Just because I love you here on Sportsbyfletch, I'm giving you a little taste of the back page of Score Atlanta. Here is this week's Around the Dial. Be sure and pick up Score Atlanta at any metro-area QuikTrip, Kroger or Blockbuster.
History was made in Atlanta last week as a groundbreaking partnership was entered by two of the city’s big-time sports players. Sports Radio 790 The Zone and WGCL-CBS Atlanta announced a partnership that will lead to 790 The Zone assuming all on-air sports responsibilities for the CBS affiliate. The deal will include all local and national sports coverage for the station. According to a press release sent out by the AM sports radio station, The Zone will provide all on-air content and hosts for CBS Atlanta newscasts and original sports programming. Some of CBS Atlanta’s sports programming includes the SEC Wrap-up Show, CBS Atlanta Dawg Show and Sportsline. The Zone has already been integrated into the sports programming of CBS Atlanta as Mayhem in the AM co-host Steak Shapiro was featured alongside Gil Tyree on CBS Atlanta’s Countdown to Kickoff for last Monday night’s game between the Falcons and the Saints. Andrew Saltzman, President of 790, said of the partnership, “This dynamic alliance will only strengthen our ability to connect to the Atlanta sports fan.”
Senior VP and General Manager of WGCL-TV Kirk Black commented, “the experience and personality of Atlanta’s premiere sports talk radio station will add valuable resources to CBS Atlanta.”
For years 790 The Zone personalities have appeared on CBS programming. Chuck Smith, Chuck Oliver, Nick Cellini and Brandon Adams, among others have appeared on CBS Atlanta Saturday nights. While this partnership is official, these two groups have seemingly always been using each other. I will be interested to see how this progresses and if anything truly changes.
This past Monday, the Falcons traveled to New Orleans and CBS Atlanta hosted a pregame show called Countdown to Kickoff, along with the game as NFL television rules state that the game must be allowed to be shown over the broadcast air in the markets of the teams involved. CBS used ESPN’s coverage for the actual game but used its own staff for the intro. Besides Tyree and Shapiro live at the Super Dome, Mark Harmon and David Wilcox were live in studio in Atlanta. I’m not certain who Wilcox is, though a graphic stated that he is a former Tight End. The crew did a reasonable job setting up the action, better in my opinion than 11 Alive did with the preseason coverage of the Falcons.
Speaking of the Falcons, I cannot underscore how much of a treat it is to hear Wes Durham call the Falcons games. His pace is on target, never getting too quick to bypass the action and force the listener to wait and never too slow to cause the listener to hear the crowd and wonder what is happening in the game. And as a Georgia fan, his call of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets makes me jealous that the Dawgs don’t have as polished of a play-by-play man.
Florida Gator linebacker Brandon Spikes has been put through the ringer following his eye gouge of Georgia running back Washaun Ealey in last Saturday’s contest. ESPN’s Mike and Mike in the Morning discussed it at length with Mike Golic chastising Spikes, saying that his actions had no place in college football. ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption also spent a segment discussing it and several AJC writers talked about it in internet blogs/columns. Florida head coach Urban Meyer told reporters that he initially was going to just move on but the overflow of negative publicity led to Meyer suspending him for the first half of this week’s Vanderbilt game. Meyer and quarterback Tim Tebow remarked to a Florida newspaper that Spikes was doing just what Georgia was doing. The difference though is the former Heisman winner’s claim didn’t have the video evidence like the clip that showed Spikes inserting his hand into Ealey’s helmet and moving it around as though he was the fourth Stooge, after Larry, Moe and Curly. Interestingly enough, Ealey told an Atlanta newspaper that he did not believe that Spikes should have been suspended.
Finally, 680 The Fan has seemingly cornered the market on Friday nights in Atlanta with its extensive high school football coverage. After its game of the week (which 790 and Score Atlanta partner up to provide as well), 680 runs the Friday Night Scoreboard Show from 10 p.m. until midnight. The show is great in the sense that scores are given about every ten minutes, however the panel is a bit crowded. The talented Steve West is the ringmaster but he has to run point with three other co-hosts, and sometimes the discussion can get off course and opinions are missed just because of the sheer number of voices involved. The show is a fine production and it makes up for the void left by the disappearance of High School High Five from 790 The Zone. The only drawback is the one extra voice that could be removed to allow for more of a flow.
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