Boston Sports Media Watch

The Celtics had a quick turnaround after their loss in Cleveland, playing the Pistons at the Garden last night. They came out strong and sustained it for a 119-93 win over Detroit.

Celts needed a laugher and got it - Mike Fine has the Celtics making some progress with the blowout win.

Pierce, Celtics come together - Chris Forsberg has the Celtics captain getting on track early last night.

A boost from the bench helps the C’s pass the Pistons - Rich Levine analyzes the bench play for the Celtics, both last night and recently.

If the shooter fits . . . - Steve Bulpett has Michael Finley earning playing time by knocking down his shots.

Shaken after a rough ride - Julian Benbow’s notebook has a tough plane ride shaking up the Celtics on Sunday night.

Musings on Bill Walker, Dice-K n’ more - Lenny Megliola clears out the Rolodex of the mind.

Watson never caught on with Patriots - Michael Felger says that the Patriots made the right move cutting ties with Benjamin Watson.

Pats’ Adalius Thomas not yet set on Jets - Karen Guregian has the Patriots linebacker denying he ever said he wanted to go play for the Jets.

Words don’t match Patriots’ actions - Tom E. Curran hits on a number of Patriots topics, including Asante Samuel’s charge that the team doesn’t care about its players.

Bruins floored early - Kevin Paul Dupont has the Bruins unable to overcome a three-goal first period by the New Jersey Devils.

GM backs proposed rule - Dupont’s notebook wraps up the rest of the news from last night.

For Lowell, the test begins - Alex Speier marks yesterday as the first day of the rest of Mike Lowell’s life.

David Ortiz takes stance - John Tomase has the Red Sox DH saying that he doesn’t have to prove anything in Spring Training.

Quick hits: Orioles 8, Red Sox 4 - Gordon Edes wraps up the action from yesterday.

Nelson always ready to throw an inning in relief –– and sign autographs - Daniel Barbarisi with a look at the 35-year-old Joe Nelson, who is trying to win a spot in the Red Sox bullpen.

Notes:

I checked out some of the ESPN broadcast of  last night’s Celtics game. For the second straight game, it was Mike Breen calling the action. I have to say I couldn’t believe it was the same guy. Totally different when paired with Hubie Brown and Jon Barry than he is when he’s with Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy, more subdued, not over-the-top. Of course, neither LeBron or Kobe were playing in the game, but still, it was an amazing transformation.

The New England Revolution are coming to Comcast SportsNet. CSN has announced that they will be the new TV home for the MLS club, airing 27 games (out of 30) this season, all in High Definition. Veteran soccer broadcaster Brad Feldman returns for his 10th season with the Revolution and will handle play-by-play duties for all matches airing on Comcast SportsNet. He will be joined in the booth by Revolution legend and Longmeadow, Mass., product Jay Heaps, who begins his first season as color analyst after retiring from the Revolution in December following an 11-year MLS career.

The telecasts are produced by Kraft Sports Productions. The first game of the season for CSN is the team’s April 3 match at D.C. United.

I’ve actually missed Pete Sheppard the last few days, as WEEI has moved Mike Adams into the Big Show slot while Glenn Ordway takes time off. Nice move, Jason Wolfe, just hand the time slot for those times to 98.5 and Mike Felger – who has been dead-on about how Colin Campbell will be responsible for anything that happens when the Bruins and Penguins play on Thursday. Felger and Massarotti has been all over Campbell and how by saying that he’s going to be at the game on Thursday and addressing the teams prior to the game, Campbell is admitting that he screwed up by not issuing a suspension to Matt Cooke when he ended Marc Savard’s season with an elbow.

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Tom E. Curran shows a little sanity when talking Patriots and putting the “team of the decade” comparisons with the Colts in perspective. He notes that some of his colleagues are letting their facts get a little fuzzy when it comes to this topic.

You may recall the other day when Ron Borges, twisting the numbers to suit his agenda, stated the following:

The Colts have won more regular-season games this decade than the Patriots, won more consecutive games this decade than the Patriots, made the playoffs more often this decade than the Patriots (9-8), reached the playoffs more consecutive years than the Patriots (eight straight) and if they win Sunday will trail them by only one Super Bowl victory this decade.

Borges, was of course spouting the Polian company line, which doesn’t include playoffs in win totals or winning streaks.

Curran acknowledges that Borges is his friend, but does correct him nonetheless.

From 2000 through 2009, the New England Patriots went 126-52. They won three Super Bowls, four conference titles and made it to the AFC Championship five times.

They became the first team in history to go unbeaten over a 16-game regular season and became the first to win 18 in a row in a single season. Only once since 2000 did they finish under .500. And that was 2000.

They won three Super Bowls, four conference titles and made it to the AFC Championship five times. They didn’t go one-and-done in the playoffs until 2009. They finished tied for first place in the AFC East every season from 2001 through 2009. They had one winning streak of 21 games that went from 2003 through those playoffs and into 2004. They had another winning streak of 18 games (2007). They set the record for most consecutive postseason games won (10).

He then compared that to the Colts:

From 2000 through 2009, the Indianapolis Colts went 124-52 (with one game remaining). They won one Super Bowl, two conference titles and made it to the AFC Championship three times.

They set the record for consecutive regular-season games won with 22 in the 2008 and 2009 seasons (a playoff loss in the first-round of the 2008 playoffs prevented them from being able to break New England’s overall record). In their nine postseason appearances, they were one-and-done five times.

He also looks at the money spent by the two teams – another frequent accusation by Borges. It is very close between the two clubs.

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Check the coverage of last night’s Celtics win over the Nets at CelticsLinks.com.

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As mentioned in the morning links today, CSN is set to debut their new nightly show SportsNet Central tomorrow night.

COMCAST SPORTSNET DEBUTS SPORTSNET CENTRAL ON THURSDAY

Region’s Most In-Depth Live Local Sports Show Delivers Comprehensive Pats, B’s, Celts and Sox Coverage at 6 p.m., 10:30 p.m. 1 a.m. and from 6:30 to 9 a.m. the Next Day

Michael Felger Exclusive One-on-One with Tom Brady and First of 20

“Decade of Dominance” Special Segments Highlight Debut

BURLINGTON, MA – Comcast SportsNet unveils New England’s most comprehensive live local sports coverage with the launch of SportsNet Central on Thursday, December 3, at 6:00 p.m., 10:30 p.m., and 1 a.m. SportsNet Central’s debut shows feature an exclusive one-on-one with Tom Brady and in-depth reports on the Patriots, Celtics, Bruins and Red Sox. A morning edition of SportsNet Central will run from 6:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. the following morning.

SportsNet Central’s debut includes reports from:

San Antonio, TX
Celtics Insider A. Sherrod Blakely, play-by-play analyst Mike Gorman, color analyst Donny Marshall and courtside reporter Greg Dickerson report live on the Celtics matchup with Western Conference stalwart San Antonio Spurs before and after the game.

Wilmington, MA
Bruins Insider Joe Haggerty provides a report from Bruins practice as the surging Bruins prepare for their second matchup of the season with long-time rival Canadians.

Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, MA
Patriots Insider Tom E. Curran reports live from Foxboro as the Patriots regroup following Monday night’s defeat at the hands of the New Orleans Saints. Curran’s reports will include reaction from Coach Bill Belichick and Patriots players.

Burlington, MA
Comcast SportsNet debuts its all-new SportsNet Central set. Carolyn Manno and Mike Giardi anchor the 6 p.m. show, and Chris Collins and Kevin Walsh anchor the 10:30 p.m. and 1 a.m. editions. Sean McAdam will preview the MLB Winter Meetings and potential Red Sox lineup changes.

The premier night of SportsNet Central will also feature an exclusive Michael Felger one-on-one with Tom Brady and the first of 20 specials on New England’s Decade of Dominance that will run each night in December during SportsNet Central and Mohegan Sun Sports Tonight. The specials will culminate in a 30-minute Decade of Dominance documentary that premieres on December 23.

The Decade of Dominance will include the unique perspective of prominent New England athletes and celebrities including NBC Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien, Godsmack lead singer Sully Erna, Larry Bird and many others.

Online, CSNNE.com will also prominently feature Decade of Dominance items throughout December with daily polls, uncut and extended interviews from the special, and feature columns from CSNNE.com’s insiders and columnists.

Comcasts SportsNet has sunk a lot of cash into revamping their on-air and web presence, and we’ll soon find out whether their investments will pay off.

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Steve Adams of the Patriot Ledger had a piece over the weekend looking at the recent sports media frenzy in Boston, with ESPNBoston.com coming into town, Comcast SportsNet launching a multi-million-dollar cable network expansion and 98.5 The SportsHub launching as a rival to WEEI.

A sports media frenzy in Boston

I’m quoted toward the end of the article, in regards to whether 98.5 can be a serious competitor to WEEI.

Also, if you see a copy of the 11/25 edition of Patriots Football Weekly on the newsstands this week, be sure to check out my interview and column with CBS broadcaster Lesley Visser, who talked about breaking down barriers as the first female NFL beat writer as a 22-year-old with The Boston Globe in 1976.

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A couple of quick programming notes:

 The Instigators Returns to NESN

The Instigators presented by Cadillac Village of Norwood returns for its second season on Thursday, November 19th at 6:00 pm. The Instigators is an Original NESN Entertainment (ONE) production that was first introduced last December. The weekly show is hosted by NESN studio analyst Mike Milbury who is joined by color analyst Andy Brickley, play-by-play announcer Jack Edwards and other special guests as they debate the hottest and most controversial hockey topics every Thursday night.

The Instigators, which will once again air every Thursday at 6:00 PM and again at 10:30 PM the same night, is unlike traditional regional sports network programs as Mike Milbury and his co-instigators tackle national topics like hirings and firings, NHL rules controversies, and debates about their favorite NHL tough guys and personalities.

Comcast Unveils Expanded Celtics On Demand Library

The new season of Celtics On Demand returns exclusively to Comcast to put fans in control and give them access to in-depth coverage of the players, team and Celtics Dancers, as well as press conferences and community events, which have been produced by the Boston Celtics.  With Celtics On Demand, fans can watch Celtics Captain Paul Pierce teach a new generation how to play basketball; see Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo rollerskating; and take a front row seat at Coach Rivers’ post-game press conferences.  Soon, fans will also enjoy the latest documentary “Take It Back,” which tells the story of how the Celtics added Rasheed Wallace and other talent to this year’s team to make for another championship-driving season. 

Additionally, fans can tune into replays of Comcast SportsNet’s Celtics game telecasts within four hours of each game’s conclusion.  Games are available On Demand for 24 hours. 

Celtics On Demand programming is updated regularly and is available around the clock with the ability to pause, fast forward and rewind selections for Comcast’s digital cable customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine.  It’s easy to access just by selecting the “Get Local” or “Sports and Fitness” categories from the On Demand menu, then choosing “NBA TV” and “Boston Celtics.”  For game replays and other Comcast SportsNet content, viewers can then select the “Comcast SportsNet” category.  As with the vast majority of Comcast’s 17,000 On Demand programs available each month, Celtics On Demand comes at no additional cost to the company’s digital cable customers.

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Comcast SportsNet announced this morning the official hirings of Sean McAdam, Tom Curran, Art Martone, Sherrod Blakely and Joe Haggerty as they relaunch their website and partner on-air with NECN to provide broadcast and internet coverage of Boston sports.

CSN’s online presence at CSNNE.com will now feature the following lineup:

• Veteran MLB reporter Sean McAdam will cover the Red Sox for Comcast SportsNet after 24 years with the Boston Herald and Providence Journal. McAdam is a member of the Baseball Writers of America and a Baseball Hall of Fame voter.
• Veteran NFL reporter Tom Curran will cover the Patriots after serving with NBCSports.com, the Providence Journal and the MetroWest Daily News.
• Sherrod Blakely, respected NBA reporter and Detroit Pistons beat writer for several Michigan newspapers and MLive.com, will cover the Celtics.
• Joe Haggerty will cover the Bruins for Comcast SportsNet after covering the Bruins and Red Sox for WEEI.com, Boston Metro and the Woburn Daily Times.
• Art Martone, sports editor at the Providence Journal for the past nine years, will serve as CSNNE.com sports editor.
• Improper Bostonian sports editor and columnist Rich Levine will share humor and insight as a CSNNE.com columnist and editor.

For the website, Comcast SportsNet has also hired digital media veteran Bill Via as senior director of digital media. Via has been designing and implementing strategic digital campaigns since 1994 and has comprehensive television experience. Via has developed digital media strategies for A&E International, WGBH Boston, Telemundo and KHNL-TV in Honolulu, HI.

NECN sports personalities Mike Giardi and Chris Collins will now also join the Comcast SportsNet news team, alongside Michael Felger and Gary Tanguay, and recent additions Kevin Walsh, Carolyn Manno, Jessica Moran and Jackie Peper.

CSN will debut a new 30-minute program to air three times a night; SportsNet Central. The new show will start on December 3rd, at 6:00pm and will air each night at 6:00 p.m., 10:30 p.m. and 1:00 a.m.

In total Comcast SportsNet is creating more than 40 new local newsroom reporting and production positions and has constructed a new newsroom, added a new studio set and expanded its production facilities at the network’s Burlington, MA headquarters. Comcast SportsNet is consolidating the sports news operations of NECN into its Burlington facility and will serve as the exclusive source of sports news on NECN and NECN.com beginning on November 2. NECN will air encore presentations of SportsNet Central each day.

Related link:  NECN, SportsNet find way to share strengths (Globe)

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In a blog post this afternoon on ProFootballTalk.com, Tom Curran said good-bye to that site, and announced officially that he is heading over to Comcast SportsNet New England where he will be covering the NFL and the Patriots for the new CSNNE.com, which I’m hearing is set for an official launch on Monday, November 2nd.

I had gotten a few emails this week asking why Michael Felger’s columns and Patriots Report Card were not on the CSNNE site this week, and I’m told that they were just sort of re-organizing and getting caught up before the official launch.

So it looks like the lineup for the site will be Felger and Curran with Sean McAdam and Kevin Paul Dupont said to be soon coming aboard, and Art Martone editing. They will also be hiring a Celtics writer.

That’s a pretty good lineup.

Update: I’m hearing now that Dupont is staying at the Globe. As I mentioned in an earlier post, leaving the Globe, where he had been since the 1970’s would’ve been a huge leap for Dupont. I’m not surprised he’s remaining put.

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According to Scott MacKay’s blog on WRNI.org, Providence Journal sports editor Art Martone is leaving the paper to join Comcast SportsNet’s new online venture.

The really interesting part of this post is the last paragraph, which reads:

For Martone, the new post is a good opportunity. Reportedly joining Martone in the new venture is Globe hockey sportswriter Kevin Paul DuPont, McAdam and former Journal sportswriter and football beat guy Tom Curran.

Those are three pretty big names in the local market that could be going to the new CSNNE.com. The site recently had a makeover, and has had Michael Felger providing Patriots content for the last few weeks.

Right now I don’t know if Dupont, McAdam and Curran would be leaving their current positions, though it would seem likely. Dupont has been with The Boston Globesince the 1970’s, making this a huge leap for him, if he is calling it with quits with the paper. McAdam is a good friend of Martone, and the two worked together for years at the Providence Journal, along with Tom Curran, who is currently a national football writer for NBCSports.com

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Going back to their days at Fox Sports New England, Comcast SportsNet has always had columns and blogs as part of their webpage. In fact, I did a Celtics blog for them for a couple of seasons. They’ve expanded in recent years by adding in the “Wicked Good Sports” blogs and content to their website, CSNNE.com.

Look for them to step things up even more in the near future.

With the newspaper industry as we know it seemingly on the verge of a complete collapse, writers and reporters are abandoning their print positions for online ones on a daily basis. Recently we saw Marc Spears leave the Globe for Yahoo! Sports and Mike Reiss will leave the Globe this week for the new ESPNBoston.com, which is set to launch next Monday.

WEEI.com has shown that a local on-air media outlet can also be successful at providing written (though not “print”) material and reporting. ESPNBoston.com, with Reiss on board, is going to be a competitor right away, at the very least in terms of covering the Patriots, to the coverage provided by newspapers such as the Globe and Herald. NESN.com also has a stable of bloggers covering all sports.

Comcast SportsNet wants a bigger piece of that.

They recently have been contacting big name writers in town to try and recruit them to write for them. They contacted Mike Reiss about a job prior to his accepting the position with ESPNBoston.com. I’m told they’ve also contacted Chris Gasper and other Globe writers.

Since Michael Felger left WEEI and WEEI.com to host the afternoon show on WBZ-FM, he had been left without a writing outlet. His mailbag at WEEI.com was one of the most popular features on that site. As part of the expansion at CSNNE.com, Felger will now be taking on nearly the same role he had at WEEI.com, writing columns and a weekly mailbag. His first column is already posted.

Could we see a scenario in the near future where the morning links are dominated with content from WEEI.com, ESPNBoston.com, CSNNE.com and NESN.com, instead of from the Globe and Herald websites? I can, especially if the Globe and other newspapers follow through on their threat to start charging for their online content.

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It’s official – CBS Radio Steps up to the Plate and Launches FM Sports Stations in Boston and Washington, D.C.

Little did you realize that yesterday when I asked you to program The New Boston Sports Radio Station that there really IS going to be such a station…

There are a couple of stories going around today on the end of the current WBCN (Idolator blog):

Boston-area rock stalwart WBCN is going off the air later this summer, with its Linkin-Park-and-Led-Zep playlist being shoved aside in order for parent company CBS Radio to make room for a new, all-sports yakfest on the area’s radio dial. (WBCN had broadcast New England Patriots football.)

This was followed by the fine Boston Phoenix media reporter Adam Reilly, who says that what is actually happening is that parent company CBS will be moving Mix 98.5 to 104.1 in August, and that a new station, the Sports Hub will emerge at 98.5 will the call letters WBZ-FM. He also says that ‘BCN’s current morning duo Toucher and Rich will do the morning show at the new WBZ-FM.

He then adds this intriguing nugget:

I’m told that WEEI.com’s Michael Felger and Comcast SportsNet’s Gary Tanguay will be doing afternoon shows on the Sports Hub when the station’s up and running. Those are nice gets–and as the Sports Hub competes with powerhouse WEEI-AM, it’ll need all the talent it can get.

Felger on the move again? 98.5 and 104.1 have decent signal, at least up to up here in NH. That’s a leg up on prior WEEI competitors such as 1510 the Zone and ESPN890. Toucher and Rich have an established audience, and Felger and Tanguay are big names in the local sports media. It might just work…especially if the Patriots broadcasts come along as well.

I checked a little  into the Felger/Tanguay thing with some industry sources, and while I can’t say it’s 100% for sure, let’s just say I’m very comfortable echoing what Reilly says about them being on afternoons on the new station.

It is not clear as of yet where the Patriots games will be heard. It would make a ton of sense to have them on the new WBZ-FM, and give them something to anchor their sports lineup around. The Bruins could very well be in play as well.

Update: Multiple posts, plus apparently promos on WBCN itself, are saying at the Patriots and Bruins broadcasts will be heard on the new WBZ-FM.

Patriots and Bruins on WBZ-FM vs Red Sox and Celtics on WEEI.  

What do you think the rest of their lineup should look like?

Related Links:

Say Goodbye to WBCN. Say Hello to WBZ-FM (Ken Fang)

Official ruling on the field: The Rock is dead as FM sports talker comes to the Boston airwaves (Boston Radio Watch)

CBS sacks WBCN for all-sports Boston station - Jessica Heslam

Bruins to debut on new Hub sports radio station - Heslam

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