Boston Sports Media Watch

WBZ-TV and TV38 announced today that they have acquired the broadcast rights to New England Patriots non-network preseason games, along with the All Access and Totally Patriots TV shows.

This takes the games and programs away from WCVB Channel 5, where they had been shown for many years. It also essentially makes WBZ-TV the TV home of the Patriots, with the Pre and Post game rights, and being a CBS affiliate, they have most of the regular season games, and now the preseason as well as the weekly All Access program.

A couple of assumptions by me now, (which I’m attempting to follow up on): One, in the past when regular season Patriots games would be shown on cable (ESPN or NFLN), they would be broadcast locally on WCVB. I wonder if this now means these games will be on WBZ instead. Second, I assume this also bring to an end the broadcast of the Patriots preseason games up here on NH’s WMUR Channel 9, which is a sister station to WCVB.

(Update: Damn assumptions. Here’s what I’m told via the Patriots:  “The cable networks (ESPN or NFLN) own the rights to their broadcasts in the local markets. After the schedule is announced, the networks then negotiate with the local affiliates for the rights to syndicate their broadcast in that local market. Historically, ESPN games have aired on WCVB (ABC). We have only had a couple of games on NFLN, but I think those games have been open for negotiation with each of the local affiliates.”)

In any event, here’s the full release:

WBZ-TV and TV38 SCORE “PATRIOTS ALL ACCESS,”

“TOTALLY PATRIOTS,” AND PATRIOTS PRE-SEASON GAMES

Boston, Mass. – Wednesday, January 21, 2009 – WBZ-TV and TV38 (WSBK-TV) today announced that the stations have entered into an exclusive television rights agreement with the New England Patriots and Kraft Sports Productions to broadcast “Patriots All Access,” “Totally Patriots,” and any non-network preseason Patriots games. The partnership is effective immediately.

“Patriots All Access,” winner of the 2007 New England Emmy Award for Best Sports Series, will air on WBZ-TV Fridays at 7 p.m. and on TV38 Sundays at 9 a.m. The program features exclusive, behind-the-scenes access and in-depth weekly stories on Patriots players and personnel. The show features weekly sit-downs with Head Coach Bill Belichick including the popular “Belestrator” segment where the coach breaks down upcoming opponents.

“Totally Patriots,” a weekly youth-oriented football show, will air on TV38 Sundays at 10 a.m. “Totally Patriots” gives the next generation of Patriots fans unprecedented access to their favorite players, enabling them to ask questions in a relaxed, informal setting. The program also includes football tips from Patriots players as well as the opportunity to win college scholarships by writing weekly essays about the Patriots.

“We are thrilled to be able to expand our existing partnership with The Kraft Sports Group,” said Ed Piette, President and General Manager of WBZ-TV and TV38. “This new programming agreement compliments our award-winning CBS coverage of the New England Patriots and the entire AFC.”

“We are happy to expand on what has been a successful, long-term working partnership with WBZ-TV and TV38,” said Murray Kohl, Patriots vice president of sales. “There is an incredible demand for Patriots content and WBZ will lead the market with an impressive lineup of Patriots programming. It’s a great complement to the many regular season Patriots games broadcast by CBS and available on WBZ-TV.”

Here’s the full slate of Patriots programming on WBZ-TV and TV38 during the 2009 season:

Name of Program	Station and Time:
“Patriots All Access”Regular Season	WBZ-TV – Friday, 7 – 8 p.m.TV38 – Sunday, 9 – 10 a.m.
“Patriots All Access” Pre Season and Playoffs	WBZ-TV – Friday, 7 – 7:30 p.m.TV38 – Sunday, 9 – 9:30 a.m.
“Totally Patriots”	TV38 – Sunday, 10 – 10:30 a.m.
“New England Patriots 5th Quarter Presented by New England Ford Dealers and Sovereign Bank”	Immediately following all New England Patriots games. Station and time TBD depending on network and/or competitive programming.
“New England Ford Patriots Game Day”	WBZ-TV – Sunday, 11:30 a.m. – Noon
“Patriots This Week”	TV38 – Saturday, 10 – 10:30 p.m.
Pre-season Patriots games	Games TBD
Regular Season Patriots games	TBD
“New England Ford Dealers Sports Final”	WBZ-TV – Sunday, 11:30 p.m. – Midnight all year long

Boston’s WBZ-TV and TV38 are part of CBS Television Stations, a division of CBS Corporation.

- WBZ-TV / TV38 -

Popularity: 15% [?]

Yesterday, Jessica Heslam reported that Gil Santos will be retiring from WBZ radio at the end of this month.

I figured Santos would remain as the radio play-by-play voice of the Patriots, and in today’s Herald, Renee Nadeau has Santos saying that he plans to remain in the Patriots radio broadcast booth for WBCN for next season and into “the forseeable future.”

It just won’t be the morning drive without hearing Santos at :15 and :45 past the hour…

Popularity: 22% [?]

If ever you’ve listened to afternoon sports updates at :15 and :45 past the hour on WBZ radio, you’ve heard the voice of Tom Cuddy providing the latest sports news, usually followed by a Paul Harvey-like anecdote somehow tied to the world of sports.

You won’t be hearing those stories any longer, as Cuddy has been laid off by WBZ as part of the latest round of cutbacks at the station.

Cuddy had been with the station since 1985,  prior to that, Cuddy worked at WRSV Radio in New Hampshire from 1973 to 1976, WSLE Radio in New Hampshire from 1976 to 1977, and WXKS (Kiss 108) in Boston from 1982 to 1985.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Cuddy attended Catholic Memorial High School in West Roxbury and went on to Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.

He also had a brief stint on WBZ-TV as a weekend sports anchor. He has also formed his own freelance radio service.

Popularity: 21% [?]

I’m on the record as being a Bob Lobel fan, but he’s got me scratching my head with this opener to his OT column today:

Reading unsolicited e-mails from people you don’t know — unless, of course, they are secretly your immediate family — is a practice to try to avoid at all costs. Anyway, this one e-mail was particularly priceless to me. Check it out for yourself and pretend you are receiving it. It arrived after my last literary effort:

“I thought you sucked for every one of those 29 years. Especially the last 10 or 15, when you just mailed it in.”

Violation of personal rule No.1: Never read e-mails. Violation of personal rule No. 2: Never, ever answer e-mails. But, for this precious reader, I am going to violate those rules and probably regret it. Here goes:

What you say is really not true. Not about your assessment of this former TV sportscaster’s job performance. Not at all. And by the way, I do hate that word “former.” For your information, I did not suck for 29 years. Twenty-five or 26, maybe, but I did not suck for the whole body of work. It’s just not true. I also object to being accused of just mailing it in for the past 15 years. I’ll admit to maybe seven or eight, but not the last eight, what with all of the titles that were taking the town by storm.

Suck, yes, but not for the decades of which you accuse me. Mail it in, yes, but not for the amount of time of which you accuse me.

Then he goes on to talk about Red Sox ticket prices, the downtrodden and “eminently beatable Patriots” and baseball free agency.

I guess he’s being sarcastic and attempting humor with the first part, but I guess I don’t get it.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Alice Cook is a figure skating queen turned TV sports reporter.

Cook competed in the 1976 Winter Olympic games in the pair skating competition. In 1984 she joined WBZ-TV as a sports producer, and the next year became a sports reporter for the station.

During her career at WBZ, Cook has covered the Patriots extensively for the last 10 years, being a key part of the station’s pre and post game coverage. Cook has also covered several Olympic games, both for WBZ-TV and Turner Sports.

Cook worked for ESPN in 2001 and 2002, winning a Gracie Award in April 2002 for a story she did for “Outside the Lines” on Mari-Rae Sopper, a former gymnast killed in the September 11 attack on the Pentagon.

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Popularity: 32% [?]

We’re only about a month away from the start of Patriots training camp, which means that the still-strong pipes of Gil Santos will be heard on a weekly basis soon thereafter on the WBCN Patriots Rock Radio network…

Of course, you can catch Gil on a daily basis at his day job over in the mornings at WBZ Radio 1030, where he does the sports updates at :15 and :45 past each hour.

Santos first called Patriots games on the radio in 1966, and despite a 10-year absence between 1980 and 1990, he is the longest-serving current announcer in the NFL. His eyes may betray him at times in the booth, but the voice remains steady and strong.

During the 1980’s he did some Celtics games on TV alongside Bob Cousy for channel 56. He also did 16 years of Boston College football, 13 on the radio and 3 on television. Some of the honors he’s received in his career include a New England Emmy in 1978 for Boston College vs. Stanford Play-by-Play, four Massachusetts Sportscaster of the Year Awards, 25 Associated Press Best Massachusetts Play-by-Play Awards, four United Press International Tom Phillips Awards for Best Sports Coverage for the Boston Marathon, a UPI Best New England Sportscaster Award, and two UPI National Awards for Best Play-by-Play and Sports Reading. He was inducted into The Sports Museum Hall of Fame in 2004 with a Legacy Award.

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Popularity: 27% [?]