Let’s do the Thursday linkage and there are a few stories to get to.
First, this broke late last night, Joe Flint at the Los Angeles Times confirmed that the number two man at NBC Sports, Ken Schanzer is following his boss Dick Ebersol and leaving the company.
John Ourand from Sports Business Journal also writes about Schanzer’s departure from NBC Sports.
Mike McCarthy at USA Today talks with Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kate Upton who will be hosting a show on MSG Network this summer.
Reid Cherner at USA Today has the first ad in the Women’s Tennis Association’s new campaign “Strong is Beautiful”.
Etan Vlessing at the Hollywood Reporter writes about CTV/TSN getting figure skating back for ten years after having it on CBC previously.
Husna Haq of the Christian Science Monitor looks at the tome, “Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside the World of ESPN.”
My podcast partner, Southern New England media mogul Keith Thibault of Sports Media Journal reviews the ESPN book.
Lev Grossman of Time also reviews the book.
And Robert Siegel of NPR’s All Things Considered interviews ESPN book co-author James Andrew Miller.
For a longer interview, you can hear the latest Sports Media Weekly podcast with Jim Miller right here.
Marcus Vanderberg of SportsNewser has video of memorial services for Chicago TV sports anchor Daryl Hawks who died while covering the Bulls-Atlanta Hawks series.
Over to SportsGrid where Dan Fogarty notes that South Park skewered the NCAA in last night’s episode.
We have a press release from Hannah Storm’s production company about her new documentary that will be part of ESPN’s coverage of the Women’s World Cup.
CNBC’s Darren Rovell has a report on the man who bought 49% of the Mets.
Richard Sandomir and Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times report on the new minority owner of the New York Mets.
The Buffalo News says Buffalo Sabres TV voices Rick Jeanneret and Harry Neale will work a reduced schedule next season.
Dan Steinberg from the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog notes that KFC is now the official fried chicken of the DC NFL Team.
Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner looks at the three bids for the US TV rights for the 2014/16 Olympics.
Rachel George of the Orlando Sentinel writes that ESPN Radio is organizing a relief drive throughout the SEC to help Alabama tornado victims.
Tony Grossi of the Cleveland Plain Dealer says the voice of the Cleveland Browns, WKYC-TV sports anchor Jim Donovan will be undergoing a procedure to battle leukemia. He’ll also take a leave of absence from his TV work for a while. Jim has been battling leukemia for ten years.
WKYC also provides video of Jim making the announcement that he’ll be leaving for the time being.
Jim has been in the Cleveland area since 1985 and became the voice of the Browns when the team returned to the NFL in 1999. He and Doug Dieken have formed a very good broadcast team and I hope he’ll be back when the NFL season gets underway, whenever that is.
The Nebraska State Paper says the Cornhuskers game against Iowa will be seen on ABC the day after Thanksgiving.
Awful Announcing has video of Dan Patrick and ESPN book author Jim Miller going back and forth on various subjects.
I’ll leave it there for now.
