Fang's Bites

Let’s Do The Friday Megalinks

Lots of things to get to today. Couldn’t do the links yesterday. Going to do a big megalink edition for you.

Let’s get cracking, but first, there’s the Weekend Viewing Picks complete with a link to the busy College Basketball Viewing Picks which will be updated throughout the weekend.

National

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand talks with Oscar-winner and ESPN college football analyst Ed Cunningham.

Sports Illustrated issued a statement standing by its feature story this week by George Dohrmann on UCLA’s troubles.

Yesterday, Captain Blowhard, a.k.a Bill Simmons of Grantland interviewed President Obama for his podcast. I haven’t listened to it nor read the transcript as I don’t want to be bothered. Dan Levy of Bleacher Report did and had some problems with it.

Tony Manfred of the Business Insider’s Sports Page lists some writers who were most likely jealous over Simmons’ sitdown with the President.

Sports Business Daily says Captain Blowhard threw a hissy fit this week after Duke refused to issue a credential to one of Grantland’s writers for Saturday’s game against North Carolina.

Tim Baysinger at Broadcasting & Cable writes that NFL Today and Inside the NFL host James Brown will become a special correspondent for CBS News.

Gabriel Beltrone of Adweek writes that Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant is pitching Sprint phones.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life says thanks to Super Bowl XLVI, NBC won the February sweeps, marking the third straight year that sports has steered the month.

Ryan Berenz of Channel Guide Magazine writes that NBC Sports Network will be all over a French bicycle race this month.

Maury Brown at the Biz of Baseball says while we know MLB will announce expanded Wild Card Playoff games today, we don’t know which network will air them.

Sam Mamudi of Marketwatch.com writes that the competition among mainstream sports websites is very intense.

Pam Modarelli-Hegner at Sports TV Jobs writes about the types of personalities and egos journalists encounter when interviewing athletes.

Awful Announcing’s Matt Yoder writes in Puck Drunk Love about ESPN’s failure to cover the NHL.

In his regular site, Matt says CNBC’s Darren Rovell assigned his baby daughter several social networking accounts on her first day on earth.

Brady Green at AA has video of the Toronto Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia’s very funny impression of ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian that aired on Baseball Tonight.

John Daly at the Daly Planet looks at Showtime’s Inside NASCAR program taking the spring and summer off after one episode this week.

Barry Petchesky over at Deadspin notes that ESPN came up with another potentially racist headline for an Asian-American athlete.

Rachel Margolis at ESPN’s Front Row PR blog talks with college basketball analyst Brooke Weisbrod who has a rather interesting day job that keeps her busy during the work week.

Joe Favorito says President Obama is courting sports fans through the Captain Blowhard podcast.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media reviews the new hockey movie, “Goon.”

Sports Media Watch has some of the ratings from last week’s sports action.

SMW says Jeremy Lin is helping to move the ratings needle for ABC and TNT.

The Tampa Bay Times’ Eric Deggans writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center says a San Diego sports anchor’s criticism of Danica Patrick shows that sexism still exists in sports.

Also in the National Sports Journalism Center, Ronnie Ramos laments how social media has watered down traditional sports journalism.

East and Mid-Atlantic

The Boston Globe’s Bob Ryan talks with ESPN’s college basketball analyst Doris Burke. High praise and I agree. Doris is one of the best.

Chad Finn of the Globe says despite having his original role reduced, Dale Arnold is remaining at WEEI.

Chad has some advice for rookie ESPN MLB analyst Terry Francona.

Boston Sports Media Watch’s Bruce Allen writing in SB Nation Boston says Bill Simmons has had a meteoric rise to stardom.

Bill Doyle at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette says it was the Worcester Sharks’ radio voice who came up with the idea to have popular New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski spike a puck before a game last month.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks back at the 50th anniversary of one of the major milestones in sports that barely was covered by the media at the time.

Newsday’s Neil Best says two ESPN’ers will speak at their high school alma mater next week.

Neil says the Nets are not drawing well on YES.

Neil notes that CBS Sports Network utilizes a husband & wife team for its college hockey games.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick mocks the bracketologists handicapping the NCAA Tournament field.

The Post’s Justin Terranova has five questions for NHL on NBC voice Mike Emrick.

Jerry Barmash at Fishbowl NY says MSG Network continues to score with Knicks games.

Jerry reports that former WNBC-TV sports anchor Len Berman is back on TV in NYC.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union notes that NBC Sports Network will air the America’s Cup next year.

Pete says YES is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says NBC Sports Network is adding NHL games to its schedule for the playoff drive.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call writes that a local service provider has snagged the rights to an incoming minor league hockey team.

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

South

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes that a local sports anchor is recovering from a stroke he suffered last year.

David has a little more on the story in his blog.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman talks with Fox Sports Oklahoma NBA studio analyst Stephen Howard.

Mel has more here with Stephen Howard.

Mel says NBA TV is marking the 50th anniversary of Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 points in a game.

Midwest

The Cincinnati Enquirer’s John Kiesewetter says a movie script has been written about a deaf mute Reds player who changed the way umpires made calls.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wonders if another network will join Fox and TBS in airing the MLB Postseason this year.

Bob says ESPN still leads the way in cable subscriber fees, meaning how much cable and satellite providers are required to pay ESPN per subscriber.

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

Ed says a Big Ten Network profile of former Indiana University coach Bob Knight will mostly focus on his achievements and hardly touches on his tumultuous exit.

Paul Christian at the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin notes NBA TV’s documentary on Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 point game.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says not many Missourians will be able to see local teams in conference tournaments next week.

West

Dan Caesar of the Salt Lake Tribune writes that BYU is better off an a football independent rather than share money and TV time with other teams when it was part of the Mountain West.

John Maffei at the North County Times says local prep basketball games will be harder to find on local TV this weekend.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star says who knew that product placement would be the big winner during Fox’s airing of the Daytona 500.

Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times says CBS and MSG Network are considering buy the Dodgers in separate bids in order to get their TV rights.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News looks at how the media covered (barely) Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 point game 50 years ago today.

Tom has some news and notes this week.

Canada

Raju Mudhar of the Toronto Star says CBC premieres part two of the movie on Don Cherry’s life this weekend.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail can’t believe how well NHL Trade Deadline coverage does in the ratings.

Bruce says social media has changed sports reporting forever.

And that will do it. Enjoy your weekend.

Friday Megalinks Or The Return of Linkage

Due to being at jobsites for the last few days, I haven’t been able post links like I’ve wanted to. I apologize for that. I have tried to be diligent in updating as much as I can.

I have quite a bit to catch up with. I may be a blogging machine as I have to post a lot of things today. Plus, I to get ready to head to New York tomorrow for Blogs with Balls 4 so I’m going to be quite busy. Let’s get to the linkage.

But first, there’s always the Weekend Viewing Picks for your sports and entertainment planning.

National

John Ourand at Sports Business Journal writes that ESPN will do everything it can to head off NBC/Versus at the pass.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch asks if sports broadcasting and politics should mix?

Jeff Latzke of the Associated Press says the Big 12′s TV contracts helped to keep the conference together for now.

The Nielsen Ratings Wire blog notes that among various TV programming, sports in primetime continues to do well.

USA Today’s Mike McCarthy talks with CBS/WFAN/Westwood One’s Boomer Esiason on how the NFL should investigate the Dallas Cowboys’ medical staff for clearing Tony Romo to play last Sunday.

Mike says ESPN is denying any responsibility for the recent college football chaos and says the Longhorn Network doesn’t have anything to do with it. I think Texas A&M, Missouri and other Big 12 schools would beg to differ.

Bob Velin of USA Today writes that CBS’ 48 Hours Mystery program will investigate the mysterious and unsettling death of boxer Arturo Gatti.

Mike McCarthy and Michael Hiestand of USA Today debate whether schools or TV wield the power in college sports.

John Taylor of College Football Talk writes that Brett Favre gets his first taste of being an analyst next week for CSS.

John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable reports that the FCC has ruled that Cablevision-owned MSG Network cannot withhold its HD signal to other cable providers violating program-access rules.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News writes that YES received its second highest rating ever for the American League East Division clinching game this week.

Mike says Golf Channel and NBC Sports are teaming up for a promotion to give a lucky viewer of “The Big Break” a chance to win a trip to see Notre Dame play in Ireland next year.

Tim Nudd of Adweek says the NFL has pulled an ad for its fantasy football product which used a picture of Kansas City Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles after he was injured last week.

David Lieberman of Deadline reports that Time Warner Cable is planning to offer a low cost tier that will not include ESPN in the lineup.

Timothy Burke of SportsGrid has the video of ESPN sideline reporter Jenn Brown calling Cincinnati football coach Butch Jones something else.

Glenn Davis at SportsGrid has the sixth and perhaps final installment of New Era’s Yankees-Red Sox Alec Baldwin-John Kraskinski ads. They have been quite good. This latest one may have taken it a bit too far.

Also from SportsGrid, Dan Fogarty reviews the ESPN Films documentary “Catching Hell”, on Steve Bartman and the 2003 Chicago Cubs.

Sports Media Watch talks with the crew of ESPN’s College GameDay.

SMW says despite being on tape delay, Fox drew a decent audience for its first English Premier League game on Sunday.

SMW notes that the ratings for CBS’ 2nd game of its NFL doubleheader dropped from last year.

SMW says the NBA lockout has forced the cancellation of the start of training camp and over 40 preseason games.

And SMW has some various ratings news and notes.

Joe Favorito looks at one imaginative marketing campaign that helped Eye Black this week.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell reviews “Moneyball.”

Darren has some interesting facts on sports participation in America.

Karen Hogan of Sports Video Group looks at how CBS Sports Network was able to bring the Tim Brando Show into a TV simulcast from his base in Shreveport, LA.

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

Ben Koo from AA says tomorrow is when Gus Johnson and FX get their real grand opening in college football.

At The Stir, Maressa Brown feels ESPN’s Erin Andrews is unqualified to demonstrate CrossFit.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe writes that WEEI’s Glenn Ordway has suffered a rather severe pay cut due to lower ratings for his afternoon drive show.

At SBNation Boston, Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch looks at a busy week in local sports media news.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette writes that Dale Arnold is pleased to be back with NESN after leaving in 2007.

Lang Whitaker and Ian Lovett of the New York Times give us an inside look at DirecTV’s Red Zone Channel and NFL Network’s RedZone.

John Jeansonne of Newsday reviews ESPN Films’ documentary on transgendered tennis player Renee Richards.

Newsday’s Neil Best says fans seem to be buying into the New York Islanders’ future.

Claire Atkinson of the New York Post has news that some Time Warner Cable subscribers have been waiting for, that the company appears to be close to a carriage agreement with NFL Network.

Phil Mushnick at the Post can’t stand ESPN’s Monday Night Football.

Justin Terranova of the Post says last month’s Russian plane crash that killed 44 members of the KHL team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl really hit home for MSG Network analyst Joe Micheletti.

And Justin has five questions for Joe.

Lou Lumenick of the Post says “Moneyball” is one of the best baseball movies of all-time.

I’ll break my self-imposed embargo on the New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman for a week for this story on the Yankees’ radio rights which are in flux and so are the fates of broadcasters John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that MSG Network has named Steve Cangialosi to replace Mike “Doc” Emrick on New Jersey Devils games.

And Pete talks with Steve about his new gig.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette is not a fan of a new local sports talk show host.

Ken notes that NBC Sports is extending its “Summer at Saratoga” series for at least two more years.

At Press Box, Dave Hughes of DCRTV.com notes that Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic has announced its Capitals and Wizards schedules.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says the college football conference merry-go-round could have some legal ramifications.

Jim says the ratings for the NFL in both Baltimore and Washington were very strong.

South

In the Miami Herald, Joseph Goodman notes the irony of ESPN possibly saving college football from massive chaos.

Matt Murschel of the Orlando Sentinel catches up with ESPN college football analyst Jesse Palmer.

Jeff Sentell of the Birmingham (AL) News says ESPN is not ponying up to air high school games from the region.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle notes that an Astros broadcaster is celebrating 25 years with the club.

David asks readers if they find the idea of the Longhorn Network offensive.

Mel Bracht at the Daily Oklahoman says an Oklahoma State wide receiver will be profiled on ESPN’s College GameDay.

Midwest

Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer says Cleveland MLB team radio voice Mike Hegan is leaving he broadcast after this season.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says Reds voice Marty Brennaman can’t campaign on-air for his former partner Joe Nuxhall for the Baseball Hall of Fame Ford C. Frick Award.

Micahel Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press wonders why the DirecTV/NBC series “Friday Night Lights” didn’t do better in the ratings.

Bob Wolfley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says actor Brad Pitt saw “Moneyball” as a compelling story.

Bob says the Green Bay Packers will be showcased aplenty in the late afternoon window on both CBS and Fox this season.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business writes that the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship failed to draw viewers away from the NFL on Sunday.

Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times talks with WMAQ-TV sports anchor Paula Ferris.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wonders why Cardinals TV voice Dan McLaughlin has been missing of late.

Kevin Haskin of the Topeka (KS) Capital-Journal writes that CBS Sports Network was in town to air an NCAA Division II football game this week.

West

Jay Posner from the San Diego Union-Tribune says Big Ten Network won’t allow the local Cox system to pick up Saturday’s San Diego State-Michigan game on a one-time only basis.

The North County Times’ John Maffei writes that unless fans can find a sports bar, they’ll have to listen to San Diego State on the radio.

Jim Carlisle at the Ventura County Star says it’s too bad Southern California couldn’t see the end of the exciting Oakland-Buffalo game due to silly NFL rules.

Jim says HBO will replay last Saturday’s controversial Floyd Mayweather-Victor Ortiz fight.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says a bankruptcy court has given the Dodgers permission to change their flagship radio station for next season.

Tom says the NFL secondary market rule needs to be changed.

Tom also has a few notes that he couldn’t get into his Friday column.

Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News looks at the Pac-12′s decision to stand pat, TV’s role in the whole thing and where BYU may be headed.

Canada

Bruce Dowbiggin from the Toronto Globe and Mail writes that CBC’s P.J. Stock is regretting his initial comments on Wade Belak’s death.

The Toronto Sports Media Blog is not so fast to forgive P.J.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog notes that CBC has made some additions to its Hockey Night in Canada crew.

And there you have it for your links today.

NESN Hires Dale Arnold As Bruins Studio Host

NESN made the announcement on Wednesday that it was bringing back WEEI’s Dale Arnold to Boston Bruins hockey as a studio host. He replaces Kathryn Tappen who left the network to go to NHL Network. Dale had been NESN’s Bruins announcer for home games from 1994 — 2007. He had split the duties with Dave Shea then Jack Edwards, both of whom would call road games. But just before the 2007-08 season when NESN decided to go with one announcer, it was thought that Dale would be the natural fit to take over the entire schedule. However, he chose to remain with WEEI where he had just signed a new contract to remain as co-host of the midday show for the Boston sports radio station. But this year, WEEI went in a new direction and took Arnold off middays, made him permanent fill-in host and gave him a weekend shift.

Arnold lamented on the air that he should have taken the NESN offer. But after Tappen left, it was speculated that Dale would become Bruins host and lo and behold, it became official.

In addition to announcing Dale’s hiring, NESN says it’s brought back Bruins rinkside reporter Naoko Funayama for her fourth season as part of the crew that includes Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley.

Here’s the NESN press release.

NESN HIRES DALE ARNOLD AND RENEWS NAOKO FUNAYAMA

BOSTON, MA – NESN, New England’s most watched sports network, announced today that veteran sports broadcaster Dale Arnold has been hired to serve as the network’s Boston Bruins studio host. The network has also signed Bruins reporter Naoko Funayama to a contract extension. Arnold will host all of NESN’s pre-game, intermission and post-game Bruins coverage, while Funayama will return for her 4^th season as the network’s rink-side reporter. NESN will drop the puck on the 2011-12 season on Thursday, September 29 at 6:30 PM with WB Mason Bruins Face-Off LIVE before delivering live coverage of the Bruins – Ottawa Senators pre-season game from TD Garden.

“Dale is going to be a great addition to our Bruins hockey coverage this season,” said Sean McGrail, NESN’s President and CEO.  “Dale brings authenticity, credibility and a deep passion and knowledge about the league and the Bruins organization. We are very happy to welcome him back to NESN.”

“Since joining NESN’s Bruins broadcast team in 2008 Naoko has earned the respect of her peers and excelled as a reporter and storyteller,” said McGrail. “We look forward to an exciting season covering the defending Stanley Cup Champions and believe we have one of the best broadcast teams in the country.”

Arnold is no stranger to NESN’s Bruins audience, having previously served as the network’s play-by-play voice for 13 seasons (1994-2007), earning two Emmy Awards during that time. The versatile announcer has enjoyed a 20 year career as a sports talk show host at WEEI Sports Radio 93.7 FM/850 AM in Boston. Arnold also holds the distinction as the only person in Boston sports media history to have done play-by-play for all five professional sports teams (Bruins, Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, Revolution). The Maine native and graduate of Bowdoin College began his career as a play-by-play announcer for the Maine Mariners.

Funayama has served as NESN’s Bruins reporter for the past 3 seasons. In addition to her work on the network’s Bruins pre-game, intermission and post-game shows, Funayama provides regular reports for NESN Daily. She also served as a freelance Red Sox reporter for NESN during the 2007 season. She came to NESN after spending four years as a sports reporter for WMUR-TV in Manchester, New Hampshire where she covered all the Boston sports teams.

The popular broadcast duo of Jack Edwards (play-by-play) and Andy Brickley (color analyst) will be back in the NESN booth for their 7th season together. Joining Arnold in the NESN studio will be veteran studio analysts Gord Kluzak and Barry Pederson. NESN will also rotate in several additional guest studio analysts during the season.

Maybe one more press release before I shut it down tonight.

Bringing Out The Friday Megalinks

Yup, time for the Friday megalinks. As long as I don’t get interrupted, I should be able to do this all in one shot for you.

Your Weekend Viewing Picks have a whole lot of sports and entertainment programs so take a gander and see what suits your fancy.

To the links.

National

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand talks about ex-Florida coach Urban Meyer diving headfirst into being a college football TV analyst for ESPN.

Nate Davis at USA Today’s The Huddle blog notes that ex-NFLer’s and current TV analysts Michael Strahan and Warren Sapp don’t take much stock in Tiki Barber’s comeback.

Also in USA Today, Devra Maza talks with Hall of Fame baseball announcer Bob Wolff about his memories calling Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that Los Angeles Lakers forward Ron Artest is seeking to change his name to “Metta World Peace” while his wife, Kimsha is being cast for the new edition of VH1′s “Basketball Wives”.

Jon Weisman of Variety says David Feherty’s new show gave Golf Channel its most watched premiere in the history of the network.

Marcus Vanderberg at SportsNewser notes that Wednesday’s Mexico-Honduras Gold Cup semifinal match was the highest rated primetime sporting event ever on Univision.

Sports Media Watch has some various news and notes.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing has the new DirecTV Football Cops ad featuring the Manning brothers.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe talks with WEEI’s Dale Arnold who had to watch the Bruins championship run while being mostly on the sidelines.

Rich Fahey of the Globe says former Bruins TV host Tom Larson followed through on a 30 year promise to shave his beard.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says with a lockout looming, the NBA Players Association is standing firmly behind its leadership.

Phil Mushnick in the New York Post has praise for ESPN’s Bobby Valentine and Orel Hershiser, but has to somehow temper it.

The Post’s Brett Cyrgalis has four questions for Mets radio voice Howie Rose.

Newsday’s John Jeansonne looks at how John McEnroe was perceived as a player and perceived now as an analyst.

The Albany Times Union’s Pete Dougherty says two local TV reporters were able to catch up with Jimmer Fredette after the NBA Draft.

Pete says Jimmermania kept fans watching the NBA Draft for about an hour.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call looks at the new CBS Sports Network contract with the Patriot League.

In Press Box, Dave Hughes talks about the programming changes at one Baltimore sports radio station.

Dave says the Washington City Paper is firing back at DC NFL Team owner Daniel Snyder in his efforts to sue the publication.

South

Tom Jones at the St. Petersburg Times feels ESPN should not be leading the charge to move the Rays out of Tampa Bay.

William Brethertont of the Marietta (GA) Daily Journal says an Atlanta Beat Women’s Professional Soccer star will be on ESPN’s Women’s World Cup coverage.

Dan Murtaugh of the Mobile (AL) Press-Register says Tennis Channel will focus on a local program that benefits young women and weaves in a tennis exhibition to help raise funds.

David Barron at the Houston Chronicle recognizes one sports anchor’s longevity in the market.

Berry Tremel at the Daily Oklahoman says FX’s early college football schedule is all-Oklahoma, all the time.

Midwest

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer notes that Thom and Marty Brennaman don’t seem to have time to work together in the Reds broadcast booth.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Packers linebacker A.J. Hawk will be swinging a golf club on NBC’s celebrity golf tournament next month.

Bob says local overnight ratings for the NBA Draft on ESPN were strong.

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

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says a local sports anchor is pinch hitting on the news side this month.

And Dan has a few news and notes.

West

Scott D. Pierce at the Salt Lake Tribune looks at Urban Meyer moving to the TV booth on college football Saturdays for ESPN.

Richard Eng of the Las Vegas Journal-Review explores the decision of former Triple Crown caller Tom Durkin to step down this year.

John Maffei of the North County Times says this weekend is a big one for soccer fans.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star notes that the Los Angeles Lakers will have different voices for next season.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News reports that Lenny Dykstra is now tweeting.

Tom also has a column on Captain Blowhard’s Grantland site.

Jack Humphreville of City Watch LA takes a look at Frank McCourt’s embattled ownership of the Dodgers and the collapse of his rich rights deal with Fox.

Canada

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail has yet another mediocre media column this week. I’m close to dropping him from the megalinks.

The Toronto Sports Media blog notes the one year anniversary of a huge lineup change on one local sports radio station.

And that’s going to do it for today.

Some Thursday Linkage For You

Let’s provide the sports media links this morning. Lots of things to do today so I hope I can get this done and finish up the work I have to do later.

John Czarnecki at Fox Sports is amazed at how the NFL Scouting Combine has become a made-for-TV event.

George Winslow at Broadcasting & Cable writes about ESPN 3D picking up coverage of The Masters in April.

Dan Fogarty at SportsGrid says Carmelo Anthony’s introduction at Madison Square Garden last night was definitely made for TV.

Dan says a former New York Yankee who was part of an infamous wife swap in the 1970′s is now shocked that Academy Award winners Matt Damon and Ben Affleck now want to do a movie about the story.

Dashiell Bennett of the Business Insider’s Sports Page is amused by Buzz Bissinger’s tweets.

At TVbytheNumbers, Bill Gorman notes that the NBA All-Star Game on TNT topped the cable primetime ratings for last week.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell notes that the ultimate product placement in the NBA Slam Dunk competition is paying off in droves.

Awful Announcing has the video of the Big Ten Network’s Tom Hart calling a buzzer beater.

Ricardo A. Hazell from the Electronic Urban Report catches up with former NFL Today co-host Jayne Kennedy.

At Boston Sports Media Watch, Bruce Allen recaps Dale Arnold’s final show on WEEI.

Mark LaMonica at Newsday has the New York Post’s Peter Vescey’s comments about Steven A. Smith.

Ken Schott at the Schenectady Gazette reports that a local radio station will pick up Big East Tournament night games in early March.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning News says a local indoor football analyst has his eyes on the big leagues in Philadelphia.

Paul Farhi of the Washington Post writes about the slashing of the staff at the local-run TBD.com which was hoped to be a DC news and sports online destination. While it did have get site hits, revenue was not where the owners had projected so last night came word that the site will focus on arts and entertainment.

Dan Steinberg of the Post’s DC Sports Bog notes that ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt was very critical of Maryland students for failing to show up at last night’s game against Florida State.

To the Washington Examiner and Jim Williams who writes about the new look at Golf Channel and NBC Sports.

The Tampa Bay Newspapers have the Rays’ spring training schedule on Sun Sports.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says ESPN has hired a former Green Bay Packers executive to be an NFL business analyst.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business writes about Comcast SportsNet Chicago hiring former Bulls forward Scottie Pippen as a game analyst.

Michael Rand of the Minneapolis Star Tribune has a reader wanting more Minnesota Twins spring training games on TV.

Patrick Saunders in the Denver Post wants to institute a Sports Fans Bill of Rights.

Mike Sunnucks from the Phoenix Business Journal says the Suns will put all of their games on cable next season.

Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Daily Star writes that the Pac 10/12 is hoping to get a better TV contract.

Greg Wyshynski at Yahoo’s Puck Daddy notes that a minor league hockey announcer suspended himself after he realized he was guilty of blatant homerism.

Pro Golf Talk’s Ryan Ballengee has the video of CBS golf analyst David Feherty getting hit in the groin.

The Canadian Sports Media blog has the 2011 Toronto Blue Jays schedule on Rogers Sportsnet

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media projects the NHL playoff matchups and TV network projections if the postseason started today.

Joe Favorito says companies with natural tie-ins are missing the boat on the NBA  and NHL Trading Deadlines.

And that’s where I’ll end it now.

Late Night Thursday Links

I wasn’t able to provide links during the day and I keep accumulating sports media stories and I don’t want to get into this pattern where I can provide links Monday through Wednesday, but not from Thursday through Sunday. That’s not good especially since you have come to expect linkage just about every day. So I’ll burn the midnight oil and do some linkage for you.

Let’s start with Milton Kent of Fanhouse who fears that Dan Patrick might be risking becoming an enabler to Charlie Sheen after two interviews that have been picked up by the tabloid press.

To Advertising Age where Michael Bush looks at the Super Bowl ads that remain on the national conscience while other brands have faded from memory.

Rich Thomaselli from AdAge looks at the LPGA’s new ad campaign in an attempt to raise awareness and bring the tour’s stars to the forefront. You might recognize the name of a certain sports media blogger in the story.

Dan Fogarty at SportsGrid explains why you haven’t seen Friend of Fang’s Bites Michelle Beadle on ESPN2′s SportsNation recently.

Also from SportsGrid, Brad Cohen feels Tony Kornheiser looks bad over his refusal to speak about Dan Snyder’s lawsuit against the Washington City Paper on his radio show.

Michael David Smith at Pro Football Talk says Mr. Tony loses credibility the longer he protects Snyder.

Jeff Neuman at Real Clear Sports has an interesting article on the making of the great movie, Slap Shot and some casting decisions that might have changed the movie we know and love.

At Adweek, Anthony Crupi tries to read between the lines at comments made by new NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke on whether the network will actually make a run at bidding for the 2014/2016 Olympics.

To the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center where Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times writes that sports broadcasters should be held to the same standard as broadcast news journalists when it comes to endorsing products.

The Hollywood Reporter has Dan Patrick explaining how he got Charlie Sheen on his syndicated radio show.

Sofia M. Fernandez of the Reporter says Comcast’s new 3-D channel debuts Sunday with the airing of the NHL’s Heritage Classic.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel News notes that HBO has scheduled its first boxing pay-per-view event of 2011.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel reports on ESPN’s dedicated channels being available online to Verizon Fios TV subscribers.

Alex Weprin from SportsNewser notes that the producers of the Broadway play, Lombardi, now want to bring another sports story to the Great White Way.

A.J. Daulerio of Deadspin laments the loss of contributor Katie Baker to Captain Blowhard’s yet-to-be-named project at ESPN.com.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media provides the market-by-market breakdown for the early games of NBC’s Hockey Day in America doubleheader.

The Boston Herald’s Jessica Heslam talks with outgoing WEEI midday host Dale Arnold who still is shellshocked about losing his show.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says the Reds will be seen quite often on MLB Network during Spring Training.

Bob Wolfley from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel searches for the lost younger NASCAR viewer.

Bob says the Miami Heat are burning up the NBA’s ratings.

Ed Sherman at Crain’s Chicago Business notes that the Windy City will be the host and the focus for NBC’s Hockey Day in America.

Michael Olivera of the Canadian Press notes that viewers are cutting the cable as they find affordable ways to watch their favorite hockey team either through their mobile phones.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog says CBC and Rogers Sportsnet will team up to air every game of the Women’s World Cup later this year.

Sports Media Watch says the Chicago Bulls are on a pace to set a regular season ratings record for Comcast SportsNet Chicago.

SMW says the NBA’s marquee teams are helping to raise the ratings for ABC’s Sunday games.

I think that will hold us over until the regular Friday features start posting. Good night.

Some Mid-Week Linkage

Ok, time for some links on this Wednesday. Let’s provide some for you while I can.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today notes that former CBS college basketball analyst Billy Packer is not enthused about the new TV arrangement for the NCAA Tournament.

I’ve written a story for Dan Levy’s Press Coverage site on what the Los Angeles Lakers’ new regional sports networks will mean for viewers.

Brian Lowry of Fox Sports is not a fan of excess sports coverage like the NBA All-Star Weekend.

Milton Kent at Fanhouse recaps the strange, but very interesting appearances by embattled actor Charlie Sheen on the Dan Patrick Show.

Mark Cina of the Hollywood Reporter also recaps Sheen’s call to DP on Wednesday.

Etan Vlessing of the Reporter notes that ESPN’s new Sunday Night Baseball voice Dan Shulman will return to Canada to provide some baseball commentary for his original network, TSN.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel News reports that Cartoon Network is tapping stars from the sports world to take part in its inaugural awards show.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel takes a look at the new Time Warner Cable/Lakers regional sports networks.

Marcus Vanderberg at SportsNewser recaps Jay Mariotti’s first public appearance since his arrest on domestic assault charges and the subsequent loss of his jobs from ESPN and Fanhouse.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell takes a closer look at St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols and his contract demands.

Darren says Sports Illustrated did a great job marketing this year’s Swimsuit Issue.

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe has the comments from outgoing WEEI midday host Dale Arnold who is the odd man out in a lineup shuffle.

Chad also writes about the WEEI lineup changes that smack of desperation.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that ESPN has apparently dropped out of the bidding for the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner wonders if NBC will pick up the Belmont to reunite the race with the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes.

Press Box says WBAL-AM will pick up a slew of Baltimore Orioles spring training games.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle takes a look at two of the bigger sports media stories from the week.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer has Dancing with the Stars professional dancer Cheryl Burke admitting she had a fling with Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco. I know, it’s not a sports media story, but it fascinates me and I like Cheryl Burke, ok?

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel discovers that the Brewers are not on the MLB on Fox schedule.

Paul Sullivan at the Chicago Tribune says the Cubs have found a replacement for the late Ron Santo on their radio broadcasts.

Steve Rosenbloom of the Tribune wants to know if Cubs fans are ready to hear a traditional radio broadcast from now on.

Toni Ginnetti of the Chicago Sun-Times talks with new Cubs radio analyst Keith Moreland.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business writes that the Blackhawks have extended their deal with WGN-TV.

Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times says the new Time Warner Cable deal with the Lakers may end up hurting the team in the long run.

Bruce Dowbiggin from the Toronto Globe and Mail says one local sports radio station might be left behind in a battle of media titans.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog speculates what the 2012 Olympics will look like on the Canadian Olympic Broadcast Consortium.

Dashiell Bennett from the Business Insider sports page notes that ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons has hired Deadspin contributer Katie Baker (and a Friend of Fang’s Bites) for some unknown project at the Alleged Worldwide Leader.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing notes that many people were none too happy over ESPN’s experimentation during the Mississippi State-Kentucky game.

Deadspin has obtained a copy of the Colin Cowherd sitcom script. It’s not pretty, let me tell you.

Brad Cohen at SportsGrid tells us how the extremely overrated Oprah Winfrey got the Michael Vick interview.

Dave Kohl of Major League Programs talks about the new Time Warner Cable/Lakers deal.

I’ll leave it there for now.

Some Late Thursday Night/Early Friday Morning Linkage

I’ll give some linkage tonight before I sleep.

Newsday’s Neil Best reports that CBS Sports reporter Sam Ryan is giving up her gig as sports anchor at WCBS-TV in New York to focus on her national duties.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says there will be a lot of pressure on Michael Vick to say the right thing during his Friday press conference to announce his signing with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Darren wonders how many NFL blackouts there will be this season.

Pete Dougherty from the Albany Times Union says Golf Channel will leave coverage of the Solheim Cup for two hours next Friday due to PGA Tour commitments.

The great Keith Thibeault of the Sports Media Journal continues his series of interview with NFL play-by-play men and the latest talk is with legendary New Orleans Saints voice Jim Henderson.

Ray Frager writing for the SMJ has some inside stuff on the first season of HBO’s Hard Knocks which focused on the Baltimore Ravens.

Tim Lemke of the Washington Times notes that a big tenant is signing up to lease space near the Nationals ball park.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says one cable provider is pulling the plug on running Hard Knocks because of the language. I just shake my head. It’s HBO, not ESPN.

Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times writes that the Clippers are changing radio stations for next season.

Thomas Umstead of Multichannel News says Roku is becoming a content provider player by nabbing the MLB.TV subscription package.

The Sports Media Watch says the Phillies set another ratings record for Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia.

Steve Lepore at Puck the Media looks for clues at the Versus schedule by checking at the Columbus Blue Jackets TV grid.

The 38 Cliches blog notes that WEEI’s Dale Arnold was in the Red Sox radio booth on Wednesday but he wasn’t there to call the game.

The great Amanda Bruno of Batter-up with Bruno caught an addition error on MLB.com on Thursday.

Sumner Widoes of Sports Fan Live wraps up his extensive interview with ESPN’s Kenny Mayne.

That will include the late night linkage. Get ready for the regular Friday features. Lots of stuff coming.

Some More Tuesday Night Links

I’ve found a few more links tonight. Let’s get to them.

Buzz Bissinger continues his Blog Apology Tour and he talks with Philly Mag (of which he contributes to) saying he feels some sports blogs are good.

CBS Sports’ Jim Nantz is on a book tour as his tome on sports and his father comes out today. Nantz talks with the Sports Business Journal’s Jon Show.

The Phanatic Magazine has the schedule for Comcast SportsNet Philadephia’s coverage of the Flyers in the NHL Eastern Conference Final.

Ted Cox of the Chicago Daily Herald talks about the shuffling of the Bulls’ broadcast booth.

Apparently, HBO will be focusing its “Hard Knocks” program on the Dallas Cowboys again as Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News writes.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says six years after being a marketing pariah following rape accusations, Kobe Bryant is now back as a marketing power.

Friend of Fang’s Bites, LC of the 38Cliches blog, is apparently satisfied with the Red Sox radio broadcasts six weeks into the season. I have to agree. Dave O’Brien has settled in as the #2 announcer with Joe Castiglione and Dale Arnold sounds much more professional than Glenn Geffner when Dave does ESPN games on Wednesday nights.

Barstoll Sports commemorates the 20 year anniversary of the “Have a donut!” game.

The Orbitcast blog says you can create a digital bobblehead doll of yourself or a friend wearing an MLB uniform over at XMbaseball.com.

That will do it for tonight. Back tomorrow.

Time for Your Thursday Links

Time to do the links on this Thursday.

Newsday’s Neil Best has breaking news for us. Former ESPN MLB analyst Harold Reynolds has been hired as a part-time studio analyst at SNY. Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says H.R. will continue to be an analyst at MLB.com. Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball blog also writes about the hiring of Reynolds by SNY.

Maury has the new “This is SportsCenter” ad featuring the Celtics’ Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce.

The Baltimore Sun’s Ray Frager writes about Scott Van Pelt getting an increased role at ESPN Radio.

Ryan White of The Oregonian says the NHL appears to be finding an audience.

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail writes that CBC is happy to have the Montreal-Philadelphia series in its traditional Saturday night timeslot.

Chris Zelkovich from the Toronto Star profiles the head of CBC Sports, Scott Moore.

Paul McDougall of Information Week says traffic to NHL.com has increased during the playoffs.

Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Chronicle says Game 7 of the Calgary-San Jose series scored in the ratings for Comcast SportsNet Bay Area.

Don McKee of the Philadephia Inquirer writes that Game 7 of the Philadelphia Flyers-Washington Capitals series was the most watched program in the city on Monday night (scroll down).

While hockey TV ratings are up in various US cities, the first round NHL playoff series were down all over Canada for both CBC and TSN.

NBC Sports talks about the two NHL playoff games it will cover this weekend including Colorado-Detroit.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes that three local TV stations will broadcast the funeral services of a local soldier who was killed in Iraq pre-empting all sports on Sunday afternoon.

Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel writes in his Open Mike blog that local TV sports anchors are jumping on the Magic playoff bandwagon.

Laura Nachman has a story about Phillies announcer Chris Wheeler giving back to his alma mater (scroll down).

Fred Mitchell of the Chicago Tribune writes that former Cubs manager Lee Elia is selling a contrite message, 25 years after his infamous tirade. And here’s the original Tribune story from April 30, 1983.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News writes in his blog about ESPN’s Kenny Mayne writing a new book.

The Awful Announcing blog has the video of Mike Fratello wondering if TBS’ Bill Engvall is funny.

The 38Cliches blog finds someone who doesn’t like Dale Arnold filling in on the Red Sox radio broadcasts.

That is all for now.

The Friday Megalinks Are Here

Have had to deal with a few work-related issues today so the Friday megalinks are late, but I’ll give them to you in one fell swoop.

Starting as usual with USA Today’s Michael Hiestand, he discusses Fox Sports’ coverage of the Daytona 500 this Sunday.

Let’s do the links starting in the East, then to the West Coast and filling in the links in-between.

East and Mid-Atlantic

David Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch has a look inside Entercom’s choice of Dale Arnold to replace Glenn Geffner in the Red Sox broadcast booth.

Nancy Marrapese-Burrell of the Boston Globe writes about NESN’s increase of Red Sox Spring Training coverage as compared to last year.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says USA Network saw an uptick in the ratings for the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

New York Post media curmudgeon Phil Mushnick says it’s sad when Brian McNamee, Kirk Radomski, Jose Canseco and even John Rocker have more credibility than MLB. Also in the Post, Justin Terranova has five questions for SNY Mets analyst Keith Hernandez. And Terranova has quotes from ESPN’s Rusty Wallace and Fox’s Darrell Waltrip about the Daytona 500 and the new NASCAR season.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News talks with Yankees radio analyst Suzyn Waldman who knows both Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee.

Newsday’s Neil Best writes about the Islanders attendance problems. In his blog, Neil says Islanders fans are responding to his column. Neil also has ESPN deciding not to respond to NBC’s shots about Monday Night Football. Finally, Neil links to the WCBS website in which Suzyn Waldman talks about the Roger Clemens testimony in front of Congress.

In Laura Nachman’s Philadelphia TV and radio blog, she reports that one Philly TV station will not cover the Phillies’ Spring Training this year.

From the Baltimore Sun, Ray Frager’s news and notes include WHFS-FM’ plans for Orioles Spring Training games. From his Medium Well blog, Ray has highlights from a Fox Sports conference call on its Daytona 500 coverage.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner says the NBA and NASCAR dominate the sports viewing weekend.

West

Scott D. Pierce of the Deseret (UT) Morning News says Roger Clemens didn’t do himself any favors this week.

John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News talks with one Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model who’s from the local area. And in his Morning Buzz blog, Ryan gets a tip that Clemens has his own Institute for Sports Medicine.

In her Sound and Vision column, the Los Angeles Times’ Christine Daniels says TNT and the NBA are finding new ways to present the All Star Game.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News writes about former Apprentice: LA contestant Heidi Androl now doing work for the LA Kings website filing videos and features, plus Hoffarth has his Top 10 Best/Worst LA TV Anchors/Reporters. And he expands on his column with news and notes in his Farther Off the Wall blog.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star talks with Fox Sports’ NASCAR crew about the sport loosening the reins on its drivers.

John Maffei in the North County Times looks at Fox’s coverage for the Daytona 500.

Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune says ESPN2 expects an electric atmosphere for the Gonzaga-University of San Diego game on Monday. Posner has his news and notes column which includes a look at the gadgets that will be used in Fox Sports’ coverage of Daytona. And Jay has the TV ratings from the weekend in San Diego.

South

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes that it was very hard to miss the Roger Clemens appearance on Capitol Hill this week.

Dave Darling of the Orlando Sentinel says it’s the rivalries that make NASCAR what it is.

Barry Jackson in today’s Miami Herald profiles Heat TV play-by-play announcer Eric Reid (who has a Providence connection), one of only 8 original Heat employees still with the team.

Doug Nye of The State says baseball suffered a black eye during the Congressional Steroids hearings this week. And Doug’s TV Best Bet this weekend is Daytona.

Midwest

Jeffrey Flanagan of the Kansas City Star looks into the rumors (started in Rhode Island College’s student newspaper) that the ghost of wrestler Owen Hart haunts Kemper Arena.

In the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin, Paul Christian writes about a fitness show being broadcast live on the local PBS affiliate.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Judd Zulgad talks with Minnesota native Michele Tafoya about her changed role on ESPN’s Monday Night Football. And Judd has the ratings for the Twin Cities from last weekend.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bob Wolfley feels ESPN should get rid of the celebrity interviews from Monday Night Football, not Tafoya and fellow sideline reporter Suzy Kolber.

Robert Feder in the Chicago Sun-Times reports that Comcast SportsNet will devote 12 hours on Monday to the late Harry Caray.

Ed Sherman of the Chicago Tribune has his five viewing picks for the weekend.

Canada

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail says Jim Hughson will make a choice between his two current employers, CBC and Rogers Sportsnet this summer.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says ratings for Raptors games are up this season.

Blogs

Christopher Bryne of the Eye on Sports Media blog looks at Think Pink night during the Florida-Georgia women’s basketball game on Thursday.

Joe Favorito’s blog on sports marketing looks at the NASCAR marketing machine.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell (who’s Nike documentary is getting big praise across the country, by the way) says NASCAR needs Dale Earnhardt, Jr. to start winning and fast.

The Sports Media Watch blog says at the All Star break, the NBA can look at a ratings increase from last year.

Bruce Allen in the Boston Sports Media Watch blog has the five worst mainstream sports media blogs in Boston.

Network Press Releases

ESPN says Dick Vitale is once again a finalist for the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA.

NBC Sports tells us coverage of the Short Track Speedskating World Cup will be broadcast on Universal HD only.

CBS Sports previews its weekend golf coverage.

And there you have it for now.

Monday Evening Update

I’ll give you a few links tonight.

First, ESPN Ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber looks at Monday Night Football and feels the reduction of roles for sideline reporters Michelle Tafoya and Suzy Kolber are the least of its problems.

Newsday’s Neil Best is back blogging after taking the weekend off. He writes about NBC adding Oxygen to its Olympic family of networks. And Neil says CBS putting all of the NCAA Tournament games online and lifting local blackouts will definitely lower work productivity.

And here’s the CBS press release about March Madness on Demand for the NCAA Tournament. Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes in his Business of Sport blog about March Madness on Demand.

The Ventura County Star’s Jim Carlisle has reader reaction to his Friday column about tape delayed Lakers game in his blog.

Chris Pursell of TV Week reports that ESPN has hired Damon Phillips, the founder of SportsTVInsider.com, as the Vice President of ESPN360.

John Feinstein has a very nice column in the Washington Post about the return of Dick Vitale to ESPN.

There are a couple of more Chris Berman videos. One is him talking about the Canadian deux deux deux or codeine. And the other is him trying to get a table for three of his friends at the ESPN Zone in Baltimore. This is funny stuff.

Good friend, LC, has reaction to Dale Arnold and Jon Rish joining the Red Sox radio broadcast booth.

And Fox Sports tells us that the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday the NASCAR season to a fast start.

BUDWEISER SHOOTOUT GETS 2008 NASCAR ON FOX

SEASON OFF TO FAST START

Season Opening Event Powers FOX to Primetime Win;

Posts +6% Increase Over Last Year

The 2008 NASCAR on FOX season got off to a strong start Saturday night by notching a 5.1 household rating and a 9 share (8.5 million viewers) for the Budweiser Shootout from Daytona. Saturday’s 5.1/9 is a +6% gain over last year’s 4.8/9 for the Shootout, according to Nielsen Fast National ratings released today.

The Budweiser Shootout powered FOX to primetime wins for the night in both household rating and the Adults 18-49 demographic. Among all homes, FOX’s 5.1/9 for the Shootout scored a +19% win over second place NBC’s 4.3/8 and FOX’s 3.0 rating in Adults 18-49 was good for an impressive +30% win over ABC’s 2.3. The Shootout also saw ratings increases among Men 25-54 (+6%, 5.1 vs. 4.8) and Men 55+ (+8%, 5.6 vs. 5.2).

Viewing of the Budweiser Shootout peaked at a 6.1/11 from 10:00-10:10 PM ET as over 10 million viewers saw Dale Earnhardt Jr. take the checkered flag in his first outing in the No. 88 car for Hendrick Motorsports.

That will do it for now.

More Monday Midday Stuff

Time to give you some more stuff.

In his Farther Off the Wall blog, Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News previews the comments by Bryant Gumbel at the end of tonight’s Real Sports program on HBO (of which I’ll have a real time review).

The Sports Media Watch notes that the Pro Bowl did well for Fox on Sunday. And the blog also has some stuff on ESPN personalities.

John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News wonders if this year’s Pro Bowl could be the next to last played in Hawaii.

Eric Wilbur of Boston.com has more on the Red Sox bringing in Dale Arnold and Jon Rish into its radio broadcast team. And the always lovely Jessica Heslam of the Boston Herald has details in her Messenger blog. Paul Flannery of Boston Magazine writes in the Boston Daily blog that it’s nice to have Dave O’Brien in the booth for most of the season.

We’ve got another Chris Berman video. Michael David Smith of the AOL Fanhouse blog links to one in which Boomer talks about smuggling codeine from Canada. Yes, it’s real.

Wayne Friedman of Mediapost says NBC plans to make a big publicity push for its fall programming during the Summer Olympics. Mike Shields of Adweek says NBC will also distribute clips of the Olympics on MSN.com.

John Consoli of Mediaweek writes that the NBA All Star Game will be seen on a record number of international TV outlets.

Alex Weprin of Broadcasting & Cable reports that Keith Hernandez has re-signed to be an analyst on Mets games with SNY.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says even Michael Jordan has been retired from the NBA for five years, he’s still a marketing success.

More later.

Some Monday Midday Stuff

Thanks to the guys at Boston Sports Media Watch for the heads up, WEEI’s Dale Arnold will be part of the Red Sox radio broadcasts. Dave O’Brien will work the majority of the season, 135 games, but due to his commitments with ESPN, he’ll be unavailable for 27 games. Dale will work a majority of the games, Jon Rish who hosts the pre and post-game shows will do the rest. This is a better combination than having Glenn Geffner in the mix

And here’s the press release from WEEI:

The versatile O’Brien, a native of Quincy, MA, who split his time growing up between the Boston area and New Hampshire, has held a variety of broadcasting play by play roles since arriving at ESPN in 2002, including Major League Baseball, College Basketball, and the NBA. He was also the voice of the 2006 World Cup Soccer Tournament televised by ABC. Prior to joining ESPN, he was the voice of the Florida Marlins from the team’s inaugural year in 1993 through 2001. From 2003-2005, O’Brien was the television voice of the New York Mets on WPIX-TV. He has also done play-by-play for the Atlanta Braves and called college footballand basketball games for the University of Georgia and the University of Miami.

Entercom is one of the nation’s largest radio broadcasters with operations, pro forma for pending acquisitions, in Boston, Seattle, Denver, Sacramento, Cincinnati, Portland, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Austin, Norfolk, Buffalo, New Orleans, Providence, Memphis, Greensboro, Rochester, Greenville/Spartanburg, Madison, Wichita, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Springfield and Gainesville/Ocala.

I’m here. Your Links are Safe and Sound

Ok, back from the jobsite. I’ll give you as many links as possible today.

Let’s begin with David Scott from Boston Sports Media Watch.com. He has been away for a while so he catches up with a mega-column today featuring stuff about WEEI/WRKO Program Director Jason Wolfe’s troubles, NESN doing its own PTI, Dale Arnold being dropped from NESN and ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons running for President of Red Sox Nation.

Susan Bickelhaupt of the Boston Globe writes about ABC covering the Open Championship this weekend. George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal has a story on ABC’s announcing crew for the Open Championship, Mike Tirico and Paul Azinger. Nick Faldo of CBS and the Golf Channel joins them in the 18th tower.

Michael Hiestand in this morning’s edition of USA Today wonders where Dan Patrick will land on TV.

From CNBC, Darren Rovell wonders which NBA referee is being investigated for ties to the Mob. Murray Weiss of the New York Post has the original story.

The Sports Media Watch blog has some good stuff this week. It had a post on PETA protesting the NFL offices today over the Michael Vick issue.

As we get closer to Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron’s home run record, we’ll have a new radio call from the San Francisco Giants radio network (could be Jon Miller or Dave Fleming), the opposing team’s radio network, a national TV call (Fox or ESPN) and even the local TV networks. I have heard all three of the calls for Hank Aaron’s home run that broke Babe Ruth’s mark of 714 home run back in 1974. Curt Gowdy called it for NBC on Monday Night Baseball. Vin Scully called it for the Dodgers and it was a very gracious call noting the history of an African American being cheered in the deep south. And calling it for the Atlanta Braves was Hall of Fame announcer Milo Hamilton. Jeremy Cothran of the Newark (NJ) Star Ledger talks to Hamilton and Joe Garagiola who was working with Gowdy on NBC.

Neil Best of Newsday writes about ESPN’s Who’s Now segment which is being killed across the country.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post just can’t stand ESPN’s Joe Morgan.

In the New York Daily News, Bob Raissman says the NFL and its network partners are going to start feeling the pressure about Michael Vick from the Human Society.

In Philadelphia, Laura Nachman of the Bucks County Courier Times says local sports radio station WPEN plans to offer more local programming for fans.

Ray Frager in the Baltimore Sun says there will be plenty of archival highlights of Cal Ripken for Orioles fans to watch before he goes into the Baseball Hall of Fame next week.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner says it’s too early to judge Michael Vick. And Williams talks with Sirius Satellite Radio’s Giorgio Chinaglia about David Beckham.

In The State of South Carolina, Doug Nye says “The Bronx is Burning” doesn’t do much for him.

Dave Darling of the Orlando Sentinel writes about a bunch of announcements from ESPN.

To the Miami Herald where Barry Jackson discusses the various shows both on TV and radio devoted to the Dolphins this season.

Jason Lieser in the Palm Beach Post talks to some sports bloggers and notes their influence on reporting these days. Lieser didn’t talk to me.

There are three sports radio stations in Houston and soon to be a fourth, but David Barron of the Chronicle says only one registered in the local Arbitron ratings.

Bob Wolfey in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel speaks to ESPN’s Jon Anderson who grew up a Packers fan.

In his weekly Friday media column, Paul Christian of the Rochester Post-Bulletin says many Minnesotans won’t have access to guess what? The Big Ten Network.

In the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune, Judd Zulgad has the University of Minnesota officials fuming mad at local TV station, KSTP for running pictures from the Facebook and MySpace accounts of several school football players.

Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune says many newspapers aren’t happy with a new NFL policy calling on photographers to wear vests with prominent product logos.

In the San Diego Union-Tribune, Jay Posner writes about Cox 4 expanding its local sports commitment beyond the Padres. And here are the ratings for sports on TV in the San Diego market.

John Maffei in the North County Times says ESPN will show the LA Galaxy-Chelsea match even if David Beckham doesn’t play. Whatever.

In the LA Daily News, Tom Hoffarth says soccer-football terms get lost in the translation. And Hoffarth really expands on Beckham and other media notes including Dan Patrick in his blog.

Larry Stewart only has one story in today’s LA Times. This one is about the US Open Series which is a bunch of tennis tournaments leading up to next month’s US Open in Flushing Meadow.

I’ve spent two hours looking for links for you. If I have time, I’ll do some more links later.

Tuesday Night Links

Watching the All Star Game on Fox, but somehow got distracted by an ABC News Primetime special on “Family Secrets”, in particular, one story on the huge number of kids who are the result of sperm donors. So many kids, possibly in the low millions, wonder who their father is. This one teenager, Ryan Kramer, gifted in mathematics and already in college at age 16, started this website in hopes of finding his father and some siblings. According to the story, he’s found one half-sister. But because of the anonymity laws protecting sperm donors, many kids are not allowed to know who their father is. Thanks to Ryan’s site, over 3,500 half-siblings and donors have met. But only a handful of donors are willing to come forward, fearful of seeing so many children. I’m amazed that some women are keeping vials of sperm or even re-selling them to other sperm banks so a donor could have sired hundreds of children and not know it. Amazing. Here’s a link to the ABC Primetime story. And the story cited a book by Washington Post reporter Liza Mundy titled “Everything Conceivable”. I’m still buzzing about that story. Thank goodness I never went to the sperm bank.

Ok, to the links tonight.

As the All Star Game dominates the sporting landscape tonight, the Sports Media Watch blog looks at the ratings for MLB this season thus far.

Ratings for the Home Run Derby were down slightly from last year.

Dish Network adds to its sports lineup. The channels being added have already been on DirecTV for a while (yes, I’m a DirecTV subscriber)

This article is a bit technical, but it talks about the live batting practice stream that MLB.com webcast from the All Star Game today.

One story I’ve been following is the dispute between MASN and Time Warner Cable in North Carolina. The RSN can’t pay to get carriage on basic cable in the Tobacco State. It’s currently on a sports tier. But now, nine minor league teams are urging Time Warner to carry the channel on basic saying it will increase interest in baseball and help the local economy. That’s a bit of a stretch. Time Warner says North Carolina is more geared towards the Atlanta Braves. MASN says the Orioles’ and Nationals’ territorial rights extend to North Carolina.

Jesse Noyes has a story in the Boston Herald on Dale Arnold taking NESN to task on his WEEI show on Monday.

Bob Smizik of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says FSN Pittsburgh is making some lineup changes.

In the Los Angeles Times, Mike DiGiovanna answers readers questions and one regards the two broadcast teams FSN West uses for Angels games.

Here’s something you don’t see every day. A Chicago TV reporter, Amy Jacobsen, had to resign from her job after she was shot on video, in a bikini, at the house of a source. The source is a man whose wife has been missing for a few months. Of course, a competing station has the video.

That’s it for tonight. I’ll be back Wednesday.

Dale Arnold Speaks

This is a crazy day. Just when you think things will calm down, you get more news to blog about. With the Dan Patrick announcement, lost in the shuffle was the fact that former NESN Bruins play-by-play announcer Dale Arnold got to give his version of events on WEEI today.

Bruce Allen on the Boston Sports Media Watch blog recaps what Arnold said. Apparently, Dale wanted a multi-year deal, but was offered studio host position which he felt was a demotion. And he found out of NESN’s final decision in the Boston Globe and Boston Herald on Saturday. Once again, NESN takes out a talented announcer in a very poor manner, if Dale’s version is correct. Sean McDonough was dropped from Red Sox broadcasts in a similar fashion.

And David Scott from Boston Sports Media Watch monitored the Boston Bruins’ message boards and saw that Dale (or someone writing as Dale) has posted on one. Dale fires some shots at NESN and it makes for good reading.

You can hear his comments in its entirety by going to the WEEI Audio Vault.

Back later.