Last week, WBAL News Radio underwent a major change as Dan Joseph, co-host of The Torrey and Dan Show alongside Torrey Snow, has exited. Joseph had been with the station for five years, having been hired by previous program director Scott Masteller.
“I am sad to leave WBAL,” Joseph told Barrett News Media. “I spent five great years there and learned so much about the business. I found a passion for talk radio and met amazing people on both sides of the microphone.”
In a recent interview with BNM, Joseph discussed his rapport with Torrey Snow. WBAL has now given Snow his own show, which will air from 2-6 p.m.
“We agree about 60 percent of the time, maybe even about 70 percent. We have vehement disagreements about things, and that’s when the show is at its best when we have an actual debate about things,” he said. “We’re getting a lot better at not talking over each other, which has to do with timing and getting to know your co-host and their cadence.”
The station has made several changes since Jeff Wade took over as Program Director. Late last year, Kim Klacik announced her departure from the station. WBAL hired former Baltimore City police spokesperson T.J. Smith to host a midday show in March.
“I’m so grateful to Scott Mastellar for taking a chance on a talk show rookie,” Dan Joseph added. “That said, moving on presents a whole host of opportunities. I’m looking forward to the next adventure, wherever that may be.”
This was a radio shakeup that truly came out of nowhere. After his CBS Sports Radio show on Wednesday, September 28th, it was announced that host Damon Amendolara was moving his DA Show morning program to Sirius XM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio the following Monday. CBS Sports Radio promptly announced that it was moving Maggie Gray and Andrew Perloff from afternoons to replace Amendolara in the mornings.
In the radio industry, there are generally rumors and buildup to a shakeup like this, especially when two networks are involved, but in this case, everything came together in a short amount of time.
“We were thrilled, we were shocked, we had no idea that these changes were happening and so we were totally stunned,” Maggie Gray said. “It was such an incredible thing that they even considered us and thought we could be the morning show.”
Maggie and Perloff debuted in the afternoons on CBS Sports Radio on January 3rd, 2022 airing from 3-6 PM ET. And now, 22 months later, the program has shifted to mornings from 6-10 AM ET. The show was successful in the afternoons and now there’s the opportunity to bring that show to a new audience mixing some old and some new in terms of content and listeners.
“We found a lot of things that we liked and we found some things that we haven’t liked,” said Gray. “We have a moment now to really gather ourselves and how we want to think about taking the show to the next level. It came at the perfect time.”
Morning shows, especially for an all-sports radio station or network, tend to be different than other dayparts in that there is generally a mix of sports, pop culture, and comedy. The move from afternoons to mornings is certainly an adjustment, but Gray and Perloff were already doing some morning show type of things during their afternoon show.
That certainly made the transition a little easier.
“We always kind of took the approach like ‘Hey, people are tuning into us, yes to hear sports opinions and takes, but also just to be entertained’,” said Gray. “So, we were always kind of willing to engage those off-ramps, if you will, like when the human-interest stuff comes up and when the silly stuff comes up. We were really always willing to lean into that and I think it’s just an even more natural fit in the morning.”
A week into the morning show era of Maggie and Perloff, there’s a sense of excitement but there’s also some work to do. Before DA’s departure, CBS Sports Radio was searching for a new morning producer to replace Shaun Morash who left the network to move down the hall of Audacy’s New York City studios to WFAN’s new Evan and Tiki afternoon show. That search is still ongoing, but Gray and Perloff are already hitting the ground running in endearing themselves to the new time slot.
So, Maggie Gray and Perloff decided to finish some of their afternoon business after moving to the mornings.
“We paid off one of our big show bets (this past Friday) where Perloff had to eat a bowl of Skyline Chili with no hands,” said Gray. “I’m glad we did that (on Friday) because it’s giving the new audience a sense of who we are, which is two people who do not take themselves very seriously and are just looking to build something fun and entertaining with sports as the backbone. Sports will always be the foundation but where we can go from here is really exciting.”
As Maggie Gray adjusts to hosting a talk show in the mornings, the move from afternoons has also had a big impact on her family life in a very positive way. Working in the afternoons, Gray was able to see her four-year-old son Lucas off to school in the mornings but was already at work when he came home from school in the afternoons. Now, Gray is home in the afternoons and that means quality family time with Lucas and her husband Andrew.
“I’m here when he gets off the bus,” said Gray. “We’re all able to eat dinner and that part of it, while it’s only been a week, has been extremely rewarding and it’s something that I almost didn’t realize how much I was missing. For this moment of my life and where I am in my life, I think it’s almost like a perfect match.”
Working mornings is not for everyone. You really have to be a morning person to get up a 2 or 3 AM and prepare to get in your car or take the train to work. There is certainly a difference in how men and women approach getting ready to go to work and that was hysterically captured in the tease video that Maggie and Perloff posted on social media when the move to mornings was announced.
With Dolly Parton’s song “9 to 5” as the soundtrack, we see the alarm clock going off while Gray wakes up, turns on the shower, gets into her car, and goes to work. Meanwhile, throughout the video, we see Perloff in bed sleeping while Gray is busy getting her day started. The video ends with Gray at the studio by herself saying “Where the F is Perloff?”
The truth is that Perloff was not late to work at all during the first week, but the video certainly told a story.
“For women, there’s always a little bit more of a consideration for how you look because we’re held to a different standard,” said Gray. “That was Perloff’s idea and he actually is a morning person. It was more of a fun sort of spoof on how it’s different for women than men. He doesn’t have to wake up as early as I do but we’re both waking up really early.”
While Amendolara certainly took some of his listeners with him to Sirius XM, many have stayed with CBS Sports Radio to give Maggie and Perloff a chance. There will also be listeners from the afternoon show whowill adjust their schedules to listen in the mornings. If the first week of chats on the show’s YouTube page is any indication, it seems like Maggie and Perloff’s “Weedos” are meshing well with Amendolara’s “DA’liens”.
“We’ve noticed that the DA’liens and the Weedos have mixed very nicely,” said Gray. “They’re all playing very nice together which is encouraging and we’ve gotten some very nice phone calls from DA’s listeners welcoming us to the morning. DA did a great job of creating a community in a nationally syndicated radio show which is not easy to do and we’re just hoping to build on that.”
Life is good for Maggie Gray, both at work and at home. She’s in prime radio real estate as part of CBS Sports Radio’s new morning show and there’s now that important time with family at home in the afternoons and evenings. All she really needs now is for her beloved Buffalo Bills to win a Super Bowl. If that happens, I wonder if Perloff is at the studio alone the next day saying “where the F is Maggie Gray?”
At the recent BNM Summit in Nashville, we heard how so many news/talk stations are far more than just their over-the-air signal. Sure, just about every station streams. Add in podcasts, social media, video, and more. The net is that news/talk wants to be everywhere that their listeners want to hear (or see) them. How do all these distribution channels fit in with earning credit with Nielsen?
Regardless of what you may think, the primary purpose of any ratings system is to allow buyers and sellers to get to an agreed-upon price for advertising messages. By playing the role of neutral third party, Nielsen gives subscribers an audience estimate that allows pricing to be negotiated. Along the way, programmers learn what is and isn’t working with their audiences and make adjustments.
When the only content that required measurement was the over-the-air signal, the system was straightforward. Regardless of the method (PPM or diary), the estimate covered all of the station’s audience. But today, we have so many more ways to distribute content that it’s important to review what it takes to receive credit.
Let’s start with streaming. If your stream is the same as your OTA signal, then you’ll get credit. In PPM, you can opt for total line reporting (TLR) and Nielsen will combine the AQH and deduplicate your cume estimate. If you insert different spots into your stream, then Nielsen won’t allow TLR because the estimate would be misleading for advertisers who are buying just your OTA signal (there are exceptions to the rule, but they’re very few and we’ll avoid those for now).
Of course, if you have the option to sell both the OTA and the stream as a package, you can combine the two numbers in other processing systems (Tapscan, etc.). Keep in mind that in PPM, you will have to license your stream as well (more money for Nielsen).
Now let’s get more esoteric. Let’s say you want to take content that ran on your local shows and put it online for listeners to access later. Can you get credit? The answer is yes, but with caveats. It must be the same content that you ran on air (complete with the PPM codes).
Here’s a hypothetical example: Your host was interviewing a prominent politician from 7:30 until 7:50 on your morning show. The interview was a good one and the host took a break for a stop set from 7:40 until 7:43. You want to make the interview available on your website and social media. Great, but will you get credit from Nielsen?
The short answer is yes, but you must follow the rules. First, the interview needs to carry your station’s PPM codes, the same as when it was initially aired. In other words, you need a recording that is post-encoding. In some operations, that’s not easy to accomplish.
Next, you might want to eliminate the spots from the encoded piece. Don’t. Nielsen requires that you run the piece exactly as it was heard including the commercials. In this example, you have two options to get credit. Run the first part of the interview (7:30 until 7:40) as a standalone. A second piece (7:43 until 7:50) would also stand alone, perhaps labeled as part 2 of the interview. Otherwise, run the whole 20 minutes complete with the commercials.
What happens to the credit? A panelist heard that morning interview at 4 in the afternoon. Where is the credit assigned? It’s given to the original airtime. That 20 minutes of listening at 4 PM is credited back to 7:30 AM because the codes said so.
How about video? Do you run a video feed, whether on YouTube or through your website? Great, but can you get credit with Nielsen Audio? Again, the answer is “yes, but”. And again, the key point is that the commercials have to be the same ones that are running on your air signal. And of course, the video feed has to be encoded as well.
If you leave the studio sound up during stop sets so that viewers can feel like they’re “in the room” with the hosts, you’re out of luck. If you can run the OTA audio complete with your code, you’ll get credit.
Nielsen’s position is that their estimate should reflect the audience that the advertiser is reaching. Keep that in mind and you’ll understand the logic behind their rules.
The technical aspects aren’t always easy. Your encoder may be much further down the chain making it hard to get a clean (pre-air) encoded signal. You’ll need people to edit and post the pieces. And the number of meters is so small that you may decide it isn’t worth the effort.
Perhaps the best first step is to conduct an inventory of what you’re doing now and what you may be able to do. Consider the cost/benefit to your operation…the answer should be clear.
While I do not pretend to believe that Nielsen ratings can tell the full story of a radio brand’s reach or value in 2023, I know they still matter. Sellers hit the streets with the numbers, talent get paid bonuses off of the numbers, and corporate types use the numbers to evaluate the overall health of the format in the market.
A station’s numbers matter to all of those groups, but so do the numbers next to the names of competing stations in the market. It is the best way to recognize opportunity in the market.
There is a long list of stations and companies in Detroit that have looked at 97.1 The Ticket, seen its dominant performance in the ratings and thought “there is room for another sports station in town.” The Fan, Detroit Sports 105.1, The Roar, they are all now part of that big radio dial in the sky.
I am still not convinced that Detroit is a market capable of supporting only one sports radio station. I just don’t think there has been a competitor that has delivered a product compelling enough to get people to change habits they have been indulging for 23 years, since The Ticket launched on 1270 AM.
So what does a company and a cluster leader need to think about if they are in a situation like the one in Detroit? It isn’t the only market where a single sports radio station dominates the ratings. Ratings for 97.1 The Fan in Columbus are just as strong as are ratings for 107.5 The Fan in Indianapolis.
First, let’s define what it is I am talking about. Plenty of markets we think of as “single station markets” do have some kind of competitor. It’s easy to turn on a weak AM stick and throw network syndication on, but that isn’t really competition. Even a single local show in drive time on a station that carries the full ESPN or FOX Sports Radio lineup the rest of the day isn’t really playing the same ballgame.
To make a meaningful impact on the ratings of a dominant local sports radio brand, you need to live where the fans do and regularly host and lead conversations in which they want to participate. ESPN [insert city here] can’t really accomplish that with a single local day part. We can agree then that step one should be devote yourself to local programming in the two drive times at the very least.
It goes without saying that the biggest commitment you have to make when launching a competing sports station is finding talented people. If your goal is to take down or even cut into a ratings monster in a meaningful way, you have to be committed to bringing in the best programmer, hosts and producers to execute your vision. Half-assed investment will just result in whole-assed failure.
Next, you have to truly understand what the heritage brand does and who it is talking to. Not only does that help you understand why it succeeds, it will also help you see where there are holes.
Everything The Ticket in Detroit does, it does well. The hosts are engaging, moving between thoughtful critiques and whimsical conversations with ease. The station’s holes (at lease from my point of view) are in who the hosts are, not what they do.
In the station’s four full-time day parts, there are nine hosts. One of them is Black. One of them is a woman. One of them is a former player for a local team. Seems like there is a lot of opportunity there for a competitor to plant their flag in not being “the old white guy station.”
Whether the critique is fair or not is irrelevant. We’re in the branding business and in competition, you aren’t just thinking about how to brand yourself, but how to brand the competition as well. “Too white” and “too old” are much cooler ways of telling the competition is uncool.
The other thing I see when I look at The Ticket is that the station is home to the Lions, Tigers, Pistons and Red Wings. Having all of the games is undeniably a strength in sports radio, but it isn’t impossible to turn that strength into a weakness.
People that want to consume play-by-play on the radio are going to turn that station on, but the majority of a station’s airtime is taken up by things that aren’t play-by-play. If I were a competitor coming into Detroit, I would constantly be messaging that The Ticket is compromised by its business relationships with the teams in town. Again, it doesn’t matter if it’s fair (remember, The Ticket famously did not compromise for the Lions), it’s just messaging.
Now, I want to make this clear. I have tremendous respect for The Ticket, PD Jimmy Powers, and the talent lineup. It is one of my favorite stations in America. I am merely using that brand as my example because of their dominance and market situation.
Another brand, PD and talent collection I like a lot is in Birmingham. JOX 94.5 is the station that made me seriously consider sports radio when I was in college. Ryan Haney and Cole Cubelic are two of my favorite people in this business, but if I am launching a competitor to that station, I am constantly telling the audience that JOX is boring. Cole and his partner Greg McElroy do serious, nuanced football conversation in the morning. Paul Finebaum is Paul Finebaum. I don’t think they are boring. Most of the market doesn’t think they are boring, but there are plenty of casual fans that want to hear a host that is a message board come to life. I would make them my target.
When the numbers drop, evaluations start. No one needs to tell any of us reading this that the realities of radio are shifting. In a world where Spotify, Apple and others have made music radio more of a nuisance than a commodity, talk radio becomes a more worthwhile investment every day.
My belief in sports talk radio will never waiver. Our political divide is so deep that talk radio is less about talent and topics and more about tribalism. A local show is no more valuable than Charlie Kirk if all either of them are trying to do is prove that no one deserves a pat on the head from Donald Trump more than them. Sports is different. If you’re talking about when Max Sherzer will be available for the Rangers and you are anywhere other than Dallas or Baltimore, you are almost certainly wasting your listeners’ time. Local identity is everything in our format.
Single-station sports radio markets will become more and more of a rarity. There is room for competition. Whether or not the new kids on the block are around long enough to go from hunter to hunted will largely depend on what they have to offer, but how they start matters and nothing guarantees a stronger start than identifying and filling the holes in your competition’s product.
As postseason play in Major League Baseball continues, fans are gearing up for the start of the divisional series, which will help dwindle the playing field for teams with a chance to compete for a World Series championship. There is no dearth of young, dynamic talent within the four matchups, featuring superstars including Corbin Carroll, Yordan Álvarez and Adley Rutschman among others. All will aim to leave their mark as the battle for baseball prosperity begins on Saturday. Broadcasts of the divisional round will be split between FOX Sports (FOX/FS1) and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (TBS) with trusted insights, analysis and expertise from deft studio lineups with accomplished veterans, Hall of Famers and astute thinkers of the game.
Pedro Martínez has been working as an analyst for postseason coverage on TBS for the last decade and also contributes to MLB Network over the course of the year. The 2015 National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee is considered by many fans to be one of the greatest pitchers of the modern era, winning three Cy Young Awards and a World Series championship throughout his 18-year career.
In reviewing the postseason landscape, he feels that the play on the field will permeate through the studio walls and create new memories and experiences on the set. Specifically referencing Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr.’s historic 2023 statline of 41 home runs and 73 stolen bases, he hopes for new records to be set as the “Fall Classic” approaches.
“Stuff like that, I’m expecting to see in the postseason,” Martínez said. “I’m looking forward to really seeing the different things that happen and getting some new experiences.”
When the network starts its coverage of the divisional series on Saturday, Oct. 7 at 5:30 p.m. EST/2:30 p.m. PST, the earlier slate of American League games is expected to be at or near their conclusion. As a result, the studio team will have a binary responsibility of reacting to these matchups and preparing fans for the first game of a broadcast doubleheader. Once the games begin, the crew will gather in the green room to watch the action and prepare for their next live hit, eliciting informed opinions, apropos criticism and fruitful discussion.
“We’re excited and intrigued for Game 1 for both of our DS matchups,” said Curtis Granderson, MLB on TBS studio analyst and former MLB outfielder. “….Then when we’re sitting there watching the games together, just the number of conversations we have whether it’s baseball-related [or] non-baseball-related… plus the food that we will be enjoying because we will be there for an extended period of time. We’re going to definitely enjoy ourselves. It’s going to be like being at the ballpark.”
Granderson and Martínez will welcome former Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins to the panel, which will provide firsthand perspective on what it is like to compete for a championship in the “City of Brotherly Love.” Rollins never thought he would work in sports media while he was playing, but his mindset began to change towards the latter stages of his career. Once he changed his mind, he flew to the network’s studios in Atlanta, Ga. to audition and has been on the air ever since. Rollins contributes to Warner Bros. Discovery Sports and NBC Sports Philadelphia, the latter for which he serves as a color commentator on select matchups.
“It’s completely different,” Rollins said of his broadcasting roles. “You’re in the moment when you’re calling games, but [for] the postgame and the pregame, you get to say what you think is going to happen, talk about pitchers making adjustments and really share your knowledge.”
Courtesy: Warner Bros. Discovery
All three studio analysts will be situated alongside Ernie Johnson, a venerable network studio host and Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame inductee. Johnson has worked in the industry since 1979 and brings professionalism, poise and relatability to the air for every broadcast, as viewed by his colleagues. Martínez appreciates how Johnson makes his analysts feel comfortable and has their back if things go awry on the air.
“To me, it’s more of a privilege to be on his side than it is work,” Martínez said. “What I know about the game comes naturally, but the way he makes me feel when I’m about to say something about a certain situation [is] even better. If I mess up, I have Ernie to pick me up and the rest of the guys.”
Rollins is cognizant of the fact that Johnson engages in an immense amount of preparation before the program and makes suggestions to the producers throughout the program on how to improve the on-air product. Every time the camera turns on, he sees a sense of confidence wash over the host, which, in turn, grants his analysts the ability to do their jobs with added aplomb.
“I think when we first get out of baseball, we don’t want to go too hard on the guys because we don’t want to make the game seem easy because it’s not,” Rollins said. “I think we’ve seen that in a lot of places as former players given how difficult it is to play their respective sport. We have a guy like Ernie who has respect for the game, [and] you’ll never forget how difficult it is.”
Johnson is seamlessly able to “control the temperature of the stage,” according to Rollins, while also being able to effectively cover a story. The chemistry he exhibits with his on-air analysts and how he positions them for success, both on baseball coverage and on Inside the NBA, has rendered him adept at his job and a versatile industry professional.
“What you see is exactly what you get,” Granderson added, who played in the World Series as a member of the New York Mets in 2015. “Ernie is cool; he’s prepared; he’s smart [and a] historian all wrapped into one amazing package.”
This postseason, MLB on TBS will be implemented within the new B/R Sports Add-On within the Max streaming service. The new membership tier, which is being offered at no additional charge for existing subscribers through Thursday, Feb. 29, will grant users the ability to watch Warner Bros. Discovery presentations of live game broadcasts and other ancillary content. In targeting a younger demographic, the panel intends to blend tradition and innovation into their coverage and, in turn, augment the reach of the game at a global scale.
“It’s a great platform for us to teach what we know just like we do on TV, but with a younger audience,” Martínez said. “I’m so looking forward to finding a way to [have] conversations with a younger audience than the one we are accustomed to on television.”
Rule changes meant to hasten the pace of play and augment offensive output have had their intended effects, demonstrated through a 9.6% bump in attendance and 24-minute decrease in average game time. Aside from a more succinct on-field product, viewing alternate broadcasts across the sports media landscape indicate to other personalities that it is critical to amalgamate comprehensive esoterica with lighthearted banter and confabulation. The postseason is no exception.
“I think that’s what the younger audience really connects with,” Rollins said. “They understand sports goes on, but they like the cool things; they like the fun things…. We have the freedom to do things, but yet still, we have to stay on point.”
Warner Bros. Discovery’s broadcasts of the Major League Baseball postseason begin on Saturday night with MLB on TBS Leadoff at 5:30 p.m. EST/2:30 p.m. PST followed by the first of two NLDS matchups. The Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves commence action in the “Senior Circuit” starting at 6 p.m. EST/3 p.m. PST with Brian Anderson, Jeff Francoeur and Matt Winer on the call. Later on, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers close out the first day of the round at 9 p.m. EST/6 p.m. PST with broadcasters Bob Costas, Ron Darling and Lauren Shehadi.
In everyday life, there are some people who do need a structured routine and a direction on where to take something whether it be at your job or which path to go down in life. When Katie Nolan first agreed to join ESPN in 2017, she was looking for specifics on what he was going to bring to the company, but it was something she never really got.
Katie Nolan was a guest on South Beach Sessions with Dan Le Batard and she said that when she signed the first of her two contracts with ESPN, the specifics of her role were very vague and she just wanted to know what she needed to do to meet the bar ESPN was looking for from her.
“I signed my contract with ESPN. It was very vague at the time. They did not know. They were like we’ve got a whole video team and we want to do something digital with you and we want you to be the face of our digital presence and we are going to pay you all this money,” Nolan said. “I thought they weren’t going to pay me all that money and not give me stuff to do, so don’t just not sign this because it doesn’t outline you will have a show.”
Nolan brought up this quote that she gave in the press release back then:
“I could not be more excited to have a prominent digital presence while also making appearances across ESPN studio programming. When I was a little girl, I always dreamed that one-day announcements regarding my specific assignments would be forthcoming.”
As Katie Nolan looks back at first agreeing to join ESPN, she wished that she would have made ESPN tell her what exactly they wanted her to do.
“I think the press release when they announced I was going to work there, I think the quote I gave them was something along the lines of making fun of how vague it was that they would not tell me what I was really going to do. It should have been a red flag, it should have made me be like ‘Make them tell you what they want from you’.
“If there’s no bar, I don’t know what measure I’m being judged by and that ended up being what hurt me in the end. I didn’t know who my boss was, I didn’t know what they wanted me to do.”
While at ESPN, Nolan ended up hosting her show on ESPN+, Always Late, with Ashley Braband as her co-host and producer. Even though ESPN told her yes to doing the show, she never knew if they were actually supportive of her in the idea.
“What we ended up doing is — Ashley Braband, who was my life raft at that company, she saw me right away and was like ‘I recognize what you are trying to do, I align with you, and I want to help you do it’. We got to the point where it’s like let’s pitch them a show because they are launching ESPN+ and they are going to need stuff for it.
“We had to film it in a prop closet a pilot for it just to show them what it would be. We filmed that and they were like ok. It was very surprising to me how easy it was to get the yes, but are you supportive of this or are you just going to let me do this?”
In fact, Nolan said that the most fun she had while she was at ESPN was being on Highly Questionable because there was more than just talking about sports on a sports show.
“I looked at the shows they have and was like ‘I don’t really fit into any of these…Your show became the thing that was ‘Oh they get it, they’re just funny, they don’t take it too seriously. They know that there’s more to talking about sports than just talking about sports’. If it weren’t for you, I probably would have left at the end of the contract. Doing Highly Questionable was the best and the easiest and the most fun and I’m forever grateful to you for that.”
Katie Nolan talked about her time at FS1 as well when she hosted Garbage Time with Katie Nolan and she wanted to make a show that could cater to people like her who didn’t feel they were reflected in sports TV at the time.
“I grew up loving sports and watching a lot of sports, but not watching a lot of sports TV because I didn’t feel like they were talking to me. Anytime they made a joke which I love jokes, they were always like I was the butt of the joke or anytime women were involved, it was always how hot they were. It didn’t feel like it was for me. It didn’t offend me. I just would watch the games and I didn’t know any of the people on sports TV.”
“When I got on sports TV, I was sort of like let’s make it for the me’s of the world who don’t feel reflected in the other stuff. It’s 24 hours of programming, you can make 23 of it for what it is and then let me get that 24th hour.”
As Katie Nolan looked back at that time, she wished she knew what would come later in her career and said one of the challenges of having her own show was that she always felt she had to fight for everything with management.
“Knowing when to take a swing and when to not, it’s basically knowing what pitch to take and which one is that’s the one I’m going to hit. A lot of having your own show is navigating the people above you and I didn’t understand managing up at all. I didn’t participate in it and that’s to my detriment,” she continued.
“In terms of topics or jokes or sketches or things you need, I was always willing to fight for the thing we needed without ever realizing if everything you want from the network is a fight, then they are not going to want you around much. Knowing the industry better now, knowing myself better in the sense of what areas I can put my energy into instead of putting my energy into everything, I have to be okay with that.”
The Walt Disney Company is set to institute planned price hikes across its portfolio of streaming services, impacting millions of users around the world who utilize the platforms for content. Monthly subscriptions for ESPN+ will increase from $9.99 to $10.99, while the annual plan for the platform will move from $99.99 to $109.99.
In an email recently sent to subscribers, the company claimed that the changes were being made so it could continue to bring fans “more exclusive live sports, ESPN+ originals and premium editorial.” The adjustments will go into effect on Oct. 12 ahead of the release of the company’s fourth quarter 2023 financial results, which will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023 after the close of regular trading.
Last quarter, direct-to-consumer (DTC) revenue for The Walt Disney Company rose by 9% to $5.5 billion, while linear network revenue took a 7% hit, diminishing to $6.7 billion. Operating losses for DTC declined by 52% to $512 million, which was due to a lower overall loss at Disney+ and ESPN+. According to the company’s financial report, ESPN+ subscriber count stayed relatively flat last quarter at 25.2 million people; however, average monthly revenue per paid subscriber subtracted by 3% to $5.45.
ESPN is preparing for the launch of a DTC product that will allow customers to purchase a subscription to the network outright without the need of a cable subscription. The rate of cord cutting in the United States has hastened expeditiously, with major pay television bundle providers losing 8 million customers.
Changes in consumption habits and technology predicated on innovation and forward-thinking has forced content creators to rethink the ways they disseminate programming. The Pat McAfee Show, for example, is distributed both on traditional linear television and on ESPN’s digital channels, leading to a sublime viewership report last month.
Furthermore, ESPN will soon implement “ESPN BET” into its offerings, working with PENN Entertainment to create a platform for users to responsibility wager on their favorite teams where it is legal throughout the United States. The 10-year deal worth a reported $1.5 billion will grant PENN exclusive rights to use the platform trademark across its own channels, and the network will promote the service through its media outlets.
Adjusted EBITDA potential for the deal with a retail cross-sell falls between $500 million and $1 billion, with the ceiling augmenting to $1.5 billion should the “Worldwide Leader” attain specific performance warrants.
The price hike from The Walt Disney Company will reportedly be followed by plans from Netflix to do the same following the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) recently reached a deal that ended what became the second-longest strike in Hollywood history, which provided augmented minimum wage and compensation, protections against artificial intelligence technologies and residual pay among other factors.
As the National Basketball Association’s regular season draws closer, organizations are currently holding training camps to allow the players to meet one another, develop offensive and defensive schemes and practice their craft ahead of an 82-game schedule. The Philadelphia 76ers, however, are in the midst of a transitional period in their organization with a new head coach in Nick Nurse and impending trade request from guard James Harden.
During the offseason, Harden called 76ers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey “a liar” and affirmed that he did not want to play for the organization any longer. With his implorement to be moved, it marks the third time in his 14-year NBA career that he has asked off a team, and he reportedly is looking to team up with Paul George and Kawhi Leonard on the LA Clippers.
As it currently stands, the 76ers are in Fort Collins, Colo. for the opening stages of the camp and working out with limited media access and player availability. Nurse and his coaching staff wanted more privacy in the opening stages of the team’s new era as they aim to compete for an NBA championship.
Kate Scott, television play-by-play voice of the team, is cognizant of the fact that no one was sure if Harden would show up and the noise surrounding the team, part of the reason why she and other media members are keeping their distance. She appeared on The John Kincade Show Friday morning on 97.5 The Fanatic to explain how she was approached with the entreaty and to provide her thoughts on this year’s group.
“I said, ‘Yeah, I totally understand that,’” Scott recalled in a conversation, presumably with 76ers management. “‘Whatever helps you guys get off to the best start this season as possible, I’m happy to do that,’ so if that means three more days at home coming in to see you all on this Friday morning, I’m happy to do that.”
Many of the 76ers have endured similar situations throughout their careers, including head coach Nick Nurse. When Kawhi Leonard was first traded to the Toronto Raptors, he explicitly stated that he did not want to be there but would try his best to assimilate. Scott emphasized how despite Harden’s looming ask out, he and his teammates get along and interacted throughout the offseason. Kincade contextualized the situation through a media lens, thinking about how such a source of distress would theoretically cause him to grow upset.
“You could like somebody, though, as your radio counterpart – somebody you’re working with – but if they decided to sabotage your broadcast [or] your business, I don’t give a damn how much I like you,” Kincade said. “You’re screwing with me; you’re screwing with my livelihood.”
“I completely agree with that, and I think that is the difference so far,” Scott replied, referencing the situation involving guard Ben Simmons two years ago. “….If you’re showing up and you’re following coaches’ orders and you’re doing everything you need to do and you’re staying at the team hotel, you know.”
The 76ers open preseason play on Sunday, Oct. 8 when they face the Boston Celtics, which will be broadcast on ESPN and over the air on 97.5 The Fanatic. Regular-season action begins on Thursday, Oct. 26 against the Milwaukee Bucks as part of a national doubleheader. Scott and NBC Sports Philadelphia present its first game two days later when the Sixers face the Raptors at 7:30 p.m. EST/4:30 p.m. PST. Philadelphia’s 97.5 The Fanatic is the radio home for all 76ers games during the 2023-24 regular season and will also have all preseason and potential postseason action.
Fox News host Greg Gutfeld has dubbed himself the King of Late Night. 710 WOR host Mark Simone agrees, and thinks there’s a specific reason why Gutfeld! has grown in popularity.
During a conversation with Fox News Radio host Jimmy Failla, Simone shared his belief that Gutfeld has become a major player due to the simplicity of his show, rather than the stunts pulled by other late-night programs on network TV.
“(Jimmy Fallon’s) got ping pong and a water slide in the studio. They’ve got all these stunts. With you guys on Gutfeld!, it’s just four guys in a room,” said Mark Simone. “That’s all you need, and you have a great show.”
“When you’ve got funny people, you’ve got a lot that can be done,” Failla agreed.
Failla added that another reason Gutfeld! is successful is because the program doesn’t take itself too seriously.
“You think about Gutfeld right now. I guest host his show a lot. And normally when you’re filling in for the biggest late night show in the country, you have big shoes to fill. But in Gutfeld’s case they’re like a size three,” Failla joked, “and we can laugh about it. We don’t take ourselves seriously. And it works. Because you’re getting what late night is supposed to be, which is an outlet at the end of the day to unplug from the seriousness of the news and just laugh about the world. They’re not letting you do that on the other shows.”
ESPN Radio has announced its broadcast lineup for the remainder of the 2023 Major League Baseball postseason, which culminates in the broadcast of the World Series. Jon “Boog” Sciambi will be featured as the national radio play-by-play announcer during the “Fall Classic” for the first time in his career, where he will be joined by analysts Jessica Mendoza and Eduardo Pérez, along with reporter Buster Olney. The World Series, however, does not start until Friday, Oct. 27, and there are plenty of resolutions that need to come to fruition before the championship games can be played.
All of this year’s Wild Card Series matchups ended in two-game sweeps, rendering seven of the eight occurrences of these series having that end result thus far over a two-year span. Moving into the division series, which starts Friday, Oct. 6, the Texas Rangers will face the No. 1 seed Baltimore Orioles in a best-of-five tilt. Sunday Night Baseball play-by-play announcer Karl Ravech will work alongside National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Tim Kurkjian throughout the series on ESPN Radio.
The other American League matchup features the Minnesota Twins against the reigning World Series champion Houston Astros. It will feature Boston Red Sox play-by-play voice Dave O’Brien with Pérez, the latter having formerly served as the bench coach for Houston.
In the National League, a divisional matchup between the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves is sure to keep fans captivated and at the edge of their seats. Sciambi will begin his postseason radio slate calling that series with his longtime radio partner Doug Glanville. The pair served as the primary broadcast crew throughout the year for ESPN Radio’s presentation of Sunday Night Baseball. Lastly, another divisional matchup takes hold in the west with the Arizona Diamondbacks squaring off against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Roxy Bernstein and Mendoza will be on the call for the series, which is filled with young, dynamic talent up and down each roster.
Sciambi and Glanville will continue to work together through the National League Championship Series (NLCS), while Ravech will be joined by Pérez and Kurkjian for the American League iteration (ALCS). Throughout the remainder of the postseason, Baseball Tonight will air from the network’s flagship studios in Bristol, Conn. and feature hosts Kevin Connors and Nicole Briscoe. Ravech will host the program during the World Series, featuring analyst Xavier Scruggs and senior MLB insider Jeff Passan. Additionally, Olney will release daily episodes of his Baseball Tonight podcast, which is available wherever listeners find their podcasts.
