Just a few quick links this Friday for your perusal and discussion.

CBS handled gruesome leg injury well – Chad Finn’s media column looks at how CBS handled its coverage of the graphic Kevin Ware injury, looks at how the NCAA is rating for the networks, and has some Bruins and Red Sox media notes.

Billerica resident no ‘Flash’ in the pan at WEEI – Evan Lips of the Lowell Sun has a Q&A with WEEI’s Pete Sheppard, who talks about his early career, his first go-round at WEEI and his current role there.

Comcast SportsNet New England to Provide Comprehensive Red Sox Coverage for 2013 Season – CSNNE announced their plans for Red Sox coverage in 2013.

2013 NFL on FOX Super Bowl Season Begins With Preseason Action – NFL preseason opponents were released yesterday and the Patriots will be featured on the first FOX telecast of the preseason when they play Tampa at Gillette on August 16th.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

8 thoughts on “Finn On Ware Injury and Pete Sheppard Q&A”

  1. From Finn’s column,

    “NESN spokesman Gary Roy confirmed Thursday that the network has no intention of using a combined broadcast booth during regular-season game.”

    Besides the money NESN saved, I swear this was a stunt to just make people appreciate how nice NESN is compared to so many other RSNs. When I watch other networks around the country, outside of the networks in NY, I’m blown away at how poor the overall production quality is.

    It’s something Bruce and others have noted here but we’re spoiled with Bruins/Red Sox. NBC has standardized their Celtics stuff and I don’t watch enough basketball to have an opinion one way or the other. However, FOX’s RSNs have many telecasts and it’s sometimes laughable how grainy the picture quality is, still no HD, graphics looking like they’re 10 years old, on-air talent is clearly not going to be promoted, etc. It surprises me how a large network like FOX lets this go but I guess you have no alternative so it’s not like they’re in a rush to spend more money on things. I’m going to assume that FOX will do a vast overhaul once FS1 is up as they don’t want to look stoneage while ESPN continues to be state-of-the-art in the production/quality.

    Where we should not be surprised: when I last checked, we pay one of the highest carriage fees in the nation for NESN at something like $3.50 a month that gets passed on + profit to your cable bill. Hate management all you want but try what I said out above and you’ll appreciate that you’re not being ripped off here–relative to other baseball customers.

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    1. Disagree on the NESN production values, at least when it comes to hockey. Ask just about any Bruins fan and they will tell you that the crowd audio on home games is abysmal. There is a noticeable difference for games airing on NBCSN.

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      1. Is this compared to NESN mics when they do baseball? Whatever NESN does during Red Sox games, esp. home, is almost too sensitive:

        Caveats about this:
        1.) Stadium was clearly empty so you get the rough crowd that comes down closer to the field.

        (I thought both crews use different mics, even though they’re usually sharing the same perches/areas)

        2.) You could hear it on the LAA audio from what a friend said. However, it was nowhere near as loud. You had to turn your volume all the way up.

        I never read about nor heard some difference with the audio. Maybe it’s something technical? I’ve never read about or had someone mention it when asking what they think (people outside this market).

        If audio is still your biggest problem, it’s not like the mono problem NESNPLUS had for most of the broadcast (Jack Edwards acknowledged that it was NESN’s problem and it seemed to be that NESNPLUS was broadcasting in mono or something?).

        Look, I just wanted to give NESN some kudos because they take a lot of flack (rightfully so). It’s quite clear they cut corners when it comes to talent retention, and could do just the same on production. If they did this, you couldn’t do much besides listen on the radio. We’re at least getting some of our money’s worth on the TV side.

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        1. If the radio and HDTV broadcasts were synchronized, I’d do exactly that, but the radio is always ahead of the cable TV signal.

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  3. Boston Herald’s @RonBorges & @kguregian report that TE Rob Gronkowski to have 4th surgery to remove plate in forearm. http://es.pn/14OGKJU

    Sounds like a freak thing that happens, rarely, but you also have to wonder if there was some issue with the 2nd plate? However, I wonder how many media members will blame this on his lifestyle/partying?

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    1. remember when Brady had his major knee surgery?….there was off season talk of “infections” and “setbacks” then too… I’ll wait until late August until I “panic”

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