Media notes that go on and on ...
In addition to the feature story on Matt "Money" Smith as the first of four installments to the annual best and worst of the L.A. sports media -- this one, taking apart the radio sports-talk hosts -- we have a few notes about other media-related stuff going on in the world, most of it pertaining to an overblown event in Miami:
=Our favorite media-related photo from Super Bowl week: Chicago Bears cornerback Charles Tillman seems more interested in video taping ESPN's Rachel Nicho than he is about being interviewed during Media Day on Tuesday. Here's a maybe-you-didn't-know-fact: Nichols is married to music executive Max Nichols, is the daughter-in-law of film director Mike Nichols, and the stepdaughter-in-law of ABC's Diane Sawyer. And Rachel still doesn't blink when the camera's on her.
=CBS' pregame plans during their four-hour before-the-game-finally-starts show (11 a.m. to 3 p.m.):
-James Brown gets to ask the two head coaches about this first all-black head coach thing.
-Dick Enberg has a piece with former 49ers coach Bill Walsh (kinda like what Bob Costas did earlier this week on HBO's "Inside the NFL")
-Katie Couric (uggg) does a piece on Pittsburgh's Hines Ward and going back to Korea to find his roots (kinda like what ESPN's Jeremy Schapp did earlier this week).
-Randy Cross reports from Baghdad with the U.S. troops watching
-Stevie Nicks (12:55 p.m.), Cirque de Soleil (2:45 p.m.) and Bill Joel on the national anthem (3:15 p.m.) is also included.
The SB related junk actually starts at 9 a.m. with NFL Films filler, Phil Simms' "All-Iron" team is on at 10 a.m., which includes Hannah Storm talking to Doug Williams.
-And after it's all over, James van der Beek guest stars on an episode of "Criminal Minds," where Jim Nantz and Simms make a cameo in a storyline that deals with a murder at a Super Bowl party. How uplifting.
Also, CBS' "Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson" goes live from Miami and will pull in players before they fly home.
=For what it's worth, Simms, Nantz and Dan Marino appear on CBS' "Face The Nation" with Bob Schieffer (7:30 to 8 a.m.).
=CBS SportsLine will have Deadspin editor Will Leitch "glogging" (that's game blogging live) during the contest.
=ESPN "Sunday NFL Countdown" launches at 8 a.m. from South Beach with the usual suspects. The three-hour tour includes Chris Berman trying not to lose his voice again from all the club hopping he did during the week.
=The Westwood One syndicated radio coverage (heard on KFWB-AM 980) includes Marv Albert and Boomer Esiason (after he's done with the CBS pregame show), going out to 590 stations across the U.S. and worldwide on the Armed Forces Network. Westwood One producer Howard Deneroff is supposed to have Esiason wired as he scurries from the booth, to the elevator and onto the field to do the post-game show.
=Sirius Satellite Radio has the Westwood One coverage (channel 124), along with the team broadcasts of the Colts (channel 125) and Bears (channel 123). Westwood One Spanish-Latin America (channel 181) is also there with calls in Spanish-Spain (147), Russian (143), French (110), Japanese (107), Mandarin Chinese (119) and German (130).
=Best quote related to TV coverage of all that goes on during Super Bowl Sunday came from the Chicago Bears' Brian Urlacher, who told the Detroit News how he planned to start his day: “Every Sunday when I wake up, there’s a salt-water fishing show on ESPN that I watch at 8. And then at 9 o’clock, there’s another one. And I watch that until have to go to the stadium when the game is at noon. This Sunday, I’ll be able to watch the whole thing, since it’s late ... There’s something relaxing to me about watching fishing.�
Read on, if you have to ...
=Fans can vote online for the game MVP during the fourth quarter at Superbowl.com, including those with Sprint wireless text messages. Fan votes count for 20 percent. Last year's MVP, Hines Ward, was also the top votegetter online.
=TBS’ revamped TV broadcast team for the upcoming season of Atlanta Braves games pairs Chip Caray with Joe Simpson, sends Pete Van Wieren to radio with Skip Caray, and will do without Don Sutton. The former Dodgers pitcher and Hall of Famer is still smarting over a brief phone call that informed him last October that he’d no longer be part of the crew because of changes made as part of a shakeup after Time Warner sold Turner South to Fox Sports Net. Sutton was part of the Braves’ broadcasts for the last 18 years, but changes were occurring after the sale and the fact TBS would no longer cover Braves games nationally (starting in 2008), while adding a package of major league playoff games. Sutton recently signed on as a TV analyst on the Washington Nationals’ Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, working with Bob Carpenter.
Sutton told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “I know this is probably my hurt pride talking, but I would like to have been notified in something more than a 2½ minute phone call. Other than that, change is inevitable. You could see it evolving with the uncertainty of the (team’s) sale and who was going to do what in the broadcast schedule. You didn’t have to be Socrates to see there were going to be changes.� Chip Caray will also be the TBS’ lead broadcaster on the MLB playoff games this fall, which includes games from all four divisional series and the NLCS, through 2013.
= "Pride Against Prejudice: The Larry Doby Story," the latest creation by sports documentary filmmaker Bud Greenspan and narrated by Louis Gossett Jr., has started a month-long run on Showtime in conjunction with the start of Black History Month. Doby was the first to integrate the American League, just 11 weeks after Jackie Robinson broke in with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.
=Our least-favorite photo that came out of Super Bowl Media Day: This is Chicago Bears Jamar Williams, right, dancing with television reporter Inez Gomez Mont of TV Azteca's show called "Sueltalo!" (which translates to English: "Let it loose.") OK, so it's not the worst shot that one can look at. But consider what's going on, and why we're not all that crazy about members of the so-called media trying to be such a flash-point to a story.
=Time Warner Cable and KCAL Channel 9 announced a high-definition channel for the station, Channel 409, that will debut today with the Lakers' game at Indiana. All 18 of KCAL's remaining regular season Lakers games, plus whatever playoff games it has, will be produced in high def. The station will also do its Dodgers regular-season games in high def as well. KCAL and sister station KCBS Channel 2 are moving to a new state-of-the-art HD broadcast facility in Studio City this spring.
= Upcoming highlights from FSN Prime Ticket: For the Wednesday, Feb. 7, national football signing day, a one-hour "High School Spotlight" show airs at 5:30 p.m. on FSN West and at 10:30 p.m. on Prime Ticket (after the USC-UCLA basketball game), hosted by Lindsay Soto. Verbum Dei receiver Reggie Dunn and Colony High School cornerback/safety Omar Bolden are supposed to make their college choices known on thes show. ESPNU will also have a seven-hour special on signing day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. On Saturday, Prime Ticket has the Mater Dei vs. Lake Oswego, Oregon contest at 8:30 p.m. with Jim Watson, Don MacLean and Soto. Lake Oswego, Ore., features UCLA recruit Keith Love.
=ESPN worked out a deal with The Tennis Channel to share coverage of the upcoming French Open, a deal that ESPN needed after The Tennis Channel bought the U.S. rights to the event last August. As part of this arrangement, the two networks have agreed to share coverage of the Australian Open beginning in January 2008, with TTC adding 100 hours of live and taped coverage that'll compliment ESPN's coverage. The Tennis Channel-ESPN deal runs through 2011.
=NBC takes over the PGA Tour this week with the FBR Open in Scottsdale, Ariz., otherwise known as the "Greatest Show on Grass," Saturday and Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. Says course reporter Roger Maltbie about the raucous crowds expected to reach 500,000: "There'll be 60,000 people at the 16th, and a few of them may even be sober."
=NBCSports.com has hooked up with USA Luge to stream video of all luge World Championship, World Cup, Challenge Cup and team events , starting with today's World Luge Championships from Igls, Austria. It costs $3.99 for event or $12.99 for the season.
=Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly has been named National Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, the 11th time he's received the honor in his 27-year writing career.
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