We have another edition of the Sports Media Weekly podcast tonight. Keith Thibault of Sports Media Weekly and I are back to look at the sports media news and bring in various guests from inside and outside the industry.
Our “Third Man In” (I guess if we ever have a female guest for this segment, we’ll call it “Third Person In,” but I digress) is Brian Berger of Sports Business Radio. Here is what we discussed in this all-new edition:
- The NFL moving the 2014 Draft to May and possibly in future years.
- ESPN Radio picking up the out-of-market rights to five NFL teams and broadcasting their games nationally on Sunday afternoons during the regular season.
- ESPN hiring Paul Finebaum for a nationally-syndicated radio program starting this year and a TV simulcast on the SEC Network starting next year.
- ESPN hiring Robert Lipsyte as the new Ombudsman.
- Sports Illustrated launching a new daily online show starting on June 3.
We then moved to our guest segment and Keith talked with the new voice of the New England Patriots Bob Socci. Bob is currently the radio voice of the Pawtucket Red Sox, the AAA farm team of the Boston Red Sox and he’ll be leaving to focus on the Patriots job on July 1. He has been the Voice of Navy football and called Patriot League basketball on CBS Sports Network.
For tonight’s edition, Keith and Bob discussed the following:
- How Bob got one of the open Pawtucket Red Sox announcing gigs for this season.
- How Bob was able to get the New England Patriots broadcasting gig replacing long-time voice Gil Santos.
- Bob reaching out to Gil to get advice.
- Starting his own legacy as Bob steps into the Patriots booth in August.
- The differences between calling Navy football and the NFL.
- How many times he’s visited Foxboro, MA and the Patriots organization since he’s gotten the broadcasting gig.
- How Bob felt about giving the PawSox notice about getting the Pats job.
- If Bob will be able to continue calling Patriot League basketball after the NFL season.
A very good edition and a good listen to boot. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. However, if you want to listen right away and subscribe later, go here.
Keith and I will be back with another edition of the podcast next week.
