Day 5 of the WEEI/Dennis & Callahan lockout. It appears that there’s no end in sight to this. Over at Boston Sports Media Watch, David Scott says WEEI’s parent company, Entercom has trumped John Dennis & Gerry Callahan and their options are for the most part, limited except for a return to WEEI. Jessica Heslam of the Boston Herald says Entercom pulled a out all the stops to sign an agreement with Nassau Broadcasting to form a regional sports network and possibly end D & C’s dream of competing against WEEI. In the Boston Globe, Christopher Rowland says D & C have been boxed out (his words). And Rowland’s collegue, Susan Bickelhaupt writes that Dan Patrick will host WEEI’s morning show, Thursday & Friday of next week (scroll to the bottom) and also focuses on ESPN’s coverage of the Little League World Series. With this story changing so frequently, we’ll continue to monitor this throughout the weekend.
Let’s check the other media columns today.
USA Today’s Michael Hiestand says Fox is going Hollywood for the Super Bowl by using Ryan Seacrest to interview celebrities as they enter the stadium. Great.
Newsday’s Neil Best talks with Boomer Esiason who will co-host WFAN’s morning show starting in September. Best reports Esiason will do all but three Monday Night Football games for Westwood One Radio. In his blog, Best says the wall-to-wall coverage of the Little League World Series by the Disney sports networks is too much. I agree with him.
Richard Sandomir of the New York Times summarizes the fans’ love for Phil Rizzuto.
Bob Raissman in today’s New York Daily News says MLB’s network partners are hoping the Yankees are in the pennant race down the stretch.
In the New York Post, Phil Muschnick says Dan Patrick is leaving ESPN at the right time. Also in the Post, Keith Terranova has 5 questions for SNY Mets analyst Keith Hernandez. And Terranova says the move by David Beckham to the MLS’ LA Galaxy has been good off the field in ticket sales and TV ratings, but it has yet to translate on the pitch.
Laura Nachman of the Bucks County Courier Times talks with Comcast SportsNet’s soccer analyst Phil Andrews who’s hoping Becks will have a huge impact on the sport here in States. Nachman also has an assessment on the Philadelphia Eagles’ first preseason telecast.
In The State newspaper in Columbia, SC, Doug Nye says the good ol’ days of sports TV were good, but today is pretty good too. And Nye says the Detroit-Yankees game tomorrow is the weekend’s best bet.
Charles Elmore of the Palm Beach Post says ESPN is the big loser in Dan Patrick’s departure.
Dave Darling of the Orlando Sentinel writes about the NFL trying to restrict the media’s coverage of its sport.
Barry Jackson writes in today’s Miami Herald that a promo by WQAM has led to one of the Miami Dolphins players canceling a show on the station.
Bob Wolfey of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that the picture of the Big Ten Network being seen in Wisconsin is very fuzzy.
In the Chicago Tribune, Teddy Greenstein writes a Q & A about the potential of BTN to appear in Chicagoland.
George M. Thomas in the Akron Beacon Journal writes that SportsTime Ohio is garnering excellent ratings for Cleveland Indians games.
Over to the San Deigo Union-Tribune where Jay Posner says no one has been hired to work with Ted Leitner on San Diego State University football radio broadcasts and the first game is three weeks away.
John Maffei in the North County Times says ESPNU is making inroads in the San Diego market.
In the Los Angeles Times, Larry Stewart says former New York Giant Tiki Barber is making career inroads in his first year away from football.
According to Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News, Clippers play-by-play announcer Matt Pinto is leaving the team to go to the Seattle Supersonics. Hoffarth writes that ESPN has made poker a legitimate sport. And Hoffarth has a long follow up entry in his Farther Off the Wall blog.
In Canada, the Toronto Star’s Chris Zelkovich says CBC plans to pull out all the stops for its coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the last it will broadcast until at least 2014.
William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail says the Score will attempt to expand its distribution across Canada.
I’ll be back later today. My plans to blog Dan Patrick’s final hour on ESPN Radio may have to be scrapped as I have to get out of work early. The Patriots play two miles from me and I want to get out before traffic gets too heavy. Check back with me.
