Media Notes

Gammons Accepts The J.G. Taylor Spink Award

ESPN’s Peter Gammons, who received the ’05 J.G. Taylor Spink Award for baseball writing, and Padres broadcaster Jerry Coleman, who received the Ford C. Frick Award for baseball broadcasting, were inducted yesterday into the Baseball HOF (THE DAILY). In Boston, Bob Ryan writes, “Modern baseball writing began with Peter Gammons. ... Gammons is the most influential and respected baseball journalist of our time” (BOSTON GLOBE, 8/1). NESN Red Sox analyst Jerry Remy said Gammons has “been a pioneer. I’ll always remember him as a tireless worker and for his love for the game and the relationships he’s built in the game” (Sean McAdam, ESPN.com, 7/30).

AUDIBLE: In Edmonton, Dave Cameron reported CanMedia has “adapted a game plan” for the second issue of the Official CFL Magazine, set to be released August 10. CanMedia spokesperson Rodney Dietzman said, “Compared to the other magazines we put out, we’ve gotten like 20, 30, 40 times the input from the readers.” CanMedia spokesperson Curtis Stewart said, “Coming out of the chute we had an NFL section. And that’s one thing we had a lot of comments on. ‘If we wanted an NFL magazine, we’d buy an NFL magazine.’ So we scrapped that.” Stewart said the magazine has “about 6,000 subscribers” (EDMONTON SUN, 7/30).

BIG TICKET: In Ft. Lauderdale, Sarah Talalay wrote WAXY-AM has “launched the first significant challenge” to WQAM-AM, which “has dominated the [South Florida] sports talk landscape for more than a decade.” WQAM management called WAXY’s effort “futile,” but Talalay writes since launching last September 1, WAXY is “making inroads. It dropped ESPN programming, attracted some of WQAM’s former fixture hosts, including [Joe] Rose and [Jon] Sciambi, and drew the Dolphins” away from WQAM, which had been the team’s flagship since ’97 (Ft. Lauderdale SUN-SENTINEL, 7/31).

TWO STRIKES: In N.Y., Andrew Marchand notes Tiger Woods, who reportedly did not want CBS’ Peter Kostis to cover his rounds, “got Kostis yesterday” for the final round of the Buick Open. After Woods tied for second, he “declined to be interviewed by CBS.” Meanwhile, Marchand writes Fox’ MLB pregame show is “badly in need of some juice. The show, which conceivably should be the best studio program in baseball, is nowhere near ESPN’s ‘Baseball Tonight’ in opinion or information” (N.Y. POST, 8/1).