Fang's Bites

Breaking Out Some Monday Linkage

The last few days, I’ve been sick which limited the number of posts between Friday and Saturday. I’m still not feeling well, but I’ll be providing linkage and posts as long I’m physically able. To the links.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch talks with NFL Network’s Melissa Stark about returning to sports television after leaving in 2008 to become a full-time mom.

Don Banks of SI looks at how NFL teams are adjusting to a full season of Thursday Night Football.

John Ourand & Michael Smith from Sports Business Journal report that ESPN is close to nabbing the college football playoff for many years to come.

John catches up with outgoing Fox Sports Media Group Vice Chairman Ed Goren who helped launch the company in 1994.

Eric Fisher at SBJ notes how MLB Advanced Media kept operating after Hurricane Sandy wiped out power in the company’s headquarters.

Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report looks at an unusual Comcast SportsNet Chicago documentary which went to Cambodia to tell a compelling story.

Kurt Badenhausen from Forbes explains how ESPN is the cash engine that drives Disney.

Joe Levine of SportsGrid tells us that Fox NFL Sunday had some technical issues during one of its halftime updates.

Brian Steinberg at Advertising Age says Century 21 will return to advertising in the Super Bowl in February.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post doesn’t understand the bubble screen.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union has NBC Sports Network’s college basketball announcing teams.

Don Laible talks with former WNBC-TV sports anchor Len Berman here and here.

Dave Zoren of the Delaware County Daily Times says Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia and The Comcast Network team up for almost 70 college basketball games this season (scroll down).

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks about waking up with NFL AM.

The Charlotte Observer talks with CBS’ Jim Nantz.

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

Matt Murschel of the Orlando Sentinel says a fourth sports radio station launches in the local market today.

Christine Lee of NBC Dallas says ESPN is teaming up with the Irving Chamber of Commerce to attract businesses to the local area.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle has DirecTV’s CEO complaining about Comcast SportsNet Houston’s subscriber fees.

Mel Bracht at The Oklahoman reviews the TV productions of the Oklahoma and Oklahoma State games from Saturday.

John Vomhof, Jr. of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal says a Fox Sports North reporter is leaving for a similar position at Root Sports Pittsburgh.

Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post feels Dick Vitale is key to any college basketball season.

Patrick Finley of the Arizona Daily Star says the Pac-12 Conference will no longer have exposure issues now that with new TV contracts with ESPN, Fox, CBS and of course, the Pac-12 Network.

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

Tom has the five things he learned from watching sports over the weekend.

Barry Petchesky of Deadspin notes that Minnesota Vikings QB Christan Ponder made a tongue-in-cheek comment about his girlfriend, ESPN’s Samantha Steele.

The Classic Sports TV and Media blog has a look at ABC’s Monday Night Football’s halftime highlights as narrated by the late, great Howard Cosell.

And that will 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.

A Full Tuesday Linkfest! Finally!

For the last week, I haven’t been able to do a full set of links. Work has been crazy, but I hope to give one today. It’s either going to the other office or heading out with the boss to various work sites or head to meetings, but today should be calmer.

I’ve started a series on People You Should Follow on Twitter in response to Sports Illustrated’s list published last week. Part 1 was posted Monday night and Part 2 came out Tuesday night. Look for more installments throughout the week.

Let’s get started.

First, ESPN Ombudsman Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute writes about the ESPN/Bruce Feldman suspension/non-suspension and for some reason, doesn’t do full due diligence on the story.

Ben Koo of Awful Announcing does an excellent point-by-point takedown of the Ombudsman’s acceptance of ESPN’s company line on the Feldman suspension.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid has graphic evidence of ESPN Radio Hack Colon Cowherd being a complete idiot.

Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand notes that ESPN is about to fully embrace Twitter and social media.

In the Business of College Sports, Kristi Dosh has a fascinating post on which sports turn a profit for BCS schools and which ones don’t.

Mike Reynolds from Mulitchannel News writes about the Women’s World Cup Final resonating with viewers.

Mike says a marketing firm is looking to package two pre-World Cup Western Hemisphere qualifying tournaments to networks.

Emma Bazilian of Adweek looks at Ross Greenburg’s departure from HBO Sports.

Toni Fitzgerald at Media Life Magazine goes inside the Women’s World Cup’s stellar ratings.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Jason Fry writes about the marriage between sports and Twitter.

Vinnie Iyer of AOL Sporting News has HBO being optimistic that a new edition of Hard Knocks will be filmed this summer. Thanks to Marcus Vanderberg of SportsNewser for the link.

Jonathan Wall of Yahoo’s Devil Ball blog critiques ESPN’s coverage of the Open Championship.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall is suing sports apparel manufacturer Champion for dropping him from endorsements after his tweets about Osama bin Laden last month.

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe delves into the Boston Celtics buying a large stake into Comcast SportsNet New England.

Roger Catlin at the Hartford Courant says ESPN came out as the real winner of the Women’s World Cup Final.

The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir says ESPN produced a fair and compelling Women’s World Cup Final broadcast.

Richard Huff at the New York Daily News looks at ESPN premiering a Spanish language-edition of E:60.

Michael Blaustein of the New York Post writes that ESPN’s miniature cameras at the World Series of Poker are giving competitors an interesting advantage.

At Fishbowl New York, Jerry Barmash reports that Len Berman is dropping his sports reports on a local radio station and will be replaced by the same man who replaced him at WNBC-TV.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has the Open Championship final round ratings.

Evan Weiner at the New Jersey Newsroom wonders what the UK phone hacking scandal could mean for News Corp.’s sports partners here in the US.

From the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg notes that NFL Today host James Brown didn’t like how DC NFL team coach Mike Shanahan handled QB Donovan McNabb.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner looks at the ratings for the Women’s World Cup Final.

Travis Sawchik of the Charleston (SC) Post & Courier says lucrative TV contracts have helped to make college football a big business.

Candace Carlisle of the Dallas Business Journal says Fox Sports Southwest has hired a veteran writer from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram to beef up its online coverage.

Brent Zwerneman of the Houston Chronicle says Texas A&M Regents are concerned over Texas’ Longhorn Network and what it means for the future of the Big 12 Conference.

Ryan Sharp of the Daily Oklahoman writes that Big 12 Conference schools can’t be too happy over the Longhorn Network’s airing of Texas high school football games.

Steven Matthews of the Dayton Daily News says the Western & Southern Open will have plenty of new looks including extensive TV exposure this summer.

Tim Prahl of the Muskego (WI) Patch talks with former MLB Network reporter Trenni Kusnierek about returning home to Milwaukee to co-host a radio show.

Ed Sherman at Crain’s Chicago Business notes two games scheduled for the Chicago Bulls that may never get played.

Kyle Ringo of the Boulder (CO) Daily Camera says the University of Colorado is in a unique position where it can sell the TV rights to its games this season.

Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times goes over some of the changes in the proposed NFL collective bargaining agreement including a new TV package.

Steve Zeitchik of the Times looks at Ross Greenburg leaving HBO.

Elizabeth Salaam of the San Diego Reader says a recent Facebook poll wasn’t kind to Padres TV voice Dick Enberg.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog has some thoughts on various topics.

Sports Media Watch has some news and notes.

And we have some more news and notes from SMW.

Joe Favorito looks at who will benefit when the NFL lockout finally comes to an end.

And there is your full set of links.

Getting The Wednesday Linkage In

Let’s do the Wednesday links while I can. It’s going to get busy the next couple of days as I try to wrap things up for the 4th of July weekend so blogging may get sparse through the weekend. Just giving you a heads up.

Here are the links for this Wednesday.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says ESPN is going all out for the Women’s World Cup whether we like it or not.

Karolos Grohmann of Reuters reports that General Electric has pledged to sponsor the Olympic Games through 2020 as part of the deal that kept the US media rights with NBC.

Lindsay Powers of the Hollywood Reporter writes that Tiger Woods has signed his first endorsement deal since his marital troubles began in November 2009.

John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable says the NFL wants Congress to leave the silly TV blackout rules in place.

Tim Baysinger of B&C notes that Fox Soccer received its highest audience ever for last Saturday’s Gold Cup Final between the US and Mexico.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News notes the improved ratings for TNT halfway through its NASCAR season.

Mike also recaps the ESPN/espnW Women’s World Cup viewing party in New York’s Times Square on Tuesday.

Mike discusses NBC Sports Group providing full coverage of the Tour de France.

Adweek’s Anthony Crupi says the NBA playoffs steered TNT to a cable ratings win in the 2nd quarter of this year.

Tim Nudd of Adweek really likes DirecTV’s Football Cops ad starring Peyton and Eli Manning.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Dave Kindred provides a lesson on just who Grantland Rice was and why he’s so revered.

Robert Niles of the Online Journalism Review at USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism looks at the limits of free speech citing ESPN’s Jemele Hill defending David Tyree’s anti-gay marriage stance.

SportsGrid has video of Charles Barkley visiting the Sportsnet One booth during last night’s Pittsburgh-Toronto game.

SportsGrid’s Glenn Davis wonders if ESPN’s Robert Flores was caught napping on the job today.

SportsNewser’s Cam Martin writes that video game producer EA Sports plans to build a new studio in Texas.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell speaks with Nike’s CEO and President Charlie Denson on a myriad of sports business topics.

SportsbyBrooks is reporting that former Indiana and Texas A&M coach Bob Knight is preventing ESPN from hiring former Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl as an analyst. I didn’t know coach Knight wielded that much power.

Andrew Gauthier of TV Spy notes the return of Len Berman to the Today Show this morning. And no one got hurt!

The lovely Kristi Dosh of the Business of College Sports explains how she got into the sports blogging business.

Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times reviews USA Network’s new football-based series.

Newsday’s Neil Best says Derek Jeter haters will like one new internet product that allows them to ignore the Yankees shortstop.

Ken Schott at the Schenectady Gazette says tonight’s Red Sox-Phillies game originally scheduled for ESPN2 will now be seen on the ESPN mothership.

Ken says New York’s Capital Region will be blacked out on July 8 when Bob Costas and Al Michaels team up to call their first baseball game ever.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that NBC golf reporter Dottie Pepper reaches out to the community when she’s back home.

Evan Weiner in the New Jersey Newsroom says handouts to sports owners are not a good thing.

John George of the Philadelphia Business Journal says MLB Network’s Mitch Williams will be seen on a DIY Network show.

Dan Steinberg from the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog recaps a visit from consumer advocate Ralph Nader to the WaPo offices to discuss sports coverage and a new venture he’s helping to organize.

Graham Cawthorn of the Shelby (NC) Star looks at ESPN wanting to stream the American Legion World Series.

Danny Aller of the Albany (GA) Herald says Braves fans will finally be able to watch Peachtree TV games through the Fox Sports South affiliate.

Joel Hammond of Crain’s Cleveland Business says the Browns will launch a nightly radio show on the market’s dominant sports radio station.

Steve Brandt of the Minneapolis Star Tribune says local officials are denying that there’s a potential bid for the 2020 Olympics in the works.

The Syracuse (NE) Journal-Democrat reports that ESPN3 will stream all games of the American Legion World Series under a new four year contract.

Andrew Blankstein of the Los Angeles Times says former Chicago Sun-Times writer Jay Mariotti must stand trial on stalking and assault charges.

The Elk Grove (CA) Citizen notes that a local high school rejected ESPN’s request to air a football game this season.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail talks about HBO hitting the ice once again next season.

Sports Media Watch says NASCAR on TNT’s ratings were up again this past weekend.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says viewership for the NHL Draft was up from last year.

The Big Lead wonders if NASCAR fired an in-house blogger for mentioning Kyle Busch’s marital problems.

That’s all for now.

A Tuesday Link Day

Let’s do your linkage for you today.

The USA Today Game On! blog has Tiger Woods’ statement on his return to golf at The Masters. 

Mike McCarthy of USA Today says Tiger’s return to The Masters is likely going to set ratings records.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand looks at The Masters going 3-D this year and also lists some of the TV ratings from the weekend.

Once again, I’ll give you Richard Deitsch’s interview in Sports Illustrated with CBS News and Sports President Sean McManus who said Tiger’s return would rival the interest in Barack Obama’s inauguration. 

The man who broke the Tiger return to The Masters was Robert Lusetich at Fox Sports.com. He had it last week.

Writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times has high hopes for the ESPN-produced Saturday afternoon block on ABC.

The Hollywood Reporter picks up an Associated Press story on the sentencing of Michael Barrett, the man convicted of stalking Erin Andrews.

Linda Deutsch of the AP has Erin’s angry reaction to the sentencing. 

Alex Weprin of Broadcasting & Cable says both the New York Giants and New York Jets will play at home during the same weekend in Week 1 of the NFL season to open the new New Jersey football stadium.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News explores Versus’ return to DirecTV yesterday.

Mike writes that Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia has purchased the great Philly-centric blog, the 700 Level. More on that later.

Mike has word that CBS College Sports will pick up two NCAA Tournament games. 

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine says the online advertising for the NCAA Tournament continues to rise for CBS.

Diego Vasquez of Media Life talks about the lower productivity during the 1st two rounds of the NCAA Tournament with one particular CEO.

ESPN’s Jay Bilas went on Charlie Rose’s PBS show to talk about the NCAA Tournament. 

To Richard Sandomir of the New York Times who writes about NCAA March Madness on Demand and The Masters going 3-D.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News comes up with a faulty conspiracy theory that the NCAA Selection Committee put Duke as a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament to maximize TV ratings. The NCAA may come up with some strange decisions, but putting a team in a certain slot to maximize ratings is not one of them.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette says this weekend’s ECAC Hockey Tournament will be picked up by two national channels.

And Ken has the NCAA Tournament 1st round schedule for a local radio station.

Keith Groller in the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says the NCAA Tournament would be better served going to ESPN which with I disagree. It’s better to have it on CBS and then have ESPN cover it and help promote the tournament through the coverage.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks about Comcast carrying The Masters in 3-D.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business is not a fan of expanding the NCAA Tournament.

Brad Allis of the Tucson Citizen says Arizona Wildcats may not have made the NCAA Tournament, but they still garnered plenty of national attention from ESPN and other media sources.

William Houston in Truth & Rumours discusses whether CTV is interested in airing the Olympics after Vancouver.

The Big Lead provides a coverage map of CBS’ games of the NCAA Tournament.

Some college basketball ratings news from Sports Media Watch.

First, the ratings for the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on CBS were flat with last year.

The SEC Championship’s wild finish did well for ABC.

CBS did not fare well with the Conference USA and the Atlantic 10 Championships.

The Pac-10 Championship ratings fell on CBS to their lowest levels in eight years.

But CBS saw a slight uptick for the Big 10 Championship.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says it appears the ratings for Sunday’s NHL game on NBC will decrease.

As mentioned earlier, the Philadelphia-based blog, The 700 Level, was purchased by Comcast SportsNet. Congratulations to Enrico Campitelli, Jr. for the new partnership. I’ve always enjoyed reading The 700 Level and look forward to seeing great things from the blog.

Len Berman has his Top 5 stories of the day.

Sox & Dawgs has the hot chicks of the 2010 NCAA Women’s Tournament. 

We’ll end there for now.

A Set of Monday Links

Let’s provide some linkage today. Plenty of stuff to get to.

We begin with Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk who writes that the NFL Network has been approached by the Atlantic Coast Conference on carrying a package of football games.

Portfolio picks up a story from Eric Fisher of the Sports Business Journal regarding the NFL expanding its online content to Hulu and Yahoo.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand writes that ESPN college basketball “bracketologist” Joe Lunardi will be getting a lot of facetime this week.

Writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Jason Fry says sportswriters need to look beyond breaking news to get noticed and read in the new journalism.

Glen Dickson of Broadcasting & Cable writes that ESPN has deemed one of its 3D-TV tests a success. 

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life writes that NBC won the February sweeps thanks to the Olympics, something it couldn’t do four years ago.

BusinessWeek picks up a Bloomberg News story from Tariq Panja on ESPN’s UK unit which will not reduce its subscription price next year when its slate of English Premier League games shrinks from 46 to 23 games. 

John Altavilla of the Hartford Courant says ESPN may pick up the last 30 seconds of tonight’s UConn-Notre Dame women’s Big East semifinal to show the Huskies’ record setting 71st consecutive win.

Brad Stone of the New York Times looks at MLB Advanced Media taking over the streaming of live events for ESPN3.com starting next month.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick now shifts his hate to golf announcers.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette says Time Warner Cable will air the first two games of an ECAC college hockey postseason series this weekend.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner says four local CBS Radio sports stations will be banded together as listeners can hear their content through HD sets.

Jim says Notre Dame will play one of its 2011 “home” games at the DC’s NFL team’s stadium in primetime on NBC.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times talks about the HBO “Bird/Magic” documentary, bad NHL marketing and the possible expansion of the NCAA Tournament in his review of the weekend in TV sports.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer wonders why a public TV documentary on thoroughbred racing did not include shots of one local horsetrack.

Douglas Fink in the Zanesville (OH) Times Recorder feels NBC did a decent job during the Winter Olympics, but could have done better in certain areas.

Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune writes that Cubs players are split down the middle over the possible installation of a Jumbotron at Wrigley Field.

Phil Rosenthal of the Tribune says Comcast SportsNet Chicago will stream the rest of the Bulls regular season games for no extra cost, provided a subscriber already has access to CSN on cable or satellite. 

In the Denver Post, Dusty Saunders reviews the latest ESPN “30 for 30″ documentary on Reggie Miller’s rivalry with the New York Knicks.

Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times says Kings Hall of Fame TV voice Bob Miller will miss the team’s next two games due to an illness. He already missed Saturday’s game against Montreal.

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

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star is looking forward to hearing more baseball this spring.

William Houston in Truth & Rumours says CBC Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean singled out CTV Olympics host James Duthie for some praise on Saturday.

Sports Media Watch says despite the suspension of Tony Kornheiser, ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption rolls on.

SMW says NBC’s first NHL game after the Olympics put up decent ratings.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media feels NBC is getting consistent numbers for the NHL this season.

Deadspin notes while ESPN’s Erin Andrews will be on Dancing with the Stars this season, she won’t be at the NFL Draft as in past years. 

The Big Lead says the Miami Herald’s Dan Lebatard knows where sports journalism is heading.

Len Berman gives you his Top 5 Sports Stories.

That will do it for today.

Doing Some Tuesday Links

Ok, let’s do some linkage for Tuesday. We’re in transition as we are in between big sporting events. We’re finished with the Olympics. That’s being put in the memory banks. The next blips on the radar screen are the college basketball conference tournaments and the NCAA Tournament over the next few weeks, then MLB Opening Day and the Masters next month. We’ll be on top of each so if you’re a new reader, keep your RSS or Twitter feeds updated to find out the latest.

To your links.

The Sports Business Daily/Sports Business Journal’s Winter Olympics site has the final ratings for the Games on NBC.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says NBC got the ratings it expected for the Vancouver Games.

Mike Dodd of USA Today looks at the resurgence of the Chicago Blackhawks on the ice, in the stands and on TV.

Jay Bobbin of zap2it talks to ESPN’s Erin Andrews about why she’s doing Dancing With the Stars this season.

Writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times reviews the HBO Sports documentary, Magic and Bird: A Courtship of Two Rivals. I’ll have a review of the doc later this week.

James Hibberd of the Hollywood Reporter writes that the Olympics pulled great ratings for NBC, but the question for the network is what’s next?

Georg Szalai of the Hollywood Reporter reports that ESPN has tapped an ABC News executive to oversee the development of new studio shows.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News says the Vancouver Olympics became the 2nd most watched Winter Games, just under the Lillehammer Olympiad in 1994.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times tells us that the USA-Canada men’s hockey gold medal game was the third most watched broadcast of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Stuart Elliot from the Times looks at which Olympics ads stood out during the 17 days of competition.

Also from the Times, Ken Belson explores which Olympic athletes can parlay their gold medals towards endorsement success.

Bob Raissman in the New York Daily News says SNY’s Mets analyst Ron Darling whom he feels talks too much, is not a fan of Mark McGwire.

Keith Groller in the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says it was nice to have hockey in the spotlight.

Laura Nachman says the radio voice of the Philadelphia 76ers returned to work on Monday.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says MASN goes into baseball mode next week.

And Jim says the two college basketball tournaments start in earnest this week.

David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says the Braves have set their spring training TV schedule. 

John Kiesewetter from the Cincinnati Enquirer says Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco has to be considered a favorite for Dancing With the Stars.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business has some closing thoughts on the Olympics. 

Ed says having the NHL participate in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi may not be as much as a no-brainer as you might think.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Milwaukee finished on the podium of the top rated markets for the Olympics.

T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times recaps an interview of Dodgers manager Joe Torre and former Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax in front of a live studio and TV audience from Saturday.

Joe Flint of the Times says NBC might have drawn viewers for the Olympics, but not the profits.

Tom Hoffarth in the Los Angeles Daily News says ESPN Classic is running classic Jim Rome interviews from the 1990′s.

Tom writes that the Lakers drew some ratings away from USA-Canada in Los Angeles.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star writes that the USA-Canada game set an all-time viewing record in Canada.

The Sports Media Watch says while NBC is euphoric over its Olympic ratings, they’re still the third lowest dating back to 1960.

SMW notes NASCAR’s ratings dropped again this past weekend.

Milton Kent at Fanhouse reviews NBC’s performance at the Winter Olympics. 

Staci D. Kramer of paidContent looks at the online video stream numbers for NBCOlympics.com.

Joe Favorito says a way for Winter Olympic sports to keep their brands afloat is to possibly team with Summer Olympic sports and organizations.

The Big Lead looks at one potential media feud brewing between Washington Post writers Michael Wilbon and John Feinstein.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says the NHL’s in-house platforms will be all over NHL Trade Deadline Day tomorrow.

Len Berman has his Top 5 Sports stories of the day.

That will do it for now.

Post-Olympics Linkage

Just as in 2008, I’m going through Olympics withdrawal. When I saw NBC’s closing credits at 12:37 this morning to conclude coverage, it makes you yearn for one more day of the Games. I admit the closing montage is done very well. If it’s ever on YouTube, I’ll post it here. Anyway, let’s give you some linkage regarding the ratings for the just-completed Winter Games and other sports media issues.

We’ll start with the Sports Business Daily/Sports Business Journal’s Winter Olympics site. Plenty of stuff there.

SBD/SBJ says the overnight rating for Sunday’s men’s hockey gold medal game was a whopping 17.6 for NBC.

Tripp Mickle and John Ourand say that NBC’s tape delayed strategy for the Olympics is getting support from an important International Olympic Committee member. Oh great.

Tripp and John add that the IOC is not only considering the money paid for the US media rights in 2014/2016, it also wants to know how the TV networks would air them.

Tripp also looks at the legacy of the Vancouver Games.

From this week’s SBJ, Eric Fisher writes that CBS is expecting 10 million users for this year’s online March Madness On Demand.

Liz Mullen says former MLB Players Association head Donald Fehr is being asked by the NHL Players Association to to help them out.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand writes that the NHL is looking to parlay the success of hockey in the Olympics.

Jason Fry in the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center writes that Spring Training is a great time for baseball junkies.

From the Hollywood Reporter, Georg Szalai tells us that CBS head honcho Les Moonves is practically conceding the ’14/’16 Olympic TV rights to NBC.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell doesn’t feel yesterday’s USA-Canada game will have any lingering effects on the NHL. 

Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek says ESPN is increasing its commitment to college lacrosse.

Toni Fitzgerald in Media Life Magazine writes that when the numbers are added, the overall viewership for the Vancouver Games will most likely be the 3rd most watched Winter Olympics in history.

Phil Mushnick in the New York Post loved being able to eat dinner after the USA-Canada game. Whatever, Phil.

Pete Dougherty in the Albany Times Union is amazed at the ratings for USA-Canada.

Pete also has the MAAC Tournament TV schedule.

In the Buffalo News, Alan Pergament says NBC failed to analyze whether Ryan Miller allowed a soft goal to Sydney Crosby that won the USA-Canada game for the Canadians.

Laura Nachman writes that Philadelphia 76ers radio announcer Tom McGinnis missed some games due to a personal matter.

Tim Lemke tells NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman to let the pros play in Sochi for the 2014 Olympics.

Jim Williams in the Washington Examiner says USA-Canada grabbed the ratings in the BWI region.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times feels USA-Canada led to some great television.

Tom also looks at USA-Canada’s monster ratings.

John Kiesewetter in the Cincinnati Enquirer says former Dayton Daily News Reds beat writer Hal McCoy will be joining Fox Sports Ohio’s website to write about the team and appear on the network’s coverage on the Reds.

John has more on the Hall of Fame writer joining Fox Sports Ohio in his blog.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business wonders what the short and long-term effects of the USA-Canada game will have on the NHL and hockey in general.

Ed notes that the game also drew well in Chicago.

Aaron Barnhart of the Kansas City Star says NBC goofed by cutting off the Olympic Closing Ceremony for the premiere of “The Marriage Ref”.

Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post writes that NBC is hoping the USA-Canada game will help to top overall viewership from the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002.

Tom Hoffarth in the Los Angeles Daily News has your SoCal sports calendar for the week.

Tom is very frustrated over the West Coast Olympic tape delays on NBC.

In the Toronto Star, Chris Zelkovich gives praise to CTV’s Olympic Broadcast Consortium.

Chris also looks at how CTV and NBC produced USA-Canada.

In Truth & Rumours, William Houston looks at Canada’s ratings for USA-Canada.

William writes for Yahoo! Canada that CTV did too much cheerleading.

The Sports Media Watch says Sunday night’s Olympics Closing Ceremony rated well for NBC.

Paulsen at SMW gives us some perspective on how well USA-Canada did in the ratings. 

SMW says Lakers-Nuggets did surprisingly well against USA-Canada on Sunday afternoon.

Chris Byrne at the Eye on Sports Media says he attended ESPN The Weekend at Walt Disney World as the guest of the Alleged Worldwide Leader.

The Big Lead feels an alliance between the Hearst newspapers and a sports fan website is a bad idea.

Pete Toms at the Biz of Baseball looks inside the competition for local MLB rights in Houston in particular.

To the Biz of Football and Maury Brown who writes that the Miami Dolphins have extended an agreement with a Southwest Florida radio station to carry its games.

Len Berman has his Top 5 stories.

That will do it for linkage for today.

Doing the Mid-Week Link Thing

Ok, doing some linkage today. Lots of stuff to get to.

Starting with USA Today’s Michael Hiestand who says one has to take NBC’s Olympic primetime ratings with a grain of salt.

Michael also writes about Tony Kornheiser’s two week suspension for his comments about Hannah Storm’s attire.

From Slate, Jack Shafer says Mr. Tony isn’t the nicest guy, but his suspension wasn’t warranted.

John Feinstein, Kornheiser’s colleague at the Washington Post and notorious ESPN-hater, calls out the Mothership for hypocrisy. 

The Sports Business Daily/Sports Business Journal Winter Olympics site says the NBC’s coverage is drawing younger viewers.

Tripp Mickle of SBD/SBJ writes that Panasonic is using the Olympics to showcase 3-D TV.

And Tripp says Yahoo! has increased its commitment to covering the Olympics and has made it profitable.

John Ourand in Sports Business Journal says Turner Sports will meet with the NBA on tweaking the Slam Dunk competition for next year and beyond.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says the Japadog has been a big seller in Vancouver. What is a Japadog? Darren explains. 

Dan Levy of On The DL writes in the Sporting News’ Sporting Blog that NBC has made the Olympics a test lab and we the viewer are the lab rats.

Etan Vlessing of the Hollywood Reporter writes that Canadians are flocking to CTV’s Olympics website to watch the games online.

Multichannel News has Versus’ NHL spot that has been running during the Olympics.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel says NBC’s Monday Olympics primetime ratings actually fell below the Turin games for the first time.

Steve McClellan of Adweek notes that Americans have been flocking to NBC’s multiple platforms to watch the Olympics and to catch up on certain moments.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine reports that after losing to NBC’s Olympic coverage last week for the first time, Fox’s American Idol was back on top last night.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch has your Olympic viewing guide for today.

Long time Red Sox beat writer for the Providence Journal, Country Joe McDonald has left the paper and joined ESPN Boston as of today.

Christopher Clarey of the New York Times writes that a moguls skier who was paralyzed in an accident three years ago is now an Olympic analyst for French TV. 

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says today’s USA-Switzerland game will be live on NBC for the Eastern half of the country.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette has the Yankees spring training TV schedule.

Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News notices that a local TV news anchor has forgotten or doesn’t seem to know that the Olympics are on.

Tim Lemke lists his favorite Winter Olympics sports from top to bottom.

Jim Williams in the Washington Examiner says tonight’s Olympic lineup on NBC could be filled with gold medal winners in alpine skiing and short track. 

Jim says there will be plenty of thrilling Olympic hockey to watch today.

Sarah Talalay from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel says the Miami Heat are freezing season ticket prices for current holders and holding the line on concessions.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News is not in any mood to hear complaints about USA-Canada not being on NBC.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman also delves into the USA-Canada on MSNBC issue.

Crain’s Chicago Business’ Ed Sherman wants to know why the Windy City’s baseball announcers aren’t ranked higher on MLB Network’s greatest announcers list.

Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune says people complain about NBC’s tape delayed Olympics coverage, but they’re still watching.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says there’s no excuse for Tony Kornheiser’s comments on Hannah Storm’s attire.

Tim Sullivan of the San Diego Union-Tribune would prefer to watch hockey over ice dancing.

Helene Elliot of the Los Angeles Times says NBC is showing the USA-Switzerland game on delay, but it will be live online.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says Monday’s coverage on CTV’s Olympic Broadcast Consortium was a mixed bag.

Chris also talks about the Olympics experience online.

The Sports Media Watch says ESPN2 saw a ratings decline for Danica Patrick’s second NASCAR race.

SportsbyBrooks explores why Tony Kornheiser was suspended from Pardon The Interruption and not his local radio show where he made his now-infamous comments about Hannah Storm.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media received an assurance that NBC will air today’s USA-Switzerland game in its entirety despite its 2 hour timeslot listed in newspapers and websites.

And we end with Len Berman’s Top 5 stories of the day.

Later today, I’ll post the Sports Media Weekly podcast and this week the guest is Dave Sims from Westwood One Radio and FSN Northwest.

Keep your RSS and Twitter feeds updated.

Some Tuesday Linkage

Let’s do the Tuesday linkage. Had to finish some paperwork and I’ll do linkage now.

From Sports Business Journal/Sports Business Daily, Olympics ratings are still up from 2006, but there’s another showdown with American Idol coming tonight.

SBJ/SBD notes that NBC’s daytime ratings for the Olympics are decent as well.

John Ourand from the Sports Business Daily write that Comcast is seeking to have an FCC complaint filed by the Tennis Channel dismissed.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch speaks with NBC Sports officials about the network’s strategy to protect its primetime Olympics programming at all costs.

From USA Today, Michael Hiestand wishes NBC would have thrown out the playbook and aired the USA-Canada men’s hockey game on the main network.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell discovers that 30 years later, Miracle On Ice memorabilia is still a hot seller. 

The Hollywood Reporter picks up an Associated Press story in which a Federal Appeals Court is taking up the Janet Jackson nip slip case against CBS once again.

Also from the Hollywood Reporter, James Hibberd writes that the Olympics have lifted NBC out of 4th place in the overall primetime ratings for the season. For now.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News says NBC’s cable networks are attracting younger viewers to the Olympics.

Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek says while USA-Canada Olympic men’s hockey paid dividends for MSNBC, USA Network remained on top of the cable primetime ratings.

Toni Fitzgerald from Media Life Magazine says hockey is the hot sport of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times says he’s enjoying NBC’s coverage of the Olympics, tape delayed or not. 

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News is none too happy that USA-Canada got the short stick from NBC.

Richard Sandomir from the New York Times says NBC gave USA-Canada only a mere few seconds during its Sunday Olympics primetime coverage.

Richard notes USA-Canada set a viewing record up in the Great White North.

Richard also talks with NBC’s hockey voice Mike Emrick who is sometimes calling doubleheaders during the Olympics.

Jerry Barmash of the New York Examiner writes that a former WABC-TV sports anchor has been arrested for raping a 14 year old prostitute.

Alan Sepinwall of the Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger says despite the complaints about NBC’s tape delays, people are still watching the Winter Olympics in droves.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says the world stopped to watch Tiger Woods’ apology on Friday.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner looks at how the bidding for the NCAA Tournament could impact the rights for the 2014/2016 Olympics.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News remembers one of the most infamous days in Bob Knight’s career.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle has the national ratings for Tiger Woods’ apology.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a look at what prognosticators are saying about the Brewers and Marquette University.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News talks about Aaron Boone leaving baseball to become an analyst for ESPN.

Tom also delves into the ESPN suspension of Tony Kornheiser for his comments regarding the always lovely Hannah Storm.

Tom has readers comments responding to NBC’s Bob Costas’ criticisms of people who criticize the network’s Olympics coverage.

Tom quotes a Sports Business Daily story in which USA women’s hockey star Angela Ruggiero wants to participate in The Amazing Race with gold medal-winning gymnast Shawn Johnson. I wouldn’t mind that pairing at all!

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star writes about the monster ratings for USA-Canada.

William Houston in Truth & Rumours wonders about the cozy relationship between a Toronto Star writer and Team Canada goalie Martin Brodeur.

Lowell Ulrich of the Vancouver Province gets on NBC for pushing USA-Canada to MSNBC.

The Winnepeg Free Press picks up a Canadian Press story in which NBC’s Brian Williams finally met CTV’s Brian Williams.

Sports Illustrated’s Joe Posnanski conveys a story about Al Michaels that actually does not relate to the Miracle On Ice.

The great SportsbyBrooks blog quotes sources as saying that NBC Sports has a huge leg up on ESPN on the bidding for the ’14/’16 Olympics.

Sports Media Watch says while NBC won the ratings on Monday due to the Olympics, they were the lowest since the Games began.

The Big Lead looks at the battle between the International Olympic Committee and a blogger over the footage of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili.

And Len Berman has his Top 5 stories.

That will do it for today.

Monday’s Linkage

I’ll do some linkage for you. Been busy all day, but I have a nice window here and I’ll get to links after I discuss last night’s hockey action.

I’m still coming down from the USA win over Canada last night in men’s hockey. Now, there are many things that could be said about NBC not airing the game, and I’ve said plenty on Twitter last night. I even got into a debate over it. I’m a bit torn. I’m grateful that MSNBC aired the game in its entirety. During the week, CNBC would join a game that started at 7:30 p.m. Eastern in progress at 8 p.m. or sometimes later depending if a curling match was going late. As much as I have come to enjoy watching curling during these Olympics, I would appreciate someone saying that curling was running late and if one wanted to watch the game from the beginning, go to NBCOlympics.com. But there was none of that in the early portion of the games. So the fact that the game was shown in its entirety on MSNBC was appreciated. In addition, by putting the game on MSNBC, it meant the entire country could watch without a dreaded delay for the Rocky Mountain region and the West Coast. So in a sense, it was a win-win for NBC. Fans who wanted to watch the game all over the country could do so without commercial interruption (another plus).

However, many fans could not see the game in 21st Century, sparkling crystal-clear high definition. This was due to NBC Universal not making the proper arrangements with cable and satellite providers (DirecTV for me) ahead of time. NBC Universal did try to entice providers with USA-Canada to get them to pick up MSNBC HD, but no dice. But that was a small problem for me. Once the game got going, it was a minor nuisance, not a major one.

Part of me wishes the game was aired on NBC. But if that occurred, we would have run into West Coast ire from those who wanted to see the game live. I raise the argument that if ABC had taken the same tact with the USA men’s hockey team in 1980, it never would have been able to build the Miracle on Ice story as well as it did. For those born after 1980, you don’t know that ABC actually showed a majority of USA men’s hockey games live on its network. The only ones shown on tape delay were the USA-Sweden game which was the first game for the Americans in that Olympics and the USA-USSR semifinal game which ran at 5 p.m. on Friday, February 22 in Lake Placid. Again, 1980 was a different TV landscape than today and NBC certainly has more options to air hockey. But if you want to build a story, what better way than to show USA-Canada.

I get the fact that NBC is using the Olympics to appeal to a mass audience, not sports fans, and not everyone likes hockey, but one way to build a story is to show the rivalry between USA-Canada and then if there’s a rematch in the gold medal game, you have last night’s game to reference.

Yes, NBC is gearing the Olympics more towards casual fans so it packages skiing, makes figure skating like American Idol and shows more silly Mary Carillo features to make you hurl, but there is a way it can cater to hardcore sports fans. Sports fans like myself get infuriated at NBC for delaying events, but the network knows we’ll watch. It’s trying to build an audience so yes, NBC will delay skiing and other glamor events so it can add features, replays and cut a 2 hour event to 45 minutes so the casual viewer can get hooked. Based on this thinking, hockey is going to get pushed to CNBC or MSNBC, however, from what I could tell from Twitter, people were watching USA-Canada over tape delayed skiing.

But the ratings will tell us how the hockey game fared and we’re expecting that later today. Once I receive notice, you’ll see it here on the blog.

Ok, I’m done with discussing USA-Canada, let’s get to some links.

Jason Fry, writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center talks about the reporting of Olympic results and how some journalists can provide them without spoiling some of their audience.

Linda Holmes from National Public Radio writes that NBC’s Olympic coverage manages to annoy just about everyone.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says the delayed coverage on NBC is frustrating many fans.

Over to Sports Business Journal where Tripp Mickle and John Ourand report that the US TV networks aren’t showing much of a response for the rights to the 2014/2016 Olympics.

SBJ’s Olympic site says NBC’s ratings for the Olympics are up 21% from Turin.

Tripp Mickle writes that the NHL was highly visible in Vancouver for “Super Sunday”.

Back to the SBJ, Bill King has a feature asking the question, how do sports leagues handle wireless rights and how much do they commit?

Jon Show in Sports Business Daily says Tiger Woods’ negative numbers are now very high. 

Eric Fisher in Sports Business Daily writes that Sporting News Today will be going to a pay model in April, but that does not affect Sportingnews.com.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch has your Olympic viewing guide.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says perhaps Canada’s Own The Podium program could be to blame for the country’s poor performance to date at the Winter Olympics. 

Darren talks with Al Michaels about his Miracle on Ice call 30 years later.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times discusses Al Michaels’ first foray into the Olympic studio.

Marc Berman of the New York Post says that former Knicks announcer Marv Albert was not invited to tonight’s 40th anniversary celebration of the team’s first NBA Championship. Albert called it on radio and was considered part of the team by fans.

Jerry Barmash of the New York Examiner tells us that two WCBS-AM sports reporters were honored recently.

Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News says MSNBC with the USA-Canada hockey game actually beat NBC in the ratings in Western New York. Thanks to good friend, Steve Lepore of Puck The Media for the link.

Tim Lemke looks at which Olympic athletes will cash in on their success or failure.

Jim Williams talks with NBC Olympics late night host Mary Carillo.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times liked the NBC and ESPN features on the 30th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business writes a long diatribe on how Tiger Woods does not an apology to anyone.

Ed explains why the White Sox decided to participate in an MLB Network reality show.

Ed says NBC made the right call to jettison the USA-Canada hockey game to MSNBC.

Chicago Blackhawks historian Bob Verdi looks back at the Miracle on Ice. 

Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post says the Nuggets are making national news for the wrong reasons.

The Los Angeles Times’ Diane Pucin looks at how social networking is helping West Coast Olympic fans cope with the NBC tape delays.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has the sports calendar for Southern California.

Tom says MLB Network’s Prime 9 show will list the best baseball broadcasters of all time.

Tom wasn’t pleased with how NBC shuttled USA-Canada to MSNBC.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star feels some of CTV’s announcers have become unabashed cheerleaders for Canada.

William Houston in Truth & Rumours writes about the USA-Canada game and various CTV issues.

Ben Grossman of Broadcasting & Cable writes that Fang’s Bites fave Charissa Thompson will co-host a new reality show on Speed.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says CBS College Sports has picked up a carriage deal with AT&T U-Verse.

Katy Bachman of Mediaweek says a large group of NBC affiliates are happy with the Olympics primetime performance.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine says the Olympics have lifted NBC to third place in the 18-49 demographic.

Louisa Ada Seltzer of Media Life writes that Tiger Woods’ statement is not being well received by the media

The Sports Media Watch notes that the Tiger Woods apology did well for Golf Channel and ESPN.

SMW says NBC won Sunday night’s ratings thanks to the Olympics, but it was the lowest rated night since the Games began.

SMW tells us that NBC’s daytime and late night Olympic coverage is also outperforming Turin’s ratings.

And SMW has some various Olympics ratings news.

My Twitter Trophy Wife, Amanda Rykoff writes that NBC did the right thing in sending USA-Canada hockey to MSNBC last night.

Phil Swann in TV Predictions explains why NBC chose not to air USA-Canada.

Chris Byrne at Eye on Sports Media says Olympic curling is performing well for CNBC.

And Len Berman is back after a week off with his Top 5 stories of the day.

Those are your links. Tonight, I’ll be at a screening of the upcoming HBO Sports documentary, Magic & Bird. I’ll give you a scenesetter report on Tuesday and a review as we get closer to the airdate.

Time For The Thursday Linkage

Let’s do the linkage for this Thursday. Got off to a late start, but that’s due to some overdue paperwork I had to complete. Now that it’s done, I can do some linkage for you.

Let’s begin with USA Today’s Michael McCarthy who looks at the impact of a Tiger Woods-less PGA Tour on both sponsors and TV ratings.

Speaking of sponsorships, Tripp Mickle in the Sports Business Journal says the X Games will allow more sponsor flexibility.

Michael Smith of the SBJ reviews the distribution of revenue to various conferences from the Bowl Championship Series.

Writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Dave Kindred discusses writing a story on deadline.

Emily Bryson York of Advertising Age writes that Papa John’s Pizza did an end run around CBS, and managed to get an ad on the Super Bowl, but for much less than the network’s asking price.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell delves into the Tim Tebow Focus on the Family Super Bowl ad.

Darren is fascinated by video game manufacturer 2KSports offering a million dollar prize for its MLB 2K10 game.

Richard Sandomir from the New York Times looks at how a judge threw out a lawsuit from a former Madison Square Garden executive who claimed he gave Yankees owner George Steinbrenner the idea for YES Network.

Kyle Smith of the New York Post reviews ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary on the Indiana Pacers-New York Knicks 1990′s rivalry.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog has a transcript of NBA Communist Sympathizer David Stern toying with a TMZ reporter during the announcement of Wizards star Gilbert Arenas’ suspension for having a gun in the locker room.

From the Daily Caller, Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says a broadcast network cannot afford not to have the NFL as part of its programming.

In the Examiner, Jim explores whether Capitals owner Ted Leonsis could become a full-fledged partner with Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic.

Tim Lemke wonders if Leonsis will actually be successful in his bid to buy the Wizards. 

Sarah Talalay of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel says the NFL Players Association isn’t thrilled about having the Pro Bowl moved to the week before the Super Bowl and away from Hawai’i.

Sarah has more on the Pro Bowl and the NFLPA’s thoughts on the Pro Bowl in Miami.

Ray Melick of the Birmingham (AL) News feels CBS should air the controversial Tim Tebow advocacy ad in the Super Bowl.

Jim O’Donnell of the Chicago Sun-Times feels the Super Bowl should not be diminished by an advocacy ad.

However, Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business says like it or not, the Tebow ad has a right to air during the Super Bowl.

Ed says the Cubs might the right choice in staying in Mesa, AZ for its spring training home.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has ESPN’s Monday Night Football analysts feeling that Brett Favre will be back in action next season.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News looks at some of the biggest sports bombs on TV through Entertainment Weekly.

Tom also has a preview of his Friday column.

Austin Knoblauch of the Los Angeles Times says CBS has not made a decision on another potentially controversial Super Bowl ad.

William Houston in Truth & Rumours feels Jim Nantz should not have done a Sony TV ad with Colts QB Peyton Manning.

Chris Byrne in the Eye on Sports Media honors HHR Media for its Blogs with Balls conferences.

Chris also gives an honor to one of ESPN’s hard working public relations staffers.

The Sports Media Watch has some various notes.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says CBC and the Vancouver Canucks finally smoked the peace pipe.

The Canadian Olympics Broadcasting Consortium has announced the English language radio coverage plans for the Vancouver Winter Games.

And you can’t go without the French language coverage plans.

We end with Len Berman’s Top 5 Sports Stories at That’s Sports.

We’re done.

Monday’s Links

Let’s do the Monday links. Pretty eventful weekend. Conan O’Brien’s last Tonight Show on Friday night, Upset Saturday in college basketball and then NFL Championship Sunday which leaves Vikings fans with a very bitter aftertaste.

A couple of reactions before I go to the linkage. Conan O’Brien went out the right way. I saw David Letterman’s last Late Night on NBC before he went to CBS. He had Bill Murray and Bruce Springsteen and I thought it was the best last late night show on TV before Conan’s on Friday. Conan refused to bash NBC in his last comments and came out extremely classy. Then the final song, Free Bird led by Will Farrell with ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Beck and an all-star band including Conan himself playing a mean guitar gave the show the correct ending. And Will Farrell hitting the cowbell had many of us on Twitter calling for more. I edited down the original video from the Hulu site to show the last 12 minutes.

Yes, that is Will Ferrell’s wife. Great stuff.

And last night, Joe Buck’s overgushing on Brett Favre and Fox’s constant cutaways to his wife, Deanna, got to the point of sickening. I lost count how many times Fox cut to Deanna’s reaction. And Joe’s constant gushing got to the point of near-Thom Brennaman love of Tim Tebow in the 2009 Sugar Bowl.

Well, the gushing and the cutaways of Deanna went so over the top that I had had enough and wrote the following on Twitter.

The required cutaway to Deanna Favre and his daughter. I’m sure there are more coming.

Joe Buck could make a Roman orgy sound extremely boring. 

And Joe Buck made that AP (Adrian Peterson) touchdown sound like a ground ball to Albert Pujols.

Which is worse? Buck overgushing on Brett Favre or Thom Brennaman overgushing on Tim Tebow?

Fox is officially enamored with Deanna Favre cutaways. Soon, they’ll show her reaction to the State of the Union address.

As Brett Favre walked off the field gingerly after a New Orleans sack: Coming up next, Joe Buck asks Brett Favre to sit on his lap so he can rub the injured ankle.

After a fumble on a handoff to Peterson: Joe Buck will now say that fumble wasn’t Favre’s fault and then give him a hug after the game.

Joe Buck is hoping to massage Brett Favre’s bruises after the game.

Fox is going to hire Deanna Favre to join Sarah Palin for Favre-Favre/Counter Favre on Fox News Channel.

Joe Buck leads Troy Aikman with the question, “Don’t you think Brett Favre has tremendous eyes?”

As the game ended: Coming up next, Joe Buck hosts a career retrospective for Brett Favre. Joe will be weeping constantly.

Yes, I was a bit angry watching the game.

Ok to the links now.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says the Super Bowl is lining up for good ratings.

Dan Levy of On The DL writes in the Sporting News about the differences of a good storyline and a good story in the Super Bowl.

Bill Gorman at TV by the Numbers says the NFC Championship Game drew monster ratings for Fox.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News feels Brett Favre’s late interception in the NFC Championship might have cost the Super Bowl a viewing audience of 100 million people.

Beth Snyder Bulik of Advertising Age writes that Intel is returning to the Super Bowl ad roster after a 13 year absence.

Claire Atkinson of Broadcasting & Cable writes that local stations are selling Super Bowl ads with a vengeance as marketers are shying away from national ads.

Glen Dickson of B&C tells us CBS won’t be making monumental changes to airing the Super Bowl as compared with the last time it aired the game.

One more from B&C, Ben Grossman talks with NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson whose 24/7 series debuts on HBO tomorrow.

Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek says NBC is revising its revenue loss to $250 million for the Vancouver Winter Olympics.
Anthony adds that TNT is seeing a sales ad resurgence for NBA All-Star Weekend.

Katy Bachman of Mediaweek says CBS Radio is expanding its FM sports radio station portfolio.

Writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Jason Fry talks to a Twitter pioneer who gives some Tweeting advice.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says a Super Bowl ticket should be cheaper this year.

Darren also gives us a sneak peek of his CNBC documentary on the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit issie.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick is really reaching on his criticism of CBS’ Phil Simms.

In the New York Daily News, Bob Raissman is throwing stuff at the wall in hopes it sticks.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has the kickoff time for Super Bowl XLIV.

And Pete has the times for the Pro and Super Bowls over the next two weeks.

Laura Nachman shared her thoughts as she watched the NFC Championship.

Kevin Cowherd of the Baltimore Sun says Fox cut away to Deanna Favre way too much during the NFC Championship. 

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner breaks news that Anita Marks is leaving her Baltimore sports talk show after failing to come to a contract agreement with CBS Radio.

Tim Lemke isn’t sure that Super Bowl XLIV will be the most watched game in history.

Tom Jones in the St. Petersburg Times feels CBS and Fox got the job done in their respective NFL Conference Games.

David Barron in the Houston Chronicle says the failure of figure skater Sasha Cohen to make the U.S. Olympic team could cost NBC some viewers in February.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer talks with a former sports talk show host who returns to the air next month.

On his 92nd birthday, national treasure Ernie Harwell expresses some thoughts for the Detroit Free Press. 

Ernie adds that writing the column was a victory over laziness.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Jounal Sentinel says the NFC Championship featuring former Packer Brett Favre drew extremely high ratings locally.

In Crain’s Chicago Business, Ed Sherman wonders if the Windy City could get a third sports radio station.

Michael Miner in the Chicago Reader says former Tribune and Rocky Mountain News sports columnist Bernie Lincicome is ready and willing to return to writing.

Dusty Saunders in the Denver Post feels Fox didn’t go overboard in gushing over Brett Favre. I disagree.

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

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says the Vancouver Canucks are boycotting CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada as a show of support for Alex Burrows.

Chris Zelkovich in the Toronto Star isn’t a fan of CBS or Fox.

Michael David Smith at Fanhouse has the video of ESPN’s John Buccigross being insulted as a “jagoff” by Kentucky jagoff John Calipari. 

Chris Byrne in the Eye on Sports Media has some funny tweets as people began to make fun of ESPN’s Chris Berman and Tom Jackson as they overgushed on Brett Favre last night.

Joe Favorito tells us why offseason baseball fan fests work in keeping fans close to their favorite teams and in keeping team brands active during the winter.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media wonders if the NHL should forsake TV and stream all of its games on the internet. It’s going to happen one day, one sports league will shuck TV for internet rights.

Steve adds that the NHL on NBC held its own on NFL Championship Sunday.

And we’ll end with Len Berman’s Top 5 sports stories at That’s Sports.

We’ll have press release posts throughout the day so keep your RSS and Twitter feeds updated.

Our Tuesday Linkfest

Let’s do the links. Got a late start to the day and I’m still trying to catch up.

We start with Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch who gives us his Media Power Rankings for December.

The Sports Business Daily has the media roundup and reaction to the Bob Costas interview of Mark McGwire on MLB Network last night.

Terry Lefton of Sports Business Daily reports that Super Bowl XLIV will have an official pizza.

Tripp Mickle and Terry Lefton write in the Sports Business Journal that the NHL is now looking for the next step with the Winter Classic. 

Writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times feels neither Bob Costas nor Mark McGwire went far enough in their interview last night.

Michael Hiestand from USA Today has the ratings from various sports events on TV.

Brian Steinberg of Advertising Age looks at NBC’s expected financial losses from the Winter Olympics.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says NBC Universal’s mun2 network which carried last year’s US-Mexico World Cup qualifying match is now going to leap into sports programming. 

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says Mark McGwire’s use of Andro as a cover for his steroids use turned out to be very profitable for two manufacturers. 

Darren tells us that he’ll be hosting a CNBC documentary on the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

Jackie Majerus of the Bristol (CT) Press says ESPN is happy to see plans for a new housing development that would be built nearby its headquarters.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes that the Mark McGwire admission on MLB Network was the culmination of a strategy laid out by former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.

Joe Drape of the Times says the networks of NBC Universal will air six prep races leading up to the Kentucky Derby. 

The New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman feels Bob Costas wasn’t hard enough on McGwire.

Raissman also writes that Joe Gibbs practically disappeared during NBC’s broadcast of the Jets-Cincinnati game.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says NBC’s Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth felt the Eagles’ pain as they were eliminated from the NFL playoffs.

Rob Rossi of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes that FSN Pittsburgh is now investigating itself for not sending all of its replays to the NHL offices regarding a disallowed goal during last week’s Flyers-Penguins game.

Jim Williams in the Washington Examiner wasn’t satisfied with Mark McGwire’s interview with MLB Network’s Bob Costas.

Tim Lemke catches up on some sports reading.

And Tim gives us his thoughts on the McGwire interview.

Sarah Talalay of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel says there’s going to be a four day Super Bowl-themed festival on South Beach leading up to the Big Game.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News says all four of the NFL Wild Card playoff games will be replayed in truncated form on Wednesday.

David Barron in the Houston Chronicle discusses a few subjects in his blog.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says the Bengals got their highest ratings for their Wild Card playoff loss to the Jets on Saturday.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business feels Tiger Woods’ apology will be in a similar vein to the Mark McGwire interview last night.

Eric Kraushar of the Hutchinson (MN) Leader has Fox Sports North’s “Hockey Day in Minnesota” schedule. 

The Arizona Daily Star’s Bruce Pascoe writes that a 12 season streak of televised games is coming to an end Thursday for the Arizona Wildcats.

Meg James of the Los Angeles Times writes that Fox Sports El Presidente del Mundo David Hill will get expanded duties under a new company streamlining plan. 

William Houston of Truth & Rumours says a former Hockey Night in Canada producer and current employee of the Toronto Maple Leafs is laying the smack down on Don Cherry through Twitter.

The Sports Media Watch says thanks to the Ravens-Pats lead in, the Tennessee upset of Kansas did very well on CBS.

Chris Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media looks at the final ratings of each college bowl game.

Chris notes that ESPN’s New York local website is expected to launch in the spring.

Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy blog says the NHL is investigating FSN Pittsburgh for not sending the league office in Toronto every possible replay of a controversial goal last week.

Joe Favorito says companies went for sports philanthropy to help spread their brands and message during a down economy.

Sox & Dawgs has video of Red Sox DH David Ortiz on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

And Len Berman gives us his top 5 sports stories in the Huffington Post.

We’re done for now.

Finally Doing Some Monday Linkage

After helping Dad to meet the deadline, I’m now free to do some links for you. Let’s get to them.

Starting with the Sports Business Daily, the publication takes a look at how the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the NFL v. American Needle case could have widespread effects on the league’s labor negotiations.

Writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Jason Fry says the Washington Times made a huge mistake in not maintaining at least an online sports presence when it cut its entire sports staff.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today writes that despite some uncompetitive games this weekend, the NFL still draws eyeballs to the screen.

The Associated Press reports that CBS has actually dropped rates for Super Bowl XLIV. 

Lauren Hatch of the Silicon Alley Insider says the rate drop has only happened once before.

David Goetzl of MediaPost says the Super Bowl will see some new advertisers this year. 

Aimee Picchi of Daily Finance notes there will be more commercial time to fill in the Super Bowl.

Claire Atkinson from Broadcasting & Cable says NBC used $42 million worth of ad time in Super Bowl XLIII to promote its late night lineup of Jay Leno at 10 p.m. and Conan O’Brien at 11:35 p.m. which is now seen as a big waste of money. 

CNBC’s Darren Rovell writes that U.S. Open champ Kim Clijsters has signed a new shoe and apparel deal with Fila.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick who hated everybody including small children on Sunday is certainly not in a better mood today after berating NBC for its coverage of the Jets-Cincinnati game.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that NBC and USA Network will air six Kentucky Derby prep races leading up to the “Run for the Roses.”

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says the Ravens made a statement against the Patriots on Sunday.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times looks at the Pete Carroll to Seattle decision and NBC’s production of the Jets-Cincinnati NFL Wild Card playoff along with several other subjects from the weekend.

The Dallas Morning News’ Barry Horn says the Eagles-Cowboys game earned great ratings especially in the Metroplex.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business has a look at the local company that’s spearheading the U.S. Supreme Court case against the NFL.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that Fox’s analysts were at a loss for words to describe the lack of defense in the Green Bay-Arizona game.

To the Denver Post and Dusty Saunders who writes that the NFL continues to rack up the ratings.

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

In the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Casey McNerthney writes that the original radio voice of the Super Sonics, Bob Blackburn, passed away last week. 

Bruce Dowbiggin in today’s Toronto Globe and Mail rates the Sunday NFL pregame shows.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star misses NBC’s Cris Collinsworth on the early Saturday Wild Card playoff game.

Bill Gorman of TVbytheNumbers says the NFL overrun helped to guide Fox to a primetime win last night. 

Chris Byrne at the Eye on Sports Media notes that ESPN has been buying up local domain names left and right over the last few years. ESPN Tulsa, anyone? Thanks to SportsbyBrooks for the link.

Len Berman has his top 5 sports stories at the Huffington Post.

Mike Woitalia of Soccer America notes that a dispute between Univision and Telemundo prevented the US from playing a “friendly” match against Mexico in the Rose Bowl.

John Daly of the Daly Planet looks at History Channel’s Madhouse short track racing reality series.

The 700 Level blog looks at a Northwestern University computer program that would generate a story based on the box score and written play-by-play of a game. That’s a bit scary.

And that’s going to do it for today.

A Thursday Link Thing

Let’s give you some links while I can. I have a busy day at work so I’ll get these up.

Writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Dave Kindred gives you some more sportswriting do’s and don’ts.

The Nielsen Wire blog says loyal markets will be viewing the BCS National Championship Game tonight.

Todd Spangler of Multichannel News says Sony becomes an official sponsor of ESPN 3D.

Speaking of 3-D, DirecTV will launch three channels in 3-D and partner with Fox to air the MLB All-Star Game in 3-D.

Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek writes that ESPN started the New Year on a high note. 

Stuart Levine of Variety says the NFL’s TV partners all had record ratings and viewership for the NFL regular season.

Dan Levy of On The DL writes in The Sporting News says an employee for the Philadelphia Eagles website spit on the Dallas Cowboys star. Not smart.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes that analyst David Cone is leaving the YES Network.

Richard says five weeks after canning Chip Caray, TBS is still looking for a play-by-play man for its regular and postseason MLB packages.

And Richard writes about Tennis Channel’s FCC complaint against Comcast.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News feels Jets coach Rex Ryan has a potential future on TV.

Pete Dougherty from the Albany Times Union says MSG and Time Warner Cable will be part of the network airing the AHL All-Star Game.

Laura Nachman says Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia will be all over the Eagles-Cowboys NFL Wild Card Playoff game this Saturday.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with ESPN/ABC’s Brent Musburger about Big Ten expansion and the BCS Championship Game.

Dave McKenna of the Washington City Paper says the late George Michael was the King of Checkbook Journalism. 

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News looks at the TV ratings for recent bowl games.

W. Scott Bailey of the San Antonio Business Journal says the Alamo Bowl drew its top audience for ESPN.

WKOW-TV in Madison, WI talks with ESPN’s Kenny Mayne who’s in Green Bay to do one of his schticky stories for Sunday NFL Countdown. 

Jim O’Connell of the Chicago Sun-Times talks with Brent Musburger about his Windy City newspaper roots.

Phil Rosenthal from the Chicago Tribune writes that the former producer of Mike North’s Monsters in the Morning program is being hired full-time by Comcast SportsNet Chicago.

Ed Sherman from Crain’s Chicago Business says the producer may be part of a new morning show on Comcast SportsNet.

Daniel Lee of the Indianapolis Star talks with Fox Sports Indiana studio host Stacy Paetz.

The Los Angeles Daily News’ Tom Hoffarth can’t believe the speculation over Rory Markas’ successor for the Angels’ play-by-play spot.

Brian T. Smith of The Columbian (OR) reports that Comcast is opposed to a plan to put Portland Trail Blazers games on the internet.

Bruce Dowbiggin from the Toronto Globe and Mail wonders if sports radio talk show callers are a dying breed.

Chris Zelkovich in the Toronto Star says TSN did well in its production of the World Junior Hockey Championships.

William Houston of Truth & Rumours says the gold medal game of the World Jrs. drew a big audience for TSN.

Sports Media Watch has the weekend overnight ratings.

SMW also has some ratings news.

At Puck The Media, Steve Lepore says NBC has already made a time change for its NHL Game of the Week on Super Bowl Sunday.

Gillian Reagan of the Silicon Valley Insider says Comcast is talking with ESPN to pick up its 3D channel.

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann remembers the late Rory Markas. 

Milton Kent of Fanhouse gives out his “Super 7″ announcing awards. 

We have Len Berman’s Top 5 Sports stories today.

That’s it.

A Mid-Week Link Thing

Let’s do linkage today. Trying to get links done earlier so you may have noticed the Primetime and Late Night Viewing Picks up at around 8 a.m. I try to do them before I go to bed and schedule them to publish at 8 a.m. so that leaves me free to the links in the morning and other work in the afternoon. So far, so good. Let’s do the links now.

From USA Today, Michael McCarthy writes that the NFL is going to charge fans to gain access to the Super Bowl field after the game. And it’s not going to come cheap.

Michael Hiestand of the Nation’s Newspaper says this year’s Sugar Bowl didn’t rate as well as last year’s game, but there are reasons for that.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News reports that Tennis Channel is filing an FCC carriage complaint against Comcast.

Brian Stelter and Brad Stone of the New York Times write about TV’s push into 3-D and that includes ESPN.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times wonders if consumers will be as enthusiastic about 3-D as TV programmers are.

In lieu of not having The Five from WEEI.com anymore (I’ve been told the feature has been canceled), we’ll move to getting Len Berman’s Top Five from That’s Sports. We’ll link to this every day, but unlike Kristine Leahy’s feature, there’s no video.

Brent Cunningham of the Columbia Journalism Review talks with the New York Times’ Alan Schwarz about his uncovering about the impact of concussions in the NFL.

Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record writes that the New York Knicks and Rangers will both appear on free TV twice this month.

Laura Nachman says an upcoming Philadelphia media luncheon will have a sports theme.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog has video of new DC NFL team coach Mike Shanahan being quite fascinated with TV sports reporter Lindsay Czarniak.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says the media circus has already begun as Shananan is ready to take over the reins of the DC NFL team.

Jim looks at Peter Gammons’ debut on MLB Network today. 

Tim Lemke gets some background on ESPN 3D.

Tim looks at the marketability of Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas in the wake of his locker room gun incident.

Sarah Talalay in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel looks at the Florida Marlins new road uniforms.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News has Rodney Harrison picking the Eagles over the Cowboys this weekend.

Barry discusses Peter Gammons’ debut on MLB Network today.

David Barron has some news and notes.

Ed Sherman from Crain’s Chicago Business isn’t enthusiastic about ESPN 3D.

Phil Rosenthal in the Chicago Tribune says ESPN and Discovery are trying to sell viewers on 3-D.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News pokes fun at ESPN 3D.

Tom writes an obituary for the late Angels TV voice Rory Markas who died yesterday. 

Tom remembers the late Rory Markas in his blog.

Tom also has Vin Scully remembering Markas.

Tom says Peter Gammons and Bob Costas team up for the Baseball Hall of Fame announcements today on MLB Network.

Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times has the obituary for Markas.

Diane Pucin of the Times says the Angels have a tough decision to make in the wake of Markas’ passing.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star also writes about Markas’ passing.

Lyle Spencer of MLB.com also has a story on Markas.

William Houston of Truth & Rumours reviews TSN’s production of last night’s World Jr. Hockey Championships gold medal game. 

Chris Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media has a profile of Fox Sports director Artie Kempner who will be on loan to NBC Sports this weekend.

The Big Lead looks at the feud between the snowboarding community and USA Today Olympics writer Christine Brennan.

Joe Favorito says the Baseball and Pro Football Halls of Fame may have to extend invitations to broadcasters, bloggers and possibly fans to vote for future elections as newspapers dwindle.

In honor of Team USA winning the gold medal at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships last night, Puck The Media’s Steve Lepore dusts off a classic Jack Edwards moment from last year’s Bruins-Canadiens game in Montreal.

One last link and this has nothing to do with sports. If you’re new to Twitter or thinking of whom to follow, Vanessa Grigoriadis of Vanity Fair has some of the “Tweethearts” who have carved their own niches on the site. I particularly follow Julia Roy, whom I met at Blogs with Balls, and Felicia Day who is part of the beloved “Whedonverse“. 

That’s it for the links. Off to do some work now.

Time for the Friday Megalinks

Let’s do the Friday megalinks as we steam into Thanksgiving holiday week. Lots of links to get to so let’s not waste any more time.

The Weekend Viewing Picks have what’s in store for college football, college basketball, NFL, NASCAR and plenty of other sporting and primetime viewing picks.

To the links.

National

We’re hearing rumblings of executive firings at ESPN. This has to do with an affair that was originally outed by Deadspin and confirmed by the New York Post. And there are more details including affairs involving the talent as well. As Chris Rock said, “people have gone lost their minds.”

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says both Fox and ABC will have familiar announcing crews calling the BCS.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says Milwaukee Bucks guard Brandon Jennings is taking the NBA by storm.

Darren says a plan to sell “stock” in the Boise State athletic program is off to a rip-roaring start.

Len Berman went on the Today Show this morning to pimp his new book “The Greatest Moments in Sports“.

Tom Van Riper of Forbes credits Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary pass against Miami 25 years ago for increasing the audience for college football.

Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports speaks with ESPN’s Jon Gruden.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News writes that Detroit Tigers outfielder Curtis Granderson will host a new program that will tour various sports stadia and arenas across the country.

The Sports Media says last Sunday’s NASCAR event on ABC fell in the ratings, mirroring the downward trend for the entire year.

SMW has notes on two sports media figures who passed away this week.

SMW mentions that ESPN’s ratings for the NBA are down thus far this season.

Chris Byrne in the Eye on Sports Media suggests how best to use links in social media.

Chris tells us that the University of Michigan sports information department is credentialing bloggers for Saturday’s Ohio State-Michigan game at the Big House.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe lists some of the best personalities in the local sports media.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette writes that Comcast SportsNet New England is ready to take on NESN on TV and on the web.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times profiles Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.

Bob Raissman from the New York Daily News is fed up of the talk leading up to the Jets-Patriots game this Sunday.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post feels the NFL should go back to the 1950′s.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union talks with ESPN/ABC’s Sean McDonough.

Dave Hughes of DCRTV.com writes in Press Box that Baltimore-Washington is becoming a huge media market.

Leonard Shapiro of the Washington Post profiles John Riggins who has carved a niche for himself in the DC market.

South

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald has the highs and lows of the NFL Network’s production of the Dolphins-Panthers game.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle talks with noted college football writer and CBS College Sports host Tony Barnhart.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman notes that for the second year in a row, the State High School Football Championships won’t be televised.

In his media notebook, Mel writes that the first Oklahoma University basketball televised game was hard to watch.

Midwest

Jim Woods of the Columbus Dispatch says Erin Andrews’ alleged stalker apparently shot video of her in a local hotel room.

Michael Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press writes about an 18 year kid who is calling college hockey games professionally.

Bob Wolfley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says ESPN is hopeful that Jon Gruden will be with them for the long haul.

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

Brad Biggs of the Chicago Sun-Times has the transcript of an interview NBC’s Bob Costas did with WMAQ-TV in regards to the Bears refusing interview requests by the network for Sunday Night Football.

West

Scott D. Pierce of the Deseret (UT) News would like to see a local sports personality back on the Utah Jazz game broadcasts.

The Arizona Daily News prepares readers for College Gameday’s visit to Tucson on Saturday.

Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune is feeling melancholy over not being able to see the NFL Network.

To John Maffei of the North County Times talks with CBS’ Dick Enberg who is enjoying calling a number of “home” games this season and is being considered to join the Padres broadcast team.

Jim Carlisle from the Ventura County Star says the economy is very much different for the NFL and the Olympics based on their ad sales.

Jim writes that Fox Sports Net West is celebrating 50 years of the Lakers in L.A.

Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times breaks news of a scuffle between TNT’s Marv Albert and 50 Cent’s entourage backstage at Jimmy Kimmel Live this week.

The Los Angeles Daily News’ Tom Hoffarth talks with ESPN soccer analyst Alexi Lalas about his days as L.A. Galaxy GM.

Tom has more with Alexi in his blog as well as some news and notes.

Daniel Lyght of the Fresno Bee talks with ESPN football analyst Trent Dilfer who got to call his first game this week.

Bob Condotta from the Seattle Times has the TV info for next week’s annual Apple Cup game between Washington and Washington State.

Canada

Bruce Dowbiggin from the Toronto Glove and Mail gets on his high horse and scolds a Denver Post reporter for reporting a shouting match that was overheard behind closed doors.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star talks with former Rogers Sportsnet personality Mike Toth.

William Houston of the Truth & Rumours gets on the Globe & Mail for having its reporters and editors taking part in the Olympic Torch Relay.

Dan Barnes of the Edmonton Journal writes about the effect of CBC’s wildly successful Battle of the Blades will have on figure skating in Canada.

The Canadian Press reports that Rush’ Neil Peart is recording a new version of TSN’s Hockey Song (formerly the theme to Hockey Night in Canada).

And that’s going to end the megalinks. Back later with press release stuff and maybe a late night linkage session.

Doing the Monday Links

After not watching any sports on Sunday (visiting the three week old niece in NYC), I’m catching up with what I missed today.

Starting with USA Today’s Michael Hiestand who looks over what the NFL pregame studio analysts had to say about the league’s bottom feeders.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch writes that ESPN has hired one of the UK’s most popular soccer announcers to call its World Cup games in 2010.

To the Sports Business Journal where we have a few links today. John Ourand and Michael Smith says the Indy Racing League’s move of most of its races to Versus from ESPN/ABC cost it viewers.

William Cooper looks into the reduced amount of free promotional items being given out at games.

The SBJ has a chart on the influence of promotions on attendance.

And SBJ gives us some of the wackiest minor league promotions.

Jason Fry writing for Indiana University’s National Spors Journalism Center has Twitter advice from two veteran sportswriters who have embraced the service.

One of the strangest stories to surface over the weekend was the divorce trial of CBS Sports’ Jim Nantz where he unveiled his wife was unsupportive of his career, that she spent his money like a sieve, that he has a 29 year old girlfriend, that he makes close to $8 million a year and sobbed uncontrollably. Damn. Thanks to The Big Lead for the link and tip.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says the cold retro jersey market is about to get hot again thanks to Michael Jordan.

Darren writes the New Jersey Nets continue to be creative about promotions, but wonders if their latest one will work.

Jerry Barmash of the New York Examiner catches up with Len Berman who has been out of WNBC-TV for six months and not missing it one bit.

Newsday’s Neil Best has the best quotes from the Sunday NFL pregame shows.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick hates everybody today. Then again, when does he not hate everybody?

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says getting a background check on the potential new owner of the Nets may not be too easy.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says college football doesn’t have that marquee matchup this week.

Pete has the NFL TV schedule for Week 7.

Pete says ESPN is hoping to appease militant soccer fans who did not like Dave O’Brien calling the World Cup in 2006.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette says Time Warner Cable will air a local high school football playoff game this week.

The widow of the late Jim McKay of ABC Sports and mother of CBS News and Sports President Sean McManus, Margaret McManus, an excellent newspaper reporter in her own right, died last week at the age of 89. Thanks to Neil Best for the link.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner tells fans of the DC NFL team not to go to Comcast SportsNet to hear critical talk.

A couple of links from Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times. First, he talks with ESPN’s Erin Andrews.

And Tom looks at the weekend in televised sport.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News gives us some Sunday NFL pregame quotage.

Barry is surprised to learn that Oklahoma-Texas won the weekend ratings in the Metroplex.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle remembers a former colleague who passed away recently.

Jerry Garcia of the San Antonio Express-News says Rush Limbaugh got what he wanted even though he won’t be owning an NFL team anytime soon.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business likes how United Center officials are marketing their cheap seats.

Sarah Spain from Chicago Now asks if the Vikings’ Bernard Berrian was the victim of a Twitter prank, or did he really post a nude photograph?

Bob Wolfley from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says despite the win over Detroit, the Fox Sports crew still saw some flaws in the Packers yesterday.

Dusty Saunders in the Denver Post is liking Jon Gruden in the Monday Night Football booth.

Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times says a Dodgers-Angels World Series would be a ratings bust.

Diane also critiques TBS’ presentation of last night’s NLCS Game 3.

Tom Hoffarth of the crosstown Daily News gives SoCal its sports calendar for this week.

Tom notes today is the 50th anniversary of the Dodgers’ last hurdle cleared in its move to LA.

In the Toronto Star, Chris Zelkovich says Rogers Sportsnet MLB analyst and Tampa Bay Rays backup catcher Greg Zaun might be too honest for his own good.

The Toronto Globe and Mail’s Bruce Dowbiggin is not a baseball fan.

Nice to see former Globe and Mail sports media critic William Houston on the blogosphere. Today, William has some thoughts on this season’s Hockey Night in Canada cast. A big thanks to Steve Lepore of Puck The Media for the link.

Katy Bachman of Mediaweek writes that ESPN Radio is looking for more FM affiliates.

Sports Business Digest says pro football in Florida might not be working.

Maury Brown in the Biz of Baseball tells us that the Yankees are opening up their stadium this afternoon so fans can watch ALCS Game 3 on the big screen.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media urges someone to pick up CBC’s Battle of the Blades.

The Sports Media Watch has its weekend ratings predictions.

SMW says the Yankees are helping to boost the ALCS ratings for Fox.

SMW says the Phillies’ blowout of the Dodgers last night hurt TBS’ NLCS ratings.

SMW notes that Texas-Oklahoma gave ABC primetime ratings for last Saturday’s noon ET game.

And SMW says the USC-Notre Dame game paid dividends for NBC on Saturday.

Joe Favorito says Jets’ kicker Jay Feely is using social and traditional media to get closer to his fans.

My hot friend, Amanda Rykoff who co-hosted the Play Ball podcast with Melissa Greenhawt for ESPN.com is now doing her own blog and she already has put a lot of content up there. Check it out.

And we end with Kristine Leahy giving us today’s edition of The Five on WEEI.com.

We’re done for now. Back later.

More Monday Links

Some links on a Monday.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch talks with several members of the Baseball Writers Association of America who are in favor of making their votes public.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says NBC Universal pans to make its rarely seen mun2 channel available on August 12 for free just in time for that day’s USA-Mexico World Cup qualifying game. This includes DirecTV, Dish Network and other providers.

Newsday’s Neil Best writes that tickets can be had at Citi Field for cheap!

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner says Scott Garceau and Anita Marks are cleaning up in the afternoon drive timeslot for MASN and 105.7 FM in Baltimore.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer wishes ESPN’s Chris Mortensen would pay a visit to the Queen City.

Stacy Straczynksi of Mediaweek writes Sports Illustrated and Nissan are teaming up for a 10 city tour of the Heisman Trophy.

Len Berman’s Top 5 is in the Huffington Post.

The Sports Media Watch says ratings for the WNBA All-Star Game on ABC weren’t good.

And SMW says despite having Michael Phelps in the pool for the World Aquatics Championships, the ratings weren’t worth the hype.

The 38 Cliches blog links to two podcasts from former Red Sox announcer Jerry Trupiano.

Chris Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media is happy to see an Atlanta Journal-Constitution news reporter back in the sports fold.

I’ll end it there for now.

Another Interview with Len Berman

Last month, former WNBC-TV sports anchor Len Berman did an internet interview with Obsessed TV. It was a very good interview as Len gives great quotes.

This week, Len did another interview, this time with Big Apple Channel.com and the host is Roger Ahl. They speak about why Len left WNBC and why ESPN intimidates the non-sports fan. It lasts about 25 minutes. Enjoy.

Thanks to Len for tipping us off through Twitter.

Interview with Len Berman

This is an interview Obsessed TV did with former WNBC-TV sports anchor Len Berman. In this interview, Len talks about his final months at WNBC, his departure and sports fans in general.

It lasts about 20 minutes. Enjoy.

Thanks to the people at Obsessed TV for sending this over.