1 of 1- RadioActive
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1st Jays Spring Game A Disaster On Radio
I don't receive Sportsnet on cable, so I tuned in the very first Jays' spring training game on The Fan Saturday afternoon. As advertised, they used the TV audio, featuring Ben Shulman (his dad was completely absent) and Buck Martinez "calling" the game.
I use quotes around "calling" because it wasn't exactly that. They spent the first inning describing the action as Chad Dallas pitched a perfect three up and three down, his sole work for the day. After the break, they came back with a very long interview with Dallas, that went on forever. You could hear things going on in the background, but no one was describing what was happening.
At one point, the pitcher said he couldn't hear Ben and Buck because there was "too much noise." The "noise" was one of the Phillies hitting a home run, which was barely acknowledged on air while they continued the interview. They likely showed the action on TV but if you were listening on the radio, you had no idea what was going on because they basically stopped broadcasting the action and the whole inning was missed. (And it wasn't inconsequental. The Phillies scored 3 runs to tie the game up during that half inning.)
As usual, the TV-audio-on-the-radio was a dismal failure, even more than the common "as you can see by the replay" idiocy we usually get.
Also, they almost never rejoined the network in time, repeatedly coming back in the middle of a sentence after a commercial.
I tuned back in at the end of an inning, only to have them throw to a break committing the one cardinal sin of baseball broadcasting - not giving the score! I'm assuming it was on screen, but it's a bit hard to see on the radio.
There were all sorts of other glitches and it was a terrible experience for those listening. Yet this seems to be the plan for the entire spring. What an absolute waste of time. You'd think a multi-million (or is it billion?) dollar organization could afford to do this for both media. Apparently, the shareholders wouldn't like it.
In the end, the Jays lost. And so did their listeners.
- Tomas Barlow
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Re: 1st Jays Spring Game A Disaster On Radio
I was listening too. After two or three batters went completely unidentified while the announcers interviewed someone, and Buck said, “There was some good coordination between the pitcher and the first baseman to get an out,” with no other information about what had just happened, I flipped over to the Phillies radio broadcast and listened to the rest of the game that way.
I wish the companies that owned radio stations cared about radio stations.
- Ale Ont
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All of the points are valid. But how much money did Rogers save? BTW, no Ottawa radio. Rogers may have a deal with SiriusXM. I wonder how many people will purchase satellite radio to get the games. And by forcing fans to sign up to SiriusXM, Rogers gets a percentage and drives people away from their stations to hundreds of other options.
- eladb
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On the one hand, it's nice that Rogers chose to broadcast these Spring Training games on both of its platforms. On the other hand, it's bizarre that they chose not to have a dedicated radio broadcast for this. Not a great way to promote the team.
Didn't they do the TV-radio simulcast last spring training too?
- RadioAaron
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Ale Ont wrote:
All of the points are valid. But how much money did Rogers save? BTW, no Ottawa radio. Rogers may have a deal with SiriusXM. I wonder how many people will purchase satellite radio to get the games. And by forcing fans to sign up to SiriusXM, Rogers gets a percentage and drives people away from their stations to hundreds of other options.
The demand for pre-season baseball on the radio in Ottawa would be tiny, and since Rogers no longer has 1310, there isn't anywhere obvious to put it.
I still think you might get at least some games on 101.1 (or 92.3?) once the season actually starts.
- tvguy
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I was watching on a ipad in an undisclosed location way, way, south of the border….The camera was focused on the interviewee most of the time, so we didn’t see the “action” on the field. That’s on the director…but very frustrating. I thought however that Ben had improved greatly in his calling of balls and strikes since last season, and is sounding more like his father. Must have had some tutoring in the off season. Last year Sportsnet picked up the Phillies TV feed for a lot of games and that was a disaster. Their coverage was mostly interviews of their players when the Jays were up to bat. But it’s only spring training. So grapefruit league coverage is like “bad” radio, with some pictures….oh well.
- Tomas Barlow
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Re: 1st Jays Spring Game A Disaster On Radio
All of the points are valid. But how much money did Rogers save? BTW, no Ottawa radio. Rogers may have a deal with SiriusXM. I wonder how many people will purchase satellite radio to get the games. And by forcing fans to sign up to SiriusXM, Rogers gets a percentage and drives people away from their stations to hundreds of other options.
Lol. Except Sirius uses the Rogers radio feed, doesn’t it?
- RadioAaron
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Radio is getting its own call this afternoon and it sounds quite good.
- RadioActive
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The difference is palpable and obvious. It's the way they should do it, but Rogers has already announced that at least some of its spring training games will be shared with TV audio. Plus, of course, during the regular season, the radio guys will be calling all the away games from a monitor in a Toronto studio.
How much can it really cost to send these guys on the road? Rogers is swimming in money, especially when it comes to the Jays. It's astounding they're doing this, although they're not the only team practicing this cheapness - er - restraint this year.
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Thread Starter- Ale Ont
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Re: 1st Jays Spring Game A Disaster On Radio
Sirius gives you a choice of home and away feeds.
- Tomas Barlow
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Sirius gives you a choice of home and away feeds.
Ahh. Of course. You can also get home and away feeds on the MLB app for around 5 bucks a month. That’s what I use.
Last edited by Tomas Barlow (February 25, 2024 11:18 pm)
- TheWiz
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Re: 1st Jays Spring Game A Disaster On Radio
I was listening a bit on Saturday. To Ben's credit, he was attempting to call the action when Buck wasn't rambling on and on.