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Gregg Giannotti: Deion Sanders Always Takes Time for Questions from Media

BSM Staff
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The Colorado Buffaloes and head coach Deion Sanders saw their undefeated season come to a halt in a 42-6 blowout loss against the Oregon Ducks on Saturday, resulting in criticism and disparagement thrown in the direction of the team. The team was already dealing with an injury to star two-way player Travis Hunter, and Oregon entered the contest motivated to beat the story of the college football season, who head coach Dan Lanning claims are playing for clout and fame.

ESPN and FOX Sports have sent their signature sports programming to the university’s campus in Boulder, Colo. and split telecasts of the team’s first four matchups. In watching the team lose by a significant margin, fans took to social media to declare the end of the team’s storybook, phantasmagoric run. Sanders, however, still believes in his team and implored people to speak on the team now while they can.

“You better get me right now,” Sanders said during his postgame press conference. “This is the worst we’re going to be. You better get me right now.”

“Better get ‘me’ right now,” replied WFAN host Boomer Esiason on Monday morning. “It’s always about me, me, me, me, me.”

Esiason’s co-host Gregg Giannotti enjoyed the Colorado loss and believes that it will happen again in Week 5 against the USC Trojans. Additionally, he reminded the listeners that he had predicted the downfall of “Coach Prime” with the schedule facing the team. The next matchup has implications on the progress of the Colorado football program, along with the team’s hopes to qualify for a spot in the College Football Playoff (CFP). Twelve teams will qualify for the CFP when it expands next season, alleviating some pressure to finish with an undefeated record. Even though Giannotti was elated to see Colorado lose to Oregon in this manner, he did appreciate the way Sanders handled himself with the media.

“I’ll give him credit because the P.R. guy or the SID or [whomever] tried to end the press conference and he said, ‘No,'” Giannotti remarked.

“I watch these now every week,” replied WFAN anchor Jerry Recco. “He’ll say, ‘One more,’ and then before [Sanders] gets up, he’s like, ‘Anybody else need anything?,’ and then he’ll sit there for another five minutes.”

Esiason, being a former NFL quarterback, understands that Sanders is trying to elevate his own reputation and the University of Colorado Boulder itself. As a result, it is in his best interest to be accountable and accessible to media members looking for his perspectives or to interview him about the program. Sanders has already been on First Take and The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN, and has dominated discussion on studio programming across the sports media landscape.

“He’s promoting his brand, their brand and he’s doing it in the right way and doing it legally,” Esiason said. “In other words, if he were doing this five years ago, everybody would have a problem with it, but right now, it’s all legal to do it.”

The U.S. Supreme Court paved the way for college athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness in a ruling on National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston (2021), claiming that limiting education-related benefits violates federal antitrust law. States then passed and/or amended individual laws regarding the practice as a reserved power, which could supersede rulings from the institutions themselves. Various college athletes have inked lucrative contracts with different types of brands to supplement their athletic prowess and position themselves for steady futures.

“If you are a kid sitting at home or let’s say you’re playing at Alabama right now; you’re playing at Georgia [or] you’re playing at Auburn, and Deion calls you up and says, ‘Hey, we’ll take you here and give you $150,000,’ how do you say ‘No’ to that?,” Esiason said.

Ian Eagle: Thursday Night Football Radio Crew Doesn’t Get Same Access as Amazon

BSM Staff
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Ian Eagle is a busy man when it comes to play-by-play. During the NFL season, he is not only calling games on CBS with Charles Davis on television. He is also the voice of Thursday Night Football games on Westwood One Radio. 

By calling two games in some weeks, Eagle gets the chance to see more teams to help him later in the year if he gets a game with that team on CBS. He was a guest on the Sports Media With Richard Deitsch podcast this week and he mentioned that doing Thursday Night Football on radio allows him to look at the game differently. 

“It makes you a better broadcaster. It makes you more aware of situations, it gives you more reps. It forces you to look at the game from a different lens.”

In addition to helping him with his prep, Eagle has a soft spot for calling games on the radio.

“It’s really fun. It’s a fun thing to do. It’s a blank canvas. It is very much a play-by-play guy’s medium and you feel that when you show up.”

By doing the radio broadcast, Eagle gets the chance to work with different analysts whether it’s Hall-Of-Famer Joe Thomas or Jason and Devin McCourty. It makes Eagle have to approach the game differently to find chemistry, but the goal is to find common ground with whichever analyst he works with. 

“Joe Thomas is really smart, highly experienced, highly cerebral. It forces me to put a different hat on. Worked with the McCourty twins in Philadelphia – a whole different experience of a three-man booth and two guys that sound alike and think the game a certain way, but have a different way of doing it and they are still trying to find their way. They are so new in the business, but so natural and gifted in how they see the game.” 

At the same time, the access for the Thursday Night Football radio crew is a little different compared to what the Amazon Prime broadcast gets. However, Eagle enjoys the opportunity to work with the same radio crew consistently and form a bond with them. 

“You don’t meet with the coaches, you don’t meet the players, you don’t have the same access. You’re not necessarily treated quite the same in your support staff, getting you in the stadium, getting you out the stadium, escorting you to the booth. You don’t have the bodies on a radio crew. What you do have is a close-knit group, people you work with consistently.”

Spotify Launches AI-Powered Voice Translation for Podcasts

BNM Staff
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Spotify Launches AI-Powered Voice Translation for Podcasts

Spotify has announced it will debut an AI-powered voice translator, with the hope of eventually putting podcasts into numerous different languages for listeners around the globe.

The company’s CEO — Daniel Ek — shared a video to X showcasing the Voice Translation capabilities from English to Spanish featuring podcasters Steven Bartlett and Lex Fridman.

The program is currently in its pilot stage, with the company utilizing podcasts from Dax Shepard, Bill Simmons, and Monica Padman in addition to Bartlett and Fridman to generate translations in Spanish, French, and German.

“By matching the creator’s own voice, Voice Translation gives listeners around the world the power to discover and be inspired by new podcasters in a more authentic way than ever before,” says Spotify Vice President of Personalization Ziad Sultan. “We believe that a thoughtful approach to AI can help build deeper connections between listeners and creators, a key component of Spotify’s mission to unlock the potential of human creativity.”

New episodes of podcasts hosted by the platform will begin hitting feeds today, with users being able to find them in a Voice Translations Hub on the company’s app.

MSG Networks Could Reportedly Add Mark Jackson, Jeff Van Gundy for Select New York Knicks Games

BSM Staff
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The start of the National Basketball Association season is rapidly approaching, and a fair amount of attention will be placed on the New York Knicks as the team looks to make a deep playoff run en route to a championship. Led by stars Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle, the team is trying to qualify for the playoffs for the second consecutive year. Yet the sounds on MSG Networks television broadcasts could soon be changing to a degree.

Walt “Clyde” Frazier, a two-time NBA champion with the Knicks and member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, has been a fixture on the team’s broadcasts with MSG Networks since 1987. Bringing his unique style and skill of versification to the airwaves for parts of the last five decades, Frazier is rooted in sports media history and recently won the Curt Gowdy Media Award. In accepting that honor, he became the first Hall of Famer to be inducted both as a player and a broadcaster, an achievement he holds in high regard.

Frazier, 78, is reportedly looking to take fewer road trips and could be taking a step back from the broadcasts. As a result, MSG Networks may capitalize on the free agent market by bringing on Mark Jackson and/or Jeff Van Gundy to fill in. Both Jackson and Van Gundy were laid off by ESPN as part of its talent cuts following a mandate from The Walt Disney Company in an effort to slash $5.5 billion in costs. News of deliberations taking place among MSG Networks executives was first reported by Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News.

Mike Breen, the longtime Knicks play-by-play announcer, worked with both analysts over the last decade at ESPN as the voice of the NBA Finals and has familiarity and chemistry with both of them. This season, Breen will be joined by Doris Burke and Doc Rivers in the new lead booth, but expressed disappointment towards the split of the iconic trio beforehand.

Both broadcasters have experience in working with Breen, along with Madison Square Garden and the New York Knicks organization. Jackson played 500 games for the Knicks and was named as the recipient of Rookie of the Year honors after the 1987-88 season. Conversely, Van Gundy served as an assistant coach for six-and-a-half seasons before he was elevated to the position of head coach and helped bring the team to the NBA Finals in 1999.

It remains unknown whether or not Jackson and Van Gundy are interested in resuming their work in sports media, let alone on regional broadcasts. National television media rights for the NBA expire after the 2024-25 season, a time when networks vying for a share of the coveted broadcast entity could look to recruit both experienced and skilled analysts.

CNN Adds New Weekend Show with Chris Wallace

BNM Staff
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Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?, the television show hosted by the former Fox News anchor, will air exclusively on the Max streaming platform for its fourth season.

Previously, a half-hour “best-of” style version of the show aired on CNN on Friday evenings after debuting on the streaming platform. However, for the season beginning on Friday, September 29th, the show will not receive a cable timeslot.

Instead, Wallace will now host a new weekend programming on CNN. The Chris Wallace Show will air on Saturday at 10:00 AM ET. The network says it will be a “fresh, fast-paced, and entertaining look at the news from some of the keenest minds in journalism.”

“It’s been exciting to bring in such a wide range of guests for thought-provoking conversations throughout our first three seasons, and our fourth will be no different,” said Wallace.

“I’m also looking forward to bringing The Chris Wallace Show to CNN, featuring some of the most incisive commentators and columnists. As we head into yet another pivotal election cycle, nothing is off-limits as we tackle the most important issues facing the country.”

Wallace joined CNN in 2022 after 18 years with Fox News.

Bob Fescoe: Taylor Swift Coverage at Chiefs Game Warranted on NFL Sunday

BSM Staff
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Sunday afternoon’s presentation of “America’s Game of the Week” on FOX Sports was a pivotal matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Chicago Bears with significant early season implications in the standings. While the quarterback matchup of Patrick Mahomes against Justin Fields was responsible for much of the buzz leading up to the National Football League (NFL) game, the attention quickly shifted when one of the country’s most notorious superstars showed up to GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium to take in the action.

Taylor Swift, while in the midst of her worldwide tour that has reportedly grossed over $2 billion in the United States alone, was present at the game after rumored interactions with Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce. Last week on The Pat McAfee Show, Kelce revealed that he extended an invitation to her to watch him “rock the stage” at Arrowhead Stadium, similar to what he did when she played the venue in July.

Swift took in the contest from Travis Kelce’s suite and was enthusiastic when Kelce was announced on the field and scored a touchdown to make it a 40-0 ballgame. After the game, the duo was recorded leaving the stadium together in a convertible and drove around Kansas City alone. While it has not been confirmed whether or not they are officially dating, many football and Swift fans assume that there is indeed a romantic relationship, or perhaps one is imminent.

Kansas City sports radio host Bob Fescoe received word that Swift would be at the game several hours before kickoff, incredulous that the sourced report was genuine. Throughout the contest, much of the attention was focused on Swift, with infatuated fans recording the suite and plenty of photographers trying to catch a glimpse of the 12-time Grammy Award-winning superstar.

“This has become a big ruse; this has become a big joke,” Fescoe remembered thinking after learning of her arrival. “Lo and behold, Taylor Swift ended up being at the football game yesterday.”

Josh Klingler, who works on Chiefs radio broadcasts as the sideline reporter, was on the air when word of Swift’s presence began circulating and precipitously recognized the palpable buzz surrounding the superstar. In the moment, he chose to stay the course and proceeded to search the dates for “The Eras Tour” during a commercial break to see if it was indeed possible that she would show up. Sure enough, Swift emerged on the suite level and took in the entirety of the Chiefs’ 41-10 win over the Bears, dominating part of the media coverage because of her whereabouts.

“I text somebody else that I know is at Arrowhead that’s on the suite level and I said, ‘Is Taylor Swift there today?,’” Fescoe said Monday morning on 610 Sports Radio. “The response back was one of the funniest I’ve ever received. They go, ‘I don’t know what’s going on, but on every level, everybody is standing outside the elevator with their phones up hoping the door opens and Taylor Swift walks out.’”

Since Swift was attending a game, there was an increased police and security presence at the stadium to ensure her safety. The Chiefs visit MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. to face the New York Jets on Sunday Night Football for their Week 4 matchup, and being that Swift keeps a residence in the “Big Apple,” there is a chance she shows up for the game. Kelce, along with Patrick Mahomes and coach Andy Reid, have propelled the team into a new level of prominence and prestige and are the center of attention in the worlds of sports and pop culture.

“Just think about what happened yesterday, guys,” Fescoe said. “We had Taylor Swift show up [and] Derek Jeter interviewing Patrick Mahomes for the FOX pregame show. The Chiefs are the most popular entertainment option in this country right now. It’s the modern-day version of The Beatles, and I don’t know what The Beatles were like because I wasn’t alive, but you hear about it all the time.”

Football insiders, in addition to reporting on the Chiefs-Bears game, were trying to unearth more information about Swift choosing to attend the matchup. KTRH 740 AM Houston reporter Cliff Saunders posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he did not understand why all of the attention was diverted to Swift rather than the football game at hand. In fact, he called the curiosity of insiders “embarrassing,” leading Fescoe to respond to the assertion on the air.

“No it’s not,” Fescoe said. “She is the most popular person in the world, and she was at an NFL game yesterday to see Travis Kelce catch a touchdown pass.”

Katie Couric: ‘Women Are Sacrificial Lambs’ in Donald Trump Interviews

BNM Staff
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Katie Couric: ‘Women Are Sacrificial Lambs’ in Donald Trump Interviews

In recent months, former Donald Trump has had high-profile clashes with female interviewers, including CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, NBC’s Kristen Welker, and SiriusXM’s Megyn Kelly. Former news anchor Katie Couric believes there’s a correlation between those media members.

Couric spoke at the Texas Tribune Festival last week and made the claim that Trump is a difficult person to interview, before sharing her disappointment that female journalists are often the ones put in the position of interviewing the volatile subject.

“I think that it’s very, very difficult for a journalist — and we saw this with the CNN town hall, more recently on Meet the Press — for a journalist to interview Donald Trump because he ignores every question and he’s just like a bulldozer,” said Katie Couric. “He just doesn’t listen to the questions and just talks over you and repeats lies and you can try to correct him.

“And I really don’t appreciate that the women are the sacrificial lambs in these situations. I think it’s because he’s sexist and he rolls over women more…But I think he refuses to interview with men because I think probably some of his female interrogators are more polite,” she continued. “I don’t know what it is… I don’t know. It’s tricky. It’s very, very tricky.”

Just last week, Trump called Megyn Kelly “nasty” after his interview with the SiriusXM host. Kelly famously pressed Trump during a 2015 debate about his conduct toward women. New Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker was widely panned for her performance in the interview with Trump earlier this month.

Additionally, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins drew reaction from both sides of the political aisle during her town hall event with the former President earlier this year. The 45th President called her “a nasty woman” to her face during the event.

Robbie Hummel to Continue Calling Big Ten Basketball on NBC, FOX

BSM Staff
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The Big Ten Conference is in the midst of the first year of a new seven-year media rights deal with Paramount Global, Comcast and FOX Corporation, marking the first time the conference has been away from The Walt Disney Company (ABC/ESPN) since the 1960s. This new landmark agreement centers around football and basketball contests, the provisions of which are outlined in the contract itself. As a result, Robbie Hummel, one of the conference’s predominant analysts, is leaving the “Worldwide Leader” to join NBC and FOX to continue calling the contests. News of the move first reported by Andrew Marchand of the New York Post on Monday morning.

The former Purdue basketball star began his journey in broadcasting at the Sportscaster U camp at Syracuse University, a program that was offered to National Basketball Association players and taught by Orangemen commentator Matt Park. Hummel moved to the Big Ten Network to contribute to studio coverage as he was attempting a professional comeback, and his work quickly got noticed by a broadcast agent.

Once his playing days were officially over, he and his agent worked out a deal for him to join the Big Ten Network and ESPN performing color commentary and studio analysis. Additionally, he started calling games on Westwood One Radio and helped document historic moments, including a game-winning shot by David Jean-Baptiste to send the Chattanooga Mocs to the NCAA tournament.

Making a move to NBC and FOX could be a precursor for Hummel to call NBA games should either network secure part of the media rights package, which expires at the conclusion of the 2024-25 season. Hummel told Barrett Sports Media earlier this year that he would be interested in pairing his college work with more chances at the NBA level.

Despite the move, Hummel will remain on the Big Ten Network since its majority ownership stake is held by FOX Corporation. Yet he will also call college basketball for FOX and its dedicated sports network, FOX Sports 1, along with weekday games on NBCUniversal’s direct-to-consumer streaming service, Peacock. The platform will broadcast up to 47 regular-season men’s contests games and 30 regular-season women’s basketball games, a combination of conference and non-conference matchups.

Michael Bloomberg Announces Succession Plan After Executive Shakeup

BNM Staff
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After an executive shakeup last month, Bloomberg founder Michael Bloomberg has announced plans for his media empire after he passes away.

In an appearance at a climate change summit hosted by The New York Times, Bloomberg revealed his media companies would be left to his foundation before being sold.

“I give virtually all of the company’s profits to the foundation, and the foundation gave away last year $1.7 billion,” said Bloomberg. “This year it will be a little bit more than that. But when I die, the foundation inherits the company. They — because of the tax laws — will have to get rid of it, sell it someplace or other over the first five years.”

He added “At 81 years old, common sense says I should have succession plans.”

In August, Vlad Kliatchko was named CEO of the company, with several other changes taking place on the Board of Directors. At the time, Bloomberg noted that he was likely to be interrogated about a potential succession plan.

“I’m sure these changes raise questions about me, so let me put them to rest: I’m not going anywhere,” the billionaire told employees in a memo at the time. “I’ve never used a title in the company, so I won’t change what I’ll be called – just ‘Mike.'”

Podcast Radio Format Hits Four Beasley Media Group Markets

BNM Staff
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Podcast Radio Format Hits Four Beasley Media Group Markets

Beasley Media Group has partnered with Podcast Radio and KMG Networks to bring a podcast-centered format to four separate U.S. markets.

The new format — which has seen success in the United Kingdom — will be heard on Beasley-owned stations in Charlotte (WSOC-HD3), Detroit (WCSX-HD2), Ft. Myers/Naples (WXKB-HD2), and Tampa (WJBR-AM).

The Podcast Radio format features live “podjocks” and will utilize podcast portions like songs, airing short clips of shows before pushing listeners to listen to the whole podcast on their favorite platform. Gene “Bean” Baxter of Kevin & Bean is the first unveiled “podjock”. The network has already inked deals with TedAudio and Wondery.

The move marks Beasley’s first attempt into the format.

“Caroline, the team, and Beasley’s great station brands will make fantastic first movers into the Podcast Radio format as they embrace this unique new radio content as a leader in both broadcast and digital,” Podcast Radio CEO Gerry Edwards said.

“This concept has been highly successful for Gerry and his team in the United Kingdom, and we believe our audience will fall in love with the Podcast Radio U.S. version we present on our stations,” added Beasley Media Group Chief Content Officer Justin Chase.

Each station will have its own unique branding, utilizing the Podcast Radio name and the location of the station.

“When we evaluated the business opportunity in America, it was their forward-looking team that shared our vision immediately and stepped up to work collaboratively to execute this across key regions within the Beasley Media Group platform,” KMG Networks Founder & CEO Gary Krantz said.

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