Boston Sports Media Watch

Last night there was quite a ruckus on Twitter as two very respected football reporters Michael Lombardi and Adam Schefter both reported that Leigh Bodden would be re-signing with the Patriots. Both guys are right far more than they’re wrong, especially Schefter, whose word I pretty much take as gospel these days. Meanwhile, Bodden’s agent, Alvin Keels was posting that nothing was done, or even agreed to.

We’ll see what happens today. If I had to bet, I’m siding with Schefter/Lombardi.

Speaking of the NFL free agency period, while Mike Reiss, Tom Curran, Christopher Price, Shalise Manza Young and Albert Breer have all done their usual solid jobs, I think the star of the first few days has been the Herald’s Ian Rapoport. He’s consistently brought good information, and angles and insight that some of the others have missed at times. The Rap Sheet has become a must-follow destination for Patriots fans, and he has been tearing it up on Twitter as well.

Otherwise, it’s a fairly slow day today with both the Celtics and Bruins off last night.

Selection of Tom Brady Makes 2000 Draft One to Remember - Jeff Howe concludes his series of reviewing the Patriots drafts under Bill Belichick with the coach’s first draft, one that is memorable for a certain sixth-round selection.

Patriots air of infallibility is waning - A good article from Tom E Curran, but headlines like that one really turn me off, and many times make me not want to even look at the article underneath the headline. Who ever said the Patriots were infallible? Who? C’mon. The article itself is candid, frank, without pushing silly agendas, but the headline is just dumb. (I know, Curran probably didn’t create it.)

Fielding more than his share of bad hops - Gordon Edes looks at how Dustin Pedroia used baseball as his focus when off-field things weren’t going so well for him last season. I also enjoyed this blog entry from Edes on Jose Iglesias in which Edes is giddy as a schoolboy over the potential of the phenom shortstop, and wonders if the Red Sox should put him right in the majors to start the season.

Why some Red Sox pitchers like throwing to some Red Sox catchers - The title of Rob Bradfords article this morning explains it all.

Big performances: Young trio impresses - Michael Silverman has a trio of young, gifted and intriguing outfielders making an impression on the Red Sox yesterday.

Beckett, Martinez on learning curve - Sean McAdam with another strong notebook from the action of yesterday.

La Russa still mover, shaker - Bob Ryan talks to Tony La Russa about his 33 years as a big league manager.

Hits like this don’t belong in hockey - Mike Loftus weighs in on the hit that Penguins forward Matt Cooke laid on Marc Savard Sunday.

Marc Savard fuzzy on details - Stephen Harris gets props for catching up with Savard at the Pittsburgh airport yesterday to talk to him about the hit and how he’s feeling.

Lockdown defense steadies KG - Chris Forsberg says that Kevin Garnett’s defensive performance down the stretch on Sunday night should be encouraging to Celtics fans.

Relentless defense critical to Celtics - Steve Bulpett says that the Celtics performance on defense in the last six minutes Sunday night showed that they are still capable of locking down an opponent, and that gives them no excuses going forward.

Also check out Greg Doyle’s Q&A With UNH TE Scott Sicko, who has gathered some interest from pro scouts.

Elsewhere, I was also disappointed with the news that Alice Cook was tossed at Ch. 4 after 25 years of service to the station. With the decreased amount of time that newscasts are giving to the sports segments, it makes sense to keep the rosters small, but I always enjoyed the job that Cook did, both with the sports reports, and on the Patriots pre and post game shows.

Popularity: 9% [?]

If you didn’t read Bob Hohler’s column this morning – Really big news - I highly recommend that you do so.

The article looks at some of the media pressure that the Red Sox had to overcome en route to winning the 2004 World Series. It seems that much of that “media pressure” came from an unlikely source: WBZ’s Jonny Miller.

WBZ’s Jonny Miller greeted every new player in the Fens by asking him to declare whether the team’s chronic misfortune was born of some ghostly voodoo risen from Babe Ruth’s grave. His tape recorder whirring, Miller followed up by posing the same question every spring training to every player on the Sox roster: “Do you believe in the curse of the Bambino?’

Miller doesn’t refer to the curse any longer, as he is quoted in the article as ““They took away one of my lines,’’ Miller said of the ’04 Sox. “I can’t ask about the curse anymore.’’

The article notes that Jonathan Papelbon this season called Miller “the most negative person around.”

This seems to fit with some of the lines of questioning Miller has pursued, as chronicled by Hohler.

And when the Sox went on a 10-game winning streak to seize a four-game lead in the wild-card race in early September, it was Miller who stirred the ghosts.

“In the history of the wild card, no team has blown a four-game lead starting Sept. 1,’’ he informed Damon. “Are you confident you won’t be the first?’’

There are plenty of other examples in the article.

Hohler also notes that Miller is a prankster, though some of his stunts have been better than others:

Miller became as memorable in 2004 for his pluck as his perseverance. In February, five months after WEEI’s John Dennis and Gerry Callahan compared a gorilla that escaped from the Franklin Park Zoo to a minority Metco student, Miller welcomed them to spring training by presenting them white pillowcases as if they were Klansmen.

And later:

In September of ’04, with Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon filming “Fever Pitch’’ in Fenway’s box seats, Barrymore’s history of teen drug problems inspired Miller to raise a placard that asked, “When Will Drew Be Back In Rehab?’’

All in all, this was a nice “behind the scenes” look by Hohler at the type of coverage and questions that were around the Red Sox prior to the 2004 World Series Title.

Popularity: 10% [?]

The New England Patriots overtime loss on Sunday to former offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and his Denver Broncos was the highest rated program of the week in the Boston market.

The game earned a household rating of 29.73 with a 57 share. The game averaged 1,156,900 viewers and peaked during overtime with 1,446,100 viewers.

It was the second highest-rated Patriots game of the season, trailing only the season opener on Monday Night Football against Buffalo.

Through five games in 2009, Patriots games are averaging a local rating of 28.88 with a 57.4 share.

By comparison, through five games of the 2008 season, Patriots games averaged a local rating of 25.62 with a 49.4 share.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Lured by the prospect of seeing Tom Brady’s return to the field, viewers flocked to last night’s Patriots preseason opener against the Philadelphia Eagles.

According to Kraft Sports Productions and WBZ, the game garnered a 14.6 rating last night.

The Patriots’ preseason game versus the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday night earned a 14.6 rating and a 27 share. The game was the top program in total households and total viewers in every demographic among all broadcast and cable networks on Thursday. The broadcast averaged 524,300 total viewers, ranking second in total viewers for a preseason game since the introduction of Local People Meter ratings in 2002. The game peaked at 8:45 p.m. with 643,290 total viewers. Patriots-Eagles ranked among the top five television events of the summer (June 1 to Aug. 13, 2009) for adults and men 18-49 and 25-54 in the Boston market.

The pre and post game shows also did well for WBZ:

WBZ-TV is also home to “Patriots Gameday” prior to every game and “Patriots 5^th Quarter” after each game. “Patriots Gameday” on Thursday had a household rating of a 5.32 with a 12 share. “Patriots 5th Quarter” had a household rating of 5.70 with a 12 share.

Not bad for a preseason game. Check my Media Notes on Patriots Daily for more on last night’s TV and Radio broadcasts.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Later this morning, WBZ will be honoring legendary sportscaster Gil Santos by making him the second member of the WBZ Hall of Fame.

From WBZ’s release sent out last night:

WBZ News Radio will add another chapter to the history and heritage of its famous call letters. At 11:00 we will unveil a plaque honoring Gil Santos as the newest member to be inducted into the WBZ Hall of Fame.

Gil Santos retired from his morning sports anchor position in January of this year and WBZ News Radio is delighted to bring him back so he can see the permanent addition to the Hall of Fame wall on the front of the WBZ building on Soldiers Field Road. Gil was the voice of sports in New England for more than 38 years on WBZ. He’s covered an amazing 13 professional sports championships in Boston during his career. This will be Gil’s third hall of fame honor. He is already in the New England Sports Museum Hall of Fame as well as the Fairhaven High School Hall of Fame.

Gil becomes on the second member of WBZ’s Hall of Fame. Former WBZ morning news anchor Gary LaPierre was the first inductee in February of 2007 following his retirement in December of 2006.

Congratulations to Mr Santos for a well-deserved honor.

Popularity: 4% [?]

A slightly amusing video from the Boston Marathon, where Steve Burton has a mini-meltdown because his microphone won’t work properly:

And Steve, its Kara, not Sara.

Post-Marathon Interview Is The Biggest Endurance Test Of All (Deadspin)

Popularity: 8% [?]

Ken from Fang’s Bites with a quickie update today.

This is from WBZ-TV and the New England Patriots. The Patriots All Access show makes the official move from WCVB, its home for 12 seasons to WBZ this week.

Patriots All Access debuts this Friday

Patriots All Access kicks off its 13th season on Friday, March 13 at 7 p.m. on WBZ-TV and will be replayed Sunday, March 15 at 10 a.m. on TV38.

Boston, Mass. – Tuesday, March 10, 2009 – “Patriots All Access” will kick off its 13th season on Friday the 13th when it debuts at its new home, WBZ-TV and TV38. WBZ-TV Sports Anchor Steve Burton will host the first off-season installment of “Patriots All Access” on Friday, March 13 at 7 p.m. on WBZ-TV, beginning a new era for the best and most in-depth Patriots program in New England. “Patriots-All Access” will re-air on Sunday, March 15 at 10 a.m. on TV38 (WSBK-TV).

The first “Patriots All Access” on WBZ-TV and TV38 will feature:

* WBZ-TV Sports Reporter Dan Roche examining a whirlwind of offseason activity for the team, as multiple trades and free agency acquisitions have begun to shape the 2009 Patriots.
* Former Patriots quarterback Scott Zolak sitting down with the Patriots’ new senior football advisor, Floyd Reese, to discuss the offseason and the upcoming NFL Draft.
* WBZ-TV Sports Reporter Alice Cook kicking off a season-long Patriots 50th Anniversary celebration by unveiling the first in a series of Top 10 lists with the “Top 10 Personnel Moves in Franchise History.”
* Patriots defensive lineman Jarvis Green escorting a group of Foxboro High School seniors on their school vacation to his home state of Louisiana to help rebuild a town damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

“I am thrilled to begin a new chapter with WBZ-TV as ‘All Access’ begins its 13th year,” said Matt Smith, executive producer of Kraft Sports Productions. “This is an extension of an already fabulous relationship between the organization and WBZ. Patriots fans will not want to miss a minute, as the WBZ-TV sports team brings a unique and fresh perspective to the show.”

This is the first stage of Patriots programming that WBZ has acquired. It also picked up the Patriots preseason games from Channel 5. This press release has a complete schedule of Patriots programming on WBZ and TV-38.

Popularity: 12% [?]

The Bob Lobel experiment on WBZ radio this week has interesting, to say the least.

 Sadly though, it must come to an end, as WBZ has tapped veteran Walt Perkins to take over the morning sports role opened up by the retirement of Gil Santos.

Perkins rejoined the WBZ in 2001, he had worked at the station in 1988 while working for 2 other media outlets WCVB and WSBK at the time.

He freelanced for WCVB from 1988 until 2003 and prior to that he worked in television at WLNE in Providence from 1985-1988. Perkins worked for WGIR in Manchester, New Hampshire and WEAN/WPJB-FM in Providence following graduation from the University of New Hampshire where he majored in Business Administration and minored in Communications.

Here’s the full release:

A New Voice of Sports in New England

(Boston) WBZ News Radio 1030 is pleased to introduce a new voice of morning sports to the New England audience. Walt Perkins will be the new morning sports anchor on WBZ News Radio 1030. Perkins takes over the morning role at WBZ News Radio following last week’s retirement of legendary sports anchor Gil Santos. Perkins has been a weekend sports anchor at WBZ since 2001 where he also led the station’s on-line sports reporting efforts for WBZ’s website (www.wbz.com <http://www.wbz.com>).

Walt Perkins is a 30 year broadcast veteran and is also a native New Englander and with that come the experience of being a sports fan as well as a broadcaster who has covered all the major local teams highs and lows during his career.

“First, I am extremely honored to be following a sports legend in Gil.” Perkins said. “He was one-of-a-kind and cannot be replaced. I pledge to do my best to keep up the high standard he set in this job for the past 38 years. Second, I look forward to working with the top-notch crew that is in place – on air and off – bringing New England the latest sports news and information.”

Perkins will anchor all of WBZ’s morning sportscasts beginning at 5:15 each week day. He will also cover the local sports teams as a reporter and for WBZ’s website. “Walt has proven to be a tremendous asset to WBZ’s sports coverage during the last few years” said Peter Casey, Director of news and Programming for WBZ, “his efforts in producing sports coverage for our website have helped make it one of the most popular sections of the site. We’re thrilled to now have him on board in the morning.”

Perkins has experience covering sports for television as well as radio. He has worked at TV stations in Boston and providence.

Popularity: 12% [?]

The Herald’s Jessica Heslam has a story this morning where she reports on some local TV stations that will be forgoing the customary trips to Red Sox spring training next month due to the economy.

Channel 7 (WHDH) will not be sending anyone down to Fort Myers, while FOX25 may not send sports anchor Butch Stearns, or anyone else.

Channel 4 (WBZ) will be scaling back their live coverage from Florida, while Channel 5 (WCVB) plans on staying consistent with what they’ve done in the past. NECN will also be sending someone down, but it isn’t clear who that will be just yet.

NESN, the TV home of the Red Sox is expanding their coverage this spring, and Comcast SportsNet has big plans as well. They’ve grabbed Lou Merloni from NESN for baseball coverage this season and will also be broadcasting Sports Tonight live (with an audience) from the Pink Shell resort on Fort Myers beach the week of Feb. 16th. The look of their coverage is always distinctive, and different from the other stations which usually just broadcast from the practice field, or at the hotel pool.

For the local TV stations, I think it is a wise move to reduce or eliminate the spring training coverage. The sports segments are already shortened, it can’t make any business sense to spend big money for a couple minutes each night.

For the sports networks like NESN and CSN, it makes more sense to keep going down there because they’re doing entire shows on location, and the return on the investment is much higher, as they can spend more time interviewing players and other guests and give them more airtime than the TV stations are able to do.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Thanks to BostonRadioWatch.com for passing the link along:

Lobel To Anchor WBZ Radio’s AM Sports Next Week

Former WBZ-TV sports anchor Bob Lobel will be back in the building next week to take over the morning sports reports on WBZ Radio.

The move is not permanent though, WBZ Radio says. He’ll be on air from Feb. 3 to Feb. 6. “It’s an honor to be able to follow a legend, even if it’s only for a week,” Lobel said.

Lobel’s last newscast on WBZ-TV was on April 29. Lobel was part of the WBZ Team for almost 30 years.

Longtime WBZ Radio sports anchor Gil Santos retired from the early morning sports slot earlier this month. Santos joined the WBZ Radio team back in 1971.

Popularity: 13% [?]