Macon, Ga., weatherman Jeff Cox had the most accurate five-day forecast in sports media this year.
Cox, the chief meteorologist for ABC’s affiliate in Macon, Ga., broke one of the biggest media rights stories on Twitter on March 17 when he tweeted that ABC was ending its 53-year association with the Indianapolis 500.
He tweeted an official looking statement from ABC, a full four days before the news was announced officially that ABC/ESPN would not renew its deal for the 500 and other races on the IndyCar Series schedule. Cox deleted the tweet soon after it posted, but it still went viral.
In the ensuing four days, Cox became a sports media celebrity.
Here’s how his star turn came about.
ABC/ESPN had a right to match NBC’s offer for the IndyCar Series. On Friday afternoon, ESPN executive Burke Magnus called Chris Bevilacqua, who was representing IndyCar, to tell him that ESPN would not be matching NBC’s offer.
That meant that ABC would lose rights to the Indy 500 after this year, a race that it has carried since 1965. On Saturday, Magnus relayed that information internally, including to ABC executives who, in turn, sent an alert to the top management at each of its affiliates to prepare them on what to expect, sources said.
The alert clearly said that the information was to be kept confidential.
Around two hours after Cox’s station received the alert, Cox posted his tweet with a screen grab of ABC’s planned statement about losing the race.
Magnus wound up sending a note to his NBC counterpart Jon Miller apologizing for the leak, sources said. In his note, Magnus said he did not intend to step on NBC’s planned announcement.
— John Ourand
