Connect with us
Jim Cutler Demos

Sports TV News

A Conversation With Red Sox Voice Dave OBrien

Jason Barrett

Published

on

Dave O’Brien has a voice that should be familiar to Capital Region sports fans.

A Syracuse graduate who is among the busiest play-by-play announcers in the industry, O’Brien calls Major League Baseball, usually on Monday nights, for ESPN. For the past nine years he has been a radio voice of the Boston Red Sox, whose games are carried in this market on WOFX (980 AM). He also worked the NCAA Women’s Basketball regional, with Doris Burke, from Times Union Center.

O’Brien, 52, will get more face time with area viewers Friday night, when he and Burke broadcast Siena’s college basketball opener against reigning NCAA Tournament champion Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium (7 p.m., ESPNU).

He will be heard often this winter with various analysts on ESPN’s coverage of college basketball. O’Brien, a Boston-area native who lives in New Hampshire, is changing his role with the Red Sox, taking over as TV play-by-play announcer for the New England Sports Network, a job that will cut into his ESPN baseball work.

Before heading to Durham, O’Brien chatted about the Friday night assignment and other aspects of his career.

Q: You’re working Friday night with Doris Burke, and I know that you and Doris worked together here in Albany last March for the NCAA Women’s regional. How is it to work with Doris?

A: Doris is sensational. She’s one of the best analysts not just in college basketball, but in all of sports, because she can do so many things. She can do men’s basketball, women’s basketball, the NBA. She can analyze both. She’s done sidelines for years. She probably could do play-by-play if she wanted to. I’m not going to advise her to do that any time soon.

She’s just flat out one of the best in the business because it’s never about Doris. It’s about the teams; it’s about the players; it’s about the game we’re calling. It’s not about her. She’s one of the smartest analysts and best-prepared you’re going to find anywhere. She’s phenomenal.

The athletes, the players, just adore her. She walks into a gym for practice, and they migrate toward her. They watch her on the NBA Finals, and they see her college basketball season, doing big men’s and women’s games. They know she’s legit. She also has her resume as a player behind her. She was a heck of a player at Providence. She doesn’t really talk about it much, but she certainly has street cred.

Q: You’ve spent a lot of time at Fenway Park, and now you’re getting a chance to do TV for the Red Sox. Will the priority be NESN? Will you be doing much with ESPN baseball-wise?

A: My baseball schedule on ESPN will be reduced. It won’t go away entirely, but I’ll do about 10 games, 10 Mondays. My NESN commitment means I’ll do every game on television that the Red Sox play for NESN. It won’t reduce my basketball schedule at all. I’ll still have a very heavy hoops schedule. That was part of the arrangement to make this happen.

My Saturday games are the ACC with Dickie V (Dick Vitale). Occasionally I’ll work with Doris and Jay Bilas and a few other folks. Doris and I will do a lot of the major women’s games, and the (Women’s) Final Four and the national championship together. I’ll get to see her a lot, but she’s going to be on Big Monday this year.

Q: Are you excited about the NESN gig? It probably was handled awkwardly by the network (the revelation came out in the middle of a game incumbent Don Orsillo was calling), but are you excited to be working with Jerry Remy?

A: I’m very excited to be working with Jerry Remy. Jerry’s a Hall of Fame analyst who’s doing his 28th season with the Red Sox. It’s pretty amazing. I’m excited about being able to do television. It’s the best job in baseball, doing the Red Sox. I’m not impartial on that, as a Quincy boy who was raised in New England, but I think it’s the best place in the world to call baseball. It was an opportunity I didn’t feel I could turn down.

A lot of the lure to me was that Jerry Remy’s going to be my partner. Jerry’s a legend in New England. It’s very exciting, and the club, under Dave Dombrowski, is going to improve dramatically. David’s not afraid to deal, he’s not afraid to spend. The owners want to get better, to get back to being a competitive team, and by that I mean postseason competitive, immediately after two consecutive losing seasons. They’re tired of them. That part of it is exciting, too. I don’t think we’re going to be watching a subpar product.

Q: Is it a little easier for you not to have to make the in-season transition from doing radio to doing TV?

A: It can be. I’m going to miss radio a great deal because those are different muscles, a different discipline. I came up doing radio. My first baseball job in Atlanta was on the radio. My next baseball job with the Marlins was on the radio. In the last nine years of calling the Red Sox on radio, I felt like I had almost gotten it right finally.

Television is a challenge, as well, and I’m up for that, doing the same team every night. I’ve done it before, but it has been a while. The funny thing is, in New England and the Boston market, I’m not sure everybody realizes that I’ve been on the radio for nine years, that I’ve been right next door calling games every night. In one way or another, I’ve called the last three Red Sox championships.

It caught me a bit by surprise that a lot television viewers watch TV, and a lot of radio listeners listen to the radio, and there’s not that much crossover. That caught me a little bit off guard when we made the announcement. I’ve been there for almost a decade.

One thing that will be easier is that I don’t have to be introduced to the market. I’m not coming from Kansas City or Chicago. I’m a New England kid, this is where I was raised, the Red Sox are my team. I’ve been right next door nearly a decade.

Q: In this market you’re probably known because of your radio because the games are carried here, and we can’t get NESN unless we have the “Extra Innings” package.

A: That’s exactly right. Radio audiences tend to be very loyal to the radio call, and probably that’s true of television, as well. There’s not as much swinging back and forth between the two as you might expect in this day and age. Radio audiences tend to be very devoted, and the TV audience on NESN is incredibly devoted to watching the Red Sox. A lot of it is attributed to the product that they put on the air. They do a great job.

To read the entire interview visit the Times Union where it was originally published

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Sports TV News

Report: NFL to Put Christmas Day Doubleheader Up For Bids

Bidding is expected to start at $50 million among the current NFL media partners but some think the games could sell for $75 million to $100 million apiece.

Avatar photo

Published

on

NFL Logo

The NFL will reportedly put its Christmas Day games up for auction, allowing its current media partners to bid for the games. Now, it’s up to CBS, FOX, ESPN, NBC, and Prime Video to pay up for rights to one of these two marquee games.

According to Front Office Sports Michael McCarthy, preference will be given to linear networks, so Prime Video and Peacock may sit this one out. Bidding is expected to start at $50 million but McCarthy and his sources expect that number to rise. John Kosner, the former ESPN executive, thinks the new Christmas Day games could sell for $75 million to $100 million apiece.

The NFL announced a Wednesday Christmas Day doubleheader during its annual league meetings. The league originally said it wouldn’t force games on Christmas Day if the holiday fell on an odd day of the week, though as the NFL continues to put games on days outside of Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, and sometimes Saturdays, we’re running out of days that don’t feature NFL football.

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Continue Reading

Sports TV News

Colorado Rockies & DirecTV Reach Agreement to Carry Games on TV

“Colorado sports fans have made DIRECTV the top destination for their favorite local teams. We will continue to work with MLB…so fans can get their games.”

Avatar photo

Published

on

Colorado Rockies

Breathe easy, Rockies fans — you will be able to watch your club on linear TV this year. At the buzzer, DirecTV and the Colorado Rockies agreed on terms to distribute the team’s games throughout its local service.

Starting today, DirecTV Choice subscribers across Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Southern Idaho, Western Nebraska, and Northern New Mexico can now watch the Rockies on a special channel simply titled, “ROCKIES.” The games will be available on DirecTV and DirecTV STREAM via channel 683.

“Colorado sports fans have made DIRECTV the top destination to get all their favorite local teams,” said Rob Thun, chief content officer of DIRECTV. “We will continue to work with MLB, the NBA, NHL, and other top leagues and their local franchises so the most avid fans can get the games they want while other customers have more choice over the content they want to pay to have in their homes.”

Reports just days ago out of Colorado said there were “no guarantees” the Rockies would not find a TV home in time for Opening Day following the sunsetting of AT&T SportsNet. The only other way to watch the team is to use its direct-to-consumer Rockies.tv streaming service, which fans say is too pricey for a team that lost 103 games last season. Luckily, the team was able to secure a TV home for 2024, though the future is still uncertain.

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Continue Reading

Sports TV News

Erin Andrews Reveals Infertility Journey in Emotional ‘Today Show’ Interview

FOX reporter Erin Andrews sat down with ‘The Today Show’s’ Kristen Welker to discuss her journey, how Welker’s own journey inspired her, and more.

Avatar photo

Published

on

Erin Andrews

FOX reporter Erin Andrews shared her story of infertility and surrogacy with NBC’s Today Show. Last summer, Andrews and her husband welcomed a baby boy via surrogate after trying for a decade to get pregnant via IVF, during which she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2016. Today, she sat down with Kristen Welker to discuss her journey, how Welker’s own journey inspired her, and more.

Andrews says Welker’s announcement on the Today Show made her think a baby could be possible. “I remember Kristin Welker’s announcement on your show,” Andrews said last year, “and I actually watched that the morning Mac was born, because that just hit me.”

When they finally sat down, Welker asked Andrews why her journey resonated with the sports reporter so much:

“Because I see myself in you. Kristen, the video of you moderating debates after you’re waiting on bad news or maybe you just received it, that’s me. I can tell you every stand-up I’ve done at a football game where I’ve gotten the news that it didn’t work. I’d be talking about Tom Brady going for this record and my record is that I still was failing…I would have chest pains every time I was waiting for the call if it worked, and I knew it wouldn’t work.

Erin Andrews on ‘Today’

Andrews knew surrogacy was the only path to having a child. Although her family’s first attempt failed, her second attempt was a success, and she got to hear her child’s heartbeat for the very first time. The pair discuss the complex emotions that come with surrogacy, saying that bonds with their child could be affected because they didn’t carry their child. However, Welker assured Andrews that those feelings go away once you can talk to your child.

Once her son was born in June, who Andrews called, “a miracle,” she then talks about her child glowingly, talking about how he is just like mom — vocal. “He’s all me,” she says.

Andrews supports Baby Quest, a non-profit that grants money to families in need of IVF or surrogacy to have a baby but don’t have the funds to pursue these expensive treatments. Both Andrews and Welker acknowledged how difficult and unattainable their journies are for some families — and Andrews even used the NFL’s “My Cleats, My Cause” initiative to raise awareness for her cause.

“People don’t need to feel embarrassed that they have a surrogate or are looking for other help,” Andrews said.

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Advertisement

Upcoming Events

Barrett Media Writers

Copyright © 2024 Barrett Media.