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Labor Day Weekend Media Notes

August 31, 2012 By

It’s actually been a fairly busy week in terms of media news and happenings.

ESPN extension is good for baseball – Chad Finn looks at a number of things, starting with the extension between ESPN and MLB. He also looks at the interest in Ryen Russillo from WEEI, the continued slippage of Don Criqui and Randy Cross on the Patriots preseason broadcasts, and NESN.com’s decision to do away with beat reporters in an effort to fully become the TMZ of Boston sports.

FOX Jumps Into First Full Season Of College Football – My SB Nation media column has a look at FOX launching its first season of over-the-air football games, and their new pregame show with their new star, Erin Andrews.

WEEI announced their NFL programming this season. The biggest change is on the NFL Sunday show, which will still feature Dale Arnold and Christopher Price, but instead of Troy Brown and Christian Fauria, (who took Steve DeOssie‘s spot on WBZ-TV programming – and yes it was related to fallout over DeOssie’s appearance at the Giants Super Bowl pep rally.) former Patriots Matt Chatham and Kevin Faulk will be with Arnold and Price on the show, which will originate from Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill at Patriot Place before home games.

The addition of Faulk seems to be a recent development as Dale Arnold had tweeted this on Sunday:

(Chatham will also be writing two columns a week for the Boston Herald – Ex-Patriot Matt Chatham joins Herald NFL team. )

WEEI will return The Real Postgame Show, which will be hosted by Butch Stearns (! I’d have thought Pete Sheppard was a lock to be back in there.) and Fred Smerlas.

Patriots Monday and Friday lineups will remain much the same.

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It’s official, AM 1510 will again be a sports radio station (at least at nights) starting next Tuesday, September 4th. The station is among eight nationwide that will carry all of the offerings of the new NBC Sports Radio network. Initially, this programming is only from 7:00pm to 5:00am ET.

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New England sports media had two more anchors recently leave the market, CSNNE’s Carolyn Manno, long tabbed a rising star is starting  at NBC Sports Network today.  Courtney Fallon left WLNE in Providence on Monday, according to her friend Jen Royle, Fallon is landing in Miami. As reported last week by Finn, Kristine Leahy left FOX 25, no announcement has been made yet as to her next job.

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Patriots.com radio is also expanding their lineup. In addition to its  flagship show “PFW in Progress” and “Patriots Playbook with John Rooke,” the team’s website will also feature three new shows: “Fantasy Football Champs,” “Cold Hard Football Facts” and “Football Nation.” All three shows will premier the week of September 3, leading into the NFL season kickoff.

“Fantasy Football Champs” is hosted by Todd DeVries and Bill Enright, and will air Tuesdays 4:00-6:00pm. Kerry Byrne hosts “Cold Hard Football Facts,”  airing Wednesdays 4:00-6:00pm and will also write a weekly column for Patriots.com during the season. “Football Nation” is also hosted by Todd DeVries and Bill Enright on Thursdays from 4:00 -6:00pm and will focus on the latest storylines and matchups around the NFL.

And oh yeah, today is Patriots cutdown day. Keep up with everything at PatriotsLinks.com.

Filed Under: Morning Links, Week Log
  • Phil

    I’d rather die in a fire than listen to Dale Arnold.

    • Joe

      that seems like a very drastic alternative. How about “I’d rather grab a hot pot cover”?

      • Phil

        How about you buy me a Hot Pocket. Then we can drop it. BTW Mazz and Bertrand are awful. Yay lets talk about Jacoby !!

  • Edward

    When was DeOssi fired from WBZ?

  • bsmfan

    Analysis of Boston’s last 365 days from @JLundbladESPN: http://es.pn/S6hZDP

  • Scott

    Sheppard was host of the post game show that lost in the ratings to wbcn every week. Every weei show won their time slot except the Sheppard&Smerlas disaster. He is lucky to be filling in during summer vacations—-how does he get time off his regular job to fill in on weei?

  • Phil

    Wow Mustard & Johnson versus ND Football. I cant decide. Sports radio may be as deaf as Sox ownership.

    • Phil

      Im jonesing for a Revolution game.

  • HomerGreenz

    “WEEI will return The Real Postgame Show, which will be hosted by Butch Stearns and Fred Smerlas.”

    Replace Waterboarding with this ^

  • HomerGreenz

    “Initially, this programming is only from 7:00pm to 5:00am ET.”

    When most people are not driving and not listening to radios…

    Brilliant strategy

  • bsmfan

    From Mike Reiss in his Sunday Column: http://es.pn/RzKNlD

    10. Not sure there is much widespread interest in this type of stuff, but was impressed that Patriots rookies were previously briefed on each media member covering the team, the media member’s affiliation, and what the media member’s responsibilities entail. I learned this after introducing myself to one lesser-known rookie, only to be given a scouting report of sorts on ESPNBoston. The Patriots are one of the most well-covered teams in the NFL, and prepping players on those who visit the locker room each day is smart. No truth to the rumor that the ESPNBoston scouting report read: “Undersized scrapper. Good change of direction when forced to adjust to new interview target in locker room. Doesn’t have ideal recorder reach when matched up against bigger tackles.”
    —————
    Doesn’t this make you laugh but at the same time with no surprise? This also makes me think they have their own aliases and vernacular for specific media members (wonder what Borges is called?).

  • http://www.facebook.com/anthrocoon Bob Nelson

    WWZN will have NBC sports 6-10 am (rebroadcast of overnight show) and 7 pm to 1 am. Anthony Pepe and the “Bawstin Diehards” weekdays 10-noon; prog talk still 3-7 pm till Nov. Red Sox in Spanish, college sports etc.

  • bsmfan

    Since things are really bad, the media might sneak in the “other Red Sox” over on the other side of the pond as subject matter for columns. This winds up being “dismissed” but I will contend until one is without the other that each franchise to the other is a distraction. Personally, I don’t know how you can’t run a PL club without absolute focus unless the other franchise is a doormat (Bucs w/the Glazers, Rams ownership of Arsenal (Kroenke is only majority shareholder and seems to be handsoff, Browns (sold to focus on Aston Villa).

    I’ll expect some of this to creep in, eventually.

    Given the loss in the transfer window of Dempsey, loaning of their best players w/o replacement, 2-0 loss @ Liverpool (winless thus far in the season): Liverpool owner John W. Henry defends summer activity in open letter to fans: http://bit.ly/OKSFMM

    • APimpNamedDaveR

      They never would have moved Carroll unless they thought a Clint Dempsey move was a lock. Wonder what happened there….

      • bsmfan

        I’ve heard things from Fulham toying with LFC just to do so (rivalry?) and that they handled the negotiations like Mark Teixeira.

        @IanDarkeESPN Laughable that John W Henry thinks he knows better than Brendan Rodgers about value of Dempsey.

        If you read the stuff coming out from there, it’s pretty bad. It seems like they’re trying to run LFC like the Oakland A’s. Good luck there. 0 understanding or appreciation for what the PL is or where its going. Tell MUFC that 30£ is too much for RVP.

        Again, I hate to turn this into “English Media” but it just reminds me of the over-extended entrepreneur who doesn’t realize he’s over-extended. I don’t think enough people around here cover this or are willing to go there for some reason or another (many have also told us, for years, that these are the smartest people in the world), but think it’s really one of the underlying currents.

        • APimpNamedDaveR

          He had absolutely no idea what he/they were getting into. If he just wanted a nice, well-supported club that would give him marketing opportunities, he should have gone with a well-supported second-tier club like Spurs or Newcastle or something. If you buy into one of the Big Four, there’s no moneyball. You spend money, and then you spend more money, and if you have any money left, you spend it too. The reaction to the L35m mistake that was Andy Carroll (wrong player for the wrong club) isn’t “we need to Moneyball this”, it’s burying him on the bench and spending L55m for someone better. Rinse, lather, repeat. Henry’s not competing against pockets as shallow as the Yankees in the Premiership — he’s competing against oil sheiks and Russian oligarchs who can cut personal checks for $150,000,000 and not even blink.

  • http://twitter.com/theaisleseatcom Andy Dursin

    Christian Fauria is simply awful. Talks forever — Mike Reiss can hardly get a word in now — and says absolutely nothing at the same time. Obviously he’s spent plenty of time in the media broadcasting school of diarrhea of the mouth. On Sports Final Sunday, when Dan Roche asked him about Dan Koppen, he spoke so long that Roche started reading his notes and you could just see Reiss politely nodding as if to say “when I can say something?” I’m surprised they dumped DeOssie but the Giants pep rally fallout had to have come somewhere. Hopefully Fauria will improve but he’s made the Pats segment of Sports Final unwatchable now for the last couple of weeks.

    Agree with Bruce also that Pete isn’t back in the Real Post-Game Show….seemed to be an obvious fit. Butch Stearns? Again?

    The bigger shock to me is that EEI is going back into football season with Mutt and Merloni intact. They’re atrocious doing football analysis and Gresh and Zo, regardless of what you think about them, are solid when it comes to Pats talk. Would seem to be a glaring weakspot, but maybe they’re waiting until their contract runs out.

  • bsmfan

    All the national guys hit at once:

    Ken Rosenthal:
    http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/Boston-Red-Sox-should-fire-Bobby-Valentine-bring-back-Terry-Francona-090312

    Jeff Passan:
    http://sports.yahoo.com/news/as-long-as-bobby-valentine-remains-red-sox-manager–glory-days-will-remain-light-years-away-.html

    Jon Heyman:
    http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/jon-heyman/20038141/john-henry-wraps-up-meddler-of-the-year-award-with-his-holiday-trip-to-seattle

    And, Liverpool looks like its worse than the Red Sox right now:
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/9518913/Liverpool-owner-John-W-Henry-offers-some-laughable-points-with-his-letter-to-fans.html

    If you look on the non-official forums, people are looking to burn Anfield down. Henry applied the term “money ball” to Liverpool. “A Yanks term to an English problem not understood.” What if Hank Steinbrenner said we need to not be at or over the luxury tax because they’re doing money ball?

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