicki Wimbledon semifinal match live.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has the MLB Network live game schedule for July.

The Centre Daily (PA) Times previews tonight’s ESPN presentation of Penn State coach Joe Paterno and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.

From Capitol File magazine, ESPN’s Erin Andrews answers a few questions.

KIMT-TV in Mason City, Iowa says a local cable company will pick up 16 extra Minnesota Twins games ending a dispute with Fox Sports North.

Jay Heater of the Idaho State Journal says a Pocatello radio station is changing its affiliation from ESPN Radio to Fox Sports.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News previews tonight’s ESPN program with Penn State’s JoePa and Duke’s Coach K.

Comcast SportsNet Bay Area notes that Bob Costas and Al Michaels will make a guest appearance on its local broadcast of July 8th’s New York Mets-San Francisco Giants game. The pair will call most of the game on MLB Network, but will slide over to CSN Bay Area for a half inning.

The Maui News says NBC golf reporter Mark Rolfing will no longer be the organizer for a PGA Tour event.

Marty McGee of the Daily Racing Form talks with NBC’s horse racing reporter Donna Brothers.

Noel Murray at the A.V. Club looks at the ESPN book.

The Football Girl is not a fan of a full NFL Thursday Night Football schedule.

Stars Entertainment speaks with Tennis Channel anchor Angela Sun. The story mentions that she worked for ESPN, but I have never seen her on ESPN. Yahoo, yes. Tennis Channel, yes. ESPN? No. I’ve never seen her there. Maybe you have.

Sports Media Watch notes that the U.S. Open’s ratings were down for all four rounds.

SMW has some various ratings news and notes.

And SMW has some news and notes on some coming attractions.

Barry Janoff from The Big Lead speaks with prolific reality TV producer Mark Burnett.

Dave Kohl at Major League Programs reviews the latest in sports media.

And I found more links than I thought and that’s a bonus for you. Back later tonight.

A Monday Link Thing

Let’s do the Monday linkage. Some interesting stories out there already.

I’ll start with some housekeeping from the weekend in regards to Saturday’s passing of Nick Charles.

Sports Illustrated’s Joe Posnanski who wrote a wonderful and poignant article in March on Nick’s coming to peace with his cancer and how he attempted to make every day count, has another wonderful and poignant article on Nick’s passing.

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun remembers Nick’s time in Baltimore.

Matt Schudel of the Washington Post has an obituary for Nick from another market where he worked before hitting it big with CNN.

Michael Marley at Examiner.com notes how boxer Mike Tyson made up with Nick before Charles’ passing.

Jason Levine of the Delaware News-Journal mourns Nick’s passing as well as USA Today baseball writer Rod Beaton.

Becky Schlikerman of the Chicago Tribune writes about Charles never forgetting his Windy City roots.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News also has a remembrance of Charles and calling his last fight earlier this year for HBO.

At Fight News, Nick’s Showtime partner, Steve Farhood, also gives his thoughts on Charles’ passing.

Now to other sports media and business news of the day and there’s quite a bit on this Monday.

One big story surfacing today is the potential bidding for the first half of a Thursday Night Football package that would begin in 2012. John Ourand and Daniel Kaplan of Sports Business Journal write about it. I add some thoughts as well.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have filed for bankruptcy after MLB Commissioner Bud Selig rejected the team’s 17 year deal with Fox for media rights. Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times reports on owner Frank McCourt’s filing in bankruptcy court.

The Times has the Dodgers’ statement on the bankruptcy filing.

Chris Dufrense of the Times has a good story on how the Dodgers lost their toehold on Los Angeles to the Lakers.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell reports on some of the biggest Dodgers creditors.

Matthew Futterman of the Wall Street Journal writes that McCourt’s filing sets up a battle with Selig.

David McLaughlin of Bloomberg News also has a story on this latest Dodgers development.

Craig Calcaterra of NBC’s Pro Hardball Talk tells us what bankruptcy means for the Dodgers.

From Sports Business Journal, we have a couple of stories from this week’s issue.

First, Terry Lefton breaks news that the new Meadowlands Stadium, home to the Giants and Jets,  is close to having a new sponsor for naming rights.

Tripp Mickle reports that Sprint is about to roll out a new promotion with NASCAR that will benefit both fans and drivers.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today explains how NBC’s tape delayed shenanigans at Wimbledon will work this week. This is the last year of NBC’s contract with Wimbledon. Let’s hope the shenanigans end in 2011.

Mike writes that ESPN college football analyst Craig James could be starting a political career.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch reviews ESPN’s NBA Draft coverage.

Mick Mulvenney from Reuters says the International Olympic Committee says athletes can go on Twitter during competition during the 2012 Olympics so long as they don’t do it for commercial purposes.

Jason Fry writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center discusses some of the comparisons Grantland faces with the late, great The National.

SportsGrid notes some nutty behavior by some baseball announcers over the weekend.

SportsGrid has video from Wendi Nix’s subbing for Karl Ravech on Baseball Tonight from Sunday and it apparently didn’t go over well.

Fox Sports in Australia has announced that tennis analyst John McEnroe will be part of its Australian Open coverage in 2012. He had previously called matches for 7 Network, but had not been in Australia since 2004.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post feels WFAN’s Craig Carton can be a good listen when he wants to be.

Jerry Barmash at Fishbowl NY has ESPN Radio New York’s Jared Max reaction to the New York State Senate passing the same sex marriage bill last Friday.

At the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg notes that the Nationals’ TV ratings are beginning to surpass other teams in the market.

Dan has some observations from the news conference involving Wizards top draft pick Jan Vesely who made a big splash last week with a kiss from her girlfriend at the NBA Draft.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times shares his thoughts on the sports weekend on TV.

Hal Boedeker of the Orlando Sentinel says the local NBC station won’t be airing Wimbledon this week due to its wall-to-wall coverage of the Casey Anthony trial.

Jeff Korbelik of the Lincoln (NE) Journal-Star says a new local sports radio station will pick up programming from Fox Sports and Premiere Radio Networks in addition to having some local shows.

Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post says soccer’s popularity is rising.

Tom Hoffarth from the Los Angeles Daily News has your Southern California sports calendar for the week.

Jon Wilner at the San Jose Mercury News writes that the Pac-12 Conference is consideration all distribution options on both TV and the internet for its in-house channel.

Bruce Dowbiggin in the Toronto Globe and Mail writes about the NHL delaying a decision about participating in the Olympics and the media rights for the new Winnipeg Jets.

The Toronto Sports Media blog says expect to hear some changes at the local Rogers Sportsnet’s radio station.

With some upheaval expected for next season, Paulsen at Sports Media Watch has some announcing suggestions for the NBA’s TV partners.

At Puck The Media, Steve Lepore notes that the NHL Awards saw increased ratings on both Versus and CBC last week.

And Steve says NHL Network will pick up TSN’s coverage of the first day of the league’s free agent signing period.

Doug Farrar at Yahoo’s Shutdown Corner wonders if NFL wide receiver Terrell Owens injured himself during the taping of a VH1 reality show.

EPL Talk looks at ESPN’s coverage of the Women’s World Cup.

The Big Lead notes that Dallas Mavs owner Mark Cuban shot a new Transformers 3 movie ad.

Jack Dickey at Deadspin says it seems Marv Albert’s conviction on sexual assault charges has been long forgotten.

And that’s where we’re going to leave it.

Some Additional Friday Links

I think I’ll have to add some more linkage tonight. Not sure of my schedule this holiday weekend so I’ll take the opportunity while I can.

Scott Cacciola of the Wall Street Journal says Bristol, CT residents aren’t happy over how their town is portrayed in the new ESPN book.

Andy Staples of Sports Illustrated profiles ESPN’s Dick Vitale and his continuing effort to raise money for cancer research.

Staples also writes about the Big East looking for a big payday from a TV partner whether it be ESPN or NBC/Comcast or another network.

David Whitley of AOL Sporting News says TNT’s Charles Barkley has become Must See TV.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News notes that TNT ended its NBA coverage as having the most watched postseason on cable ever.

Multichannel says ESPN has now optimized its Watch ESPN app for the iPad.

Tim Nudd from Adweek gives us the Top 10 Soccer Commercials Ever Made.

Glenn Davis of SportsGrid says Stephen A. “A is for Audio” Smith’s return to ESPN2′s First Take was loud. Very, very loud.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid writes while ESPN.com’s Howard Bryant received probation stemming from a domestic assault case against his wife, repairing his reputation may be very difficult.

Brandon Costa from Sports Video Group notes that ESPN3.com will stream SkyCam’s feed from the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship this weekend.

The Hartford (CT) Business Journal reports that ESPN Radio will be opening new facilities at its worldwide headquarters.

Justin Terranova of the New York Post speaks with MLB Network’s Al Leiter about the Phillies and Mets.

Crossing Broad says Fox Sports Radio’s Tony Bruno is ending his local Philadelphia show.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News says CBS’ David Feherty won’t be working the Byron Nelson Championship this weekend.

Shawn Williams of the Dallas South News writes that John Rhadigan never had a chance to grow as Texas Rangers TV voice.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says the Indianapolis 500 TV coverage has advanced by leaps and bounds over the years.

Jenny Whalen from the Macomb Patch says Detroit Tigers TV voice Mario Impemba is sending out a free DVD of Opening Day to troops serving overseas.

From the Chicago Tribune, Brian L. Cox writes that an ESPN Radio Chicago host has pleaded guilty to DUI charges.

Brian Murphy of the Idaho Statesman notes that ESPN has picked up one more Boise State football game for this season.

Paul Brownfield reviews “Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside the World of ESPN” for the Los Angeles Times.

SportsbyBrooks says ESPN has confirmed that management did try to script questions to “Those Guys Have All The Fun” co-author James Andrew Miller when he made appearances on ESPN Radio shows earlier this week.

From Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy, we learn that the Casey Anthony murder trial jury will watch Game 7 of the Tampa Bay-Boston Bruins series. Interesting.

We’ll end it there.

The Friday Megalinks Are Here! Hurray!

Time for some megalink action. This is turning out to be a busy day, but let me try to give you as many as I can. This being Memorial Day weekend, there’s plenty of sports action. Primetime viewing is kind of slim, but you can check out my Weekend Viewing Picks for the action.

Let’s get to the links. I’ll do as many as I can. I do have to leave early.

National

From yesterday’s Sports Business Daily, John Ourand speaks with outgoing NBC Sports President Ken Schanzer who is retiring at the end of the summer.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News and Broadcasting & Cable also writes about Ken Schanzer’s retirement from NBC Sports.

Multichannel notes that Time Warner Cable will have a presence to promote the Speed 2 channel at the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race in Charlotte this weekend.

USA Today’s Mike McCarthy and Michael Hiestand debate whether LeBron James as a villain is good for the NBA.

Mike McCarthy writes that former Chicago Bull Scottie Pippen caused an uproar on ESPN Radio this morning by saying LeBron James could be better than Michael Jordan.

Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center delves into the ESPN book.

Fox Sports notes that this week, Ken Rosenthal’s bowtie will honor our troops during this Memorial Day Weekend.

The Big Lead interviews New York Times NFL beat writer Judy Battista and talks about how she covers the lockout.

Dan Fogarty at SportsGrid notes that Nike tried to put the screws on TNT’s Charles Barkley to be nicer to LeBron James.

SportsbyBrooks says ESPN management told its hosts what to ask James Andrew Miller about the book he co-authored on the Alleged Worldwide Leader.

Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing has a review of “Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside the World of ESPN”.

Alyson Shontell of the Business Insider Sports Page says former Versus host Jenn Sterger is now working for an internet TV startup company.

Sports Media Watch says the NHL on Versus saw a ratings high for Boston-Tampa Bay on Wednesday.

SMW notes that the NBA Finals gets its earliest start in 25 years.

And SMW says the NHL Stanley Cup Final avoided conflicting with the NBA Finals.

Dave Kohl at Major League Programs has some complaints on broadcasters not providing the starting lineups when they’re supposed to.

Len Berman has his Top 5 stories of the day.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Mark Blaudshun of the Boston Globe reports that the Big East Conference has rejected ESPN’s “Best offer” to continue their 32 year relationship.

Chad Finn of the Globe says Bruins fans are finally getting the media coverage they’ve been yearning for.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette notes that the local minor league baseball team gets a new media distribution to fans and it’s not what you might think.

Fred Contrada at the Springfield (MA) Republican reports that ESPN.com writer Howard Bryant has been sentenced to probation stemming from a domestic assault case back in February.

New York Magazine talks with YES analyst David Cone about his use of advanced statistics on Yankees games.

Phil Mushnick from the New York Post wants to know what Mets owner Fred Wilpon knew about Ponzi scheme scumbag Bernie Madoff and when did he know it.

The Post has five questions for Fox Soccer Channel analyst Eric Wynalda about Saturday’s UEFA Champions League Final.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says soccer continues to try to gain a foothold in the American psyche.

DCRTV’s Dave Hughes has his latest Baltimore-DC media roundup in Press Box.

In the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg finds an interesting Tony Kornheiser-John Feinstein tidbit from the ESPN tome.

Dan also recaps a couple of interviews DC NFL team owner Daniel Snyder conducted on Thursday.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks about the retirement of NBC Sports President Ken Schanzer a week after his boss, Dick Ebersol resigned.

Jim speaks with Fox Sports’ Curt Menefee about hosting the UEFA Champions League Final on Saturday.

South

The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson goes over some of the more interesting tidbits from the ESPN book.

Greg Augman of the St. Petersburg Times writes about ESPN’s Desmond Howard blasting black college athletes for a sense of entitlement.

Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel laments the probable end of the long-term relationship between Florida State University and Sun Sports.

Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says Texas Rangers TV voice John Rhadigan was replaced Thursday and will return to hosting the pregame show on Fox Sports Southwest.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle has his take on the ESPN book that has had the sports media talking.

In the Daily Oklahoman, Mel Bracht talks with ousted Rangers voice John Rhadigan.

Mel notes the local ratings for the series-clinching Game 5 of the NBA Western Conference Finals.

Mel despite losing the series, the Thunder’s Russell Westbrook impressed ESPN’s Jeff Van Gundy.

Midwest

Cincinnati Enquirer media writer John Kiesewetter says local sports talk show host Andy Furman is on the fast track for a possible new national gig.

John has a few more things on Furman in his blog.

The Waiting For Next Year blog loves Cleveland Browns voice Jim Donovan as do I.

Michael Zuidema at the Grand Rapids (MI) Press says ESPN/ABC is hoping some extra pomp and circumstance at the Centennial Indy 500 will draw viewers this year.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that the Indianapolis 500 just ain’t what it used to be.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business has his usual winners and losers today.

Ed explains what Tiger Woods’ agent split from powerful IMG means for Tiger.

Dan Caesar from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that ESPN/ABC is hopeful that the Indy 500 can finally beat NASCAR outright for the first time in over five years.

West

Jim Carlisle in the Ventura County Star talks with ESPN/ABC IndyCar analyst Scott Goodyear about Danica Patrick’s impact on this year’s Indy 500.

Jim reflects on Dick Ebersol’s tenure as Chairman of NBC Sports.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says Jim Rome’s hiring in inaugural days of ESPN2 almost caused one network exec to quit.

Tom explains how ESPN/ABC will attempt to keep the Indianapolis 500 relevant with viewers.

Canada

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail looks at how Gary Bettman decided to buck ESPN.

That’s going to do it. Finished it all in one shot!

Doing The Tuesday Links

I need to get these up quickly as the NBC/NHL conference call will occur at 1 p.m. today. I won’t be able to monitor it, but I do hope to provide details as they become available. Lots of links to get to.

The major news of the day thus far is NBC’s renewal of its agreement with the NHL. It means NBC and Versus will keep the rights to the league and it’s for 10 years/$200 million. Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy tells us what it all means.

Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand who has been tremendous in reporting this story has the full details of the new agreement between NBC/Comcast and the NHL.

Anthony Crupi says NBC/Comcast has won its first battle in what should be many against Disney/ESPN.

Barry Pachesky of Deadspin puts the NBC/Comcast contract with the NHL into perspective.

Keara Dowd of Aerys Sports says ESPN really wanted to get the NHL back.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says NBC/Comcast will have increased rights to the NHL with the new 10 year deal.

And in a related note, PBS’ Nightly Business Report had a segment on Comcast’s purchase of NBC and wanting to gain a big foothold in sports.

Back to Wyshynski, he gives us the best of NESN’s Jack Edwards from last night’s Game 3 of the Boston Bruins-Montreal Canadiens series. Jack was more over the top than usual.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says for Generation Y, sports is about getting together, not necessarily competing against each other.

Also from USA Today, Sean Leahy notes that despite the lockout, the NFL is pressing ahead with plans to release its 2011 regular season schedule tonight.

Sean speculates on some of the NFL’s marquee games for this season.

Sean says Joe Theismann has tweeted (since removed) that he is indeed out of the NFL Network Thursday Night Football booth.

Back to the Sports Business Journal and Terry Lefton who notes that the NFL continues with its Draft even as the lockout continues.

John Ourand and David Broughton of Sports Business Journal report that San Antonio reigns over the local TV ratings for the league.

Over at Multichannel News, Mike Reynolds says the NBA on TNT’s opening Sunday NBA Playoff tripleheader drew 36% more viewers than the year before.

Anthony Crupi from Adweek says the big TV ratings for the opening weekend of the NBA Playoffs means more revenue for ESPN and Turner Sports.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life writes that the NBA’s postseason ratings could set a record.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell talks with someone in the know about the Feds’ crackdown on offshore poker websites.

Sports Business Daily looks at ESPN’s decision to drop all poker advisertising.

Cam Martin from SportsNewser says ESPN is going to be dropping all poker advertising and related programming for the foreseeable future.

Ben Koo of Awful Announcing tells us what ESPN’s decision on poker advertising and programming means to the niche sport.

Russell Scibetti from the Business of Sports shares his thoughts on the Feds’ crackdown on poker websites and what it means for the networks that air poker.

Emmett Jones of Sports Business Digest notes that Pittsburgh is on top of the local NHL TV ratings heap.

The great Maury Brown from the Biz of Baseball says MLB’s TV partners are bullish about ad revenue for this season.

The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir writes about ESPN posting the endorsement deals made its announcers and analysts.

ESPN has announced that the extremely insufferable Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News will host a one hour daily show for ESPN Radio in New York. I refuse to link to any stories about this. You’ll thank me later.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union notes the early postseason ratings for both the NBA and NHL.

Dejan Kovacevic at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette talks about the Penguins being number one in the local NHL TV ratings.

John Steigerwald of the Washington (PA) Observer-Reporter who wrote the incendiary column last week about Giants fan Bryan Stow who is still in a coma after being beat up by two Los Angeles Dodgers fans, tries to explain himself this week and claims everyone across the country is to blame for misunderstanding his original incendiary column.

To Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner who says the NBC Sports Group outdueled three other networks for the NHL.

Jerry Ratcliffe of the Charlottesville (VA) Daily Progress writes about the bond between Fox NFL Sunday co-horts and odd couple Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long.

Rick Bozich from the Louisville Courier-Journal feels ESPN owes the University of Kentucky an apology.

Ryan Clark of the Cincinnati Enquirer notes that ESPN’s Bob Knight should be fired for remarks he made about the Kentucky basketball program.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman previews one segment on tonight’s HBO Real Sports program.

Mark Dawidziak of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer says a local man will get a shot at his dream to work for ESPN.

Diane Pucin from the Los Angeles Times looks at the new NBC/NHL deal.

TV Sports Jobs looks at 10 Worst Acting Performances in sports movies.

The great Bob’s Blitz blog has the ratings for WFAN and ESPN Radio New York for last month.

Pressdog notes the ratings for ESPN2′s airing of last weekend’s NASCAR Nationwide race.

The Canadian Sports Media blog feels CBC’s curling coverage ain’t what it used to be.

Sports Media Watch says TNT is off to its best start ever for an NBA postseason.

SMW says ESPN had good numbers for its NBA Playoffs opening tripleheader.

And SMW notes ABC had really good numbers for its opening two games of the NBA Playoffs.

Another post from Russell Scibetti, this time in the Business Insider Sports Page, where he noticed that MLB.com has stopped its free streaming of a game a night on Facebook.

Joe Favorito says in addition to promoting team pride, NBA and NHL Playoff teams might want to attach a worthy cause as well. I like this idea.

OK, lots of links and lots of stories. I think we’ll end it there.

Doing The Saturday Linkage

I got up early this morning (not that you care) and it now enables me to do some links for you. Some good stuff out today.

First USA Today’s Mike McCarthy, we learn that Joe Theismann claims he has not been told about any changes to the NFL Network Thursday Night Football booth. Earlier this week, Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch reported earlier this week that Mike Mayock is replacing Theismann and Matt Millen. Thanks to Marcus Vanderberg at SportsNewser for the link.

Back to Marcus at SportsNewser, he tells us that the Los Angeles Times is explaining why it chose to print the homophobic slur Kobe Bryant used against a referee in an NBA game this week.

CNBC’s Brian Beers has three cities to where the Sacramento Kings should relocate and they don’t include Los Angeles.

Kathleen E. McLaughlin of Global Post says an economic summit in Communist China led officials to ban several TV channels including Golf Channel.

There’s a controversy brewing in Philadelphia over a she said/she said story that was originally posted in the Naked Philadelphian blog where Sarah Madson, the wife of Phillies pitcher Ryan Madson was quoted as saying she hates Phillies fans and they’re rude and she won’t live in the city in the offseason. Deadspin picked up the story and the story boomeranged from there.

But Kyle Scott from the Crossing Broad blog did some investigating and found that the writer of the post, Laura Goldman has a rather checkered past. While Mrs. Madson has not denied the quote, the Phillies issued a statement that Goldman never identified herself as a reporter, nor did she record the conversation with Madson. For her part, Goldman said she did identify herself not just once but several times.

Kyle has written a post for CBS Philadelphia on the whole matter and again, he questions Goldman’s credibility. The whole question on bloggers and ethics is coming up again. I’m not sure about Goldman’s actual credentials based on her rather shady past, but there is a standard to uphold on approaching a potential interviewee. If she did identify herself as a reporter, that’s one thing, but according to people who attended the event, there was no notebook or tape recorder and there is a claim that Goldman cornered Madson and would not let her go. This story is apparently not going away any time soon.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News says the NBA’s TV partners are looking forward to high ratings for the postseason.

Mike says Comcast SportsNet Chicago saw record ratings for the Bulls during the regular season.

Mike writes that the NHL on Versus saw increased viewership for the first night of the postseason.

Thomas Umstead of Multichannel writes that NBA.com is going to provide increased coverage for the NBA Playoffs.

Chris Tribbey of Home Media magazine says 3-D TV’s future depends on sports programming.

At SB Nation Boston, Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch takes a look at the Bruins and Celtics playoff TV coverage.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times takes a look at MSG Network Knicks analyst Walt Frazier’s extensive wardrobe.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post reports that Bob Papa and Gus Johnson are “neck-and-neck” for the NFL Network Thursday Night Football gig.

The Gaston (NC) Gazette reports that the local Fox Sports Radio affiliate has picked up the rights to the Charlotte 49ers basketball and football broadcasts.

Chris Bahn of Arkansas Sports 360 notes that the University of Arkansas is reaping the benefits of ESPN choosing its spring football game to air today.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News writes that the Fox/Big 12 deal could look frugal down the road and Barry also talks with CBS’ Bill Macatee about his infamous Tiger Woods interview at The Masters last week.

Speaking of that interview, the Golf Channel’s Bradel Chamblee takes Tiger to task for being smug with Macatee.

Nathan Olivarez-Giles of the Los Angeles Times writes extensively on the success of NBA.com’s video streams and how it looks to make a mark in social media.

Nathaniel Popper of the Times reports on the Fed’s crackdown on three online poker websites on Friday.

Ben Koo of Awful Announcing says while ESPN reported on the FBI’s shutdown of the poker betting websites, it did not mention the money it took in from each site for advertising.

The Hawaii Reporter says the NBC Sports Group will be covering a rowing and canoeing event at the islands next month.

Sports Media Watch notes the NBA on TNT wrapped up its most viewed regular season.

SMW says the same goes for the NBA on ESPN.

SMW says ABC had its highest-rated and most viewed season for the NBA as well.

Joe Favorito says Vancouver has untapped potential for the NHL and MLS.

And we are now done for the day. If there’s any breaking news, I’ll be here to cover it.

Bringing Out the Wednesday Links

Ok, let’s do the Wednesday linkage. Quite a few things to get to.

We begin with Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal who when we last saw him during the World Series last October, was wearing a bowtie despite his protests to management. Well, we find that Ken will continue wearing a bowtie this season, but rather willingly and for a very good cause.

Craig Calcaterra of NBC’s Hardball Talk applauds Ken for making this true fashion statement.

Now back to Ken, he writes at FoxSports.com that Major League Baseball has to do more to promote its game to a very tech-savvy fandom.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today has a few sports media observations in the Game On! blog.

Also in USA Today’s Game On! Steve Coogan writes that Jennifer Hudson is out from CBS’ One Shining Moment NCAA Tournament final montage.

One more from Game On! Mike McCarthy reviews Charles Barkley’s comments on truTV. It was a joke, people.

I had no idea that the former bassist for Guns ‘N Roses, Jane Addiction and Velvet Revolver, Duff McKagan had his own column at ESPN.com. Well, this is a very touching and well-written column on the late Seattle Mariners voice Dave Niehaus.

ESPN’s corporate blog, Front Row, has now launched and has been churning out pictures since midnight to show “A Day in the Life” at its various offices around the world. I have to say it’s quite fascinating. The pictures will continue to be published until late tonight.

Marisa Guthrie and Lindsay Powers at the Hollywood Reporter discuss ESPN’s Josh Elliot moving to ABC’s Good Morning America replacing the always lovely Juju Chang.

Tim Baysinger of Broadcasting & Cable writes about ESPN’s latest pickup for Baseball Tonight.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel News says ESPN Films will air a documentary on Jack Nicklaus’ iconic 1986 win at The Masters^®.

The great Ryan Ballengee of NBC’s Pro Golf Talk says The Masters^® iPad app will stream all four days of live TV golf coverage next week. That is very cool.

Jack Neff of Advertising Age says Vaseline Men will be unveiling an ad campaign for the NFL Draft.

In Mediaweek, Anthony Crupi says ad buyers are looking for alternatives as the NFL lockout goes longer.

Doron Levin at Fortune notes that Cadillac has quietly returned to sponsoring golf tournaments.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell examines whether the Chicago Cubs made the right call for their public address announcer.

Darren looks at the MLB Fan Cave that has two men watching every single regular season and playoff game this year.

And Darren goes inside the numbers of college football.

All Access says a Muncie, IN radio station is dropping ESPN in favor of Fox Sports Radio.

All Access also discusses Trenni Kusnierek joining a Milwaukee radio station full-time.

Richard Huff of the New York Daily News writes about ESPN’s Josh Elliot leaving SportsCenter to move to Good Morning America.

Newsday’s Neil Best takes a look at Yankees and Mets ticket prices on the resale market.

Pete Dougherty from the Albany Times Union looks at former Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer joining ESPN.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record has Fox’s Tim McCarver thoughts on the Mets and Yankees.

Conor Orr at the Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger says ESPN’s Jay Bilas is a man of many talents.

Neal Zoren of the Delaware County Times notes that Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia is ready to cover the Phillies this season.

Dan Steinberg of the DC Sports Bog at the Washington Post is amused with a new Pimlico Raceway ad that acknowledges the infield debauchery during the Preakness Stakes.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner writes that ESPN will be airing a prestigious high school basketball tournament live from the DC area.

Brandon Marcello of the Jackson (MS) Clarion Ledger says Mississippi State University now has the announcers who will replace legendary voice Jack Cristil who retired after the basketball season.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman discusses ESPN shaking up its Sunday Night Baseball announcers and adding a new twist to Baseball Tonight.

Doug Zaleski of the Muncie (IN) Star Press notes that a Ball State-Indiana football matchup could end up on ESPN on Labor Day weekend.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Fox Sports Wisconsin will add some bells and whistles to its Brewers game productions.

Jon Nyatawa of the Omaha (NE) World-Journal says the Kansas City Royals won’t be heard on local radio this season.

Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post looks at FSN Rocky Mountain changing its name as of Friday.

Lya Wodraska in the Salt Lake Tribune says the University of Utah is open to moving its football games to Sunday in case of an NFL lockout.

Scott D. Pierce of the Tribune looks at FSN Rocky Mountain’s change of name.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times says FX’s plans to carry college football this fall might be part of a larger scheme to increase subscriber fees.

Mike DiGiovanna from the Times says while Fox Sports tested a new overhead camera during last night’s Dodgers-Angels exhibition game, players were concerned that it might be too intrusive.

Mark Hester from The Oregonian notes that ESPN is chock full of spring college football games.

Gretchen Holzang of the Portland Business Journal writes about FSN Northwest’s rebranding on Friday.

To the Toronto Globe and Mail where Bruce Dowbiggin talks with Rogers Sportsnet Blue Jays analyst Greg Zaun.

Sports Media Watch says NASCAR on Fox hit a ratings low for the first time this season.

The Big Lead critiques CBS/Turner’s coverage of the NCAA Tournament.

And we’ll end it there today.

A Friday Night Megalink Thing

Let’s provide the Friday megalinks. Lots of things to get to.

We, of course, provide the Weekend Viewing Picks for your sports and entertainment weekend programming.

Now let’s get to the linkage from across the country.

National

Brian Steinberg of Advertising Age reports that NBC is already seeking $3.5 million for a 30 second spot for Super Bowl XLVI.

Mike McCarthy at USA Today writes that ESPN’s Erin Andrews will be working the red carpet during the Oscars for ABC’s Good Morning America.

Mike and fellow USA Today sport media writer Michael Hiestand debate the pros and cons of airing the NFL Scouting Combine.

George Winslow from Broadcasting & Cable writes that a tennis tournament has decided to use NeuLion’s platform to stream matches online in HD quality.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News discusses Versus’ good ratings for the NHL Heritage Classic.

Multichannel notes that Style Network will be turning a NASCAR wedding into a reality TV series.

Glenn Davis at SportsGrid has a video of Erin Andrews looking for that perfect dress for the Academy Awards red carpet.

Marcus Vanderberg from SportsNewser says Versus will air its next UFC MMA card in 3-D.

Sports Media Watch writes that MSG saw its highest ratings in 16 years for the New York Knicks with Carmelo Anthony’s debut.

SMW says NASCAR’s Nationwide Series got off to a slower start in the ratings from last year.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says the NHL on Versus continues to be red hot in the ratings

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says outsourcing has helped smaller teams stay in contention.

Awful Announcing notices the notorious “Schwab” making a cameo in the new Hooters ad featuring ESPN’s Dick Vitale.

SportsbyBrooks gives the legendary voice of Mississippi State football and basketball Jack Cristil a very nice tribute as he had to step down immediately due to health issues.

In Examiner.com, Evan Weiner looks at the NFL lockout and what it means to the league’s TV partners.

All Access says the embattled Charlie Sheen called into a Fox Sports Radio show to once again rant against CBS, Warner Brothers and Global Warming.

East and Mid-Atlantic

The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn reviews the week in Boston sports media news.

Bruce Allen at Boston Sports Media Watch notes that WEEI buried the news of the naming of its new midday show late Friday.

In SB Nation Boston, Bruce has a look at the WEEI shakeups and a tumultuous week for the once-dominant sports radio station.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette talks about a local part-time radio reporter who has been reporting on the Red Sox for almost two decades.

Richard Sandomir from the New York Times writes about MSG’s boffo ratings for Carmelo Anthony’s Knicks debut.

Richard discusses how a panel takes over as the ESPN Ombudsman.

Richard and Pat Borzi team up for a story on the NFL Players Association trying to prevent the NFL from collecting its TV rights fee during a potential lockout.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks with Steven A. “A is for Amiable” Smith who’s happy to be back with ESPN.

Bob Glauber of Newsday says both New York Jets coach Rex Ryan and HBO will not be back on Hard Knocks at least this year.

It’s official. Phil Mushnick from the New York Post really hates Madison Square Garden and Cablevision Chairman James Dolan.

Justin Terranova of the Post has five questions for MLB Network’s Al Leiter.

As of today, I’m am no longer linking to Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News over his extreme hate. He went after Friend of Fang’s Bites Tina Cervasio the other night and that was it. He’s persona non grata as far as I’m concerned.

Pete Dougherty from the Albany Times Union has ESPN releasing its Big East football schedule.

Ken Schott at the Schenectady Gazette says the local Fox affiliate will have an extra high school sports highlight show this weekend.

In the New Jersey Newsroom, Nicole Pride talks with an ESPN producer who felt a story on paralyzed Rutgers football Eric LeGrand really hit home.

Colin Dunlap of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says the Pirates have announced their spring training TV and radio schedule.

At the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg has ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt ripping the students of his alma mater once again.

Jim Williams at the Washington Examiner says NASCAR is back in full swing on TV.

South

Bob Molinaro of the Virginian-Pilot says there’s too much speculating in the sports media today.

Erin Barnett of WSLS-TV in Roanoke, VA reports on College GameDay’s visit to the Virginia Tech campus.

Barry Jackson at the Miami Herald says like them or not, the Miami Heat are among the top of the heap in the local and national NBA TV ratings.

Carlos Frias of the Palm Beach Post talks with Pam Tebow, mother of Tim, about life after the controversial Super Bowl ad she and her son did last year.

Clarence E. Hill, Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has Cowboys owner Jerry Jones speaking about how he felt Super Bowl XLV went.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle talks with syndicated radio host Paul Finebaum about now infamous confession from the Alabama fan who said he poisoned the Auburn tree. That confession occurred on Finebaum’s show.

Mel Bracht at the Daily Oklahoman talks with the new TV voice of the Texas Rangers.

In his media notebook, Mel says the Oklahoma City Thunder are going to be featured nationally this weekend.

Midwest

Kevin Bull of the Detroit Free Press has highlights of an ESPN.com chat conducted by former Michigan Fab Five standout Jalen Rose regarding the new ESPN documentary on the 1992-93 team.

Michael Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press writes that a local radio host is making sure that high school sports gets its due.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has former Brewers manager Ken Macha responding on MLB Network Radio to one of his former player’s comments.

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

The Des Moines (IA) Register reports that Iowa State’s football game against UConn has been scheduled for a Friday night on ESPN2.

From Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Cardinals spring training games will be pre-empting Rush Limbaugh on KMOX.

West

Jay Posner at the San Diego Union-Tribune has CBS’ Clark Kellogg looking forward to seeing San Diego State and BYU square off tomorrow.

John Maffei of the North County Times says it’s BYU and Jimmer Fredette as to why San Diego State is on national TV on Saturday.

Tom Hoffarth at the Los Angeles Daily News looks at the Poynter Institute panel that will play the role of ESPN Ombudsman.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times also looks at the new ESPN Ombudsmen.

Ben Bolch of the Times says Fox Sports Net will honor the late UCLA coach John Wooden during Pac 10 basketball games this weekend.

Canada

Bruce Dowbiggin at the Toronto Globe and Mail writes that TSN continues its TV rights shopping spree, this time at the expense of one of its competitors.

And that is going to do it for the megalinks. Enjoy your sports weekend

Monday’s Linkage or Back to Regularity

At least I hope I’m back to a regular schedule. Saturday and Sunday were a lost weekend. I couldn’t finish your Friday megalinks after I started them. And due to having a weekend that was scheduled behind my back, I could not do any linkage. Silly family commitments on both Saturday and Sunday and by the time I could actually turn on my computer, it was Sunday night. My apologies for those of you looking for updated news, luckily, nothing broke. Let’s see if I can do better this week.

Starting with Michael Hiestand of USA Today, he tells us that Fox Sports will have three consecutive primetime windows for its MLB on Fox series this season.

Mike McCarthy of USA Today has your first look at this week’s Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Jason Fry looks at Dan Shanoff’s detective work that helped to debunk the Brett Favre-to-”Dancing with the Stars” rumor.

To Pro Football Talk where Mike Florio says cities might want to explore legal options at publicly-funded stadiums if an NFL lockout comes to fruition.

And Mike says once a lockout starts, the NFL’s legal tentacles can no longer touch players.

Sports Illustrated’s Peter King talks about the Pro Football Hall of Fame voting process and shoots back at Jason Whitlock who fired a shot at King last week.

Sam Mamudi of Marketwatch says newly-appointed CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus plans to upgrade CBS College Sports.

To Mediaweek where Anthony Crupi discusses the strong TV ratings and ad market for the NBA.

Noah Davis in SportsNewser says NASCAR on Fox received a ratings win on Saturday, but still has a long way to go to get back to its record levels.

Glenn Davis at SportsGrid has the video of Sky Sports’ Ewen Murphy chastising Tiger Woods for spitting on the green while lining up a putt at the Dubai Desert Classic over the weekend. Woods was fined by the PGA European Tour.

Also at SportsGrid, Dan Fogarty says Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick is going on Oprah to apologize to the Women of America.

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe talks with ESPN’s Sean McDonough who will be back calling baseball full-time this season after being unceremoniously and incorrectly dumped by NESN after the 2004 season.

The New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman says the bidding for the Yankees’ radio rights could become an interesting battle.

Phil Mushnick is grasping for something to write about in today’s New York Post.

Jeremy W. Peters at the New York Times says Sports Illustrated has begun selling digital subscriptions on Android tablets.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that NHL Center Ice is going to be free this week.

Dan Steinberg from the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog says with the Wizards’ first road win this season, DC media members can now relax.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says both the Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles are changing their radio flagships this season.

Jim talks with Mary Carillo who will be hosting the Westminster Dog Show on USA Network tonight and tomorrow.

Tom Jones from the St. Petersburg Times can’t decide between NBC’s NHL broadcast and ESPN on ABC’s NBA telecast as the best of the weekend.

Eric Deggans of the Times wishes Happy Birthday to YouTube.

Adam Thompson of the Sheboygan (WI) Press says a local radio station has changed its affiliation from ESPN to Fox Sports.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that Big 12 hoops fans are not being  served as in the past in the local market.

Dusty Saunders in the Denver Post says the newly expanded coverage of the NCAA Tournament should benefit fans this year.

The Orange County (CA) Register has two slideshows on ESPN. One on the best things about the network and other, naturally on the worst things. Did Bleacher Report get a hold of the OC Register?

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says CBC’s Hockey Day in Canada chose to focus on heartwarming stories rather than get involved in controversy.

The Toronto Sports Media Blog notes that one local sports radio station is positioning itself as a crosstown format war is about to start.

Sports Media Watch notes that the NHL on Versus is doing well after the All-Star Break.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media feels Mike Milbury and Pierre McGuire actually made good points during their debate on fighting yesterday.

Joe Favorito notes that a New York sporting goods chain has helped itself in positioning and branding by releasing viral videos.

That’s going to do it for now.

Providing Some Wednesday Links

Yesterday, my attempts at providing links kept getting interrupted. I hope today is going to be more stable.

Today has been a strange day. People on Twitter and the sports blogosphere are abuzz about the foot fetish videos that may or may not have come from Michelle Ryan, the wife of New York Jets coach Rex Ryan. Deadspin broke it. The New York Daily News for some reason picked it up. Since this morning, people have been tweeting and blogging away on the story. Rex Ryan himself may or may not have shot one of the videos in question. This is not a sports media story so unless we discover that a reporter somehow got involved in the videos or has a foot fetish him or herself, then we’re not going to be pursuing it. I’ve never had a foot fetish. I’ve always felt feet are disgusting, but I’m not judging those who like them. I’m acknowledging story and letting you know I’ve seen the story. Let’s move on.

Starting with this week’s Sports Illustrated issue, Jon Wertheim takes a look at the effects of a possible NFL lockout including those on the networks and surrounding businesses that depend on professional football.

To Pro Football Talk and Mike Florio who says yesterday’s meeting between NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and former Florida State Cowgirl Jenn Sterger got heated at times.

Marisa Guthrie of the Hollywood Reporter notes that ESPN’s Monday Night Football topped all programming on both broadcast and cable.

Some bad news for MASN and baseball fans in North Carolina, the FCC has reversed a decision that required Time Warner Cable to pick up the regional sports network in the Tobacco State as John Eggerton of Multichannel News reports.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel looks at the stellar Monday Night Football ratings for ESPN.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel says ESPN and ABC will provide five, count ‘em, five NBA games on Christmas Day.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid has the first of the Top Ten Sports Gaffes of 2010 and it begins with Chris McKendry of ESPN.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell writes about Michael Vick signing an autograph endorsement deal. 

Michael O’Keefe of the New York Daily News has a story on the contentious meeting between NFL Commish Roger Goodell and former Playboy bombshell Jenn Sterger.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette tells us that CBS College Sports college hockey analyst and NHL Network analyst for the IIHF World Junior Championships Dave Starman will be his guest on his radio show in New York’s Capital Region.

Evan Weiner in the New Jersey Newsroom says the NBA’s TV partners could be subsidizing a lockout next season.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner talks with a Texas Tech beat reporter on former coach Mike Leach who’s a candidate to take the Maryland job.

Sarah Talalay at the South Florida Sun Sentinel says a new Charles Barkley/Dwayne Wade ad will be unveiled on Christmas Day.

John Kiesewetter from the Cincinnati Enquirer discusses the departure of Steven A. Smith from Fox Sports Radio.

And I was interrupted again. I’ll try to provide more links later.

The Tuesday Links Continued

Ok, let’s continue to provide the links on this Tuesday.

Alex Weprin at SportsNewser notes that Steven A. “A is for Allegory” Smith announced that he’s leaving his morning show on Fox Sports Radio effective Thursday.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News writes that ESPN2 airs the best-of-three exhibition series of matches between tennis giants Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal starting today. 

Greg Wyshynski at Yahoo’s Puck Daddy says ex-Executive Director of the NHL Players Association, Paul Kelly is predicting a return to ESPN by the NHL.

Mike Donoghue of the Burlington (VT) Free Press says a local sports radio station group is changing affiliation on New Year’s Day.

Mary Ellen Fillo of the Hartford Courant says ESPN’s Mike Ditka made a stop at a local theater to tape a feature for Sunday NFL Countdown. 

Paul Beaudry of the Birmingham (AL) News feels ESPN is responsible for too many bowl games on TV and the long layoff for the BCS National Championship Game.

Duane Dudek of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the Rose Bowl won’t be on over-the-air TV on New Year’s Day.

Dan Caesar in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says the Rams won in the ratings on Sunday while losing on the field against Kansas City.

I’m being informed I have to leave again. More linkage later. Goodness.