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More Media Credentials Issued For Super Bowl LVII Than Ever Before

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More Media Credentials Issued For Super Bowl LVII Than Ever Before

Almost three years removed from the COVID-19 pandemic completely shutting down the world, the Super Bowl host city is now bustling with media once again covering the NFL’s championship game.

According to Front Office Sports, more than 6,000 media members from over 24 countries have received credentials to cover Super Bowl LVII on Sunday. That figure is up 13% from last year. In 2021, during the peak of the pandemic, only 2,400 media members were allowed to cover the game in Tampa.

A number at or above 6,000 would mean a return of the number of media members covering the game back to pre-pandemic levels.

This year’s Super Bowl is airing on FOX.

ESPN, ESPN2 To Air 5 Hour NBA Trade Deadline Special Thursday

BSM Staff
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The NBA trade deadline is this week, and ESPN is going all-in on coverage.

ESPN announced Monday that it will air a five-hour special across ESPN and ESPN2 making sure every deal leading up to the deadline is covered.

The NBA Today Trade Deadline Special will air starting at 1:00 PM on Thursday on ESPN, and the final two hours leading up to the official deadline will air on ESPN 2.

From Los Angeles, Malika Andrews will host. She will be joined by Jalen Rose, Zach Lowe, Chiney Ogwumike, Kendrick Perkins, Richard Jefferson, Ramona Shelburne, Brian Windhorst, and Vince Carter.

Adrian Wojnarowski will be breaking news from Bristol alongside Tim Legler and Bobby Marks. Meanwhile, Stephen A. Smith and Michael Wilbon will be weighing in from Scottsdale, Arizona from ESPN’s Super Bowl set.

Several other ESPN NBA reporters will also be contributing coverage throughout the afternoon.

Brent Dougherty Signs New Deal At 104.5 The Zone

BSM Staff
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Brent Dougherty Signs New Deal At 104.5 The Zone

Things are going very well for 104.5 The Zone. The Cumulus station is coming off of a strong Fall ratings book, and now it has secured the future of its signature show Brent Dougherty has a new deal that will keep the 3HL host on the station for the foreseeable future.

“I am blessed to be able to work with the most talented people in radio, both on and off the air,” Dougherty told BSM. “I am so excited to have the opportunity to commit long term, again, to continue to help make 104.5 The Zone the best radio station in the country.”

Brent Dougherty has been part of The Zone since 2008. He was well-known to Nashville sports fans long before that, having previously served as the Sports Director at 1510 WLAC.

Dougherty announced his new deal last week on Twitter. On Monday, he told Barrett Sports Media that re-signing was a no-brainer, given his teammates.

“I’m so fortunate to be able to work with Dawn Davenport, Ron Slay, and Joe Hunk on a day-to-day basis. We know that there is always room to grow. We’ve worked hard to get where we are and will continue to do that every day. Win every day – always in all ways.”

While all of the teams currently in Nashville were already there when 3HL launched in 2010, Dougherty knows the landscape is so much different now with a population boom and the changing options for sports media. He says that he is optimistic that both the show and 104.5 The Zone will play a prominent role in shaping sports fans’ conversations in Middle Tennessee for years to come.

“We as a radio station have tried to grow with Nashville hand-in-hand. 104.5 The Zone is the voice of Nashville sports. It was that way when I came to work at this radio station in 2008. We are blessed to have such loyal and passionate listeners and are so thankful for their participation and their desire to take ownership over what we do.”

WIBC Host Abdul-Hakim Shabazz Running for Indianapolis Mayor

BNM Staff
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WIBC Host Abdul-Hakim Shabazz Running for Indianapolis Mayor

WIBC weekend host Abdul-Hakim Shabazz has announced he will run for Mayor of Indianapolis in 2023.

Shabazz will enter the Republican primary for the city’s mayoral race. Reverend James Jackson is the only current other Republican who has announced a run.

“I spoke to a lot of Hoosiers, a lot of folks in Indianapolis, in part parts of the city, Republicans, Democrats, and Libertarians for that matter and their eyes just lit up,” Shabazz told the station’s Kendall and Casey. “A very nice lady, she donated $5. She said ‘Abdul, that’s all I can afford to give, I really want you to be mayor.’ It’s for people like that who are of limited mean, who don’t have a lot to give, and just want to feel better about where they live.”

In a press release announcing his campaign, Shabazz said “public safety, public works, and public trust will be the three cornerstones of my campaign”.

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett, a Democrat, will seek his third term as the city’s mayor during the 2023 election. Two challengers will face off against him in the May primary.

Shabazz — in addition to serving as the editor of IndyPolitics.org — hosts Abdul At Large on 93 WIBC on Saturday from 1:00-3:00 PM.

Tom Brady: I’ll Join FOX in 2024

BSM Staff
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Many have questioned whether Tom Brady will actually join FOX Sports’ top NFL booth after he retires. Today, we have that answer.

During an appearance on The Herd with Colin Cowherd, Brady confirmed he will indeed join Kevin Burkhardt in the network’s top NFL booth, but not until the 2024 season.

“Decompression is important,” Brady said, noting he’ll join the network’s NFL coverage after a year off from the game. “You’re on this kind of really crazy treadmill/hamster wheel, loving the moment, loving the journey, (but) at the same time there’s a daily fight. I have an appreciation to those who are so committed to showing up every day and putting in their max effort to their life and their career.

“I think — for me — I want to be great at what I do. So last week, talking with the people at FOX Sports and the leadership there allowing me to start my FOX opportunity in the fall of 2024 is something that’s great for me.”

Brady added he needs time to absorb a new career before jumping in head first.

“Take some time to really learn, become great at what I want to do, become great at thinking about the opportunity, and make sure I don’t rush into anything. Even in the future, I wanna be great at what I do. That takes time strategizing, and learning, and evolving, and I have so many people to rely on that can support me in that growth, too.”

The seven-time Super Bowl winning quarterback concluded by saying there are other aspects of his life outside of football that “need some catching up and energy”. He went through a high-profile divorce from supermodel Gisele Bündchen, reportedly stemming from his refusal to retire after the 2021 NFL season.

Brady signed a reported 10-year, $375 million contract with FOX Sports to join the network’s top NFL announcing crew, and serve as a brand ambassador in May of last year.

The addition of Brady to the FOX Sports booth creates a potential log jam in the analyst role. Current FOX Sports top NFL analyst Greg Olsen has received high praise from many both inside and outside the industry for his work with Burkhardt. Olsen hasn’t been shy about his wish to remain in the network’s top booth, saying that while the situation “sucks”, he is a “big boy” and “knows what he signed up for”.

Newsmax CEO: We Asked DirecTV For $1 A Year

BNM Staff
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Newsmax CEO: We Asked DirecTV For $1 A Year

Newsmax has now been off the DirecTV channel lineup for more than a week, and its CEO — Chris Ruddy — continues to speak out on what he calls censorship from the satellite provider.

Ruddy was a guest on The Mark Simone Show on 710 WOR and told the New York host DirecTV claimed it would never pay the cable outlet a carriage fee.

“DirecTV had us on for five years and they removed us — censored us — making a very strange demand of Newsmax that they don’t demand of other cable news channels,” Ruddy said.

“There’s 22 liberal news channels on DirecTV and they said ‘Newsmax is the only cable news channel that’s never gonna get a cable fee’. And we’re like ‘Well, why?’, and they’re like ‘We need to save money’. We’re the fourth highest-rated cable news channel and there’s probably 100 channels less rated than we are that you’re paying more than this tiny license fee we were asking of about a dollar a year. And they were very obstinate in this because they knew that it was a way of cleverly trying to shut us down as a news channel.”

When asked by Simone what the reaction had been to being “de-platformed” by the satellite provider, Ruddy said there’s a chance the channel could return if public pushback continues.

“They are telling people they are thinking about bringing us back,” added Ruddy. “This is after President Trump and others have called for people to just cancel DirecTV. He said he was canceling DirecTV and AT&T, including his cell phones. And a lot of people have been calling…we’re also encouraging people to call Congress to have hearings on this because its also an example of woke censorship by AT&T to target us and One America (News).”

Troy Aikman Believes Tom Brady Has Bright Broadcasting Future

BSM Staff
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Troy Aikman has been in the NFL broadcast booth since 2001 and he knows first-hand what Tom Brady will have to go through as he goes from the playing field to the booth. The game has changed over the last 20 years, particularly the speed at which the game is played.

Aikman was a guest on the Green Light with Chris Long podcast and he was asked about the biggest adjustment he had to make when he entered the FOX booth at the time. The Hall-of-Fame QB mentioned how a lot goes on in the booth and it takes a little bit to adjust.

“There is a lot going on in a broadcast booth that it just takes a little bit of time to understand and have things slow down a little bit. There’s this idea that whether you are a player or a former coach when you go into a broadcast booth, I can’t wait to be able to educate the viewer on X and explain this.

“There’s less time now than there was when I got into the broadcast booth because all these offenses are playing up-tempo. You have to be done talking before the snap of the next play so you just don’t have the kind of time to get into a lot of that.

“What I learned early on is you start down this road of explaining something and then you have to somehow wrap it up to be done talking before Joe jumps back in. You leave something hanging and then a big play happens and you never get back to it…Adjusting to all the action and all the activity going on in the broadcast booth and the timing of everything is probably the biggest challenge.” 

When he is in the booth, Aikman mentioned that he never wants the audience to feel like he has all the answers when he analyzes a game and there are only a few times when he will get very critical.

“I don’t go into a broadcast feeling like I have all the answers to what’s happening on the field and I don’t want to come off as though I do have all the answers because these guys spend an enormous amount of time giving it everything they have and it’s more important for them to win than anyone watching the game. I tend to give the coaches the benefit of the doubt.

“Where I’m critical is just not very smart plays, lack of effort, lack of discipline. Those things are when I tend to then react pretty strongly.”

As for his thoughts on Brady becoming an analyst, Aikman believes Brady will do whatever he can to be successful and he is looking forward to hearing some of the opinions Brady has on the game that now he will be able to say as an analyst.

“I think that for him, he has some real opinions. He hasn’t always voiced all of those, of course. Now he will have a platform to where it will be expected and I think he will deliver. I fully expect him to have a really great broadcasting career.

“My only advice is just be you, be authentic, be honest, speak your mind. He will find his niche. He will do that respectfully and I think he will add a lot to the broadcast.”

Jay Williams Tells Stephen A. Smith His Criticism Of Kyrie Irving ‘Seems Personal’

BSM Staff
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Kyrie Irving is a lot of things. Boring is rarely one of them. Discussions of Kyrie Irving can get heated, particularly when those discussions involve Jay Williams and Stephen A. Smith of ESPN.

Williams was a guest on First Take Monday morning. He was part of a panel discussing Irving’s trade request, which ultimately ended with him as a member of the Dallas Mavericks. He and Smith butted heads

“First off, I’m not the one yelling,” he said to Smith. “You say I’m being sensitive and I don’t know why, but you’re the one that’s very emotional right now.”

That comment was met with an “Oh my God!” from Smith, who laid back while Williams told him that it seemed like Smith is considerably harder on Irving and more triggered by stories about him than about any other athlete.

Smith answered that he is always triggered. Williams, as a regular viewer of First Take, said that did not feel true. He said that it seemed like Stephen A. Smith has a personal problem with Kyrie Irving.

“You — of all people, with all the interest you have — have the nerve to sit here on national television and tell me I’m getting personal with a player?” Smith responded. “I don’t lose no sleep. I don’t lose any sleep over Kyrie Irving.”

Smith then claimed he’d to have too much to say. Jay Williams said he did too, to which Smith started saying “Just say it, Jay.”

Williams met those demands with “I’m not here for that” and “I am on your show,” as host Molly Qerim tried to bring the temperature down.

When it comes to daytime sports television, there will always be questions about how authentic the arguments really are. Last year, Jay Williams was a guest on The Jason Barrett Podcast. He admitted on that show that Smith’s discussions of Kyrie Irving are something he has seized on to create conflict when they are together.

“The way he went at Kyrie all of last year ‘Well, you know some people don’t like to come to work. Some people don’t like to be here’ and then all the sudden for him to flip and be like ‘I’m choosing Kyrie Irving for my MVP’ I’m like ‘No! No, you can’t do that!’

Whether this was co-workers genuinely butting heads, a disagreement played up for the cameras, or some combination of the two, will likely only be known by Stephen A. Smith and Jay Williams. Plenty of their sports media colleagues took notice though.

Megyn Kelly: ‘I Would Have Had Don Lemon Fired’ After Alleged Outburst

BNM Staff
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Reporting from The New York Post last week claimed Don Lemon had an “outburst” on CNN This Morning co-host Kaitlan Collins for stepping on one another during the Thursday, December 8th show. SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly said if a similar situation had happened while she was at Fox News, she would have had that co-host fired.

“I’ve co-hosted more hours than I can count with a lot of guys with big egos — appropriately big egos — and never — never — have I screamed at a colleague or had him scream at me,” Kelly said. “We’ve had charged disagreements. Had a charged disagreement with Chris Wallace one time. We’re never screaming at each other, and you pick it up right after. If somebody ever screamed at me to the point where I was visibly upset and ran out of the studio, I would have that person fired. I would make sure that person was fired.”

The comments from Kelly came after she mentioned she was in the same position as Collins with some of her former Fox News colleagues, but it never resulted in raising their voices at one another.

“I co-hosted a show with Bill Hemmer for three years. I was on the air with Bret Baier more times than I can count. And sometimes somebody gets on your nerves,” said Kelly. “What you don’t do is scream at them after the fact. Later you say ‘Oh, we stepped on each other’.”

“It’s all about servicing the audience, if you’re a professional,” continued Kelly. “If you’re a douchebag, you scream at the woman next to you and blame it on her.”

Kelly concluded by stating that it is likely Collins is not the first co-worker Lemon has screamed at, and if The New York Post continued digging, they would find another female anchor to corroborate that Lemon has a history of this conduct.

Howie Carr: CNN Producers ‘Sheltered If Shaken By Don Lemon Outbursts’

BNM Staff
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Howie Carr: CNN Producers ‘Sheltered If Shaken By Don Lemon Outbursts’

Reporting last week revealed tension behind the scenes of CNN This Morning, as Don Lemon has reportedly had “outbursts” during commercial breaks and after shows. Notably, one of the outbursts was allegedly directed at co-host Kaitlan Collins, after Lemon believed she continually interrupts him. Radio host Howie Carr couldn’t believe that producers were “shaken” by the events.

“It was apparently seen by the show’s crew, which means more people saw it than if it would have been shown on the air,” Carr joked.

The alleged outburst with Collins happened on Thursday, December 8th, in which Lemon was angered by Collins “talking over him”. The situation apparently led to Collins getting emotional and storming off the set.

Curtis Houck of NewsBusters assembled clips from the show to highlight that the two anchors did talk over each other quite often on that episode of the morning show.

CNN producers were labeled as “shaken” by the interaction, which caused Carr to question their reactions.

“I know I’m an old timer, but in the old days if you were in TV for a few years and you ended up on a network, chances are you had been in a couple of scrapes,” said Carr. “The crew was rattled? By Don Lemon screaming at somebody? They must have led sheltered lives, these people.”

CNN told Mediaite that the report from The New York Post was “wildly overblown and two months old. Don, Kaitlan and Poppy were friends before they were co-anchors and they remain friends today.”

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