Red Sox’ Radio Makes a Galling Change; Play-by-Play Will Be Presented in a Talk-Show Format
David J. Halberstam, Sports Broadcast Journal
Red Sox’ Radio Makes a Galling Change; Play-by-Play Will Be Presented in a Talk-Show Format
At first, I asked myself why would rightsholder WEEI break up an excellent duo. Neverett and Sox’ radio immortal Joe Castiglione combined to bring listeners cadenced, entertaining and informative broadcasts; chock-full of anecdotes. They were becoming the accepted voices of New England summers.
When I learned why he’s leaving, I bristled. As it turns out, WEEI plans to transition its coverage from a golden play-by-play standard to in-game talk; a decision that renders Neverett superfluous. He’s a play-by-play announcer, not a young Eddie Andelman.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThis piece first appeared in Sports Broadcast Journal.
These Einsteins of broadcasting believe that it’s time to tear down seventy years of tradition, fostered in Boston by Curt Gowdy in 1951 and perpetuated by folks like Jim Britt, Bob Murphy, Ned Martin, Jon Miller, Jim Woods and Castiglione. Neverett wanted nothing of the change and WEEI apparently wanted nothing of him. Neverett didn’t fit its silly new plan.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox are saying little. They’re playing the card of innocent bystander. The fact is that they’re too busy counting the cash they get from WEEI’s parent, Entercom. There’s a line on Wall Street, ‘You’re only as good as your stock price.’ So if the Sox view the stock tables, it’s not a pretty picture. Entercom’s stock price is down about 40% in the last year. In other words, this whole think stinks.
Entercom’s programmers apparently consider play-by-play an anathema. The heck with the game. It’s for old folks. As Phil Mushnick might say, Yikes!
Wake up, WEEI. Young people, the 18-34 demo, don’t listen to sports talk anyhow and they certainly won’t listen to something labeled baseball play-by-play but is no more than a mask for a talk show. But as long as WEEI pays the fiddler, it can apparently call the tunes. It’s a desperate experiment.
As such, I guess that henceforth the station’s instructions to the announcers, whoever they are, will be:
No more human-interest stories. Painting graphic pictures requires too many Twitter characters.
Shun fundamentals. The nomenclature and vocal cadence introduced by the likes of Red Barber and perfected by Vin Scully are for baby boomers and they’re beginning to die by the day.
Talk about the traffic in the Callahan Tunnel, the latest tattoos, Mark Zuckerberg’s battles in Congress, Warren against Trump or Robert Kraft’s personal life.
Knowledge of pop-culture is a must.
Don’t talk about dead people anymore as David Hill famously said when Fox bought the television rights and hired Joe Buck. Forget about baseball’s history. No one in Boston cares about Ted Williams or Carl Yastrzemski.
Don’t worry about giving the score. Fans can get it on their Smartphones.
Where is this going?
It is just the beginning. Wait for the next generation. Radio and television listeners will be treated to AI, the next major technological wave. AI will pilfer mics from announcers and the broadcast booths will turn into luxury boxes. AI will be broadcast’s version of driverless cars.
If it’s a talk show, will the announcers travel with the club? Heck, the station’s general manager can save money if they don’t. Will home games be done from the studio? This way the radio booth can be rented to sponsors if there are any left.
Will the station’s GM come up with another brilliant idea? “Hey, if this is becoming a talk show, why are we overpaying millions for the rights. We can just continue doing it from the studio at no cost. it’s the same thing.”
Will this be the beginning of the end of play-by-play on radio? We’re seeing it in hockey; the new Carolina Hurricanes simulcast silenced arguably the NHL’s best radio play-by-play voice, Chuck Kaiton. The Devils, Lightning, Kings and Islanders are off traditional radio and available only online and through apps.
NBA radio announcers need helicopters to get them to their nosebleed locations every night.
Who’s listening to basketball and hockey anyhow? The numbers are frighteningly low; in the hundreds not thousands.
Fewer local radio stations buy NFL rights for big money anymore. The declining economies of the medium dictate otherwise. Dollars aside, four teams have ex-players calling games. None is exceptional or even very good. How can they be? They were never trained. Where are the greats? Gil Santos, Merle Harmon, Marty Glickman and Bill King are deceased. Greg Papa was let go by the Raiders this season. He was as good as they come.
I occasionally dialed up the Boston radio duo online to immerse and enjoy. The storytelling, the warmth, the anecdotes always made for a great listen; and through it all the two never missed a pitch. They laughed, chuckled and thankfully never screeched. Through it all, the present tense play-by-play rudiments were untouchable and never compromised.
Castiglione and Neverett embraced the importance of consistently executing play-by-play essentials; spinning yearns, sharing tidbits without ever losing sight of what’s going on down on the field. It was right out of a textbook. Rhythmic elegance!
According to remarks from Tim, his relationship with the Sox was and is strong. But WEEI and Tim apparently realized that his traditional call won’t fit the misguided change that’s planned; whatever disruptive choppiness it brings. Joe Castiglione, 72, might as well be draped in the Red Sox logo. So he’s untouchable. But you have to wonder how he’ll deal with this monstrosity next year.
Somewhere up in the heavens, Jack Buck, Harry Caray, Bob Prince, Russ Hodges, Gowdy and others are asking for a drink and a couple Motrins.
But wait a minute. What made the young and old listen to Vin Scully when he was either 25 in Brooklyn or 85 in Los Angeles? It was his perfect delivery, masterful storytelling and graphic descriptions. It wasn’t having Jim Rome call a baseball game. Different skill set.
If you’re going to do it, do it right! Goodness!
This piece first appeared in Sports Broadcast Journal.
Media Upheaval - Globe Labor Strife, Weekly Standard Shuttered, and Big Local Adv. Change Direction
Globe Labor Trouble
The Boston Globe’s guild and the paper’s management led by Red Sox Owner billionaire John Henry are now in the midst of a new labor dispute. For Henry, the Globe ownership was supposed to be a reinvention of the newspaper, but in many ways has turned into a house of horrors.
The latest is a brewing dispute between the union and ownership. In the past few months the Globe has been hit by an exodus of top reporters, sexual harassment charges against its editor (determined by the paper to be without merit), and the suspension of a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for falsifying a column.
This all comes on top of distribution problems and printing problems -- the bright spot under Henry’s ownership has been the growth of digital subscriptions with topped 100,000 this past summer.
But, now the Globe faces a union battle. According to Dan Kennedy, Professor at Northeastern, the Guild’s negotiating committee sent the following to its membership:
Dear Guild members,
We need your help — The company has hired a prominent attorney from D.C. known for union-busting in the media industry.
During negotiations for a new contract with the Guild, the company has presented a ridiculous and draconian proposal that would strip away essential protections and provisions in the contract like overtime, seniority, pay scales, job descriptions, severance as well as limit the time and scope of issues members can grieve and arbitrate, and more. The paltry offer of 2 percent raises, an increase to 401k and paid parental leave (by reducing sick time for everyone) is frankly insulting. We are offended by their offer and we know many of you are too.
We’ve told them as much, now they need to hear it from you.
To show our disgust with their offer and our unity in fighting for a fair contract, we’re asking all members to wear your bright red BNG T-shirts on Tuesday. If you’re out of the office, drape it over your desk chair. After Tuesday, keep your shirts visible around the office.
If you don’t have a T-shirt already let us know and we’ll get you one by Monday. Boxes are on their way to State Street and Taunton so we can hand them out.
Also, please follow and stay tuned to the Guild’s Twitter and Facebook accounts.
This is just a first step. More actions are being planned and we’ll send you information about those soon.
We need to show the company their proposal is unacceptable.
In Solidarity,
BNG Negotiating Committee & BNG Action Committee
Patch Staffless in RI
The hyper-local news platform which was first launched in 2007 and then was purchased by AOL is now staffless for its sites in RI. At the height of the staffing in RI, Patch had more than 20 full-time employees and dozens of freelancers. AOL lost hundreds of millions and spun the company off to the workout company Hale Global. Staffing in RI has plummeted since.
"Unfortunately, our RI correspondent just left and we're currently looking for another one. We do have folks who are posting regular content on the blog space across the state with updates about what's happening in their neighborhoods," said Jenna Fisher, reporter, Boston Metro Editor in an email to GoLocal.
Conservative "Weekly Standard" Is Closed
Was it bad business or Trump’s revenge?
Phil Anschutz, the billionaire owner of the Weekly Standard, also owns the Washington Examiner — a pro-Trump digital news organization in D.C. and depending on whose version you care to accept, the Weekly Standard was closed for political reasons.
Two of the founders -- William Kristol and Fred Barnes -- voiced frustration that the publication was not shopped to potential buyers.
David Brooks, a former contributor and now a NY Times columnist wrote in his Sunday column:
I’ve only been around Phil Anschutz a few times. My impressions on those occasions was that he was a run-of-the-mill arrogant billionaire. He was used to people courting him and he addressed them condescendingly from the lofty height of his own wealth.
I’ve never met Ryan McKibben, who runs part of Anschutz’s media group. But stories about him have circulated around Washington over the years. The stories suggest that he is an ordinary corporate bureaucrat — with all the petty vanities and the lack of interest in ideas that go with the type.
This week, Anschutz and McKibbin murdered The Weekly Standard, the conservative opinion magazine that Anschutz owned. They didn’t merely close it because it was losing money. They seemed to have murdered it out of greed and vengeance.
Big Local Advertisers Are Shifting Digital - Says Borrell
According to media consultant Gordon Borrell, "Social media tops the list of marketing methods for big local advertisers. But when you average out what they're spending, this list is almost reversed. They average $29,561 on social media, and four to almost 10x that amount on newspapers, radio, & TV advertising."
Cooke Outlines the Challenges to Print and Cites GoLocal as the Potential Solution
Media consultant Holland Cooke outlines the quickening demise of newspapers -- and that GoLocal is one of the emerging models to provide local news.
Watch video below
WPRI-12's Parent Company Reaches Settlement with Dept. of Justice
The Department of Justice announced Friday that it has reached a settlement with Nexstar Media Group Inc. — the parent company of WPRI-12 — and one of the largest owners of television stations in the country, as part of its ongoing investigation into exchanges of competitively sensitive information in the broadcast television industry.
Justice filed an amended complaint today in the case United States v. Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc., et al., adding Nexstar Media Group Inc. as a defendant. Sinclair is the parent company of WJAR-10.
At the same time, the Department filed a proposed settlement with Nexstar that, if approved by the court, would resolve the competitive harm alleged in the complaint. The Department filed its original complaint in the case on Nov. 13, 2018, along with proposed settlements with six other television broadcasting companies said the DOJ.
“The Antitrust Division continues its efforts to stop the unlawful exchange of competitively sensitive information in the television broadcast industry,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “Robust competition among broadcast stations allows American businesses to obtain competitive advertising rates. The unlawful sharing of information reduced that competition and harmed businesses and the consumers they serve.”
