SBJ Media: ESPN Returning To Super Bowl Radio Row

It’s sad to hear that legendary high school hoops coach Morgan Wootten entered hospice care. Wootten coached DeMatha teams from 1956-2002, and seemingly won the D.C. area’s Catholic league title every year. I have such respect for the coach -- not just for everything he accomplished, but for the classy way he built and ran his program.

AFFILIATE PUSH LEADS TO ESPN REAPPEARANCE ON RADIO ROW

• ESPN’s national radio shows will return to the Super Bowl’s Radio Row for the first time in around a decade. Four shows that run weekdays from 6am-6pm will be produced from the Super Bowl Media Center next Wednesday-Friday, rather than from ESPN’s production compound that will be in South Beach. ESPN pulled its national shows out of Radio Row years ago, mainly for financial reasons. From a production standpoint, it made more sense for ESPN to produce its national radio shows alongside the network’s TV studio shows, which are housed every Super Bowl at a compound away from the Media Center.
  
  
• At a recent ESPN Radio affiliate board meeting, some local affiliates suggested bringing the national shows back to Radio Row. Most of those local affiliates stayed on Radio Row even after ESPN’s national shows left. The affiliates believe they will be able to get some of ESPN’s national radio personalities -- like Mike Golic, Jon “Stugotz” Weiner and Will Cain -- to appear on their local shows before and after their national ones air. ESPN started working with the NFL months ago to free up enough space for their national shows.
  
  
• ESPN Senior VP/Audio Traug Keller: “It’s a big deal to our affiliates, so it’s a big deal to us. We’re returning to our radio roots.” The day starts with “Golic & Wingo” (6-10am), which will be followed by “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz” (10am-1pm), “First Take, Your Take with Jason Fitz” (1-3pm) and “The Will Cain Show” (3-6pm).
  
  
• Keller, who is retiring from ESPN next month, will not be making the trip to Miami next month for Super Bowl week. The Boston College alum took a job as Exec VP & COO of America Media, a company that produces content for and by the Jesuit order of the Catholic Church.

SEAN BRATCHES READY FOR NEW CHAPTER IN U.S.

• It wasn’t until Sean Bratches did his taxes last year, that he realized he had visited 29 countries in 2017. The Managing Director of Commercial Operations at F1 has spent the last three Thanksgivings in Abu Dhabi. When the former ESPN executive’s contract came up this month, he decided that he wanted to move back to the States to be with his family. Bratches -- you know the guy; loafers, no socks, pronounced sideburns -- moves back to Connecticut next month, where he will consult F1 for an unspecified amount of time.
  
  
• Bratches plans to re-emerge in the business, and he has a good story to tell. He grew revenue each of the three years he was at the company. “Liberty bought a motorsports company,” Bratches said. “We’ve turned it into a global media and entertainment brand.” Bratches laughed when he spoke of the state of F1’s business three years ago, pointing to a rebuilt website and a growing sponsor list. “The very first display ad F1 sold was in November 2018,” Bratches said. “The most technically advanced sport on the planet didn’t have a tech sponsor until we brought in Amazon.” 
  
  
• In 2015, I wrote a column on Bratches when he left ESPN. 

NBC'S LATE NIGHT STRATEGY UNDERSCORES IMPORTANCE OF SPORTS

• NBC’s decision to stream “The Tonight Show” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers” via Peacock at 8pm and 9pm ET -- more than three hours before their TV air times -- did not get enough attention, emailed one media executive who asked to remain anonymous.
  
  
• “The NBC Peacock announcement is really a watershed moment for the TV business especially as it pertains to sports -- not because of the Olympics/EPL move, but because of the late-night strategy. It’s really a big deal as NBC is basically punting on another entertainment daypart. It obviously has huge ramifications with the stations as well, but when the business’ traditional leader in late night TV does this, it’s another huge nail in the coffin of entertainment programming on broadcast TV, which -- wait for it -- yet again increases the importance of sports to broadcast TV and the ad market.”

SPEED READS

• Surprising TV numbers from the NFL yesterday, where viewership for both championship games was down from 2018. Consensus was that the games would see an uptick, especially considering the fact that viewership was up for the Wild Card and Divisional rounds. Fox drew 42.7 million viewers for the 49ers' blowout win over the Packers in primetime, down from the 44 million who watched Rams-Saints in the early window last year. CBS drew 41.1 million viewers for the Chiefs’ win over the Titans, which was the least-viewed AFC Championship game in 11 years (Steelers-Ravens in 2009 drew 40.6 million).
  
  
• It was a busy weekend for celebrity sightings. SI’s Charlotte Wilder tweeted that actor Paul Rudd, a lifelong Chiefs fan, was on her flight into Kansas City. Wilder later grabbed a selfie with Rudd in the Chiefs locker room after they clinched the AFC Championship. Rudd wasn’t the only celebrity Chiefs fan in the house. That’s actor Eric Stonestreet, of “Modern Family” fame, over Rudd’s left shoulder.

• One potential problem with networks going direct-to-consumer: there’s no middleman to take the flack when things go wrong. Take UFC's big card on Saturday night featuring Conor McGregor-Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. As my friend, cable vet Lou Borrelli, tweeted: “Uh, 40 second fight cost more than $2 per second. Hey @ESPNPlusHelp, when 50% of your orders claim they did not receive fight due to tech outage and the other 50% stopping credit card payment due to fraud protection? Missing old days of cable guy in the middle yet? Thought so.” 
  
  
• Hats off to ESPN's Bob Braunlich, a legendary operations guy who is retiring in April. Braunlich has had a role in virtually every sport to see air during his 38-year career, but he’s probably best known for college football. “Other than the four years that Fox owned the BCS, I have been involved in all the BCS shows and the entire run of the CFP shows,” he emailed. Braunlich got his start with ABC in 1982 as a “vacation relief” unit manager in the broadcast operations and engineering department.

Bob Braunlich, pictured on the sidelines of this month’s CFP Championship, will retire after 38 years producing sports

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