Fang's Bites

Some Leftover Linkage

I need to clear my brower of links I was hoping to get to sometime over the last few days. Since I couldn’t do the Friday megalinks or any Saturday morning linkage, I’ll do some Sunday evening leftover links.

Consider this the Sunday entrée to the beginning of the workweek. I honestly don’t know what that means.

Here’s some linkage for you to chew on.

Brian Lowry of Fox Sports is not a fan of Shaquille O’Neal on TNT.

Mike Farrell of Multichannel News writes that Time Warner Cable is hoping to obtain more sports properties for its new Southern California regional sports network.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel says the first round of the 2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs was the most watched on record.

Andrea Morabito of Broadcasting & Cable reports that no talent hack Ryan Seacrest will be haunting NBC Sports as well as NBC News in an all-new, all-encompassing contract with NBCUniversal.

Tim Baysinger at B&C says ESPN’s ratings for the First Round of the NFL Draft were up double digits from the year before.

Sam Laird at Mashable writes that social media is influencing sports in many ways.

To Sean Newell of Deadspin who looks at the strange Twitter meltdown of Chicago Sun-Times reporter Joe Cowley who went all-sexist on female pilots and one of his co-workers.

Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report writes that former CBS and ABC Sports essayist Jack Whitaker is receiving a long overdue honor from the Sports Emmys on Monday.

Ryan Yoder from Awful Announcing reviews the good and the bad of ESPN’s First Round coverage of the NFL Draft.

Joe Lucia of AA does the same for NFL Network.

Back to Matt from AA, apparently Tim McCarver fancies himself an expert on climate change

From the Tampa Bay Times, Eric Deggans reviews ESPN’s coverage of the NFL Draft for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center.

Jason Dachman from Sports Video Group has ESPN optimistic that its Los Angeles studios will put itself in a unique position to cover the Lakers and Clippers in the NBA Playoffs.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell wonders if Indianapolis Colts QB Andrew Luck can ever match Peyton Manning’s marketability.

Providence’s WJAR-TV and Cox Communications announce a new partnership that will simulcast the NBC affiliate’s local newscasts and also put Cox Sports RI’s programming on a new cable channel.

Amy Chozick and Nick Wingfield of the New York Times explore the growing world of TV mobile and tablet apps which include the soon-to-be released NBC Olympics iPad app.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times profiles actor Peter Scolari who plays three important roles in the Magic/Bird Broadway play.

Breaking a ban of linking to Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News who has an interesting story regarding Yankees voices John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman and whether they’ll be leaving if the team changes flagship radio stations after this season.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick has no hope for our society. Lighten up, Phil. Time to travel to Moldova or Johannesburg. Somewhere you don’t have to watch sports anymore.

Jerry Barmash at Fishbowl NY says MSG Network’s ratings for Game 7 of the Ottawa Senators-New York Rangers series were the best since the 1994 Stanley Cup-clinching game on the network.

Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes that the 76ers are leaving long-time home WIP and switching to ESPN Radio Philadelphia.

Crossing Broad says the Sixers’ move came as a surprise.

Jim Williams at the Washington Examiner talks with Jim Rome and his new CBS home.

Laura Newberry of the Orlando Sentinel says Golf Channel has become a Central Florida mainstay.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes that the Rockets are not only moving to a new TV home next season, but are currently looking for a new radio flagship station as well.

Mel Bracht of The Oklahoman transcribes Mike Tirico’s call of Kevin Durant’s winning shot for the Oklahoma City Thunder against the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday.

The Cincinnati Enquirer says one local cable provider will pick up NFL Network, but it’s not Time Warner.

Paul M. Banks at Chicago Sports Media Watch says the Sun-Times’ Joe Cowley may be headed towards a suspension.

Danny Ecker at Crain’s Chicago Business says the Bulls generated their highest regular season TV ratings since the Michael Jordan years.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says scheduling of playoff games never has the fans in mind.

Scott D. Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune says ESPN gave the Utah Jazz the benefit of the doubt in its series opener.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says CBC got the job done in choosing its NHL Playoff series for the Conference Semifinal round.

Peter Adler from the Edmonton Journal says the Oilers’ documentary series Oil Change which runs on NHL Network should return for a third season

Howard M. Alperin of Midwest Sports Fans asks why CBSSports.com doesn’t include soccer coverage?

Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy has TSN’s top hockey bloopers of the 2011-12 season.

That’s a lot of leftover linkage. Glad I was able to clear this out before Monday.

List of Monday Night Football Commentators

This was compiled by the fine people at ESPN. Here’s the list of Monday Night Football announcing teams dating back to when the series began on ABC in 1970. Since ESPN took over production in 1998, there has been a lot of upheaval in the announcing teams and you’ll notice this especially since the series moved to ESPN in 2006.

Monday Night Football Commentators All-Time (1970-present)

Year	Commentators
1970	Keith Jackson, Howard Cosell, Don Meredith
1971	Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, Don Meredith
1972	Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, Don Meredith
1973	Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, Don Meredith
1974	Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, Don Meredith, Fred Williamson
1975	Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, Alex Karras
1976	Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, Alex Karras
1977	Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, Don Meredith
1978	Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, Don Meredith
1979	Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, Don Meredith, Fran Tarkenton
1980	Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, Don Meredith, Fran Tarkenton
1981	Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, Don Meredith, Fran Tarkenton
1982	Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, Don Meredith, Fran Tarkenton
1983	Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, Don Meredith, O.J. Simpson
1984	Frank Gifford, Don Meredith, O.J. Simpson
1985	Frank Gifford, O.J. Simpson, Joe Namath
1986	Al Michaels, Frank Gifford
1987	Al Michaels, Frank Gifford, Dan Dierdorf
1988	Al Michaels, Frank Gifford, Dan Dierdorf
1989	Al Michaels, Frank Gifford, Dan Dierdorf
1990	Al Michaels, Frank Gifford, Dan Dierdorf
1991	Al Michaels, Frank Gifford, Dan Dierdorf
1992	Al Michaels, Frank Gifford, Dan Dierdorf
1993	Al Michaels, Frank Gifford, Dan Dierdorf
1994	Al Michaels, Frank Gifford, Dan Dierdorf, Lynn Swann
1995	Al Michaels, Frank Gifford, Dan Dierdorf, Lynn Swann
1996	Al Michaels, Frank Gifford, Dan Dierdorf, Lynn Swann
1997	Al Michaels, Frank Gifford, Dan Dierdorf, Lesley Visser
1998	Al Michaels, Dan Dierdorf, Boomer Esiason, Lesley Visser
1999	Al Michaels, Boomer Esiason, Lesley Visser
2000	Al Michaels, Dan Fouts, Dennis Miller, Melissa Stark, Eric Dickerson
2001	Al Michaels, Dan Fouts, Dennis Miller, Melissa Stark, Eric Dickerson
2002	Al Michaels, John Madden, Melissa Stark
2003	Al Michaels, John Madden, Lisa Guerrero
2004	Al Michaels, John Madden, Michele Tafoya
2005	Al Michaels, John Madden, Michele Tafoya, Sam Ryan *
2006	Mike Tirico, Tony Kornheiser, Joe Theismann, Suzy Kolber, Michele Tafoya
2007	Mike Tirico, Tony Kornheiser, Ron Jaworski, Suzy Kolber, Michele Tafoya
2008	Mike Tirico, Tony Kornheiser, Ron Jaworski, Suzy Kolber, Michele Tafoya
2009	Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden, Ron Jaworski, Suzy Kolber, Michele Tafoya
2010	Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden, Ron Jaworski, Suzy Kolber, Michele Tafoya
2011	Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden, Ron Jaworski **
2012	Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden, Lisa Salters

* Ryan filled in duringTafoya’s pregnancy/maternity leave
** Rotation of reporters (Kolber, Nichols, Nix, Paolantonio, Werder)

ABC – 1970-2005; ESPN – 2006-present

That’s it.

Some Long Overdue Linkage

Due to crazy personal schedules on Tuesday and Wednesday, I wasn’t able to update the site as much as I would like. I apologize to you as I’ve been trying to keep you apprised of the latest sports media news. A few housekeeping notes, first I did some Sports Media Thoughts earlier this morning and you read them here.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing was kind to ask me on his podcast and we recorded it on Wednesday while I was on the road so the phone quality isn’t great (damn you, AT&T 3G). You can listen to what Matt and I discussed at the Awful Announcing site.

And lastly, Keith Thibault and I recorded our latest Sports Media Weekly podcast this week and our guest is Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette and the subject is college hockey coverage.

Now to our links.

Michael Smith & John Ourand from Sports Business Journal look at the possibility of ESPN and Fox Sports teaming up once again, this time to control the media rights to the Big 12 Conference. The two companies combined for the Pac-12 last year in an attempt to keep NBC Sports out of college sports and it appears the two are back at work again on the Big 12 rights.

Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim makes a very good point on the perceived conflict of interests of ESPN’s tennis announcers and the players to which they’re connected, case in point, Mary Jo Fernandez seen sitting with Roger Federer’s wife during the BNP Paribas Open last week on ABC.

Andrew McCalvy at MLB.com writes that Milwaukee Brewers Hall of Fame voice Bob Uecker will be honored with a statue outside Miller Park. Congrats to Uke on a well deserved honor. We all remember his character, Harry Doyle from the “Major League” movies and his great quote, “Juuuuust a bit outside.” Classic.

Interesting study from the Media Behavior Institute which shows a great majority still watch the NCAA Tournament on TV, but online numbers comprise a large chunk.

Ben Grossman at Broadcasting & Cable reports that Major League Baseball is looking at placing postseason games on MLB Network to boost its subscriber numbers.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News writes that MLB Network will produce a pregame show for Fox Saturday Baseball.

Tom Comi of Channel Guide Magazine would like a halt to the Tim Tebow media circus.

Mike Miller at NBC’s College Basketball Talk notes that the NCAA Tournament ratings on CBS/Turner are just about even with last year.

Eric Goldschein of SportsGrid has video of ESPN’s Mike Tirico losing it during last night’s Lakers-Mavericks game.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says Wheaties may be dying a very slow and painful death.

Ronnie Ramos in the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center says coaches and players are learning the proper use of Twitter.

Greg Wyshynski of Puck Daddy notes that Rogers Sportsnet picked up on a popular internet meme and used it in an on-screen graphic.

To Fishbowl NY where Jerry Barmash talks with Kenny Albert.

Newsday’s Neil Best writes that NBC Sports Network set a ratings record for hockey in NYC.

Neil notes that ESPN has a new head man-in-charge.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that CBS/Turner will bring in two coaches as guest analysts for the NCAA Tournament.

Pete says ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball crew will be busy in the first week of the MLB season.

Keith Groller at the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says Lehigh left an impression on CBS during the NCAA Tournament.

Matt Brooks of the Washington Post’s Early Lead has your viewing guide for tonight’s Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has links to some of the best columns from the late Furman Bisher.

Some of Bisher’s friends pay tribute to the man.

The AJC has a gallery of pictures showing Bisher throughout his career.

Mel Bracht of the Oklahoman looks at HBO Real Sports’ update on the 2001 plane crash that hit the Oklahoma State basketball program extremely hard.

Mel says local viewers chose Fox Sports Oklahoma over ESPN for two Oklahoma City Thunder games last week.

David Jablonski of the Dayton (OH) Daily News says a local man leads the millions of entries in ESPN’s Bracketology contest.

John Kiesewetter at the Cincinnati Enquirer is not a fan of NCAA Tournament scheduling.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that the radio analyst for Bucks games has been off the air since last month.

Bob says former Brewers voice Matt Vasgersian will host the MLB Network-produced MLB on Fox pregame show.

Tom Ginnetti of the Chicago Sun-Times remembers pioneering sportswriter Lacy J. Banks who died Wednesday.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has video of Bob Costas pontificating on the Saints suspensions.

The Toronto Globe and Mail’s Bruce Dowbiggin writes about the media fighting over staged NHL fights.

The Toronto Sports Media blog explores the local newspapers imploring the Maple Leafs to apologize to their fans for missing the playoffs.

Sports Media Watching notes that ratings on NBA TV are up.

Media Rantz says ESPN got fooled by a fake Adam Schefter Twitter account during Tim Tebow coverage last night.

We have a picture of that fake Adam Schefter tweet. “Adarn Schefter”?

Ben Koo of Awful Announcing explores the Gus Johnson departure from CBS and how it may leave him without his signature event for a long time to come.

The Convoluted Mind of a Single Man site looks at the innovations John Madden brought to NFL broadcasting.

Dave Kohl at the Broadcast Booth says league-owned networks are making big strides in production and programming.

And that will finish our links for today.

Let’s Do The Friday Megalinks Again

Linkage has been scarce around the site this week, but I should be able to get a good set of megalinks in today as we head into NCAA Tournament Selection Sunday. You deserve the links and I thank you for your patience around some server problems this week.

As usual, you can check the Weekend Viewing Picks for all weekend sports and entertainment recommendations.

Let’s get to the linkage.

National

Michael Hiestand of USA Today profiles ESPN’s bracketologist Joe Lunardi who got a big endorsement from Louisville’s Rick Pitino this week.

Erik Spanberg at Sports Business Journal looks at Major League Soccer hoping for big returns from its new contract with NBC Sports.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch explores NBC’s new approach to airing soccer and reviews ESPN’s new documentary on Magic Johnson.

Karen Hogan at Sports Video Group looks at ESPN’s innovative plans for MLS games this season.

Lindsay Flans of the Hollywood Reporter says A-List celebrities have caught Linsanity fever.

And the Reporter provides a seating chart of where celebrities sit at Madison Square Garden to get a glimpse of Jeremy Lin.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Michael Bradley feels the mid-major conferences sacrifice regular season integrity in exchange for TV exposure with their post-season tournaments.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell is recovering after his alma mater, Northwestern, played its way out of the NCAA Tournament this week.

Joe Favorito says even in this day and age, the little guy can make a splash in sports marketing.

Sports Media Watch has some ratings news and notes.

SMW notes that NBC Sports will replace the departed Wimbledon with the Tour de France this summer.

Ben Koo of Awful Announcing says ESPN Films is suffering from an identity crisis.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says NBC’s innovation in hockey production is now extending to the soccer pitch.

Dave Kohl at the Broadcast Booth isn’t a fan of speculation.

At Yahoo’s Ball Don’t Lie blog, Dan Devine says Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban made a gay joke at Bill Simmons’ expense with him present.

Erik Malinowski of Deadspin says Cuban has apologized for making that remark.

East and Mid-Atlantic

The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn looks at CBS/Turner’s plans for the NCAA Tournament.

Chad notes that a prodigal son is returning to WEEI this weekend.

Boston Sports Media Watch’s Bruce Allen at SB Nation Boston says the Boston Herald will miss Patriots beat reporter Ian Rapoport as he departs for NFL Network.

George Cain at Sports of Boston compares and contrasts the two sports radio stations ratings.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette says different generations watch sports differently.

Paul Devlin of the New Canaan (CT) Patch talks with ESPN High Grand Poobah of News Vince Doria.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks with Magic Johnson about ESPN’s documentary on his HIV announcement 20 years ago.

Neil notes the opening of a new Broadway play on the rivalry between Magic and former Boston Celtics star Larry Bird.

Neil says it’s time for our annual search to find truTV for the NCAA Tournament.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post goes after the “gang mentality” in football.

The Post’s Justin Terranova has five questions for NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger.

Jerry Barmash at Fishbowl NY notes that MSG Network is about to unveil a new baseball-centric show.

Chris Boyle at the Merrick (NY) Patch says two alumna of a local high school, now ESPN personalities, made a visit to their old stomping grounds.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union notes that Buffalo Sabres games are back on MSG after a technical glitch prevented fans from seeing their games for two weeks.

Pete talks with Uncle Verne Lundquist of CBS who’s going into his 49th year of broadcasting.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times-Herald Record says a local man has been chosen to take part in this year’s MLB Fan Cave.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call talks with ESPN’s Mike Tirico who says he’ll miss working with Ron Jaworski every Monday Night.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner speaks with tennis Hall of Famer and ESPN analyst Chris Evert.

South

Luke DeCock of the Raleigh News & Observer says for the first time, viewers in the ACC footprint can see ESPN’s coverage of the ACC Tournament.

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald likes watching the ESPN/ABC NBA studio show.

David Barron at the Houston Chronicle notes that Comcast SportsNet Houston is getting ready for its fall launch.

And David expands on his column on CSN Houston in his blog.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman has a few Sooner State sports media news and notes.

Midwest

Jeff Moss at Detroit Sports Rag has a field of 64 to decide the Worst Detroit Sports Media Personality.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says CBS and Turner are enjoying their NCAA Tournament partnership.

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

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reviews the one week experiment of Joe Buck and Tim McKernan co-hosting a radio show that could turn into something bigger down the road.

Dan says don’t expect too many changes for this year’s NCAA Tournament coverage on CBS and Turner Sports.

West

John Maffei at the North County Times writes that if NCAA Tournament coverage ain’t broke, then CBS and Turner aren’t going to fix it.

John says Fox Sports San Diego is set to launch any day now, provided MLB approves the Padres’ deal to air games on the network.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star says the success of the CBS/Turner NCAA Tournament consortium surprised officials at both companies.

Jim says Peyton Manning’s former coach, Tony Dungy now of NBC, feels San Francisco would be a good fit for him.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News looks at Magic Johnson’s life-changing announcement, 20 years later.

Tom explores how Time Warner Cable will present LA Galaxy games while it’s still in the process of launching its new SoCal regional sports network.

Tom has a few items that didn’t make his weekly media column.

Percy Allen of the Seattle Times notes that ESPN will air next year’s Pac-12 Basketball Championship Game.

Canada

Rosie DiManno of the Toronto Star says CBC’s Don Cherry and Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke are acting like a couple of spoiled divas in their public spat.

And that’s going to do it for today. Enjoy your sports weekend.

Inside Monday Night Football

The ESPN Front Row blog put out an interesting slideshow narrated by Monday Night Football voice Mike Tirico on the machinations behind the production of each game. There are some very good pictures of meetings, the setup and the people who help make Monday Night Football one of the best productions on TV every week. Plus there’s Tirico’s narration which really makes the piece a very good watch.

It’s clocks in at 5:50 and it goes quickly. Enjoy this slideshow from ESPN PR and Monday Night Football.

More stuff is on the way later.

Bringing Out The Monday Links

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bob has the local ratings for the Brewers and Packers.

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

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

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

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

Tom has the SoCal sports calendar for this week.

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

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

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

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

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

Joe Favorito says UFC continues to steadily build its brand.

And we’ll end it there for today.

Sports Media Weekly Podcast No. 70 — Mike Tirico, ESPN

After a week off due to Hurricane Irene issues, the Sports Media Weekly podcast returns with a heavy hitter in tow. I’m not talking about myself or Keith Thibault of Sports Media Journal, I’m talking about our guest, the great Mike Tirico of ESPN’s Monday Night Football. And let me say in advance, this was one of our best guests that we’ve had on the podcast. We’ll definitely have Mike on again.

But before I talk about Mike’s segment, Keith and I talked about the news of the past week and that included another edition of “Free Bruce”, the actual freeing of college football writer Bruce Feldman from ESPN.com to CBSSports.com. We reviewed the latest developments in the story with Bruce trashing ESPN on various media outlets once he left the network, plus the ESPN Ombudsman story responding to Feldman’s claims that he wasn’t allowed to talk about the story earlier this summer.

We went from there to college football where the ratings were down for the opening weekend of play compared to last year. And we previewed how the NFL’s TV partners would cover the league this season.

As mentioned, Mike Tirico of ESPN was our guest and he was great to interview. The man is a true pro.

We began talking about his work at Monday Night Football and asking about which games he was looking forward to calling. We also asked him about the original upheaval in the first two years of MNF on ESPN to the stability he has now with partners Ron Jaworski and Jon Gruden. I asked Mike about his thoughts on covering international events like the World Cup in South Africa last year to covering the Open Championship across the Atlantic. We also broached how he’s true to his school, Syracuse University and the long list of sportscasters that have graduated from the upstate New York institution and whether he has a secret handshake with his fellow alumni. And we ended with him discussing the legacy of Monday Night Football and the short list of play-by-play announcers for the package (just four since 1971).

You can see this was a podcast chock full of information. Find the podcast on iTunes doing a search for “Sports Media Journal” or just go here to listen.

Friday Night Into Saturday Morning Megalink Action

Didn’t have time to do megalinks during the day as I was trying to get some end of the month/beginning of the month stuff done at the office. Time to get linkage in while I can.

The Weekend Viewing Picks are chockful of sports action and some primetime programming. Now to the linkage.

National

Jessica E. Vascellaro and Matthew Futterman combine for a Wall Street Journal story on the US TV bidding for the Olympics. Bids are due next week.

The Around The Rings Olympic blog notes that the US Olympic Committee will be on hand to monitor the US TV bidding as well.

Dorothy Pomerantz of Forbes handicaps the Olympic bidding.

Back to the Wall Street Journal, Tim Marchman reviews the ESPN book.

David Goetzl of MediaPost says DirecTV announcing that it won’t be charging customers for the NFL Sunday Ticket package during the lockout really should not be news.

Sean Leahy of USA Today writes about DirecTV’s announcement.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today has Fox Sports’ NASCAR analyst Daryl Waltrip complaining that the sport forgot its roots while trying to promote the cars over its personalities.

Marcus Vanderberg of SportsNewser notes that ESPN NHL analyst Matthew Barnaby has been slapped with two orders of protection stemming from the domestic disturbance he was arrested for last month.

Mohammed Rahman from SportsGrid writes that UFC personality Joe Rogan called noted and respected MMA writer Maggie Hendricks “cunty”. What is up with the UFC people?

Jason Dachman at Sports Video Group looks at some TV tennis news.

Sports Media Watch writes that last Saturday’s MLB on Fox primetime presentation saw its second straight ratings increase.

SMW notes that the Indy 500 saw its highest ratings in three years.

SMW says Game 2 of the NBA Finals had increased ratings, but lower viewership.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media has CBC’s opening from Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final and it reminds us how well the network covers hockey. Some nice use of Adele in the opening.

Awful Announcing has a podcast interview with ESPN book co-author James Andrew Miller.

AA also did a Q&A session with ESPN NBA voice Mike Breen to discuss the Finals and Bill from White Plains.

The Major League Programs blog has its usual review of sports media.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn from the Boston Globe can’t believe one local TV station did not send anyone to Vancouver to cover the Stanley Cup Final.

Chad also reviews the ESPN book.

Newsday’s Neil Best has the best of his blog in his latest column.

Nina Mandell of the New York Daily News says ESPN would love to have Shaquille O’Neal on its air.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick remembers the late NFL Hall of Famer Andy Robustelli.

Justin Terranova from the Post has five questions for Red Sox voice Dave O’Brien.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says Jimmer Fredette now has his own YouTube channel.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says there will be plenty of coverage of the USA Track & Field Championships.

Evan Weiner of the New Jersey Newsroom goes over how Time Warner ruined sports in Atlanta.

Keith Groller at the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says NBC is happy to have an Original Six team in the NHL Stanley Cup Final.

Rich Hofman at the Philadelphia Daily News is annoyed at how ESPN continually ignores the NHL.

Laura Nachman notes Philadelphia native John Kincaid will lose a gig now that the Atlanta Thrashers have left town.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog says DC NFL team owner Dan Snyder’s lawsuit against the Washington City Paper is now the subject of Federal legislation.

Steven V. Roberts reviews the ESPN book in the Washington Post.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says the NBA Finals won primetime on Thursday.

South

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times says the Tampa Bay Lightning’s playoff run drew viewers in the local market.

Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News reports that the Big 12 has changed its TV revenue distribution formula for all members. In essence, every school gets more money.

Barry Horn of the Morning News says ESPN/ABC seems to spend more time obsessing over the Miami Heat rather than the Dallas Mavericks.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle recaps his visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame which included browsing through the broadcasters and writers wings.

Midwest

Michael Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press reviews HBO’s documentary on the John McEnroe-Bjorn Borg rivalry.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel goes over some of his favorite quotes from the ESPN book.

Crain’s Chicago Business’ Ed Sherman goes over his winners and losers this week.

Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune talks with ESPN/ABC’s Mike Tirico about the Big Ten Football Championship.

West

Kyle Ringo of the Boulder Daily Camera reports that Colorado University is looking to sell local TV rights to some of its football games as it officially joins the Pac-12 Conference next month.

John Maffei at the North County Times says this round of Olympic TV bidding is very wide open.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star writes that people love to hate the Miami Heat as evidenced by the TV ratings.

Rhiannon Potkey of the Star talks with ESPN Women’s College World Series analyst Jessica Mendoza.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times profiles the new Chairman of the NBC Sports Group, Mark Lazarus who leads the network’s Olympic bid next week.

And Joe says Lazarus is not a stranger to making big bids on sports properties.

Flint is impressed with former ESPN and now NFL Network executive Steve Bornstein’s candor in the ESPN book.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says someone needs to investigate this whole Vin Scully Star Hollywood Walk of Fame mess.

Tom notes that Hollywood seems to be back on board with a new movie on the late Jackie Robinson.

Canada

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail notes that the opening game of the Stanley Cup Final was a ratings hit in both Canada and the US.

The Toronto Sports Media Blog speculates on whether a local sports radio talk show host has a new contract.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog finds a noteworthy feature in CTV’s plans for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

And that is going to do it. Took longer than I thought.

Sports Media Weekly Podcast No. 57 – James Andrew Miller, Co-Author of ESPN Book

For the first time, Keith Thibault of Sports Media Journal and I had a guest for the entire podcast. We talked with James Andrew Miller, the co-author of “Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside The World at ESPN.”

We talked about a bunch of topics including how Jim and Tom got to writing the book, the whole machinations behind Tony Kornheiser’s first suspension from ESPN and how he continues to hold onto the letter from that suspension. We also talked about the problems between Mr. Tony and Mike Tirico during their time together at Monday Night Football. We also explored who Jim thinks were the best hires at ESPN and what he feels was the Golden Age of SportsCenter. Keith and I also looked at how ESPN is perceived by outside media and we delved into whether being located in Bristol, CT was the root of ESPN’s troubles in the 1980′s.

Lots of good stuff covered, but not enough time. Keith and I will get Jim back again for a future podcast to talk about the book and perhaps more breaking news about ESPN. You can find this podcast on iTunes doing a search for Sports Media Journal or you can listen to it right here. A really good edition of the podcast.

Fresh Tuesday Linkage

Been working on a specification that’s taking way to long to finish, so I’m doing linkage while I can.

We’ll begin with the ESPN Poynter Institute Review blog which takes ESPN.com to task for not vetting a post that was done on Alabama football player Aaron Douglas just a couple of hours after his death.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand says the appearance of Oklahoma City in the NBA Western Conference Finals may hurt ESPN’s postseason ratings.

Mike McCarthy of USA Today has ESPN’s Executive Vice President John Skipper denying the network has a “frat-boy” culture.

Tom Lowry of Variety says ESPN is telling advertisers not to give up on an NFL season just yet.

Jon Lafayette in Broadcasting & Cable says ESPN pulled out all the stops during today’s upfronts.

Michael Learmont of Advertising Age says digital properties are hoping to get a piece of the advertising pie if the NFL lockout spreads into the fall.

Also from Ad Age, Nat Ives writes that a lifestyle magazine that was to be devoted to the Miami Heat bombed after one issue.

Georg Szalai at the Hollywood Reporter looks at ESPN2′s fall afternoon lineup.

Lucia Moses of Adweek explains why ESPN The Magazine became a “one night only” play.

Bill Cromwell at Media Life Magazine touches on the record ratings for TNT’s Game 1 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.

Ryan Berenz of Channel Guide speaks with James Andrew Miller, the co-author of “Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside The World of ESPN”.

Cam Martin of SportsNewser links to audio of legendary Cincinnati Reds Marty Brennaman taking shots at St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter. Marty has never been shy about expressing his opinions and also took shots at Chicago Cubs fans back in 2008.

Ken Kershbaumer from Sports Video Group writes about ESPN’s efforts to go split screen during NASCAR Sprint Cup races.

Newsday’s Neil Best says MLB’s TV partners were mostly on top of the Jorge Posada story over the weekend during the Red Sox-Yankees series.

Stuart Elliot of the New York Times recaps ESPN’s upfront presentation.

At the Schenectady Gazette, Ken Schott has a look at ESPN’s new policy to go split screen during ad breaks of NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase races.

The Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg in the DC Sports Bog has Sports Illustrated’s Peter King explaining how he got caught with his proverbial pants down when he quoted from a radio interview that never took place.

To the Washington Examiner and Jim Williams who writes about TNT’s record NBA ratings.

Dustin Long at the Virginian-Pilot talks about Fox’s decision to go split screen on Sunday during the NASCAR race at Dover.

Mike London at the Salisbury (NC) Post writes about ESPN’s Mike Tirico as he was honored last night by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.

Doug Demmons of the Birmingham (AL) News writes about ESPN going split screen during the last half of its NASCAR schedule.

Bob Wolfley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has NBA television analysts talking about Derrick Rose becoming the youngest MVP ever.

Ed Sherman at Crain’s Chicago Business feels America loves to watch a villain.

Phil Rosenthal in the Chicago Tribune writes that Heat-Bulls, Game 1 was a huge draw both nationally and locally.

Blair Kerkhoff of the Kansas City Star says thanks to the Big 12′s deal with Fox, Kansas State is allowing its athletics department to go alone and not be funded by the state.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times looks at ESPN’s NFL plans and its aggressive bid for the Olympics.

Jim Morris of the Canadian Press profiles the Green Men of Vancouver who started out as a joke and have become an international hockey sensation.

Sports Media Watch notes that ESPN is moving “Jim Rome is Burning” to ESPN2 in the fall.

SMW also has some various ratings news and notes.

Matt Sarzyniak in Matt’s College Sports Media blog explores what could happen with the upcoming TV negotiations for the Big East.

In Puck The Media, Steve Lepore says the ratings for the opening of both NHL Conference Finals were down from last year, but with good reason.

Joe Favorito looks at how the Jorge Posada story became a story and how the media covered it.

That will do it for today.

ESPN’s Golf Analysts Talk The Masters

With The Masters^® about to begin in earnest tomorrow, ESPN’s golf analysts spoke with the media to talk about their picks to win and how this year’s field will do at Augusta. This is quite long. So as not to take up too much room on the front page, I’ve done a jump break after the first paragraph. ESPN’s Mike Tirico, Andy North and Curtis Strange all discussed their thoughts about The Masters, Tiger Woods, the 25th anniversary of Jack Nicklaus’ win in 1986 and the up and coming golfers who could win on Sunday.

Transcript of ESPN Masters Media Conference Call

ESPN golf analysts Andy North and Curtis Strange, host Mike Tirico and John Wildhack, ESPN executive vice president, programming acquisition and strategy, participated in a media conference call earlier this week to discuss ESPN’s multiplatform coverage of the 2011 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. Coverage begins with live SportsCenter reports from Augusta on Monday, April 4, and also will include 4.5 hours per day of first and second-round play on ESPN, ESPN HD and ESPN Deportes on Thursday and Friday, April 7-8, five days and 10 hours on the ESPN 3D Network, extensive coverage on ESPN.com and a special 43-hour Masters tribute on ESPN Classic. Live coverage of Wednesday’s Par 3 Tournament will air on ESPN, ESPN 3D and ESPN3.com.

A transcript of the conference call follows the jump.
(continue reading…)

Some Monday Linkage

Ok, let’s provide you with some linkage that’s been missing since early Friday. I was hoping to complete the megalinks, but was out for most of the day helping the family with some issues, then working all day on Saturday and Sunday prevented me from doing weekend stuff.

There’s a lot of stuff today so let’s provide you with linkage and see how much we get today.

James Hibberd of the Hollywood Reporter broke news late last night that ESPN Radio hack Colon Cowherd has sold a sitcom based on himself (who else) to CBS. I won’t be watching that show at all.

At Press Coverage, Dan Levy shares his thoughts on this disastrous sitcom idea.

We have a good amount of stories from the Sports Business Journal today. First, Terry Lefton and John Ourand report on the widening gap between MLB and MLB Advanced Media which forces sponsors to deal with two entities instead of one and has angered Fox in the process.

Don Muret of SBJ looks at the Los Angeles NFL stadium project which is drawing inspiration from the Dallas Cowboys stadium.

SBJ’s Michael Smith has three stories on the combined CBS/Turner Sports entity which is now in control of the NCAA Tournament. His first story is on the sales for the Tournament which is being handled by a joint CBS/Turner staff.

Michael writes that with the NCAA Tournament having as many as four national feeds at once, it means more exposure for advertisers.

And Michael tells us that Turner and CBS are looking to tinker with the NCAA’s corporate cponsor program for cars.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand says even with a losing record, the Dallas Cowboys remain a big TV draw.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Jason Fry writes that sports journalism on the internet begins and ends with the link. On what do you think this site survives?

Dave Kindred also has an article for IU on how journalism is still a decent profession to follow.

Toni Fitzgerald at Media Life Magazine says the NFL dominated the Sunday overnight ratings for both NBC and Fox.

Newsday’s Neil Best notes that Fox missed a play after a brief blackout at the New Meadowlands Stadium during yesterdays Cowboys-Gians game.

Neil notes that fired New York Islanders coach Scott Gordon was trending this morning. 

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick says CBS and ESPN enable the SEC to be a dirty conference. That’s a big stretch there.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has the NFL Week 11 TV schedule for New York’s Capital Region.

Pete says Time Warner Cable will air five local high school football playoff games.

Ken McMillan from the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record notes that Versus will premiere a new nightly NHL highlights show starting tonight.

Dan Steinberg from the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog talks with ESPN’s Mike Tirico who call tonight’s Philadelphia-Washington game on Monday Night Football.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner speaks with MLB Network’s Matt Yallof about the return of Hot Stove.

Tom Jones at the St. Petersburg Times reviews what happened on sports television this past weekend.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle notes the hometown and national calls of the Hail Mary pass that beat the Texans yesterday.

Bob Wolfley from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has crackpot Bill James’ assessment of the Brewers.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business talks with Northwestern’s Athletic Director about an upcoming football game at Wrigley Field.

Dan Caesar from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes that the Cardinals may have a three man announcer rotation in the Fox Sports Midwest TV booth.

Dusty Saunders at the Denver Post tells us to get ready for a huge feast of college basketball starting at midnight.

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

Bruce Dowbigin of the Toronto Globe and Mail notes that referees’ trends should be fodder for TV analysts. Really?

Sports Media Watch notes that last night’s Patriots-Steelers game on NBC did not do as well as last year’s Pats-Colts game.

Joe Favorito says the value of military academies as brands and stories becomes larger every day.

The Big Lead wonders about MLB’s archaic video policy.

Awful Announcing has the video of Screamin’ Gus Johnson calling the Hail Mary at the Jacksonville-Houston game.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid talks with SB Nation CEO Jim Bankoff.

And we will end it there.

It’s The Tuesday Links

Ok, I’ve writing posts for Thursday and Friday, days which I’ll be away and attending a wedding. So they’ll automatically publish so keep your feeds updated. I hope you will enjoy them. They’ll certainly have you debating.

Now to the links.

Eric Fisher in Sports Business Daily mentions that SportingNews.com has relaunched today with more social networking availability and a partnership with Yahoo! Sports.

SBD has various reviews of the new Meadowlands Stadium. 

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch talks with new CBS College Sports analyst Mike Leach who still has a lawsuit pending against his former Texas Tech employerse.

Alex Marvez at FoxSports.com says there’s no excuse for the reporter and photographer who asked Tim Tebow for an autograph following the Denver-Cincinnati preseason game on Sunday.

Also at Fox Sports, Brian Lowry notes that NFL players are becoming fodder for reality shows.

Clay Travis at Fanhouse feels fired Arkansas radio reporter Renee Goark was railroaded by coach Bobby Petrino. 

Gregg Rosenthal of Pro Football Talk says Brett Favre’s official website is having trouble on a day where it appears that the insufferable quarterback is returning to the Minnesota Vikings.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times feels the National Association of Black Journalists should not have accepted a donation from the embattled Barry Bones.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel News writes that ESPN has launched iPhone and iPad apps for its local websites. 

Chris Tribbey in Home Media Magazine notes that ESPN 3D and the Consumer Electronics Association are teaming up to promote 3D television at retailers next month.

Over to Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News who feels YES should have interviewed Kansas City Royals pitcher Bryan Bullington after shutting out the Yankees on Sunday.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks with the family of Pat Tillman about a new movie on his Friendly Fire death in Afghanistan.

Neil has more on the movie in his blog.

You may notice that I’ve been linking to Neil’s stories via the Newsday mobile site. Until Newsday closes access to that, I’ll link to Neil from there. Don’t tell anyone, this is between you and me.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call talks with Comcast SportsNet’s Eagles reporter Ray Didinger who’s happy to be covering a beat once again.

Laura Nachman says two Temple University alums have two national radio networks covered on Sunday mornings.

Leonard Shapiro of the Washington Post feels Jim Gray didn’t represent himself well in the Corey Pavin dispute. 

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner speaks with the author of a new book which instructs women on how to talk sports.

Tom Jones in the St. Petersburg Times looks at what NBC’s Tony Dungy had to say about Jets coach Rex Ryan’s swearing.

Over to Arkansas Business where radio reporter Renee Goark, who was fired for wearing a Florida hat to a Arkansas football press conference, says she’s received death threats. 

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer notes that Reds announcer Thom Brennaman had some bad luck while on vacation.

Gregg Krupa of the Detroit News talks with ESPN’s Mike Tirico who’s had a very busy summer abroad for the Alleged Worldwide Leader.

Steve Kornacki of MLive.com notes that Fox Sports Detroit failed to show an argument in the Tigers dugout during Sunday’s game against the White Sox.

Brian Callaway of the Adrian (MI) Daily Telegram looks at ESPN’s NASCAR production truck.  

Anthony Schoette in the Indianapolis Business Journal writes that the Big Ten Conference is expecting to get big media rights money for its football championship game.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business interviews former Deadspin editor Will Leitch about his new book.

Bob Wolfley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel looks at Fox Sports’ NFL announcing lineup for this season.

The Kansas City Star says columnist Jason Whitlock is leaving the paper. Thanks to The Big Lead for the link.

Paola Boivin of the Arizona Republic talks with former Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner who’s now ready to become an NFL analyst for Fox Sports.

The Los Angeles Times has a roundup of opinion on the Renee Goark firing. 

Nick Green with the Los Angeles Daily News notes that American soccer fans prefer watching games from Europe rather than MLS in their own backyard.

Mark Riddix of Investopedia writes in the San Francisco Chronicle on who is making money on pro sports.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says the man who headed up Canada’s Olympic Broadcasting Consortium now has a new gig.

Emmett Jones of the Sports Business Digest notes that MTV2 is the new home of the Lingerie Football League. Really.

Phil Villareal of the Consumerist blog says Comcast is playing games with NFL Network once again.

Lots of good links today. We’ll end it there.

ESPN Crows About Its Sports Emmy Nominations

ESPN is really happy over its Sports Emmy nominations including those for ABC, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN.com and ESPN Deportes. Overall, the nods total over 50 which is quite impressive. Here’s the release.

ESPN, Inc. – Industry-Leading 54 Sports Emmy Nominations

 

E:60, Outside the Lines & Motorsports Lead the Way; First Nomination for ESPN Deportes

 

New Programming Honored:  Three Each for “30 for 30” Films and SportsNation

ESPN, Inc., earned 54 Sports Emmy Award nominations, the most of any submitting company for the ninth time in 10 years, it was announced today by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.  The total matches the company’s record, set last year.  The winners will be announced Monday, April 26.  

 

ESPN’s nominations encompassed the entire scope of the company’s efforts – studio and event production, including editorial/creative and technical categories for both; original programming from ESPN Content Development; three each for ESPN.com and promotional spots; as well as the first nomination for Spanish-language ESPN Deportes (for The Lost Son of Havana about former baseball pitcher Luis Tiant in the Sports Documentary category).  In addition, numerous individual commentators received nominations:  Mike Breen, Chris Fowler, Jon Gruden (for his first year on Monday Night Football), Kirk Herbstreit, Mike Tirico and Jeff Van Gundy.

 

ESPN2’s newsmagazine, E:60, topped all competitors with seven nominations, including Best Edited Series and four nominees between the Short and Long Features categories.  Five motorsports submissions were nominated, including the Indy 500 on ABC for Best Live Special and three for NASCAR.  Outside the Lines – winner of 11 Sports Emmy Awards in its history – received four nominations (Best Daily Studio Show, and three in the Long Feature category).

 

Other notes:

• Four nominations in studio show categories (SportsCenter, Outside the Lines First Report and Pardon the Interruption for Daily Shows; College GameDay for Weekly Shows, which it won in 2008)
• Three nominations or NFL (Monday Night Football for Production Design/Art Direction and Tech Team Remote, NFL Draft for Tech Team Studio)
• Three nominations for Grand Slam tennis programming (Live Series, Production Design/Art Direction and Writing)
• Three nominations for the “30 for 30” film series (for Best Edited Series, and The Legend of Jimmy the Greek and Without Bias in Sports Documentary)
• Three nominations for ESPN2’s new weekday SportsNation (Production Design/Art Direction, Tech Team Studio and Graphic Design).
• Three nominations for ESPN.com – which has won six Sports Emmys in four years of eligibility (“Super Bowl MVPs” and “Unspeakable” in Sports Programming, and “Sincerely, Lou” in Short Format)
• Three nominations for promo spots, in the Institutional category, for NASCAR, This is SportsCenter and One Game Changes Everything.

 

Overall, ESPN has won 128 Sports Emmy Awards in 22 years of eligibility.  ABC Sports won 160 from 1980 – 2008.

 

ESPN’s nominations by category (all are ESPN, except as noted):

 

Live Special     

Breeders Cup World Championship

Indianapolis 500 (ABC) 

 

Live Series      

Grand Slam Tennis (ESPN2)

 

Live Event Turnaround    

Bassmaster Classic (ESPN2)

World Series of Poker Final Table

 

Sports Documentary      

The Legend of Jimmy the Greek

The Lost Son of Havana (ESPN Deportes)

Without Bias

 

Edited Series    

30 for 30

E:60 (ESPN2)

 

Studio Show/weekly       

College GameDay

 

Studio Show/daily        

Outside the Lines First Report

Pardon the Interruption

SportsCenter

 

Journalism       

E:60 – Wanted: Fugitive (ESPN2)

 

Short Feature    

E:60 – Glory Days (ESPN2)

E:60 – Seeing is Believing (ESPN2)

 

Long Feature     

E:60 – Catfish Hunters (ESPN2)

E:60 – Coach (ESPN2)

Outside the Lines – Andy Murray

Outside the Lines – Carry On

Outside the Lines – Pushing the Limits

 

New Approaches – Sports Programming    

Super Bowl MVPs (ESPN.com) 

Unspeakable (ESPN.com)

 

New Approaches –  Short Format   

Sincerely, Lou (ESPN.com)

 

Studio Host      

Chris Fowler

 

Play-by-Play     

Mike Breen (ABC)

Mike Tirico

 

Studio Analyst   

Kirk Herbstreit

 

Event Analyst   

Jon Gruden

Jeff Van Gundy (ABC)

 

Technical Team Remote    

Monday Night Football

NASCAR (ABC/ESPN/ESPN2)

 

Technical Team Studio    

NFL Draft

NASCAR Pit Studio & Tech Garage (ABC/ESPN/ESPN2)

SportsNation (ESPN2)

 

Editing  

NASCAR Cup Season in Review (ESPN2)

 

Writing 

2009 Open Championship (ABC)

Grand Slam Tennis (ESPN2)

Horse Racing

 

Music   

The Masters

 

Graphic Design   

E:60 (ESPN2)

Red Bull – New Year.  No Limits

SportsNation (ESPN2)

Winter X Games 13

 

Prod.Design/Art Direction       

Monday Night Football

Grand Slam Tennis (ESPN2)

SportsNation (ESPN2)

Indianapolis 500 (ABC)

USA vs. Costa Rica Soccer

 

Technical Achievement    

Virtual Playbook Remote (NBA/College GameDay)

 

Promo – Institutional   NASCAR

One Game Changes Everything

This is SportsCenter

If more releases arrive in the Fang’s Bites inbox, I’ll post them here.

Some Friday Press Releases

I have some releases to post and then I will shut down for the rest of the night. No particular theme.

Starting with CBS College Sports and the programming it will carry tomorrow.

CBS COLLEGE SPORTS NETWORK FEATURES ACTION PACKED COLLEGE FOOTBALL SATURDAY

Army Broadcast to Feature Cadet as Sideline Reporter

For the second consecutive week, CBS College Sports Network’s weekend college football coverage includes a quadrupleheader of games. On Saturday, Sept. 19, action kicks off at NOON, ET as Ball State plays Army from Michie Stadium in West Point, NY. Dave Ryan teams with analyst Jason Sehorn and will be joined on the sidelines by Army cadet Kurt Bujewski, class of 2010, who will provide a Cadet’s perspective of the game.

At 3:30 PM, ET, Virginia takes on Southern Miss, from M.M. Roberts Stadium in Hattiesburg, Miss. Jason Knapp and analyst Akbar Gbaja-Biamila call the action.

In primetime (7:30 PM, ET), New Mexico hosts Air Force from University Stadium in Albuquerque, NM. Tom Hart and analyst Aaron Taylor announce. The Network will also simulcast the Hawaii at UNLV game at 11:00 PM, ET, which is produced by the Mtn. – MountainWest Sports Network.

CBS College Sports Network’s SEC TAILGATE debuts on Saturday, Sept. 19 (11:00 AM-12:00 NOON), live from the University of Florida’s campus in Gainesville prior to the Tennessee-Florida matchup. This week’s show features former University of Florida quarterback Shane Matthews as a guest analyst. Veteran SEC announcer Dave Baker hosts SEC TAILGATE, and is joined by CBSSports.com’s Lauren Shehadi and CBSSports.com senior college football writer Dennis Dodd. CBS Sports’ Sam Ryan anchors coverage from New York with former Tennessee Head Coach Phillip Fulmer and Brian Jones serving as analysts.

To our very first press release sent by Versus. This is to announce a deal with NASCAR to carry a half-hour show focusing on the Top 12 drivers vying for the Sprint Cup.

VERSUS REVS UP ADDITIONAL MOTORSPORTS COVERAGE WITH MULTI-YEAR NASCAR DEAL

 

NEW YORK, N.Y. (September 18, 2009)-VERSUS today announced a multi-year deal with NASCAR to air a fast-paced, up-close HD look at the 12 drivers competing in NASCAR's 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup. The weekly, half-hour series titled Quest for the NASCAR Sprint Cup will air on VERSUS on Tuesday nights at 11 p.m. ET, beginning September 22, and will air each week until the conclusion of the 2009 NASCAR playoff season.  



Quest for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, an adrenaline-filled show that offers motorsports fans stunning race footage with an intimate behind-the-scenes perspective, is a milestone in HD sports programming and was honored with a Sports Emmy® Award for "Outstanding Live Event Turnaround" in 2008. VERSUS and NASCAR will also partner on additional programming opportunities which will be announced when details become available.  

 

"Just as we're about to conclude our first year of IndyCar Series coverage, we look forward to the opportunity to extend our racing season through this new partnership with NASCAR," said Marc Fein, Executive Vice President of Programming, Production and Business Operations for VERSUS. "VERSUS has become a top television destination for motorsports fans with our in-depth and all-encompassing coverage of the IndyCar Series and we are very excited to launch into a multi-year venture with NASCAR to showcase all the action and excitement surrounding their championship run." 



"We are delighted to partner with VERSUS on our Emmy-award winning Quest for the NASCAR Sprint Cup series," said Jay Abraham, Chief Operating Officer of NASCAR Media Group. "With VERSUS being the fastest growing sports cable network in the country, this is one more way in which NASCAR can reach additional fans with the excitement of our playoffs, the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup."

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Monday Night Football, ESPN brought together former play-by-play man and analyst Frank Gifford, current MNF voice Mike Tirico and statistician Steve Hirdt to talk about the long running sports series.

Frank Gifford, Steve Hirdt and Mike Tirico Discuss 40 Seasons of Monday Night Football

ESPN hosted a media conference call Thursday, highlighting Monday Night Football’s 40^th season in advance of this week’s Indianapolis Colts-Miami Dolphins game in Miami (8:30 p.m. ET) which will be played on Sept. 21 — the anniversary date of the first MNF game between the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns in 1970. The call included legendary broadcaster and Pro Football Hall of Famer Frank Gifford, whose 27 years (1971-1997) in the booth make him the longest tenured commentator in MNF history; Steve Hirdt of Elias Sports bureau, the longtime research and statistics guru who has been a member of the MNF production team for the last 28 years; and Mike Tirico, one of the top play-by-play commentators in sports and the current voice of sports television’s signature series.

Select comments from the call:

Gifford on whether there was pressure the first time he stepped into the MNF booth in 1971 …

“Did we feel any pressure? Not really because there was no pressure at ABC period. There were only three networks – CBS, NBC and ABC. … CBS dominated TV at the time, followed by NBC, and ABC was just struggling. It’s something Roone Arledge really wasn’t gambling on. He talked ABC into putting it on Monday night. We were going up against ‘I Love Lucy’ and everyone kind of laughed at the fact that football would be so presumptuous to think that they could put anything on primetime television and certainly not against ‘I Love Lucy’. I think two or three years later ‘I Love Lucy’ moved from Monday night to Wednesday or Thursday because we totally dominated and nothing really has changed.”

Tirico on his MNF experience …

“I am 42 – it has spanned my entire lifetime. The chance to be around Frank and really celebrate the unbelievable television legacy of 40 years, one show, two networks, about 20 of us now in the booth all together, is such a privilege and will be a career highlight no matter how short or long the run turns out to be.”

Hirdt on the specialness of MNF …

“The meter of how many celebrities have been in the booth has gone up and down over time. … Monday night really stood for excellence. If you look back over time, Monday night was the show where so many innovations were born. … Something about the show at night made it unique from the outset. The brilliance of the nighttime pictures and the reflection of the lights against helmets always marked it as special and inspired or propelled the rest of us to bring our game up to the same level.”

Gifford on the night John Lennon’s death was announced on MNF …

“We were on the air the night that John Lennon was killed in New York. We were in Miami and I remember refusing to let Howard (Cosell) make that announcement on the air until we knew for certain that it had indeed happened. Communication not being like it is today, we just got a phone call from New York. I didn’t know whether someone was making it up because I just could not believe that it had happened. It had been just 2-3 years before that I had invited John Lennon to be in our booth in Los Angeles, never dreaming he would come, and he did come. It was an interesting night, because we also had Ronald Reagan, who I had known in the film business. … He was standing there with John Lennon behind the broadcast team and he was trying to explain football to John Lennon. Howard was scheduled to interview governor Reagan at halftime and he turned around and immediately saw that John Lennon was also there. He said, ‘Gifford, you take the governor and I’ll take the Beatle.’”

Hirdt on a memorable MNF moment involving the Miami Dolphins …

“The biggest was between the Bears and Dolphins in 1985 when the Bears had gone unbeaten, coming into Miami and Don Shula had several of his old players who were members of the ’72 Dolphins along the sidelines to urge his current team on, and his current team responded — beat the Bears that night and it was the only loss Chicago had all year.”

Note: throughout MNF’s 40^th season, ESPN is highlighting memorable moments in MNF history with weekly vignettes voiced by and featuring Frank Gifford. Monday’s vignette highlights this legendary game between the Bears and Dolphins from December 2, 1985, which remains the highest-rated game in MNF history (29.6 rating/46 share).

Gifford on the infamous one-finger salute from a MNF game in Houston …

“The one-finger salute, when you have 25-30 million people watching and Howard was pontificating on what a dull game this was. Our director, Chet Forte, was looking to be creative and found somebody sleeping in the stands in the corner of the end zone. Just as we pulled an extreme close up and just as Howard was describing how dull this game really was, this little Houston Oiler fan woke up, saw the lens of the camera from across the field with the little red light and he immediately gave us a we’re No. 1 signal. At least that’s what Don told Howard, ‘How about that Howard, they still think they’re No. 1.’ That was very memorable.”

Tirico on balancing sports and entertainment on MNF …

“If you go back to some of the things Frank spoke of with John Lennon and Ronald Reagan among the many stars that would be in the Monday night booth, to start with, MNF was special and then the pop culture cross-over to it over the 1970’s and 80’s added to that. Over time the series became more about football and less about celebrity, although there were still celebrities that would come by the booth on a pretty regular basis. I think that now we’ve jumped to this 500-channel universe, and there’s so much of that elsewhere, that more and more people want their football in their football and they have 40 other channels if they want to go find the other pop culture and entertainment stuff. I think our initial effort (on ESPN) was to tap into the legacy of Monday night. The reality over time is that people will find those things elsewhere.”

Gifford on whether he’s contemplated being an analyst again for even one night…

“Probably, but not sure I could stay up that late. Not really, nobody has asked me. I have multiple things I do now. … It might be fun to get involved in some ways. I was really intrigued the other day in New England to see what ESPN was doing and how they were doing it. It certainly is intriguing for me when I think back to almost the caveman methods we had at the time, certainly at the beginning. It’s really amazing what you can do to a telecast.”

Gifford on watching MNF now …

“I do marvel at it, because I know the technology that is available to a producer and director and consequently the announcers, and what I really marvel at is how ESPN restrains the use of too much of it. Because I think you can really clutter up a telecast with too much of it. A really good crisp telecast is one that covers the action on the field, the interaction with coaches on sidelines, showing the crowd and how they are reacting to the game and capturing the entire feel of the game without going crazy with all the little toys you have to work with.”

Tirico on the evolution of MNF …

“The times have changed. That quaint world we grew up in or may have cut our teeth in has evolved just like everything else. It’s all a matter of adjustment and being good gatekeepers to what really matters. What will people remember at home on a nightly basis? They don’t care about the choices or the tape machines or how quick you can turn around a highlight. You just have to give them, whether its words, or more importantly the right picture with the right moment, and giving them something to remember.”

Monday Night Football Fun Facts:

First game: Sept. 21, 1970 — Cleveland Browns def. New York Jets, 31-21

Commentators: Howard Cosell, Keith Jackson and Don Meredith

Producer: Roone Arledge

Director: Chet Forte

Total games: 611 regular-season games (on 604 Mondays). Now in its 40^th season, MNF is the 2nd-longest-running primetime show on American television (CBS’ 60 Minutes — 41 years)

Longest MNF commentator tenure: Frank Gifford, 27 seasons (1971-97)

(Steve Hirdt of Elias Sports Bureau has been part of MNF production team for 28 seasons, 1982-present)

Broadcast TV listings for the night MNF made its debut on September 21, 1970:

PM 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30

ABC The Young Lawyers The Silent Force NFL Monday Night Football

CBS Gunsmoke Here’s Lucy Mayberry R.F.D. The Doris Day Show The Carol Burnett Show

NBC The Red Skelton Show Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In NBC Monday Night at the Movies

And HBO sent this short blurb about what we’ll see Tuesday night on the second edition of Joe Buck Live and there’s no mention of Artie Lange.

New segments have been confirmed for the next quarterly edition of HBO Sports’ JOE BUCK LIVE, which debuts TUESDAY, SEPT. 22 (10:00-11:00 p.m. live ET/tape-delayed PT), exclusively on HBO. In addition to a previously announced live gathering featuring three of the NFL’s all-time great quarterbacks – Dan Marino (Dolphins), John Elway (Broncos) and Joe Namath (Jets) – Buck will host a roundtable discussion with newsmakers Jerry Jones (owner of the Dallas Cowboys) and Mark Cuban (owner of the Dallas Mavericks). Buck will also go one-on-one with former baseball star Curt Schilling, who is among the most opinionated observers on the sports scene.

And we’re done. Links back tomorrow morning.

ESPN Odds and Ends

And I have some ESPN releases. Crazy day today. It all started around 9:25 this morning when Comcast and NFL Network announced an agreement and it hasn’t stopped since. I may have to work through lunch break. Insane.

Three ESPN-centric releases and let’s go over the first one. This one deals with Mike Tirico leaving his radio show and leaving it solely in the hands of Scott Van Pelt. Plus, one hour of the show will be simulcast on ESPN2. Why not have the entire ESPN Radio schedule be simulcast on ESPN2?

New Expanded TV and Radio Role for Mike Tirico

Scott Van Pelt Show to be Simulcast on ESPN2 in July, adds Russillo

Accomplished ESPN personality Mike Tirico will expand his ESPN responsibilities with a variety of high-profile TV and radio assignments, including a new weekly pro and college football radio show. In addition to his continuing play-by-play efforts for Monday Night Football and the NBA, and hosting duties on the Masters, NFL Draft and other top events, Tirico will play a prominent role in ESPN’s upcoming TV coverage of U.S. Open tennis, World Cup soccer, BCS games and more.

On the radio side, ESPN Radio’s Tirico & Van Pelt show (2-4 p.m. ET M-F) will become The Scott Van Pelt Show on July 6 when Van Pelt will be joined by Ryen Russillo with the final hour of their show simulcast for the first time on ESPN2.

Tirico’s new radio role will include hosting a weekly two-hour football program (22 weeks of the year) devoted to college and pro football Fridays from 7-9 p.m. He will be joined by a variety of ESPN college and pro football analysts and football newsmakers. Additionally, Tirico will host on-site ESPN Radio shows Super Bowl week, long-form podcasts featuring commentaries and interviews with top newsmakers, and SportsBeat afternoon drive-time commentaries throughout the year. He will also handle radio play-by-play for the NBA Finals, 2010 Rose Bowl and 2010 BCS Championship Game.

“Mike Tirico is one of the industry’s best and a trusted voice for fans,” said Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, production. “A great thing about ESPN is the many existing and new opportunities available for his talents across TV, radio and beyond. On top of that, Scott Van Pelt has become a major radio presence and will continue to provide listeners with his informed perspective and entertaining flair.”

Tirico added, “These two years on the radio show have been awesome. Working with Scott and the rest of our show crew has made it fun to do every day. I look forward to the new television opportunities and the privilege of working two of the world’s most prestigious sporting events. While the schedule will not permit me to do the daily radio grind, I am very excited to continue my long association with ESPN Radio and will be a loyal listener at 2 p.m. Eastern every weekday.”

Russillo, who will join Van Pelt, is a veteran of the Boston radio and TV scene, and knows his way around ESPN Radio’s Bristol, Conn. studios, having hosted several shows and filled in on others in recent years.

“Clearly the show will miss Mike, and I am indebted to him for including me initially,” Van Pelt said. “That said, I am really fired up to get the chance to work with Ryen. He knows as much as anyone in the building about sports and we also have a lot in common aside from our love of sports which I am sure we will explore on air.”

Expanding ESPN Radio on TV

The Scott Van Pelt Show’s simulcast is the latest telecast of ESPN Radio programming which began with Mike & Mike in the Morning on ESPNEWS (April 2004) then ESPN2 (January 2006). The Herd with Colin Cowherd (10 a.m.-2 p.m. M-F) is currently simulcast on ESPNU.

Cowherd will also co-host his own show on ESPN2 starting July 6 when he will be joined by Michelle Beadle on the new daily studio show SportsNation (4-5 p.m. M-F). Radio personalities hosting television shows is not unprecedented, as Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic took their morning show to prime time for an August 2004 special.

This just in and related to the Scott Van Pelt release, ESPN2 will offer a new show co-hosted by ESPN Radio blowhard Colin Cowherd and new ESPN’er Michelle Beadle. Take a look.

ESPN2 Introduces Fan-Interactive Studio Show: SportsNation with Colin Cowherd, Michelle Beadle

SportsNation, The Scott Van Pelt Show Set to Debut Back-to-Back July 6 on ESPN2

SportsNation on ESPN.com to Relaunch May 27

ESPN2 will introduce a new daily studio show, SportsNation, hosted by ESPN Radio personality Colin Cowherd and Michelle Beadle. Taking a cue from ESPN.com’s SportsNation, where fans interact with athletes, coaches, sportswriters, commentators and each other in real time, SportsNation is a live sports television show born from the Internet, fueled by fan interaction and focused on fun. The one-hour weekday show starts Monday, July 6, at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN2, immediately following the television debut of ESPN Radio’s The Scott Van Pelt Show at 3 p.m.

SportsNation

“The fans will have unprecedented input in the show’s daily rundown,” said SportsNation coordinating producer Jamie Horowitz. “Our goal is to bring the fan into our production meetings. The fans choose the topics, provide the angles, and decide how much Brett Favre talk is really needed.”

The show will include discussion of the smaller stories that generate buzz on the Internet but often aren’t seen on television.

“SportsNation will focus on topics that dominate fans’ email exchanges and blogs,” added Horowitz. “The show will be a conversation between people who love sports but don’t take every story so seriously. The funny Web stories everyone forwards to their friends will find a home on SportsNation.”

Feeding off the producers’ theory that if two heads are better than one, 100,000 heads are better than two, SportsNation will engage hundreds of thousands of sports fans across the country via ESPN.com’s SportsNation. Fans will be able to interact with the hosts before, during and after the show by e-mail, text, Twitter or just making a phone call.

“SportsNation will really have three hosts – Colin, Michelle and the fans,” Horowitz said. “We are counting on the fans’ commentary and feedback to make the show unique. I’d like to rely on Colin, but he doesn’t listen to anything we tell him.”

Said Cowherd, “I’m stunned management let me do a TV show. I know what the producers and I find interesting and funny – and it leads me to conclude that we probably won’t be on the air very long.”

Michelle Beadle is also the host of People.com’s popular feature, What You Missed Over the Weekend. She recently joined 1050 ESPN New York as the New York SportsCenter anchor for The Michael Kay Show. Michelle does broadcast work at the YES Network as the New Jersey Nets pre, post-game and sideline reporter and as a co-host for SportsLife NYC, and she was previously the host of the Emmy Award-winning program Ultimate Road Trip. She has worked as a correspondent for NFL Films’ Under the Helmet and as a host for MLB Productions’ Cathedrals of the Game. Michelle has done broadcast work in the past with College Sports Television, CBS Sports, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Travel Channel and TNN, and also previously worked as a freelance reporter for ESPN’s Titan Games.

“My excitement for the show is twofold,” said Beadle. “I am looking forward to seeing the world through my newly-acquired Colin Cowherd glasses and riding his coattails straight to the middle. I know Colin is great at talking. I’m really excited to teach him to listen.”

Added Cowherd, “It will be a great opportunity for Michelle for obvious reasons: She gets to work with me. It’ll be a high wire act. It’ll be dangerous, it’ll be funny. She’ll poke me in the ribs and I’ll fire back. We want to make it as if we’re just goofing off while there happens to be a camera in the room.”

The Scott Van Pelt Show

ESPN Radio’s Tirico & Van Pelt show (2-4 p.m. M-F) will become The Scott Van Pelt Show on July 6 when Tirico will focus on a variety of other network opportunities. Van Pelt will be joined by Ryen Russillo, a veteran of the Boston radio and TV scene, for the final hour of the show, which will be simulcast on ESPN2.

“I look forward to bringing the art work that adorns the wall behind me to the set and I will be leaving hideous messes that Mike and Mike can deal with in the morning,” said Van Pelt.

Van Pelt joins the ranks of already successful televised ESPN Radio shows such as Mike & Mike in the Morning on ESPN2 and Cowherd’s own The Herd with Colin Cowherd on ESPNU, and together with SportsNation adds a fresh punch to the summer lineup on ESPN2.

Van Pelt, who joined ESPN in 2001 as a lead golf reporter and went on to become a top SportsCenter anchor, shares two hours of radio time on weekdays – 2-4 p.m. – with fellow ESPN personality Mike Tirico during ESPN Radio’s Tirico & Van Pelt.

SportsNation on ESPN.com Relaunch

In advance of the television debut, SportsNation on ESPN.com will relaunch with a new design, a more blog-style chronological layout, new live chat index, enhanced features and direct tie-ins to SportsNation on ESPN2.

Each month, SportsNation averages nearly a million unique visitors, and in March 2009 visitors were up 18 percent compared to a year ago. Since its launch on ESPN.com in fall 2003, SportsNation on ESPN.com has hosted more than 4,000 chats annually and more than 10,000 polls – collectively generating and average of more than 100 million fan votes – annually. In 2008, fans logged 154 million votes in SportsNation polls.

ESPN, All England Club Expand Wimbledon Digital Rights Agreement

Nearly 650 Hours of Live ESPN360.com Coverage Across All Courts

More Live Mobile Streaming and Expanded Highlights on ESPN.com

ESPN and the The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club today announced that they have expanded their Wimbledon digital rights agreement in the Americas (U.S., Mexico, Central and South America* and the Caribbean). Under the expanded agreement, starting Monday June 22 ESPN will deliver nearly double the hours of live broadband coverage on ESPN360.com this year, expand its live mobile streaming on ESPN Mobile TV by nearly 60 percent and adds additional highlights on ESPN.com and ESPNdeportes.com.

“Wimbledon is one of the great ‘sports holidays’ on the calendar for fans each year,” said John Skipper, executive vice president, content, ESPN. “Through ESPN’s platforms, the competition, pageantry and personalities of Wimbledon will be available to fans at their desk, in their pocket and on their television like never before.”

ESPN360.com, the company’s signature live sports broadband network, will deliver live coverage of all courts (up to nine, depending on schedule of play) throughout the early rounds, and a total of nearly 650 hours of live coverage between opening day and the semi-finals – nearly doubling the total hours delivered last year.

ESPN360.com will also simulcast ESPN2′s nearly 100 hours of coverage and will have the Wimbledon Finals events on-demand the morning following competition.

In the U.S. in 2009, ESPN360.com will become the first broadband network to deliver live online coverage of all four Grand Slam tennis events – delivering nearly 1300 total hours of combined coverage this year. ESPN360.com’s Wimbledon coverage adds to more than 275 hours of live French Open coverage in May, at least 260 hours of US Open coverage in August and more than 100 hours of Australian Open coverage each year to cement ESPN360.com as the home for live broadband coverage of Grand Slam tennis.

ESPN360 in Mexico and Chile will also deliver all the live coverage delivered in the United States.

In addition, ESPN’s agreement with The All England Club includes:

• ESPN.com & ESPNdeportes.com: The leading sports site will deliver expanded highlights of Wimbledon at ESPN.com/tennis and ESPN.com/video, as well as Spanish-language highlights on ESPNdeportes.com.
• ESPN Mobile TV: ESPN’s 24/7 mobile video network will expand its live mobile streaming coverage, delivering more than 80 hours throughout the tournament.
• Wimbledon Central: ESPN.com will again feature Wimbledon Central, a dynamic content application that will feature the official live scoring for all matches throughout the tournament. Additionally, Wimbledon Central will be available for the first time on the ESPN Mobile Web site.
• ESPN Mobile Web and ESPN MVP: Fans will again be able to follow all the action throughout the championship via ESPN’s industry leading mobile Web site and through the signature ESPN MVP application on Verizon wireless.
• Interactive Television: for the second year, ESPN will offer U.S. tennis fans a six-screen mosaic presentation that can be seen in 18 million homes served by DIRECTV, now extending through the first Saturday of play.
• Wimbledon Archives: in the days leading up to Wimbledon past Wimbledon matches (full and condensed) will be available on-demand through ESPN.com and ESPN360.com.

* Includes all of Central and South America, except Brazil.

A Saturday Linkfest

Well, it’s a drab day in Southern New England, lots of rain and plenty of overcast skies, plus people all go to the Post Office at the same time to send out packages. It’s never fun waiting at the Post Office.

Anyway, time to get to our links.

Starting off with Friend of Fang’s Bites, Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette, he says NBC is hoping the Olympics ratings success will rub off on the rest of its primetime lineup.

Pete Dougherty from the Albany Times Union says NFL fans in the New York State Capital District should be happy with the lineup for Week 1.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says he’ll be watching the reunion of Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann next Sunday on Football Night in America.

Justin Terranova of the New York Post writes in the TV Sports blog that Giants fans get a chance to remember the Super Bowl victory over the Patriots twice this weekend.

Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News writes that Western New Yorkers love their Bills, even with the Olympics on opposite their games twice during the exhibition season.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News talks to NFL Films’ Steve Sabol who says this year’s edition of Hard Knocks was the hardest for him to produce.

Jerry Garcia from the San Antonio Express-News says FSN Southwest will show plenty of Texas high school football games this season.

Gary Washburn of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer talks with ESPN’s Mike Tirico about the Seahawks.

This week, NBC relaunched its “microsite” for Sunday Night Football. There are plenty of bios and other features there.

Jeffrey Flanagan of the Kansas City Star says Chiefs number one draft pick Glenn Dorsey will be part of an ESPN special this weekend.

My good friend, John Crowe of The Crowe’s Nest blog talks with Fang’s Bites fav Tina Cervasio of MSG Network and formerly of NESN.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says with its new cable deals this week, the Big Ten Network is now in 90% of households in its conference footprint.

Andy Piper of the Dubuque Telegraph Herald talks about the Big Ten Network’s long-awaited arrival on Mediacom systems in Iowa.

But Chris Johnson of the Fort Dodge Messenger says BTN is not in a small part of northwest Iowa because it has not been included in that agreement.

Rivals.com looks at what impact the ESPN-SEC deal will have on the basketball part of the conference.

Ron Judd of the Seattle Times wraps up the Communist China Olympics and looks forward to Vancouver in 2010.

Linda Moss of Multichannel News reports that due to Michael Phelps and the Olympics, cable lost viewership in the summer.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell has a video of him shadowing Olympics gold medalist Michael Phelps. Darren was amused by a blog written by the chairman of Marriott International praising Michael who is a spokesman for Hilton Hotels. And Darren feels the NCAA should be compensating players for uniform sales.

Anna Marie De La Puente of Variety says thanks to the Olympics, ratings for NBC Universal’s Telemundo went way up.

Diane Barrett of Variety says by withholding some of its bigger events for primetime, NBC did not get as much revenue online as it might have hoped. I agree with this.

Jim Cota of the Indianapolis Business Journal liked the job NBC did with the Olympics.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star writes that if you watched the Olympics at one time or another, you were part of US history.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette talks about NBC’s Dan Hicks going from the Olypmics to call the PGA Tour’s Deutsche Bank Championship in Norton, MA this weekend.

Going back to the New York Times, good story by Marv Salter on tennis players making the transition from the court to the broadcast booth, citing Justin Gimelstob and Chanda Rubin as examples.

Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media blog says John McCain’s running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, is a former TV sportscaster.

John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable can only confirm that Governor Palin was an intern at TV station KTUU in Anchorage.

But Newsday’s Neil Best who worked in Alaska in the 1980′s provides a little insight on Governor Sarah Palin.

John Lewis of the Sportscaster Chronicles site has a two part interview with Los Angeles Lakers announcer Joel Myers. You can hear the first part of the interview here and part two is here.

The Baltimore Sun says MASN and the Orioles are teaming up to offer $1 tickets in the upper deck of Camden Yards throughout the month of September.

I’ve been working on these links for a while so it’s time for me to do other things.

I do have a Videos of the Week feature coming up for Sunday morning. Since I have my day planned for me tomorrow, don’t expect links until the evening.

Quick Wednesday Afternoon Update

We’ve got a few more links for you on this mid-day Wednesday.

The Sports Business Daily/Journal’s Olympics website reports that NBC’s ratings for the Olympics have held steady through Monday. Tripp Mickle and Jay Weiner discuss the possibilities of Olympic fatigue for Vancouver in 2010 and London in 2012. Great article by Tripp Mickle and John Ourand on the NBC Olympics operations in both Beijing and New York. And John Ourand of the SBD/SBJ write that ESPN is aiming to snatch the 2014 and 2016 Olympics from NBC.

James Hibberd of the Hollywood Reporter says lost in the news about NBC’s Olympics ratings is the fact that the other networks are seeing their lowest ratings ever.

Awful Announcing has a story on Usain Bolt setting a world record in today’s 200 meter dash (*ahem, there’s a reason why that’s in the links … click above and you’ll know why).

Speaking of Awful Announcing, the blog gives us a link to the You’ve Been Blinded site which has the video of a new EA Sports Tiger Woods commercial based on a YouTube video. Great stuff.

A couple of things from Newsday’s Neil Best. First, he blogs that ESPN’s Mike Tirico bid farewell to Shea Stadium this week. Neil took part in a live chat today and Fang’s Bites had several questions for Neil starting at the 11:29 mark.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell writes about Michael Phelps’ apparent wardrobe malfunction at a sponsor’s party in Communist China last night.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News says Chris “Mad Dog” Russo went to Sirius XM Satellite Radio for the money.

I forgot to link to this last night, Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch says WEEI has signed a deal with a Portland, ME radio station to simulcast its signal.

Maury Brown of the Biz of Football talks about Warren Sapp joining Inside the NFL.

That’s it for now.

The Wednesday Links

Here we go with your links today. Let’s get started.

With USA Today’s Michael Hiestand talks about CBS Sports taking back Dan Fouts after a stint at ESPN/ABC and bringing in Warren Sapp for Inside the NFL.

Paul J. Gough of the Hollywood Reporter writes that CBS and ESPN are seeing good ad sales for the NFL despite the sluggish economy.

Mike Shiels from Mediaweek says CBS will launch an NFL web-only show during the season.

Newsday’s Neil Best writes in his blog that Sirius XM President and CEO Mel Karmazin wanted to know where Neil got his source from regarding the Chris Russo-to-satellite radio story. Neil writes a story about the Mad Dog being introduced at Sirius headquarters yesterday. Neil talked with WFAN/CBS’ Boomer Esiason about the Mike & the Mad Dog split. Neil also got reaction from CBS’ Phil Simms who was a regular guest with Mike & the Mad Dog. Neil gets reaction from ESPN’s Mike Tirico about Mike & the Mad Dog.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times talks about Chris Russo going to Sirius XM. Richard also writes about ESPN’s high interest in bidding for the 2014 and 2016 Olympics.

Stuart Elliot of the Times looks at the ads targeted at women during the Olympics.

Tim Mullaney and Gillian Wee of Bloomberg News says NBC’s Olympic viewing has declined since Michael Phelps’s part of the Games are over.

Tim Cuprisin of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says NBC is adding online viewers to its overall viewing audience for the Olympics. Bob Wolfley of the Journal Sentinel writes a majority of viewers for the Olympics are women.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell catches up with gymnastics gold medalist Nastia Liukin.

Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media blog says calling Olympic events off a monitor in New York is not the same as having the announcers in Communist China.

Tim Lemke of the Washington Times writes that Michael Phelps could see as much as $100 million in endorsements.

From the Washington Post, Leonard Shapiro gives us his loves and hates of NBC’s Olympics coverage. Paul Farhi of the Post has some suggestions for NBC on how to improve its coverage. And Paul notices that the “Up Close and Personal” features are shorter this year.

I just saw that Usain Bolt of Jamaica won the 200 meters in a record time of 19.30 seconds, breaking Michael Johnson’s 19.32 set in Atlanta.

Ron Judd of the Seattle Times was touched by one particular moment at the weightlighting venue yesterday. And Ron is excited by ESPN’s promise to do the 2014 and 2016 Olympics live if it wins the bid.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News writes that NBC’s gymnastics analysts were hardly objective.

Steve Springer of the Los Angeles Times agrees.

T.J. Simers of the Times has Dodgers 2nd baseman Jeff Kent backtracking from his comments about Vin Scully.

Joe Favorito talks about the Baltimore Orioles honoring its 50 millionth fan entering Camden Yards last week.

Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record talks about Versus adding to its college football lineup.

That’s all for now.

Quick Tuesday Afternoon Update

As I’m trying to wrap a few loose ends before calling it a day, let me give you a few links.

Newsday’s Neil Best after not blogging on Monday returns to blogging on Tuesday. He has a couple of ESPN-related posts. One is on the ESPN Films unit that produced four sports documentaries that will be seen over the next four weeks. Then Neil breaks news that ESPN Radio has tapped Scott Van Pelt to be a permanent co-host with Mike Tirico from 1 – 3 p.m., then host the 3 p.m. hour vacated by Steven A. Smith.

In fact, ESPN has announced that the Mike Tirico Show will be rebranded as “Tirico & Van Pelt”. Oooooh. That will snatch listeners.

Neil ‘s Newsday colleague Anthony Rieber writes about various websites run by baseball players.

Bill Ordine of the Baltimore Sun writes in his blog that Miguel Tejada is saying ESPN misled his family to get his birth certificate. Here’s the original story from Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com.

Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek writes that TNT got a boost from the NBA Playoffs, but could not overcome USA Network at the top of the cable ratings.

The Arizona Republic reports that FSN Arizona is adding a new channel to accomodate a conflict between the Diamondbacks and the Suns this Friday.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says you can’t ask for a better spokesman for Earth Day than Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette gives an update about a Time Warner Cable interruption into the Minnesota-Colorado game on Versus last Saturday night.

Awful Announcing says the National Spelling Bee will get a new host (Tom Bergeron) and a new sideline reporter (Erin Andrews). Erin is the only reason why I would link to this story.

The Boston Sports Media Watch has a new candidate for the Approval Ratings, Boston Globe hockey writer Kevin Paul Dupont.

The Late Show with David Letterman will have Danica Patrick as a guest on Wednesday.

That will do it. I’ll have another update tonight.

Day of the Thursday Links

I was trying to be creative but with my brain fried already this morning, that’s the best I could do. Sorry.

Let’s just do the links.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette says CBS Sports’ Nick Faldo is gaining on NBC’s Johnny Miller as most entertaining golf analyst on TV. Doyle also touches on the Bruins as the team begins its playoff series with Montreal tonight.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell talks with the extremely hot Alona Bondarenko about her K-Swiss ad.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says that CBS Sports’ David Feherty will be the subject of his media column tomorrow.

Peter Kerasotis of the News-Press of Florida says ESPN should tone itself down on The Masters. Look, to all these media critics who think Chris Berman is going to be on the broadcast or that viewers will see all of the regular bells and whistles from ESPN, CBS will be producing the broadcast today and tomorrow and the only ESPN staffer on site will be Mike Tirico. The broadcast will not be any different than it was when USA Network carried The Masters. These writers should get it out of their heads that ESPN is taking over or is producing the broadcast.

Jerry Potter of USA Today says The Masters’ strategy of moving to ESPN was to make the tournament global.

Mick Elliot of the Tampa Bay Tribune says Augusta National is comfortable going to ESPN.

Steven Uhles of the Augusta (GA) Chronicle saw the first ever broadcast of The Masters’ Par 3 Contest from inside the ESPN production trailer.

Jonathan Heeter of the Macon (GA) Telegraph has what you won’t hear during ESPN’s telecast of The Masters.

Adam Van Brinner of the Athens (GA) Banner-Herald says ESPN has to tread lightly at the Masters this week.

John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News writes that Comcast SportsNet Bay Area suffered through an overlap between the A’s and Sharks and missed much of the first period of Game 1 of its playoff game.

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail says CBC Sports did not televise Game 1 of the Ottawa-Pittsburgh series in HD last night.

The Boston Globe reports that the Red Sox will be placed on NESNplus while the Bruins will be on the main NESN channel.

Newsday’s Neil Best asked CBS why it did not send its studio crew to the Final Four last week and basically got the brushoff. And Neil says ratings for the NCAA Women’s Tournament were up for ESPN.

Langston Wertz, Jr. of the Charlotte Observer says CBS is putting NCAA Tournament games on too late.

Wally Hall of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette talks with ESPN college basketball analyst Jimmy Dykes.

Also from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Rick Kushman says broadcasting the Olympics from Communist China will be a moral dilemna for NBC.

That’s it for this morning. Back later.

Your Tuesday Links Are Here

Time for me to give you the links. Sorry about the delays.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks about ESPN crashing The Masters party. Neil has the winners in the sports category of the New York Emmy Awards. Neil has noticed that YES is trying to add some revenue streams during the Mike & the Mad Dog WFAN simulcast. And Neil says the college basketball studio analysts on both CBS and ESPN questioned Memphis coach John Calipari not calling for his team to foul before Mario Chalmers’ three pointer to tie the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship last night. Neil reports SNY has hired former Mets outfielder Daryl Strawberry for the studio.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News goes after MSG Network again.

The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir talks about William Shea who helped to bring the Mets to New York after the National League had left the city and whose name is on the stadium where the Mets are playing their final season.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell blogged from the Nike Olympic Innovation Summit on Monday.

Los Angeles Business reports that ESPN has signed a video syndication deal with AOL. Ben Grossman of Broadcasting & Cable has more on the online deal.

Dave Del Grande of the Oakland Tribune says incoming Cal basketball coach Mike Montgomery enjoyed his two year stint on TV and radio.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News talks about ESPN’s Dick Vitale being inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Doug Fernandes from the Sarasota (FL) Herald-Tribune also writes about Vitale’s reaction. Kamon Simpson of the Bradenton (FL) Journal also has a story on the Vitale induction.

A few things from the Sports Media Watch. First, it wonders why CBS chose to keep its studio show in New York for the Final Four. Next, the overnight ratings for the Memphis-Kansas game on CBS were down. And here are the final weekend ratings.

John Consoli of Mediaweek says ratings for the Final Four on CBS were down 6% from last year.

Michael David Smith of the AOL Sports Fanhouse blog says CBS showed its signature video “One Shining Moment” too late for East Coast viewers. And if you missed it, here it is:

Daniel Shirley of the Macon (GA) Telegraph discusses ESPN coming into Augusta for The Masters.

Carlos Monarrez from the Detroit Free Press talks with Michigan native Mike Tirico about his hosting The Masters for ESPN this week.

George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal says Cleveland TV is mourning the loss of a legendary broadcaster.

Jefferson George of the Charlotte Observer says the NBA’s Bobcats have a new arena naming rights deal as well as a new TV home.

Turning now to the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that FSN Pittsburgh will be picking up two Penguins playoff games and dropping two Pirates games in the process.

Judd Zulgad of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune writes that FSN North and KSTC will alternate televising games for the Wild-Colorado series.

Rich Hofman of the Philadelphia Daily News writes that the Philadelphia-Washington series will be showcased nationally by both Versus and NBC.

Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun writes in his blog that NBC Sports is tacking on a half hour to its Kentucky Derby broadcast.

If my computer works tonight, I’ll have an update this evening. Expect Primetime & Late Night picks coming up.

It’s Your Friday Megalinks

Here we are with the Friday megalinks once again.

For your weekend viewing, the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Final Fours will be on CBS and ESPN respectively.

CBS Sports has the glamor matchups with all four men’s number one seeds intact. UCLA and Memphis will tip off at 6:07 p.m. with North Carolina taking on Kansas in an old school matchup at 8:47 p.m. Jim Nantz and Billy Packer will call the action. Greg Gumbel, Clark Kellogg and Seth Davis will be hosting from somewhere in the Alamodome rafters. Westwood One Radio begins its coverage at 4 p.m. with the unbearable Tommy Tighe hosting. Then Kevin Kugler, Bill Raftery and John Thompson will be courtside with the venerable Jim Grey on the sidelines.

ESPN couldn’t be happier having Tennessee and Connecticut in the Women’s Final Four in Tampa. Both teams are on a collision course for the finals, but they have to get by their semifinal opponents. UConn will play Stanford at 7 p.m. with Tennessee squaring off against LSU at approximately 9:30 p.m. Mike Patrick and Doris Burke will be calling the games with Rebecca Lobo and Holly Rowe on the sidelines. Trey Wingo, Kara Lawson and the always lovely Stacey Dales will be hosts. On Westwood One, Beth Mowins and Deb Antonelli will have the call.

If you want to avoid basketball, there’s baseball. Fox and TBS begin their national packages this weekend. Fox Sports will have three games, Mets at Atlanta, White Sox at Detroit and the Dodgers playing So Cal rival San Diego. I have the regional splits and announcing assignments here. TBS premieres its Sunday afternoon package with the Toronto Blue Jays hosting the World Champion Boston Red Sox. Also on Sunday, the Cubs host Houston on WGN and ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball stops in Detroit to see the Tigers host the White Sox.

The last PGA Tour stop before The Masters next week is the Shell Houston Open and it will be on NBC on both Saturday and Sunday. The LPGA’s first major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship is on ESPN Saturday at 6:30 p.m. and CBS Sunday at 3.

Motor sports will be aplenty this weekend. The Formula 1 circuit is in Bahrain on the Speed Channel, Sunday at 7 a.m. NASCAR’s Nationwide Series is in Fort Worth on ABC Saturday and the Sprint Cup Series’ Samsung 500 is on Fox at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday. The Indy Car Racing Series heads to St. Petersburg on ESPN also on Sunday.

The NBA has a doubleheader on ABC on Sunday starting at 1 p.m. ESPN has a special Saturday NBA telecast with Orlando taking on Cleveland at 3 p.m.

NBC has its last regular season game with an Original Six matchup, the Chicago Blackhawks taking on the Detroit Red Wings, Sunday at 12:30 p.m.

For tennis fans, CBS Sports has the women’s and men’s finals of the Sony Ericsson Open on Saturday and Sunday respectively.

NBC has the prep races for the Kentucky Derby on Saturday with coverage of the Santa Anita Derby and Wood Memorial starting at 5 p.m.

Now let’s get to your links.

As always, we start with Michael Hiestand of USA Today says CBS’ Jim Nantz can actually be a cutup. Could have fooled me. Here is your complete schedule for sports viewing this weekend.

Let’s start off with the South Region today and work our way north then west. It’ll make sense when all is said and done.

South

In The State, located in Columbia, South Carolina, Doug Nye is not a fan of the Nike commercial that states there are no Cinderellas. It’s a good ad, but Nye feels the message is wrong.

Here’s another media writer who wondered why Chris Berman was left out to host The Masters when ESPN got the contract last year. Dave Darling of the Orlando Sentinel says Berman might have been an obvious choice, but looking closer, it’s probably better to have Mike Tirico in the Butler Cabin for the Alleged Worldwide Leader. Believe me, just because Berman does one tournament a year (U.S. Open), he’s not an obvious choice.

Barry Jackson from the Miami Herald says the NFL Network is no closer to getting on basic cable on many of the major providers’ systems.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle talks with NBC’s Dan Hicks who’s in town to call the Shell Houston Open.

Mel Bracht in the Oklahoman has a story on a local sports radio host who’s been recovering from a serious illness. In his weekly notebook, Bracht says Oklahoma University’s baseball team will be on TV throughout the weekend. And Mel has his usual viewing picks.

Midwest

The Chicago Tribune’s Teddy Greenstein says ESPN will be keeping it low key during The Masters.

George M. Thomas from the Akron Beacon Journal writes that this weekend’s Men’s Final Four will make history in more ways than one.

In the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bob Wolfley says the Brewers have renewed their radio rights with long-time home WTMJ.

Judd Zulgad from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune writes that NBC has ignored the Minnesota Wild this season despite the team being on top of its division.

Paul Christian in the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin says college basketball fans will finally get some compelling games this weekend.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Nancy Marrapese-Burrell of the Boston Globe writes that NESN will have to deal with a rare Red Sox-Bruins conflict tonight.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News says the Yankees and Mets will oversell their final seasons in their respective stadia this year.

New York Post curmudgeon Phil Mushnick says 1050 ESPN Radio did Yankees fans a disservice this week by not mentioning the mysterious mist-out of the season opener on Monday.

Newsday’s Neil Best writes that recently named New York Knicks President Donnie Walsh is trying to kill the media with kindness. And you can help Neil write a column for this Sunday. He’s asking you to list your favorite and worst sports-themed TV shows. And he follows it up with another blog entry. And Neil noticed that the CBS Orchestra played “You Talk Too Much” when snake Jose Canseco made his appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman earlier this week.

Some sports radio-related posts from Laura Nachman’s Philadelphia TV and radio blog today. She first wonders why WPEN does not air ESPN Radio’s John Kincade Show on Sunday mornings. Kincade is a Philly native. Next, ESPN’s Jayson Stark will be a weekly guest on WPEN. And Laura has the updated schedules for both WIP and WPEN after the stations went through some recent talent shuffles.

Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun has a Final Four-related sports media news and notes column today.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner talks with Fox Sports MLB analyst Tim McCarver about the Orioles.

West

Scott D. Pierce of the Deseret (UT) Morning News says the Mountain West Conference TV schedule for football may not satisfy everyone.

The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Jay Posner talks with Fox Sports’ Jeanne Zelasko who returns to her role as MLB studio host after surviving a cancer scare earlier this year. Jay has the ratings for last weekend.

The North County Times’ John Maffei also talks with Jeanne who also had to deal with the sudden death of her father and her sister having an aneurysm last year.

Jim Carlisle in the Ventura County Star says ESPN’s Mike Tirico moves into the Butler Cabin at Augusta National for The Masters this year.

The Los Angeles Times’ Christine Daniels says CBS’ Billy Packer likes to talk about other things, not himself. And Daniels talks about Vin Scully’s 50 years in LA as Voice of the Dodgers.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News writes that former Sports Illustrated writer Rick Reilly is now raking in the cash with his new contract for ESPN and the movie “Leatherheads” which he co-wrote. Hoffarth has some more on the life of Reilly in his blog. And Tom’s extensive media notes from his blog can be found right here.

In his Morning Buzz column, John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News talks about a few Final Four-related items.

Canada

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail reports that NBC is close to renewing its TV deal with the NHL for next season.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says curling fans will have to scramble to watch the World Men’s Championships this weekend.

Blogs

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says don’t look now, but Jose Canseco could be the best selling sports author of all time.

Maury Brown from the Biz of Baseball blog tries to explain the archaic and confusing MLB TV blackout rules.

The Sports Media Journal is now in the Finals of the Sports Radio Madness sports host contest.

The Big Lead says ESPN is using fake coyotes to get rid of a geese problem on its Bristol, CT campus. This story is not a joke.

Awful Announcing has the video of ESPN’s Steve Lavin almost … almost getting into an uncomfortable situation when he spotted fellow analyst Jimmy Dykes’ wife and daughter.

In his Sports Marketing and Public Relations blog, Joe Favorito says Topps outdid itself by putting out April Fools Day baseball cards.

The Eye on Sports Media blog has a talent profile of Arizona Diamondbacks TV announcer Darren Sutton, son of pitcher Don.

That will do it.

Some Sunday Evening Links

I’ve been out all day and I just got back. Time for me to give you the links from the Sunday papers.

Last night, I made a post about Newsday’s Neil Best celebrating Cornell University’s trip to the NCAA Tournament by running nude around his block. Not only did I reference Neil, but also his colleague, Bob Glauber. Both have their own takes on the post, first Neil correctly says it’s rather disturbing and second, Bob is now asking for readers to send in Photoshopped pics of Neil’s head on a nude body. If that isn’t disturbing, I don’t know what is. Anyway, we move on.

Since I started with Neil Best, I might as well continue with his Sunday column in Newsday which is about Jon Bon Jovi talking about his ownership of the Arena Football League’s Philadelphia Soul and trying to raise the AFL’s very low ratings on ESPN2. Also from his blog, Neil has good news for Mets fans, Ralph Kiner will work an estimated 20 games on SNY.

Moving to other columnists, the constantly angry Bob Raissman of the New York Post doesn’t like ESPN hiring Bob Knight.

Dan Daly of the Washington Times puts his tongue firmly in cheek when he says Knight will breathe life into ESPN.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick shows his hate for WFAN’s Mike Francesca.

Bryan Curtis writes in the New York Times’ Play Magazine about two of the bigger media free agents in the last year, Dan Patrick and Rick Reilly.

Iliana Limón of the Orlando Sentinel says ESPN is experiencing growing pains. Also from the Sentinel, Jerry Greene talks with ESPN’s Mike Tirico.

We talked about this earlier, but the Detroit Free Press has picked it up. Chris Silva and Tom Lang say that two female high school wrestlers in Battle Creek, MI will be profiled on ESPN’s Outside the Lines.

Alexander Parker of the Lawrence (KS) Journal-World & News says Kansas University students were out in force for College Gameday yesterday.

Rich Fahey of the Boston Globe talks with Boston sports and news anchor Bob Halloran about his book on boxer Irish Mickey Ward.

The Sports Media Watch has its weekly weekend ratings predictions.

Steve Wiseman of The State says the South Carolina High School League put its basketball championship games for view on the web and it was a success.

George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal talks about the challenges facing the Arena Football League including its TV contract as a new season gets underway.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star writes about a college that teaches sports reporting.

That’s it for now.

Friday Update Time

Let’s give you some links before the weekend officially arrives.

Randell Mell of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel says the Big Ten Network chose the right year to launch.

Scott Pierce of the Deseret (UT) News says TV is a major reason for a conference to expand and it’s not a good enough reason for the Mountain West Conference to add Boise State as has been rumored recently.

Michael Zuidema of the Grands Rapids Press looks at Mike Tirico who did his first two shows for ESPN Radio this week.

I keep forgetting to link to Paul Christian of the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin. This week, Christian writes that Packer fans in the local area won’t be able to watch their team this Sunday because the Vikings are on opposite them and Rochester is a Vikings secondary market.

David Goetzl of the Media Daily News writes that ESPN will hold a town meeting on Michael Vick next Tuesday.

Jackie Majerus of the Bristol (CT) Press writes that ESPN officials are happy that a busy street that intersects its campus has been shut down to traffic.

Tony Barnhart of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that SEC fans aren’t happy about CBS Sports’ scheduling perks that allows the network to choose a game, on occasion, six days in advance.

Mike Kays of the Muskogee (OK) Phoenix says the only reason why Tulsa is playing Oklahoma tonight on what usually is a high school football night is money.

TV Week’s Chris Pursell has a new entry in his Pressbox blog and it’s concerning Sugar Ray Leonard talking about boxing and Mixed Martial Arts on TV. One is gaining popularity while the other is not.

The Buffalo Business First newspaper reports that the Sabres will have 71 games on MSG and seven on Versus.

Christine Daniels of the LA Times has her first Sound & Vision column after Larry Stewart left the media beat last week.

Tim Lemke of the Washington Times writes in his Sports Business blog about Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic starting a new overflow channel.

The Sports Media Watch blog gives the weekend rating predictions. And Paulsen notes that college football on ESPN/ESPN Classic and ABC all did well last weekend. Thank you for the links, Paulsen.

Tom Hoffarth of the LA Daily News reports in his Farther Off the Wall blog that DeMarco Farr has left his radio job in an attempt at an NFL comeback. Farr was last played in the NFL in 2000.

That’s it for now. Coming up for tonight are Primetime Viewing Picks, Weekend Viewing Picks, College Football Viewing Picks, NFL Viewing Picks, NFL Picks for Week 3 and even more links for Saturday morning. Keep it here.

Friday Mega Links

Here are your regular Friday links. Lots of stuff. Today, I’ll start it in the Midwest, then head South, head East and back out West.

Our usual start is Michael Hiestand of USA Today and he writes about TBS setting up its MLB postseason announcing lineup.

From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Bob Wolfey writes that ESPN’s Brent Musberger and Kirk Herbstreit are road warriors for different reasons. Both will be doing the Iowa-Wisconsin game Saturday night. Herbstreit will be flying in from Tuscaloosa, AL after doing College Gameday while Musberger has to leave right after the game for NASCAR duties in Delaware the following day. ESPN should reconsider this arrangement.

Judd Zulgad of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune wants Charles Barkley in the Monday Night Football booth more often.

David Barron in today’s Houston Chronicle writes that CBS’ Ian Eagle and Solomon Wilcotts doing their most imporatant Texans game this Sunday.

Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel asks readers where they stand in the Bright House/FSN situation. Also in the Sentinel, Dave Darling previews a new show looking at the science in sports on FSN.

Doug Nye in the State says Time Warner Cable is adding TBS in HD just in time for the MLB postseason. Nye naturally picks the South Carolina-LSU game as his best bet for the TV viewing weekend.

We’re glad to see that Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun is well enough to write his weekly Friday columns. He’s back this week to report that Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic will have an overflow channel in case of conflicting events.

Laura Nachman of the Bucks County Courier Times has a story on Ron Jaworski and Suzy Kolber returning to the Delaware Valley for Monday Night Football earlier this week.

In the New York Daily News, Bob Raissman says the NFL is on the hunt for the person who leaked the Patriots spy tape to Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer.

Newsday’s Neil Best reviews WFAN’s Boomer and Carton in the Morning show. And Best says in his blog that his review is constructive criticism. Best also reports that the New Jersey Devils have rehired Sherry Ross, hockey writer for the Daily News, as their radio analyst. She did that job in the mid-1990′s, quite well I might add.

Hoo boy. The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick goes after ESPN’s Ron Jaworski for sounding like a blowhard. Harsh. I disagree. I think Jaworski is doing a good job and meshes well with Tony Kornheiser and Mike Tirico. The Post’s Justin Terranova has five questions for ESPN’s Steve Phillips.

Big news from the FSN New England/Celtics luncheon yesterday, long time C’s TV analyst Tommy Heinsohn will be cutting back on his schedule. He and play-by-play man Mike Gorman have worked together for 27 years, the longest of any broadcast team in the country. Former UConn standout Donny Marshall will work the games that Heinsohn will skip. The Boston Globe’s Susan Bickelhaupt has more on this story.

Boston Sports Media Watch’s David Scott reports that the Red Sox will be reducing Glenn Geffner’s role in the radio booth if not eliminate it altogether. GOOD NEWS!!!!!!

Now heading out west, Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune has CBS’ Phil Simms advising Chargers fans not to panic in the wake of the Patriots destruction last Sunday night. Simms is working the Chargers-Packers game on Sunday. Posner also gives us the ratings from the San Diego market last week.

John Maffei in the North County Times reviews the baseball TV broadcast teams across the country and says he would take the Padres broadcasters over most of them.

Jim Carlisle in the Ventura County Star writes about a local high school football rivalry game getting radio coverage. In his blog, Carlisle reviews the first Mike Tirico Show on ESPN Radio.

Tom Hoffarth in the LA Daily News writes about DodgerTalk host Bob Harvey getting into trouble with the team for voicing his opinions. Hoffarth’s Farther Off the Wall blog has the transcript of the show that got Harvey into trouble and more media notes.

To Canada and the Toronto Star, Chris Zelkovich writes about the changes in Hockey Night in Canada this season.

And the Toronto Globe and Mail’s William Houston also has a story on the revamped HNIC.

Those are your links for now. I’ll have more in the afternoon.

Thursday Afternoon Links

Ok, let’s give you some more links today.

Maury Brown in the Biz of Baseball site has a story from Sports Business Daily about the rise in TV ratings for 21 MLB teams. Teams like the Brewers, Indians, Dodgers, Cubs and Mariners are seeing major increases from last year.

Neil Best blogs about Mike Tirico’s cast of characters for his ESPN Radio show.

From his Farther Off the Wall blog, the LA Daily News’ Tom Hoffarth writes about the winner of a Maddencruiser contest.

I forgot to link to this last week, but the Head Chick in Charge at the excellent Leave the Man Alone blog has her fashion roundup from last week both on TV and on the field. Btw, Sage Steele (a Fang Bites fav from Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic) looks good on ESPN.

Awful Announcing looks at the first Mike Tirico show.

CBS Sports previews the NFL Today as Dan Marino will talk to Brett Favre. And CBS has a preview of its college football Saturday.

The Pac 10 has announced its Women’s Basketball schedule. All but one game will be on FSN.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News writes that the Redskins-Eagles game was the highest rated sports telecast on ESPN in 2007.

That’s it for now.

It’s Thursday. I’m Here and it’s Time for Some Links

Finished my work over at the jobsite so it’s time to provide you with some links.

Over to the SOX & Dawgs site which has a petition seeking to have Glenn Geffner removed from the Red Sox Radio booth.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell has a story on Dale Earnhardt, Jr. who yesterday announced his new number for next year’s NASCAR Nextel Cup season and his new sponsor.

Neil Best of Newsday blogs about that MSG Network has not covered the Isiah Thomas sexual harassment trial. Best also mentions that Fox’ Troy Aikman doing a Giants game usually means a loss for the New York team (Best also works in a shot of Jessica Alba posing with Aikman).

Bill Doyle of the Worcester (MA) Telegram & Gazette writes about the NFL TV analysts taking their shots at Bill Belichick and FSN New England changing over to Comcast SportsNet New England a week from this Monday. And here’s a press release from Comcast about the FSN New England takeover in time for Celtics season.

Jim Williams in his Examiner blog breaks news that the Washington Nationals have decided to drop Bob Carpenter from the TV booth. Bad move in my opinion. Carpenter is a very good announcer and should be able to pick up a job for next season. Mark Zuckerman of the Washington Times has more on the story.

Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post writes about the end of RFK Stadium.

ESPN announces that Scott Van Pelt will be Mike Tirico’s replacement host and be a regular contributor along with Kirk Herbstreit and the lovely Michelle Tafoya. The Tirico show premieres on ESPN Radio today. Judd Zulgad of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune talks about Minnesota native Tafoya joining the Tirico show.

Mike McGraw of the Chicago Daily Herald talks with Big Ten Network anchor Mike Hall. And McGraw has six questions for the Antichrist.

Joanne C. Gerstner of the Detroit News advises readers not to blame the media when negative stories about sports surface.

The Louisville Courier-Journal reports that last Saturday’s Louisville-Kentucky game was the highest rated program ever on ESPN Classic.

David Hinckley of the New York Daily News talks with the new Program Director of ESPN Radio New York.

Shawn Gauby of the Drexel University school newspaper, the Triangle, talks with Drexel alumnus Chris McKendry of ESPN.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Bob Wolfey notes it’s been 25 years since the Packers, Wisconsin and the Brewers have all had winning seasons at the same time plus he talks about Donovan McNabb’s comments on Real Sports.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star has a story on former “Bachelor” star Jesse Palmer who’s doing TV analysis work with TSN, ESPN and CTV.

Jeffrey Flanagan of the Kansas City Star talks with ESPN’s Suzy Kolber about sideline reporting and her role on NASCAR broadcasts.

Dave Weekley of the Charleston (WV) Gazette says the West Virginia-Maryland game on ESPN last Saturday did well in the ratings.

Carroll Rogers of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution blogs about the return of Chip Carey to the Atlanta Braves booth. And here’s Rogers’ story on Carey.

AT&T cellular customers can see the College Gameday guys, Chris Fowler, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit on their phones.

Tim Povtak of the Orlando Sentinel writes that Bright House cable customers may not be able to see 35 Magic games on FSN. Some 42 games will remain on Sun Sports.

Dana Pennett O’Neil of the Philadelphia Daily News says she can relate to Donovan McNabb’s comments on Real Sports.

Erik Boland of Newsday talks with WFAN’s Ann Liguori who starts a new golf interview show on WLIU Radio this Saturday.

Sam Amick of the Sacramento Bee says 74 Kings games will be broadcast on Comcast SportsNet and KXTV.

That’s it for now. Check back for an update later.