Category Archives: TSR

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The technological surprise promised by Francesa five months ago has arrived and it’s kind of a let-down.

Mike announced last fall that WFAN’s parent company CBS Radio was developing something “very innovative and very different” in conjunction with his long-running daily program.  At the time, he said “everyone will copy (it) once we do it.”

Well, what was unveiled last week is your basic free cell phone app.  It’s nothing special.  The big roll-out was limited to I-Phone users.  Those with android phones are being told to wait six weeks.

The only element of the app that appears to be “innovative” is a feature that’s known as “ten seconds of glory.”  Listeners can record 10-second voice clips of themselves commenting on a topic and submit them to a Francesa show producer with the press of a button.  Mike is playing a few of the cuts daily.  Francesa has said the basic framework of his five and a half hour program won’t be altered in any way by the new app.  “It’s just another way to participate in the show,” he said.

Francesa completely rejects Twitter as a tool of immediate expression and doesn’t seem to embrace incorporating the “glory” sound bites into his show.

That’s fine.  He’s been doing sports talk radio as good or better than anybody for 25 years without bells and whistles.  He watches the games and breaks ’em down the next day.  You don’t need an app for that.  If the lone form of audience participation is the old fashioned phone call, so be it.

-There will be a new number two man in the Mets radio booth when the Amazins start playing spring training games in Port St. Lucie a week from Monday.  Out is Wayne Hagin and in is 43-year-old Josh Lewin.  Howie Rose remains the main play-by-play guy.  Lewin is Rose’s third new partner in six years.  At the end of the 2010 season, Lewin was let go by the Texas Rangers after nearly a decade in that team‘s television booth.  In the meantime, Lewin’s been doing sports talk radio in Dallas.  He’s the primary radio voice of the San Diego Chargers and also does spot duty on FOX baseball broadcasts.  Hagin was cut loose by the Mets after four seasons.  It was slow to develop, but I believe Hagin’s chemistry with Rose had improved noticeably in 2011.  Apparently the Mets and flagship station WFAN didn’t think so.  I know lots of Met fans didn’t think much of Hagin.  Both Hagin and Lewin have front-man personas and have been miscast in their Met jobs.  Lewin’s new responsibilities with the Mets don‘t match his style.  As Howie’s number two, Lewin will describe middle innings and play a supporting role to perhaps the best current play-by-play man in baseball.  I’d prefer an ex-player or a guy like Ed Coleman in the booth with Howie rather than a second voice of authority.  Perhaps Lewin will adapt.  WFAN will carry 10 spring games on the radio.   Lewin says he grew up rooting for the Mets as a youth in upstate Rochester

-I won’t claim to be a true New York hockey Rangers fan but I watch a lot of their games and I firmly believe they have what it takes to win the Stanley Cup this season.  What concerns me the last week or so is a flurry of reports saying Rangers General Manager Glen Sather is readying an offer for Columbus sniper Rick Nash.  The price in both personnel and future salary cap space to acquire Nash would be enormous.  The Rangers could use another goal scorer, sure, but there’s no way I’d mess with this team’s chemistry.  The Rangers have great balance, great personalities and lots of young talent.  I’m convinced a trade for Nash would do great harm to the morale of the current squad (not to mention future teams) given who might depart (Brandon Dubinsky for starters).   I hope next week’s trade deadline passes without a Blueshirt move of any significance.  Leave this team alone.

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Without offering a direct explanation to affected viewers, MSG has restored its signal to the homes of 2.31 million Time Warner Cable customers.

It was about 6 PM Friday when MSG and MSG Plus came to life on my television screen.

MSG had withheld its programming from Time Warner customers for 48 days. The two entities had disagreed over the per-subscriber rate for MSG’s exclusive local television broadcasts of the Knicks, Rangers, Islanders and Devils.

During the blackout, Time Warner and MSG engaged in a stubborn game of chicken. Both sides admit there was no substantive effort to solve the impasse until the middle of last week.

For six weeks, hundreds of thousands of sports fans were left in the dark as a dispute between rich corporations drifted along with no end in sight.

And then Jeremy Lin came along. The scintillating Knickerbocker win streak that directly coincided with Lin’s unexpected emergence generated a level of city-wide excitement rare for a sport that isn’t football or baseball. Linsanity caused the casual sports fan to look for the game on the tube. When it wasn’t there, the hostile reaction from this beneath-the-surface fandom pushed the execs presiding over this rate fight into action.

It’s as simple as that.

Linsanity got so insane, MSG and Time Warner started looking ridiculous being party to the throwing of cold water on the hottest story in sports. They had no choice but to call a truce.

We don’t know what kind of deal was struck. Both sides released the same bland statement praising politicians who deserve one one-hundredth of the credit Lin should get. Let’s assume Time Warner and MSG met somewhere in the middle and it’ll lead to an expensive cable bill going up a buck or two a month. They could have done the same thing 48 days ago.

Little about what went on behind the scenes leading up to a compromise has made the news. David Stern made a phone call. That was nice of him.

The only bit of intrigue linked to coverage of this story came immediately after Richard Sandomir of the Times broke news of the tentative agreement on his newspaper’s web site. Shortly thereafter, CNBC’s Darren Rovell “confirmed” Sandomir’s scoop via Twitter and on the air.

Rovell’s regurgitation of Sandomir’s reporting prompted an angry outburst by Sandomir on Twitter.  Said Sandomir to Rovell: “Gee, thanks! You confirmed a solid story that didn’t need your confirming. You’re so keen.”

While Rovell gave a full tip of the cap to Sandomir for being the first to report the news, his use of the word “confirm” implied it wasn’t authentic until it passed through Rovell’s own journalistic strainer.

“I don’t want ur credit if it means you ‘confirmed’ it; that’s gauche; means my work needs your imprimatur. It doesn’t,” said Sandomir. “Sounds like I need a stamp of approval.”

Sandomir says his Dick Ebersol retirement scoop last May got the same bush league treatment from Rovell.

For a veteran Times newsman to lash out publicly about a young rival’s reporting style is unusual. But when the fast-moving Rovell spooned out the MSG/Time Warner news to his 183-thousand Twitter followers (Sandomir has 10-thousand), you can kinda understand how it may have felt like theft to Sandomir.  His original reporting should have been what’s called “re-tweeted” under his avatar rather than repeated under Rovell’s.

Rovell didn’t expect to get called on it. He defended his “confirmation” of breaking news and was surprised at the fuss. “For the record, I have great respect for Rich Sandomir. When I was coming up in this business, he was the guy I wanted to be.”