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Sweeny Murti: New Job With MLB Offers Creativity WFAN Job Did Not

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Sweeney Murti is set to begin a new chapter in his life. After being at WFAN for almost 30 years and covering the Yankees for the radio station the last 22 seasons, Murti starts a new role as a senior media contributor for MLB media.

Murti was a guest on the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast on Monday and he talked about what his new role would be at MLB and how it gives him some room to be creative, which is different.

“I’m excited to kind of see where this goes. I worked for a traditional radio station for a very long period of time. What we put on the radio was very distinct and kind of in a straight line…This kind of has some room for creativity here.”

Murti told Deitsch about how the business has changed over the last 20+ years and that the information he would first give to WFAN is easily accessible now.

“It probably became less cost-effective to send me all over the country to cover games when you are able to get information in other sorts of fashion. I used to call Mike Francesa to give him the Yankees lineup everyday. Now the Yankees themselves are the first to post their lineup on Twitter. We were trying to find different ways to keep it relevant and matter whether it’s having podcasts or trying to find audiences for different things. We were all trying to do that. I just don’t think there’s an easy answer to this.”

Even though Murti was still able to do his job covering the Yankees, he was not on the road as much and it wasn’t easy for him to do the job.

For part of those 21 years on the Yankees beat, Murti covered Derek Jeter, who is now going to be doing work for FOX . Murti gave his expectation for how he thinks Jeter will do and he thinks it will be easy for the former captain to avoid controversy:

“I don’t think he is ever going to walk into controversy. If you saw The Captain, he has opinions and he wasn’t afraid to give them in that forum. Most of it was about him and the people around him. I’m a little curious how it is going to be with different teams. He never wanted to walk into controversy and was very astute in doing that. He’s a smart guy. He knows a lot about the game of baseball from the playing side and the business side.”

Beth Mowins, Doris Burke, Cassidy Hubbarth Lead ESPN All-Women NBA Broadcast

BSM Staff
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ESPN will celebrate International Women’s Day on Wednesday with an NBA broadcast that features only women on the broadcast crew. Beth Mowins and Doris Burke will call the action. Cassidy Hubbarth will serve as the sideline reporter for the Mavericks’ visit to New Orleans.

It will be the first game of a Wednesday night double header. Becky Hammon will join Mike Breen and Mark Jackson at the broadcast table for the second game, which will feature the Toronto Raptors and the Los Angeles Clippers.

Women will dominate studio coverage that night as well. An all-female cast will join Malika Andrews for both NBA Today and NBA Countdown. Chiney Ogwumike, Becky Hammon, Ramona Shelburne, and Monica McNutt will make appearances.

The behind-the-scenes action will also be led by women. Some of the production crews’ most pivotal roles including producer, director, graphics producer, statistics analyst, and social media lead, will be handled by women that have been doing those jobs all season.

ESPN+ will also be a part of the International Women’s Day celebration as the streaming platform debuts Ice Queens, a documentary about Black women in hockey.

NAB Names WEEI, Arizona Sports 98.7 Finalists For 2023 Radio Crystal Awards

BSM Staff
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NAB Names WEEI, Arizona Sports 98.7 Finalists For 2023 Radio Crystal Awards

The NAB has announced the finalists for its 36th annual NAB Crystal Radio Awards.

The NAB Crystal Radio Awards honors stations for their “year-round commitment to community service”.

The winners of the prestigious awards will be announced during the We Are Broadcasters Awards ceremony on April 18th at the NAB Show in Las Vegas.

A pair of sports talk stations, WEEI and Arizona Sports 98.7 have been named as finalists for the award.

In total, 50 stations were named as finalists for the awards. 10 Crystal Radio Award winners will be honored at the event in April. Winners will be chosen by a panel of judges representing the broadcast industry, community service organizations, and public relations firms.

Additionally, the NAB will honor Arizona Sports 98.7 sister station KTAR with the Crystal Heritage Award, which recognizes radio stations that have won five or more Crystal Radio Awards. Only 10 other stations have received the honor.

Several News/Talk Stations Finalists For 2023 NAB Crystal Radio Awards

BNM Staff
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Several News/Talk Stations Finalists For 2023 NAB Crystal Radio Awards

The NAB has announced the finalists for its 36th annual NAB Crystal Radio Awards, with several news/talk stations up for the honors.

The NAB Crystal Radio Awards honors stations for their “year-round commitment to community service”.

The winners of the prestigious awards will be announced during the We Are Broadcasters Awards ceremony on April 18th at the NAB Show in Las Vegas.

News/Talk finalists include:
-KFI (Los Angeles)
-KIRO (Seattle)
-KKOB (Albuquerque)
-KRLA (Los Angeles)
–KRMG (Tulsa)
-WCCO (Minneapolis-St. Paul)
-WHIO (Dayton)
-WHO (Des Moines)
-WNRP (Pensacola)
-WSB (Atlanta)
-WTAM (Cleveland)
-WTAW (College Station)
-WTMJ (Milwaukee)
-WTOP (Washington D.C.)

In total, 50 stations were named as finalists for the awards. 10 Crystal Radio Award winners will be honored at the event in April. Winners will be chosen by a panel of judges representing the broadcast industry, community service organizations, and public relations firms.

Additionally, the NAB will honor KTAR (Phoenix) with the Crystal Heritage Award, which recognizes radio stations that have won five or more Crystal Radio Awards. Only 10 other stations have received the honor.

Stan Van Gundy Added to Turner’s NCAA Tournament Team

BSM Staff
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Longtime NBA head coach Stan Van Gundy will work as a game analyst for Turner’s coverage of the NCAA Tournament, according to a report from The New York Post.

Van Gundy will replace Reggie Miller, who was previously teamed with Kevin Harlan and Dan Bonner.

According to The Post, Miller made the decision to end his run as an NCAA Tournament game analyst, allowing him to devote more time to his NBA endeavors.

The former head coach of the Heat, Magic, Pistons, and Pelicans has worked as an analyst at both ESPN and TNT, spending two different stints with Turner between his position with the Pelicans.

Van Gundy — who signed what was described as a multi-year agreement with Turner in 2021 — does have some college basketball experience from a coaching standpoint. In addition to working as an assistant at Division I universities Vermont, Canisius, and Fordham, Van Gundy was the head coach at Castleton College, UMass Lowell, and Wisconsin.

SiriusXM Laying Off 8% of Staff

BSM Staff
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SiriusXM Laying Off 8% of Staff

In a memo to staff this morning, SiriusXM CEO Jennifer Witz informed employees that 475 staffers will be laid off.

Witz said nearly every division of the company will be affected by the cuts, saying “Today is one of the most difficult days we’ve had to face as a team, and these changes impact each of us deeply. However, it is my belief that these tough decisions were necessary as we look to capture the opportunity in front of us.

“We streamlined our non-headcount costs by reducing content and marketing spend, decreasing our real estate footprint, and most recently, implementing tighter restrictions in our Travel and Entertainment policy,” Witz continued. “However, today’s decision to reduce our workforce was required in order for us to maintain a sustainably profitable company.”

The memo added that SiriusXM employees who would be cut will be notified shortly, and shared her appreciation for their efforts during their tenures.

“I want to acknowledge that this is going to be a challenging day, especially for those departing from the Company, and I’d like to extend my deepest gratitude to everyone for their contributions to SiriusXM. Regardless of the team, level, or tenure, you played a role in bringing our Company to where it is today and for that we are grateful. This was not an easy decision to make, nor one we took lightly. However, it is critical for us to take the right steps now to secure the long-term health and profitability of our business.”

The news of impending layoffs comes days after the satellite provider shared it brought in $2.283 billion in the final quarter of 2022, up from $2.281 billion in 2021, but parent company Liberty Media’s operating income was down from $529 million to $450 million.

Richard Deitsch: Financial Reporters Have Better Insight On Disney’s Plans For ESPN

BSM Staff
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When you work in the media business, it can be easy to forget that the word “business” is more important than the word “media” to the people at the top. As people in our industry try to search for clues about what Disney’s plans for ESPN are, Richard Deitsch offered some common sense advice – take what media reporters write with a grain of salt.

Reader Robby W. submitted a question to Deitsch’s “Media Mailbag” column at The Athletic this week asking what we should expect to happen to ABC if Disney is indeed planning to sell ESPN.

“Candidly, I’d read the business press on this before a knucklehead such as myself,” Deitsch answered.

A recent restructuring made ESPN and all of its related businesses its own division of The Walt Disney Company. Last month, Disney CEO Bob Iger insisted that did not mean the company was preparing to spin-off the World Wide Leader.

Deitsch points out that those comments are not in line with most of the thinking on the matter. He provided a link to a column in the Los Angeles Times from Stephen Battaglio saying that if ESPN really is off the table, Iger has put tremendous pressure on himself and his employees to reduce costs. Deitsch provided another link recapping a report from Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall that calls selling ESPN “the best path forward” for Disney and noting that the company considers it “a reasonably probable late-’23 event.”

SiriusXM Laying Off 8% Of Workforce

BNM Staff
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0
SiriusXM Laying Off 8% Of Workforce

In a memo to staff this morning, SiriusXM CEO Jennifer Witz informed employees that 475 staffers will be laid off.

Witz said nearly every division of the company will be affected by the cuts, saying “Today is one of the most difficult days we’ve had to face as a team, and these changes impact each of us deeply. However, it is my belief that these tough decisions were necessary as we look to capture the opportunity in front of us.

“We streamlined our non-headcount costs by reducing content and marketing spend, decreasing our real estate footprint, and most recently, implementing tighter restrictions in our Travel and Entertainment policy,” Witz continued. “However, today’s decision to reduce our workforce was required in order for us to maintain a sustainably profitable company.”

The memo added that SiriusXM employees who would be cut will be notified shortly, and shared her appreciation for their efforts during their tenures.

“I want to acknowledge that this is going to be a challenging day, especially for those departing from the Company, and I’d like to extend my deepest gratitude to everyone for their contributions to SiriusXM. Regardless of the team, level, or tenure, you played a role in bringing our Company to where it is today and for that we are grateful. This was not an easy decision to make, nor one we took lightly. However, it is critical for us to take the right steps now to secure the long-term health and profitability of our business.”

The news of impending layoffs comes days after the satellite provider shared it brought in $2.283 billion in the final quarter of 2022, up from $2.281 billion in 2021, but parent company Liberty Media’s operating income was down from $529 million to $450 million.

Mark Levin: Conservatives Wanting to Get Rid of Fox News ‘Ridiculous’

BNM Staff
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While at CPAC last week, former advisor to President Trump Steve Bannon claimed had fiery words for Fox News and Chairman Rupert Murdoch. Conservative radio and television host Mark Levin countered the comments on the same stage later the next day.

During his appearance at CPAC, Bannon shared his disdain for Murdoch, calling him an “oligarch” and that his family is “a bunch of foreigners” who have given nothing to America.

“Look at Fox News,” Bannon said. “A guy gave you four years of peace and prosperity, announces he’s going to run again after having it stolen in broad daylight…They cover it live for 20 minutes and then they say ‘If there’s anything newsworthy, we’ll cut back’, and they go to some panel and some discussion.”

Bannon continued by saying “Note to Fox Senior management: When Donald J. Trump talks, it’s newsworthy.”

“They don’t respect you, read the depositions,” the former Trump advisor said of the cable channel. “They have a fear and loathing and contempt for you. And you’re the ones that can make changes.”

When Levin took the stage, however, he didn’t name Bannon but said conservatives pushing back against Fox News aren’t seeing the whole picture.

“We’ve had other people come up here and tell you that if we only could get rid of Fox News, everything would be better. Which is ridiculous,” said Levin. “You don’t have to agree with everything, but that means you wouldn’t hear Tucker or Pete or Will Cain or Duffy or me or a whole bunch.”

Levin has hosted his Fox News program Life, Liberty, & Levin since 2018. He agreed to a contract extension with the cable outlet in November of last year.

Fox News CEO: ‘If We Hadn’t Called Arizona, Our Ratings Would Have Been Bigger’

BNM Staff
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Fox News CEO: ‘If We Hadn’t Called Arizona, Our Ratings Would Have Been Bigger’

A report from The New York Times details the internal strife at Fox News after the network’s decision desk called Arizona for now-President Joe Biden in the 2020 Presidential Election.

The Times claims it came into possession of a Zoom call held between Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, Fox News President Jay Wallace, and anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum the discuss how the network could avoid angering its conservative viewers in the future.

The network was fearful its audience would abandon it for more conservative outlets like Newsmax or OAN. While discussing options on how to avoid an uproar in the future, Scott reportedly admitted that the network’s ratings would have increased if it hadn’t called Arizona for Biden.

“Listen, it’s one of the sad realities: If we hadn’t called Arizona, those three or four days following Election Day, our ratings would have been bigger,” said Scott. “The mystery would have been still hanging out there.”

In the same call, Scott is alleged to have railed against the decision to call Arizona, saying Decision Desk director Bill Sammon failed in his job to “protect the brand”, believing that he failed to understand “the impact to the brand and the arrogance in calling AZ” in his decision.

A network spokesperson told The Times “Fox News stood by the Arizona call despite intense scrutiny. Given the extremely narrow 0.3 percent margin and a new projection mechanism that no other network had, of course there would be a wide-ranging post-mortem surrounding the call and how it was executed no matter the candidates.”

Scott reportedly said CNN is well-known to hold off on calling races to increase intrigue and viewership. A CNN spokesperson refuted that claim, saying the network will “make calls as soon as we’re confident they’re right”.

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