Fang's Bites

Some Thursday Links

Ok starting the linkage off late again today, but I hope get a full set in before leaving work later.

Sports Business Daily notes some shuffling of personnel with the NFL TV partners.

Preston Bounds of Sports Business Daily talks about Brad Nessler saying his college football schedule with ESPN/ABC won’t be affected by his new gig with NFL Network.

Sports Business Daily discusses the machinations behind the ESPN-owned Longhorn Network.

Michael Hiestand from USA Today has some of the ratings from the weekend.

At Variety, Cynthia Littleton talks about ABC Studios developing a sitcom based on a book written by ESPN Radio morning drive co-host Mike Greenburg.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel News notes that ESPN has been honored for its World Cup programming.

Anthony Crupi from Adweek says NBCUniversal’s networks are all over the promotion of the Kentucky Derby.

Wayne Friedman at MediaPost notes that Time Warner saw additional ad revenues in the 1st quarter of this year thanks to the NCAA  Tournament.

Wayne says Fox is reporting good ad revenues from the NFL in its fiscal year 2nd quarter.

Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy has the video of a cameraman getting a little too close to the action before Game 3 of the Vancouver-Nashville game.

Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center notes that sports journalism is greatly lacking in diversity.

Kristi Dosh of the Business of College Sports has an excellent look at the TV contracts for all of the BCS conferences.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times notes that embattled Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt is blaming MLB Walking, Talking Conflict of Interest Bud Selig for his financial troubles. Way to help your cause, Frank.

Newsday’s Neil Best says former NFL Network play-by-play man Bob Papa is taking the high road.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that thoroughbred racing from Saratoga Race Course is heading back to national television after a year’s absence.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette says Time Warner Cable will air some local high school baseball.

Keith Groller at the Allentown (PA) Morning Call writes that Matt Millen had a feeling he was going to be blown out of the NFL Network booth.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner feels the big Pac-12 contracts with ESPN and Fox could lead the Big East to a huge windfall.

Barry Horn in the Dallas Morning News says the Mavericks saw their biggest ratings in more than 2 years.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer notes that Pawtucket Red Sox and Cincinnati Bearcats voice Dan Hoard will become the voice of the Bengals this season.

John goes into some of the reasons why Brad Johansen will no longer be the voice of the Bengals.

Bob Wolfley from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel looks at Mike Mayock becoming the new analyst for NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football.

Ed Sherman at Crain’s Chicago Business notes that WGN will have a special on Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf.

Paola Boivin from the Arizona Republic takes a look at the Pac-12 media rights agreements and what it means for member schools.

Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times writes about Brad Nessler coming in to call NFL Network Thursday Night Football.

SportsbyBrooks profiles the US Assistant Attorney General whose looking into the BCS.

Sports Media Watch notes that in Boston this week, the Bruins beat the Celtics in the ratings, but not head-to-head.

SMW says Lakers losses are leading to lofty ratings.

Steve Lepore, the hardest working blogger in the business, says NBC saw a double digit ratings jump last Sunday.

Steve also has the ratings for Night 21 of the NHL Playoffs.

Awful Announcing notes that announcers Victor Rojas and Mark Gubicza understandably went a little goofy as the Angels-Red Sox game went form Wednesday night into early Thursday morning.

Keggs ‘n Eggs notes the irony of Urban Meyer’s daughter complaining about him working for ESPN as he was supposed to spend retirement from Florida with his family.

I’ll end the links there. Finally finish these at 9:50 p.m. Thursday. Lots of things to do on the blog.

The Friday Megalink Thing

Ok, it’s time for the Friday megalinks. Wasn’t able to do them last week and now it’s time to bring them to you while I can. There’s a new look here and I’m experimenting with the template and colors. Let me know what you think either via a comment here or through a quick e-mail. I like to hear your comments.

You can always check your Weekend Viewing Picks for sports and primetime TV.

Now to your links.

National

Michael Hiestand of USA Today talks with CBS’ Dick Enberg who will call his final NCAA Tournament game tomorrow before embarking on a new phase of his broadcasting career.

Also in USA Today, sports broadcasting historian David J. Halberstam looks at the large number of veteran play-by-play men, including Enberg, who continue to call their respective sports well into their 70′s and some into their 80′s

And USA Today’s version of Mike and Mike, Michael Hiestand and Mike McCarthy debate the value of expanding the NCAA Tournament from its current 65 teams.

Alex Weprin of Broadcasting & Cable says MLB is rebranding its Home Plate channel on Sirius XM Satellite Radio to MLB Network Radio and will simulcast its programs at night.

Multichannel News looks at the life of former NBC Sports and ESPN President Chet Simmons who passed away Thursday at the age of 81.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel notes that Spike and UFC have put together a website for their Ultimate Fighter reality series which archives all ten seasons of the show.

Katy Bachman of Mediaweek looks at ESPN launching a New York-centric website.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine says the NCAA Tournament steered CBS to an overnight ratings victory on Thursday.

The Nielsen Wire blog notes that Louisville in basketball-crazy Kentucky is the top rated market for the NCAA Tournament through the first two rounds.

Writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Dave Kindred says it’s important to see both sides of the story. 

The Sports Media Watch says Tiger Woods is shooting a new commercial.

Joe Favorito writes that the New York Jets made the right decision in participating in this season’s Hard Knocks program on HBO.

Gail Sideman in Sports Networker provides 5 proactive public relations tips for athletes to prevent them from getting into trouble.

Len Berman has his top five stories of the day.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe compares and contrasts the ESPN and Golf Channel interviews of Tiger Woods.

The New York Times speculates that HBO could be ending “Joe Buck Live” after three mostly lackluster shows.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post isn’t a fan of MLB Walking, Talking Conflict of Interest Bud Selig’s job on steriods.

Over to Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News who writes that the Jets are taking a stab at HBOs Hard Knocks after turning a request last year.

Writing in Baltimore’s Press Box, Dave Hughes from DCRTV.com has the latest on the Charm City’s sports radio ratings wars and other media moves.

In the Washington Examiner, Jim Williams asks his readers which is the best sports radio talk show in DC?

South

The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson looks at an upcoming ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on Dolphins running back Ricky Williams.

Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel takes Florida football coach Urban Meyer to task for verbally attacking one of his colleagues this week.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News has the latest ratings for the sports radio stations and they’re not good for the local ESPN Radio affiliate.

Ray Buck from the Fort Worth Star Telegram says the national media spotlight will be on Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington after last week’s admission that he took cocaine.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes that CBS’ Jim Nantz returns to Houston to call the NCAA Tournament this weekend.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman talks with a national women’s college basketball analyst about Oklahoma’s play in the ladies NCAA Tournament.

In his media notebook, Mel discusses the upcoming season of Hard Knocks and the recent Sports Emmy Award nominations.

Midwest

Michael Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press looks at former Michigan State star Mateen Cleaves who’s hoping to start a new career on TV.

Bob Wolfley from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has the Fox Sports’ NFL analysts’ reaction to the new overtime rules.

In Crain’s Chicago Business, Ed Sherman says WGN-AM has eliminated a long-running talk show in place of more Cubs programming.

Ed also has his weekly winners and losers in sports business and media.

Paul Christian in the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin has a whole bunch of media stories in his Friday column.

To Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who writes about Verne Lundquist’s return to the Gateway City where it’s memorable for a very big reason.

West

Scott D. Pierce of the Deseret (UT) Morning News says despite having two NCAA Tournament games in town last night, CBS beamed the games from Syracuse into the local market.

Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports on a continued contract dispute between a local sports radio station and its morning show. 

And John Maffei of the North County Times says on-air auditions for potential replacements have turned out to be disastrous.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star explores why ESPN and Golf Channel accepted interviews with Tiger Woods and why CBS did not.

Jim looks at how CBS handled the first four days of the NCAA Tournament.

John Scheibe in the Los Angeles Times says upsets have not hurt CBS’ ratings for the NCAA Tournament.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News writes about the new social networking venture by new Angels TV voice and Friend of Fang’s Bites, Victor Rojas.

In his blog, Tom expands on Victor’s venture.

Tom also has his extensive media news and notes.

Canada

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail previews the CBC mini-series on Don Cherry.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star is puzzled as to why the Blue Jays have yet to release their TV schedule.

In Truth & Rumours, William Houston says the Don Cherry movie is definitely worth watching.

And that will conclude the megalinks.

Lazy Sunday Links

Let’s do some linkage. I was doing some other things earlier today so as long as the media stories don’t refer to today’s NCAA action, we should be able to get some things done for you.

Anthony Crupi at Mediaweek says the big beneficiary of Tiger Woods’ return to the PGA Tour will be Golf Channel.

Brian Lowry of Variety writes that Tiger Woods’ resurfacing at The Masters next month will have something in store for everyone.

ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reports that the UFL is seeking capital from the NFL in return for putting games on NFL Network.

Andrew Heining in the Christian Science Monitor discusses the record number of online visitors to CBS’ March Madness on Demand.

SportsbyBrooks says despite reports to the contrary, a decision has already been made to expand the NCAA Tournament.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News feels the NCAA is conducting a money grab if it indeed expands the Tournament from 65 to 96 teams.

Phil Mushnick in the New York Post says the NCAA should not expand the Tournament and leave well enough alone.

Laura Nachman has created a bracket of 64 Philadelphia sports announcers.

Michael Klein of the Philadelphia Inquirer says original Comcast SportsNet anchor Leslie Gudel leaves the desk this week for a new position with the channel.

Steve Hummer at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says not even Tiger Woods’ return could mar The Masters.

Marlon Morgan at the Memphis Commercial Appeal says the ratings for the Grizzlies on Fox Sports Tennessee are up this season in a big way. 

Dave Birkett at AnnArbor.com says the University of Michigan will be ready for its first ever football primetime game in 2011.

Over to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bob Wolfley hears from ESPN/CBS analyst Jay Bilas on Cornell’s low seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star Tribune says while the Timberwolves have been short of wins, Corey Brewer has been getting his share of the national spotlight thanks to his spectacular dunks.

Obrey Brown of the Highland (CA) Community News discusses the phone call he received from Bob Costas in regards to steroids and other issues.

Artie Gigantino of the San Francisco Examiner writes that ESPN and CBS will be the big winners for Tiger Woods 2010 debut at The Masters.

Maury Brown at the Biz of Baseball writes about a new sports social networking site launched by Anaheim Angels announcer Victor Rojas. A bit of disclosure here. I was asked by Victor to help beta test the site. I’ll be talking to Victor about the site named Yakcy and the features there.

The Sports Media Watch has its weekend ratings predictions.

I’ll end it there for now. 

Saturday’s Linkage

Well, I purposely didn’t do links on Thursday and on Friday, an unexpected joy fell into my lap as my Twitter Trophy Wife, Amanda Rykoff, a.k.a The OCD Chick, came up from New York for a conference, so we hung out Friday night. And while there, I caught up with baseball superwriter, Jonah Kieri and a regular contributor to the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Jason Fry.

All were attending the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference today at the Boston Convention Center. If you want to follow what’s going from the conference on Twitter, just search for the hastag, “ssac” and you can read the Tweets. Some heavy hitters are speaking. I didn’t know about this, but hopefully, I can attend next year.

Anyway, I’ll give you some of the linkage from today. First, Friend of Fang’s Bites Victor Rojas explains why he’s leaving MLB Network after one year to take the Anaheim Angels play-by-play position.

Ed Baig of USA Today looks at some improvements in this year’s CBS March Madness on Demand iPhone app.

Martin Peers of the Wall Street Journal looks into the Cablevision/ABC dispute and notes that sports is behind the whole fray. 

Dave Kindred, writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, says giving your story the proper hook is a great way to lure readers.

The Hollywood Reporter picks up an Associated Press story which talks about a dispute in Hong Kong that could leave viewers in the dark for the World Cup.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News writes that the ESPN360 broadband service will show Winter X Games Europe in the US.

Mike says MSG Network will air a 10 part series on the best baseball players in New York.

Mike Shields of Mediaweek tells us that Yahoo! drew more visitors to its site over the Olympics than ESPN and NBC, but NBCOlympics can claim a victory of sorts.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell looks at CTV’s I Believe Olympic theme song making some money for the network. I watched a lot of CTV’s coverage and I along with millions of Canadians heard it constantly throughout the games.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks at the New Jersey Nets using Newark as a stopover until its Brooklyn home is ready in two years.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says it’s time for DirecTV and Versus to settle their differences.

Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News says don’t expect a post-Olympics ratings bump for the NHL.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner writes that DirecTV and Fox are seeking to find the fans’ thoughts on best NASCAR driver.

Jim writes that this is a big day for lacrosse fans.

Jim also has a couple of clips previewing tonight’s HBO Magic & Bird documentary.

Maryland alum Tim Lemke condemns the unruly behavior at the University of Maryland campus after the Terps’ win over Duke earlier this week.

The Orlando Sentinel’s Andrea Adelson wonders if 3D will actually change the way we watch sports television. 

Andrea says watching an event in 3D is rather impressive.

Andrea also explains what you’ll need to watch sports in 3D.

And Andrea looks at some of the most important dates in the development of sports television.

The Dallas Morning News’ Barry Horn speaks with ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says the Olympics actually hurt the local NBC affiliate in the local ratings and gave the CBS affiliate the win in February.

Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times says the local ESPN Radio affiliate is making a lineup change. 

From The Press-Enterprise (CA), we learn that someone who is under criminal investigation on corruption made an appearance during John Daly’s Golf Channel reality show.

SportsbyBrooks learns that ESPN’s local New York site made a big hire.

The Big Lead notes that MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann lashed out at the Blowhard known as Bill Simmons.

The Sports Media Watch notes that ESPN was late again in reporting another on another Ben Roethlisberger sexual assault story.

SMW has some various ratings news and notes.

To the Major League Programs blog which looks at a new rights deal between the Miami Dolphins and a Southwest Florida radio station.

Those are your links for now. Coming up this afternoon, a review of the Magic & Bird documentary.

BREAKING NEWS: Victor Rojas Leaves MLB Network for Angels Play-by-Play Gig

This just in to Fang’s Bites. MLB Network studio host Victor Rojas, the winner of the 1st Ever Fang’s Bites MLB Award for Best Studio Host, announced tonight that he will be leaving the network to join the Anaheim Angels as its TV voice. He’ll be taking the place of Rory Markas who died earlier this year.

Victor will work a full schedule on Fox Sports West and KCOP and join the team in Spring Training.

Victor was the first person to be seen on MLB Network when it launched on January 1, 2009. One of three main anchors for MLB Tonight, Victor leaves a hole at the anchor desk. His place could be taken by Matt Yallof or Hazel Mae, both of whom have hosted Quick Pitch, the fast-paced highlight show that runs on MLB Network on Sunday nights. Or MLB Network could go outside and hire someone to take Victor’s place.

No matter who takes over, that person will have large shoes to fill. Victor has made quite a mark with fans using Twitter to communicate with viewers and he’s also created his own blog. He will definitely be missed.

I’ll give you a previous edition of the Sports Media Weekly podcast from November in which Keith Thibault and I interviewed Victor about his first year at MLB Network.

UPDATE, 7:00 p.m.: Victor’s last show was tonight.