Whenever I hear sports broadcasters talk about having more freedom because they aren't associated with the teams they are covering -- as in today's column -- it reminds me of politics. It's like the whole Washington "outsider" thing. Nobody wants to be seen as connected to the Washington structure, even as they campaign to run the thing.

In somewhat the same way, broadcasters say they can be more honest because they have no business relationship with the Orioles or Ravens. No, they can be -- in the slogan of ESPN 1300 --  "uncensored" (which can only lead us to believe the station was "censored" when it carried the Ravens).

Maybe there is something to this. Jon Miller's departure from Baltimore would be held up as Exhibit A. On the other hand, no one who listens to Joe Angel call the Orioles on the radio should believe he's talking about the games through a rose-colored microphone. On the whole, as I said in a post the other day, no station in town logically would turn down the chance to carry one of our two major pro teams. So this whole "freedom" tag could be just a matter of spin.

And that takes us right back to politics.

Posted by Ray Frager at 3:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

According to highlights of a conference call this week, here's what CBS' Dan Marino and Bill Cowher said about Ravens rookie quarterback Joe Flacco:

Cowher: "It is going to be imperative for the Ravens to get a lead or at least keep it close.  It’s a situation where Cincinnati is going to try and make Joe Flacco beat them. … I can see Cincinnati putting eight or nine people in the box. … It’s going to be a situation for Baltimore where the first half of this game is going to be very important for them to keep it close and not make this a passing game for Flacco."

Marino: "As far as young quarterbacks are concerned, the kid is going to be in a real tough situation.  If you look at the history of this league with guys stepping in and playing in their first game, I don’t remember anybody being successful in that situation ever.  As time goes on, I’m sure he’ll get more comfortable with it.  I played against Peyton Manning a couple of times early in his rookie year, and you could see as the year went on he got a lot better.  But in the beginning, he was bad.  You could tell he didn’t have that experience.  This kid is really going to be in a tough spot."

Posted by Ray Frager at 6:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

A few folks have asked, in the wake of the news that WVIE will become a Fox Sports Radio affiliate starting Monday, about what happens to the Fox programming on WBAL. The station will continue to carry the Fox shows -- which run late at night and on the weekends -- through the end of the year, WBAL executive Jeff Beauchamp said. Beyond that, he said, station management hasn't decided anything yet.

WNST also runs Fox Sports programming at night, when its signal is weak. Station owner Nestor Aparicio said WNST will continue to carry the Fox shows. 

Posted by Ray Frager at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Here's the scheduled weekday talk show lineup:

6-9 a.m.: Steve Czaban

9 a.m.-noon: Craig Shemon and James Washington

noon-3 p.m.: Jim Rome

3-6 p.m.: Jerry Coleman

6-7 p.m.: Local show TBA

7 p.m. on: Fox programming

Some notes:

*This initial lineup includes just four hours of local talk. WNST is all local from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. ESPN 1300 generally has 6 1/2 hours of local talk each weekday. 

*1370 AM is 50,000 watts during the day, and its GM says the signal covers the entire Baltimore market, to the Eastern Shore and south of Washington into Virginia. At night, it powers down to 7,700, though that is still stronger than the signals for ESPN 1300 and WNST.

*GM Bob Pettit counts not being a flagship station for any of the major local teams as a plus: "It gives our hosts a little more freedom." Coleman echoes: "We're going to be a station that doesn't wave the pompoms. Now I won't have to worry about [team] management calling the station about something I said."

And I'm sure they mean that. But I'm also sure WVIE wouldn't refuse to carry Ravens or Orioles games, either.

Posted by Ray Frager at 10:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
                    

WNST has announced that Brian Billick will have a monthly talk show on the station. Billick Live will air on the first Wednesday of each month. The former Ravens coach is now a full-fledged member of the media -- a radio talk host and a Fox NFL analyst.

                                                                                     Baltimore Sun photo: Gene Sweeney Jr.

Posted by Ray Frager at 9:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Baltimore is getting a new all-sports radio station starting Monday. WVIE (1370 AM), which broadcasts at 50,000 watts during the day, will go on the air at 6 a.m. as a Fox Sports affiliate, general manager Bob Pettit said.

The station has hired Jerry Coleman, formerly of WBAL, as its sports director and talk-show host. WVIE, to be known as Fox 1370 Sports Radio, plans other local programming, but the majority of its shows will be from Fox.

The station, the former WLG, has been running syndicated news talk shows.

More on this later.

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Update: Credit where it's due. I didn't check dcrtv.com until after I filed this, but the Web site -- which breaks lots of Washington-Baltimore broadcasting news -- also reported this today.

Posted by Ray Frager at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
                    

Posted by Ray Frager at 9:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

... which college football games your favorite (or least favorite) ESPN announcers were calling this weekend, here's the list:

Friday

7 p.m.  ESPN Classic Temple at Army  Eric Collins and Shaun King    
8 p.m.  ESPN SMU at Rice   Joe Tessitore and Rod Gilmore  

noon  ESPN  No. 17 Virginia Tech vs. East Carolina (from Charlotte)  Dave Pasch and Andre Ware      
noon  ESPN2 Syracuse at Northwestern  Pam Ward and Ray Bentley       
3:30 p.m.  ABC    No. 3 USC at Virginia Brad Nessler, Bob Griese, Paul Maguire and Stacey Dales
3:30 p.m.  ESPN2 Utah at Michigan Terry Gannon, David Norrie and Jeanine Edwards 
5 p.m.  ESPN Appalachian State at No. 7 LSU  Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman and Rob Stone   
6:45 p.m. ESPN2  Mississippi State at Louisiana Tech   Bob Wischusen and Brock Huard  
8 p.m.  ABC No. 24 Alabama vs. No. 9 Clemson (from Atlanta)   Brent Musburger, Kirk Herbstreit, Lisa Salters and Erin Andrews
8:30 p.m.  ESPN No. 20 Illinois vs. No. 6 Missouri (from St. Louis)  Mark Jones, Bob Davie and Todd Harris  
 

Sunday

2 p.m.  ESPN2 Jackson State vs. Hampton  Charlie Neal, Jay Walker and Quint Kessenich   
3:30 p.m.  ESPN Kentucky at Louisville Joe Tessitore and Rod Gilmore  
 

Baltimore, which had been among the top five markets for Olympic prime-time ratings through the first half of the Games, finished in a tie for sixth. Hey, Michael Phelps can't also run track and play volleyball. A look at the top 10:

1. Denver                23.1
1. Salt Lake City      23.1
3. Minneapolis         22.1
4. Indianapolis        21.3
4. San Diego           21.3
6. Baltimore            21.1
6. Oklahoma City    21.1
8. Nashville, Tenn.  21.0
9. Columbus, Ohio  20.4
10. Portland, Ore.   20.2

The final average overall rating was 16.2, or 27.7 million viewers. That's up 8 percent in rating and 13 percent in viewers over Athens four years ago. NBC promises final numbers for total viewers today, but it says the 211 million viewers who watched the Games through Saturday already have made it the most-viewed event ever in U.S. television, surpassing the 1996 Atlanta Olympics' 209 million.

Of course, that's not a completely fair comparison. Nobody ever tried running very special episodes of Blossom for 17 straight nights.

Posted by Ray Frager at 6:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

ESPN will be paying the Southeastern Conference $2.25 billion over 15 years ($150 million a year) for rights to the stuff CBS isn't already paying the SEC $55 million a year for, SportsBusiness Journal reports.

The deal, which apparently will be announced today, would begin next fall and would most likely preclude the conference from launching its own sports channel like the Big Ten Network.

Posted by Ray Frager at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)