TV MONITOR: Last night's 10:00pm ET edition of FSN's
"Fox Sports News" (only 30 minutes due to college
basketball) and the 11:00pm ET edition of CNN/SI's "Sports
Tonight" both led with the Ray Lewis press conference,
followed by first-round coverage of the Nissan Open. The
first Daytona 500 story for "FSN" was 6:56 into the
broadcast. The first Daytona story for "Sports Tonight" was
at 12:23. Last night's 11:00pm ET edition of ESPN's
"SportsCenter" led with Pacers-Bucks, followed by Heat-
Bulls. The first Daytona 500 story was at 9:04 (THE DAILY).
A CHANGE WILL DO THEM GOOD? In St. Petersburg, Ernest
Hooper writes, "Monday night's ESPY Awards broadcast
continued the show's stature as the most overhyped night in
sports." Hooper then suggests some changes be made to the
show, including: "Improve the celebrity list"; "Cut out the
dry jokes. Not every presenter has to be funny and not
every presenter can be funny"; "Let the host offer the
humor"; and "Lose the skits and stay away from race-based
humor" (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 2/18).
VULCAN'S PLANS: In Chicago, John Jackson cites
Bloomberg News as reporting that Vulcan Ventures "will use
the content from the Sporting News as programming" for
Blazers/Seahawks Owner Paul Allen's "planned cable sports
network ... and for Internet companies" (SUN-TIMES, 2/18).
LOCAL NOTES: KSTR in Dallas has agreed to carry eight
MLS Burn road games, bringing the team's total TV road
coverage, which includes some national and regional cable
broadcasts, to 12 games. Three home games are also
scheduled to be shown (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 2/17)....Turner
Exec Sports Producer Mike Pearl, noting that "few" events
still enjoy "decent" ratings: "I'm not sure how important
ratings are any more" (BOSTON HERALD, 2/18)....In St. Louis,
Dan Caesar writes, "In what industry sources say is a cost-
controlling measure, Dan McLauglin will replace [Bob]
Carpenter as the play-by-play voice" on KPLR's MLB Cardinals
road-game telecasts this season. Meanwhile, Al Hrabosky "is
expected to take over" for for former Cards SS Ozzie Smith
on the home games KPLR-WB carries (POST-DISPATCH, 2/18).
