Time to go across the country and get the links from TV/Radio Sports columnists on this busy Friday. And it’s a good sport viewing weekend including the NBA Finals, Interleague MLB play, NASCAR debuts on TNT, the French Open Finals and a whole host of other events.
Let’s start with Michael Hiestand of USA Today. Last night marked the first time the NBA Finals were seen on multiple platforms, ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPN Classic, ESPNU, ESPN360, ESPN.com, etc., etc., etc. This was overkill to the max by the Alleged Worldwide Leader. Hiestand calls these multiple airings, “roadblocks” as a way to promote synergy and this isn’t limited to ESPN. NBC gets involved next week in a big way with the US Open golf tournament. It’s a novelty at first, but it has the potential to be very annoying if this is done too much.
To my native New England region and Dave Scott from Boston Sports Media Watch. He blogs about the effort to unionize at NESN, Bob Ryan’s new show at said NESN, plus Comcast taking over Fox Sports Net New England.
Susan Bickelhaupt of the Boston Globe gives an update on two well-known Boston sports personalities, Gerry Callahan, part of the Dennis & Callahan morning team on WEEI, and Bob Lobel, long time sports anchor at WBZ-TV. Both have been ailing of late. Callahan had polyps removed from his throat and Lobel underwent back surgery. Both have been away from their jobs for a prolonged period of time.
Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News says the idea of MLB Commish Bud Selig ordering Yankee Jason Giambi to talk to George Mitchell in the steroids investigation is nothing more than a dog and pony show.
Neil Best of Newsday has a review of the movie “Ruffian” about the horse that died after a match race in 1975. ESPN made the movie and will air it on ABC tomorrow night.
Last Friday, Laura Nachman of the Philly Burbs newspapers gave her grades to Philadelphia-area sportscasters. This week, she gives her readers the opportunity to speak out.
Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun says in this first year for new TV and radio outlets for the Orioles, ratings for MASN and WHFS are up compared to their previous rightsholders, Comcast and WBAL-AM.
Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner talks with ESPN/ABC’s Kenny Mayne who will host the Belmont Stakes on Saturday.
The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson talks to two men who lost their broadcasting jobs over remarks they said. Lamar Thomas who’s notorious comments during the Miami-Florida International University got him canned from Comcast, and Steve Lyons who lost his gig on Fox after making a comment during the NLCS.
Dave Darling of the Orlando Sentinel has a column stating that the NBA needs to have good ratings from the Cleveland-San Antonio finals, especially with LeBron James as the focus.
In Chicago, Teddy Greenstein gives his picks for weekend viewing.
Dave Barron of the Houston Chronicle says ESPN would like to have Jeff Van Gundy do more work on NBA games next season.
John Maffei of the North County Times (kind of strange to call it that when it’s located just north of San Diego, in Southern California, but that’s me) has a long news and notes column today. He talks mostly about college baseball not being too conducive for television.
As usual, Larry Stewart of the LA Times has two stories on Fridays. His first story focuses on Johnny Miller who will be front and center next week during NBC’s coverage of the US Open. Stewart’s other story looks at the Ruffian movie and the legal problems that surfaced this week.
Those are the links for now. More later as they warrant.
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