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I thought Rogers was the only one cheap enough not to send their radio crews to away games. But it turns out there's one other prominent MLB team that also keeps their play-by-play announcers sitting at home when the players are on the road.
Not that Rogers seems all that interested in talking about it.
"In February, the Blue Jays’ radio rights holder, Sportsnet, confirmed its plans not to send lead play-by-play voice Ben Wagner on the road. Wagner, who sometimes is joined by a color analyst, was permitted to travel for about the final third of the Blue Jays’ schedule last season in the midst of a playoff chase.
Sportsnet, which is owned by Rogers, the same company that owns the team, declined The Times’ request to speak to Wagner.
Asked why Sportsnet was sticking with the remote broadcast model, whether it had plans to change that for future seasons and if it would send radio broadcasters on the road for playoff games, a spokesperson sent The Times the following statement: “We have been successfully producing remote radio broadcasts for Blue Jays away games for a couple of seasons now and will continue with this approach.”
Why are the Angels one of two MLB teams whose radio announcers don’t travel?
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Rogers isn’t any more cheap than their American counterparts, but they are, as far as I know, the only fully vertically integrated owners.
If American broadcasters try this, they’ll tick off the team, who will then start shopping the broadcast rights.
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RadioAaron wrote:
If American broadcasters try this, they’ll tick off the team, who will then start shopping the broadcast rights.
It's not necessarily the big leagues, but they are doing this down south, and according to this pundit, both viewers and the broadcast crews are the worse for it.
Remote broadcasts are bad for everyone except the bottom line
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No radio colour last night and the broadcast was better for it. Perhaps if Rogers canned ALL colour commentators they could afford to send Wagner to the away games.
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The TV broadcast is by far the better choice....Dan, Buck, Hazel and Joe are among the best. Much better analysis and play by play than you could get on radio alone. Nothing against Mr. Wagner or any of the radio crew but TV always comes out way ahead. Sports and baseball were made for HD TV, with surround sound, computer animation and graphics, isolated camera angles, shots of the fans having fun, all the things that AM can't do.