Good World Cup coverage despite tournament woes

 Is it unfair to say the World Cup has succeeded as a television event despite itself?

   I don’t think so. The TV audiences in North America have been strong and the coverage comprehensive.

  But, oh my, what a hodgepodge of mistakes and mediocrity the tournament has been so far, despite the hype and the media excitement over the South African venue.

  On one Toronto radio station this morning, after Portugal opened its scoring against North Korea, the host announced, “A goal has been scored at the World Cup this morning.”

  Yes. A goal. In the World Cup. Given the number 0-0 ties that have been inflicted on us, what a momentous event it was.

  The African teams have been a bust. The European teams haven’t shown much, with the exception of perhaps the Netherlands. France has become a farce. And England, well, England is England — over-rated, under-skilled, and perhaps poorly coached.

   Of the international stars, the only one to live up his billing is the terrific Argentine, Lionel Messi. Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka have under-achieved, and so have Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba, although both are returning from injuries. Wayne Rooney may not deserve to be included among the game’s best.

    And then you have the officiating, which is typically inconsistent, often inept and perhaps even corrupt. We are forced to watch preening, egocentic referees ruin a competitive game. Good goals are disallowed, bad goals are counted, and, when some referees are in charge, yellow cards are dispensed by the handful, like flyers outside Joe’s Diner. Ronaldo, a player you want in a goals-challenged tournament, gets a yellow card for jawing at another player? Now, that makes a lot of sense.

   On the plus side, you have the South American teams, which have played well. Argentina has been the class of the tournament.

   I could be wrong, but there seem to be fewer flopping divas this year, although it’s a mystery to me why a player, who goes down with an apparent leg injury, lies on the field clutching his head with both hands as if he has been levelled by a sudden thrombosis. Wouldn’t the natural instinct be to grab the injured part of the body?

  The CBC’s coverage has been fine. Every minute of air time seems to be sponsored by something – the Rogers pre-game snow, Captain Morgan’s halftime, etc. — but that’s the reality of TV coverage when rights fees are costly and commercials are disallowed during the play on the field.

   Mitch Peacock is doing a nice job as morning host. Among the commentators, John Collins and Jason De Vos have been the best. Collins, a former Scotland player, is the most outspoken and perhaps insightful of the group, although he had it all wrong about England. My only criticism would be that watching Collins is a somewhat painful experience because of the stress he seems to put on himself to express an opinion. De Vos has plenty of expertise, but needs to say more.

   The morning guys, Bob Lenarduzzi and Nigel Reed, are okay. Lenarduzzi is low key and Reed has this irritating habit of mugging for the camera as if he’s so chuffed to be part of the  World Cup coverage that he can’t help himself from staring into the camera, nodding and smiling, when somebody else is talking.

  But, overall, a good show. Now, if the quality of play would just improve. . .

   An update on right wing TV in Canada

  This isn’t sports related, but it certainly involves television in Canada.

  Kory Teneycke, a former flack for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, wants to launch a right wing news channel in Canada, to be financed by Sun Media owner Quebecor. To which I say, if that’s what Kory wants to do, go for it, big guy, but don’t use my money.

  Anybody who has seen Teneycke at work as a pundit knows that he’s not the most subtle guy in the world. A few days ago, he attacked Don Newman, comparing the former CBC News host to an addled U.S. journalist who uttered some anti-Israel, perhaps anti-Semitic, remarks, and lost her job because of it. Newman’s offence? He happened to think a right wing channel was a bad idea.

  A day or two later, Teneycke appeared on CBC News Network where he expressed his personal problems with both the CBC and CTV. He asserted that the CTV network supports the Liberal Party, evidence of which is CTVglobemedia president/CEO Ivan Fecan donating to the party. That struck me as pretty shaky logic.

   And he complained about the fact the CBC is publicly subsidized, after which he declared that his proposed network is “not in the business of handouts from the public.”

  Perhaps, but reports have described the channel seeking a “must carry” designation from the CRTC. If that is correct, all cable and direct-to-home systems in the country would be required to carry it and then past on the cost to the consumer. If, however, the cable and DTH operators have the option of merely offering the channel to subscribers, then it becomes optional. And that’s fine. A cost that is passed on to the consumer becomes a public handout in support of right wing TV.

NBC crew does overnighter for hockey

 We sometimes get the impression that the U.S. sports media has no real interest in the NHL — that the sport’s appeal is limited to a very small group of hard core fans.

  But consider this story: During the French Open, NBC’s tennis announcer Ted Robinson did some promos for network’s coverage of Stanley Cup final. During the men’s final telecast two weeks ago, Robinson suggested on the air to John McEnroe they visit a Canadian bar he knew in Paris to watch Philadelphia-Chicago Game 5 that night. It started at 2 a.m. local time. It turned out 20 technicians, production staff and on air people showed up at The Great Canadian Pub at Quai des Grands Augustins. They watched the game until it was over at 5 a.m. and then headed to the airport to catch their Monday morning flight home.

WFN’s Gulf spill telethon  

  The World Fishing Network (WFN) has organized a 24 hour fundraiser for the fishing communities devastated by the Gulf oil spill.

 The Toronto based cable channel will air its telethon on Wednesday, June 30, dedicating air time to coverage of the impact of the spill on “recreational and commercial fishing in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.” Jim van Horne and Emanuel Beliveau will be the co-hosts. Viewers will be able to donate to the the WFN Gulf Oil Spill Fisherman’s Fund, www.wfn.tv/donate
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 I’ll be nice, I promise

  I’m off for the summer (and not a minute too soon), and, when I return, you will meet a kinder, more caring columnist, a person who does nice instead of nasty, who loves his enemies, abhors vindictiveness, and is tolerant and praising of even the biggest dopes in the Canadian sports media business (sorry, didn’t mean that. Can we start again?)  .  .  .  Is tolerant and praising of all the good folks who earn a living in Canadian sports media no matter how unpleasant or challenged they might be. Yes, it’s time to turn over a new leaf. So, say goodbye to the mean old me and hello to  .  .  .   Mr. Positive. (I better stop before I get ill.) Enjoy the summer.

Here’s why Leafs Lunch was cancelled

Well, that was unfortunate. Bruce Dowbiggin gets a little scoop, which was nice, but then he drops the ball by confusing the facts.

   Yes, AM640 Toronto’s Leafs Lunch will be cancelled, as Bruce breathlessly reports in today’s Globe and Mail. But it will be Mike Stafford taking over the noon hour slot, not Charles Adler.

   Here’s a clearer report, I think. (I was given the information yesterday, but incorrectly assumed Bruce would be doing Part 2 of his series on NBC hockey playoff audiences, so didn’t think there was any urgency.)

   The Leafs Lunch show with Darren Dreger and Bill Watters will be shuttered in early July. Stafford’s mid-morning show will be extended to 1 p.m., when Adler will take over, followed by the Bill Watters afternoon drive at 4 p.m. Previously, Stafford took a break from noon to 1 p.m. , when Leafs Lunch was on the air, and then came back for another hour from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

  Why was Leafs Lunch cancelled? Mostly because of ratings.

  The show, in the early years, had good numbers, but over the past year they declined.  Stafford’s mid-morning show (10 a.m.-noon) has been producing an audience share of 5.7 per cent in the male 25 to 54 demographic. But for the hour between noon and 1 p.m. (Leafs Lunch), the share had dropped to 2.9 per cent. When Stafford came back for the final hour of his show from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., the share climbed back to about 5.9 per cent. Over at the Fan590, its noon to 2 p.m. show, Hockey Central, has been up close to a 6 per cent share.

   So, those are the numbers and they help explain why Leafs Lunch was dropped, and Stafford and Adler will handle AM 640’s daytime programming. In his internal memo, program director Gord Harris stated that Leafs Lunch will resume in an abridged form in September.

   He said opting for news talk throughout the day will provide consistency, and he gave thumbs up to Stafford and Adler.

 “Both Mike and Charles have been solid performers,” he wrote, “providing listeners with a solid block of talk programming, not interrupted by a sports show in the  middle of the day, should extend our ratings success from Oakley through Alder (5:30am to 4pm), reduce confusion over what we are (a talk station or a sports station?) and reinforce the fact we are a Talk Radio station that is The Home of the Leafs, with a strong sports-oriented drive show (a time period where there is a greater demand for sports-related talk than in other day-parts).”

   Harris praised the Leafs Lunch staff. “Darren Dreger has brought top-notch credibility to the program and to the radio station . . . .  Bryan Hayes has also done a wonderful job in the short time he has been producing the program . . . we appreciate the extra effort Bill Watters has gone to in giving us so much of his time for on-air performance, maintaining his Leafs Lunch commitment in addition to his key role on Leafs Breakfast and, of course, The Bill Watters Show.”

Sources say Stroumboulopoulos could be heading to Fan590

  Will George Stroumboulopoulos be the next host of the Fan590’s morning show?

   That’s the speculation making the rounds in the Toronto radio business.

   Stroumboulopoulos would replace Don Landry and presumably Gord Stellick, although it’s not clear what Stellick’s status at the station would be. Stellick is a survivor and, arguably, nobody in Toronto broadcasting has done as much with as little talent as Gord.

   As for Landry, he appears to be on his way out. His strong words in support of Blue Jays reporter Mike Wilner (and his implicit criticism of program director Don Kollins) last week were seen as a clear sign that he is done and knows it. Wilner was suspended for three days for the sole offense, apparently, of rankling Jays manager Cito Gaston.

   Insiders say Strombo, in addition to being host of the Fan590 morning show, would keep his job at CBC News Network where he is host of the late night show The Hour.

  The question is, when would he sleep? Well, The Hour is taped at 4:30 p.m. ET every afternoon and then airs at 11 p.m. local times.

   That would give George enough time to grab some sleep and rise at, what? 5 a.m. for the morning show.

  The people at Rogers Media, which owns Fan590, would view Stroumboulopoulos as somebody who could deliver a younger audience to the morning slot. And he has a history with the station. He got his start in broadcasting there in the 1990s.

  Fadoo.ca RIP

 Yes, Bob McCown’s website, fadoo.ca, is history. It was shuttered this week after about a year of operation. “It just didn’t make business sense, anymore,” a source close the operation wrote in an e-mail message.

  Since my Truth and Rumours column was carried on fadoo.ca, I will, needless to say, miss the $1,500.00 a column that Bob was generously paying me. I just spent the afternoon looking around for more lawn mowing jobs.  (Uh, disregard the previous paragraph and the lies within.)

  My sense of fadoo.ca was that McCown lost interest in it months ago. And it showed. All the best to the good people who were involved in the website.

Big World Cup numbers

The CBC drew a record 2.275 million for the England-United States match at the World Cup on Saturday afternoon. That’s the largest audience ever in Canadian television for a World Cup finals preliminary game.

In the United States, ESPN and ABC are averaging three million households for eight games and 4.25 million viewers, an increase of 75 and 80 per cent respectively, compared with the opening eight games of the 2006 World Cup (1.72 million households and 2.36 million viewers).

Friday

Opening Ceremony – 382,000

 South Africa-Mexico, 906,000, 269,127 total live streams (includes Opening Ceremony)

Uruguay-France, 1.010 million, 155,087 total live streams

Match of the day (South Africa-Mexico repeat), 535,000 audience  

 Saturday

Korea Republic-Greece, 605,000 audience, 40,790 total live streams

Argentina-Nigeria, 1.305 million audience, 62,072 total live streams

England-USA, 2.275 million average, 86,711 total live streams

Match of the Day (England-U.S. repeat), 465,000 audience

 Sunday

Algeria-Slovenia, 513,000 audience, 24,734 total live streams

Serbia-Ghana, 1.212 million average audience, 43,376 total live streams

Germany-Australia, 1.660 million average audience, 78,168 total live streams

Match of the day (Germany-Australia repeat), 509,000 average audience

 Other audiences:

  Friday

Jays-Colorado, Rogers Sportsnet, – 362,800 – 90 minute rain delay, game started at 10:30 p.m.

Saturday

Jays-Colorado, Sportsnet, – 482,000 MLB Saturday – 179,000 – Phillies vs Red Sox and Yankees vs. Houston Astros – both 4 p.m. starts

 F-1 Canadian Grand Prix qualifying, TSN, 184,000

 MMA Connected, UFC 115 Preview show, Sportsnet, – 110,000

 Sunday 

Jays-Colorado, Sportsnet,  – 352,000

F-1 Canadian Grand Prix, TSN, 578,000

NBA Finals, L.A.-Boston, TSN, 544,000

NASCAR Sprint Cup, TSN, 414,000

Oops, British broadcaster misses England’s goal

 High definition TV viewers in Britain did not see live coverage of England’s goal in the World Cup match against the United States today.

  ITV had cut away to a Hyundai commercial.

  Viewers with standard definition televisions, however, were not affected. The Telegraph reported that the mistake might have been caused by a transmission problem.

   Notes:

  A couple of readers have criticized the work of World Cup host broadcast announcer John Helm. He really is a mediocre play by play voice, yet he seems to get the big games.

   Six minutes into England-United States, after England took an early lead, he said, “There’s plenty of time left, of course, for the Americans to come back and win the game.”

  Yep, that’s right, John – 84 minutes of time, and thanks for stating the obvious.

  — You can always count on the CBC’s World Cup host Scott Russell to put a happy face on bad news. He called the U.S. goal scored on England goalkeeper Robert Green “a tricky play.” Tricky? It was a 75 foot shot on the ground, and virtually straight at him. A 10 year old could have stopped it. Analyst John Collins had it right. He called it “a school boy error.”

 – More on the Fan590’s weekend suspension of Blue Jays reporter Mike Wilner for confronting manager Cito Gaston with persistent questions about his use of the bullpen:

  On the Fan590’s Prime Time Sports, Jeff Blair interviewed ESPN baseball analyst Keith Law, who formerly worked in the Jays front office, about the college draft. After being thanked by Blair for the interview, Law said, “Thank you and I support Mike Wilner 100 per cent.”

– During WGN’s telecast of the Cubs-White Sox game, a cameraman found Patrick Kane, who scored the Chicago Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup winner, on a rooftop watching the game immediately after the Blackhawk parade. Dead-panned White Sox broadcaster Steve Stone, “You think he could get a better seat than that!”

–  TSN’s Dave Hodge has it right about the vuvuzela horns at the World Cup. Unless you enjoy the noise of attacking hornets, you need to push the mute button on your television.

  –  Also agree with the many commentators who pointed out that the hockey writers goofed in awarding the Conn Smythe playoff MVP award to Chicago’s Jon Toews. As Steve Simmons noted on TSN’s The Reporters, Toews was a minus five in the Stanley Cup final and was involved in only two of 19 goals.

   That’s a terrible basis on which to award the trophy to a player. It’s also an embarrassment to writers association. True, the Blackhawks probably would not have made it to the final without Toews, but a player’s performance in the final series should count for at least 50 per cent of the overall evaluation. The winner should have been Chicago defenseman Duncan Keith.

The CBC’s World Cup panel will make an impact

  The CBC’s programming for the World Cup, which starts Friday, includes:

• Live telecasts of all the games, most of them on the main network, and some on the CBC cable channel Bold.
• A prime time repeat of “the game of the day” on the main channel, plus more repeats on Bold.
• Telecasts on the CBC’s main network will be in HDTV. Bold, which will air a few live game telecasts as well as encores, will be available in HDTV to Rogers and Cogeco cable subscribers. The CBC launched a HDTV feed for Bold last week, but as far as I know, Rogers and Cogeco are the only two distributors carrying it.
• The CBC’s pre-game, intermission and post-game panel will consist of Jason De Vos, Bob Lenarduzzi and John Collins, a former Scotland player, and Toronto announcer Nigel Reed.
• Reporting from South Africa will be Brenda Irving of CBC Sports; Kim Brunhuber, a national correspondent; and Tom Harrington of CBC News.
• The host broadcast British play by play announcers will be John Helm, David Woods, Steve Banyard, Gary Bloom and Kevin Keatings.
• All the games will be streamed on CBCSports.ca.
• CBCSports.ca will provide its own studio commentary with John Molinaro; Cape Town SuperSport commentator Mark Gleason; South American soccer writer and BBC broadcaster Tim Vickery, and Madrid-based guardian.co.uk soccer columnist and commentator Sid Lowe.
•  The Cup final and third place game will be available in 3-D on Rogers, Cogeco, Shaw Cable, Shaw Direct, and to TELUS subscribers. It’s worth noting that Bell TV is not making the 3-D telecasts available nor is it carrying the Bold HDTV feed. Note to Bell TV: Thanks for nothing.
• Mobile applications and video on demand will be available.

  As for the CBC’s original programming, my guess is the studio panel will make the biggest impact. De Vos, Lenarduzzi and Collins will help shape our views of news developments, important plays and decisions made by the teams.

   I’ve liked the work of De Vos and Lenarduzzi, both former players, in the past. And Collins has provided commentary for European television.

     De Vos caught the attention of many of us during the Beijing Olympics when he called out the Canadian women’s soccer team coach, Even Pellerud, for employing the long ball game – a simplistic strategy that dooms a team to second tier status.

  Hearing De Vos’s blunt criticism of a Canadian coach was unusual in a sport where commentators in Canada have tended to boost the product without providing analysis that is pertinent or compelling.

  In an interview last week, he said he sees his role as one in which he balances context and exposition for the casual fan with in-depth commentary for the aficionado.

 “It’s a challenge in Canada because you have such a wide variety of soccer fans,” he said. “You have die-hard, passionate supporters who watch everything they can on television. And then you have other viewers who perhaps watch soccer once every four years during the World Cup, because it’s such a huge event.

  “My philosophy has always been you can’t just speak to one audience. You have to be as broad as possible. But I don’t want to talk down to anyone. I don’t want to simplify the game so much that the passionate fans won’t get anything out of it. So, it’s a balancing act.”

   Here are some opinions and questions from De Vos about the World Cup:

  How successful will the African teams be? Historically, nations perform well when the World Cup is played on their continent. So, what will the South African venue do for the leading African sides of Ghana and Ivory Coast?

  What impact will the weather have? If you assume the temperatures in South Africa will be warm trending to hot, you would be wrong.

  “It’s actually going to be fairly cool which should play in favour of European teams,” he said.

  Like most commentators, he views Brazil and Spain, and perhaps Argentina and Germany as favourites.

  He sees the Netherlands as a team to watch, although he made that observation before winger Arjen Robben limped off the field with a hamstring injury.

  “[The Netherlands] are playing some beautiful football right now,” he said. “They always do. They’re very fluid in their movements. They’re all very gifted.”

  England will be competitive, he says, if Wayne Rooney can produce. He has concerns about the goaltending.

  “I’m a little bit worried that there isn’t a standout goalkeeper among the three that are going,” he said. “Every team that wins the World Cup has a very strong goalkeeper.”

  Conventional wisdom has the most competitive group, the group of death, as Group G (Brazil, Portugal, Ivory Coast, North Korea). But De Vos believes advancing from Group D, with Germany, Ghana, Australia and Serbia, also will be difficult.

  Will the highest paid player in the world (and arguably the best), Cristiano Ronaldo, be able to lead Portugal out of the group of death?

   De Vos, and others, have noted that Ronaldo has not played well internationally.

  Three young players who could emerge from the World Cup as international stars, De Vos says, are Thomas Mueller and Holger Badstuber of Germany, and Simon Kjaer of Denmark.

  Reaction to the Mike Wilner suspension

  Last weekend, the Fan590 pulled Toronto Blue Jay reporter Mike Wilner off the New York Yankees series, because during a pre-game media scrum on Wednesday he had apparently rankled the Jays by pressing manager Cito Gaston about his bullpen decisions in a loss to Tampa the night before. It was described by the National Post as “an intense exchange.” (The Jays and Fan590 are owned by Rogers Communications.)

  There is, of course, nothing wrong with aggressive questioning. Wilner was doing his job. Needless to say, suspending him was a bush league move and an amazingly stupid thing to do. Subsequently, the Toronto chapter of the Baseball Writers Association wrote a letter to Jays president Paul Beeston, stating that it “would like to officially voice its support of the right of Mr. Wilner or any other reporter to ask challenging questions”. Of course.

  What amazed me was the number of readers who thought Wilner was arrogant, had crossed the line, and therefore deserved to be slapped down. The Globe and Mail’s Jeff Blair tweeted that Wilner had made the wrong decision journalistically by showing up Gaston “in a group.” In other words, don’t hurt Cito’s feelings.

    And then there was this comment, which I didn’t post because it contained profanity, which stated in part, “Sports is entertainment, not the national budget. Post game pressers are the realm of the reliable anecdote and old cliches. They are not a parliamentary hearing.” In other words, the best we should expect from sports writers and broadcasters is pap. That argument is so moronic as to not deserve further comment.

  I thought the reader who sent in the following summed it up well. He (or she) wrote, “Interesting to see that many of you who don’t like Wilner for his arrogance and rudeness are happy about the suspension and would like him off the air. But once again, this IS an issue about having the freedom to ask the tough questions and report the truth. This has nothing to do with whether you like Mike or not. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of Wilner and will never be for those same reasons mentioned above. But can’t Toronto reporters or hosts really ever speak their minds without being punished  or indirectly censored in the future?
“If that occurs, you will never get tough questions being asked which we continue to see for the past decade in Toronto.”

  Finally, consider these words from Don Landry, co-host of the Fan590’s morning show. Landry, a Rogers employee who is paid by the Fan590, said  on Monday morning:

   ”The wrong decision was made here. It was a mistake to suspend Mike Wilner. Mike Wilner did not volunteer to take the weekend off. He was told not to be at work. And I think that’s wrong, and it sends the wrong message. And I think this company made a bad mistake. . . And it makes us look bad, and it may even in fact be embarrassing for some people here at the radio station. I think it is embarrassing to the radio station, I think it’s embarrassing to Mike Wilner, unfortunately. And I think it all could have been avoided if it weren’t so public.
   “What I have not been able to figure out is, was this an edict from Rogers Corporate?  Was this an edict from the Blue jays, directly to us?  Was it from someone in the hierarchy of the Blue Jays to someone in the hierarchy of Rogers and then it trickled down?. But I think it’s the wrong decision, it shouldn’t have
happened and I’m sorry it did.”
  Well said.