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Zach Gelb Blasts Deebo Samuel For Ending CBS Sports Radio Interview

BSM Staff
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Zach Gelb Blasts Deebo Samuel For Ending CBS Sports Radio Interview

Some athletes don’t like answering questions about things they said in the past. Apparently, 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel is one of those athletes. Zach Gelb found that out Monday night.

The CBS Sports Radio host was promised fifteen minutes with Samuel. After the 49ers’ loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship game, Samuels said injuries determined the outcome. He believed that if Brock Purdy had not gotten injured, it would have been an easy win for San Francisco.

Gelb asked Samuel to explain why that was true. Samuel declined to answer. Gelb responded by asking if Samuel still believed his own statement.

“I mean, I do,” the receiver answered. “But we’re not going to keep talking about it. I said what I said.”

Gelb followed up by asking Samuel if he was ready for the boos from Eagles fans when the 49ers visit Philadelphia later this season, and if he had a message for them. That’s when a voice on the other end of the line changed.

A female voice told Gelb that Samuel had to get to camp, and they needed to end the interview.

“Are you serious?” Gelb asked. “Okay, thank you. There you go. Deebo Samuel, right there doesn’t want to answer a few questions.”

To say Gelb was annoyed is an understatement. He called Samuel deciding to end the interview early “a joke.”

“That’s absurd. We were told we have fifteen minutes with him. He was on for five or six minutes and didn’t want to answer anything.”

Rob Sanchez Named COO of Nashville Public Radio

BNM Staff
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Rob Sanchez Named COO of Nashville Public Radio

Former WBZ Vice President of News Rob Sanchez has been named the new Chief Operating Officer of Nashville Public Radio.

 “I’m grateful to Steve Swenson and the Board of Directors for entrusting me to help lead WPLN, WNXP, the Nashvillager, and the many digital and audio services Nashville Public Radio offers,” said Sanchez. “I’m invigorated to join an organization that functions at such a high level of public service and community engagement.”

Sanchez shifted from his role as iHeartMedia Northeastern Regional News Director and Vice President of News to an “innovation-focused consultant” role last month. Bill Flaherty was elevated to Director of Programming after Sanchez’s shift.

In addition to his work at WBZ, Sanchez also previously managed WCBS in New York and WNEW in Washington under CBS Radio ownership.

“Rob brings a wealth of experience and expertise to help us as we continue our rapid growth to expand our public service to Nashville and Middle Tennessee,” said Swenson. “His extensive background in both news and music programming is unique in our industry and will help us as we expand both 90.3 WPLN News and 91.1 WNXP, Nashville’s Music Experience.”

Joe Kernen: Twitter Has Brighter Future Than Threads

BNM Staff
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Joe Kernen: Twitter Has Brighter Future Than Threads

Threads — the new text-based social media app debuted by Instagram last week — has caught quite the buzz in media circles. CNBC host Joe Kernen doesn’t see the allure.

“Are we expressing surprise that mainstream media prefers the old Twitter and Facebook that totally did their bidding for exactly what they wanted people to see and not see and were finally called out on it? It was so blatantly apparent that Elon Musk had to spend $40 billion just to write to ship,” Kernen said during Tuesday morning’s edition of Squawk Box on CNBC.

“Twitter in terms of when I look at it now, of course, mainstream media is gonna say ‘It’s awful’ and all this sort of these ‘Mean things are happening on Twitter right now’. I think (new Twitter CEO Linda) Yaccarino is gonna do a great job. I like Twitter much better than I liked it before.”

While speaking with Axios business editor Dan Primack, Kernen jokingly asked whether or not he still had a Parler or Truth Social account, juxtaposing those social media platforms with Threads.

Kernen then said, “At the end of the day, we’ll see whether this is Clubhouse or whether it’s a Twitter killer. We’ll see. I wouldn’t sell Elon Musk short.”

He added that just because Twitter now features competition doesn’t mean Musk will resort to censoring users simply because Threads is doing so.

Gregg Giannotti: ‘The Athletic Looks Like Geniuses Now’

BSM Staff
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Gregg Giannotti: ‘The Athletic Looks Like Geniuses Now’

The decision by The New York Times to close its sports department was big news in the media industry Monday. It was big news to New Yorkers too, even those that work in other professions. Tuesday morning, Gregg Giannotti said giving control of the paper’s sports coverage to The Athletic was disappointing but understandable.

“They bought The Athletic and they basically said, we’re going to have The Athletic run our sports from now on,” he said on WFAN’s Boomer & Gio. “It was a $550 million acquisition that The New York Times had of The Athletic, and they felt like having a full sports department was redundant.”

From the Athletic’s perspective, Giannotti thinks what happened on Monday is a sort of proof of concept.

“The Athletic came in and they kind of rolled the dice. I mean, they basically spent a ton of money poaching beat writers from all over the place and paying them and beat writers from these newspapers were like, ‘Listen, I’m not going to get paid with the future newspapers. I don’t know where it’s going to go. I’m going to go with this company’ and then The New York Times ends up buying The Athletic.”

Newspapers in markets across the country are trying to figure out how to sustain themselves. Layoffs, closures and limited publishing schedules have all been the results of these businesses trying to sustain themselves with a “business as usual” approach.

Giannotti, like others in the media sphere, did lament the end of a dedicated sports department at The New York Times. He took a bit of a different tone though, because he saw reason to praise The Athletic too.

He said that what The Athletic seemed to figure out was that journalism has to be valuable to more than just the audience these days. The site was worth $550 million to The New York Times because it solved both staffing and subscription issues.

“The Athletic looks like geniuses now, because that seems to be more of the sustainable model for sportswriting than the traditional newspaper model.”

Tucker Carlson Hosting ‘Presidential Forum’ For TheBlaze

BNM Staff
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Later this week, Tucker Carlson will host what is being called a “presidential forum” for TheBlaze.

In an announcement on Twitter, the digital media outlet shared that Carlson would be joined by candidates Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC), businessman Vivek Ramaswamy (R-OH), Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), and former Vice President Mike Pence (R-IN) at the event.

“Blaze Media is teaming up with THE FAMiLY LEADER to bring you the first presidential forum of the 2024 Republican Primary season, hosted by Tucker Carlson. We’ll be live streaming this event all day Friday, July 14th on BlazeTV and the BlazeTV YouTube channel,” the tweet read.

Coverage of the event will begin on Friday, July 14th at 10:00 AM ET. The Summit, as it’s called, is not being billed as a debate. The first Republican primary debate is currently scheduled for August 23rd in Milwaukee.

The news that Carlson will host the event comes on the heels of an early May report from The Washington Post that the former Fox News host would look for alternative routes to be involved in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

“Carlson and his team have discussed the possibility of moderating a candidate forum outside of the traditional protocols surrounding the GOP primary debate system, according to two people familiar with the considerations,” the report claimed.

Nick Wright: ‘Twitter is Falling Apart’

BSM Staff
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Nick Wright: ‘Twitter is Falling Apart’

The state of Twitter is not what it was when Nick Wright was building his audience on the platform. That has made it less painful for him to watch the app’s decline. 

On Colin Cowherd’s podcast this week, Wright said the platform was already “too toxic” before Elon Musk bought and began messing with the platform. 

“I don’t care how ‘above it’ you claim to be,” the FS1 host said. “If you have thousands of strangers saying basically, ‘You suck,’ it’s going to get in your head somehow. And the flip side is if you have thousands of strangers saying ‘you’re the greatest, it’s going to get in your head somehow. The things that get the most applause on social media are not necessarily representative of the things that are what I use social media for, which is as a professional vehicle.”

To combat that toxicity, Wright says he had made a point to interact with only verified athletes, journalists and broadcasters. He says the changes Twitter made to its verification process have been some of Musk’s most damaging moves to the platform impacts.

“Musk ripping off that verified tab to mean anything, was to me very damaging to my ability to engage with anyone on Twitter. Very damaging. So that, to me, was a shame.”

He said that “Twitter is falling apart.” What shocks Wright the most is that he isn’t particularly upset about it. He says that wouldn’t have been true just three years ago

“I think I would’ve been like ‘Oh my god, I’ve like spent so much time building up an audience here, doing all this stuff,’” he told Cowherd. “And now that it’s happening, I’m a little relieved. Like if this thing goes away…I’m not gonna quit it. I can’t. Like, I’m pretty sure I’m addicted to Twitter. But if I have my platform and Twitter starts to splinter off into whatever the hell it’s turning into, I’m not gonna be that sad.”

Joe Pags: Reporters Are Asking Legitimate Questions About White House Cocaine

BNM Staff
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Joe Pags: Reporters Are Asking Legitimate Questions About White House Cocaine

Some reporters are questioning whether the cocaine found in the White House belongs to a member of President Joe Biden’s family. On Friday, talk show host Joe Pags expressed his belief that it is acceptable for reporters to ask such questions. 

Karine Jean Pierre, the White House Press Secretary, is criticized for giving vague responses to challenging questions during her daily press briefings. 

“Of course, that’s a journalistic question; it’s a good journalistic question,” said Pags. “The reporter simply wants Karine Jean Pierre to say, ‘There is no chance it is not the Biden Family’s cocaine.’ Something she refuses to say, she won’t say it. Let me bring this point out that people forgot. Hunter Biden has been at the White House a lot lately. Hunter Biden is a drug addict.”  

During a daily White House press briefing, a reporter from The New York Post asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre if the cocaine found in the West Wing belonged to a member of the Biden family. The press secretary responded defensively and expressed frustration about the question while also questioning why deputy press Secretary Andrew Bates cited the Hatch Act when asked about the cocaine the day before. 

“Joe Biden has admitted that his son had a problem with drugs,” Pags added. “So, it is not beyond the pale to say, ‘Was it the Biden family’s cocaine?’ The press secretary, through her righteous indignation, her annoying voice, has decided not to answer the question.”  

The location where the cocaine was discovered was near the Situation Room, a restricted area only accessible to a select few individuals.  

“The person who brought the cocaine into the White House was not patted down or scanned for drugs,” he added. 

Do Streamers Need to Invest in Linear TV For Sports Dominance?

Demetri Ravanos
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Do Streamers Need to Invest in Linear TV For Sports Dominance?

How much terrestrial television are you watching that isn’t sports or news these days? The average American still watches a decent bit of broadcast and cable programming, but we aren’t average Americans. We are in the media industry. I bet the numbers are a little different for us.

The numbers are also probably different if you took a group of lawyers, doctors, construction workers, teachers, stock brokers, and truck drivers and then took a group of our colleagues and asked “where do you find Thursday Night Football?”. 

I do a lot of radio hits talking about media topics. I am always careful to make sure that the host I am speaking with understands this reality. No, not everyone knows where to watch the Vikings and Eagles on Thursday night in week 2 of the NFL season.

These people and this reality were on my mind on Monday when I clicked a link on our site to see George Pyne discussing the reality facing ESPN. Tech companies will always be able to outbid cable networks for media rights contracts. 

Maybe there is a league who just wants the pay day. MLS owners clearly valued money and security over access when it signed a deal to take all of its local inventory off of cable and put it behind a paywall on Apple TV+. 

Major League Soccer is experiencing tremendous growth and hype, but come on. It is still miles behind the NHL, which is miles behind the other three major American professional sports leagues. Making it easy for fans to see your games is more important to the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball than one more billion.

Pyne prophecizes that will lead to more joint deals. We won’t see something like what ESPN has with the SEC in the future. No one place will own all of a league’s inventory because the unlimited money isn’t coming from the companies with the most reach.

I want to throw another idea out there. What if instead of cooperation, the future c-word on the lips of sports media is consolidation? 

The cable bundle may be going the way of the dodo, but the true death of cable isn’t on the immediate horizon. Rather than split inventory with ESPN, FOX or anyone else, if you are Apple or Amazon and really looking to throw your weight around in the sports world, why wouldn’t you start a conversation to acquire one of these networks?

As in any business deal, the answer to the question “does that make sense?” will only become clear with math. 

Can Amazon make more money by offering advertisers access to more NFL inventory? Yes. 

Can Amazon get more NFL inventory by buying a network that already has a deal with the NFL? Yes?

Can Amazon make enough money on that advertising inventory to offset the cost of buying that network? That is the answer that matters most, but I suspect the answer is also yes.

It seems a little counterintuitive, right? This is the age of traditional media companies investing in streaming. Disney launched ESPN+ and then Disney+. Discovery Warner Bros. launched Max. No one can turn back time. Trying to doesn’t make sense.

Event television is largely a thing of the past. The days of more than 76 million people tuning into NBC for a series finale of any show are over. People work on their own schedules now.

Sports and news are the only event television left. Case in point, more than 115 million people tuned into Super Bowl LVII in February, making it the most-watched television program of all time. In order to have event television, you need events. You get one every two or four years with news. You get multiple every year with sports.

Entertainment television thrives on niches. That is a model streaming services can take full advantage of. Sports are still big tent programming. They have the ability to drive populations to their televisions as a community. Broadcast and cable networks are still able to take advantage of that in a way streamers cannot.

As Pyne points out, these tech companies see their bottom lines continue to grow. Why would an investment in current market conditions, no matter how short term make sense as Apple and Amazon continue to flex their muscles in the sports world?

Sports Media Reacts to New York Times Shuttering Its Sports Department

BSM Staff
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Sports Media Reacts to New York Times Shuttering Its Sports Department

The sports journalism world was shocked on Monday when news broke that the New York Times will be disbanding its sports department.

The paper plans to transition all the employees who were with the newspaper’s sports department to positions at The Athletic, which the New York Times Company purchased last year for $550 million.

Several all across sports media offered their reactions to the news.

Dan Patrick: Why Can LIV Golf Get a TV Deal and the Pac-12 Can’t?

BSM Staff
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With the clock ticking for the Pac-12 to get a new media rights deal in place, the hold-up is also creating a roadblock in further painting a vision of the conference’s future.

On Monday, Dan Patrick said the admittance of San Diego State and SMU hinges on the conference finalizing a TV deal. San Diego State and SMU would replace USC and UCLA, which are joining the Big Ten.

“That’s what I found out Friday night when I got back from vacation, found one of my college football sources reached out and said, ‘Hey I know that you reported that San Diego State was gonna go to the Pac-12 months ago. From what I’m finding out, it’s feeling like it’s close to being a done deal that San Diego State is gonna go to the Pac-12,'” Patrick read from his phone. “‘They’re waiting for the TV deal to be announced.'”

Adding the Aztecs makes sense for the conference, considering it would continue to have a presence in Southern California. Dan said his source told him that adding SMU would also help establish a presence in Dallas and Texas overall.

“It’s almost like a game of Risk, but it’s the United States where these conferences want states,” he said. “They want to be able to dominate a state – Have a presence in a state. That’s why San Diego State to the Pac-12, you gotta have them because you have to have a school in Southern California. You don’t have that since UCLA and USC are going to the Big Ten.”

“Why is it the LIV tour can get a TV deal, and the Pac-12 can’t get a TV deal?” Dan added.

Dan also talked about the conference potentially adding Boise State and UNLV. But the source said academics and a lack of additional strong athletic programs outside of football is standing in Boise State’s way. Additionally, the source said adding UNLV would only be if the conference wanted to expand into Las Vegas. The Pac-12 does hold its football championship game there as well as men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.

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