As it appears Hurricane Earl will brush Southern Rhode Island tonight, it’s time to do your megalinks. For this Labor Day holiday weekend, there’s plenty of sports viewing. You can check your sports and entertainment programs in the Weekend Viewing Picks.
In addition, we have our first weekend of College Football Viewing Picks so you can check out what’s up for Saturday’s games.
Now let’s do the links.
National
Michael Hiestand of USA Today talks with ESPN’s Erin Andrews about her expanded role at College Gameday.
Milton Kent at Fanhouse profiles former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Eric Crouch who will be working college football games for Versus this season.
Hannah Karp of the Wall Street Journal says tennis players are quite thin skinned over the analysis from ESPN2 and Tennis Channel.
John Ourand at Sports Business Daily looks at the new Time Warner Cable/Disney deal which brings forth some new services from ESPN exclusively for subscribers.
At Multichannel News, Todd Spangler says Time Warner subscribers will be able to watch ESPN programming online and through their cell phones.
Mike Reynolds of Multichannel writes that ESPN will kick off a college football Red Zone Channel-type service for Time Warner on Saturday.
To Mediaweek where Anthony Crupi and Mike Shields have reaction to the Time Warner Cable/Disney carriage agreement.
At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Dave Kindred says Mike Wise’s fake tweet on Ben Roethlisberger’s suspension bit him on the butt.
The Big Lead talks with ESPN College Gameday analyst Desmond Howard.
Jay Busbee of Yahoo’s From The Marbles blog says Erin Andrews took a spin around Atlanta Motor Speedway on Thursday.
Yahoo’s Big League Stew blog feels Fox or TBS should hire Pedro Martinez for its MLB postseason coverage. That’s an interesting thought.
In the Hollywood Reporter, Fox Sports Radio host Pat O’Brien reaches out to perpetual bad girl Lindsey Lohan.
CNBC’s Darren Rovell explores which college football player’s jersey sells the best.
Emmett Jones at Sports Business Digest asks if Women’s Professional Soccer is in trouble?
Sports Newser finally recognizes a worthwhile sports media blog. You can link to the main page, guys, but thank you, I appreciate it.
Brian Powell at Awful Announcing somewhat explains where he’s been since April.
East and Mid-Atlantic
Chad Finn of the Boston Globe looks at tonight’s premiere of NFL Network’s documentary series on the Top 100 players of all-time.
Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette says Holy Cross College doesn’t have a radio station lined up for its basketball broadcasts.
Page Six at the New York Post says ESPN’s Erin Andrews was ensured that stalkers would not get near her during a recent stay in the Big Apple.
The Post’s Phil “Dr. Doom and Gloom” Mushnick gets on Virginia Tech for wearing all-black uniforms this coming Monday.
Justin Terranova of the Post has five questions for Fox Sports’ Jimmy Johnson.
Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News says sports radio is all over the Derek Jeter contract talks.
Pete Dougherty in the Albany Times Union speaks with a CBS Sports executive about using a Capital Region sports anchor for the network’s 3-D coverage of the US Open.
Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette says Time Warner Sports is adding tomorrow’s Syracuse game to its schedule.
The Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg of the DC Sports Bog notes that ESPN personalities are denouncing the firing of MASN analyst Rob Dibble.
Dan recognizes a local sports TV producer who is retiring after over four decades in the market.
Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner previews tonight’s NFL Network series premiere.
South
David Ranii of the Raleigh News & Observer says a local sports technology company has raised over $10 million for an expansion.
The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson has some advice for NFL TV analysts.
Sarah Talalay in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel says the Miami Dolphins’ plea for public money comes as bad timing in the wake of leaked documents showing the Florida Marlins are profitable.
Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times has ESPN’s Jon Gruden criticizing the proposed 18 game NFL schedule.
Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger says Erin Andrews will speak at a University of Kentucky basketball clinic in gratitude of the support coach John Calipari gave her.
The Memphis Commercial Appeal says Fox Sports will be teaming up with the famed St. Jude Children’s Hospital during NFL season.
Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News says this was not a good preseason ratings-wise for the Cowboys.
Ray Buck at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has NBC’s Tony Dungy feeling a looming NFL lockout could weigh on the minds of the Players Association this season.
The Houston Chronicle’s David Barron says Dungy is bullish on the Houston Texans this season.
Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman has his media notebook.
Midwest
John Kiesewetter at the Cincinnati Enquirer writes that Reds pitching sensation Aroldis Chapman helped steer Fox Sports Ohio to high ratings once again.
Mike Zuidema in the Grand Rapids (MI) Press says a local native gets to call his beloved Detroit Lions for national radio.
To the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Bob Wolfley who writes that Fox Sports will be airing NFL games in true high definition this season.
Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business has his weekly winners and losers in sports media and business.
Paul Christian of the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin says Fox Sports North is into high school football in a big way.
West
Dick Harmon at the Deseret (UT) News wonders with Brigham Young University now locked with ESPN, how will its in-house BYU-TV survive?
Jay Drew of the Salt Lake Tribune has ESPN’s statement on its new deal with BYU football.
At the Denver Post, CBS’ Shannon Sharpe answers readers questions on his old Broncos team and the NFL.
Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune says the syndicated Jim Rome show will be changing stations next month.
Jay notes that Fox will be picking up tomorrow’s Padres game and also be simulcasting their announcers for an inning.
At the North County Times, John Maffei says it was television that was the cause for BYU to leave the Mountain West Conference and become a football independent.
Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star says ESPN pissed people off when it dictated terms at a high school game.
Jim says Tony Dungy has a pulpit at NBC to express his opinions.
Tom Hoffarth at the Los Angeles Daily News looks at the 800 lb. gorilla in college football that is named ESPN.
Tom reviews the week in blogging and sports media.
Casey McMerthney of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer delves into the paper’s archives to remember the Seahawks first radio broadcast team.
Canada
Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail writes that a local sports radio station continues its search for a morning show host.
Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says the Blue Jays are beginning to take hits over Rogers putting 25 games on a new channel that is hardly carried on Canadian cable systems.
With that, we end the megalinks.
