Thursday, March 29, 2012

Sports Media Weekly Podcast No. 98- Dave O’Brien, ESPN

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We are getting ever closer to our 100th edition of the Sports Media Weekly Podcast.

On today’s 98th edition Ken Fang of Fangs Bites and I open up by looking at lower ratings for CBS and Turner Sports’ coverage of the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament. Ken feels not having a team like Duke still in the hunt and no teams from the west coast may have hampered the networks’ ratings.

We then look at the news this week that Dana Jacobsen is leaving ESPN. Jacobsen served as a SportsCenter anchor as well as co-host of ESPN2′s Cold Pizza/First Take.

Ken and I then examine the public relations nightmare that fell upon Major League Baseball and the MLB Network for not promoting and airing live the first two games of the regular season between the Mariners and Athletics from Japan. MLB Network tape delayed the opener on Tuesday before shifting gears and airing this morning’s game live.

We wrap our news segment by looking at reports that Fox Sports may be looking at developing an all-sports network to compete with ESPN and NBC Sports Network.

Our guest this week is Dave O’Brien, lead women’s college basketball voice at ESPN. I had the opportunity to speak with Dave while at the NCAA Women’s Regional Tournament in Kingston, RI. Dave speaks to us about his preparation for the women’s tournament and how he works well with analyst Doris Burke and reporters Holly Rowe and Rebecca Lobo. O’Brien also goes into his role as the voice for Wednesday Night Baseball on ESPN and as the radio voice of the Boston Red Sox.

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