The best comment on Twitter was, "Roger's is committed to owning everything and making it terrible, gotta admire their commitment."

I don't think Howarth (who should know) is wrong about the importance of being there. Not only do you get access to your team's players but also the opposition, which adds to knowledge you can impart during the game, but it also prevents what happened on at least one occasion last year. 

Wagner was doing play-by-play off a monitor and wasn't able to complete the call because for whatever reason his screen didn't show what happened to the ball. Was it a foul or to did it land safely? What happened? It was very weird to hear him have to admit he didn't know. It didn't last long as he quickly recovered after a few seconds when he could see on a replay what took place. But if it happened once, it could happen again. 

And for a major league team's broadcast, it sounded terrible. I think the penny pinchers at Rogers should be charged an error.

Many a summer day I would listen to a game in the backyard on 590 and more recently in HD.  Now, what's the point?  Guess I will tune in something else while in the pool.

I don't think you'd find anyone who'd disagree that this setup is worse, it's just that there is likely no negative consequence.

At a time with all games are on TV and most people are carrying one with them at all times, the radio broadcast becomes basically a backup.

Ratings aren't a factor (or even measured for individual games.) The only reason this hasn't happened more often is the Jays are unique in North America for their team/stadium/broadcaster/distributer vertical alignment. US broadcasters are just as stingy, but if the team doesn't like the broadcast they have the ability to move it to a competitor.

The only consequence would be if a key sponsor objected, which I believe is what ended the TV simulcast experiment.

Last edited by RadioAaron (February 23, 2023 11:06 am)

Some math on the back of a napkin shows it would cost over $50k US to send a single MLB radio announcer on the road for a season. Even then, people would complain there's no colour analyst which would add another 20+ thousand. The increased revenue from having someone on the road is $0. It's simple math folks.

In the case of the Blue Jay's, the cost is irrelevant.   When one company owns both products finding 50,000 or generating 50,000 between a ball club, a major market radio station, social media platforms and a network shouldn't be hard.

PXP team hosts "Behind the travel" daily behind the scenes elements of how a MLB team travels, inside the stadiums etc.,... brought to you by... goes on Jay's/ sportnet socials.   100k for the season.   You're welcome.  Now send me my money.


There has to be someone who travels with the team that could add some colour once in a while?

torontostan wrote:

Some math on the back of a napkin shows it would cost over $50k US to send a single MLB radio announcer on the road for a season. Even then, people would complain there's no colour analyst which would add another 20+ thousand. The increased revenue from having someone on the road is $0. It's simple math folks.

Turns out it may be a lot more than $50,000 U.S. Sports Illustrated published these figures as part of its story on the Angels Wednesday

"The Athletic spoke to an industry professional who said that the budget for a radio broadcast team was somewhere in the $185,000-$200,000 a season range. That is far less than the Major League minimum for one player."

Still for a company like Rogers, that's a relative drop in the bucket. 

Los Angeles Angels Radio Broadcasters Won't Travel Again This Year

Another example of why remote calls are a terrible idea. On Sunday afternoon, around 3:20 PM, the feed of the crowd noise from the ballpark in St. Louis went out. (This wasn't the first time, but it was definitely the longest.) Ben Wagner tried gamely to cover for the few minutes it lasted, but it created a huge amount of dead air as the play-by-play talent dropped into silence, waiting for something to happen. 

What was perhaps most interesting about it was it showed how much the on-air radio people depend on that background sound during the game, which, even with the new pitch clock, still leaves endless blank spaces during the broadcast, some as long as 8 secs. or more. Doesn't sound like much, but when you hear it, it's an eternity.

It's not the first time I've heard this on these remote casts. Had Wagner actually been at the stadium, it wouldn't have happened.  And we're only three games in. 

I'd rather have noise from the ballpark than Wagner.....very sub-standard broadcaster. Rumour has it that he's moving on back to the USA after this season. Maybe Dan's son can take over.

RadioActive wrote:

Turns out the Jays aren't the only ones not sending their radio guys on the road with the team. The Los Angeles Angels are keeping their play-by-play mouthpieces at home, too, sitting in an empty stadium calling the away games off a monitor. And fans aren't happy about it, calling the owner, among other things, a cheapskate.

MLB Owner Getting Crushed For Broadcasting Decision

That article doesn't make mention of the Blue Jays taking the same road - in this case, the one less travelled - but this one does:

Angels to continue remote radio broadcasts but risk 'a greater disconnect'
https://clearthis.page/?u=https://theathletic.com/4360699/2023/03/29/angels-mlb-radio-broadcasts/

Hmmm. The sports writer who criticized the Angels for not taking their radio crew on the road (a la The Jays) has now apparently been banned from participating in radio roundtables of any kind on the station the team owns. Opinion seems to be management didn't like the idea of Sam Blum openly griping about the move, one of only two teams in the league to have taken the cheapskate route. The other, of course, is Rogers. 

A lesson to Ben Wagner that he may have to watch what he says. 

Angels Ban Reporter Banned From Team-Owned Radio Network

RadioActive wrote:

Sad to think the excitement of Opening Day is here, but Ben Wagner isn't there. He's not in St. Louis where the game is being played but back in the Sportsnet studio in Toronto, because Rogers is too cheap to send him on the road.

The Jays are a Major League team.

Rogers clearly isn't. 

They're 'major league' enough to fork over 26 billion bucks for Shaw.  They have priorities, and Blue Jays radio listeners aren't one of them.  Now, or ever.
 

Maybe he will be let go!

more probably Ben Shulman will call the games,