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Padres CEO Tells Ben & Woods Losing Bally Sports San Diego is Good For Fans

“I do anticipate that eventually, most, if not all the industry, will move in the direction that we’re moving right now, and you won’t have [us] every year doing different rights deals.”

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After Diamond Sports Group informed the San Diego Padres it was neglecting to pay the fee for the local broadcast rights, Major League Baseball has officially taken control of local broadcasts for the team. Games will continue to be made available on linear television providers, but will also be available to stream on MLB.TV. Fans in the team’s home market can subscribe to MLB.TV for $19.99 a month or pay $74.99 for the remainder of the season.

On Wednesday, San Diego Padres chief executive officer Erik Greupner joined Ben & Woods on 97.3 The Fan to inform consumers what the process has entailed over the last several months. He said Diamond Sports Group had a two-week grace period to submit their rights payment, but he received a call from company CEO David Preshlack saying that wasn’t going to happen.

“We’ve been working for months with Major League Baseball, [and] we’d already been sort of through a fire drill once or twice before,” Greupner said. “I think we’re as prepared as we can be. It’s never easy to make these sorts of changes in-season. We’re trying to do our very best to communicate with our fans, but the bottom line is this is a really good development for fans.”

The move could be indicative of things to come, as the league is looking to end local blackouts and expedite its own direct-to-consumer streaming option by reacquiring broadcast rights as the deals expire.

“I was in a full-blown panic last night [and was] almost on the phone with Cox because I’m a Cox subscriber,” show co-host Steve Woods said. “It’s convenient – my Cox is there; it’s ready; it’s waiting. I turn on Cox. I’m good to go and there’s my Padres on Bally – I’m good. As we know, things have changed, and I don’t like to change. I don’t like change at all. I’ll do it if I have to, but I really am the guy that needs his hand held.”

Major League Baseball hired Billy Chambers to become its first executive vice president of local media. He brings over 20 years of experience to the role, largely in senior finance roles with FOX Sports and Sinclair Broadcast Group, and has been tasked with overseeing media rights distribution and local management.

The Padres’ new broadcast arrangement augments the reach of games by 189% and gives fans multiple options to keep up with the team. Greupner expressed how fans have been asking for the ability to stream games in the market without blackouts. Moreover, some locations where fans are bound by blackout restrictions because of exclusive local rights do not even have regional sports networks distributed to them, leaving them entirely in the dark.

“This move, we anticipate, is going to be the last move that we have to make for quite some time as far as the eye can see,” Greupner revealed. “Under the direction and leadership of the Commissioner [and] what MLB is doing – and we happen to be the first team that’s making the move – but they are stepping in and replacing what has become a broken RSN model.”

Diamond Sports Group, a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is in active litigation with the league after refusing to pay the full amount of rights fees to other teams. The entity stated it had sufficient funding in liquidity and would agree to do so in exchange for valuable direct-to-consumer streaming rights, something the league quickly shot down.

“It’ll take you a day or two to get used to turning the Padres to a different channel on your cable,” show co-host Ben Higgins said. “If you were getting the Padres before, you will be getting the Padres starting today as well – just not on Bally Sports San Diego anymore.”

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Jason Puckett Launches PuckSports.com

“I am super motivated right now and I can’t wait. I have probably been busier now than I’ve ever been in the last 48 hours.”

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Logo for PuckSports.com

Jason Puckett, who decided to walk away from a contract offer from iHeartMedia’s KJR in Seattle after finding out his partner Jim Moore had been laid off, has launched a new venture – PuckSports.com. ‘Puck’ has a baseball opening day show posted on the Puck Sports YouTube page and also posted an introductory message about his new venture and what led to creating it.

“I wanted to talk to you guys, the listeners out there, the viewers out there, sorry for all of this,” an emotional Puckett said. “Sorry for what has happened and what has taken place. Thank you for all of the comments and the well-wishes and what you have said about myself and Jim.

“It has been a whirlwind of a last few days, for sure and I do want to say that I feel for the people that we used to work with. “I know it’s not easy to go through that, I have been on that side of it many, many times in this industry when someone is let go and you have to sit there and answer all the questions about them and for them…It’s unfortunate and it shouldn’t be that way, but the reality of this business is it’s like that.”

Puckett then told his fans that PuckSports.com and YouTube are where you will be finding his content along with Moore. “I am going to take what I have learned over the years and apply it to a new age of media,” he said and noted this was a direction he had been thinking about for a while.

As for what took place that led to his decision to not sign his contract and talk away, he said, “I just want to take you briefly back to last week. I don’t want to get too much in the weeds, I’m not here to lay any blame or point any fingers at anybody…there’s too many good people that I have worked with that I don’t want to drag into this. It was a process that was at times handled fine, handled perfectly, and at other times it got to a point where it just went on too long. But that’s corporate media and that’s what happens.”

Continuing on Puckett said, “…I had been without a contract since about January…when I was away from the station that was something that we and the station agreed upon…to see if we could get something done and we were all hopeful that we would…I was only supposed to be gone a couple of days…unfortunately as these things sometimes happen, it just went a little bit longer…We received the deal and it was what we wanted, but unfortunately with that news a few hours later came the news from corporate that Jim had lost his job. Obviously there was a mix of emotions with that from me.

“I wrestled with that and the decision and what I would do. It was hard for me to move forward…I couldn’t fight the perception more than anything that I had received a new deal while at the same time, my partner and good friend, guy I love to death, who I grew up reading…it was a hard reality…The loyalty I have, I couldn’t live with myself even though Jim knew what the truth was.”

Puckett said he was aware Moore was planning to step away from the radio show at the end of the year and was looking forward to the nine months they would have left to work with one another. Then, when iHeartMedia made the decision to make Moore a casualty of their latest round of layoffs, Puckett knew he needed to revisit the idea of starting his own venture.

He said, “It has kind of changed my timeline as far as what I wanted to do and where I felt I was at…I am super motivated right now and I can’t wait. I have probably been busier now than I’ve ever been in the last 48 hours.”

Puckett said several of the show’s regular guests would stay with the show and he thanked several sponsors who he said would remain supporters of the show with the new venture. ‘Puck’ noted that starting next week, “…We get underway in full force…I’m going to continue to try and make people laugh and entertain you and talk about sports…and all of the other things you have become accustomed to with this show.”

As he started to wrap up, Puckett said, “I’m jumping into the deep end of the pool and I am going to see if I can swim or sink.”

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Kirk Minihane: WEEI is “Going to be Andy Gresh and Rich Shertenlieb in Afternoons”

“It’s going to be Andy Gresh and Rich Shertenlieb in the afternoons, which is going to be so awful.”

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Photos of Kirk Minihane and Rich Shertenlieb

As the speculation continues on where Boston sports talker Rich Shertenlieb will end up, one former WEEI host said he has the scoop on what is going to happen. Kirk Minihane, now with Barstool Sports, said, “What I heard was, initially, was they were moving Rich Keefe from nights to middays, moving Adam Jones from afternoons to middays and keeping Fauria there, and moving Andy Gresh to afternoons…But now it appears Rich Shertenlieb is going to do afternoons with Andy Gresh.”

On Wednesday, Boston Globe sports and sports media columnist Chad Finn put out a post on X, saying, “Didn’t think Rich Shertenlieb would end up at WEEI after leaving Sports Hub. I do now, most likely in afternoon drive. Audacy management has been telling people to expect changes.”

Minihane continued commenting on the matter, saying, “It’s going to be Andy Gresh and Rich Shertenlieb in the afternoons, which is going to be so awful. Maybe the two most sensitive c***s in the history of radio. That’s a show we are going to ruin…we haven’t done that in a while, we are going to take that show down…Once that show starts, we are just going to blitz them with phone calls because Gresh can’t handle that.

“What they don’t understand, because they are so dumb, is that…Rich Shertenlieb has no fan base…no fan of [Toucher and Hardy] in the morning is going to be like ‘I’m not going to listen to Felger in the afternoons, I’ll now listen to Andy Gresh and Rich Shertenlieb.’ It’s going to be dreadful.”

Recapping what he has heard the rest of the WEEI lineup will be, Minihane said, “…And then in middays you have Adam Jones, failed afternoons. Rich Keefe who has now failed middays, drivetime, nights and is now going to fail again in middays… and Christian Fauria who has never drawn a rating in his life.”

WEEI has not commented on any of the speculation. BSM will have more as the story unfolds.

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Former 670 The Score Host Tommy Williams Has Died

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Photo of Tommy Williams
Courtesy: Lakeshore Public Media

Tommy Williams, who was heard for a decade on 670 The Score, died on Wednesday at the age of 66.

Williams began his broadcasting career in his hometown of Gary, Indiana in 1982 at WLTH before moving on to The Score. In 2003, Williams became the PA Announcer for the Gary Southshore RailCats of the American Association where he had his signature call to get the attention of the fans, “People, People, People.”

A story in The Times of Northwest Indiana said, “The longtime RailCats public address announcer and Lakeshore Public Media sports journalist was known for broadcasting countless games, interviewing countless athletes and covering Region sports at all levels. The Gary native and co-host of “Prep Sports Report,” “Prep Football Report,” and “Lakeshore PBS Scoreboard” often signed off shows saying, “Gary, Indiana, you know I love you.”

“The cadence he had in his voice echoed across the Region in a way we may never see again. He was widely known and widely loved,” Tom Maloney, vice president of radio operations at Lakeshore Public Media told the paper.

“He’d want to be remembered as the voice of Lakeshore sports,” his Regionally Speaking co-host and producer Dee Dotson told The Times. “Most people will remember him for covering prep sports all the way up to semi-pros. He’ll be remembered for treating each of his subjects like they were world champions. His depth of knowledge of sports at all levels is commendable. He was a walking encyclopedia of stats.” 

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