Time for another sports media thoughts post. As always, it’s in bullet form.
- We are under two months to go until the launch of Fox Sports 1. We know of a few official talent hires like Andy Roddick, Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole, Regis Philbin and a few others. We now await the official word on a couple of others who have been speculated to join FS1.
After she taped her last SportsNation show for ESPN2 on Friday, Fang’s Bites fave Charissa Thompson tweeted that she was taking her talents back to Fox, however, that has since been deleted. Charissa originally was with Fox Sports Rocky Mountain, then became a co-host on the Best Damn Sports Show Period as well as serving as a sideline reporter for the NFL on Fox.
After a stint with Versus as a reporter on its NHL package, Charissa joined ESPN in 2011 first as moderator of “Numbers Don’t Lie,” then replacing Michelle Beadle on SportsNation just over a year ago.
Speculation over her departure began in The Big Lead last month and Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch has her being a lead host on Fox Sports Live which will be SportsCenter’s competition in late night.
We’re also awaiting word on when former ESPN’er Mike Hill will join FS1 although that appears to be happening soon.
Also, Sarah Spain, current ESPN 1000 personality in Chicago is reportedly joining FS1, although in what capacity hasn’t been defined yet.
And I’ve also heard that Fox has been raiding ESPN and NFL Network production talent for game broadcasts. Fox wants to hit the ground running with the new network on August 17. It will be quite interesting to see how everything will come to fruition.
- As we continue in this Brave New World of online radio stations to generate new content, Fang’s Bites has learned of two newspapers that will be launching new ventures to attract audiences and to generate revenue. One will be in the West region and the other in the Northeast. The station out West will produce its content in the vein of a television station and is building new studios to house news, sports and talk programming.
The Northeast newspaper will be strictly an online radio station and has already hired a lineup that will fill weekdays. Most of the shows will be news talk, but one show will focus on sports.
I cannot reveal either newspaper at this time, however, I will be able to let you know of them soon. Both stations are set to launch this summer.
- Best of luck to NESN’s Jerry Remy as he returns to the booth Tuesday to call Red Sox games. Remy has been out since May 28 with allergies and a bout with pneumonia. He’s suffered a series of health setbacks since 2008 including lung cancer and depression.
- One pet peeve of mine is seeing local television news anchors and reporters trying to latch onto sports teams as they make a championship run. Sometimes they wear a team hat or a jersey on the air, or they try to talk about the team. A lot of fans see through this madness and often, the reporter is from out of town and not really familiar with the local team’s history. It never fails, your local newscast will try to look like it’s part of the community by rooting for the team. It doesn’t work and these displays come off as disingenuous.
I’ll end the thoughts there. Leave comments if you wish.
