You had a feeling that we would hear the return of John Dennis & Gerry Callahan on WEEI today and that’s exactly what happened. Usually, I don’t have WEEI on my clock radio first thing, but I made sure it was on just to make sure I would be able to hear them. Lo and behold, D&C were back. They said they would be back for five more years. In addition, the guys talked about stuff that Gerry could not for the last four months. Gerry’s voice at first was ok, but as the morning wore on, the raspiness returned. If you ask me, I think WEEI’s parent company, Entercom signed D&C a couple of months ago, but held them back until today. That’s me. Perhaps the two sides did come to an agreement last week, however, with Entercom’s track record of publicity stunts, I remain skeptical.
But David Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch did his homework during the weekend and confirmed that negotiations took place bringing an agreement. And he also gave details of the agreement late last night. Then he blogged the first hour of the show early this morning starting at the ungodly time of 5:45. Scott’s second entry started at about 40 minutes later and the last entry coming at 6:45 a.m. Kudos to David for doing yeoman’s work over the weekend.
And the following links as well as the David Scott entries come courtesy of Boston Sports Media Watch. Susan Bickelhaupt of the Boston Globe has one version of the contract agreement. From the crosstown Boston Herald, Jessica Heslam has a more extensive story. And John Molori of Boston Sports Media Watch talks with NBC Sunday Night Football producer Fred Gaudelli.
Bruce Allen who runs Boston Sports Media Watch gets up earlier than I do and is more devoted than I am to blogging. He’s the best when it comes to providing links.
In regards to the problems with DirecTV’s Supercast service, I have sent an e-mail to DirecTV asking what happened yesterday. When I get a reply, I’ll pass it along here.
Hey! Neil Best of Newsday is back and he’s blogging with a vengeance. LOL! He started at 8:15 this morning re-introducing himself. Best says he corrected Keith Olbermann about a story that was relayed on Football Night in America last night. Best did go to ESPN back in August as part of the media seminar that David Scott blogged about last month. He writes about the “Who’s Now” segment (and notice the picture of Jessica Alba… Neil’s using pictures of beautiful women again …). Did you know Best was on the 25 hour marathon college pre-game show last month? I didn’t, but Neil wants you to know he was on. At 3:25 a.m. No wonder I didn’t know. That’s just a sampling of his entries from today! As of this writing, he has posted 10 times! Best wants to get his audience back. LOL.
From the Sports Media Watch, Paulsen looks at last year’s numbers for the NFL on CBS and Fox.
The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick says tonight’s Monday Night Football doubleheader on ESPN is the most important telecast in the series history. I wouldn’t go that far. Mushnick is hoping that there won’t be any guests in the booth and according to Michael Hiestand of USA Today, there won’t be at least for tonight. And Hiestand’s main focus of this morning’s column is the ripping rookie analyst Bill Cowher took in the NFL Today studio on CBS. The part about MNF is at the bottom of the column.
From the Los Angeles Daily News, Tom Hoffarth talks with Justin Gimelstob who’s retiring from tennis this year and is about to enter the TV booth as an analyst. And Hoffarth expands on his original story on Gimelstob in his Farther Off the Wall blog. Hoffarth posts a video showing Gimelstob interviewing Andy Roddick at the US Open.
Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes about NBC’s Bob Costas making a special guest appearance on Fox NFL Sunday during a Frank Caliendo sketch.
Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says there was a lot of hot air being spouted during NFL broadcasts yesterday.
Let’s get to a couple of links about the Big Ten Network. Tom Witosky of the Des Moines Register says Mediacom Cable is suggesting that the University of Iowa should help pay for putting on the Big Ten Network. That’s right. Have taxpayer money fund carrying a cable channel. Come on. Derek Levarse of the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader even though BTN has signed Dish Network, the channel is still having trouble getting cable to sign up.
There’s a lot of stuff out there, but I have to stop for now. I’ll have an afternoon update.
