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Tom Brokaw: Leaving NBC News Due to Incurable Blood Cancer ‘Changed My Life’

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Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw is set to sit down with CBS Sunday Morning host Jane Pauley for an update on his incurable blood cancer.

In a teaser for the interview, the 83-year-old shared with his former colleague the extent the cancer has altered his life.

“I’ve had a bad experience,” Brokaw told Pauley. “I kept thinking bad things wouldn’t happen to me. But as I grew older, I began to develop this condition. And what you try to do is control it as much as you can.”

Brokaw shared that the news he’d be forced to step away from NBC News was life altering.

“I’ve had to change my life in some way,” he tells Pauley. “I really had to give up my daily activity with NBC. You know, I had to walk away from them, as they were walking away from me. I just wasn’t the same person. … And so for the first time in my life, I was kind of out there, you know, in a place I had never been in my life.”

Brokaw spent 55 years at NBC News. He was the host of NBC Nightly News for 21 of those years, anchoring the program from 1983-2004. He and Pauley worked together for 13 years, and introduced her to her now husband.

Michael Riedel: Elon Musk vs Mark Zuckerberg Cage Match Shows How Weird They Are

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Michael Riedel: Elon Musk vs Mark Zuckerberg Cage Match Shows How Weird They Are

In one of the more bizarre media feuds ever witnessed, Twitter owner Elon Musk has agreed to a Las Vegas cage fight against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. 710 WOR morning host Michael Riedel says the entire situation shows the idiosyncracies of both moguls.

While discussing the topic with Len Berman on Len and Michael in the Morning, Reidel said “I think they’re both nerds. Weird nerds” when the situation was brought up.

After admitting he wasn’t 100-percent certain what a cage match actually was, Riedel shared that the idea that Facebook’s parent company — Meta — wanting to start a text-based app to rival Twitter cause a cage match was preposterous.

Berman called the situation “fabulous” before saying “These two guys are just weird”, adding both have a “weird look”.

Rob Ninkovich Out as ESPN Talent Cuts Continue

BSM Staff
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As ESPN layoffs continue to loom large following The Walt Disney Company mandate to cut 7,000 jobs to slash $5.5 billion in operating costs, Rob Ninkovich will be one of the on-air talent not returning. ESPN will not renew Ninkovich’s contract after it expires this summer, according to Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports.

Ninkovich joined ESPN in 2019 after playing 11 seasons in the NFL and capturing two Super Bowl championships with Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. Throughout his time with the network, he contributed his analysis and expertise to studio programming including NFL Live, First Take and SportsCenter, and he has also appeared on ESPN Radio.

Ninkovich is the latest casualty after the company parted ways with hockey analyst Chris Chelios and SportsCenter host Neil Everett – and more layoffs are reportedly expected in the coming weeks. The company reportedly axed the Keyshawn, JWill and Max morning radio show, but neither of the three mainstays have been laid off by the company.

Over the last several months, ESPN has laid off large swaths of its behind-the-scenes staff, including communications executive Mike Soltys, producer John Dahl and ESPN Radio program directors Ryan Hurley and Amanda Brown. Talent being laid off by ESPN who are in the midst of contracts will be paid the full value of their deals, but the benefit to the company is in being able to write their salary off the books. Those on expiring contracts will not be renewed, as is the case with Ninkovich, who could have plenty of suitors as football season approaches.

Kevin West Retiring From WGOW in Chattanooga

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Kevin West Retiring From WGOW in Chattanooga

WGOW Program and News Director Kevin West has announced he is retiring from the Chattanooga news/talk station.

West has worked in radio for 43 years, with 35 of them in the Chattanooga radio market. He currently serves as the morning news, weather, and traffic anchor for WGOW’s Morning Press show alongside Jim Reynolds and Brice Joyce.

He has served as the Program Director of the Cumulus-owned FM talk station TalkRadio 102.3 FM since 1994. He became the program director of the cluster’s AM talk station — NewsRadio 1150 WGOW AM — in 2011.

West’s final day at WGOW will be on Friday, June 30th. A nationwide search for his replacement is underway.

Ian Rapoport on Shams Charania, Draft Reporting: You Need to Say ‘I Don’t Know’

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During an appearance yesterday on The Pat McAfee Show, senior lead NBA insider for The Athletic and Stadium and FanDuel partner Shams Charania implied that the Charlotte Hornets would look to select Sterling “Scoot” Henderson with the second overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. Questions surrounded what the Hornets would select with the draft pick, as the team is nearing the finalization of its sale of majority ownership held by Michael Jordan to a group led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall. After the San Antonio Spurs stole the show by selecting French phenom Victor Wembanyama, Charlotte selected Alabama forward Brandon Miller.

Miller was a witness to a fatal shooting who police say supplied the gun used by his teammate Darius Miles. While Miles was charged with capital murder, authorities did not charge Miller with a crime, but questions still remain regarding his maturity at the NBA level.

The Portland Trail Blazers chose Henderson third overall, but Charania’s assertion from earlier in the day had shifted betting lines at several major betting outlets. The mistake Charania made in saying Henderson would be chosen second overall, according to McAfee, changed the line from +140 to -900 within a five-minute period.

“FanDuel is not privy to any news Shams breaks on his platform,” the company said in a statement.

Recollecting the incident, the soon-to-be ESPN midday television host said that Charania took a swing for the fences with what he said on the program, along with the Tweet he issued out describing Henderson as gaining “serious momentum” to be selected by Charlotte. In the end, he was incorrect, and it is an outcome NFL Network national insider Ian Rapoport tries to avoid at all costs. He texted with Charania after the incident occurred and mentioned the admiration he garners towards him, but admitted that it was a deleterious scenario.

“Reporting on the Draft is so hard because nobody wants to get jumped and teams will say [stuff and] people will talk about lying season,” Rapoport explained. “Sometimes lying is worth it, or omitting or misleading is worth it to get the player you want. I’m not saying that happened here, but I know that [it] happens.”

Rapoport has reported on the NFL Draft for many years and is known as one of the industry’s preeminent newsbreakers. Whenever he is reporting on a story, Rapoport ensures he triangulates sources, but there are times in the heat of the moment when insiders deem considerable intel and confirmation thereof as sufficient to share information. When Rapoport was at this year’s NFL Draft and confirmed the Houston Texans were trading up to select Will Anderson from Alabama, he was visibly shaking in excitement to divulge the news. Before this moment, Rapoport had confirmed that the team was selecting Ohio State quarterback CJ Stroud second-overall, but only did so after the speculation was confirmed by inside sources.

Rapoport stated earlier in an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show that he believed Stroud would be selected No. 2 overall, but did not present it as a definitive. The difference between the instances involving Rapoport and Charania was that Rapoport did not present the information with any semblance of it being definitive or based on information he uncovered.

“I was just confident in using my deduction and everything I had learned,” Rapoport said. “I was like, ‘I believe it’s going to be CJ, but I don’t know,’ and obviously some other very good people thought the opposite. But the most important thing to me draft-wise is to say, ‘I don’t know,’ because unless you know for sure; unless the G.M. is like, ‘Hey, this is who we’re picking,’ it is impossible.”

Charania has a stellar track record as a trusted NBA insider and expressed the importance of being 100% sure of any information he disseminates in an interview with Derek Futterman of Barrett Sports Media. Because of his personality and adherence to ethics as a reporter, McAfee believes he will bounce back and learn from his mistake.

“In the insider game, you guys have to kind of wade through bullshit all the time,” McAfee said to Rapoport. “I would not envy anybody who is in your seat at all, but you guys are committed to the game and you have to be…. It’s quite a balance you guys have to do.”

JJ Redick Video Leads Stephen A. Smith to Vow Revenge

BSM Staff
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The NBA season came to its conclusion as the Denver Nuggets celebrated its first NBA championship in the streets with hundreds of thousands of fans. NBA Finals MVP and all-star center Nikola Jokić called the championship parade the best day of his life, and all of the Nuggets players, personnel and fans reveled in the jubilation. Shortly thereafter, preparation turned to the NBA Draft, which took place Thursday night from Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., and the unofficial start to the new season. Before moving past the year in its entirety though, podcast host and ESPN basketball analyst JJ Redick unearthed less than stellar takes from various media personalities over the course of the 2022-23 season.

In a segment on his podcast, The Old Man and the Three, produced through Redick’s company ThreeFourTwo Productions, Redick repeated statements made by Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo, Skip Bayless, Taylor Rooks, Colin Cowherd and Stephen A. Smith among others. Through this, he brought back memories of Kawhi Leonard being called on to retire (Smith); Pat Riley firing Erik Spoelstra (Russo) and the aforementioned Jokić playing like he was “one big tub of Crisco” (Bayless).

A portion of the video was replayed on Friday morning’s edition of First Take, leading show host Molly Qerim to ask Smith to assert what he thought was his worst take of the past NBA season. After briefly thinking it over, Smith concluded by saying it was thinking the Brooklyn Nets would make the NBA Finals with Kyrie Irving as a leading MVP candidate and Ben Simmons having potential to win the Comeback Player of the Year distinction. Before he divulged his point further though, Smith made sure to warn Redick what he had just catalyzed.

“I’m the worst person in the world to mess with,” Smith said, prefacing it by saying Redick, like Qerim had, would learn of this. “I’ve got my own podcast too – The Stephen A. Smith Show – I’m going to get you for this. I’m going to wait, [but] I’m going to get you for this one.”

Some of the other takes Redick promulgated Smith as making included conveying that Jokić did not have a dominant style of play in the post, along with Aaron Gordon not being able to shift the Nuggets’ championship odds – in any universe whatsoever. Smith was, by far, the commentator featured the most in the video, perhaps in part that Redick works with him at ESPN on First Take.

Smith was enigmatic towards just how he would exact his revenge on Redick, but inconspicuously pointed out how Redick indeed exposed him for some of his thinking. Qerim then told Redick that reminiscing on the worst takes from throughout the NBA season was a good idea, leading Smith, clearly flabbergasted, to chime in again.

“It was a great idea,” Smith said, “….and it breeds other great ideas. I’m going to get you for that one. You got me today…. You’re not getting away with that, JJ Redick.”

Norm Hitzges Says Goodbye to 96.7 & 1310 The Ticket

BSM Staff
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Friday was a big one in the history of sports radio, particularly in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex. Norm Hitzges said goodbye to 96.7 & 1310 The Ticket.

“It’s wild seeing this is the last day. I can’t wrap my head around it,” partner Donovan Lewis said.

Hitzges was joined by a number of friends and colleagues I’m studio. He shared stories of some of his favorite moments and colleagues shared their favorite stories about him.

Lewis read a letter sent by President George W. Bush, who thanked Hitzges for his help in preparing Bush for media scrutiny when he took over as owner of the Texas Rangers. That reminded Norm Hitzges of a moment he shared with the 43rd President of the United States at a turkey bowling event.

“The future President Bush comes on. And I said, ‘Would you like the Turkey Bowl?’ And he said, sure. And he flings a frozen turkey across the stage at the Pepsi bottles. I have no idea how he did. But I said to him, ‘You know, someday the Democrats are going to use this against you.’”

Champagne was opened as the entire Ticket air staff joined Hitzges for his final two segments. He was presented with an award to honor the nearly $9 million he has raised for the Austin Street Center with his annual Norm-athon. 

“I could never believe that the move here would be the best thing that ever happened to me as a professional. I just couldn’t believe that, but now that’s the truth,” he said. “Coming here to The Ticket is the best thing that ever happened to me in my work life.”

The final segment of the show was reserved for Lewis and Hitzges to say goodbye to each other. Both acknowledged their unlikely friendship and how strong their bond has grown.

“Dude, you are the epitome of what this business is,” Lewis told his partner of the last eight years. “And everybody here and everybody doing all these things for you and everybody giving you congratulations should let you know what you mean to this business, to this city, to this station, to everyone. But you mean something special to me, man.”

Norm Hitzges told Donovan Lewis that he loved him dearly. Then, he addressed the audience.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do without you on Monday because you’ve been there for 48 years. It’s been a rich 48 years. There will be many years ahead to enjoy other things, to take on the next chapter, but this chapter has been wonderful. It has been something I could not have dreamed of to start this. Bless you, Donovan. I love you, man. I love you all out there, and somewhere down this road, I’ll bet almost all of our paths will cross again and that’ll be wonderful for me.”

Howie Carr: Tucker Carlson Getting Fired Led Me to Cut the Cord

BNM Staff
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Howie Carr: Tucker Carlson Getting Fired Led Me to Cut the Cord

Millions of television viewers have gotten rid of cable in recent years. Earlier this week, Boston-based radio host Howie Carr joined that group, and said the departure of Tucker Carlson from Fox News was the final straw.

While guest hosting The Grace Curley Show Thursday, Carr made the admission that he had finally cut the cord.

“I want to give myself a pat on the back because I’ve accomplished something today that I don’t think a lot of you ever thought I would do. I tweeted out about it earlier in the day. I have cut the cord. I no longer am paying Comcast probably close to 100 bucks a month for these crappy networks, these cable networks that I don’t watch that I haven’t watched in years,” Carr said.

“I feel stupid that I haven’t that I didn’t do it years earlier. But Tucker Carlson getting fired was the last straw that was the last thing I watched on cable TV.”

Carr admitted that he’ll have to find a way to watch more sporting events including Monday Night Football, but said he doesn’t feel any remorse for making the decision.

“I feel good. I forgot about it. The thing is, it’s not like joining a 12-step program because I’ve been I’ve been on the wagons for years! When it comes down to it, I don’t miss it. I don’t miss it. But I don’t need to go to the meetings because I haven’t touched that I haven’t touched a drop for a very long time.”

Mark Schlereth: Stephen A. Smith Knows He’s a Superstar

BSM Staff
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On Thursday night, the lives of over 50 basketball players were changed forever from Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. at the 2023 NBA Draft. First overall draft selection Victor Wembanyama was the headline attraction, and the French phenom’s arrival to the Association attracted more than 12,000 people to celebrate at a watch party from AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas. Brandon Miller and Sterling “Scoot” Henderson were the next two selections by Charlotte and Portland, respectively, followed by the Thompson twins, Amen and Ausar.

Coverage of the night was broadcast across multiple platforms owned by The Walt Disney Company, including ESPN, ESPN Radio and ABC. While there were a variety of analysts on the ESPN broadcast including JJ Redick, Andraya Carter and Jay Bilas, the ABC broadcast was more predicated on storytelling and featured the duo of Kevin Neghandi and Stephen A. Smith. Yet it was a moment before the proceedings officially commenced that caught the attention of some astute viewers involving Smith and Wembanyama penetrating far beyond the stark height difference.

Instead of asking him about basketball or the draft process itself, Smith chose to ask Wembanyama about his outfit. Many draft picks entered the arena flaunting expensive jewelry and flamboyantly immersing themselves into the professional lifestyle, and it was indeed part of the NBA Draft Red Carpet Special. Yet Denver Sports 104.3 The Fan morning host and FOX Sports football analyst Mark Schlereth could not help wondering just what exactly was happening.

“I’m like, ‘What in the world are we doing?,’” Schlereth said. “We’re going to talk about what you’re wearing going into the NBA Draft? I was just like, ‘You lost me,’ and maybe that’s because I’m just an old fart but Lord have mercy, aren’t there other things to talk about than the suit that you’re wearing?”

Smith has hardly concealed his desire to broaden his media coverage beyond the world of sports, hence why he podcasts three times a week on his eponymously named program, The Stephen A. Smith Show. The topics discussed on that program do not always directly pertain to sports and include conversations about politics, pop culture and hard news. Nearly every week, different media outlets are covering what Smith has to say on the podcast, with 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Toucher & Rich even granting him his own segment.

“He wants to host the Oscars [and] he wants to run for president,” Chad Andrus said while filling in for Mike Evans on the show. “[Stephen A. Smith] doesn’t think he’s a sports talking head; he thinks he’s a superstar appealing to everyone.”

The Walt Disney Company choosing to put Smith in its red carpet coverage and then on ABC to interview draft selections in a more casual, relaxed setting was a different viewership experience from the traditional linear broadcast. There was less time devoted to analysis about the draftees from Smith and more dedicated to storytelling and questions related to lifestyle. Basketball fans more interested in the culture of the game were inclined to watch ABC, while those looking for focused conversation and news likely watched ESPN.

I just love competition — but I’m not a huge NBA guy compared to what I like NFL wise,” Schlereth said. “The NBA Draft — it felt like ESPN is trying to make it the NFL Draft. Right off the bat, it just made me like, ‘Oh my gosh, you have got to be kidding me.’

Schlereth observed that Smith’s on-air performance had some resemblance to an audition for the Academy Awards. He does not doubt that Smith is deliberately trying to display what he can do beyond informing and entertaining viewers weekday mornings on First Take and trying to fulfill his own goal of being the No. 1 media personality of all time.

“I know Stephen A. well enough to know that – yes, he doesn’t think he’s a superstar; he knows he’s a superstar,” Schlereth said.

“Well he’s paid like one, so it’s kind of tough to argue,” Andrus replied.

Joe Fortenbaugh Defends Shams Charania for Incorrect Tweet That Moved Betting Lines

BSM Staff
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Every NBA Draft comes with its share of conspiracy theories. On Thursday night, the focus was less on who was picked than it was on what was reported as a tweet from Shams Charania brought up questions of ethics in reporting and sports betting.

Charania reported that the Charlotte Hornets were going to use the number two pick to take Scoot Henderson. That report swung the betting odds considerably. 

Darren Rovell noted that PointsBet had Henderson at +135 odds to be the number 2 pick prior to Charania’s tweet. After it went up, the odds changed, making Henderson a -600 favorite.

There was one problem though. The Hornets were not using the number two pick on Henderson. Instead, the team selected Brandon Miller out of Alabama. Miller had been the favorite to go at that spot all along before Charania tweeted.

This raised a lot of questions and concerns. Namely, Shams Charania works for a number of different outlets. One of them happens to be FanDuel, the most popular online sportsbook in the US. Plenty objected to an employee of a book being able to put out false information that swings the odds so wildly.

Joe Fortenbaugh saw it differently though. The ESPN gambling expert does not think anything nefarious happened at all. Instead, he chalked it up to disinformation the team was using to make others act.

“The concerns raised are understandable. A sportsbook employs a reporter who has the ability to significantly influence markets like the NBA Draft through his reports,” Fortenbaugh said on Twitter. “However, I think the more likely scenario here was Charlotte leaking Scoot info to Shams in the hopes of inducing a trade. We see this all the time in the NFL as well. Team with a high pick is linked to multiple prospects, hoping one of those reports brings a bounty via trade.”

It should be noted that Brandon Miller also fit Charlotte’s needs better than Henderson did. 

While a number of gamblers may disagree with Fortenbaugh’s assessment, he says there is reason to believe it, and it comes from information Shams Charania’s rival in the NBA breaking news world reported.

“Charlotte knew the market for Brandon Miller because of the Woj report earlier in the week. So they tried to dangle Scoot in the 24th hour to see what that could bring. When it amounted to little, they stuck with Miller.”

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