With the advent of Threads to challenge Twitter, many have questioned the role that traditional media outlets play in informing the general public. New Jersey 101.5 morning host Bill Spadea says its time to stop burying your head in the sand.
During an appearance on Newsmax, Spadea claimed more people need to recognize the role social media plays in today’s society.
“We have to recognize that social media is replacing traditional forms of media. So to me, I think it’s a very fine line when you talk about something so powerful as Facebook and Twitter,” Spadea said.
He then turned his attention to ways to make fact-based news more prevalent on social media platforms, pointing out on example as the right way to go about it.
“Look, it’s an open marketplace. It’s open communication. I think there should be community standards. Actually, Elon Musk and Twitter has done a great job,” Spadea added. “Community (Notes) have been hitting both sides and peppering them with facts. I think it has made the conversations easier.”
Spadea’s comments came after making a bigger point about censorship and the role government should or should not play in regulating the flow of information on social media. He said the argument often is that Facebook and Twitter are private companies, but argued that “There’s a fine line between quasi-government” and censorship.
The White House has reportedly informed Today News Africa reporter Simon Ateba that his press credentials will be revoked if he does not stop interrupting press briefings. Dana Loesch questioned why something similar didn’t happen to CNN’s Jim Acosta.
During The Dana Show Thursday, Loesch welcomed Ateba to the program to tell his side of the story. Before the interview, Loesch claimed that Ateba isn’t nearly as guilty of being a nuisance at White House press briefings as Acosta.
“I remember specifically — this was what a couple of years ago — when Jim Acosta was at a press briefing, and he got up and he was always argumentative, and he always interrupted everything. He actually interrupted,” Loesch argued. “He would shout over other journalists. It was every single news conference to memory or press availability to memory.
“He actually put his hands on one of the White House aides because he was they were gonna have a tug-of-war over the microphone. And I remember all of the journalists rushed to his defense. Not all, but most of them rushed to his defense. They were so upset when the Trump administration was discussing a penalty for Jim Acosta,” she continued. “And I just thought that was kind of interesting. There were these accusations that the administration was somehow stepping all over the sanctity of the free press and the I mean it was like King George all over again.”
Loesch insinuated that any rebuke of Ateba from the Biden administration was retaliation for his difficult questions.
“He asks very well-informed questions,” concluded Loesch. “He pushes for answers, and this makes the administration furious, particularly Karine Jean-Pierre.”
It is not the first time Loesch has defended Ateba. Earlier this year, she claimed she was “shocked” by how other reporters treated him, before saying that he is “one of the few real journalists left in the world”.
With just over two weeks to go until the Major League Baseball trading deadline, all of the attention is fixated on what the Los Angeles Angels will do with pending free agent and two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani. During the first half of the 2023 campaign, Ohtani is crafting arguably the No. 1 baseball season of all time. The Japanese phenom is pitching to a 3.32 ERA and is on pace to strike out over 200 batters while striking out, on average, over one batter per inning. At the plate, he is hitting .302 with a major league-leading 32 home runs and 71 runs batted in.
Ohtani is undoubtedly the consensus most valuable player in the American League, but yearning to compete for a World Series championship. The Angels failed to qualify for the postseason in Ohtani’s first five years with the team – even with future Hall of Fame outfielder Mike Trout as his teammate – and the team is currently on pace to miss the playoffs yet again. In fact, fans at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game at T-Mobile Park were imploring Ohtani to come to Seattle, chanting as such during his at bats.
Dan Patrick, while hosting his eponymous program, The Dan Patrick Show, welcomed ESPN baseball reporter and writer Buster Olney onto the program, who is preparing for a Sunday Night Baseball showdown between the Angels and Houston Astros. Expectedly so, he led the discussion by asking Olney just how much Ohtani would be a topic of discussion.
“It is going to dominate the sport where the question is going to be asked every day, ‘Have you heard anything about the Angels putting the word out that they’re ready to talk about Ohtani,’” Olney affirmed. “….We’re going into this two-week period where they’re going to be facing teams that they’re chasing…. At some point in those last 72 to 96 hours, we should hear; we probably might hear from [owner] Arte Moreno whether or not he’s going to trade Ohtani. If he is traded, you talk about a frenzy – idiots like me are going to be talking about this 24 hours a day.”
Earlier in the week, Olney suggested that the New York Yankees were a serious contender in the forthcoming Ohtani sweepstakes during an appearance on Get Up! While Olney has historically been a credible source of information, there are a deluge of people trying to obtain intel about the situation. Because of the ease of access and saturated content ecosystem, there are plenty of false reports on social media – most of whom are perpetuating misinformation and disinformation. Instead of speculating himself, Patrick decided to ask Olney how many teams he thought had legitimate chances to trade for the superstar athlete.
“What I’m hearing from GMs is that they don’t know if the Dodgers, this year, would do that type of move,” Olney said. “I think the Yankees would absolutely be all in, which makes sense to me.”
Throughout the rest of his answer – in which he listed the Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays as additional trade partners – Olney used adverbs of possibility, neglecting to falsely present any information as fact. The practice is representative of a journalist maintaining their responsibility to be a trustworthy conduit of information – and ensuring their reporting, not themselves, become the center of attention.
The subject matter discussed on First Take compared to The Stephen A. Smith Show podcast is vastly different, and it has caught the attention of many sports media professionals. As time has progressed, Smith has talked about topics that would likely be frowned upon if he were to do it on ESPN – which was one of the reasons for starting the podcast in the first place.
On Friday, WFAN’s Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti examined Smith’s contrasting hosting style on both shows after listening to comments made by Stephen Jackson pertaining to ESPN layoffs. In the “Moment of the Day,” Jerry Recco explained that Jackson recently made an appearance on Way Up with Angela Yee, on which he explained his theory as to why ESPN recently laid off several prominent members of its on-air talent roster.
“There are so many shows in our country that are more entertaining than what they’re talking about,” Jackson said of ESPN. “Perfect example – when Stephen A. gets off his show, he goes straight to his podcast to say things that he couldn’t say on ESPN because [that] is what’s hot right now. They’re firing people because nobody’s watching.”
On Wednesday’s episode of his eponymous podcast, Smith spoke about the exorbitant prices barbers in Los Angeles charge to make house visits. Smith was describing how someone charges $350 per hour plus a $100 travel fee to cut someone’s hair, but then his mind went elsewhere.
“When you use those kind of numbers and you utter the word ‘trim’ in the same sentence, haircuts are not what people think about,” Smith said, “and I’ll leave it at that.”
Upon playing back the audio, the entire studio erupted in laughter at the statement Smith made, leading Giannotti to do his best impression of the famed sports commentator.
“Stephen Jackson is right because if you turn on ESPN, [Stephen A. Smith] is like, ‘Damian Lillard is not going to go to another team but the Miami Heat,’ and then you turn on his podcast and [he goes], ‘I love boobies. I love them with all my heart.’”
Smith began podcasting with Audacy’s Cadence13 under the title Know Mercy, but decided to change the name so it would be more identifiable with him. Since the name change, the popularity of his podcast has rapidly grown and has begun live streaming and taking questions from consumers. In fact, the podcast introduced its own dedicated call-in line a few weeks ago, granting listeners the chance to make their voices heard.
Training camps will open in the NFL in the next couple of weeks. That means another season of brothers Jason and Travis Kelce hosting the New Heights podcast is right around the corner. However, without the support of Jason, Travis might not be doing any type of podcast.
Travis was a guest on the Bussin’ With The Boyspodcast with Will Compton and Taylor Lewan and he said when he was asked by others if he wanted to do a podcast, there was only one way where he would take on that kind of project.
“I think we got hit up with about podcasting and I was like the only way I’d do it is if I did it with my brother. I think from there, me and Jason always wanted to do something together in the entertainment world and this was kind of the transition into it I guess.”
During the interview, Travis did mention that a few other production companies asked them about doing a podcast, but Travis was a fan of Wave Sports and he had a lot of fun with them.
“I was just like these guys are fun to hang with, do you just want to do it with them? My brother was going through the business side of things. I’m like listen, however we get this thing going, let’s do it man.”
The duo asked Travis if he writes out his own questions for the guests that come on the show. While Travis might have a question or two he wants to ask, he said he wants the production company to handle the creativity portion.
“They pretty much do everything. I’ll have 1-2 things I want to ask whoever we have on there or if we go through the run of show and I’ll think of something on the spot, I’ll just shoot it. It either gets asked and it gets deleted or we keep it and it was a banger. In terms of the creativity of all, I kind of leave it to the professionals so I can just show up and have some fun.”
The ESPY Awards are a made for TV event. In 2023, TV was not entirely kind to ESPN’s awards show.
LeBron James’s speech and Damar Hamlin’s emotional tribute to the people that saved his life on the field in Cincinnati became viral moments. How many people saw them live though? Not enough is the answer.
Wednesday’s ESPY broadcast averaged a 1.4 rating according to Sports Media Watch. That is about 2.3 million people that were tuned in on ABC.
The 2023 numbers make this years ESPY Awards broadcast the least-watched in a decade, excluding 2020 and 2021, when the event’s schedule was effected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Geraldo Rivera recently exited Fox News. Sid Rosenberg lauded Rivera for never being predictable.
While interviewing Rivera during Sid and Friends in the Morning Friday, Rosenberg asked why the 80-year-old correspondent felt that Fox News “played favorites” between him and Greg Gutfeld. Rivera argued that he was a political wild card, which didn’t jive with the front Fox News wanted to present.
“People have to wrap their heads around the fact that people take different positions on different issues. Once you start going to everything on an ideological scale, then you are doomed to be like everybody else,” Rivera said. “You can predict where people come down on an issue just by their politics and their ideology. Not me.”
After Rivera’s statements, Rosenberg said that radio hosts who are predictable don’t produce a compelling product.
“No, that’s boring. I have to tell you that. Even on radio, some days I wake up and I like Mayor Eric Adams, and some days I hate him,” said Rosenberg. “Now, I mostly love Donald Trump, but I’m not afraid to criticize Donald Trump.
“I’ve worked with people that showed up for work every day and you knew they were going to love this guy and hate that guy. And to me, anything predictable either on TV or radio is boring. So I appreciate somebody who may take a stance on an issue. You’re not sure which way they’re going to go but the truth is that, ideally, is okay. It does not seem to be working because, to me, we’re getting more divided every day and there is no room for the middle.”
Reports have surfaced claiming Tucker Carlson was seeking to start his own media company, but the scale was previously unmentioned. A new report says he’s seeking hundreds of millions.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Carlson and Neil Patel are looking to raise “hundreds of millions of dollars” for a new media venture. The “backbone” of the company would be Carlson’s Tucker on Twitter series.
It isn’t the first time Carlson and Patel have worked together. The pair launched the conservative digital outlet The Daily Caller in 2010.
Twitter users would still be able to view segments of the monologues produced by the former Fox News host, but would need a subscription to view complete versions of his commentary, interviews, and documentaries produced by Carlson.
The WSJ report also claims that Carlson and Patel have met with Twitter executives to discuss the potential media company.
Funds raised by Carlson and Patel would go to also finance the outlet’s website and mobile app, while also exploring content homes beyond Twitter.
The Denver Nuggets NBA playoff run, which culminated with the franchise winning its first ever championship was good for local sports radio brands. The greatest benefactor of their success this quarter was the team’s flagship station, Altitude Sports Radio 92.5.
The Kroenke Sports and Entertainment brand’s biggest win came in morning drive. Moser, Lombardi and Kane featuring Marc Moser, Vic Lombardi and Brett Kane finished #1 for the quarter with Men 25-54 from 7a-10a with an 8.2 share. They were also #1 with Men 18-34 and Men 18-49. Year over year, the show rose from 9th to 1st thanks to a four point gain. Over a two year period the show has picked up more than seven full shares.
Altitude also got a big performance this quarter from its afternoon show, Kreckman and Lindahl featuring Nate Kreckman and Andy Lindahl. The drive time team finished 2nd with a 7.4 share, up four and a half points and ten ranking positions from last year.
In middays, Altitude ranked 5th with a 5.5 during Dempsey and Company, which features Chris Dempsey, Matt McChesney, and Alex Rajaniemi. The station’s second midday program, Polumbus, Hastings and Dover which includes Tyler Polumbus, Scott Hastings, and Josh Dover came in 6th with a 4.8 share.
In weekday prime, Altitude finished 4th overall with a 6.3 share. The station improved year over year by ten ranking positions and more than three full ratings shares. They’ve also nearly quadrupled their share from 2021 to 2023.
For Denver Sports 104.3 The Fan, the news was good as well. Despite not having the local play by play rights, the station capitalized on local passion for the Nuggets, narrowly winning the M-F 6a-6p weekday battle with a 2nd place 6.7 share performance. The Fan was up six spots and nearly three full points during the same period last year when they ranked 8th with a 3.8 share.
Turning to mornings, Schlereth and Evans with Mark Schlereth and Mike Evans ranked 3rd this book with a 7.3 share. They were up from a 4.7 and 6th place finish year over year. One key item to point out, The Fan’s morning show runs 6a-9a. Altitude’s runs 7a-10a with Brett Kane doing a solo hour from 6a-7a.
Moving to middays, Stokley and Zach featuring Brandon Stokley and Zach Bye recorded a 6.1 share to rank 3rd from 11a-2p. The show was up year over year from 7th and a 4.2 share. The Fan’s second midday program, The Players Club with Orlando Franklin, Chad Brown, and Nate Jackson came in 6th with a 5.1 share. The time slot grew from 14th and a 2.7 share last year.
Closing things out in afternoons, The Drive featuring Darren ‘DMac’ McKee and Derek Wolfe finished 3rd with Men 25-54 with a 6.6 share. The PM drive program improved from 12th place and a 3.5 share during the same period last year.
Newsradio KOA, which serves as the home of the Denver Broncos, Colorado Rockies, and Colorado Football, also saw improvement this quarter. The afternoon trio of Dave Logan, Alfred Williams & Ryan Edwards, which airs weekdays from 3p-6p MT doubled their share year over year, rising to a 1.9, 16th place finish. One year earlier they were 25th with a 0.9.
The Denver Nuggets title run certainly helped all local radio brands. Championship celebrations during the spring book though are nothing new to Denver, the city had the Colorado Avalanche win the Stanley Cup during the same period last year. Does this mean the Denver Broncos, Colorado Rockies or Colorado Buffaloes are next?
When local teams win, it has a carryover effect on radio stations. The enthusiasm for the Nuggets led to increased listening this quarter, fueling a legitimate ratings battle between the market’s top two sports brands. It’s a safe bet that the talent and programmers at both of these stations will be even more motivated moving forward trying to capture the market’s attention.
Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game experienced record low ratings this week. Despite the fact that the game has more young stars and is moving faster than it has in decades, the general public was not convinced to tune in and Rich Shertenlieb says the reason why may be in the broadcast booth.
“It’s going to sound strange, but I think Joe Buck not being on the call…that’s a bigger loss than most people think,” he said Friday morning on 98.5 The Sports Hub. “I just believe we’ve been conditioned to think that when you hear Joe Buck’s voice, you know, something big and important is happening in the sports world.”
Shertenlieb and Jon Wallach were not even able to name who was calling the game for FOX at first. It was Joe Davis, who was elevated to the top baseball play-by-play position when Buck left FOX for ESPN last year.
Once Wallach realized it was Davis, he said that could be part of the All-Star Game’s problem. He said that Davis “lays back” too much. Shertenlieb countered by saying he didn’t need big energy from Davis.
Wallach said that if you aren’t getting it from Davis, you aren’t getting energy from anyone on FOX.
“You need him to be different than Smoltz, who is very quiet.”
The entire All-Star Week felt lackluster to Shertenlieb. He said the problems extended well-beyond the main attraction and didn’t only affect FOX.
“The Home Run Derby felt that way as well. It just felt stale and ESPN’s presentation was all wrong.”
