Sports media scrawler. DMs open. Secure text/voice #: 6178719588 Out of respect for their mentions, please don’t @ people in replies unless I tag them first.
Botterill is a treasure. This was a masterclass in debunking the kind of archaic nonsense that pervades the NHL.
Put her on every panel from now through the playoffs, and then make her the lead host next year.
Tomorrow is Jays season ticket renewal day.
Who in their right mind would give Rogers money in light of the failed management group they continue to keep in charge?
Sportsnet radio personality Joey Vendetta has been pulled off the air on FAN590 following a Canada Day tweet encouraging people to leave if “it’s so bad”.
Best wishes to the Leafs radio crew who will be trying their best to call the game from monitors in Toronto instead of being in the arena in Tampa.
In a better universe the league's 2nd most valuable franchise wouldn't be owned by two absurdly cheap media companies.
So Buck and Ben Wagner are both in Florida with the team but Sportsnet isn’t bothering to provide any home audio (on tv or radio) for Jays fans?
This makes no sense.
But Provorov obviously does not respect “everyone”. If he did respect everyone, he would have taken part in warm-up and worn the Pride Night jersey. Don’t hide behind religion.
I kind of agree with Damien.
With just 3 years left on the Rogers/HNIC deal the league should be thinking about how they can grow interest in the game in Canada even when no Canadian teams are involved.
Opinion: It’s June. Most of us are outside. The Final should end in May.
Friends: I thought it was important to let you know I’m being treated for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Still, I intend to be there opening day, sitting beside
@SiddallJoe
hosting
#BlueJays
Central. Hope you’ll join us then.
CONFIRMED: Davidi spent his Friday afternoon battling Toronto traffic to YYZ to chase pictures of a random plane.
Opinion: I would be furious if I were him. His bosses chased internet gossip & then told him to go do the same. He's earned the right not to be put in that position.
Qualifying CMNT matches were on OneSoccer and Sportsnet, but CTV/TSN is the place to be when the stakes are the highest.
Opinion: Bell has done an amazing job locking down the events that perennially matter most to Canadians … Superbowl, Grey Cup, Copa/Euro/World Cup.
"Wagner said he has no idea what will happen with radio broadcasts if the Blue Jays return to Toronto, or what Sportsnet will do with them in 2022.”
Sportsnet let Wilner twist in the wind. Now they are doing it to Wagner & Jays fans too. Bring back radio. This is bush league.
This is such a weird moment in time:
Live sports have never been more valuable yet every company covering sports doesn’t want to pay people do it anymore.
The Athletic, Bell, Rogers, The Sun, The Star … they all want out.
Hello friends, I have a big life update:
After almost two years in Northern California, I have made the difficult decision to move back to Toronto.
More here on my decision and what lies ahead! ❤️🇨🇦
#SjSharks
#hockey
#california
#BayArea
#toronto
If you love American college football, Rogers’ FAN590 has you covered all morning with CBS Sports radio.
If you want to hear about the Rogers owned Jays chances of making the playoffs after last nights big win, you’ll want to tune in to TSN1050.
What universe am I living in?
FAN590 is re-running old Stanley Cup radio broadcasts for evening programming.
I get the need to save money but come on …. give those reps to young people looking to build their skills. Friedman, Strombo, and Marek all got their starts in the evening.
As someone who mostly roots for stories rather than people this one feels tremendous.
Wagner suffered through years of disrespectful treatment by Rogers. He deserves every bit of his success & earned it the right way. I look forward to listening to him call Jays-Os games.
With the news that Alex Manoah refused to report to AAA after his demotion, the decision by Sportsnet to give him a 6 part off-season documentary seems especially ill-advised.
But the ultimate failure lies with Shapiro. There is no way this guy should have been your
#1
starter.
Sportsnet’s press release cites the pandemic as an excuse for canceling their radio booth and going with a simulcast.
If so, why are the 29 other teams in the league choosing to stick with both radio and TV broadcasts?
Some thoughts on how Sportsnet is harming Ben Wagner's career and why he will probably leave at the first opportunity. He deserves better, and so does the audience.
Two main questions I have about these layoffs:
1) To what extent is automation making (some) technical sports media jobs redundant?
2) How many people does ESPN employ relative to FS1? Their subscriber fee is ~ $6 vs $1.
Good guys = the ones who give us the sound bytes we want.
Bad guys = the ones who don’t.
Media take the bait every time. Try to move beyond this simplistic paradigm.
Jake Gardiner is a good kid. And huge kudos to him for facing the music and being accountable for the way he played. Auston Matthews hid in the training room after being invisible in Game 4.
One man’s opinion: Joe Siddall is one of the best hires in Sportsnet’s history.
Full credit to Jerry Howarth for recruiting him and to the execs at SN for developing him from radio to TV. He’s so good in his current role.
Congratulation to Joe Bowen (currently hacked) & Jim Ralph who are traveling for a Leafs playoff game for the first time in forever.
Bell + Rogers colluded with each other to save a few $ by taking the radio crew off the road, hoping no one would notice. We noticed.
Having listened to the final episode of First Up, it’s clear (to me) that MacArthur had no idea this was his last show.
Given that Ziggy was allowed to say goodbye to the audience just a week ago, this seems pretty disrespectful by FAN590 management.
First thought: when Wagner tweeted pics of the Dome while the team was on the road it was clear he knew he was not being renewed.
Second thought: after all he did for this team through the pandemic, he deserved a much better fate than this.
More thoughts to follow.
Opinion: MacArthur instantly makes every show on TSN1050 and FAN590 better (except for Overdrive). You could plug him in anywhere and be better off.
⌮ If I were TSN I would build a daily Jays show around him.
⌮ If I were SN I would give him back the morning show.
A thing I am seeing more on twitter is betting advocates talking to gamblers who lost: “Sorry my picks didn’t work out, but there’s always more games to bet on! Get back out there and let’s make some money!”
Just remember: they are losing house money, you are losing your money.
Paragraph 1 has a lot of “I” statements.
Paragraph 2 has a lot of “we” statements.
Observation: A lot of people are interested in what Kyle Dubas thinks. Fewer people are interested in what “The Dubas Family” thinks.
Opinion: this is a poorly conceived statement.
Sports media loser story from 2021:
Buck Martinez choosing to stay home in Florida rather than come to Toronto to broadcast the Jays exciting playoff drive.
Ok let’s talk about this:
Far be it from me to give Bell Media comms advice, but letting this dangle for almost a week without comment is bad.
It’s bad for the network, and it’s bad for the other TSN personalities who are left to deal with the fallout.
“[...] the NHL somehow negotiated a way to somehow enable NBC to allow Americans to take jobs Canadians are clearly qualified to do.”
Glad someone wrote about this. There’s no reason to fly extra Americans here right now.
Jamie is a good person. He's also a darn good broadcaster.
We are lucky that he has chosen to use his national platform and notoriety to help others, directly and indirectly.
Thank you Jamie.
Two games into the season & Sportsnet’s exercise in penny pinching is already embarrassing the network, the team, & Ben Wagner.
SN VP Greg Sansone hasn’t tweeted since 2018 but I can assure you he is very much aware of what people are saying about this.
Question of the day:
Taking in to account length of tenure, size of payroll, and draft record …
… has there been a bigger failure as a GM in Toronto sports than Ross Atkins? (0 playoff wins, 0 division titles)
Opinion: Fans cheer. Fans boo. It's their prerogative.
Unless they are throwing things on the field or being racist, it's not the media's job to police what fans do after they buy their tickets.
For perspective,
@Alek_Manoah6
, even in a slump, is appreciably better at what he does, than everyone booing him and using twitter fingers to say things they’d never say to his face, is at their job.
It is not the critic who counts. The credit belongs to the man in the arena.
Ben Wagner is incredibly good at the solo broadcast.
A thing I just noticed: his cadence varies slightly when he’s doing play by play vs analysis.
He’s a real find by Sportsnet. The person who hired him also deserves a lot of credit.
It's 8:37am, traditionally one of the most listened to hours of radio throughout the day. Jays are on the verge of clinching. FAN590 morning show is discussing 50/50 propositions, over/under total runs, & juicing the parlay.
This is how you put the nail in the coffin of radio.
The fact that Rogers gave the NHL so much money and received so little control over the scheduling of playoff games featuring Canadian teams is a pretty big indictment of the negotiation skills of Pelley/Moore/Mohamed.
The NHL lets US TV win the fight with Canadian TV again, so Edmonton-Vegas gets moved *after it was announced by Vegas for Friday*, and the Leafs and Oilers only get Sundays instead of Saturdays after that. Sportsnet paid a lot of money for the product, and that's what they get.
“Staffieri said the agreement with Amazon is just "one more example of us moving with the way Canadians actually want to experience and view content.””
With all due respect, no one – and I mean no one – wants to watch hockey on Amazon Prime.
Topic for a future column:
We know the names of those in the NHL + the NHLPA who knew that Kyle Beach was a victim of sexual assault and did nothing.
Now I want to know the names of the people in hockey media who heard rumours or had sources yet chose to bury the story.
Ben Shulman is doing great so far.
He’s a little slow on the call after contact but that’s likely due to him not being in person. Wagner figured out how to work around this. I’m sure Shulman will too.
Jays have 4th highest payroll in baseball yet Rogers scrimps on radio.
The face of your network is suddenly missing from all platforms. You have built a relationship with the audience and this leaves them in the dark. Not to mention that every Leafs fan wants to hear O’Neill’s opinions on the team.
Literally any statement is better than nothing.
The fact that media folks feel the need to defend Rick Westhead is genuinely baffling to me.
Can someone clarify what is controversial about TSN’s reporting? What should have been done differently?
"There's a lot of division in the media in this country, so I'm going to say it: It's TSN and it's Rick Westhead, and the work he's done has got this story out."
Kristian Jack offers a message of support to
@rwesthead
amid social media criticism for reporting on drone scandal
Opinion: Tim & Friends is a good show but things just haven’t been the same since Sid left.
A new cohost is long overdue if they are planning to stick with the program.
"Sportsnet has confirmed Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Stars and the Lightning drew an average audience of only 1.081 million on Saturday night. In Game 2, on Monday night, the audience shrank to 841,000.”
Brutal numbers for what is supposed to be must see TV.
“We have the most educated sports fans in Canada tuning in to Prime Time Sports on a daily basis, and with a combination of these three in the booth, they will create the most intelligent and thoughtful show in sports talk radio.”
Damn straight. This era of PTS was great.
Watercooler topic: what has been the biggest change in your sports media consumption habits in 2022?
Mine = total loss of interest in local Toronto radio. The content has never been less relevant to my life.
Opinion: Hazel Mae does a great job filling in for Jamie on the desk. Her pacing is perfect.
Overall, the Sportsnet Jays broadcasts are just incredibly strong right now.
We have written for years about how Brunt is tragically under-utilized at Sportsnet. With a million interesting things going on in the world of sports, he is interviewing JD Bunkis during the 6pm slot.
All I want for 2022 is for someone to find a way to surface Brunt's value.
“In the written message, Corte said the network is putting a sharpened focus on “Sportsnet Central,” its flagship news program, because it “accounts for more than 50 percent of the network’s daily programming schedule.””
That’s not something I’d be boasting about.
There are 2 big sports media stories we are watching this summer:
1) What it will take for Rogers to dismiss Ross Atkins
2) How MLSE will handle the Marner situation
Everything with the Raps, TFC, and Argos is small potatoes compared to these.
I am relieved to hear that Norm Rumak is getting the help he needs. Thanks to Howard for writing this.
As a boy I remember the excitement of Norm’s call-in shows. You could feel his energy through the dial. Most of today’s hosts are texting while on air.
Sports media sit rep:
☫ the SC Final is turning out to be a disappointment for Rogers. Short series, noncompetitive games, low national interest.
☫ at the same time, the Jays are boring & mediocre.
☫ meanwhile Bell takes centerstage for the next month with the Euro.
As we enter the final years of the disastrous NHL-Rogers deal, Teflon Ron is back as host.
His replacement (Strombo), long term partner (Cherry), and short term partner (Slone) are all gone, while Ron remains.
Opinion: this saga would make a pretty good plotline on Succession.
Overdrive beats Tim & Sid in their first head to head battle.
The decision to simulcast TV on radio during drivetime will go down as one of the most pound-foolish cost cutting measures in Toronto sports media history.
This is an incredible achievement for the TSN investigative team and speaks volumes about the credibility of the network when it comes to reporting on hockey.
Tonight on
@SportsCentre
we're joined by John Doe, the former Blackhawks player at the centre of the team's sexual abuse scandal.
He has asked us to reveal his identity and you will hear him speak his truth. It's a privilege to offer a platform to someone with such courage.
Lazy weekend watercooler question:
If TSN/1050 wanted to beef up their paltry Jays coverage for the exciting season ahead, would it make sense to hire Mike Wilner to host a version of
#JaysTalk
?
What do you think?
590 seems to be thinking that they can sub one old and grumpy guy for another with minimal loss on PTS.
They are very wrong. Being a good reporter and being a good radio host involve different skills.
Massive development. Pretty unexpected from this government, which has been friendly to gambling. These companies have 6 months until the ban takes effect, so plenty of time to figure out a new advertising strategy.
Opinion: so long and good riddance to Jesse Pinkman.
SNBets tweeted this, presumably after telling some poor intern to create custom graphics with their logo on it.
It has since been deleted because some people find memes based on real life murder, torture, and cannibalism not very funny.
Congratulations to all 3 hosts, as well as the program directors at 1050 who fought for their station even when it was barely registering.
Opinion: it's very hard to create chemistry (see FAN590's attempts in the morning over the last decade). TSN deserves tons of credit here.
8 years chatting with the boys! 🎉
In honour of OverDrive’s eight year anniversary, what is your all-time favourite moment on the show?
Let us know. 👇
@HayesTSN
@odognine2
@jamiemclennan29
It is ridiculous that *any* Leafs road game would be called off a monitor, but the fact that Bowen and Ralph will be at home during a playoff game is outrageous.
This is one of the the most valuable teams in the league we are talking about.
There has been a lot of trial + error over the last 10 years at 590. This show has been one of the station’s major successes.
In a town where there is no shortage of competition for Leafs talk, these two have carved out a space of their own.
Congratulations & enjoy the rest.
TSN and SN continue to make headlines in the US for their terrible joint decision to abandon road radio for Jays/Leafs/Raps.
This article makes the excellent point that seeing the whole ice is critical to staying on top of the play as it evolves.
If Sportsnet were to pull the plug on Tim&Friends it would be admitting to what I consider what one of the biggest mistakes in the history of the station: counter-programming PTS.
The decision to take Tim&Sid off radio and pit them against Bob McCown has never made sense.
With the Leafs under way it is 100% confirmed that 1050 is sticking with the decision to run Fox Sports instead of Leafs Lunch.
Opinion: What a waste. The show has heritage value and helped launch Overdrive. Turning it over to Bardown last year was a huge nail in the coffin.
Great result for Rogers. The EDM-VAN series is going to a 7th game & the winner gets a shot at being Canada’s team in the Final.
Opinion: the NHL should move heaven + earth to hand out the Cup by the end of May. It’s summer weather in most markets & hockey is a winter sport.
Bob McCown has to be laughing right now. The timing of the latest
@FAN590
moves makes no sense whatsovever. There is no way this is how they drew up dumping PTS after 20 years.
Just listened to the final PTS. Gord Stellick was clearly excited to be hosting as he took the opportunity to TALK LOUDLY OVER EVERYBODY while telling obscure Maple Leaf anecdotes.
Out with a whimper. So long Bobcat.
“why are you so pissy?”
1) This is not a good question. No interview subject is going to react well to that.
2) This is not language that allows you to claim the moral high ground when it comes to professionalism.
Jim Matheson covered the most star studded team in NHL history. He had great relationships with the biggest stars the game has ever known. He asked good questions then in the heyday of the Edmonton Oilers - he still asks them now.
Between innings Sportsnet makes Jamie Campbell read adverts for Bet365 under the guise of showing highlights from other games.
Fair enough. Bills need to be paid. But the banner for the betting odds covers the actual highlights. As a viewer, it's not a good experience.