Buffalo Media Sports Blitz

Look, I know some of you may think I’m too critical towards the way the “Real Media” cover the local sports scene. However, some of the stuff I’ve heard on Schopp and the Bulldog this past week was just…going to the dogs.

Now, before I get into my criticisms, I’ve to give the afternoon hosts credit. In the past, there have been times that I felt the hosts sugarcoated everything when it came to covering the Buffalo Sabres. However, Schopp and the Bulldog have done a good job in being critical of Darcy Regier and the Sabres management practices when it comes to bettering their team via trades.

Prior to the Olympic break, the hosts conducted an interview with Regier. The hosts were very critical of him, especially when it came to Regier using the theory of “Martin Hossa didn’t guide the Penguins to the Stanley Cup” when describing his thoughts on making deadline deals. I commend them both for doing their job and asking tough questions.

However, this is where WGR and myself get our signals crossed. Even if I despised hockey and the United States of America, I’m in total agreement that USA hockey should be the focal point of the station’s coverage. However, it doesn’t hurt to mix in a segment or two in about the combine or better yet, have a free agency preview for the Bills. You know, free agency starts in less than a week.

If I’m correct, the station did a daily preview for NHL free agents for two weeks prior to the start of free agency. Why on earth would you waste your time with free agent happenings when the Sabres haven’t signed a big time free agent in years? If anything, the Bills have normally won the offseason popularity contest over the Sabres with their free agent signings.

Now, I understand that football is second fiddle to USA hockey at this time of year….but not to a hot dog. Yes, an actual hot dog. A hot dog that’s made of god knows what, that can be found at your local grocery store. The afternoon hosts wasted almost an hour dissecting whether a hot dog was considered a sandwich or not. I don’t care how many phone lines were lit up as the hosts proclaimed.

With The Combine, NFL Free agency and Olympic Hockey upon on us, I’m pretty sure you can find a decent topic to come up with from the three of them. It’s known that people who listen to talk radio don’t exactly listen for the entire four hours of a show. Mainly, because you’re not a car that long. I can’t imagine someone wanting to hear hockey or Combine coverage and turning on the radio to only hear about Ted’s Hot Dogs.

Back to football for a second, I do have to give credit to WGR for sending Joe Buscaglia to the Combine to cover the event. He’s done a great job in submitting articles and twitter updates about the happenings. However, the afternoon hosts could have interviewed him over the hot dog.

Now, I am in a “benefit of the doubt” mood. So, I get that WGR is competing for the male demographic with 103.3 The Edge and 97 Rock. I get that they have to keep up with the slap-stick comedy angle because of the funny DJ’s on those specific stations. Heck, that’s why their station promos consist of saying “Why listen to stations that just play music.”

However, to have a hot dog discussion? Seinfeld may have won a bunch of Emmys because it was a show about nothing, but it just doesn’t work when your audience is expecting to hear sports and not slap stick.

===============================================

Just in case you didn’t know, you can follow me on Twitter by clicking this. That’s probably the closest Bucky Gleason gets to mastering the skills of twittering. Look, I’ve no problems with Bucky Gleason’s writings like a lot of readers do. I happen to agree with his points on overkilling the Sabres loss of Chris Drury and criticising fans who bit#$ about their sports teams, yet continue to support a losing product.

However, the twitter account that he’s opened for the Olympics has led to a road to no where. Heather B. made some great points on her blog about how Bucky’s about as technologically savoy as an old lady. Besides Bucky twittering about his bus being on fire and the overcharging of laundry, his substance hasn’t exactly been there.

Someone at the Buffalo News should have given Bucky a crash course on how to be interactive with his twitter account. In a day and age where news travels faster than the word of mouth, Bucky needed to overkill his twitter page just as much as he overkills the importance of Lindy Ruff.

Now, as for what Bucky was reporting about, I have absolutely no problems with his choice of events to cover. Some people may have wanted him to write more about hockey because of the large amount of followers in Buffalo. However, don’t underestimate the ice dancers and ski boarding fans. NBC was still able to score a 13.0 rating in Buffalo while USA vs Canada was going on MSNBC. Even with hockey’s popularity in Buffalo, there are still a number of people who don’t watch hockey, and look forward to the Olympics more so than any other sporting event.

As far as I’m concerned, TBN did a good job in giving as much attention to the other Olympic games the first week and then turning it up a notch after Canada played USA. I mean is it really earth shattering Olympic News that USA beat down Norway? The Buffalo audience that watched Canada vs USA proves that you have to diversify when it comes to covering the Olympic Games.

=================================================

Suggestions to TBN video department: I wouldn’t mind seeing a reporter conduct a monthly one on one interview with a Buffalo athlete (Even a former one). If there’s one thing that’s hard to find on Buffalo television or radio, it’s hearing an interview. Another suggestion would be to do a monthly retrospect piece on Buffalo sporting events. I always get a kick out of their daily blogs on Sports, Ink where they do a history piece. I think having interviews with TBN Staff discussing topics like the Bills Greatest Comeback or Hasek’s 70 save performance against the Devils would be very cool.

=================================================

So, did anyone check out Don Banks SI mock draft? Lets just say it wasn’t the pick of Trent Williams for the Bills that caught my eye:

With apologies to the Bills’ new general manager, we’ve nixed the idea of Buffalo taking Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen. The management tandem of Buddy Nix and head coach Chan Gailey just doesn’t seem like a long-term arrangement, so why go down the first-round quarterback road to develop a QB they won’t be around to play?

The management tandem of Nix and Gailey doesn’t seem long-term? Man, I thought I was negative towards the Bills management team. All kidding aside, I’m not sure exactly what connections Don Banks has with the Bills, but the statement tells me one thing:

Maybe, Buddy Nix is just a bridge-gap to Doug Whaley being promoted within the next two years. Remember, the Bills did the same thing with Marv Levy (without telling the public) when he resigned and said that it was agreed upon to have just a two-year term as GM.
Of course, instead of going outside the organization to look for a replacement, Russ Brandon ended up taking over for Levy. As for the present, you can’t ignore that Buddy Nix isn’t exactly a spring chicken. The guy was in retirement just 13 months ago and is 71 years old. I mean do you really see the guy being a GM until he’s 75?

========================================

So get this bizarre story involving myself. I was watching the USA vs Swiss hockey game on Wednesday, and during the second period when America couldn’t get the puck passed Jonas Hiller, I twittered something along the lines of “If America losses this game, blame it on Ryan Seacrest for interviewing Ryan Miller.” I also included a not so nice dig at Seacrest.

So, literally about 10 seconds later I get a tweet from someone saying “what do you mean, blame it on him?” I had no clue who this person was. When I clicked on the person’s profile, lone and behold it was Ryan Seacrest’s producer. I guess Ryan has his boys patrolling twitter to make sure no one way bad mouths American Idol’s Prince. Gotta love Twitter.