Back to the blog after a couple of days of impossible deadlines. I hate deadlines. Anyway, let’s get cracking on the links today.
It appears that WSCR in Chicago will be the new radio home of the White Sox. White Sox General Partner Jerry Reinsdorf met with station officials on Wednesday. If the Sox sign a deal with WSCR, it would end a 10 year relationship with WMVP. And according to Chicago Tribune media reporter Teddy Greenstein, Reinsdorf had a contentious interview on WMVP which has many of the hosts talking.
CBS Sports had a great rating for the Men’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Final on Monday and overall, this year’s tourney had higher numbers than last year and it wasn’t even close. Monday’s final was up 36% than 2003. CBS published a press release for all the world to see.
Greenstein has a story on CBS’ coverage of the Masters which begins today.
One note about CBS and the Masters, this is the 50th consecutive year for the network to televise the event and that is the longest continuous stretch for any network as a sports rights holder. While CBS has had this seemingly endless strangle hold on the event, you might be surprised to know that ever since it began, the network has signed one year contracts with August National. John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News has the story comparing CBS broadcast styles over the years with Jim Nantz who will be the host of the weekend coverage.
Jerry Lindquist of the Richmond Times-Dispatch has his take on the TV coverage of the Masters.
Bob Costas has a new show on HBO. It’s really his old show with a new title, timeslot and mission statement. Instead of being the irreverent host of a late night sports and entertainment show that ran for a mere 12 weeks, Costas is getting motivated to go back into sports full-time. His old show, “On the Record with Bob Costas” which would contain a sports interview once every 6 weeks has been scrapped for a new format, one which will run every month, similar to “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” which has never lost its focus. Nice to know that Costas will be doing this new talk show for HBO. Here’s the press release from HBO. It appears the show will debut on May 13.
Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes about the ongoing negotiations between Disney and the NFL. Sandomir says moving Monday Night Football to ESPN is a distinct possibility. The other possibility is moving ABC to Sunday Night, but that would leave its big hit, “Desperate Housewives” without a home for 17 weeks. Plus, the issue for the NFL as always is money. ABC wants to lowball the NFL after years of heavy losses on Monday nights. Sandomir says if ESPN pays the $1 billion asking price for MNF, the NFL might be willing to take a lowball offer from ABC so long as the total revenue is close to the asking price for both packages. Stay tuned.
It appears Sandomir used John Consoli’s article from Mediaweek a few days ago as a base. You can read this before Sandomir’s and not miss much.
Sirius Satellite Radio, the home of the NFL, NASCAR, the NCAA Tournament, the NBA and the NHL, has added another sports property to its lineup. Sirius now becomes the official satellite radio partner of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. Katy Bachman of Mediaweek has the story.
One of my pet peeves is Fox Sports Net’s lack of exposure and promotion for the PAC-10 conference in both Football and Basketball. While FSN has broadcast PAC-10 basketball games on Thursday and Saturdays, they have been difficult to find especially if it has a prior commitment to local teams. Then the game either gets shut out or delayed. Arizona basketball coach Lute Olsen is well aware of this and he tells the student newspaper, the Arizona Daily Wildcat that he’s hopeful that ESPN will bid for the next contract when negotiations open in 2006. Olsen is particularly critical of the fact that FSN signed a contract with the ACC for a Sunday night game and provides more promotion for that game over the PAC-10.
That is it for the links for now. We’ll be back tomorrow with the weekly Friday media columns and I’ll have a review of the Masters coverage Sunday.
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