Pittsburgh radio personality Kevin Battle announced that Audacy-owned KDKA NewsRadio unexpectedly terminated his contract Tuesday. Battle shared the news on Facebook, stating that “evolving business situations” prompted the cut.
“It has been an absolute thrill and honor to be able to return to Pittsburgh to work at the legendary KDKA-AM/FM and with the professionals who make it sound great – especially our producer, Rob Graner,” Battle said.
Last year, Battle told Barrett News Media that he became involved in the news/talk format after a stint at a Baltimore sports station came to an end.
“I started selling motorcycles part-time and then I landed a part-time job at WNEW 99.1 FM in Washington D.C. After a year, somebody told me about a position in New York at Fox News Radio,” he said at the time.
A native Pittsburgher, Battle graduated from nearby Clarion University.
“I will be forever grateful to those of you who chose to tune in to the show each morning,” he said. “It really means so much to me that you spent your time listening and sharing your busy day with us. Thank YOU! I will miss you all.”
Stunning sports radio news out of Milwaukee. 1250-AM The Fan has suddenly removed all of its local programming and switched over to CBS Sports Radio.
The news came as a shock to local listeners but even more surprising to the station’s staff. Here’s a tweet from Evan Heffelfinger noting that today was “everyone’s” last day at the station.
Some unfortunate news, today is my last day at @1250AMTheFan … well I guess it’s actually everyone’s. It’s been a dream come true to talk Wisconsin sports with you these last 5 years
I still have a drive and passion for the radio medium, my DMs are open for future opportunities
The station’s stream is currently airing CBS Sports Radio. The local daily lineup has also been removed from the 1250 The Fan website although show podcasts still remain.
In regards to the station’s talent, most have been quiet since the news began to trickle out. The Milwaukee Business Journal reported that recent NFL Hall of Famer and former Green Bay Packer LeRoy Butler was part of the cuts. Bart Winkler, Tim Allen, and Gary Ellerson are expected to be out as well.
“Over the past few years, Audacy has been on a transformational journey, investing in our capabilities to serve our listeners and customers and accelerate our growth through a number of strategic acquisitions, enhancements to our platform, and the addition of hundreds of team members to our workforce,” explained an Audacy spokesperson. “We remain committed to this exciting transformation which has made us a much stronger organization, but in light of current macroeconomic headwinds, like so many other companies, we have been proactively taking actions to mitigate against the impact of any downturn. These include evaluating budgets, reducing expenses, and also reducing our workforce.”
One host who is expected to remain involved is Steve ‘Sparky’ Fifer. Fifer was part of the midday show, and also helped behind the scenes. According to sources, he’s likely to contribute off-air and with additional brand projects. The rest will have an opportunity to explore opportunities should any become available at 97.3 The Game, ESPN 94.1, WTMJ or any other local outlets.
Upon learning of the news, a few former 1250 hosts, Mike Wickett and Cliff Saunders, took to social media to share their sadness.
Ryan Maguire, who served as the PD of 1250 The Fan from 2006-2009, and is currently the PD of crosstown rivals ESPN Milwaukee and WTMJ, provided his perspective.
1250 WSSP is what originally brought me to Milwaukee. I was the boss there for 3 years (2006-09) and had the good fortune to work with many talented people. Without that gig, I never would have met my husband of 14 years or made so many lifelong friends. Sad day indeed.
One host who left before the station was dismantled was former afternoon man Ramie Makhlouf. The longtime Milwaukee voice exited in June to join Sactown Sports 1140.
This is a developing story and as more information becomes available we’ll pass it along. 1250-AM The Fan is owned by Audacy, which just announced plans to reduce less than 5% of its programming staff.
The 2022 lineup of broadcast teams for NFL on CBS games has been announced.
In less than four weeks, Jim Nantz, Tony Romo and Tracy Wolfson will be together for their sixth season and will call the network’s top game each week as well as CBS Sports’ Thanksgiving and Christmas game, the AFC Playoffs and the AFC Championship.
Ian Eagle, Charles Davis and Evan Washburn will command the No. 2 announce booth and will team for their third season together.
Kevin Harlan, Trent Green and Melanie Collins will team.
Greg Gumbel, Adam Archuleta and AJ Ross will be a crew as well.
On Sunday, the latest KayRod broadcast surrounded the Yankees/Red Sox game for the second time of the season. However, it was the first time that Derek Jeter appeared on the show, That addition paid big dividends in the ratings.
Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal did an interesting comparison. He noted the KayRod audience was around 15.5% of the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball main broadcast (2.17 million). That’s also the most in the KayRod era. It topped the Mets/Phillies matchup on May 1 which featured a 11.2% audience portion.
ESPN’s First Takerejoiced in the triumphant return of Stephen A. Smith on Monday. On Tuesday, Paul Finebaum was adamant that he had seen enough of Smith’s frequent co-host, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, during Smith’s absence.
Appearing on First Take, Finebaum began his segment by saying that he was ready for Smith to return.
“I don’t want to insult people that have been here in his absence, like Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo,” Finebaum started, “but if I saw Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo one more time on my screen, I was going to go crazy!”
Finebaum would also add, “I don’t like that guy on my screen! I want Stephen A. Smith on this show every day.”
Smith responded with respect to Russo but also pointed out one very important truth: “I love ‘Mad Dog’ Russo so I’m not gonna be as harsh about him as you,” Smith noted. “But I will say this about Christopher ‘Mad Dog’ Russo, I love ya bro, but he’s not Stephen A.”
Basketball fans will hear the Miami Heat in a new place next season. The team is sticking with Audacy, but moving from 790 The Ticket to WQAM.
“We’re excited to extend our longstanding broadcasting partnership with the Miami Heat and bring the team back to WQAM for the first time in nearly three decades,” Claudia Menegus, Regional President and Market Manager of Audacy South Florida, said in a press release. “The HEAT is one of the premier franchises in the NBA today, and we’re proud to continue to deliver year-long coverage to its loyal fanbase.”
The Heat follow Jonathan Zaslow down the hall. He moved his show from 790 The Ticket to WQAM last year.
As Mengus mentioned, it is something of a homecoming for the team. WQAM was the original flagship when the team launched in 1988. It will be the first time the station has carried Heat games since 1993.
“We are thrilled to announce the continuation of our fantastic and long-standing affiliation with the Audacy station groups here in Miami,” Ted Ballard, Vice President and Executive Director of Heat Broadcasting, added. “For more than a decade, they have provided Heat basketball fans with an unparalleled home and incredible support for our championship-level product. We now look forward to a new era in this relationship where we can take advantage of the programming power of the premiere sports radio presence in South Florida.”
The Heat join the Miami Dolphins and the Miami Hurricanes in calling WQAM their radio flagship.
There has always been one major lingering issue with the series of Pac-12 regional networks and it was present from the very beginning, carriage. The conference struggled to get subscriber numbers to a fruitful and respectable level in large part because the channels weren’t carried by DirecTV. However, the two were once very close to a deal.
In 2015, the Pac-12 Networks‘ decision makers and those from DirecTV had gotten to the “goal line” as described by former Pac-12 Networks programming manager Mark Petix. He recalled being at the end of a negotiations that would have seen the Pac-12 Networks added to DirecTV as soon as that weekend before DirecTV added one further demand.
“It felt like we were an announcement away from being on DirecTV,” said Petix in an oral history by the Athletic about the networks.
The demand from DirecTV was that as part of the deal, all twelve universities would be required to spend in the seven figures annually on AT&T (the parent company of DirecTV) telecom services and AT&T would become a “preferred” provider.
Michael Crow, president at Arizona State said, “It was a terrible deal… they were basically not interested in doing a fair deal. No one saw that deal as fair.”
Ted Robinson, a network play-by-play broadcaster added, “Sadly, that was the last gasp”.
“That was the first time we all sort of realized: “We’re not getting on DirecTV,” said Ashley Adamson, network studio host and reporter.
The deal would have netted a projected $35 million in revenue in just the first year and the Pac-12 Network would have been on DirecTV’s “Choice” tier which would have given access to another 16.4 million households. The network’s peak was around 19 million households.
While discussing the recent decision by the CDC to no longer treat vaccinated and unvaccinated citizens differently, 1210 WPHT host Rich Zeoli brought back to light the problems ESPN’s Sage Steele had with agreeing to Disney’s vaccine mandate. Zeoli also mentioned the hypocrisy, in his eyes, that moving ESPN to a more sports betting focus had with Disney’s family-friendly brand that he believes no longer exists.
“ESPN has gone super woke over the years,” Zeoli surmised. “I think everyone can understand exactly what I’m talking about now. ESPN has put on some personalities over the years that have been completely woke and they push anybody out. Now there’s an investor, an activist investor, calling on Disney to spin off ESPN. Spin it off, they say.
“Disney has reportedly explored spinning off ESPN, so the latter could pursue sports betting without conflicting with Disney’s family-friendly brand. Although Disney isn’t family friendly anymore, in many different ways. ESPN, in order for them to survive, they gotta get in the sports betting racket. That’s what they gotta do. ESPN had a call with investors and they were saying right now this is where they need to go and Disney’s trying to push them off because they don’t wanna have to worry about having to worry about associating with sports betting, which they don’t view as family friendly.”
Zeoli then pointed out the CDC’s guidance no correlates with what Steele was mentioning last fall, while pointing out the lawsuit the SportsCenter anchor has with ESPN, before saying Steele was “benched” last fall for her vaccine stance.
“What a bastion of free speech they are at ESPN,” Zeoli said.
Pat McAfee is far from the only person singing the praises of the new season of Hard Knocks. Episode one drew rave reviews from most fans and media pundits. On his show Tuesday, McAfee said a lot of the credit for that goes to Dan Campbell.
McAfee called him “the living embodiment of the sport of football” and said it is clear that his involvement gives this season of Hard Knocks potential to be the best we’ve ever seen.
“Behind the scenes, he’s a hard working guy that has love for his players, that wants to do something for a city that hasn’t had a winning season in a long, long, long time,” McAfee said of the coach. “The players all seem to be all the way bought in. It’s magical. It seems to be a recipe that seems to be created for for success for Hard Knocks majesticy. That is a real word.”
It hasn’t been universal praise though. Although he feels the exact opposite, McAfee says he has seen some backlash to all of the love that episode one received on social media. Some of it is coming from Detroit, where critics say the first episode didn’t show much that was meaningful.
“There has been people, I guess around town that has been judging Hard Knocks because they thought the first week was infomercial fluff for the Detroit Lions.”
Pat McAfee pushed back on the idea that nothing of importance was happening. Competing for a roster spot is hard, and every successful rep is a step closer to a guy achieving his dream. On top of that, football is wildly unpredictable. Any play can result in a season-altering injury.
That doesn’t mean everything needs to be presented with dramatic music and a somber tone McAfee said.
“I’m sorry we’re having entertainment! You’re allowed to have fun. Not everything has to be serious.”
The second episode of Hard Knocks will air Tuesday on HBO and HBO Max. A new deal with NFL Films will allow The Pat McAfee Show to use all of the video and audio the crew wants to from each episode. That means they will likely have plenty to say about the dramatic and the mundane moments on Wednesday, when Campbell is actually scheduled to sit down with McAfee on the show.
ESPN has announced the re-signing of several top talents as the network begins preparations for the NFL season, with Randy Moss, Matt Hasselbeck, Tedy Bruschi, Sam Ponder, and Chris Mortensen all agreeing to new multi-year deals.
“The Sunday NFL Countdown group has created such strong chemistry and has clearly built a connection with our fans,” said Seth Markman, ESPN vice president and executive producer.
“Our blend of perspectives and personalities is perfect for fresh, insightful on-the-field analysis and conversation, regardless of the storyline or breaking news in a given week. It was critical for us to maintain the momentum moving forward.”
Sunday NFL Countdown will continue to air from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM on ESPN during the football season, with it’s 2022 debut scheduled for Sunday, September 11th and will run through Super Bowl Sunday on February 12th, 2023. Special Saturday episodes will also air during week 18 and the first two rounds of the playoffs.
Bruschi has been with the network since 2009. Ponder joined in 2011. Moss and Hasselbeck began their tenures in 2016. Chris Mortensen has been an ESPN staple, working in Bristol for more than 30 years. Rex Ryan is already in the midst of a multi-year deal. The network also reiterated Adam Schefter would continue to contribute to the program, after he agreed to a new deal in March.
