Fang's Bites

Bringing Out Some Tuesday Linkage

Let’s do linkage again. Trying to get this done as I have several errands to run in the afternoon.

At Multichannel News, Mike Reynolds says Fox Sports is eying several sports properties which are coming up for grabs as potential programming for a cable channel which would challenge ESPN.

Mike talks with the President of New York regional sports network SNY about what he’s looking for in 2012.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today discusses the lower ratings for The Masters^®.

Lacey Rose at the Hollywood Reporter goes in-depth on Fox Sports taking over Saturday nights in 2012.

Tim Nudd of Adweek looks at New Era’s sequel to last year’s funny Yankees-Red Sox ads with a new batch for the Cubs-White Sox rivalry.

Mike Shields from Adweek explores how ESPN tries to get fans use its sites as “second screens” while they watch sports on other networks in real time.

David Goetzl at MediaPost notes that ESPN’s public relations blog has now added podcasts.

Also from MediaPost, Wayne Friedman talks about the NCAA Tournament being one of TV’s biggest social media activities.

Bill Cromwell at Media Life says while Bubba Watson brought excitement to The Masters^®, it didn’t translate in the ratings.

To Forbes where Trefis Team analyzes what a Fox Sports cable network would mean for parent company News Corp’s stock price.

Also from Forbes, Tom Van Riper looks at the commitment NBC Sports Group is assembling for the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Fox Sports reports that NFL Network is unlikely to bring back Warren Sapp. He just recently filed for bankruptcy.

SportsbyBrooks notes that ESPN’s Skippy Bayless lied about his high school basketball career.

The Lost Ogle which looked into Bayless’ claims about his high school basketball career has an extensive post unearthing Daily Oklahoman stories and box scores. Great stuff.

Sports Video Group looks at one company that will stream the Olympics all over the world.

Evan Silva from Pro Football Talk says based on the success of Super Bowl XLVI, Indianapolis plans to make another run at hosting another Big Game.

Amy K. Nelson has the Miami Marlins statement suspending manager Ozzie Guillen for his comments in Time regarding Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell has Magic Johnson talking about the exorbitant sales price for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Darren notes that incoming NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III has signed an endorsement deal with Castrol?

Alex Weprin of TV Newser has a video tour of MLB Network’s New Jersey studios.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says MLB will unveil its version of the Red Zone Channel tonight on three satellite and cable providers.

Laura Nachman notes that a former Philadelphia Phillie joins a local sports radio station for the 2012 season.

At the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg says a local sports radio host continues to fan the Crosby vs. Ovechkin flames.

Lisa De Moraes says “Cops” is the victim of Fox giving Saturday primetime to its sports division.

The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson says embattled sports radio host Sid Rosenberg has been suspended. Again.

David Barron at the Houston Chronicle notes that Time Warner Cable subscribers won’t have access to three Astros games on Fox Sports Net.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says Wednesday’s Reds game will be picked up by MLB Network.

Robert Feder at Time Out Chicago reports that a local sports radio host returned to work this week after being out due to health issues.

Sports Media Watch says Fox is reaching back to the old Baseball Network for “Baseball Night in America.”

At Awful Announcing, Ben Koo wishes there would be more synergy between NBC and the Comcast SportsNet regional networks.

To the Bleacher Report where Jim Williams asks which network offers the best MLB announcers?

That’s going to do it.

Fox Sports Announces Primetime Saturday Schedule

We now will post the entire Fox Sports Saturday primetime press release. No need to reinvent another introduction. Read the press release. For reals. Seriously.

Jan. 28            UFC
Feb. 18            NASCAR (Bud Shootout)
April 14           NASCAR (Texas)
April 28           NASCAR (Richmond)
May 5             UFC
May 12            NASCAR (Darlington)
May 19            Baseball Night in America
May 26            Baseball Night in America
June 2             Baseball Night in America
June 9             Baseball Night in America
June 16           Baseball Night in America
June 23           Baseball Night in America
June 30           Baseball Night in America
July 7              Baseball Night in America
Aug. 4             UFC
Sept. 1            CFB
Sept. 8            CFB
Sept. 15          CFB
Sept. 22          CFB
Sept. 29          CFB
Oct. 6              CFB
Oct. 13            CFB
Oct. 20            CFB
Oct. 27            World Series
Nov. 3             CFB
Nov. 10           CFB
Nov. 17           CFB
Nov. 24           CFB
Dec. 1             Big Ten Championship
Dec. 8             UFC

ADDITIONAL 2012 FOX SPORTS PRIME TIME SCHEDULE

Fri. Jan. 6                   Cotton Bowl
Sun., Jan. 20              NFC Champ Game
Mon., Feb. 27             Daytona 500^
Sun., May 27              NASCAR (Charlotte)
Tue., July 10              MLB All Star Game
Thur., Aug. 16           NFL Preseason^^
Fri., Aug. 17               NFL Preseason^^
Sun., Oct. 14              NLCS Game #1
Mon., Oct. 15             NLCS Game #2
Thur., Oct. 1              NLCS Game #4
Fri., Oct. 19                NLCS Game #5*
Sun., Oct. 21              NLCS Game #6**
Mon., Oct. 22             NLCS Game #7*
Wed., Oct. 24             WS Game #1
Thur., Oct. 25            WS Game #2
Sun., Oct. 28              WS Game #4
Mon., Oct. 29             WS Game #5*
Wed., Oct. 31             WS Game #6*
Thur., Nov. 1              WS Game #7*
Fri., Nov. 30               Pac 12 Championship

^ Rain Delayed Coverage
* If Necessary
** Scheduled for afternoon but moved to prime time if no ALCS Game #7 needs to be played

That is all.

Fox Sports’ Saturday Primetime Schedule Through 12/08/2012

I’m away from my computer and not able to post the complete Fox Sports press release on its Saturday Primetime schedule. It starts this Saturday, April 14 with the NASCAR Sprint Cup event in Texas and goes all the way to December 8.

Fox Sports will fill 28 out of the 32 week span with 8 consecutive weeks of MLB to be titled “Baseball Night in America” (yes, a shot at NBC), four NASCAR races, four UFC events, the World Series and college football including the Big Ten Championship.

Here’s the Fox primetime schedule.

FOX SPORTS 2012 SATURDAY NIGHT PRIME TIME SCHEDULE

Jan. 28 — UFC
Feb. 18 — NASCAR (Bud Shootout)
April 14 — NASCAR (Texas)
April 28 — NASCAR (Richmond)
May 5 — UFC
May 12 — NASCAR (Darlington)
May 19 — Baseball Night in America
May 26 — Baseball Night in America
June 2 — Baseball Night in America
June 9 — Baseball Night in America
June 16 — Baseball Night in America
June 23 — Baseball Night in America
June 30 — Baseball Night in America
July 7 — Baseball Night in America
Aug. 4 — UFC
Sept. 1 — CFB
Sept. 8 — CFB
Sept. 15 — CFB
Sept. 22 — CFB
Sept. 29 — CFB
Oct. 6 — CFB
Oct. 13 — CFB
Oct. 20 — CFB
Oct. 27 — World Series
Nov. 3 — CFB
Nov. 10 — CFB
Nov. 17 — CFB
Nov. 24 — CFB
Dec. 1 — Big Ten Championship
Dec. 8 — UFC

ADDITIONAL 2012 FOX SPORTS PRIME TIME SCHEDULE

Fri. Jan. 6 — Cotton Bowl
Sun., Jan. 20 — NFC Champ Game
Mon., Feb. 27 — Daytona 500^
Sun., May 27– NASCAR (Charlotte)
Tue., July 10 — MLB All Star Game
Thur., Aug. 16 — NFL Preseason^^
Fri., Aug. 17– NFL Preseason^^
Sun., Oct. 14 — NLCS Game #1
Mon., Oct. 15 — NLCS Game #2
Thur., Oct. 1 — NLCS Game #4
Fri., Oct. 19 — NLCS Game #5*
Sun., Oct. 21 — NLCS Game #6**
Mon., Oct. 22 — NLCS Game #7*
Wed., Oct. 24 — WS Game #1
Thur., Oct. 25 — WS Game #2
Sun., Oct. 28 — WS Game #4
Mon., Oct. 29 — WS Game #5*
Wed., Oct. 31 — WS Game #6*
Thur., Nov. 1 — WS Game #7*
Fri., Nov. 30 — Pac 12 Championship

^ Rain Delayed Coverage
* If Necessary
** Scheduled for afternoon but moved to prime time if no ALCS Game #7 needs to be played

I’ll be back later with more.

Back To Linkage

Been so busy lately that it’s been effecting the blog. Sorry about that. This weekend was planned for me again, so I really couldn’t post too much around the personal events. It also meant I couldn’t watch any of The Masters^® or any baseball. The only things I could watch was The Amazing Race and Mad Men so you could tell what type of weekend it was.

One of these days, I’ll be able to have a normal weekend where I can post what I like.

Anyway, you don’t care about my life or problems, you want links and that’s what I’ll provide.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today looks at CBS’ coverage of The Masters^®.

Mike Foss of USA Today’s Game On has old fossil Fox’s Tim McCarver railing against social networking.

Writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Eric Deggans of the Tampa Bay Times says journalists can lead the way to change Augusta National’s sexist policies.

Joe Posnanski writes his last column for Sports Illustrated.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch talks with ESPN NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy who freely admits who he’s supporting in the Stan Van Gundy/Dwight Howard conflict that arose last week.

John Consoli from Broadcasting & Cable writes about Fox handing over a majority of its Saturday primetime hours this year to Fox Sports.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine says Fox Sports will fill Saturday primetime with existing properties such as college football, MLB, NASCAR, NFL preseason and UFC.

John Ourand of Sports Business Journal explains how Fox Sports came to program a majority of Saturday nights for the network.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News reports that Dish Network has picked up the Univision Sports channel.

Sam Thielman of Adweek says NBC will go all out to measure viewing habits on all platforms during the Summer Olympics.

Nat Ives of Advertising Age reports that the poorly promoted NFL Magazine will be shuttered after four issues.

Karen Hogan of Sports Video Group looks at TBS’ plans for Sunday Afternoon Baseball.

The Big Lead explores ESPN kicking out the Colonial Athletic Association from BracketBusters college basketball event after the conference signed a new contract with NBC Sports Group.

Timothy Burke at Deadspin has a screengrab of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball crew with $78 worth of the new Texas Rangers 2 foot long hot dogs.

Boston Sports Media Watch celebrates 10 years. It’s a great site and Bruce Allen has been very kind to me over the years.

To Phil Mushnick at the New York Post who enjoyed a Tiger-fee Masters.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette has the NHL Conference Quarterfinal schedule.

Jim Williams at the Washington Examiner looks at the Broadway play on Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.

Bob Molinaro at the Virginian-Pilot feels ESPN is being petty by booting the CAA out from BracketBusters.

The Tampa Bay Times’ Tom Jones gives his two cents on the the weekend in sports television.

Jessica Lipscomb and Victoria Macchi of the Naples (FL) Daily News says the host of an Outdoor Channel/ESPN2 fishing show was killed in a plane crash last week.

Dan Caesar at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tells us to get ready for a lot of hockey.

Dusty Saunders at the Denver Post says CBS got the job done at The Masters^®.

Kelly Lyell of The Coloradoan has Colorado State University disappointed about the end of the mtn.

Scott D. Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune says it’s no surprise of the demise of the mtn.

Mark Anderson of the Las Vegas Review-Journal writes that the fall of the mtn. was just a matter of time.

Dan Hayes of the North County Times says the San Diego Padres ownership picture is becoming much clearer and that should lead for the formal approval of the team’s rights deal with Fox Sports.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has the sports calendar for this week.

Raju Mudhar of the Toronto Star puts a lid on two traditional Original Six NHL rivals who won’t be in the postseason.

Sports Media Watch discusses Fox Sports and the Olympic Trials in primetime plus the end of the mtn. in a news and notes post.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media mostly likes what he sees with NBC Sports Group’s scheduling for the NHL Conference Quarterfinals.

Joe Favorito talks about the latest NHL Playoff beard promotion, continuing activation for the Geico Gekko and promotion for the Family Circle Cup.

And we’re done now.

Fox Sports Taking Over Saturday Primetime For Most of 2012

This coming in from Josef Adalian at Vulture, Fox Sports will be taking over Saturday primetime as the main network cuts back on its order of the long-running series, Cops. Saturday nights had been known as a law enforcement night with Cops filling the 8 p.m. ET hour and America’s Most Wanted at 9 p.m. But starting last season, Fox for all essential purposes canceled AMW, allowing it to go to Lifetime where it’s doing well on Friday nights.

Now, Adalian reports that Fox Sports will occupy Saturday primetime from April 14 through December 8 with a four week break interspersed. If you’re counting, that’s 28 out of 32 weeks that will be filled with sports programming. The timeslots will be filled with NASCAR, MLB and college football (Big 12/Pac-12).

And for the entire year, it means that only nine weeks will have non-sports programming for Fox. Cops could return with new shows in the first quarter of 2013, but its future on the network beyond that is uncertain.

This follows ABC’s use of Saturday primetime for college football. CBS has also used Saturday nights for primetime for the NCAA Tournament, the U.S. Open and SEC football.

However, this is the first real commitment from a network handing over the bulk of its year-long primetime schedule to sports. Fox will not compete with the London Olympics in late July/early August and after December 8 following college football, the network will most likely fill the holes with repeats and holiday specials.

We’ll see if the sports strategy continues in 2013.

Fox Sports Is Ready To Open The 2012 MLB Season

Fox Sports will open the 2012 MLB season with a whole new on-air lineup beginning with one hour of MLB-produced programming. At 3 p.m., Fox has MLB Player Poll and at 3:30 p.m., it will be the MLB Network-produced Fox Saturday Baseball Pregame Show hosted by Matt Vasgersian.

This Saturday, Fox will divide the country four ways with regional games going to all four corners of the United States. And with Joe Buck involved in Boston at Detroit, it marks the first of 24 scheduled games on Fox. Don’t forget in August, it will not go against the Olympic on NBC for two weeks.

We have the regional splits and announcing assignments plus highlights of a Fox Sports conference call previewing the 2012 MLB season.

FOX SPORTS STEPS TO THE PLATE FOR 17^th SEASON THIS SATURDAY

McCarver: A-Rod Poised for “Monster” MVP Season
Karros: Magic Has Support from Dodgers Fans but Now Players Need to Produce
Quotes & Replay from MLB on FOX Season Preview Press Call

The 2012 MLB on FOX season opens this Saturday, April 7 at 3:30 PM ET with a grand slam lineup featuring the Boston Red Sox with new manager Bobby Valentine visiting the Detroit Tigers and new slugger Prince Fielder. The last two World Series champions are also slated Week 1 as the St. Louis Cardinals head to Milwaukee to face the Brewers in an NLCS rematch, while the San Francisco Giants go on the road against the NL West Champion Arizona Diamondbacks. Fans can also catch the incomparable Albert Pujols in his new uniform as the Anaheim Angels host the Kansas City Royals.

Coverage begins with the FOX SATURDAY BASEBALL PREGAME SHOW, a full 30-minute program, originating live from MLB Network’s state-of-the-art Studio 3 in Secaucus, NJ. It’s hosted by longtime FOX Sports and MLB Network broadcaster Matt Vasgersian who is joined by analysts Harold Reynolds and Kevin Millar this week.

Boston Red Sox at Detroit Tigers, Joe Buck, Tim McCarver  & Ken Rosenthal, going to 43% of USA
Comerica Park – Detroit, MI
MARKETS INCLUDE:  Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Charlotte, Cleveland, Detroit, Fort Myers, Greensboro, Greenville, Hartford, Houston, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Norfolk, Orlando, Philadelphia, Providence, Raleigh, Richmond, Tampa, Washington, West Palm Beach
Probable Pitchers:  Josh Beckett, RHP (0-0, -.– ERA) vs. TBA

St. Louis Cardinals at Milwaukee Brewers, Thom Brennaman & Eric Karros, going to 27% of USA
Miller Park – Milwaukee, WI
MARKETS INCLUDE: Birmingham, Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Knoxville, Louisville, Memphis, Milwaukee, Nashville, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Tulsa
Probable Pitchers: Adam Wainwright, RHP (0-0, -.– ERA) vs. Zack Greinke, RHP (0-0, -.– ERA)

Kansas City Royals at Anaheim Angels, Kenny Albert & Mark Gubicza, going to 17% of USA
Angel Stadium of Anaheim – Anaheim, CA
MARKETS INCLUDE:  Austin, Dallas, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Portland, San Antonio, Seattle
Probable Pitchers:  Luke Hochevar, RHP (0-0, -.– ERA) vs. TBA

San Francisco Giants at Arizona Diamondbacks, Daron Sutton & Eric Byrnes, going to 12% of USA
Chase Field – Phoenix, AZ
MARKETS INCLUDE:  Albuquerque, Denver, Phoenix, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco
Probable Pitchers:  TBA vs. TBA

PLAY BALL – BUCK, KARROS, MCCARVER AND SHANKS PREVIEW 2012 SEASON — During today’s MLB on FOX season preview press call, play-by-play announcer Joe Buck, analyst Eric Karros, analyst Tim McCarver and FOX Sports Media Group Co-President & COO Eric Shanks looked ahead at some of the stories of the 2012 season.

MCCARVER ON HIS EXPECTATIONS OF ALEX RODRIGUEZ: “The Yankees are entering the season with a lot more question marks than they thought they would have. This is going be a last hurrah year for Alex Rodriguez. He’s going to have a monster year and he’s got a good shot at being the MVP. He’s healthy and he has that look of determination that I haven’t seen for the last two or three years. He’s happy, in a good spot, and a guy I would pick as an MVP candidate.”

KARROS ON THE IMPACT MAGIC JOHNSON’S GROUP PURCHASE OF THE DODGERS HAS ON THE TEAM: “Now, there’s more focus on the team. Last year, a lot of the media were more concerned with ownership and what was going on there. The players didn’t use that as an excuse but a lot of things that went on, on the field the media didn’t focus on. The honeymoon for Magic will last as long as the fans feel that he and his group are doing everything they can to support this team. The community’s patience with some of the players is a different story. There are some guys who’ve had big expectations. These are big years for Andre Ethier and James Loney. That will garner more attention than in the past. Support of Magic won’t waver for a while, but patience with the team on the field may be a bit different.”

BUCK ON SCRUNITY NEW CARDINALS MANAGER MIKE MATHENY WILL FACE IN REPLACING HALL OF FAME MANAGER TONY LA RUSSA: “For as great a career as Tony La Russa had and the two world championships he won there, I don’t know if he was ever fully embraced by people around there.  He got an inordinate amount of criticism even in the wake of tremendous success.  The jury is out on Mike Matheny because he’s never done it at any level, but he came in with instant credibility in the clubhouse. If you asked anybody around the front office, they’d tell you he was their favorite player that’s come along in the last 20 years. Once the bullets start flying – you’re in a game, getting guys up in the bullpen and managing, we’ll see how he does. He’s a little bit more lenient than La Russa with some of the young guys but he’ll get the benefit of the doubt for the majority of the year.”

MCCARVER ON ALBERT PUJOLS’ IMPACT ON THE AL: “Albert Pujols is going to put the Angels on his shoulders like he did the Cardinals for so many years garnering two world championships in a decade. Everybody knows about his base running prowess, his defense, the things he can do without coming to the plate and the American League hasn’t seen a player like this in a long, long time. That’s why I pick the Angels. Pujols is going to be a difference maker with that team.”

MCCARVER ON WHAT BOBBY VALENTINE BRINGS TO THE RED SOX: “The Red Sox have already gotten out of Bobby Valentine what they wanted in the early going. Before a pitch has ever been thrown, there’s been more emphasis on a Red Sox manager than there ever was on Terry Francona and Francona won two World Series. But that’s what the Red Sox needed – the attention diverted to someone other than the players after that horrible, ridiculous finish they had in 2011. They’ve got a few problems like every team – but the emphasis this spring has been on Valentine and that’s what the Red Sox owners wanted. They wanted Red Sox Nation to forget about how last season ended and for the most part they have. It’s very, very important for the Red Sox to get off to a good start.”

Another good way to check out the regional splits is to visit the506.com and he has a coverage map that is similar to his NFL TV maps.

And that will do it. Been working hard catching up on posts and press releases from yesterday. I have one more MLB press release coming up.

Fox Sports Announces Its 2012 NFL Preseason Schedule

Fox Sports will have three NFL preseason games in August and it will carry them in a span of ten days between August 16 through August 26. Two games will be in primetime and the other will be aired on Sunday afternoon, August 26 at 4 p.m. ET.

With the first two airing on consecutive days, expect Joe Buck and Troy Aikman call one and the other with Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston and Tony Siragusa.

We have the Fox schedule below.

NFL ON FOX PRESEASON ACTION KICKS OFF AUG. 16 IN PRIME TIME

Coverage Highlighted by Six Playoff Teams Competing in Three Matchups

New York – The 2012 NFL on FOX season kicks off with three exciting preseason games featuring six playoff teams, including the 2011 NFC West Champion San Francisco 49ers taking on Peyton Manning’s new team – the Denver Broncos.

Action gets underway with back-to-back prime time coverage starting Thursday, August 16 (8:00 PM ET).  Andy Dalton and A.J. Green look to build on their rookie success as the Cincinnati Bengals head to the Georgia Dome to take on Matt Ryan, Michael Turner and the Atlanta Falcons. That game is followed up the next night with the reigning AFC North Champion Baltimore Ravens hosting Matthew Stafford and Ndamukong Suh’s Detroit Lions on Friday, August 17 (8:00 PM ET).  FOX Sports’ preseason coverage wraps up on Sunday, August 26 (4:00 PM ET) with the new-look Denver Broncos hosting Alex Smith and the 49ers.

Following its coverage of the NFL’s prestigious NFC regular season schedule, FOX Sports presents exclusive live postseason coverage including an NFC Wild Card Game, the NFC Divisional Playoffs and the NFC Championship Game.

FOX SPORTS 2012 NFL PRESEASON BROADCAST SCHEDULE

Thursday, August 16 – Cincinnati Bengals at Atlanta Falcons, 8:00 PM ET

Friday, August 17 – Detroit Lions at Baltimore Ravens, 8:00 PM ET

Sunday, August 26 – San Francisco 49ers at Denver Broncos, 4:00 PM ET

That’s all. CBS’ schedule is next.

NFL Announces 2012 Preseason Schedule

Catching up on yesterday’s announcement that of the NFL preseason schedules. We’ll begin with the National Football League’s official announcement, then go to the network’s press releases of their preseason schedules.

For the national TV partners, ESPN will air 4 preseason games, Fox 3, CBS and NBC 2 each. NFL Network will air all preseason games, but most on tape delay.

As it did four years ago when NBC was in Olympics coverage, NFL Network will air the Hall of Fame game in Canton, OH. The same is true for this year.

It’s nice to have the preseason schedule because it means the release of the actual 2012 regular season schedules won’t be very far behind.

2012 PRESEASON SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED;
NATIONAL TV GAMES FEATURE 2011 PLAYOFF FIELD

The NFL’s slate of 12 nationally televised preseason games will feature the entire 2011 playoff field, one of the highlights of the 65-game 2012 NFL preseason schedule announced today.

The 2012 preseason will kick off on Sunday, August 5 (NFL Network, 8:00 PM ET) in Canton, Ohio when the Arizona Cardinals face the New Orleans Saints in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game.

The Super Bowl XLVI champion New York Giants will be showcased on national TV when the club faces the Chicago Bears on Friday, August 24 (CBS, 8:00 PM ET) at MetLife Stadium.

Following is the complete 2012 NFL preseason national TV schedule:

2012 NFL PRESEASON NATIONAL TELEVISION SCHEDULE
(All times Eastern)

DATE	GAME	NETWORK (TIME)
Sunday, August 5	Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, Canton, OH: Arizona vs. New Orleans	NFLN (8:00 PM)
Preseason Week 1 (August 9-13)
Thursday, August 9	Green Bay at San Diego	ESPN (8:00 PM)
Monday, August 13	Dallas at Oakland	ESPN (8:00 PM)
Preseason Week 2 (August 16-20)
Thursday, August 16	Cincinnati at Atlanta	FOX (8:00 PM)
Friday, August 17	Detroit at Baltimore	FOX (8:00 PM)
Sunday, August 19	Indianapolis at Pittsburgh	NBC (8:00 PM)
Monday, August 20	Philadelphia at New England	ESPN (8:00 PM)
Preseason Week 3 (August 23-26)
Thursday, August 23	Arizona at Tennessee	ESPN (8:00 PM)
Friday, August 24	Chicago at NY Giants	CBS (8:00 PM)
Saturday, August 25	Houston at New Orleans	CBS (8:00 PM)
Sunday, August 26	San Francisco at Denver	FOX (4:00 PM)
Sunday, August 26	Carolina at NY Jets	NBC (8:00 PM)

2012 PRESEASON WEEK-BY-WEEK SCHEDULE

HALL OF FAME GAME – AUGUST 5
Arizona vs. New Orleans (NFLN)

WEEK 1 – AUGUST 9-13
Green Bay at San Diego (ESPN, 8/9)
Dallas at Oakland (ESPN, 8/13)
Arizona at Kansas City
Baltimore at Atlanta
Cleveland at Detroit
Denver at Chicago
Houston at Carolina
Minnesota at San Francisco
New Orleans at New England
NY Giants at Jacksonville
NY Jets at Cincinnati
Pittsburgh at Philadelphia
St. Louis at Indianapolis
Tampa Bay at Miami
Tennessee at Seattle
Washington at Buffalo

WEEK 2 – AUGUST 16-20
Cincinnati at Atlanta (FOX, 8/16)
Detroit at Baltimore (FOX, 8/17)
Indianapolis at Pittsburgh (NBC, 8/19)
Philadelphia at New England (ESPN, 8/20)
Buffalo at Minnesota
Cleveland at Green Bay
Dallas at San Diego
Jacksonville at New Orleans
Kansas City at St. Louis
Miami at Carolina
NY Giants at NY Jets
Oakland at Arizona
San Francisco at Houston
Seattle at Denver
Tennessee at Tampa Bay
Washington at Chicago

WEEK 3 – AUGUST 23-26
Arizona at Tennessee (ESPN, 8/23)
Chicago at NY Giants (CBS, 8/24)
Houston at New Orleans (CBS, 8/25)
San Francisco at Denver (FOX, 8/26)
Carolina at NY Jets (NBC, 8/26)
Atlanta at Miami
Detroit at Oakland
Green Bay at Cincinnati
Indianapolis at Washington
Jacksonville at Baltimore
New England at Tampa Bay
Philadelphia at Cleveland
Pittsburgh at Buffalo
San Diego at Minnesota
Seattle at Kansas City
St. Louis at Dallas

WEEK 4 – AUGUST 29-30
Atlanta at Jacksonville
Baltimore at St. Louis
Buffalo at Detroit
Carolina at Pittsburgh
Chicago at Cleveland
Cincinnati at Indianapolis
Denver at Arizona
Kansas City at Green Bay
Miami at Dallas
Minnesota at Houston
New England at NY Giants
New Orleans at Tennessee
NY Jets at Philadelphia
Oakland at Seattle
San Diego at San Francisco
Tampa Bay at Washington

That will do it.

MLB Productions To Produce “MLB Player Poll” For Fox

This just announced by MLB. Fox Sports will air “MLB Player Poll” produced by MLB Productions. This will hit air at 3 p.m. ET on Saturdays, except for four weeks during the season when Fox Saturday Baseball airs earlier in the day due to NASCAR and will air at noon ET.

MLB Player Poll will be a half-hour program and be hosted by MLB Network’s Greg Amsinger. Players will answer various questions like “Who has the strongest arm,” or “Who is the best outfielder,” you get the idea. I don’t know how this will fill a half-hour, but MLB Productions will find a way, I’m sure.

The MLB Fan Cave will be incorporated into the show as well as social media.

You combine this series with the MLB Network-produced “Fox Saturday Baseball Pregame Show” and you have Fox giving one hour to MLB before its games.

We have the press release from Major League Baseball.

MLB PRODUCTIONS TO PREMIERE MLB PLAYER POLL, A NEW SERIES AIRING EACH SATURDAY OF THE REGULAR SEASON ON FOX

Current Players to Vote and Comment on Game’s Best in Variety of Categories, With Fans Having Their Say Via Social Media Through MLB Fan Cave

Who is the toughest pitcher in the league to hit right now? The most intimidating hitter? Which outfielder has the strongest arm? How about the most over-used baseball cliché?

For the first time ever, answers to questions like these will come straight from the players themselves, as part of MLB Player Poll, a new series created by Major League Baseball Productions that will air on FOX each Saturday at 3:00 p.m. ET during the 2012 regular season, beginning April 7 (except for April 14 & 28, and May 12 & 19, when it will air at noon ET). Hosted by MLB Network’s Greg Amsinger, each 30 minute episode will answer one of these questions using an entertaining and educational countdown format that features interviews with current players. The results of each week’s poll will be culled from surveys taken by hundreds of current players this season.

This new show will have multiple social media components, including considerable integration with the MLB Fan Cave, baseball’s social media hub in New York City where nine “Cave Dwellers” are attempting to watch all 2,430 MLB games this season while chronicling their experiences via social media. Each week, the MLB Fan Cave will post the upcoming poll question to Facebook and Twitter, giving fans all over the world a chance to make their own voices heard on that week’s topic. With MLB and FOX also sending the question through their social media channels, millions of fans will be reached each week. After the
online vote is tallied by the MLB Fan Cave, the results will be revealed on the show and compared to the player poll results, with select responses from individual fans appearing on air as well. A segment of the show each week will originate from the MLB Fan Cave, with some of the Cave Dwellers commenting on that week’s poll question, giving an update on recent activity at the MLB Fan Cave and previewing that day’s MLB games on FOX and MLB Network. MLB Player Poll will re-air on MLB Network each Sunday.

“Across everything we do, our fans have told us two things loud and clear: they want more access to their favorite players than ever before and they want their voice to be heard, and this new show accomplishes both of those goals,” said Tim Brosnan, MLB Executive Vice President, Business. “MLB Player Poll will serve as an entertaining appetizer before FOX Saturday Baseball, featuring a captivating countdown format that brings fans inside the game while letting them have their say via social media.”

That will do it.

Grinding Out Some Monday Links

Let’s do some links on this Monday.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Game has become a showcase for upcoming NBA talent.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News writes that NBC Sports Network will get a lion’s share of coverage for the London Summer Olympics.

Brian Stelter of the New York Times reports that no-talent hack Ryan Seacrest has signed a new contract with NBCUniversal that also gives him a role on NBC’s Olympic coverage. I shudder at the thought.

Chris Ariens at TVNewser says NBC is putting former Today Show co-host Meredith Viera on the Olympics Opening Ceremony with Bob Costas and Matt Lauer.

Joe Posnanski talks about leaving Sports Illustrated for a new venture with MLB Advanced Media and the USA Today Sports Group. Disclosure: Fang’s Bites is an independently-owned site affiliated with USA Today Sports Group and had no prior knowledge of Posnanski’s move nor of the joint venture with MLBAM.

ESPN.com’s Kristi Dosh, a.k.a. The Sports Biz Miss handicaps the upcoming MLB TV rights deal negotiations.

King Kaufman at the Bleacher Report explains why the site will never do April Fools’ parodies.

Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing has some readers’ suggestions for CBS’ Jim Nantz to close out tonight’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship including one from yours truly.

The great Maggie Hendricks of Yahoo’s Cagewriter has some suggestions on how FX and the UFC can improve the new Ultimate Fighter reality show.

Today is World Autism Awareness Day. You may know a parent, a friend, a relative or a neighbor who is affected by Autism in one way or another. Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball writes in his SportsBash site on how he has been personally affected.

My good friend (despite her being a Yankees fan) Alison Faye in Tales of a Rocket Scientist also writes about her experience with her son who has Autism.

And Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal tweets that he’ll be wearing a bowtie to benefit Autism Speaks.

Brandon Costa of Sports Video Group notes that CBS’ courtside cameras give the network some signature shots for the Men’s Final Four.

Brandon also looks at CBS’ studio set and Super Slo-Mo cameras at the Superdome for the Final Four.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks at the new Broadway play focusing on Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post mourns the passing of New York Cosmos great Giorgio Chinaglia.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union notes that the Final Four received its best ratings on CBS in a decade.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette writes that the local cable news network will cover Union in the NCAA Frozen Four this week.

Ken McMillan at the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says a local radio station will cover high school sports.

Jim Wiliams of the Washington Examiner talks with Jim Nantz about his unique double of calling the Final Four and The Masters^® in successive weeks.

Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times reviews the weekend in sports television.

Tom also talks with the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball crew.

Sam Pennington of Suthern Gameday remembers the late Hall of Fame voice of the Kentucky Wildcats, Caewood Ledford.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle notes two personnel moves at one local sports radio station.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel explores the average age of those watching various sporting events.

Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post says the first week in April is a literal smorgasbord for the sports fan.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News explores the reasons why MLB clubs are so gung-ho on regional sports network rights fees.

Tom has your sports calendar for this week.

Raju Mudhar of the Toronto Star has what writers outside of Canada are saying about the Blue Jays.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail was amused by a verbal sparring match aired in Canada over the weekend.

Barry Petchesky at Deadspin looks at one April Fools newspaper column that went published without being properly vetted.

Sports Media Watch says ratings for the NBA on ABC saw big increases.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media says the NHL on NBC also had a good number.

And Joe Favorito says Fenway Park is ready to celebrate its Centennial.

We’re done.

Attempting A Friday Megalink Post

This week has been hellish for me and I apologize for not being able to post as much as I would like. I’ve been away from my computer for most of the day and by the time I get home, I’m tired and don’t want to update the blog.

Well, with me already done my errands for today, I’ll give you some linkage that has been seriously lacking this week.

Of course, there’s the Weekend Viewing Picks which you can peruse.

National

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says Jim Rome is hoping to make a splash as he prepares to launch his new daily show on CBS Sports Network.

Reid Cherner of USA Today’s Game On! blog says perpetually angry ESPN college basketball analyst Doug Gottlieb is throwing his hat into the Kansas State coaching ring.

The Associated Press was on hand to witness Root Sports Northwest’s production of the Seattle Mariners-Oakland A’s regular season openers in Japan without actually traveling to the Far East.

Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim has more thoughts on the numerous conflicts of interest in tennis broadcasting.

Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand has Fox Sports’ statement on its carriage dispute with Time Warner Cable over Fox Sports San Diego.

John profiles legendary sports television producer Don Ohlmeyer.

Around the Rings has the press release regarding the European Broadcasting Union obtaining the rights to the World Cups in 2018 and 2022.

ESPN Ombudsman Jason Fry of the Poynter Institute says college basketball analyst Bob Knight should not be allowed to live by his own rules when he’s on TV.

Scott Soshnick and Steven Church of Bloomberg Businessweek says the Los Angeles Dodgers sale was sparked by media rights.

Alex Ben Block of the Hollywood Reporter says former Sony Pictures head Peter Gruber who’s part of the new Los Angeles Dodgers ownership group could bring a new attitude towards marketing the team.

Jon Lafayette of Broadcasting & Cable has Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott calling rights fees for college football are undervalued.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says NESN National is being launched in Indianapolis.

Tim Nudd at Adweek says Chrysler is unveiling four new follow ups to its “Halftime in America” Super Bowl spots during various events this weekend including the NCAA Final Four and Mad Men.

Adweek’s Mike Shields writes ESPN.com is partaking in Facebook’s Open Graph, but with some restrictions.

Jason Del Ray at Advertising Age notes that CBS/Turner brought in its highest sales revenue ever for March Madness Live.

Ronnie Ramos at the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center says March Madness has been enhanced by social media and the digital experience.

The Brothers Yoder at Awful Announcing cast the upcoming Anchorman sequel using ESPN’ers. This is good.

Ben Koo at AA is not a huge fan of the overhead shots employed by CBS/Turner for the NCAA Tournament.

Dan Fogarty at SportsGrid says the Los Angeles Times feels there’s one person who could spoil the new ownership for the Dodgers.

Ahmed Yussuf at EPL Talk gives a first-hand account of following the English Premier League from Australia.

Sports Media Watch says last weekend’s rain-shortened NASCAR on Fox event did not do well in the ratings.

Joe Favorito asks if ‘The Hunger Games” could give archery a boost in time for this summer’s Olympics.

Jason McIntyre at The Big Lead reports that Joe Posnanski is leaving Sports Illustrated.

Ty Duffy at The Big Lead says the potential Fox cable sports network may not knock down ESPN, but could give it a run for its money.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell talks about two rival Hollywood agencies representing Tim Tebow simultaneously.

Bob’s Blitz says WFAN’s Craig Carton browbeat former Tiger Woods swing coach Hank Haney to the point where he hung up.

Brandon Costa of Sports Video Group says CBS returns to New Orleans where it began its Final Four journey 30 years ago.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe says ESPN MLB analyst Curt Schilling is facing hypocrisy calls after he criticized his former Red Sox team this week.

Chad adds some thoughts on Schilling and on NESN’s Jenny Dell that didn’t make his column.

Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch writes in SB Nation that a Tiger Woods in contention is good for The Masters^® and its TV partners.

Bob Tedeschi of the New York Times reviews this year’s edition of the MLB At-Bat app.

Richard Sandomir from the Times examines the Dodgers sale.

Anthony Riemer of Newsday looks at Jeremy Lin’s lunch with the sacked ESPN.com editor who unwittingly made a racial slur last month.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post feels Fox Sports’ Jimmy Johnson should not be advocating violence. I don’t think he did, Phil, but continue to hate everything, ok?

Justin Terranova of the Post has five questions for former Tennessee and current Sirius XM analyst Bruce Pearl on the Final Four.

The Albany Times Union’s Pete Dougherty has the ESPN MAC football schedule.

Pete has CBS excited about this year’s Final Four.

Jane Kwiatkowski of the Buffalo News says this is a tough time for the local TV sportscast.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call looks at a local PBS documentary on the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.

Laura Nachman says Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia is ready for Phillies baseball.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog says the Fox sitcom “Raising Hope” gave another of many Capitals references.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner talks with MLB Network’s Mitch “Wildi Thing” Williams.

South

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle writes that the Houston Open should be helped by a lot of interesting storylines.

David says Jim Rome is getting ready for his CBS Sports Network closeup.

David writes that Texans running back Arian Foster is taking his show to the team’s radio flagship station.

In The Oklahoman, Mel Bracht has ESPN’s MLB analysts predicting the upcoming season.

Mel says there will be plenty of baseball available in the Oklahoma City market.

Mel reports a local radio station has flipped to being a full-time ESPN Radio affiliate.

Mel writes that a local radio sports director has been laid off thanks to Clear Channel.

Midwest

Elton Alexander of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer says New Orleans has provided CBS with plenty of Final Four excitement.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says a local TV station plans to ride the Kentucky train for as long as possible.

John says a couple of long-time local radio veterans got the ax due to Clear Channel cost cutting.

John writes that a radio documentary on late Cincinnati Reds voice Waite Hoyt airs this weekend.

The Indianapolis Star says Butler coach Brad Stevens will be a guest analyst for CBS on the Final Four.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes the Brewers have extended their radio rights deal with their long-time flagship station.

Bob says a local sportscaster is back to work after a long illness.

Bob tells us that Marquette coach Buzz Williams will also be a guest analyst on CBS this weekend.

Paul Christian of the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin writes that CBS loves New Orleans at Final Four time.

Dan Caesar at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says 20 Cardinals games won’t be seen by AT&T U-Verse subscribers this season.

Dan writes that the defending champions Cardinals will be in the national spotlight quite a few times this season.

West

Jay Posner at the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that Fox Sports San Diego is not optimistic of getting a deal with two cable providers in time for Padres opening day.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star has ESPN’s MLB analysts praising Magic Johnson’s presence with the Dodgers.

Jim was surprised that Kentucky-Louisville wasn’t the nightcap for the Final Four.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says Lakers fans are enjoying having guest analysts on radio broadcasts this season.

Tom talks with Jim Rome about his CBS Sports Network show.

Tom has more on Rome in his blog.

Canada

The usually uninformed Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says CBC Sports appears to be rudderless as it heads into a new NHL negotiation.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog has the viewership numbers for Canadian sports television from last week.

And that will conclude the megalinks.

MLB on Fox Games & Announcing Assignments For April 7, 2012

All times are Eastern.

3:30 p.m.
Fox Saturday Baseball Pregame Show

4 p.m.
Boston at Detroit — Joe Buck/Tim McCarver
St. Louis at Milwaukee — Thom Brennaman/Eric Karros
San Francisco at Arizona — Daron Sutton/Eric Byrnes
Kansas City at Anaheim Angels — Kenny Albert/Mark Gubicza

You probably notice that Fox has tapped its regional Fox Sports Net affiliates to fill the announcing roster for next Saturday. Fox will average 3 games per week, but what we’re seeing for its opening Saturday is what will happen during Primetime when it has as many as six games scheduled.

That’s all.

Report: Fox Plans To Start Cable Sports Network To Challenge ESPN

Bloomberg’s Andy Fixmer and Alex Sherman are reporting that News Corp., the parent company of Fox plans to launch an all-sports cable network to challenge ESPN. Now News Corp. tried this once before in the 1990′s through its Fox Sports Net affiliates, but after a brief, but failed rivalry, Fox decided to shift the focus of FSN from national to local even though some national programming is distributed on the FSN affiliates.

According to the story, Fox hopes to launch the new channel later this year by possibly converting its existing Fuel channel which focuses mostly on action sports and just began to air UFC programming this year, to the new sports network.

Fox has been accumulating inventory with the acquisition of the rights to Pac-12 basketball and football and reportedly is close to expanding its Big 12 rights. In addition, Fox won the rights for the World Cup starting in 2015 plus with the Fox Sports Net channels, could add more sports properties if it expands its current contracts with MLB and NASCAR.

While NBC has been the most visible as a potential competitor to ESPN with its relaunch of NBC Sports Network from Versus this year, the news of the Fox Sports cable network has come as a surprise.

Certainly News Corp. has the money and power to muster a challenge, but as we saw in the 1990′s, ESPN was able to win over Fox. However, with Fox Sports El Jefe del Mundo David Hill leading the new channel, one can never count him nor News Corp. out of any competition.

This will bear some watching.

Late Monday Night Links

As promised earlier today, I’m giving you more links. I was out earlier today and I’ll be out again tomorrow so it’s going to be a bit crazy for me. So let’s get to the linkage right now.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch looks at the media circus that was the Tim Tebow press conference at the New York Jets practice facility on Monday.

Speaking of Richard, he and CNBC’s Darren Rovell were locked in Round 2 of their Twitter feud. This was fun while it lasted as Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing recaps.

Matt notes that Al Trautwig of MSG Network had a slip of the tongue.

And Matt is gleeful that ESPN’s Jonathan Coachman also had a similar slip.

Christina Settimi of Forbes looks at baseball’s biggest local cable TV rights deals.

George Winslow of Broadcasting & Cable says ESPN has promoted an executive to handle its international digital media efforts.

Sam Laird of Mashable notes that the Boston Bruins have launched their own social media portal, believed to the first in pro sports.

Todd Cunningham at The Wrap says with Tiger Woods win this past weekend, CBS now looks forward to having masterful ratings for The Masters^® in two weeks.

Dale Buss of Brand Channel writes that Jockey brand underwear welcomed Tim Tebow to New York as only it could.

Kevin Kaduk of Yahoo’s Big League Stew has one of the funniest on-screen graphics pulled by Fox Sports Midwest during a St. Louis Cardinals exhibition game.

Jesse Sawyer of the Avon (CT) Patch says ESPN’s Kenny Mayne has sold his Connecticut home over half a year after he moved his family to Washington State.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post hates everybody.

Breaking the Bob Raissman ban to note that the New York Daily News curmudgeon feels Tim Tebow is already a pro at handling the Big Apple media circus.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union notes that the ratings for the NCAA Tournament this past weekend took a huge hit thanks to Tiger Woods.

Greg Connors of the Buffalo News writes about ESPN’s three month-long initiative to celebrate Title IX.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call talks about the departure of local native Meredith Marakovits for the bright lights of New York.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog tells us that he’s going to have a partner on the blog.

And Sarah Kogod introduces herself to DC Sports Bog readers in her first post.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with Tennis Channel’s Mary Carillo.

Tom Jones from the Tampa Bay Times reviews the weekend in sports television.

Mel Bracht of The Oklahoman notes that the Oklahoma City Thunder set a new ratings record.

John Kiesewetter at the Cincinnati Enquirer says a nationally syndicated radio morning show will be in town for Reds Opening Day.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Wisconsin-Syracuse in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 did well in the local ratings.

Scott D. Pierce at the Salt Lake Tribune says BYU basketball coach Dave Rose has a future in TV if he so chooses.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times says an investment bank helped to broker the Pac-12 media rights contract with ESPN and Fox plus other huge sports and entertainment megadeals.

Joe reports that DirecTV and Tribune are in a dispute over the company’s TV stations and this could include WGN America which carries a bunch of sports programming.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail has yet another amazingly uninformed column not realizing that CBS and Turner share the NCAA Tournament and CBS no longer regionalizes games. Many Canadian college basketball fans are aware of this, yet Bruce is not.

Sports Media Watch looks at the lower ratings generated by the NCAA Tournament over the weekend.

SMW has the viewership for the first primetime effort by ESPN2′s First Take.

To Macgasm where we learn that ESPN is teaming with Apple to make sports scores available on the Siri voice platform on the iPhone 4S.

Joe Favorito asks does UFC really needs New York to be successful?

Jim Connelly at USCHO.com wonders if ESPN is doing more to hurt the NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament than help promote it.

Maury Brown at the Biz of Baseball wonders when MLB Network will hit Canada.

And we’ll end it there. Good night.

Quick Monday Linkage

Don’t have much time today. I’ll do a few links for you here while I can.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand has CBS/Turner’s Clark Kellogg saying he wouldn’t be surprised if Kentucky lost in the Final Four this weekend.

Mr. College Football, Tony Barnhart of CBS Sports, remembers his former colleague at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Furman Bisher.

Tim Wood at the Bleacher Report announces some new hirings. BR has been on a hiring binge lately.

ESPN2 aired the Jets/Tim Tebow press conference today with a twist. Can you believe showing Skippy Bayless on his laptop, live tweeting the event? Yes indeed. Very bad television.

Eric Goldschein of SportsGrid notes that a SiriusXM Radio host decided to use his satellite radio show to criticize the Miami Heat for the famous picture of the entire team wearing hoodies in support of Trayvon Martin.

Doug Farrar at Yahoo’s Shutdown Corner says Fox Sports is considering using suspended New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton as an analyst this season.

To Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk who says don’t expect the NFL to give the public a partial 2012 regular season schedule release this week.

Keith Thibault of Sports Media Journal catches up with CBS Sports Network/Dial Global Radio announcer Dave Ryan who’s calling the NCAA Women’s Tournament on radio this week.

Ken Kerschbaumer at Sports Video Group notes that Longhorn Network uses fiber optics rather than satellite trucks to transmit game action from University of Texas campus back to its broadcast facility.

Toni Fitzgerald at Media Life says a NCAA Tournament overrun helped CBS win the Sunday night primetime ratings.

Rich Thomaselli of Advertising Age says the NFL and Nike are hyping their new partnership which both companies say will revolutionize the league’s apparel.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says Tiger Woods’ win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational this weekend might have helped his popularity.

Yesterday, we learned that legendary boxing writer and historian Bert Sugar died at the age of 75. Sugar was one of the most popular figures covering the sweet science. But in addition to covering boxing, Sugar wrote about baseball and was good at it. When I hosted a one-hour radio sports show in Groton, CT, Bert gave me one of the best interviews I ever had. He was witty, funny, brilliant and put everything into its proper perspective. And he sent me a book that he had written about boxing. One of the nicest men in the sports media you’ll ever have the chance to meet. And unfortunately, he’s gone.

Tim Smith of the New York Daily News says Sugar had been suffering from lung cancer, but typical of Bert, he kept it quiet from most of his friends.

Dan Rafael of ESPN.com says Bert will be missed.

Michael Woods of ESPN New York has an appreciation of Sugar.

Bob Velin of USA Today also has an obituary for Sugar.

Gary Mihoces of USA Today says Sugar was definitely a colorful character.

Lem Satterfield of The Ring, the digital home of Ring Magazine where Sugar once worked, has reaction to his death.

Promoter Jackie Kallen in Boxing Insider bids farewell to her friend.

Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun has a couple of memories of Bert Sugar.

I’ll do some more linkage tonight.

Some Rare Saturday Links

It’s been a long time since I was able to provide Saturday linkage. Many times, it’s due to the fact I try to sleep in or my weekend was planned for me behind my back and I have to play chauffeur. Anyway, I’m able to provide some links and since I did not do the megalinks on Friday, I’ll give you this as a replacement, although the number of stories won’t equal Friday’s usual amount.

We begin with Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch who mentions that NFL Network came close to firing Warren Sapp after he tweeted that former New Orleans Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey “snitched” about the team’s bounties to the NFL officials.

Can you believe Bob Costas turned 60 this week??!! Well, he did. MLB Network’s senior editorial director Elliot Kalb who has worked with Bob at NBC writes this tribute.

From the Poynter Institute, ESPN Ombudsman Jason Fry looks at why ESPN expunged a Mark Cuban gay joke from a Bill Simmons Grantland podcast.

George Winslow at Broadcasting & Cable says smartphones and tablets helped to drive a large percentage of traffic for March Madness Live online.

Mike Reynolds from Mulitchannel News writes that the NCAA Tournament saw a ratings decline from the year before for the first night of the Sweet 16 on Thursday.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel says a veteran cable TV programming exec has been promoted within the ranks of NBC Sports.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Dave Kindred mourns the passing of former Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Furman Bisher.

Eric Goldschein from SportsGrid has video of the Kazakhstan national anthem being played for a medalist of a shooting competition in Kuwait. Problem was that it was the version written for the movie “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” and not the real Kazakhstan national anthem. That’s funny.

Sports Video Group offers a review of the March Madness Live iPad app.

Busted Coverage says a Spokane, WA local sports anchor unwittingly decided to crack on Lesley Visser’s face.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says the harsh punishments handed down by the NFL to the New Orleans Saints over Bountygate were likely tied to concussion lawsuits.

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe speaks with CBS/Turner’s NCAA Tournament East Regional crew of Uncle Verne Lundquist, Bill Raftery and Lesley Visser.

Chad has a few more things with Verne and Bill that didn’t make the column.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks at MLB Network producing and staffing a pregame show for Fox Saturday Baseball.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says the local CBS affiliate has been taping its late newscast for nights it follows NCAA Tournament action.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record notes that the WFAN Mets Radio Network is not big at all.

Dave Hughes from DCRTV.com has the latest in Baltimore-DC sports media in Press Box.

Jon Solomon of the Birmingham (AL) News talks with Texas A&M’s athletic director about entering the SEC and why the Longhorn Network led to the school’s departure from the Big 12.

David Barron at the Houston Chronicle notes that Texans radio voice Marc Vandermeer is leaving his radio talk show to focus squarely on the NFL team.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes about Fox and MLB Network collaborating on a pregame show.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch talks with Turner Sports reporter Craig Sager who loves his job and picking out loud clothes for every game.

John Maffei of the North County Times writes about San Diego’s sports radio shuffles.

Tom Hoffarth at the Los Angeles Daily News has a story on the Brothers Waltrip who are laughing it up at Fox.

Tom has more with Darrell and Michael Waltrip in his blog.

Sports Media Watch says ESPN is seeing a ratings surge for its studio shows thanks to a busy NFL offseason.

SMW says viewership is up for the NCAA Women’s Tournament on ESPN2.

Steve Lepore has a suggestion for ESPN on how to make the NCAA Hockey Tournament more TV friendly.

Joe Favorito looks at how NFL news broke this week.

Ryan Yoder at Awful Announcing notes that Around the Horn host Tony Reali apparently had an on-the-job injury this week.

I’m going to end the Saturday links there.

Some Long Overdue Linkage

Due to crazy personal schedules on Tuesday and Wednesday, I wasn’t able to update the site as much as I would like. I apologize to you as I’ve been trying to keep you apprised of the latest sports media news. A few housekeeping notes, first I did some Sports Media Thoughts earlier this morning and you read them here.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing was kind to ask me on his podcast and we recorded it on Wednesday while I was on the road so the phone quality isn’t great (damn you, AT&T 3G). You can listen to what Matt and I discussed at the Awful Announcing site.

And lastly, Keith Thibault and I recorded our latest Sports Media Weekly podcast this week and our guest is Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette and the subject is college hockey coverage.

Now to our links.

Michael Smith & John Ourand from Sports Business Journal look at the possibility of ESPN and Fox Sports teaming up once again, this time to control the media rights to the Big 12 Conference. The two companies combined for the Pac-12 last year in an attempt to keep NBC Sports out of college sports and it appears the two are back at work again on the Big 12 rights.

Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim makes a very good point on the perceived conflict of interests of ESPN’s tennis announcers and the players to which they’re connected, case in point, Mary Jo Fernandez seen sitting with Roger Federer’s wife during the BNP Paribas Open last week on ABC.

Andrew McCalvy at MLB.com writes that Milwaukee Brewers Hall of Fame voice Bob Uecker will be honored with a statue outside Miller Park. Congrats to Uke on a well deserved honor. We all remember his character, Harry Doyle from the “Major League” movies and his great quote, “Juuuuust a bit outside.” Classic.

Interesting study from the Media Behavior Institute which shows a great majority still watch the NCAA Tournament on TV, but online numbers comprise a large chunk.

Ben Grossman at Broadcasting & Cable reports that Major League Baseball is looking at placing postseason games on MLB Network to boost its subscriber numbers.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News writes that MLB Network will produce a pregame show for Fox Saturday Baseball.

Tom Comi of Channel Guide Magazine would like a halt to the Tim Tebow media circus.

Mike Miller at NBC’s College Basketball Talk notes that the NCAA Tournament ratings on CBS/Turner are just about even with last year.

Eric Goldschein of SportsGrid has video of ESPN’s Mike Tirico losing it during last night’s Lakers-Mavericks game.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says Wheaties may be dying a very slow and painful death.

Ronnie Ramos in the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center says coaches and players are learning the proper use of Twitter.

Greg Wyshynski of Puck Daddy notes that Rogers Sportsnet picked up on a popular internet meme and used it in an on-screen graphic.

To Fishbowl NY where Jerry Barmash talks with Kenny Albert.

Newsday’s Neil Best writes that NBC Sports Network set a ratings record for hockey in NYC.

Neil notes that ESPN has a new head man-in-charge.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that CBS/Turner will bring in two coaches as guest analysts for the NCAA Tournament.

Pete says ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball crew will be busy in the first week of the MLB season.

Keith Groller at the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says Lehigh left an impression on CBS during the NCAA Tournament.

Matt Brooks of the Washington Post’s Early Lead has your viewing guide for tonight’s Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has links to some of the best columns from the late Furman Bisher.

Some of Bisher’s friends pay tribute to the man.

The AJC has a gallery of pictures showing Bisher throughout his career.

Mel Bracht of the Oklahoman looks at HBO Real Sports’ update on the 2001 plane crash that hit the Oklahoma State basketball program extremely hard.

Mel says local viewers chose Fox Sports Oklahoma over ESPN for two Oklahoma City Thunder games last week.

David Jablonski of the Dayton (OH) Daily News says a local man leads the millions of entries in ESPN’s Bracketology contest.

John Kiesewetter at the Cincinnati Enquirer is not a fan of NCAA Tournament scheduling.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that the radio analyst for Bucks games has been off the air since last month.

Bob says former Brewers voice Matt Vasgersian will host the MLB Network-produced MLB on Fox pregame show.

Tom Ginnetti of the Chicago Sun-Times remembers pioneering sportswriter Lacy J. Banks who died Wednesday.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has video of Bob Costas pontificating on the Saints suspensions.

The Toronto Globe and Mail’s Bruce Dowbiggin writes about the media fighting over staged NHL fights.

The Toronto Sports Media blog explores the local newspapers imploring the Maple Leafs to apologize to their fans for missing the playoffs.

Sports Media Watching notes that ratings on NBA TV are up.

Media Rantz says ESPN got fooled by a fake Adam Schefter Twitter account during Tim Tebow coverage last night.

We have a picture of that fake Adam Schefter tweet. “Adarn Schefter”?

Ben Koo of Awful Announcing explores the Gus Johnson departure from CBS and how it may leave him without his signature event for a long time to come.

The Convoluted Mind of a Single Man site looks at the innovations John Madden brought to NFL broadcasting.

Dave Kohl at the Broadcast Booth says league-owned networks are making big strides in production and programming.

And that will finish our links for today.

MLB Network To Produce Half-Hour Pregame Show For MLB on Fox

Starting April 7, MLB Network will produce a 30-minute pregame show for Fox to be hosted by MLB Tonight Live’s Matt Vasgersian. He’ll be joined by fellow MLB Network staffers Harold Reynolds, Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams and Kevin Millar on a rotational basis. Other MLB Network analysts will be used throughout the season. For primetime games, the pregame will be cut to 15 minutes.

Chris Rose, the pregame show host for the last two seasons for Fox, will remain on MLB Network as the co-host of the abortion known as “Intentional Talk” with Millar.

We have the joint announcement from Fox and MLB Network.

FOX SPORTS & MLB NETWORK JOIN FORCES FOR NEW, EXPANDED PREGAME SHOW

Matt Vasgersian Takes Reigns as Host; 30-Minute Show Debuts April 7

New York, Los Angeles & Secaucus, NJ – This spring, FOX Sports and MLB Network team to present fans with a new-look and expanded pregame show prior to the FOX SATURDAY BASEBALL GAME OF THE WEEK, it was announced today by Eric Shanks, Co-President and COO, FOX Sports Media Group and FOX Sports Executive Producer, and Tony Petitti, President and CEO of MLB Network.

FOX SATURDAY BASEBALL PREGAME SHOW, a full 30-minute program, originates live from MLB Network’s state-of-the-art Studio 3 in Secaucus, NJ and is hosted by longtime FOX Sports and MLB Network broadcaster Matt Vasgersian. He’s joined each week by a rotating roster of MLB Network’s studio analysts including Harold Reynolds, Mitch Williams, Eric Byrnes and Kevin Millar. Chris Rose, host of FOX SATURDAY BASEBALL since 2009, devotes his complete energy this year to his role as host of MLB Network’s popular show, Intentional Talk.

This collaboration is the latest example of unprecedented cooperation between FOX Sports and MLB Network since its launch in 2009. In addition to sharing below-the-line resources and video, the networks have shared numerous on-air personalities including Vasgersian and Rose as well as Millar, Williams and reporter Ken Rosenthal.

“We’ve enjoyed a terrific working relationship with Major League Baseball and MLB Network, sharing broadcasters and resources over the years and we’re proud to form this partnership,” said Shanks. “Combining our expertise with MLB Network’s ample resources and high-caliber production capabilities makes sense on multiple levels, none of which is more important than providing fans the best pregame and studio coverage possible week in and week out.”

FOX Sports, in cooperation with MLB Network, is now able to bring fans the best and most complete coverage possible from around the league using the vast resources available to both networks, including frequent live updates throughout FOX SATURDAY BASEBALL broadcasts, MLB Network’s Emmy-nominated Ballpark Cam system, audio and video content, and reporters ready to provide breaking news, analysis and coverage of milestone performances.

“This is a groundbreaking partnership between a broadcast network and a league-owned cable network and we’re excited to work with FOX Sports to continue to provide viewers with the most comprehensive programming in baseball,” said Petitti.

Vasgersian’s work with MLB Network includes studio host and play-by-play duties, appearing on Thursday Night Baseball, MLB Tonight and Baseball IQ. He has also worked regularly with FOX Sports including play-by-play duties on the FOX SATURDAY BASEBALL and NFL ON FOX. Rosenthal has reported for both FOX Sports and MLB Network since 2009, and Williams was a pregame analyst for FOX Sports’ 2010 National League Championship coverage and throughout the regular season in 2011. Millar was a studio analyst for MLB on FOX pregame coverage in 2010 in addition to his work on MLB Network’s MLB Tonight and Intentional Talk, and Byrnes has also contributed to MLB on FOX as well as his role as an MLB Tonight analyst.

The new pregame show runs 30-minutes most weeks with the exception of FOX SATURDAY BASEBALL GAME OF THE WEEK’s eight consecutive primetime dates, when the pregame show is 15-minutes long beginning at 7:00 PM ET.

The 2012 MLB on FOX season opens on Saturday, April 7 at 3:30 PM ET with a grand slam lineup featuring the Boston Red Sox with new manager Bobby Valentine visiting the Detroit Tigers and new slugger Prince Fielder (Joe Buck/Tim McCarver). The last two World Series champions are also slated Week 1 as the St. Louis Cardinals head to Milwaukee to face the Brewers in an NLCS rematch (Thom Brennaman/Eric Karros), while the San Francisco Giants go on the road against the NL West Champion Arizona Diamondbacks (Daron Sutton/Eric Byrnes). Fans can also catch the incomparable Albert Pujols in his new uniform as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim host the Kansas City Royals (Kenny Albert/Mark Gubicza). Coverage is regional; check local listings.

That will do it.

33rd Annual Sports Emmy Nominations Announced

We have the nominations, all 170 in 33 different categories, for the 33rd Annual Sports Emmy Awards. They just came out today. There are some surprises like massive hockey charlatan Pierre McGuire nominated in the Sports Reporter category and for some really strange reason, Skippy Bayless of ESPN2′s First Take was nominated for Best Studio Analyst. What analysis does he do besides yelling and having massive manlove for Tim Tebow?

There are some of the usual suspects are nominated, Bob Costas for Best Studio Host, Al Michaels in Play-by-Play, Cris Collinsworth for both Studio and Game Analyst.

Some of the nominations I agree with include Mike Mayock for Best Game Analyst, College GameDay and Football Night in America as Best Studio Shows and all of the movies in the Sports Documentary category. Sports documentaries were strong this year and I have trouble picking one although Catching Hell, the ESPN Films effort on Steve Bartman and the Chicago Cubs might be the weakest of the bunch, but the doc was still very good.

Ok, get ready to scroll, the entire list is below. We do need a page break so the list of nominees will after the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences press releases.

THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS & SCIENCES ANNOUNCES THE NOMINEES FOR THE 33^RD ANNUAL SPORTS EMMY® AWARDS

Winners to be Honored During the April 30^th Ceremony At Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jack Whitaker to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award

New York, NY – March 20, 2012 – The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) today announced the nominees for the 33^rd Annual Sports Emmy® Awards.

More than 170 nominees were announced in 33 categories including outstanding live sports special, live series, sports documentary, studio show, promotional announcements, play-by-play personality and studio analyst.  The Awards will be given out at the prestigious Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center located in the Time Warner Center on April 30^th, 2012 in New York City.

This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Sports will go to the Sports Commentator and Essayist, Jack Whitaker.

“This is an outstanding year for the sports community and for The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences,” said Malachy Wienges, Chairman, NATAS. “The entries received in this year’s Sports Emmys resulted in a record 175 nominees, illustrating the quality of these entries.  We are also honoring Jack Whitaker with our Lifetime Achievement Award.  I had the pleasure of working with Jack for eighteen years at CBS, and Jack is a sports icon and a class act.”

In addition to Jack Whitaker, many of the today’s leading sports broadcasters, personalities and television professionals will be in attendance as presenters at the event.

The networks of ESPN (ESPN, ESPN 2, ABC, ESPN 3D & espn.com) lead the nomination totals with 55, the NBC Sports Group (NBC, Versus, Golf Channel & nbcsports.com) garnered 32, CBS (CBS, Showtime, CBSSports.com) entries received 26 nominations, while Turner Sports (TNT, TBS, NBA TV, NBA.com & truTV) have 22.

A complete list of all nominees is attached below.

33^rd Annual Sports Emmy Award Nominations by Network Group

ESPN (ESPN, ESPN 2, ABC, ESPN 3D, espn.com) – 55
NBC Sports Group (NBC, Versus, Golf Channel, nbcsports.com) – 32
CBS (CBS, Showtime, CBSSports.com) – 26
Turner Sports (TNT, TBS, NBA TV, NBA.com, truTV) – 22
HBO Sports – 19
FOX Sports Media Group (FOX, SPEED) – 16
NFL Network – 12
MLB Network – 8
DIRECTV – 2
MLB Advanced Media (MLB.com, MLBAM) – 2
NFL.com – 2
NCAA.com – 1
PGA.com – 1

33^rd Annual Sports Emmy Award Nominations by Network

ESPN – 36
NBC – 22
HBO Sports – 19
CBS – 15
FOX – 15
TNT – 15
ESPN2 – 14
NFL NETWORK – 12
SHOWTIME – 10
MLB NETWORK – 8
VERSUS – 7  
TBS – 3
ABC – 2   
DIRECTV – 2
ESPN 3D – 2
GOLF CHANNEL – 2
NBA TV – 2
NFL.COM – 2
CBSSPORTS.COM – 1
ESPN.COM – 1
MLB.COM – 1
MLBAM – 1
NBA.COM – 1
NBCSPORTS.COM – 1
NCAA.COM – 1
PGA.COM – 1
SPEED – 1
truTV – 1

BREAKDOWN OF MULTIPLE PROGRAM/SERIES NOMINATIONS

Program/Nominations/Network

24/7: 8 -  HBO
E: 60: 7 – ESPN2
A Game of Honor: 5 – Showtime/CBSSports.com
MLB on FOX: 5 – FOX
NASCAR on FOX: 5 – FOX
NBA on TNT: 4 – TNT
NBC Sunday Night Football: 4 – NBC
FIFA Women’s World Cup: 3 – ESPN/ESPN2
Outside the Lines: 3 – ESPN
Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel: 3 – HBO
SportsCenter: 3 – ESPN
The Army/Navy Game: 3 – CBS
The Franchise: 3 – Showtime
Winter X Games 15: 3 – ESPN/ESPN3D
2011 Open Championship: 2 – ESPN
2011 Stanley Cup Final: 2 – NBC/Versus
ESPN Monday Night Football: 2 – ESPN
Football Night in America: 2 – NBC
Grand Slam Tennis on ESPN: 2 – ESPN2
Inside the NBA on TNT: 2 – TNT
Joplin: City of Hope: 2 – ESPN2
McEnroe/Borg: Fire & Ice: 2 – HBO
MLB Tonight: 2 – MLB Network
NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament: 2 – CBS/TBS/TNT/truTV
NFL Films Presents: 2 – NFL Network
NFL GameDay Morning: 2 – NFL Network
NFL on FOX: 2 – FOX
Sports Science: 2 – ESPN/ESPN.com
Sunday NFL Countdown: 2 – ESPN
Unguarded: 2 – ESPN

And after the page break, all of the nominees for the 33rd Annual Sports Emmy Awards which will be handed out April 30 in New York City.

(continue reading…)

Some Quick Monday Night Linkage

Since we did our linkage this morning, there have been several stories worthy of links and they really should not wait until Tuesday. So I’ll do a set of links right now.

We start with Jason McIntyre of The Big Lead who reports on a fake tweet about ESPN’s Erin Andrews leaving the network (her contract is expiring) and the personalities at the Alleged Worldwide Leader who are negotiating new deals.

MediaRantz recaps how this tweet got circulated and had to be quickly debunked by ESPN.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing goes over an interesting Twitter feud between comedian Norm Macdonald and ESPN’s Rick Reilly.

Matt says Digger Phelps wasn’t on his “A” game during Sunday night’s Bracketology show on ESPN.

John Ourand and Michael Smith of Sports Business Journal has CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus talking about the new authentication and pay system for the March Madness mobile app.

Daniel B. Wood of the Christian Science Monitor notes that the ESPN Films documentary on Magic Johnson’s HIV-positive announcement 20 years ago shows how far we have come in our attitude on the disease.

Conor Nagle at Wei Under Par writes that NBC went into bizzaro world in attempting to cover Tiger Woods’ leg injury at the WGC Cadillac Championships.

At Puck The Media, Steve Lepore notes that the NHL on NBC hit a season low overnight rating on Sunday.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell goes inside the numbers with March Madness.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette writes that fans hoping to watch this weekend’s ECAC Hockey Championships will have to do so online (scroll down).

Katie Kramer of the Syracuse Post-Standard has ESPN’s Joe Lunardi saying that local fans give him the hardest time when it comes to his brackets.

The Washington Examiner’s Jim Williams has CBS/Turner’s Jim Nantz and Marv Albert both talking about the NCAA Tournament.

Dave Walker at the New Orleans Times-Picayune says social media has helped to popularize March Madness.

David Barron at the Houston Chronicle says the departure of Texans’ offensive lineman Eric Winston will leave a big hole at a local sports radio station.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer has the networks, announcing assignments and tip times for games of local interest from the NCAA Tournament.

Writing in OnMilwaukee, departing local sports radio host Doug Russell has one wish for the market as he leaves town.

Aaron Morton of the Deseret (UT) News explains to BYU fans where they can find truTV.

Sports Media Watch says the NCAA Tournament Selection Show had its lowest overnight ratings since 1989!!!!

Carol Einarssen at Race Journal Online has Cheers and Jeers for Fox’s NASCAR coverage.

Sox & Dawgs has video of Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine speaking with former ESPN colleagues Karl Ravech and John Kruk during Monday’s exhibition game against Miami.

And that will complete the posts for Monday

Ringing In Some Monday Linkage

Let’s do our Monday linkage today.

Michael Hiestand from USA Today writes that CBS/Turner’s Clark Kellogg will have a big “get” during halftime of Tuesday’s NCAA Tournament First Four game.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News says MSG Network has a new show dedicated to the best and worst baseball trades and deals.

Mike says YES Network’s national feed will be seen by California cable subscribers for the first time.

Jason Del Ray of Advertising Age looks at SB Nation’s foray into producing original content for YouTube with former ESPN’ers Bomani Jones and Amy K. Nelson.

Toni Fitzgerald from Media Life Magazine says the NCAA Tournament can be a sports marketer’s dream.

Kevin Wagstaff of Time Magazine says YouTube will be the official video player for NBCOlympics.com, however, don’t expect to see live Olympics on the video streaming service.

Jason McIntyre of The Big Lead spent a day following ESPN’s Jay Bilas at the Big East Tournament.

Ty Duffy of The Big Lead wonders if NBC’s entrance into MLS will help to grow soccer in America.

Timothy Burke of Deadspin has the funny video of ESPN’s Dick Vitale being Dick Vitale during last night’s Bracketology show.

Ken Belson of the New York Times describes the Mets first-ever radio broadcast which included the late Howard Cosell as pregame host.

Michael O’Keefe of the New York Daily News talks with former ESPN’er Sean Salisbury who has been battling depression and hoping to make a TV comeback bid. The story never mentions Salisbury’s MTV2 gig with the Lingerie Football League.

Phil Mushnick at the New York Post writes that TV continues to ignore athletes’ bad behavior.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has the tip times for the FIRST FOUR and 2nd Round games of the NCAA Tournament.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call writes that the voices of the Philadelphia Phillies’ minor league affiliate get their call to the big club this week.

Bob Rossi in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review says NBC will go all out for the NHL Playoffs this spring.

Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times reviews the weekend in sports television and I find that I disagree with a couple of his points.

Richard Connelly of the Houston Press says the new Comcast SportsNet Houston plans to build studios that will allow for a Today Show-like atmosphere outdoors.

Mel Bracht from The Oklahoman says former Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer is in talks to have a movie based on his interesting life.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says there wasn’t much anger directed at the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee this year from the TV analysts.

Dan Caesar from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes that Dan McLaughlin returned to Fox Sports Midwest Sunday after a long suspension over his drunk driving arrests.

Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post says Peyton Manning’s visit to the Mile High City gave the local media plenty to talk about over the weekend.

Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times had a chance to tour Jon Gruden’s offices as he prepared to host several incoming NFL quarterbacks for his ESPN shows this Spring.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News talks with Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott about rebranding the conference.

Tom also has his sports calendar for this week.

Bruce Dowbiggin at the Toronto Globe and Mail writes that the Canadian NHL clubs want some changes in CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada.

Bruce also looks at the coverage of the death of Canadian skier Nik Zoricic over the weekend.

Raju Mudhar of the Toronto Star says when Don Cherry leaves Hockey Night in Canada, he will be sorely missed.

Sports Media Watch says NASCAR on Fox lost a million viewers for the Subway Fresh Fit 500 from the previous year.

Paul Kennedy at SoccerAmerica feels NBC Sports Network did well in its MLS debut.

SoccerNation says NBC has tapped a well-known composer to produce its MLS theme music.

And that’s going to do it for now.

Let’s Do The Friday Megalinks

Lots of things to get to today. Couldn’t do the links yesterday. Going to do a big megalink edition for you.

Let’s get cracking, but first, there’s the Weekend Viewing Picks complete with a link to the busy College Basketball Viewing Picks which will be updated throughout the weekend.

National

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand talks with Oscar-winner and ESPN college football analyst Ed Cunningham.

Sports Illustrated issued a statement standing by its feature story this week by George Dohrmann on UCLA’s troubles.

Yesterday, Captain Blowhard, a.k.a Bill Simmons of Grantland interviewed President Obama for his podcast. I haven’t listened to it nor read the transcript as I don’t want to be bothered. Dan Levy of Bleacher Report did and had some problems with it.

Tony Manfred of the Business Insider’s Sports Page lists some writers who were most likely jealous over Simmons’ sitdown with the President.

Sports Business Daily says Captain Blowhard threw a hissy fit this week after Duke refused to issue a credential to one of Grantland’s writers for Saturday’s game against North Carolina.

Tim Baysinger at Broadcasting & Cable writes that NFL Today and Inside the NFL host James Brown will become a special correspondent for CBS News.

Gabriel Beltrone of Adweek writes that Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant is pitching Sprint phones.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life says thanks to Super Bowl XLVI, NBC won the February sweeps, marking the third straight year that sports has steered the month.

Ryan Berenz of Channel Guide Magazine writes that NBC Sports Network will be all over a French bicycle race this month.

Maury Brown at the Biz of Baseball says while we know MLB will announce expanded Wild Card Playoff games today, we don’t know which network will air them.

Sam Mamudi of Marketwatch.com writes that the competition among mainstream sports websites is very intense.

Pam Modarelli-Hegner at Sports TV Jobs writes about the types of personalities and egos journalists encounter when interviewing athletes.

Awful Announcing’s Matt Yoder writes in Puck Drunk Love about ESPN’s failure to cover the NHL.

In his regular site, Matt says CNBC’s Darren Rovell assigned his baby daughter several social networking accounts on her first day on earth.

Brady Green at AA has video of the Toronto Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia’s very funny impression of ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian that aired on Baseball Tonight.

John Daly at the Daly Planet looks at Showtime’s Inside NASCAR program taking the spring and summer off after one episode this week.

Barry Petchesky over at Deadspin notes that ESPN came up with another potentially racist headline for an Asian-American athlete.

Rachel Margolis at ESPN’s Front Row PR blog talks with college basketball analyst Brooke Weisbrod who has a rather interesting day job that keeps her busy during the work week.

Joe Favorito says President Obama is courting sports fans through the Captain Blowhard podcast.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media reviews the new hockey movie, “Goon.”

Sports Media Watch has some of the ratings from last week’s sports action.

SMW says Jeremy Lin is helping to move the ratings needle for ABC and TNT.

The Tampa Bay Times’ Eric Deggans writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center says a San Diego sports anchor’s criticism of Danica Patrick shows that sexism still exists in sports.

Also in the National Sports Journalism Center, Ronnie Ramos laments how social media has watered down traditional sports journalism.

East and Mid-Atlantic

The Boston Globe’s Bob Ryan talks with ESPN’s college basketball analyst Doris Burke. High praise and I agree. Doris is one of the best.

Chad Finn of the Globe says despite having his original role reduced, Dale Arnold is remaining at WEEI.

Chad has some advice for rookie ESPN MLB analyst Terry Francona.

Boston Sports Media Watch’s Bruce Allen writing in SB Nation Boston says Bill Simmons has had a meteoric rise to stardom.

Bill Doyle at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette says it was the Worcester Sharks’ radio voice who came up with the idea to have popular New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski spike a puck before a game last month.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks back at the 50th anniversary of one of the major milestones in sports that barely was covered by the media at the time.

Newsday’s Neil Best says two ESPN’ers will speak at their high school alma mater next week.

Neil says the Nets are not drawing well on YES.

Neil notes that CBS Sports Network utilizes a husband & wife team for its college hockey games.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick mocks the bracketologists handicapping the NCAA Tournament field.

The Post’s Justin Terranova has five questions for NHL on NBC voice Mike Emrick.

Jerry Barmash at Fishbowl NY says MSG Network continues to score with Knicks games.

Jerry reports that former WNBC-TV sports anchor Len Berman is back on TV in NYC.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union notes that NBC Sports Network will air the America’s Cup next year.

Pete says YES is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says NBC Sports Network is adding NHL games to its schedule for the playoff drive.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call writes that a local service provider has snagged the rights to an incoming minor league hockey team.

DCRTV’s Dave Hughes has the latest developments in Baltimore-Washington, DC sports media at Press Box.

South

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes that a local sports anchor is recovering from a stroke he suffered last year.

David has a little more on the story in his blog.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman talks with Fox Sports Oklahoma NBA studio analyst Stephen Howard.

Mel has more here with Stephen Howard.

Mel says NBA TV is marking the 50th anniversary of Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 points in a game.

Midwest

The Cincinnati Enquirer’s John Kiesewetter says a movie script has been written about a deaf mute Reds player who changed the way umpires made calls.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wonders if another network will join Fox and TBS in airing the MLB Postseason this year.

Bob says ESPN still leads the way in cable subscriber fees, meaning how much cable and satellite providers are required to pay ESPN per subscriber.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business has his winners and losers in sports business and media.

Ed says a Big Ten Network profile of former Indiana University coach Bob Knight will mostly focus on his achievements and hardly touches on his tumultuous exit.

Paul Christian at the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin notes NBA TV’s documentary on Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 point game.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says not many Missourians will be able to see local teams in conference tournaments next week.

West

Dan Caesar of the Salt Lake Tribune writes that BYU is better off an a football independent rather than share money and TV time with other teams when it was part of the Mountain West.

John Maffei at the North County Times says local prep basketball games will be harder to find on local TV this weekend.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star says who knew that product placement would be the big winner during Fox’s airing of the Daytona 500.

Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times says CBS and MSG Network are considering buy the Dodgers in separate bids in order to get their TV rights.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News looks at how the media covered (barely) Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 point game 50 years ago today.

Tom has some news and notes this week.

Canada

Raju Mudhar of the Toronto Star says CBC premieres part two of the movie on Don Cherry’s life this weekend.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail can’t believe how well NHL Trade Deadline coverage does in the ratings.

Bruce says social media has changed sports reporting forever.

And that will do it. Enjoy your weekend.

Bringing Out The Mid-Week Linkage

Let’s do our linkage for today. It’s going to snow in Southern New England so I’m doing this early in case I have bug out later.

Starting with USA Today’s Michael Hiestand, we learn that ESPN will be streaming its Championship Week games on Facebook, but not everyone will be able to see the games.

Gregg Rosenthal of Pro Football Talk through John Ourand of Sports Business Journal writes that former Indianapolis Colts GM Bill Polian will join ESPN in a couple of weeks.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Michael Bradley advises NBC Sports Network to stay the course and not panic in the wake of low ratings out of the box.

Eric Fisher at Sports Business Daily has the skinny on MLB Advanced Media’s unveiling of the new At Bat mobile app.

Stephen Galloway at the Hollywood Reporter has a fascinating update on cable television pioneer and Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner.

Eriq Gardner from the Reporter writes that former college athletes suing the NCAA over the use of their likenesses in video games and attempting to get information from TV contracts, have been sanctioned by the judge presiding over the case.

John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable says the National Association of Broadcasters has told the FCC to keep the antiquated NFL blackout rule in place.

Tim Baysinger at B&C notes the NFL has moved its regular season opening game back one day to accommodate the Democratic National Convention.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says after some early momentum, TNT saw rating drops for its NBA All-Star Weekend.

Wendy Davis at MediaPost writes that streaming service Justin.TV and YouTube are being sued for illegally showing a boxing pay-per-view fight.

All Access notes that CBS Radio’s WJFK has signed to remain the DC affiliate for Virginia Tech sports.

Greg Doyel of CBS Sports wants to know why ESPN is allowing Bob Knight to show his clear disdain for Kentucky.

The Mansfield (CT) Patch picks up a story from Kenneth Best who went behind the scenes when ESPN’s College GameDay visited the UConn campus last weekend.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks at Twitter’s newest darling, NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski.

The Long Island Tennis Magazine says ESPN2 will air the annual BNP Paribas Showdown on tape delay with an MSG Network replay following a day later.

Ken McMillan from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says the NFL regular season opener has been pushed back one day to accommodate President Obama.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog notes that the Nationals’ Bryce Harper has deleted his Twitter account.

The Winston-Salem (NC) Journal remembers a local sports anchor who passed away this week.

Deven Swartz of WGHP-TV also remembers Rich Brenner who was a beloved member of the community.

WGHP also has a special section devoted to Brenner.

Amanda Kelley at the Myrtle Beach (SC) Sun-Times says ESPN Radio is changing stations.

Luther Campbell, formerly of 2 Live Crew, in the Miami New Times accuses ESPN’s Skippy Bayless of race baiting.

Jon Solomon at the Birmingham (AL) News writes that the SEC’s member schools are reluctant to expand to 9 conference football games, but the league’s TV partners are seeking more inventory.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the Daytona 500 did well in primetime for Fox, but ratings are down from last year.

Nick Canepa of the San Diego Union-Tribune says the Padres are wondering why MLB is taking so long to approve its rights deal with Fox Sports.

Brady Green at Awful Announcing has the video of Rich Eisen’s annual 40 yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine.

Andrew Bucholz at AA notes that Captain Blowhard is complaining about something no one cares about.

At the Bleacher Report, Dan Levy looks at the sexism one San Diego sports anchor threw at Danica Patrick and the reaction since.

John Daly of the Daly Planet reviews Fox’s performance at the Daytona 500.

John also explores ESPN’s Brad Daugherty inexplicably coming down hard on driver Brad Keselowski for Tweeting during the Daytona 500.

John Gennaro of the Bolts from the Blue blog looks at how the new Fox Sports San Diego will affect sports fans.

Congratulations to CNBC’s Darren Rovell who now has a baby daughter to take care of. She wasn’t even a day old when Darren signed her up for Twitter.

Lack of tweets today have 1 great explanation: Welcome to the world, my beautiful daughter, @HarperRovell.

February 28, 2012 10:34 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@darrenrovell

darren rovell

And then Darren told us that he signed her up for other social networking services and bought her domain name. Darren? Put down the smartphone and walk away slowly.

My wife doesn't know yet, but I also locked up Gmail, Pinterest, Facebook and domain names for my three-hour old daughter, @HarperRovell.

February 28, 2012 10:43 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@darrenrovell

darren rovell

And we’ll end it there for today.

Some Long Overdue Sports Media Thoughts

Due to a very hectic schedule, I have not been writing as much as I would like, but with so many sports media stories occurring, I have to give you some of the thoughts that have come to mind. I want to provide them before they become outdated. As usual, they come in bullet form.

• Let’s start with NASCAR and Fox’s coverage of the Daytona 500 in particular. Due to a rainout on Sunday, NASCAR officials decided to postpone the race for the first time in history and move the event into primetime on Monday. By making the race into a primetime event, Fox’s crew showed that not only was it ready, but it shined for most of the broadcast. Yes, there were a lot of wrecks and a two hour delay caused by Juan Pablo Montoya crashing into a jet-fueled blow drying truck might have hurt the ratings a tad, but Fox did a very good job in reporting on the incident, plus keeping viewers updated on the condition of Montoya and the driver of the truck.

  Throughout the night, replays of crashes and key moments of the race were clear. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the moment of impact of Montoya hitting the truck, but we did see flames from the fireball.

  And Fox filled time admirably with driver interviews and getting NASCAR President Mike Helton to talk about the delay. In addition, Fox pit reporters had fun with driver Brad Keselowski who tweeted a picture of Montoya’s accident from inside his car and continued to tweet during the delay, picking up 200,000 followers in the process.

  The coverage was rewarded with what Fox claims was a record viewership for The Great American Race on the network. Imagine the ratings without the two hour delay.

• Monday’s coverage of the NHL Trade Deadline was well covered throughout North America. The two competing Canadian sports networks, Rogers Sportsnet and TSN waged all day battles and based on what I saw online, I give the edge to Sportsnet. Thanks to Yahoo’s Puck Daddy, there was an online stream of Sportsnet’s coverage available for viewers in both Canada and the U.S. TSN’s TradeCentre was simulcast on NHL Network in the U.S. throughout the day then streamed online at NHL.com from noon ET.

  In the past, it was TSN that had all the angles covered, but on Monday, it appeared to be playing catch up to Sportsnet. When trading began to get hot and heavy as the deadline approached, Sportsnet not only broke news, but got the players on the phone immediately to get their reaction. In the case of Brian Rolston going from the New York Islanders to the Bruins, Sportsnet actually broke the news to him.

  Both networks tried some gimmicks, Sportsnet utilizing former General Managers to get their input on the mindset of making a trade. That made for some fascinating TV. TSN used the stunning Alyonka Larionov as a social media reporter to read tweets. That didn’t go over too well, but TSN isn’t utilizing her in the right way.

  Overall, NHL Trade Deadline was well covered, but there’s no need to start coverage at 8 a.m. ET. I give Sportsnet an A minus for its coverage. TSN gets a B minus.

• This leads us to the what I am calling the Death of Hockey Coverage on ESPN. It didn’t go unnoticed that ESPN failed to cover the NHL Trade Deadline on SportsCenter. Ben Koo at Awful Announcing was surprised not seeing a single mention, not even one sentence. Ty Duffy at the Big Lead was not. Neither am I.

  But then came the announcement that ESPN was shuffling the NCAA Frozen Four, the Division I Hockey Championship from ESPNU/ESPN2/ESPN as in the past few years to ESPNU/ESPN2 this year. And as Puck The Media’s Steve Lepore points out, that ESPNU will carry all but one game of its NCAA Hockey Tournament schedule.

  Hockey aficionados know all too well about the incredible shrinking coverage on ESPN. Since giving the NHL the boot in 2005, highlights have gone from being an integral part of SportsCenter to a bit player, if that.

  I went to ESPN last year to take part in a mini-focus group and talk with their producers. While there are many hockey fans in Bristol on the on-air and production staffs, I find it sad that the network continues to treat the sport as a bastard stepchild. And while the producers can tell me that giving hockey more time is constantly debated internally, the result has always been the same, two or three minutes of NHL highlights on SportsCenter, no regular season college hockey games on any of the ESPN platforms nor much coverage of the sport on .com.

  It’s as if in ESPN’s eyes, the sport just doesn’t exist. But as we know, if it’s not on an ESPN platform, the sport is hardly recognized by the Alleged Worldwide Leader.

• This also transitions to our next bullet, the NHL’s current cable home, NBC Sports Network. Last week, Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand wrote a story on the slow start and low ratings for NBC Sports Network since it relaunched in January from being Versus. While some of its programming has been critically acclaimed, ratings are lower than when the channel was under its previous name. And while that development is disturbing, remember that this is a marathon, not a sprint and certainly, the first two months under its new name does not a track record make.

  Expect those numbers to go up as NBC Sports attempts to stock NBCSN with more inventory. Certainly, this summer’s London Olympics and preceding U.S. Olympic Trials will help. And if NBC is able to get a piece of the Big East, NASCAR and/or MLB contracts this year, then the network will be in good shape. I don’t think Comcast and the NBC Sports brass are going to make rash, panicked decisions based on the results thus far. ESPN wasn’t a ratings success out of the gate either back in 1979 and it took a while for it to become successful and turn a profit. There might some tweaks here and there throughout this process, but overall, I do expect a lot of growth from NBC Sports Network down the line.

• And finally, with the NFL making its decision on Tuesday to move the 2012 regular season opening game back a day, it avoids the same situation from four years ago when the league kept its season opener on the same night as John McCain’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. In 2008, the NFL pushed back the opener to 7 p.m. ET only to get a significant drop in the ratings. This year by moving the game from Thursday, September 6 to the night before, it prevents a conflict with President Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention and the NFL can own the coverage without taking a ratings hit.

  It works for all sides.

And that will conclude a very long thoughts column. I had to get these off my chest and now I can move onto other items for you..

Fox Says The 2012 Daytona 500 Results In The Most Watched In Network History

Fox is claiming a victory for the rain-delayed Daytona 500 which ran in primetime for the first time ever. The network says a total of 36.5 million people watched at least a portion of the race, saying that’s the highest total viewership since it started carrying the Great American Race in 2002. Fox adds it’s the 2nd highest viewership ever for Daytona since 2006 when 37 million people watched on NBC.

The interesting thing is the average viewership which Fox says was 13.7 million. That was down from last year’s average of 15.6 million. So the total viewership is up, yet the average viewership is down. The rating for this year’s race is an 8.0 with a 14 share. That’s 8% lower than last year’s rating of 8.7 and makes the 2012 edition of the Daytona 500 the second lowest rated ever on the network.

We have the Fox Sports press release.

WHEN THE SMOKE CLEARED, THE 2012 DAYTONA 500 IS MOST-WATCHED IN FOX HISTORY

Historic Monday Night Running of the Great American Race Captivates 36.5 Million Viewers
Daytona 500 Powers FOX to Primetime Win Against Strong Competition

New York & Daytona – It took 36 hours to complete from its scheduled start time but fans won’t soon forget the 2012 Daytona 500 and the dramatic events delivered for FOX Sports.

For the first time in the race’s 54-year history, rain postponed Sunday’s 1:00 PM ET start until 12:00 PM ET Monday with continued showers in the afternoon delaying the green flag until 7:00 PM ET.

A total audience of over 36.5 million Americans watched last night’s race, according to fast national ratings issued today by Nielsen Media Research, making 2012 Daytona 500 the most-watched in FOX history. The 36.5 million total viewers, a measure of the audience that saw at least a portion of the race, is +22% higher than last year’s total audience of 30 million and +22% better than 2010′s 29.8 million. Yesterday’s total audience is the second best ever for a Daytona 500 on any network behind 37.0 million viewers in 2006 on NBC.

FOX won the primetime night among Adults 18-49 and total audience figures, a significant achievement going up against original episodes of popular network programs like ABC’s The Bachelor, CBS’s How I Met Your Mother and NBC’s The Voice, which was -10% lower in the Adults 18-49 demographic last night than it did a week ago. The Daytona 500 on FOX posted a 4.6 and averaged 14.1 million viewers from 8:00 – 11:00 PM ET, making it FOX’s most-watched Monday night in 16 months, dating back to Game 5 of the 2010 World Series.

The 2012 Great American Race, which included a fiery crash caused when Juan Pablo Montoya hit a safety truck/track-drying engine and red flagged the race for over two hours, earned an 8.0/14 rating/share and averaged 13.7 million viewers. While down slightly from last year’s Sunday afternoon race that occurred without any significant delays, (-8%, 2011 Daytona 500 – 8.7/20), Monday night’s race was up +4% when compared to the 2010 event (7.7/16), which saw lengthy delays for pothole repairs to the track.

Ratings for the 2012 Daytona 500 grew gradually through the first two and a half hours, climbing to an 8.2/12 (14.2 million viewers) in the 9:30 half-hour when the Montoya wreck occurred. Ratings grew further at 10:00 PM, peaking at an 8.8/13 (15.1 million viewers.) When the epic race concluded, Matt Kenseth emerged as the winner, capturing his second Daytona 500 victory in four years.

FOX Sports delivered live coverage of the 54th Daytona 500 for more than 11 hours over the course of three days. The NASCAR on FOX crew started reporting on Sunday from the rainy Daytona International Speedway, bringing viewers live interviews, updates, predictions and analysis from 12:00 – 5:15 PM ET in the hopes of a window opening up for racing.  FOX Sports produced nearly the entire five hours live, including interviews with drivers who came to the Hollywood Hotel prerace set and in their haulers, as well as NASCAR officials in the booth, only briefly going to a replay of the end of the Budweiser Shootout and clips from SPEED’s Top Ten Daytona 500 Moments. The team was back again at 7:00 PM ET the next night for the historic Monday primetime running of the Daytona 500.  The never-before-seen fiery crash halted action on the track for more than two hours, but sent the NASCAR on FOX crew into overdrive interviewing 21 drivers. When FOX Sports signed off Tuesday morning at 1:00 AM ET, another six hours of live coverage was in the books. National ratings for Sunday’s programming won’t be available until Thursday March 1.

Top-rated markets for the Daytona 500 include: Greensboro (18.1/27), Jacksonville (18.1/27), Charlotte (16.7/26), Greenville (16.7/26), Dayton (16.1/25), and Orlando (16.0/26). Markets seeing the biggest growth from last year include:  New Orleans (+46%, 7.3 vs. 5.0), Salt Lake City (+33%, 8.1 vs. 6.1), Ft. Myers (+30%, 15.5 vs. 11.9), San Antonio (+17%, 7.5 vs. 6.4) and Tampa (+17%, 12.5 vs. 10.7).

That’s it.

Our Tuesday Links

Let’s provide some links now.

John Ourand and John Lombardo of Sports Business Journal write that local NBA TV ratings are up thus far.

Eric Fisher of SBJ writes that sports arenas have an issue with providing more bandwidth as fans demand wifi access.

Paul White at USA Today says the newly-renamed Miami Marlins are ready for their reality TV closeup.

Mike McCarthy at USA Today says Los Angeles Lakers radio voice John Ireland was busted by Jay Leno’s Show of Hacks for putting on makeup during a game.

Michael O’Connell at the Hollywood Reporter says thanks to the Daytona 500, Fox won Monday night’s ratings over strong network competition.

John Eggerton from Broadcasting & Cable reports on a sports fan lobbying group that’s asking the FCC to end the NFL’s archaic blackout policy.

Toni Fitzgerald from Media Life Magazine says despite lower ratings from last year, the NBA is pleased with the numbers for the All-Star Game.

Mihir Bose of the London (UK) Evening Standard looks at the upcoming bidding for the English Premier League TV rights by talking with an ESPN Europe executive. It’s expected that incumbents Sky Sports and ESPN will have to fend off a heated bid by Al-Jazeera.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid says Dan Patrick almost got into a heated exchange with David Letterman last night.

Sports Video Group says ESPNsoccernet has launched a new mobile app.

At Her Campus, Annie Wang talks with a close friend of Jeremy Lin’s on he views Linsanity in Communist China.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says reviews the upcoming ESPN documentary on the 20th anniversary of Magic Johnson’s announcement that he was HIV positive.

Newsday’s Neil Best notes that today ends a long streak for Jeremy Lin.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union says a local radio station will air a handful of Red Sox exhibition games.

Pete says this year’s MAAC Tournament will be online except for the finals.

Ken McMillan at the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says the NBA’s pay per view League Pass package is free for this week.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman notes that Oklahoma City was the 2nd highest rated local market for the NBA All-Star Game.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says rain delay coverage of the Daytona 500 on Sunday scored well in Suds City.

And Bob says Green Bay Packers wide receiver Donald Driver is given good odds to win this season’s Dancing with the Stars competition.

Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune says Fox Sports San Diego has tapped a news anchor to become its first-ever Padres studio host.

Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times talks with ESPN college football analyst Ed Cunningham about winning the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.

Bruce Dowbiggin at the Toronto Globe and Mail says Twitter scooped TV in breaking NHL trades yesterday.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog kept track of which Canadian networks RDS, Rogers Sportsnet or TSN broke the trades yesterday.

Ben Koo at Awful Announcing says ESPN ignored the NHL Trade Deadline yesterday.

Ty Duffy at The Big Lead explains why ESPN chose to ignore the deadline.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media declares Rogers Sportsnet the winner in NHL Trade Deadline Day coverage.

In Tennis Space, former player Mark Petchey tells how he became a TV analyst.

Barry Petchesky of Deadspin gets an internal ESPN e-mail about Twitter.

Sports Media Watch looks at the Daytona 500′s ratings.

And that’s going to do it for now.

The 1st Ever Primetime Daytona 500 Garners An Impressive Overnight Rating

Due to weather delays, the Daytona 500 was pushed to Monday night in primetime. And thanks to some compelling racing, the Great American Race on Fox received a decent number. According to Nielsen, the overnight rating for the Daytona 500 was a 7.7, down from last year’s race which ran in its regularly scheduled Sunday afternoon time slot as Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand tweets:

Fox says the Daytona 500 overnight is an impressive 7.7. Last year, on a Sunday afternoon, it was an 8.2. In 2010, it was a 7.0.

February 28, 2012 12:13 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@Ourand_SBJ

John Ourand

While the rating was down 6% from last year, the race peaked at a 9.2 right when all hell broke loose when Juan Pablo Montoya’s car crashed into a jet-fueled blow drying truck and caused an explosion on the track.

Last night's Daytona 500 peaked at a 9.2 rating from 10:00-10:15, right around the time the red flag came out.

February 28, 2012 12:16 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@Ourand_SBJ

John Ourand

Austin Karp at SBJ points out that Daytona still could not overcome NBC’s Monday night powerhouse “The Voice.”

The Voice did a 9.4 last night RT @Ourand_SBJ Daytona 500 overnight is an 7.7. Last year, Sunday afternoon, it was 8.2. In '10, it was 7.0.

February 28, 2012 12:15 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@AustinKarp

Austin Karp

But even during the delay when Fox vamped until racing resumed after midnight on the East Coast, the rating was good.

Fox's overnight during the Daytona 500's red flag delay came in at an impressive 7.3.

February 28, 2012 12:19 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@Ourand_SBJ

John Ourand

Will this lead to Monday night NASCAR races or perhaps a Sunday primetime Daytona 500? Maybe not, but it’s definitely food for thought for NASCAR and its TV partners as the next rights negotiations get underway this year.

Doing Some Monday Linkage For You

Let’s do some long overdue linkage for you. It’s been owed big time.

We begin with Mike McCarthy of USA Today who writes that a San Diego sports anchor is in trouble for referring to NASCAR driver Danica Patrick as a “B.”

Michael Hiestand from USA Today says the NBA All-Star Game’s overnight ratings are down from last year.

Michael says Fox did its best to hype Danica Patrick during Sunday’s Daytona 500 rain delay coverage.

John Daly at the Daly Planet is doing yeoman’s work in updating his site on Fox’s plans for the Daytona 500 which is now scheduled to air at 7 p.m. ET.

The Nielsen Wire blog says despite her lack of multiple victories, Danica Patrick remains the most known motorsports driver.

The Associated Press says Fox Sports is looking to extend its current rights deal with NASCAR that will expire in 2014.

Michael Schottey at Bleacher Report has some suggestions on how to improve NFL Scouting Combine coverage.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News writes that Universal Sports has picked up a carriage deal with Dish Network giving the satellite provider “TV Everywhere” rights.

Jeanine Poggi of Advertising Age says CBS/Turner will make a big marketing push for March Madness.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks with new Mets radio voice Josh Lewin.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post finds something to complain about today.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union writes that ESPN has unveiled its primetime ACC football schedule.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog looks at one local anchorman’s thoughts about changing the name of the DC NFL Team.

Skyler Swisher of the Daytona Beach (FL) News-Journal talks with ESPN motorsports pit reporter Jamie Little.

Tom Jones at the Tampa Bay Times looks back at the weekend in sports television.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Bob Wolfley says the paper’s readers blame ESPN for ruining Ryan Braun’s reputation.

Shane Nyman of the Green Bay Gazette feels ESPN is overgushing over Jeremy Lin.

Dusty Saunders at the Denver Post reviews ESPN’s documentary on Magic Johnson’s announcement that he was HIV Positive.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has your sports calendar for this week.

Andrew Bucholz at Awful Announcing writes about ESPN college football analyst Ed Cunningham winning an Oscar for Best Documentary feature last night.

That will do it for now.

What Should Be The Official Theme Tune For Each Sport?

Since television began, theme songs have helped us to identify our favorite programs. This is certainly the case in sports where the theme for Monday Night Football, Sunday Night Football, Wide World of Sports, the Olympics, The Masters and others have become iconic.

I thought about writing a post on which themes should be the “official” one for each sport since Paulsen at Sports Media Watch suggested ESPN trade for NBC’s “Roundball Rock” which became so identifiable with the NBA in the 1990′s.

Suggestion: ESPN trades the old 'NHL on ESPN' theme to NBC for 'Roundball Rock'. Works for both sides.

February 16, 2012 3:38 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@paulsen_smw

Paulsen

So in this post, I’m going to provide nominees for each sport from the various networks and have you vote on which one should be the “official” theme. Results will be released next Sunday.

Two examples of how themes are identified with sports. The Olympics on American television have been introduced with”Bugler’s Theme” composed by Leo Arnaud. Played originally on ABC’s coverage of the Olympics starting in 1968, it was purchased by NBC and used starting in 1992 all the way to the present.

Here’s Bugler’s Theme in its original version.

And this is the version used by NBC which is composed by John Williams combining “Bugler’s Theme” with “Olympic Fanfare” which was written for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

The Masters has its own theme that has been used on CBS and around the world. The theme’s name is “Augusta”.

Those are two examples of iconic sports theme tunes. Now let’s go through the nominees for each sport. There will be no more than three for each sport except for the NFL and NHL otherwise this post could get ridiculously long.

BASEBALL

I have three nominees for Baseball.

This is ABC’s Monday Night Baseball theme from the late 1970′s and one of my all-time favorites.

Here’s the MLB on ESPN theme. This is the current incarnation.

And the MLB on Fox theme that was used from 1996 through 2010, then Fox decided to use its NFL theme for all sports.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

CBS March Madness Theme recut for its partnership with Turner Sports.

NBC’s College Basketball Theme from the mid-1980′s. Yes, NBC once had college basketball, kids.

ESPN’s college basketball theme from 1995 through 2001.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Your choices:

The SEC on CBS theme first introduced for Super Bowl XXI and subsequently used on its college football coverage, first the old CFA package in the late 1980′s, brought back in 1996 when CBS came back into college football after losing the sport in the early 1990′s and has been used ever since.

ESPN’s present College Football theme.

ESPN’s old College Football theme used until 1999. I like this one better than the current theme.

NBA

Here’s the NBA on CBS theme used from 1982 until 1990 when it left the sport for good. This is a clean copy of its open utilized from 1982 through 1988. The black spots are for video and voiceover. One of my all-time favorites.

The current NBA on TNT theme as composed by Trevor Rabin.

And you can’t have an NBA theme poll without NBC’s Roundball Rock composed by John Tesh and considered by many as the best sports theme of all-time. I’m inclined to agree.

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE

We have four choices, one for each network.

This is known as the NFL on CBS “Pots and Pans” theme that was used from 1986 through 1988. I’ve preferred this theme over the others have been utilized since. And ignore the quality of the video, just listen to the theme. And it was called “Pots and Pans” because some fans thought it sounded like pots and pans banging.

The NFL on Fox theme, now the music used for all sports, originally composed in 1994.

NBC’s Sunday Night Football theme composed by John Williams. We’re not using the “I’ve Been Waiting All Day For Sunday Night” sung by Faith Hill for obvious reasons. Someone put a compilation of the current themes together. I like it.

ESPN’s Monday Night Football Heavy Action theme.

NHL

I’ll do five here.

The NHL on ESPN theme that was used through 2005.

How about the NHL on Fox theme that was used from 1995 through 1998? Here’s a compilation of the theme. You can still hear it on Fox Sports Net affiliates that carry the NHL locally.

Here’s the NHL on NBC theme that is currently being used. Different variation from its main theme, but you get the idea.

The Hockey Song by Stompin’ Tom Collins, probably the second most beloved hockey theme in Canada.

The old CBC Hockey Night in Canada theme which is now known as the Hockey Theme as it was purchased and now owned by TSN. Used since 1968.

TENNIS

We have three candidates for tennis.

The NBC Wimbledon theme which won’t be heard anymore as ESPN has the rights to the tournament.

When NBC was in the bad habit of tape delaying matches, I would find ways to watch BBC’s coverage which was always live. I got used to its Wimbledon theme and grew to like it.

And USA Network’s US Open theme music that we no longer hear unfortunately. Remember when USA actually had sports?

I don’t have a clean copy of ESPN’s tennis theme so the three we have will have to suffice.

SPORTS ANTHOLOGIES

Finally, we have the sports anthologies from the networks. This should be quite interesting to get your take. Anthology shows would put together various different events in one show, like track & field, barrel jumping, tennis or diving. ABC’s Wide World of Sports was the first of its kind on American television and then the other networks followed until the anthologies went extinct.

First, from across the pond, BBC’s Grandstand which was one of the longest running sports series on television. This ran until 2007. These are various opens from the 1990′s. This theme is catchy.

Here’s the open from the CBS Sports Spectacular from 1979 using Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

NBC had SportsWorld in the 1970′s and 1980′s. I like this music.

And the original that started it all in the U.S., ABC’s Wide World of Sports. The voiceover is from the late Jim McKay. This open is from 1984.

And that is going to do it. Vote and leave your comments on any omissions below.

Fox Sports Airs The 2012 Daytona 500

This Sunday, Fox Sports airs The Great American Race, the 54th annual Daytona 500 live from the Daytona International Speedway. Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds will be in the broadcast booth to call the race.

Speed’s John Roberts, subbing for a grieving Chris Myers, will host from Fox’s “Hollywood Hotel” located in the Daytona International Speedway infield, and he’ll be joined by Darrell and Michael Waltrip pre-race.

Jeff Hammond will be in the Fox garage for any car issues that may arise.

Coverage begins at noon Eastern. We have details of Fox’s coverage and features you’ll see on Sunday. Check it all out below.

FOX SPORTS NOTES, QUOTES & ANECDOTES

 2012 NASCAR on FOX Season Goes Into High Gear with Daytona 500 Sunday at 12:00 PM ET
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Visits FOX NASCAR SUNDAY Set
DW, MW, Hammond & Joy Talk Danica and Innovations for 2012 Season – Highlights and Replay from Daytona 500 Press Call
SPEED Covers Gatorade Duel on Thursday; Camping World Trucks Friday Night

On Sunday, Feb. 26 (12:00 PM ET), FOX Sports proudly presents the 54^th running of the Daytona 500. Coverage starts with the FOX NASCAR SUNDAY prerace show hosted by John Roberts, with up-to-the-minute reports, live interviews with drivers, crewmen and officials shaping the day’s action and analysis from Darrell Waltrip and Michael Waltrip. In an innovative new role, veteran analyst Jeff Hammond takes his extensive experience as a former championship-winning crew chief to where the action is, in the garages and pit road.

During this year’s Daytona 500, Michael isn’t going to have a lot of down time. He starts the day at the FOX NASCAR SUNDAY prerace desk when FOX Sports coverage begins. Then the two-time Daytona 500 champion hopes to get behind the wheel and race in the Great American Race – a rare, perhaps unprecedented feat. Waltrip attempts to make his 75^th start at Daytona International Speedway, the most of any driver, should he race his way into the starting lineup during Thursday’s Gatorade Duel at Daytona.

Special FOX NASCAR SUNDAY Daytona 500 features:

• NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. joins the FOX NASCAR SUNDAY outdoor prerace set to talk about his chances in the Daytona 500 and what he hopes to accomplish in the 2012 season.
• Stock car’s biggest storyline and newest full-time addition, Danica Patrick, sits down with Hall of Fame Inductee and NASCAR on FOX analyst Darrell Waltrip to discuss her switch to stock car racing and how she expects to gain respect from her fellow competitors.
• A live performance by one of music’s most decorated artists, and four-time Grammy Award-winner Lenny Kravitz.
• Grand Marshals for Sunday’s race are Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover model Kate Upton and talented actress in FOX’s hit show GLEE, Jane Lynch.
• The youngest UFC Champion in the history of the sport, Jon “Bones” Jones serves as an honorary official.

Once the green flag drops, race announcer Mike Joy is alongside analysts Waltrip and Larry McReynolds to call all the twists and turns on the track while Dick Berggren, Steve Byrnes, Krista Voda and Matt Yocum patrol the pits for reports on teams and pit stops.

GOPHER CAM GETS SMALLER IN 2012
The Gopher Cam, introduced at the Daytona 500 in 2008, is a small, stationary high-definition point-of-view camera that lies buried underneath the asphalt track surface, inches below the yellow line at Daytona International Speedway. There are four Gopher Cams in-place for this year’s Daytona 500. The cameras have been paired with high quality condenser microphones for an unbelievably realistic audio/video experience. New advances in the lens and materials have enabled FOX to reduce the size for the 2012 edition while providing a much wider and clearer field of view.

 

VIRTUAL CAR/TOUCHSCREEN
In 2012, FOX Sports introduces a new way to bring fans under the hood. The new virtual car using a high-tech touchscreen provides magnified looks at the smallest details of the high powered machines on the track. It gives viewers a clear and illustrative explanation of how the car works and performs through its components. With assistance from NASCAR on FOX analyst Jeff Hammond, the FOX Sports graphics team co-opted an incredibly detailed model with a built-in custom interface and telestrator.

HOLLYWOOD HOTEL GETS MAKEOVER
The Hollywood Hotel is all new for the 2012 season.  First unveiled in 2007, NASCAR on FOX’s traveling prerace studio is the most technologically advanced mobile unit ever employed to cover sporting events. It captures the charged atmosphere associated with on-location remote broadcasts. The 2012 version has been completely revamped to update the state-of-the-art premier network center. The background virtual “window” to the track uses three monitors (two 60 inch and one 103 inch) so the prerace set can be “transported” anywhere on the track.  An inverted “Jitacam” crane hangs from the roof of the hotel and operates along a track, allowing floating and sweeping camera moves not possible in the network’s old mobile trailer. Color mixing for the background on its flat screen monitors is manipulated using 1600 linear feet of RGB tape (LED lights) to illuminate the background in any color FOX chooses. These updates and modifications in power make it the greenest production truck on the planet.

DW, MW, HAMMOND, JOY & SHANKS GET REVVED UP AND READY FOR DAYTONA 500 & 2012 SEASON – NASCAR on FOX’s broadcasters Darrell Waltrip, Michael Waltrip, Jeff Hammond and Mike Joy joined FOX Sports Media Group Co-President and Executive Producer Eric Shanks to preview this weekend’s Daytona 500 action and FOX Sports’ coverage of the 2012 season yesterday afternoon.

For a full replay of the media conference call, dial 719/457-0820 and enter passcode 5115974 when prompted.

Hammond on how NASCAR can build on momentum following last season’s exciting finish: “It may not be Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards again, but it could be Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick.  It could be any number of drivers. When you have a year like we had last year, you can’t say we’re going to be able to duplicate it. This is the year of the unknown.  There are so many things we’re getting from teams as well as the technology that’s going to create so much buzz before and after races.”

Shanks on new innovations for 2012 season: “Our coverage is focused squarely on the drivers, these young heroes that risk everything for glory on Sundays. On the technology side, we used a new camera during the Shootout which is a side-view post that gave great views of passes. We have a brand-new camera that we were trying out on football that shoots at four times the resolution of HD, called the FOX Super-Zoom camera. We used it on Saturday night to zoom in on Jeff Gordon as he was sliding on his side. It was the only camera that you can actually see Jeff inside the car as he was sliding 1,000 yards on his side with sparks flying. In the last couple of years we have invested more in our NASCAR coverage than we ever had.”

Hammond on what he expects from Danica Patrick this season: “The main thing is for her to get her laps in. Don’t get caught up trying to push too hard in the races that she gets into. From what we’ve seen from her in the past, she’s very savvy behind the wheel. She knows what those limits are and if she’s able to get into those races and finish them; she could pull down a couple of top-15’s or even a top-10. She’s someone that at certain racetracks you can’t overlook. She has a ton of talent. I was very skeptical in the beginning but I’ve been impressed with her work ethic and the way she approaches the car. You wouldn’t see Tony Stewart or even Dale Jr. having her drive with them unless they felt the same way.”

D. Waltrip on what Patrick needs to do most to relieve some of the pressure and be successful in NASCAR: “She’ll be ok on the track with the people she’s surrounded by. One thing that she needs is to be accepted by the fans. People have said that she doesn’t deserve to do this. If she can overcome a lot of that that will be a big accomplishment. She’ll do the on-track stuff better than most people expect. If she does, that’ll put some of those skeptics to rest. That would be a huge success.”

M. Waltrip on if Carl Edwards can avoid the second place jinx that has plagued past Sprint Cup Championship runners-up the following year:  “We saw Denny Hamlin race for the championship in 2010 and stumbled a little bit at the end of last year.  The ultimate result was he and his crew chief split up after this past season, after a disappointing year.  You’ve got to have everything clicking, everything firing. Carl Edwards has all that and I can’t imagine him not being able to come back and contend again.”

Hammond on his new role as a roving analyst: “With the great reporters we have on pit road, it frees me up to go and do more in-depth and investigative reporting and go places that we couldn’t go before. I’ve had so many people tell me how awesome the shot was from on top of the spotter’s stand under the lights during Saturday’s race. We haven’t been able to do that in the past. Plus, if something happens in the garage area or on pit road as far as really breaking down a pit stop and watching the interaction between pit crew coaches and crew chiefs, with so many other things going on sometimes pit reporters don’t have the opportunity to sit there and watch.  That’s going to be my role.  Go find something we haven’t seen before and try to bring that into the living room for the first time.  I’m really excited about it.”

Shanks on using the double-box advertising format during the Daytona 500 and other NASCAR on FOX races: “We have a goal in mind of using it at the last part of the race. We still have to work through which advertiser, break and who works best being in the split screen. We’re still working through that. We don’t have all the details yet with the advertisers but yes, we are looking to do it past Daytona this year, into other races as well.”

GATORADE DUEL AT DAYTONA – The fans spoke and NASCAR delivered — pack racing returned last weekend in the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona.  The next test of this tradition at the 2.5-mile superspeedway comes Thursday, Feb 23 in the Gatorade Duel at Daytona, live on SPEED at 2:00 PM ET.

Some of Speedweeks’ most dramatic moments often come in the Gatorade Duel.  While Roush Fenway Racing teammates Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle locked themselves into the pole and outside pole positions for Sunday’s race via last weekend’s Daytona 500 pole qualifying session, the Duel, a pair of 150-mile qualifying races, determines the starting order for positions three-43. Tensions often run high as drivers not within the top-35 in points and who did not post a fast enough speed in last weekend’s Daytona 500 pole qualifying session race as hard as they can and vie for transfer spots in their respective Duel to earn them a starting spot in the Daytona 500.

Krista Voda and Jeff Hammond host the network’s coverage beginning at 2:00 PM ET before handing off to the NASCAR on FOX team of Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds, who will call the race.  Covering pit road is the NASCAR on FOX pit reporting team of Dick Berggren, Steve Byrnes and Matt Yocum.

TIME TO GO TRUCKIN’ – The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series kicks off its 10th season on SPEED with Friday, Feb 24 season opener under the lights at Daytona International Speedway.  SPEED provides live coverage beginning with NCWTS Setup with Krista Voda at 7:00 PM ET, followed by live race coverage at 7:30 PM ET.  Fresh off of 2011, the most-watched season in network history, Rick Allen, Phil Parsons and Michael Waltrip return to call the action for SPEED, with pit reporting by Ray Dunlap and Hermie Sadler.

NASCAR RACEDAY – NASCAR RaceDay Fueled by Sunoco, SPEED’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series prerace show, hits the rev limiter twice this week.  The gang first takes to the air on Thursday prior to the Gatorade Duel at Daytona and again Sunday in a run-up to the Daytona 500.  John Roberts hosts the Thursday Feb. 23 special Duel edition at 1:00 PM ET with analysis from Kyle Petty, Larry McReynolds and Kenny Wallace.  Reporting from the garage are Matt Clark, Wendy Venturini and Rutledge Wood.

Live interviews include Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart and Danica Patrick.

On Sunday, NASCAR RaceDay presents a special three-hour edition beginning at 9:00 AM ET.  Steve Byrnes hosts alongside Petty, McReynolds and Wallace, with reporting by Clark, Venturini, Wood and Jamie Howe.  Live interviews include Patrick, among other guests to be announced later in the week.

TEN YEARS IN THE TUNNEL — Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain celebrates its 10th anniversary on SPEED in 2012, ushering in the new season with its 535th episode Sunday, Feb 26 live at 8:00 PM ET.

“I really didn’t have any expectations when we started Wind Tunnel,” Despain reflected. “The show had a very experimental feel in the beginning and I don’t think anyone knew quite what to expect.  But it caught on very quickly and developed a fan following, which in turn gives the host a nice, secure feeling about the future.  There are always doubts — it’s television after all — but I’ve always felt we were filling a niche.”

“I enjoy watching — and appearing on — Wind Tunnel because it’s a ‘no-holds barred’ discussion,” said Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. “I’ve known Dave a long time and he is the perfect host for the show. He tells it like it is.”

Wind Tunnel first premiered Feb. 23, 2003, as a half-hour show featuring Chip Ganassi as the first guest.  Two weeks later, it expanded to an hour program, where it remains to this day, with in-studio guest Steve Matchett and Miguel Duhamel live from Daytona Bike Week.

On Sunday’s Wind Tunnel season premiere, Despain welcomes the Daytona 500-winning car owner, FOX/SPEED analyst and 2012 Hall of Fame inductee, Darrell Waltrip, and SPEED open-wheel reporter Robin Miller with other guests to be announced later in the week.

That will do it.