Sports Media Weekly No. 173- Brian Berger, Sports Business Radio

It’s been an interesting sports media week and we have it covered on Sports Media Weekly.

Joining Ken Fang of Fang’s Bites and me for the program this week is Brian Berger of Sports Business Radio.

We begin the program looking at the appearance late this afternoon of Alex Rodriguez on the Mike Francesa radio program on WFAN in New York.  Rodriguez sought the sympathetic ear of Francesa after storming out of his hearing today with an arbitrator over his 211 game suspension issued by Major League Baseball earlier this year.  Brian, who also works as a media consultant for athletes, chimes in on whether Rodriguez’ strategy will pay off for him in the court of public opinion.

Over to the the NFL next and Ken’s piece on Awful Announcing on the flex options that await the league’s media partners when the new television contracts take effect next year.

We then move to the news that CBS NFL game analyst Dan Dierdorf will be retiring at the end of the current NFL season after 30 years televising games for CBS and ABC.

College basketball may be seeing quite the change in coverage at the NCAA Final Four beginning next year as Turner Sports takes over televising the national semi-final games.  John Ourand at Sports Business Journal  has the details.

We wrap the news segment by looking at the news by NBC that Bob Costas will be adding late night hosting duties to his primetime gig at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

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Sports Media Weekly No. 126

After two weeks away, Ken Fang of Fangs Bites and I are back with a new edition of Sports Media Weekly. Due to the short week we have no guest, but plenty to catch-up on.

We start the show looking at the news today that News Corporation (parent company of Fox Sports) has purchased a minority stake in the YES Network.  The YES Network also announced that it has extended its agreement to carry Yankees baseball through 2042.

Next we look at the moves by Maryland and Rutgers to leave the ACC and Big East respectively and join the Big Ten.  Both Ken and I agree this is great news for the Big Ten Network and not so good news for the Big East as it continues its negotiations for a new television deal.

We then look at ESPN’s domination of college football with its recent deals with the Rose Sugar, and Orange Bowls to carry their games through 2026.  The BCS PLayoffs should not be too far behind for the World Wide Leader.

We shift to the NFL and talk about the piece by Richard Dietsch who speculates whether Jon Gruden will leave ESPN for another coaching job.  We then look at the Thanksgiving Day NFL match-ups, with NBC getting the holiday night game for the first time in 15 years.

We move to the MLB Network to discuss the hiring of former NESN field reporter Heidi Watney and the appearance this week of Keith Olbermann on the network.

We wrap up the show looking at the rumors of who may be filling the morning show slot when the CBS Sports Radio Network launches in January.

Sports Media Weekly Podcast #12- Ian Eagle, CBS, YES Network

So what topic would you think tops the latest edition of the Sports Media Weekly Podcast?  If you guessed ESPN’s coverage of the World Cup draw this Friday…I think you’d be wrong.

Of course Ken Fang at Fang’s Bites and I discuss the media coverage and the general handling of the Tiger Woods story…opinions on which Ken and I differ…

Ken and I also touch upon the firing of Chip Carey by Turner and the mega ratings continuing to be pulled in by those that telecast football.

Our guest this week is Ian Eagle, the versatile play-by-play man for CBS, YES, Westwood One and the Tennis Channel.  We ask Ian how he juggles his busy schedule, what it’s like calling a game for the struggling New Jersey Nets, and his work with up and coming broadcasters at a camp each summer…