Connect with us
Jim Cutler Demos

Sports Online

Toronto Sports Radio Icon Bob McCown Launches Podcast

“OK, You’ve Got 5 Minutes debuted Monday, featuring McCown and a daily guest who gets the chance to interview the Bobcat for five minutes.”

Brandon Contes

Published

on

An iconic sports radio host in Canada, Bob McCown ended his almost year long media hiatus and recently returned with a short-form podcast available on YouTube. 

OK, You’ve Got 5 Minutes debuted Monday, featuring McCown and a daily guest who gets the chance to interview the Bobcat for five minutes. During an appearance on Canadian radio personality Dean Blundell’s podcast, McCown shared his own apathy for taking the time to catch a three-hour show, but noted of his new venture, “whatever you’re doing, you can take five minutes and listen to this thing.” 

McCown has been a fixture in Canada’s sports media for over four decades and a sports radio pioneer, helping build the format in the country. For 30 years, McCown served as the primary host of Prime Time Sports, until parting ways with SportsNet 590 last June. Since then, the often-top-rated sports host has mostly laid low. 

McCown told Blundell he spoke with “two U.S. entities and two Canadian entities,” adding that he had a bunch of offers, to get back into the media, “but they were all crummy.” McCown said he’s not opposed to making a radio return, but he’s not about to get desperate, it has to include an economic offer that makes sense for both sides. 

For now, fans of the 68-year old sports radio personality will have five minutes every day to get their fix of the Bobcat through his new podcast.

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 Online

Dave Portnoy Found Out About The CW, Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl Partnership on X

Portnoy reposted the company’s announcement that it had secured a distribution deal with The CW by saying “Love finding out about this in a tweet.”

Published

on

Dave Portnoy
Courtesy: Slaven Vlasic, Getty Images

Earlier today, it was announced that Barstool Sports had partnered with The CW to broadcast the 2023 Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl. However, it appears no one told the company’s founder, Dave Portnoy.

Portnoy reposted the announcement that it had secured a distribution deal to bring the bowl game to terrestrial television with The CW. He accompanied the post by saying “Love finding out about this in a tweet.”

The bowl game’s official X account wrote it was “thrilled to be able to bring the most cutting edge postseason experience to college football fans across the nation.”

Barstool Sports play-by-play voice Jake Marsh shared his enthusiasm for the partnership by calling it “huge news”.

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 Online

NSMA Names Finalists for 2023 National Awards

Winners will be invited to the 64th NSMA Awards Weekend & National Convention in June or July 2024.

Jordan Bondurant

Published

on

The National Sports Media Association (NSMA) on Wednesday announced its finalists for 2023 national awards.

The national sportswriter of the year finalists are: Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN; Dan Wetzel of Yahoo; Dana O’Neil of The Athletic; Jeff Passan of ESPN; Marc J. Spears of Andscape and ESPN; Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic; Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated; Peter King of NBC Sports; Sally Jenkins of The Washington Post, and Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated.

The national Sportscaster of the Year finalists are: Brian Anderson of CBS/TBS/TNT; Charles Barkley of TNT/TBS; Doris Burke of ABC/ESPN; Jim Nantz of CBS; Joe Buck of ESPN; Joe Davis of FOX; Kevin Harlan of CBS/TNT/TBS/Westwood One; Mike Breen of ABC/ESPN; Mike Tirico of NBC, and Sean McDonough of ABC/ESPN.

The Hall of Fame Sportswriter finalists are: Christine Brennan, Claire Smith, Howard Bryant, Ira Berkow, Jayson Stark, Mike Downey, Ralph Wiley, Ray Didinger, Roger Kahn, and Wendell Smith.

The Hall of Fame sportscaster finalists are: Andrea Kremer, Charlie Neal, Don Criqui, Jaime Jarrin, James Brown, Joe Buck, Mary Carillo, Mike Tirico, Phyllis George, and Tim McCarver.

Winners will be invited to the 64th NSMA Awards Weekend & National Convention next summer.

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 Online

Kirk Herbstreit: Social Media Still Critical of Al Michaels Because of Last Year’s Comments

“He hears the noise. He has more of an ‘F you’ attitude about it than ‘I am going to show them’.”

Ricky Keeler

Published

on

Al Michaels
Courtesy: Tom Hauck, Getty Images

The narrative going around social media is that legendary broadcaster Al Michaels doesn’t have too much excitement when he calls a Thursday Night Football game on Amazon Prime with Kirk Herbstreit. However, in Herbstreit’s mind, that is nowhere near the truth.  

Herbstreit was a guest on the Pardon My Take podcast this week and he said that he thinks a lot of people are holding two games from last year against Michaels. One was the Chargers-Jaguars Wild Card playoff game and the other was the Colts-Broncos matchup that was a 12-9 overtime game.

“I think everyone is holding the Jacksonville playoff game last year against him. I didn’t work with him in that game and it got a lot of criticism after that game.”

“Social media is using that as a narrative and they are just using that and the one time in Indy/Denver he talked about how what a shitty game it was we were doing. It is almost like they are using those two examples to say ‘Al Michaels hates Thursday night, Al Michaels has lost it.'”

One comparison he gave for both he and Michaels is that while Thursday night games have strong atmospheres, they don’t compare to when Michaels used to call Sunday Night Football or Monday Night Football or when Herbstreit does a big Saturday Night game for college football.

“We’ve had a great schedule this year. We’ve had some great games. If you listen to me calling Florida State/Florida or to me this weekend, I’m standing the whole game, Chris Fowler is standing the whole game. There’s energy that is unparalleled in these college atmospheres. You get caught up in the moment you are performing in.”

“I think Al when he would do Sunday Night or Monday Night Football, those games were massive. You are doing big games and your voice projects based on the setting that you are in. These Thursday night games are good atmospheres, but I don’t think they are at the level of a Sunday night game or when I’m doing a Saturday night game. So, I think your voice always matches with what you are doing.”

Herbstreit has been with Michaels for the last two seasons and there is one thing that he is impressed by about him and he feels that both of them are similar in terms of how much excitement they bring with the situation warrants it.

“I’ve noticed that Al Michaels is pretty much like me. When the game warrants excitement, he brings excitement…I think Al hears it, he disagrees with it. He’s really enjoying our crew and what we are doing. To be at his age and I marvel at what he does. Producers talking in his ear, he’s always recognizing and ID’ing typically the right guy every time. At his age, I’m blown away by it.”

“He hears the noise. He has more of an ‘F you’ attitude about it than ‘I am going to show them’. He thinks it’s a bunch of bullshit, I think it’s a bunch of bullshit. I think it’s a narrative that social media is running with.” 

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

Barrett Media Writers

Copyright © 2023 Barrett Media.