Time to do the megalinks. Before I get started, I want to announce that Fang’s Bites and Boston Sports Media Watch will be teaming up. Every Friday, I’ll be doing a similar service for BSMW. I’ll do the links here first and then I’ll be sending them over to BSMW. Bruce Allen has been doing a great job at his blog and has been providing links on the Boston media since 2002. It’s one of the most established blogs around and I want to thank him for the work he’s done and will continue to do. So you can visit both sites and find the links.
Let’s start with Michael Hiestand of USA Today. He has an interesting story about the staffers who update ESPN’s Bottom Line, the scroll you see at the bottom on all of its family of networks. Hiestand also touches on ESPN’s and CBS’ plans for the upcoming plethora of college basketball games as well as Major League Baseball putting restrictions on websites that publish pictures of in-game action.
Now let’s go East to West with the media links.
East and Mid-Atlantic
David Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch writes about ESPN 890 General Manager Jessamy Tang misuing tickets originally donated for a charity event.
From the Boston Globe, Nancy Marrapese-Burrell talks about CBS entering the Mixed Martial Arts fray.
Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says YES analyst Bobby Murcer and International Fight League President Jay Larkin have something in common, even though they’ve never met.
The perpetually angry Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News goes after the Mets for entering the spin cycle as injuries continue to ravage the team in Spring Training.
Newsday’s Neil Best jumps on the Erin Andrews train and speaks with the very lovely ESPN sideline reporter (and he has a nice pic of her in the story) about her popularity. She does have a good sense of humor about it. In his Watchdog blog, Neil has more about Erin that didn’t make it into his column. And Neil speaks with former New York Knick great Earl “The Pearl” Monroe about the current team.
Dan Gross of the Philadelphia Daily News tries to get more about ESPN’s Suzy Kolber becoming a new mom, but is stalled by her dad.
Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun says Comcast SportsNet will have one camera devoted to Alex Ovechkin during the Capitals game against the Calgary Flames.
Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner talks with Washington Nationals TV voice Bob Carpenter of MASN about the new season and a new ballpark.
South
Doug Nye of The State writes that fans of the University of South Carolina will have plenty of chances to catch its baseball team on the radio.
Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald talks with the city’s sports broadcasters who have had to deal with a lot of losing lately.
Dave Darling of the Orlando Sentinel says a local CBS affiliate threatening to pull its signal off Bright House cable, leaving many March Madness fans in the dark, is just blowing a lot of smoke.
Ray Buck in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says former Dallas Maverick Derek Harper has evolved in his new career as a broadcaster.
Mel Bracht in the Daily Oklahoman says logistics get in the way when local stations want to cover high school championships live. In his media notebook, Bracht talks about the new TBS MLB Sunday afternoon schedule. And he gives us his viewing picks for the weekend.
Midwest
George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal thinks the Brett Favre coverage was overdone and I agree.
Judd Zulgad from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune wonders how ESPN’s Chris Mortensen could miss an important phone call from Favre. If Mortensen picked up, we never would have had that 3 minute voice mail played over and over again on ESPN. And we have the ratings from the Minneapolis-St. Paul market from last weekend.
The Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin’s Paul Christian says perhaps a deal between the Big Ten Network and Charter Communications will come in time for the next college football season.
West
Scott D. Pierce of the Deseret (UT) Morning News reports that KSL-TV’s weekend sports wrapup shows kill in the ratings.
The North County Time’s John Maffei joins the national media critic chorus in criticizing ESPN’s hiring of Bob Knight.
Jay Posner from the San Diego Union-Tribune talked with ESPN’s Dick Vitale on Thursday. In a follow up, Posner has five reasons why Vitale thinks college basketball is #1. In his media notebook, Posner says Cox 4 has hired a new producer for Padres games. And Posner lists the ratings from last weekend’s sports viewing
in San Diego.
Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star reports that the Angels’ spring training games will be live on KLAA next week after being aired on tape this week.
In the Los Angeles Times, Christine Daniels writes in her Sound and Vision column that there is a future for Brett Favre in TV.
Tom Hoffarth in the Los Angeles Daily News writes about the new ESPN Films venture. Hoffarth follows up his column with his extensive media notes in his Farther Off the Wall blog.
John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News is amused that the San Francisco Giants hired a media relations consultant now that Barry Bonds is gone.
Canada
In the Toronto Star, Chris Zelkovich says the CBC will most likely be the winner in the bidding for Jim Hughson’s services.
Blogs
CNBC’s Darren Rovell announces the Minor League Baseball logo contest.
The Sports Media Watch notes that ratings for NASCAR are up making Fox Sports very happy. And the blog also points out that Comcast SportsNet New England saw its best ratings ever for a Celtics game.
Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media blog says NBC Sports hates its own public relations website.
And that will do it.
