Media overtime
Following up on the Daily News media column today, if the audio of the DodgerTalk segment from Sunday in question isn't still on the KFWB website, here's a transcription of what host Bob Harvey said, thanks to Alan Oda at LARadio.com:
"Now I have never, in 35 years I’ve been on radio, been the kind of host that would ever air dirty laundry, so having said that, I’m going to put out a pair of socks, and that’ll be fair, I think. During the break, I got a call from Josh Rawitch, the PR director for the Dodgers, who has not been a fan of this show all year, because as a host, I try to tell it like it is, and not tell it like it is from the Dodger viewpoint. Now I’ve assumed from the calls that we’ve received that fans wanted it that way, that they appreciated having a guy here who was not a homer, and instead was a host who talked baseball, who – if he didn’t agree with Grady Little’s lineup or managing moments – he would say something.
"To be called – first of all, to be called during the show – and to be told this show is embarrassing, well that’s a personal affront to me and I would think that a lot of Dodger fans, who have called in and have been a part of this show, would take affront at that. Now having said that, I have probably 13 games left to go in this Dodger season, that is unless they pull the plug on me tomorrow, and then it’s 149 games. But regardless, I’ve enjoyed doing this, I’m not going to sit here and be a homer, and I’m not going to be a guy that’s going to have the Dodgers dictate to me what to say, when to say it. And having said that, I’m going back to the phones.."
Harvey continued after a caller gave the KFWB host some support:
"Well, I get comments from the Dodgers that 'well, you don’t come out to the stadium enough and you’re not aware of what’s going on, the intricacies behind the team.' Well, I tell you what, I read the L.A. Times everyday, I read the Daily News everyday, and I don’t exactly see their beat writers hitting Grady or Ned with hard-hitting questions, they’re more of the softball lob questions. So what good is it going to do for me to go out there and get the company PR line. I would rather sit here, hear from the listeners, hear what you’ve got to say, and hear what your concerns are. That’s what I want to do."
Read on for more:
==As Mike Tirico explained Thursday on the first day of hosting the new national two-hour show on ESPN Radio, his approach to this medium won’t be that much different that Dan Patrick’s was over the last few years.
Expect smart conversation, topical guests and not a lot of yelling and screaming. That’s simply Tirico’s nature.
“You have to act on the air as you do off it, because that’s your personality and you’re not being phony,” said
Tirico prior to launching his show heard from 10 a.m. to noon on KSPN-AM (710), going up against Jim Rome’s syndicated show on KLAC-AM (570). “Some listeners want something that’s more personality driven or a little over the top, and some are great at that. But I get the sense that a person being honest and sharing opinions openly works for me.
“I think there’s a place for informative, intelligent, entertaining conversation, especially in that time slot that’s in L.A. That’s a transition period between what happened yesterday to what’s happening tonight and discussion the hot
issues.”
To help Tirico, ESPN “SportsCenter” anchor Scott Van Pelt has agreed to be a contributor and fill-in host, while Kirk Herbstreit and Michele Tafoya will be quasi-co-hosts as Tirico takes the show more on the road because of his TV
commitments.
“I don’t want the show to be about me,” said Tirico on Thursday. “There’s nothing better when you do a show with friends.”
The noon-to-1 p.m. hour will be a forum for maybe the complete opposite, as the bombastic Stephen A. Smith has been tabbed to try a national show that comes after an hour of a local show on ESPN’s New York-based affiliate. ESPN said Smith was off this week for “personal reasons” and would start Monday.
“Stephen will take his breadth of knowledge and passion and come at things from a different perspective,” said Norby Williamson, ESPN’s executive vice president of studio and remote production. “Look at the impact he’s had already on the Sunday morning ‘SportsCenter.'”
Tirico reportedly turned down the option of doing all three hours. But Traug Keller, ESPN’s senior VP of production, said one reason to carve Patrick’s previous three-hour window into a two-and-one hour division was a reaction to new “People Meter” research that suggest there be “more experimentation in the length of programs. The traditional three-hour show isn’t so much the trend any more. We’ll see if this holds in radio programming more or less over the coming years.”
Meanwhile, rumors swirl about the status of Smith's writing at the Philadelphia Inquirer -- it's become so apparently intriguing in that market that the competing paper, the Philadelphia Daily News has been doing stories on it.
==The TV football, and the broadcasting teams:
Sunday's NFL:
10 a.m.: San Diego at Green Bay with Jim Nantz and Phil Simms on Channel 2
10 a.m.: San Francisco at Pittsburgh with Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston and Tony Siragusa on Channel 11
1:15 p.m.: N.Y. Giants at Washington with Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on Channel 11
5:15 p.m.: Dallas at Chicago with Al Michaels and John Madden on Channel 4
Saturday's college games:
The locals:
5 p.m.: Washington State at USC with Dan Fouts and Tim Brandt on Channel 7
7:15 p.m.: Washington at UCLA with Barry Tompkins and Petros Papadakis on FSN Prime Ticket
The nationals:
9 a.m.: East Carolina at West Virginia with Pam Ward and Ray Bentley on ESPN
12:30 p.m.: Penn State at Michigan with Brad Nessler, Bob Griese and Paul Maguire on Channel 7.
12:30 p.m.: Northwestern at Ohio State with Ron Franklin and Ed Cunningham on ESPN
12:30 p.m.: Michigan State at Notre Dame with Tom Hammond and Pat Haden on Channel 4
12:30 p.m.: South Carolina at LSU with Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson on Channel 2
12:30 p.m.: Texas Tech at Oklahoma State with Joel Meyers and Dave Lapham on FSN West
3 p.m.: Arizona at Cal with Ted Robinson and Kelly Stouffer on Versus
3 p.m.: Kentucky at Arkansas with Mark Jones and Bob Davie on ESPN2
4 p.m.: Rice at Texas with Bill Land and Gary Reasons on FSN West
4:45 p.m.: Georgia at Alabama with Mike Patrick and Todd Blackledge on ESPN
6 p.m.: Purdue at Minnesota with Eric Collins and David Norrie on ESPN2
Note: Iowa at Wisconsin, with Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit, is on ABC at 5 p.m. but won't air in the L.A. market because of the USC-Washington State game. Herbstreit has to travel to Madison, Wisc., from Tuscaloosa, Ala., where the ESPN "College GameDay" show will eminate from 7 to 9 a.m. Musburger has to leave after the game to go to Dover, Del., to host the NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Dover International Speedway starting at 10 a.m. Sunday.
==Herbstreit, on an ESPN "SportsCenter" segment earlier this week, was told by anchor Chris McKendry that his picks of South Florida over Auburn and Kentucky over Louisville over the last couple of weeks proved he knows what he's talking about. Asked for another upset special this weekend, Herbstreit tabbed Washingtonfor a win at the Rose Bowl on Saturday against UCLA. "UCLA is eager to forget (their loss to Utah), but (quarterback) Jake Locker and the Huskies might be the most improve team in the country," he said.
==Discussion about whether Notre Dame should try to join a conference and stop being an independent was the topic of some conversation by ABC's Doug Flutie and Criag James on Saturday's studio show. With that came some consideration of whether the Irish's NBC contract makes a difference in how school officials decide such a thing.
“This is such a delicate issue because all the Irish fans and the faithful out there are so hard core and they believe in the independence of it," said Craig. "But the kids now coming out of high school, they’re not into history…they’re not into tradition. ... Truthfully they don't care about NBC's TV contract on Saturday, that’s no big deal to them because if you're worth a flip you’re playing on a school and a team where you’re going to be on TV every Saturday."
Added Flutie: “There are benefits to going to a conference but right now they don't need it. They have this contract with NBC through 2010, they're guaranteed money they don’t have to split with anyone in their conference. The bottom line is Notre Dame is really the only team that can say if we lose two games we’re still probably going to get a BCS Bowl , not too many teams can say that especially if you’re in a conference you have to win that conference."
==Michael Eaves returned to FSN’s Dodgers postgame show Wednesday after serving a suspension for a few days that the network says was for “personnel reasons.” Sources say it was the result of his starting a personal blog to report on information that he gathered while working on the Dodgers beat. FSN has a policy against such a thing.
==NBC is more than on board with carrying the NHL’s first U.S.outdoor game, when Buffalo plays host to the Pittsburgh Penguins on New Year’s Day at the soldout 74,000-seat Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. Any game with Sidney Crosby makes the network’s TV partner’s jump. Having something of a curiosity factor up against the watered-down lineup of college bowl games on ABC, CBS, Fox and ESPN that day is a bonus.
“There’s much more of an opportunity now to stand out on New Year’s Day,” NBC Sports producer Sam Flood told the Toronto Globe and Mail. "You're going to see an incredible spectacle. The scope of it is so grand."
Flood also told the Buffalo News that the players outdoors will make for a more dramatic picture.
“The visual of the breath . . . if you’re in the 20s, and you look down the bench and see all the players there, breath coming out. And out of Ryan Miller’s goalie mask you see the breath coming out. That’s pretty cool. You don’t see that inside the buildings. … The fact the league is putting this spectacle on, we’re going to make it a showcase event. We want to show off hockey."
Even though a reported 7,000 seats down low will be obstructed by TV equipment.
Fact is, without NBC and Canada’s CBC and RDS on board, plus radio coverage on Westwood One, the game probably wouldn’t happen. But one problem, of course, could be weather. The NHL has a contingency plan that would push the game back one day to Jan. 2, which wouldn’t even compete with Fox’s prime-time Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix.
==Fox's Saturday regional MLB afternoon broadcast schedulemakers picked the Angels' game against Seattle weeks ago, even though the other option -- the Dodgers at Arizona -- doesn't appear to be that much better of an option at this point. Jose Mota and Mark Grace call the Angels' game from Angel Stadium at 12:55 p.m. Half of the coutry is getting Milwaukee at Atlanta while another fourth get the New York Mets at Florida.
Fox was doing some early chest thumping over the fact that its Saturday baseball game last week had a 2.6 rating and 6 share when most of the nation saw the New York Yankees at Boston. That outdrew the Notre Dame-Michigan game on ABC and Tennessee-Florida in CBS.
==Because we can, there's more from Heather Mitts, the injured U.S. women's soccer player who isn't with the team in the World Cup in China this week but has to watch the games from a studio in Bristol, Conn., while dreaming of playing in the next event four years from now:
"Everything happens for a reason," she said, explaining why she has now missed the last two Women's World Cups, the last in 2003 because of a broken leg. "I'd love to be out there and I worked hard to be in the starting lineup. I hope this team can go and take care of business and I'll be ready to join them next year. The opportunity I've had already to win an Olympic gold medal was great, but I don't know that I'll be completely satisfied with my playing career without playing in the World Cup."
Mitts gives her U.S. team a good chance against England in the quarterfinals (Saturday, 4:55 a.m., ESPN2) because "we have yet to play our best and maybe it's because we're saving it. England provides a great matchup. Kelly Smith is one of the world's best players and she's on a mission. If we can mark her out of the game and take care of things on our side, we'd probably get Brazil next in the semifinals, and looking ahead, Germany in the final. But nothing's been easy so far."
==After a few false starts, the Sports Examiner’s online audio launch on TheGoodSportsNetwork.tv that editor-in-chief Rich Perelman and writer Bruce Tenen thought would be up and running on September 4 is now set to go (they hope) on Monday.
==ESPN wil stage another of its trendy "town meetings" in Atlanta on Tuesday, a month after Falcons quarterback Michael Vick pleaded guilty to charges of involvement with dogfighting. "The Vick Divide," airing from 3 to 4:30 p.m., will be hosted by Bob Ley. Guests lined up so far: Atlanta radio host Neal Boortz, former Falcons receiver and Vick teammate Terrence Mathis, Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Terrence Moore and New York Times columnist Selena Roberts.
==Headline of the week from The Onion:
==NASCAR.com has added a Spanish-language version of the site that has the same format and home page. Video will be hosted by Carolina Escobar, an anchor on CNN en Espanol. Since 1999, interest in NASCAR among Spanish-speaking audiences has increased more than any other major sport, according to NASCAR research. Approximately 8.9% of NASCAR fans are Hispanic, a 10% increase over 2001. Some of that is directly attributed this year to the addition of Juan Pablo Montoya as a driver.
==Former NBA All-Star Brad Daugherty is going to get some time as a booth analyst for two NASCAR Busch Series races, starting with Saturday's event in Dover, Del. Daugherty, a studio head on "NASCAR Countdown" for ESPN because of his role as a former team owner in the NASCAR Busch Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, also will be in the booth for the NASCAR Busch Series race Sept. 29, at Kansas Speedway. Both races air live at noon on ESPN2. At Dover, Daugherty will join play-by-play announcer Dr. Jerry Punch and Rusty Wallace,. At Kansas, Daugherty goes with Punch and two-time NASCAR champion crew chief Andy Petree. During the Dover and Kansas races, Petree and Wallace will take turns sitting in the ESPN production truck to watch how a race is produced on TV, to get a different perspective on things.
==Tonight's Westlake-Hart game is on SCVTV delayed at 11 p.m.
==HBO will continue its all-access/infomercial format leading into the Dec. 8 pay-per-view bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Ricky Hatton with a four-episode series, "Mayweather/Hatton 24/7" starting Sunday, Nov. 18. Mayweather begins training by competing the first episodes of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" on Monday.
==NBC says its final round coverage of The Tour Championship last Sunday (10:30 a.m. to 3:07 p.m.) had a 3.0 national rating and 7 share, which is a 233 percent increase over last year's final round of the tournament on ABC (0.9/2, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Nov. 5, 1006).
==HBO has bought six episodes of a comedy show called "East Bound and Down" about a burned out, ex-baseball player-turned-substitute gym teacher starring Danny McBride and having Will Ferrell as one of the executive producers, the Hollywood Reporter said. Ferrell and Adam McKay form Gary Sanchez Productions, who pitched the show to HBO.
==Streamline members of the Jim Rome show might want to go back to listen to an interview he did with Bob Costas on Wednesday, a discussion that focused on many topics, but one of them being how the mainstream media is relying too much on bloggers and internet reporters who are" illinformed, stupid, and meanspirited.... There’s more hostility and meanspirtedness. It seems you can disagree in a disagreeable fashion any more in public forums," said Costas.
==Versus and the Tennis Channel have coverage of this weekend's U.S.-Sweden Davis Cup semifinal, starting at 9 a.m. Friday through Sunday. Led by the Bryan brothers, as well as Andy Roddick and James Blake, the U.S. team is seen on same-day coverage today on Versus at 9 a.m., replayed at 5 p.m. on the Tennis Channel. Saturday's doubles match is on Versus at 9 a.m., with the Tennis Channel replay at 5 p.m. And the Friday schedule repeats on Sunday. The two networks will cover the Davis Cup final starting Nov. 30 against the other semifinal winner, either Germany or Russia. The Tennis Channel covers the Germany-Russia semifinal today at 2 a.m., followed by the doubles match Saturday at 4 a.m. and back to singles Sunday at 2 a.m.
==Finally, it was reported that some USC fans listening to an update on Fox Sports Radio after the Trojans' victory in Nebraska heard a call by KSPN-AM (710)'s Pete Arbogast that was used as a sound bite. "Chauncey Washington scores... So if 28-3 wasn't enough, 35-3 should be enough," was the Arbo clip. Go back to the game. USC trailed 10-7 at one point. The Trojans never led 28-3 or 35-3. No worries. Only a national radio audience heard it.
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