Sports TV News

Doris Burke: Commitment to Each Other Key in 3-Man Booth

“I think we were all pleasantly surprised we didn’t step on one another, that there felt like there was room for one another.”

Published

1 month ago

October 23, 2023

Ricky Keeler

Courtesy: Tom Szczerbowski, Getty Images

Later this week, Mike Breen, Doris Burke, and Doc Rivers will call their first regular season game for ESPN as a trio. This season, Burke will be the first woman to call a championship as an analyst on television for the four major sports leagues at the NBA Finals this summer.

Burke was a guest on the Sports Media With Richard Deitsch podcast and she talked about the challenges that come this year with working in a three-person booth. It is something Burke has done before whether it be at the Big East Tournament or at the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, but she didn’t get too many repetitions with it.

“Mike [Breen] is accustomed to working in a three-man booth. He has done it at the highest level for a very long time. In my career, that has been a very episodic thing. I think I did it maybe two years with Fran Fraschilla and Dave Pasch at the Big East Tournament, but that was two games for maybe a couple of days. Then, there was the year that Kara Lawson joined Dave O’Brien and I at the regional final and the Final Four. That’s the extent of it.”

“That’s unique. That’s different. You have to let the broadcast breathe, you’ve got to give the viewer a chance to have nothing hitting their ears. And how do you do that? When we went to the first break on Friday night, the first thing I said to Mike Breen was ‘Are we letting this breathe enough?’ He goes ‘No, but not in a bad way. We are all excited and we all have our thing to say’.”

The trio had the chance to call a game together last Friday for the Warriors-Lakers exhibition game and Doris Burke mentioned that they were all surprised that for the first broadcast, no one was stepping on each other to get their point across.

“I do think as long as you are committed to one another and most importantly to the viewer and the broadcast, you are going to be in a pretty good position. We had the good fortune of calling an exhibition game Friday. I think we were all pleasantly surprised we didn’t step on one another, that there felt like there was room for one another.”

Since the NBA has the in-season tournament for the first time this year, Burke thinks that it will provide an opportunity for the three of them to get more games with each other which will help them along their journey.

“This is a journey for the three of us. Thankfully, we will get some repetitions early in the in-season tournament, maybe more than it’s typical at ESPN for the #1 team. What I have extraordinary faith in is the people I work with.”

Doris Burke has worked with Doc Rivers before in television and she has high praise for her new broadcast partner and the insight that he can bring to the game from all of the experience he has.

“Doc Rivers is one of the most personable, fun people I have had the occasion to sit in coach’s meetings with. He knew in every coach’s meeting what the broadcast team needed and he would give that information to you to the best of his ability within his constraints as an NBA head coach. I also know there isn’t a thing that Doc Rivers hasn’t seen in 13 years as a player or over two decades as a coach.

Ricky Keeler

Ricky Keeler is a reporter for BSM with a primary focus on sports media podcasts and national personalities. He is also an active podcaster with an interest in pursuing a career in sports media. You can find him on Twitter @Rickinator555 or reach him by email at [email protected].

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John Dickinson Exits 95.7 The Game

“The longtime Bay Area sports radio reporter and host announced his departure on social media.”

Published

12 hours ago

November 28, 2023

Jordan Bondurant

23538F4F-2BF5-40B4-9FA4-07801B5214EE | Barrett Media

A voice familiar to Bay Area sports fans will no longer be heard on 95.7 The Game. Reporter John Dickinson announced on Monday that it was his last day at the station.

Dickinson posted a note on X on Monday expressing his gratitude for getting to be at 95.7 The Game for well over a decade covering sports.

“Who would have thought I’d have been fortunate enough to cover two World Series or three Super Bowls or SIX NBA Finals?” Dickinson wrote. “They even let me pretend to be a hockey reporter during the 2016 Stanley Cup Final. Through the countless hours of radio shows and update shifts, and the long days and nights of traveling to cover Warriors and 49ers games all across the country, it’s been a pleasure to interact with some of the most passionate and knowledgeable (and sometime neurotic) fans in sports.”

Today was my last day at 95.7 The Game after 12 years 7 months & 7 days. (But who's counting) pic.twitter.com/VIDLRLkACI
— John Dickinson (@JDJohnDickinson) November 28, 2023

He continued that he’s thankful for the chance to develop such great relationships with other reporters on the various Bay Area pro sports beats. Dickinson announced that he’s excited for what’s next.

According to sources, that next opportunity will be with KNBR.

“Grateful for the friendships that have blossomed with co-workers and other reporters along all the great beats in the Bay Area,” he wrote. “From my early days almost exclusively on the Raiders/Warriors/Giants to now primarily the 49ers/Warriors. Beyond excited for what’s next, but that’s tomorrow’s news.”

Jordan Bondurant

Jordan Bondurant is a features reporter for Barrett Sports Media. He’s a multimedia journalist and communicator who works at the Virginia State Corporation Commission in Richmond. Jordan also contributes occasional coverage of the Washington Capitals for the blog NoVa Caps. His prior media experiences include working for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Danville Register & Bee, Virginia Lawyers Weekly, WRIC-TV 8News and Audacy Richmond. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @J__Bondurant.

Sports TV News

Rob Stone: Big Noon Kickoff ‘A Toddler But Not in Our Crib Anymore’

The college football pregame show is about to finish its 5th season competing with ESPN’s College GameDay.

Published

12 hours ago

November 28, 2023

Jordan Bondurant

(Photo: FOX Sports)

FOX is about to put a bow on its fifth season of Big Noon Kickoff, and even though ESPN’s College GameDay continues to lead in viewership, FOX isn’t taking its foot off the pedal.

Big Noon Kickoff averaged 1.02 million viewers through the first 10 weeks of the 2023 season according to reporting from Sports Business Journal. That figure was up from the 997,000 viewer average last year, the first year FOX sent its college football pregame show on the road for the entire regular season.

The show has seen its biggest growth in the final hour leading into FOX’s Big Noon Saturday game of the week broadcast. The 11 a.m. hour is averaging over 1.4 million viewers during that window through nine weeks.

FOX has seemed to master creating its own party atmosphere for the on-campus, on-location live show hosted by Rob Stone. Brady Quinn, Matt Leinart, Mark Ingram, and Urban Meyer fill out the desk, with Bruce Feldman and Chris “The Bear” Fallica contributing throughout the course of the morning.

Stone said the show continues to improve and gain momentum. It’s clear the program is on an upward trajectory.

“We’re a toddler, but we’re not in our crib anymore,” Stone said. “We’re demanding a king-sized bed.”

“It’s just a testament to everyone at Fox believing in what we can make this,” Leinart added. “And then also the guys up here and everybody part of this crew — in front of the camera and behind the camera — everybody makes the show go.”

The show obviously wants to eventually overtake GameDay as the most popular college football pregame show in the country, but many elements pull from the formula ESPN has used to make GameDay what it is. Imitation is the most honest form of flattery in Quinn’s eyes, who said that the big difference between what viewers get on FOX is the focus funneling into the noon game of the week.

“Obviously, if you’re gonna start out with the idea to do a college football pregame show, you take a lot of things [GameDay has] done because they’ve been successful,” Quinn said. “What we’re trying to do is taking the tailgate — that party and that atmosphere inside the stadium right before the game — right to kick.”

“The vast majority of our games are that,” the Big Noon Kickoff host added. “So hopefully when you’re watching you get more of the intensity wrapping up to like, here it is, here are the two teams. Boom. Gus and Joel, take it away.”

Jordan Bondurant

Sports TV News

NBC Sports Trialing Paul McGinley as Lead Golf Analyst This Weekend

McGinley will get the opportunity to helm the role held by Paul Azinger before his exit earlier this month.

Published

12 hours ago

November 28, 2023

Jordan Bondurant

When the Hero World Challenge tees off later this week in The Bahamas, NBC Sports will reportedly be auditioning its next PGA Tour lead analyst in Paul McGinley.

The Irish Independent on Monday reported that McGinley, a Ryder Cup champion for Europe who contributes analysis to both Sky Sports and Golf Channel, will get to test out doing play-by-play analysis alongside Dan Hicks.

NBC is going to be hiring a new lead analyst after the departure of Paul Azinger following October’s Ryder Cup. The network’s PGA Tour broadcast schedule for 2024 doesn’t begin in earnest until February.

It’s believed that if McGinley gets the lead analyst nod, he will continue to honor his obligations to Sky and Golf Channel under the Comcast banner.

Jordan Bondurant