Valley PBS and Newstalk 580/105.9 KMJ have collaborated to produce a one-hour documentary recounting the story of the renowned news talk station’s 100-year history. In the teaser trailer for “KMJ: 100 Years in the Valley,” host John Broeske jests about the non-existence of radios during KMJ’s inception.
The documentary sheds light on the station’s influence on Fresno and the broader Central Valley of California, including its personalities, throughout the past century. KMJ started broadcasting with only 50 watts of power on March 23, 1922, which increased to an impressive 50,000 watts before WWII.
The film was written and directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Jeff Aiello, with KMJ Program Director Blake Taylor as a producer. “KMJ: 100 Years in The Valley” premieres on Thursday, March 30, at 7 PM PT.
You can view it anytime on the PBS App via Video.ValleyPBS.org or YouTube.com/ValleyPBS.
Could you picture NFL games on every night of the week from September to January? ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio thinks it’ll happen in his lifetime.
In an appearance on The Pat McAfee Showon Wednesday, Florio said it’s inevitable that we’ll see the league play games every night.
“I think sooner than later we’re gonna have Tuesday Night Football, we’re gonna have Wednesday Night Football,” he said. “It’s gonna be hopefully in my lifetime a seven day a week, primetime event. There’s too much money to be made.”
“I would love to have football on every night of the week,” Florio added. “It would be nice to have a night or two off. Like Friday night and Saturday night would be nice, but I’d be fine with Tuesday and Wednesday.”
How does Florio think the NFL will get to the point of playing seven days a week during the season? Expansion. And the league has already expressed interest in establishing franchises in Europe.
“I think they’re gonna start moving that number from 32 to in time 34, 36, 38 eventually 40,” Florio said. “Quarterbacks is the key. Is there ever gonna be enough quarterbacks to have 40 NFL teams? But I think that would be the ultimate maximum number.”
Even McAfee added that an 18th NFL regular season game will be coming sooner rather than later. Florio said in order to justify the need for one more game, expansion is the answer.
“When it comes to the inventory, 18 games is the most they’re gonna get away with,” Florio said. “So if you wanna increase the total number of games so you can have games Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Friday night, Saturday night, at some point you need more teams to get more games.”
“If the money’s there to be made by the owners, they’ll deal with it,” he added.
Pat McAfee continues to be on hiatus from his obligations to WWE. As the media star and father-to-be weighs options for the future of his daily sports show and other dealings, WWE’s CEO wants McAfee to keep wrestling in the mix.
Appearing on The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast, WWE CEO Nick Khan said with the company’s signature live event this weekend, WrestleMania, don’t expect McAfee to show up like he did in January at the Royal Rumble.
“We have no plans to have him there this weekend,” Khan said.
Co-host Andrew Marchand asked how WWE handles talks with McAfee, who is believed to be ending his relationship with FanDuel two years into a four-year $120 million contract. WWE has a relationship with NBCUniversal, with WWE Network and its massive library of content being absorbed into Peacock in 2021. McAfee has since been replaced at the SmackDown announce table by former WWE superstar Wade Barrett.
“The world is his oyster,” Khan said. “He’s 36 years old and look at his relevancy factor when you talk to young children, as I have two young children. When I talk to them it’s often McAfee, McAfee, McAfee. That’s what’s in the wheelhouse for them. So if you look at any of the traditional buyers, what do they want? They want a young, diverse audience. What does McAfee bring? He brings a young, diverse audience.”
Khan noted how McAfee tends to not get overly political or controversial with his show and how he’s developed relationships with athletes like Aaron Rodgers and gives them a platform to speak freely without condemnation.
“He’s not looking to annihilate anybody, or crucify them,” he said. “He’s looking to have good content, and his content has been terrific. He’ll determine ultimately where he wants his home to be. And our hope is that he does more with us.”
The 2023 Los Angeles Angels begin their new season Thursday in Oakland, and almost 400 miles south of RingCentral Coliseum at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. The team’s radio broadcasters will be virtually alone in the broadcast booth calling the game remotely.
Terry Smith and Mark Langston, the Angels’ radio broadcast team, will not travel for road games this season. It marks the fourth year since the COVID-shortened season in 2020 that the team has decided to keep the radio crew grounded.
The Angels and the Toronto Blue Jays are the only two teams that don’t send their main English speaking radio broadcasters to road games. Both in Anaheim and Toronto, the moves are viewed as a cost-cutting measure.
“We just found that the economics – 40,000-50,000 miles is not going to change that experience,” Angels owner Arte Moreno said earlier this month in a press conference earlier this week.
As for the Angels’ Spanish speaking broadcasts, half of the 2023 season will air on KWKW. Rolando Gonzalez will be the play-by-play voice.
Gonzalez replaces longtime Spanish broadcaster Jose Tolentino, who told The Athletic that he was forced out of the role by the team.
Former New York Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum released the third edition of his mock first round of the upcoming NFL draft on Tuesday, and one host at 97.1 The Ticket in Detroit couldn’t stand some of Tannenbaum’s selections.
Mike Valenti asked for some of the surprises that Tannenbaum had in the first round and lost it when Tannenbaum had University of Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker coming off the board fifth overall.
“What is this guy on crack? Maybe that’s why Tannenbaum lost his job as a GM,” Valenti said Tuesday on The Valenti Show with Rico. “Hendon Hooker is a system quarterback where Josh Heupel managed to create unnatural matchups by putting receivers out of bounds basically.”
“Automatically I hate this mock draft,” he added.
Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter falls to the home town Lions at 18th overall on Tannenbaum’s board, and Valenti doesn’t believe Carter waits that long to be selected. But in this case, with Carter dealing with charges related to a fatal crash in January that killed Georgia teammate Devin Willock and recruiting staffer Chandler LeCroy, Valenti thinks Detroit gets a steal if Carter is still available.
“I think Tannenbaum’s gotta be drug tested, but I’ll take it,” Valenti said.
To be fair, Tannenbaum did write that he was going “a different route” with this year’s mock.
“I’m sliding into the general manager chair for each team with a first-rounder and making my own picks,” Tannenbaum wrote. “This isn’t what I’m expecting but rather how I’d personally approach each Day 1 selection. And what follows is based off my own evaluations, preferences and philosophies.”
The first round of the NFL draft is on Thursday, April 27.
Diamond Sports Group has reportedly made its rights fee payment to the San Diego Padres, which averted triggering a clause in the contract that would revert the clubs television rights back to MLB.
Earlier this month, Diamond Sports Group — which operates the Bally Sports-branded regional sports networks — admitted it had not paid the Arizona Diamondbacks. Reports then surfaced that in bankruptcy proceedings, the company would look to get out of its contracts with the Padres, Cincinnati Reds, and Cleveland Guardians in addition to the Diamondbacks.
Earlier reports on the matter claimed that Bally Sports San Diego loses $20 million per season on the current deal with the Padres.
During a Wednesday appearance on 97.3 The Fan, the team’s flagship radio home, Padres CEO Erik Greupner said he had been given assurances that payment would be given to the team before the grace period deadline eclipsed, which was at 11:59 PM tonight.
San Diego’s Opening Day is tomorrow, and had the cable channel failed to make its payment, MLB has previously said it would step in to produce and distribute any games that had seen disruptions due to the downfall of either the Bally Sports or AT&T SportsNet regional sports networks.
Sports Business Journal reports Diamond Sports Group was motivated to make its rights fee payment to the Padres due to the team’s likelihood of on-field success in 2023. With star players like Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Juan Soto, Xander Bogaerts, and Yu Darvish, the team is expected to be a World Series contender.
Roger Goodell wants flex scheduling to come to Prime Video’s ThursdayNight Football package. It could happen this season, but we won’t know for sure until May after league owners decided to table a vote on the proposal. On Wednesday, FOX Sports Radio’s Dan Patrick joined the chorus of critics calling it a bad idea.
Patrick said that the league always prioritizes revenue. If it were thinking about the fans, this isn’t something that would even be discussed.
The idea of flex scheduling was first introduced for NBC’s Sunday Night Football package in 2006. The goal was to make sure the prime time TV package could deliver high quality games every week.
“NBC did something that was brilliant where they were able to flex Sunday night games,” Patrick said. “Everyone wanted it.”
While the fate of flex scheduling for Thursdays remains up in the air, we do know that flex scheduling is coming to Monday Night Football on ESPN this season. Patrick, who worked for NBC when the practice was introduced, said that it always took care of one broadcast partner by screwing others.
“Networks were so upset that NBC would go ‘Hey, you know what? We’re gonna take that game and we’re gonna have it on Sunday night.’ Then FOX and CBS would be scrambling there.”
Dan Patrick suggested that perhaps Amazon’s Prime Video doesn’t deserve the same treatment as NBC or ESPN. Far fewer people watch the Thursday night game than any other primetime NFL contest.
Whether or not flex scheduling comes to Thursday Night Football, Patrick says it does not guarantee to change the package’s reputation for delivering largely unappealing games.
“I’ve long said it’s crazy to say you have to play Sunday and then turn around and play Thursday and we’d always go ‘Man, these Thursday games aren’t good,’” he concluded. “Well, was it the matchup or just the quality of play?”
Dan Orlovsky has become a regular presence on ESPN whether it’s calling football games as an analyst or talking about the game on NFL Live, Get Up, or First Take and he loves every job that he gets to do.
Orlovsky was a guest on the most recent episode of GOLF’s SUBPARwith Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. When he was asked what he likes doing the best out of all of the things he gets to do, he mentioned that it’s a question he gets all the time and he dove into why he loves each of the roles he has.
“I love them all to be honest with you. We get asked that question all the time by executives: What’s your end goal? What do you want to do more of? What do you want to do less of? I always say I love it all. If you get a good live game, it’s nails. There’s nothing that beats a good live game. Really in college football, if you get the right scene, right setting, and get a great game, it’s tough to beat…If you get a good college football or NFL game, those are great.
“First Take is a blast because Stephen A. called me 2 years ago and was like I want to give you Thursdays. Thursday is going to be your day. I think the thing that gave me so much joy in doing Thursdays with Stephen A. is he’s so ‘Go be yourself’. He’s not focused on having this intense ‘I’ve got to be right moment’. He just wants to have fun talking football and arguing about sports in general. I love doing First Take.
“I love doing Get Up because it kind of was where I got started and they’ve given me a lot of creative freedom. NFL Live is my favorite when it comes to I’m with people who I love. Those people are like family to me. That’s where I am my most nerd is NFL Live. I love it all.”
When Orlovsky was discussing more about working with Smith, he talked about how all Smith wants to do is talk sports and that conversations that extend into the commercial break never get personal even though some could view them as awkward.
“One of the first times I did First Take, we were in commercial break and I was sitting there talking to Stephen A. about whatever. All of a sudden when you are on set, someone yells 15 seconds till we are live. Stephen A says what’s the topic?
Live TV comes on and he goes from this casual conversation to performance. I think that’s empowering when you see him do that because that’s part of that show. He takes a ton of pride in it, but it’s not fake. It’s just who he is in that moment. He’s not overly sensitive. He’s never going to get defensive about stuff. He just literally wants to chop it up and argue and disagree and have entertaining sports conversations. It could be viewed as awkward, but it’s never personal.”
When Orlovsky first became a part of the media, he told Knost and Stoltz he learned the power of making a list and that when coming up with a Top 5, it should be something that generates conversation.
“I learned early on in this business lists are supposed to be disagreed upon. If you make a list and everyone’s like ‘I kind of agree’, it’s boring. I am aware when I make lists of trying to make something that is going to generate conversation, generate disagreement. I’m not going to make a list that I don’t think is accurate or don’t think is something I stand by. I’ve had guys reach out to me and be like ‘What the heck is this all about?’. I have had agents text me. They text me all the time saying ‘What are you doing? You are driving value’.
“I am aware I am on ESPN a ton. I try to be very conscious of that as well. I have had guys and agents reach out a bunch, but I have to do my job the best I can.”
Even though Orlovsky had a solid career as a backup in the NFL, he said that he is having more fun now because of the success that he is having.
“I am better at this than I was as a player. Once you settle into that role, it’s really cool as a backup, but you don’t have any competitive release though. You do all the work as everyone else, but you don’t get to go out on Sundays and prove that work was worth it. I love doing this now because there’s an aspect of taking immense pride in trying to find something that you can be really good at after you were really good at something…It’s another opportunity to find a way to be really good at something and have that as a daily challenge.”
Lakers Lounge, hosted by Anthony Irwin, Green With Envy, hosted by Will Weir, Greg Maneikis, and Adam Taylor, and Pod Maverick with Kirk Henderson are all being revived with Blue Wire.
“We’ve built Blue Wire around being able to identify exceptional talent hitting the podcast free agency market,” said Blue Wire CEO Kevin Jones. “We were thrilled to act quickly and provide a new home for three standout local NBA podcasts.”
“I’ve known Kevin for years and we’ve often spoken about working together,” Irwin said. “I couldn’t possibly be more excited to add to all the great work Blue Wire has become known for as we finally see years of conversations become a fruitful partnership.”
The former SB Nation programs that follow the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, and Dallas Mavericks, respectively, were able to negotiate the ownership of their podcasts with Vox, allowing them to bring their former feeds with them to Blue Wire.
The addition of the three podcasts adds to the company’s growing list of NBA shows. Currently, Blue Wire hosts Road Trippin’ with Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye, and No Chill with Gilbert Arenas, among others.
Longtime Tampa radio host Jack Harris claims he has been fired by NewsRadio 970 WFLA.
“After I signed off from my show at 7:00 AM today, iHeartRadio bosses told me that they were cutting back on expenses and had to let me go,” Harris told The Tampa Bay Times. “I didn’t think I was that big of a burden on them. I was making a seventh of what I made three or four years ago.”
The 81-year-old Harris had been with the station in several tenures since 1970 but had hosted on the station for the last 29 years, most recently on weekdays from 5:00-7:00 AM as host of AM Tampa Bay.
When reached by Barrett News Media for comment, WFLA Program Director John Mamola declined the opportunity to speak on the subject.
Harris — who was insistent that he was not playing a practical joke on listeners with April Fool’s around the corner — shared he was saddened he didn’t get the opportunity to have a farewell show and thank listeners for their years together. “They are what I will miss most.
When asked what his next step will be, Harris was unsure.
“I might look for part time work on the radio somewhere,” the longtime host said. “Or maybe I will retire. I am an old geezer after all.”
