Monthly Archives: May 2007
Looking The NHL In The Mirror
The Stanley Cup Finals begin tonight. Although the thought of an Anaheim/Ottawa final does not bring fans back to the glory days of the game, it is the championship match-up. I wish I could see it.
I grew up watching hockey on television. My winters consisted of following the Boston Bruins compete for championships in the 1970′s while trying to watch through the snowy signal of WSBK TV-38. The games are no longer carried on the station, since moved to the cable outlet NESN. In the early going NESN was a premium television channel. That impacted the number of fans who could watch the game. Now NESN is carried on most standard cable television packages in New England.
When the NHL lockout took place wiping out the 2004-2005 season, we knew the league would take a P.R. hit. It did, yet fans did return to the rink. The total attendance at NHL games in the 2003-2004 season (before the lockout) was 20,336,817. The 2005-2006 season (the first after the lockout) the number was 20,854,299. This year saw 20,857,288 people pile into NHL arenas. A modest increase, but an increase nonetheless.
Even though the fans are back, they are not watching on television. Ratings for the NHL on a national level are down dramatically, even during the playoffs. I think the reason for this is that the NHL was still looking to make money off a television deal instead of working at regaining its credibility.
After the lockout ESPN opted out of its deal with the NHL. This forced the league to place its games on the only national cable outlet that showed an interest, Versus (formerly OLN). Versus has a potential three year deal with the NHL estimated at $200 million. Versus is seen in approximately 75 million households across America. ESPN, 92 million. By the way, my house is one of those which does not have access to Versus.
Much is still being written about last week’s decision by NBC to opt out of the Buffalo/Ottawa playoff game to begin its telecast of the Preakness. I don’t blame NBC, if the NHL had a more popular product, they would have stayed and told the trainers to keep the horses in the barn. This falls back to the NHL.
Television sports ratings as a whole are down. The NFL is the exception. Even the NBA playoffs are seeing a downturn in the number of viewers.
The NHL needs to begin the process now of saving its future. It’s time for the league to swallow its pride, take a collective hit in the wallet, and try to regain respectability. The deal with Versus expires after next season. If the NHL can get out of the deal now (which there is some indication they can), they should. They should then re-approach ESPN, throw the keys on the table, and give them the rights to the games for FREE for two years. There would need to be parameters on coverage, etc, but ESPN would be allowed to make as much money as they could for two years. Then the contract would be renegotiated. The other component would be to move the network coverage to ABC and mandate that each game of the Finals be broadcast on free TV.
Sounds radical? Not if you are perceived as a fledgling enterprise as is the case with the NHL. ESPN would add instant credibility back to the NHL. Coverage of the sport would make it to the first half hour of Sportscenter. The chances of a recovery are better than they are now.
There is a chance that such a bold move will fail. If so, then the NHL will know its position in the American sports landscape. I think it’s a chance the NHL needs to take. If not this could soon be in their future.
A Scoop…At What Cost?
A portion of Michael Hiestand’s column yesterday in USA Today caught my attention:
When Patrick Patterson, a highly recruited high school basketball star from Huntington, W.Va., announced last week he had decided to go to Kentucky, ESPN didn’t air his news conference. The Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader reported that’s because ESPN “offered” to air it if Patterson told the network his news 30 minutes earlier — giving it a scoop — but he declined.
I’ve heard of operations like the National Enquirer offering payment for an exclusive but I never would have thought that it would be done, or even considered for that matter, by a sports news organization with the reputation of ESPN.
You may say that what ESPN was offering was not money in exchange for the scoop and you’d be right. It’s the perception that’s the problem. The offer of airtime does carry value and presents ethical concerns.
As long as there’s been competitive media outlets there’s been a battle to be first, to get the news out before anyone else. Without that competition there would be no need to provide any investigative reporting. I don’t need to give any examples as to how solid, ethical investigative reporting has made an impact in our lives.
What was ESPN thinking when it approached Patterson? Why was his announcement considered worthy of this unethical behavior? Unless you are a college basketball nut, how many people had even heard of him? Officials at ESPN deny that they offered Patterson the deal. Let’s hope so.
Respectable news organizations thrive by building solid, ethical relationships with sources. Operations start down a slippery slope and jeopardize their respectability when they even consider offering anything to a source in exchange for information. There is no need, or long-term benefit, by going down that road.
All Alone In The Middle Of The Ocean
It’s been some time since I’ve written a sports media-related post. And it’s with good reason as last week I was on a well deserved vacation with my family.
My wife, daughter, and I love to cruise, so we spent last week touring the Eastern Carribean on the Carribean Princess. The vacation was fantastic…the weather was perfect, the food was delectable (I can say that after gaining 8 pounds!), there was plenty to do on board…it was a wonderful experience that we will always cherish. Yet something was missing.
Even though we’ve been on many cruises, it wasn’t until this last adventure that I really noticed what I was missing. What was it? My daily inundation of sports news! The ship had resources to get sports news and scores, but not to the level we are used to on land.
The closest to getting all the information I crave came through the ship’s Internet Cafe. There were ample opportunities to surf the net (pardon the ocean reference) all be it with limitations. First of all, gaining access to the Internet was not cheap. At 75 cents a minute, one could rack up quite the bill getting their sports fix. This led to a less than leisurely experience rushing through websites to avoid the extra charge to your stateroom account. Even if you wanted to hastily browse the web you couldn’t because of the excruciatingly slow satellite Internet connection. We’re talking 56k here at best.
So the Internet was out. How about television? Each stateroom has satellite TV so I should be able to get caught up on the day’s sports news. Not so fast. Even though there is satellite TV on the ship, like the Internet, it’s not what we get back home. For one thing, there were at least a half dozen channels with no programming at all. Just a logo for “Princess Television”. Secondly, the channels that were available are targeted toward the Hispanic Community. A great majority of those on board the ship were from the United States yet the ship’s television broadcasts “Latino TV”.
The sole sports choice was ESPN Deportes. Listen, I love soccer, but I need my Baseball Tonight! The thing that confused me was that most of the programming was in English, yet the commercials were in Spanish. Sportscenter was nowhere to be found and ESPN Deportes (at least this “Spanglish” version) does not believe in providing the news ticker at the bottom of the screen. The channel did provide coverage of the NBA Playoffs and The Players Championship, but because we were busy with our vacation we rarely watched and we could never find out the final score. Baseball? Don’t even ask.
The ship is equipped with a library. Libraries carry newspapers and periodicals, right? I should be able to get sports updates that way, right? Wrong. There were newspapers available, but only through a feed to the ship’s purser’s desk. We had two choices for news, the New York Times Digest and a compilation piece called the USA Times. As you can tell from these scans there is not much substance here and their respective sports pages are lame at best.
Vacations, specifically cruises, are supposed to provide a relaxing experience. But trying to keep up with sports news is exhausting business. I guess it is sometimes lonely at sea!
SMJ News and Notes- UPDATED
I wanted to take this brief opportunity to give you an update on the site.
As you may have noticed, you can now subscribe to Sports Media Journal through many of the popular news aggregators with one click. Check the left sidebar to find your aggregator. If your aggregator is not found, you can use the generic RSS feed at the top of the list.
You will also notice we have a new feature on the site. Check out the left sidebar where we will have timely poll questions from time to time. We will keep the voting open so all of you can give your opinion on the subject at hand. This is the beginning of what we hope will be a constant evolution of the site.
As with many of us in the blogging world, my main purpose for Sports Media Journal is to give you my opinion and provide insight. I am definitely not giving up my day job to do this (although I am open to offers!). I want you to first and foremost support the site by reading, commenting, and suggesting story topics and ways to make the site better. A way you can contribute financially to the site is through making a purchase at the SMJ store located at Cafe Press. Check out the apparel, make a purchase, and support Sports Media Journal at the same time.
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Sports Radio Review- BaD Radio, KTCK Dallas
Call me a sports radio elitist. I have plenty of prejudices when I listen to sports radio. I expect certain things. When I listen to a show that does not meet those expectations, I am often disappointed.
When I embark on my efforts to critique a sports radio show I try to listen with an open mind. As I pointed out in my guidelines in analyzing sports radio , I look for specific attributes in reviewing the show. I understand that although I listen to a program for three weeks, it may not be the best three weeks of the year to listen. But I think three weeks is a good barometer by which to judge a program.
That is the case with one sports show in Dallas. The Bob and Dan Radio Show (BaD Radio for short) is the midday program (noon to 3pm CDT) on KTCK, “The Ticket”. The show features co-hosts Bob Sturm and Dan McDowell. Sturm hails from Wisconsin while McDowell began his career at various stations in Ohio. The duo has been paired at “The Ticket” since 1999.
McDowell says after nearly eight years together he and Sturm have built a strong relationship. “I have the utmost respect for Bob and the road he took to get here.” says McDowell, “His work ethic is outstanding and his ability to do radio at a high level is unbelievable.”
I listened to the program for three weeks in late March/early April. On that first day the pair had just returned from a road trip with the Dallas Stars. (Sturm and McDowell handle radio post game duties for the Stars.) They spent most of the show recounting their time on the road. I gave them a mulligan on their lack of sports talk since the recently completed trip was worthy of discussion.
In the subsequent days I often found myself wondering to which station I was listening? The pair would many times dabble in sports talk but spent a majority of their airtime discussing anything BUT sports. McDowell says this is by design.
“It is a sports comedy show.” McDowell says. “Sports is our base, but we will venture off into other areas of interest as well. We also try to use the medium of radio, mixing in a variety of sound instead of just us talking. ”
Sturm and McDowell are not alone on the show. They often share the mic with a cast of characters led by Donovan Lewis and producer Tom Gribble. They produce many comedy routines which are promoted on the show, but rarely are they sports related. Lewis hosts the ”Daily Donovan” segment each day featuring issues of interest to him. Other weekly bits include “Gay, Not Gay” and “What’s on My TiVo”. To their credit the pair do have a weekly sit down with Rangers GM Jon Daniels and a Rangers/Diamond Notes session three days a week. I am sure the other Dallas sports teams receive similar attention during their seasons.
McDowell feels the contributers to the show add flavor and a different perspective. “Perhaps they provide a voice to some listeners.” he says.
It just doesn’t seem to fit on sports radio. During the time I listened much was happening on the Dallas sports landscape. The Mavericks were securing the best record in the NBA, the Stars were preparing for the NHL Western Conference Playoffs, the Rangers were looking forward to Opening Day, and the Cowboys were making some off field news. (KTCK is now the home of Dallas Cowboys radio broadcasts). Instead of those topics we were treated to other bits like “Ghetto Jeopardy” and a rundown on the latest episode of Lost.
The most frustrating day was on April 6th. The Rangers were playing their home opener and BaD Radio paid little attention to the game. Could the lack of Rangers talk be that the Rangers are carried on rival KRLD? I hope not.
As much as the die-hard Dallas sports fan may be disappointed by the lack of sports talk, McDowell says they have a goal for the show.
“I think my co-worker Mike Rhyner described what we do best when he said ‘we can do what they do, but they can’t do what we do.’” he says, ”Our foundation is sports, and when a big sports story is out there then it gets top priority. But we do not do sports just for the sake of sports. We also attempt to mix in compelling opinionated guy talk that will keep our male 25-54 demo tuned in. We try to program our show for the average guy sports fan. We are not programming to the guy who just talks sports 24-7.”
It is unclear whether this tact is translating to ratings success. The latest station ratings show “The Ticket” as being in the upper half of the ratings (12+) in the Dallas market so the listeners are tuning in. Without access to the key male 25-54 demo numbers it is conceivable that BaD radio is extremely successful. Being together for nearly 8 years also means suggests success.
The best stretch of radio during my period of listening came toward the end of the run as Sturm and McDowell spent considerable time breaking down Game 1 of the NHL Playoffs when he Stars lost a heartbreaking 4OT game to the Vancouver Canucks. When they focused on sports, they are very good.
The members of BaD Radio are definitely talented. Their show may be best suited for morning drive then midday…and definitely not on sports radio. But if they do decide to focus on sports…go by and give them a try.
