After a week off to tend to family matters, I’m back with Keith Thibault of Sports Media Journal for our regular Sports Media Weekly podcast.
Since I wasn’t able to participate in and post last week’s edition, No. 105, I’ll link you to a very good interview Keith conducted with the legendary sportswriter Frank Deford of Sports Illustrated, NPR and HBO’s Real Sports. In that podcast, Keith discussed Frank’s career with SI, his new book, sportswriting in general, how women have advanced in sports reporting and the late, great sports daily newspaper, The National, which Frank was an editor. Really give it a good listen.
Now for this week, our guest is the Voice of the UConn Huskies, Joe D’Ambrosio. We’ll get to him in a moment.
In our regular news segment, Keith and I talked about the ratings for the NBA Finals and Conference Finals, the NHL Stanley Cup Final and the Belmont Stakes. We also talked about the good numbers for EURO 2012 on ESPN and the development that ESPN UK lost the rights to the English Premier League which could be a big blow for the Alleged Worldwide Leader’s British division.
Then we talked about ESPN’s upcoming coverage of Wimbledon later this month.
Joe D’Ambrosio of WTIC-AM and NBC Connecticut was the guest. In addition to his duties of hosting a nightly sports talk show on WTIC, formerly known as “the Pulse of New England”, and anchoring sports on NBC Connecticut, he has called UConn football and basketball dating back to 1992. Joe talked about calling UConn sports at a time when the basketball program for both the men and women were on the rise and calling multiple championships for both.
Joe gave us some insight into hosting sports talk in an area that is split between Boston and New York sports teams. And Joe also discussed how the Constitution State is a basketball-crazy state in a region that rarely gives college sports the time of day.
Keith and I asked Joe about the Connecticut sports media and how it used to blanket cover UConn sports to the point where just one reporter could be covering a basketball game. And Joe previewed both the Huskies football and basketball teams in what will be a transition year for the Big East Conference.
Definitely enjoyed talking with Joe and it was a very good interview.
Keith and I wrapped up talking about Boston Sports Blogapalooza this week, an event where New England sports bloggers network and get to know each other.
Head to iTunes to subscribe to the podcast under “Sports Media Journal” or you can listen right now by clicking here.
