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Scripps Sports Says ‘Phones Are Ringing Off the Hook’ Amid RSN Uncertainty

BSM Staff
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Scripps Sports Says ‘Phones Are Ringing Off the Hook’ Amid RSN Uncertainty

While the nation’s biggest regional sports network operator figures out a path forward, one company that’s seemingly waiting in the wings is E.W. Scripps.

According to reporting from Next TV, Scripps CEO Adam Symson is chomping at the bit ready to put its recently established sports division, Scripps Sports, to work for the likes of MLB, the NHL and NBA.

Symson said in an earnings call last week that Scripps has been receiving “a very warm reception in the marketplace,” and that “the phone has already been ringing off the hook.”

“We see the right live sports as an unparalleled opportunity to drive the value of our linear television streams even higher,” Symson said. “Live sports has been proven as drawing the latest audiences to linear TV. It also attracts more advertising dollars per programming hour.”

Scripps Sports will utilize a range of different options that will allow teams to maximize reach to viewers and not just be reliant on pay-TV.

“It’s in everybody’s best interest, including the American people and the fans, that we don’t allow live sports to become a pure D-to-C product,” Symson said. “It won’t work for the economics of the leagues, it won’t work for the economics of the teams and it definitely won’t work for the economics of the American people.”

“What we’re bringing to the market is a new model that the leagues and the teams can get behind because they understand it’s about balancing both the revenue that they bring in as well as reach,” he added.

Symson talked about how Ion is multi-faceted and can tap in to audiences through different means like antennas, streaming and paid subscriptions. He said this is what makes it so appealing to the leagues and teams looking to get off the Diamond Sports Group sinking ship.

“The interesting thing about Ion is we not only control all of the programming decisions, we also control all of the affiliates,” he said. “And so we have the ability to bring sports onto our platform on the weekends, in prime, what every way we think makes sense for both the league’s benefit and for our benefit.”

Scripps is making moves in the sports world with Ion. In addition to the company’s interest in regional rights for pro teams, it has started discussions with the Pac-12. The network and its affiliate stations could become an outlet for major college football as well.

Mike Rutherford Launching New Show With Master P in Louisville

BSM Staff
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Rapper and entrepreneur Percy “Master P” Miller is teaming up with Louisville sports radio host Mike Rutherford to launch a new sports talk show.

The Truth. The Realist Sports Show on the Planet with P and Mike will premiere Monday at 7 p.m. The show will be a production of local TV station WBNA 21.

“Louisville is like a second home to me and I am excited to film this and Louisville and take The Truth sports show nationally,” Master P said in a press release. “We will discuss UofL and national sports in a sophisticated, educational but honest way. This will be the realist sports show on the planet.”

Master P’s son, Hercy Miller, is a freshman on the Louisville men’s basketball team.

Rutherford can currently be heard locally in Louisville on Big X Sports Radio in the afternoons, and was previously on 93.1 The Ville and WKRD. He’s also the managing editor of the SB Nation Louisville sports website Card Chronicle.

Steph Curry Honors Mike Breen With New Under Armour Shoes

BSM Staff
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Steph Curry Honors Mike Breen With New Under Armour Shoes

Steph Curry is releasing a new pair of Under Armour sneakers into the world, and broadcaster Mike Breen was the inspiration for them.

In a video posted on Curry’s Twitter on Saturday, it was Breen’s 2016 call of a Curry 3-pointer late in regulation at Oklahoma City that Steph wanted to pay homage to.

“Seven years ago, you had one of the greatest calls in regular season NBA history, the ‘Double Bang'” Curry said. “So I wanted to give you this as a token of appreciation for that moment.”

To celebrate the release of the new shoes, which are called the Double Bang, Curry gave Breen the shoes he was wearing on that night in 2016 when the Warriors defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Breen has made famous his signature call “Bang!” over the course of his broadcasting career. But it was that moment in 2016 that the world got Breen shouting the phrase back to back.

“I’m touched,” Breen said. “It’s an honor to call his games, and to have him say I have a small part means more than he knows and more than you can imagine.”

Mike Golic Jr: ‘We’re in the Netflix Era of Sports’

BSM Staff
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Are you excited for the Netflix docu-series Quarterback? Mike Golic Jr. sounds like he is on the fence, but he understands that the show is part of a trend that is likely not going away.

“We’re just in the Netflix era of sports,” he said on Friday’s edition of the Gojo Show.

The show will follow league MVP Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins of the Minnesota Vikings, and Marcus Mariota of the Atlanta Falcons. Plenty of fans have made the observation that there is one clear star in the group, and Golic was no different. If he is going to watch, it will only be for Patrick Mahomes.

“Thank God he’s there because, man, I don’t know how much people would want to watch just Marcus Mariota and Kirk Cousins.”

Sean Pendergast of Sports Radio 610 in Houston made a similar observation earlier this week, saying that the NFL picked the wrong quarterbacks for the show entirely.

Mahomes was never not going to be a part of the show. 2 PM Productions, a company owned by the two-time Super Bowl champion, serves as co-creators of the series.

Mike Golic Jr. said it is easy to see that we are not near the end of “the Netflix era of sports.” Full Swing, a series following PGA Tour players in a similar way is on the platform right now. It follows Break Point, focused on tennis and the extremely popular Formula 1 series Drive to Survive.

“Curated behind-the-scenes content done by the people involved in these leagues, who I’m sure get some say in how they’re presented and the image they want to prepare, seems like the direction we’re gonna continue to go,” Golic said. “After Formula 1 had such a great experience with it, everyone else is trying to figure out how to go and get theirs.”

Kyle Sielaff Named New Marlins Radio Voice

BSM Staff
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The Miami Marlins will sound a little different this year to fans tuning into games on the radio. The team announced Friday that Kyle Sielaff will be the team’s new play-by-play man on FOX Sports 940 in Miami.

Sielaff will replace Glenn Geffner. The team chose not to renew Geffner’s contract at the end of last season. He had called Marlins games for the last fifteen years.

This is a promotion for Kyle Sielaff. He had filled in on play-by-play duties in the past.

A rotation of partners will join Sielaff to provide color analysis. Major League veterans Rod Allen, Jeff Nelson, and Gaby Sanchez are all set to be a part of the rotation. South Florida sports radio personality Kelly Sacco will be a part of it as well.

Fans will hear the new Marlins radio crew for the first time on Sunday. It will be the first of 16 Spring Training games carried on FOX Sports 940. The Miami Marlins open the regular season against the New York Mets on March 30.

Scripps Enters Pac-12 TV Negotioations

BSM Staff
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Scripps Enters Pac-12 TV Negotioations

A surprising name has reportedly entered the Pac-12 television negotiations: The E.W. Scripps Company.

According to a report from The Action Network’s Brett McMurphy, the company’s Ion network — which originally debuted as PAX in late-90s — has “emerged as a potential partner”.

In addition to owning Ion, Scripps owns 61 broadcast television stations in the nation, including stations in Pac-12 markets like Denver, Tucson, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City, as well as Las Vegas, Bakersfield, San Diego, and Santa Barbara. The company, however, doesn’t currently own any stations in the Bay Area, or in Washington or Oregon, where six of the remaining 10 Pac-12 schools are located.

The company launched Scripps Sports late last year as a potential vehicle for local sports rights, with the idea that broadcasts would air on Ion.

“We don’t have the complications that the big four networks have,” Scripps President and CEO Adam Symson said at the time of the division’s founding. “You promise the league and make a programming decision, you don’t have to turn around and then negotiate with affiliates to try to get the time. If I want to dedicate Saturdays to a franchise night for a sports league, that’s a decision we can make.”

According to a report from Variety, Ion was the 11th most-watched television network in 2022, behind HGTV and the Hallmark Channel, but above outlets like TNT, TBS, CNN, and The CW.

College football reporter Stewart Mandel, however, has refuted McMurphy’s report.

Rhea Hughes: I Have to Learn Styles of Joe DeCamara, Jon Ritchie

BSM Staff
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Longtime 94WIP morning host Angelo Cataldi retired last week after 33 years in the morning drive chair. His co-host for 25 years of that run, Rhea Hughes, is remaining with the station’s new morning show of Joe Decamara and Jon Ritchie, and she is adjusting to a new set of co-hosts.

While appearing on The Mike Missanelli Podcast, Hughes said the first week has gone well, but she has to learn the minute details of the way the new pair operate.

“I went in and sat with them from 12:00-2:00 PM on Tuesdays, so it was just kind of learning. You know what it is when you work with a partner or partners. You have to learn when they stop speaking. With Angelo, it was about learning when he was going to take a breath. I had about five-to-seven seconds to get my point in and then he was gonna jump right back in. I had to learn their style.

“Joe’s like Angelo. He’s like Angelo with the notepad. Everything is written down. And Jon’s a little more chill. So I’ve gotta learn that when Joe’s done making a point, it’s almost like — we call it the Ray Didinger pause — where it’s like ‘Well…’, so I don’t ever want to step on them. And learning about them as people. I’ve been seeing them every day for six years, but we didn’t really spend a lot of time together.”

Hughes added that she felt Thursday’s show was the first time she felt she was “back” and that the trio is truly building chemistry with each other.

Ian Eagle: ‘There Will Be Natural Backlash’ If Tom Brady Replaces Greg Olsen

BSM Staff
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After earning high praise for his work during his inaugural season in the top analyst chair for FOX Sports, Greg Olsen still could be pushed out of the network’s lead booth in 2024 due to the retirement of Tom Brady. Venerable play-by-play announcer Ian Eagle says there will certainly be backlash if that’s the case.

While appearing on the SI Media Podcast with Jimmy Traina, Eagle said he wasn’t surprised by the work Olsen has done, saying “you could tell this guy had a chance to be really good at this”.

Eagle then added that viewers will push back on Brady because of his history as one of the game’s greatest.

“There will be the natural backlash because A) it’s Tom Brady, so there are many fans who already have a general feeling on him and then the second part is there are fans who like the pairing and rightfully so,” Eagle said. “They’ve been excellent together. So is there an X on his back. Yeah. But he’s dealt with a lot worse. I don’t think that it’s something he would lose a whole lot of sleep over.

“I think the part he’s gonna have to determine is if he’s all in. If you’re all in, then, this — not to say it consumes every part of your being, but knowing him, he’ll wanna be great. And being great requires you to put the time and effort in.”

Eagle’s comments came after he said he believed Brady will work diligently to become great at the craft.

“Tom is extremely likable, extremely smart, extremely insightful. I think he has a chance to be great at this if he wants to do this and truly do it full-time,” said Eagle. “This guy hasn’t done anything poorly. Anything he puts his mind to, he’s gonna do well. If he puts the time and effort in, like I think he will, he’s gonna wanna be the best at it.”

Dan Bernstein Returns to 670 The Score After Hospitalization

BSM Staff
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Dan Bernstein Returns to 670 The Score After Hospitalization

670 The Score host Dan Bernstein was absent from Bernstein & Holmes earlier this week. He returned to the program Thursday to detail that he was gone from the show due to a medical issue.

“You looked like someone who had escaped from somewhere,” co-host Laurence Holmes joked to begin Thursday’s program. “We were in the middle of the meeting, and Dan walked into the middle of our meeting and said ‘Hi guys, don’t get too close, I haven’t showered. I just came to get my car.’ He looked like Louis Winthorpe III getting out of jail.”

Bernstein then explained his absence stemmed from reaction to his physical.

“Everything is mostly ok,” Bernstein said. “What happened was, I had a heart scare. I went in for my physical — and I have been dealing with some stubbornly high blood pressure for a while now. It’s taken it from horrible to not so horrible. There’s a physical side and a mental side that we’re dealing with here. My intense worry about some of my actual issues conflated to create what could mimic a heart event.”

Bernstein said his doctor was concerned about some of his test results, so he went immediately from his physical to the emergency room where he was met by multiple cardiologists.

However, after multiple tests, no blockages in Bernstein’s heart were found, with doctors telling him “these are the best coronary arteries I’ve seen all day”.

The host then said it was all precautionary and is glad to return back to work.

“There was no emergency, there was no event, there was no attack or blockages, we’ve just got to figure out both sides of it. So that’s where we are.”

Legal Experts: Fox News in ‘Real Jeopardy’ With Dominion Lawsuit

BNM Staff
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CNN Media Reporter Oliver Darcy spoke with several legal experts about the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against Fox News, with some saying the network is in serious trouble in the case.

First Amendment lawyer David Krozenik claimed the text messages showing Fox News hosts and executives in agreement that former President Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him were not factual “certainly puts Fox in the actual malice crosshairs and puts them in real jeopardy.”

“This ‘out of the horse’s mouth’ evidence of knowing falsity is not something we often see,” University of Utah professor and media scholar RonNell Andersen Jones added. “When coupled with the compelling storyline that Dominion is telling about motivation — the evidence that at least some key players in the organization were actively looking to advance some election denialism in order to win back viewers who had departed — it makes for a strong actual malice storyline.”

Fox News has defended itself against the Dominion lawsuit, saying the voting machine company is creating “noise and confusion” around the case.

“Dominion has mischaracterized the record, cherry-picked quotes stripped of key context, and spilled considerable ink on facts that are irrelevant under black-letter principles of defamation law,” the network said. “Their motion for summary judgment takes an extreme and unsupported view of defamation law and rests on an accounting of the facts that has no basis in the record.”

However, Andersen Jones said the evidence Dominion has compiled is a “dream” for the company, proving that the network knew it was lying and proceeded anyway.

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