This probably falls under the category of low-hanging fruit, but really:
A contract is a contract, but aside from The Ticket not breaching its agreement with the Stars, is there ever an excuse for hockey, no matter how good, to take precedence over the Cowboys, no matter how bad?
Anyone know whether the Stars do better than the Ticket Top 10, ratings-wise?
I don't begrudge the hockey-lover his sport, but if put to the choice, is station management ever justified in bouncing football for hockey? Yes, yes, I know there's a contract, but I guess what I'm saying is: If presented with a contract that causes you ever to bounce Cowboys talk, or Mavericks talk, or Rangers talk, in favor of hockey, or, for chrissakes, hockey TALK, shouldn't the CTO politely decline it?
When does this godforsaken alliance with the Stars expire?
They had a very brief, contractually obligated, Stars postgame show. The Cowboys postgame has been on for a bit now and will continue on for its usual 2 hours. I've no idea how long the Stars contract lasts, but I do think they need to figure something out with respect to the Cowboys and the Mavericks. After all, the Cowboys is the station's bread and butter.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, a contract is a contract; it ought to be upheld. Besides, by this time next month the Cowboys might be an afterthought, whereas the Stars might be the only game in town worth following. Basketball, my friends, isn't coming back anytime soon.
The Ticket's decision to become the Stars flagship station has to be one of the most brain dead decisions ever. You asked a great question: Does the Top Ten or a Stars broadcast gather more ratings? It has to be the Top Ten, right?
ReplyDeleteIf ever there was a station that was begging the competition (The Fan) to cut into its ratings, it's the braintrust at Cumulus.
I think it's about a wash ratings wise. Some months, days with the Top 10 do better, some months, days with Stars games do better.
ReplyDeleteAnd if presented with a contract that pays you a healthy amount of money to air Stars programming, I would think that a company might be willing to overlook the very occasional conflict in a desire to make money.
And I wouldn't plan on this alliance going anywhere soon. If the Stars were to go to either of the other sports stations, they would be contractual 3rd bannanas. Behind Cowboys and NASCAR on 105.3, and behind Mavs and Rangers on 103.3. KESN already had to farm some early season ranger games out to KSKY,why would the Stars put themselves in a position where they'd get bumped from their 'flagship' station for some other sport?
And I think y'all are overvaluing the Cowboys. There's a reason the Ticket walked away from the cowboys contract. Having the games didn't add anything to their overall ratings. The ratings from the years before they picked up the games averaged about the same as when they had them. Then when you factor in that the average Cowboy game listener is NOT the same as your average sports-talk listener, you realize that the Cowboys don't make a station money (Jerry gets all that revenue) and doesn't draw ratings.
When and how long were cowboys post game shows before the ticket took on the the cowboys? Secondly, the stars are paying the ticket money to be the flagship and the contract says you must have post game, well you have a post game. The ticket does Cowboys post game, not bc the Cowboys say so, but because they choose too. And about the only time I listen to any post game on any radio station is when any of the local teams are in the playoffs. I could give a rats *** about a regular season post game show. Heck most of the shows just rehash the postgame the next day anyhow so why hear it twice.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a problem with their hockey coverage, in general. Regular-season football or baseball is fair game as far as I'm concerned. I don't usually care about pre- or post-game talk to begin with. The only umbrage I've taken with the Stars coverage has been during the Rangers' post-season run. I thought that was very bad timing.
ReplyDeleteA puckish MTC welcome to Barry Green. If you've posted before and I've forgotten, welcome back.
ReplyDeleteI like the Cowboys pre- and post-game, and what I've heard of Diamond Talk. I like the anticipation of the pre-game, and I find the post-game kind of carthartic. Frtom watching the game I've gained an impression of the Cowboys either stinking or excelling, and it's fun to hear knowledgeable observers either give voice to that impression or disagree with it.
Cowboys/Ticket: As to who left whom, I have no idea. I'm sure Jerry liked The Ticket's audience and hated its anemic signal. For The Ticket's part, if having the Cowboys was revenue- and/or ratings-neutral, I would think they would opt for the prestige of continuing to carry the 'Pokes. I recall the hosts kind of shrugging off the departure of the Cowboys, implying that there was some behind-the-scenes stuff that made their loss no big deal to The Ticket, but I never quite believed it.
As always, MTC is always happy to be informed on these matters by knowledgeable Confessors.
alls i know is 2011 post-season Diamond Talk was nixed due to Stars on 5 occasions.
ReplyDeletetensions ran high as p-1s were asking questions via twitter to ticket personalities.
this resulted in ty walker's infamous tweet of catman's e-mail address leading to his week-long suspension.
The Ticket and the Stars originally agreed to a five year deal that goes through the 2013-2014 season, so there are still two more seasons after the current season already contracted.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how happy the Stars must be with this arrangement at times. Razor gets one segment per week with the Musers. Norm doesn't cover hockey at all. Nor does the Hardline. BaD Radio is the only show that actually shows some interest in puck, and many of those duties have been handed off to McClearin.
ReplyDeleteI wish they'd do a simulcast - D-talk (or Mavs postgame, or whatever programming is being usurped) over the internets, and hockey over their local broadcast. As it stands right now, they usually run 'rotten radio' over the internets anyways during Stars games.
Did Ty really get suspended for that? Wow.
I heard the end of the Caps game a few days ago. The game was already out of hand (in favor of the Stars) so it wasn't too exciting, and I recognize this was not a fair sampling of Stars play-by-play. I wasn't sure who I was listening to -- my experience with Ralph and Razor is mostly from commercials, and I'm not sure it was them. (I'm sure someone out there can tell me.) As I listened to the clicking-clacking of the sticks and the bored play-by-play -- again, even taking account of the fact that this was the end of a not-close contest -- I wondered how hockey on the radio could ever be very listenable. I'm sure the answer is something like "if you know the game, you can picture what's going on," but for the average listener who is not hockey-savvy (Your Plainsman), it was pretty deadly.
ReplyDeleteAnd, as I understand it, this was a pretty historic game -- first home loss for the Caps in a long time, put the Stars at the top of the league record-wise, etc.
But man, it was a nothingburger coming out of the dashboard.
It's important to note that it's not really a radio broadcast, it's a simulcast of the TV play by play. I can only imagine the challenge ralphie and razor have to deal with balancing the 2 mediums at the same time. We are lucky to have them, they are the tits...personality and knowledge.
ReplyDeleteAs for McClearin, I hear he was born with 3 taints.
Arnold Jackson
That IS important to note, and for some reason I had no idea that was the case. I can see where that would greatly influence how it would sound on the radio.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the clarification.
They've been simulcasting for years, even before they were on the ticket.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing it's a money thing.
They obviously don't care about ratings or how anything sounds in the PM, considering they roll out a 12 hour late Dan Patrick show most nights.
It's really great to be updated to blogs like this! keep posting dude! Cowboy Tickets fans are now in dire of buying some tickets!
ReplyDelete