2021-22 Media Thread

[TheCatInTheHat]

It's a new school year, so I'll stick this here (I believe last year's was on the basketball board.) Just a place to comment on awful sports announcing (and writing), critiques of east coast media (F-ESPN) and other bias, and also kudos when warranted.

To kick it off, he's a broken record, but the "doesn't deserve to be named" benchwarmer for the Republic just keeps giggling like an ugly 50-year-old 8th-grader and trying to generate word of mouth hits on their site with any digs at UArizona he can come up with. So, big shocker, based on what Sumlin did, we're in various Bottom Ten type blog listings, because past performance is a 100 percent accurate indicator of future performance in college athletics. I realize for the grumpy Captain Obvious types, the typical reaction is "well, if we did better, we wouldn't get that." (Thanks in advance.) But, while a relatively minor annoyance, this guy's a talentless dick, and it's all about click-bait. I'd like to see alums with major business advertising interests in Maricopa County send their feedback to the business side of the house at the Republic.

On a brighter note, with Dean in the morning, and Herrera, Spears & Farhang, and Gonzales & Rivera in the afternoon, Tucson has an unprecedented amount of UofA sports coverage on radio, for as long as it lasts.

[tgrumpy2]

On that same note I read an article just the other day about Arizona being one of the worst teams in CFB. They cited a woefully thin roster. Using last years stats when we were in danger of cancelling a game because of a lack of scholarship players. Not one mention of all the players we brought in via the transfer portal and that all of our players are now vaccinated. I figure sure, what the heck. Put us under the radar and we'll sail that submarine right up their rear end. Last year's terrible teams become the vehicle of next year's coach of the year. lol

[Carcassdragger]

I think its because we ARE one of the worst programs in CFB. But if it works, I'll put on those rose colored glasses too.

[Merkin]

Historically speaking, the UA has been one of the worst CFB programs in modern history so they aren't wrong.

Last sole football conference championship was the 1940's Border Conference. No sole championships in the WAC, PAC-10 and PAC-12 eras.

Only one UA QB in the entire PAC era (1978+) to take a snap in the NFL, and that was only due to Matt Scott playing like shit so they started their backup QB who wasn't good in practice.

Thought the program was cursed until that happened.

[AV8RCAT]

I think its because we ARE one of the worst programs in CFB. But if it works, I'll put on those rose colored glasses too.

We WERE, because we had one of the worst coaches in CFB. Seriously, you don't lose every game and get dry sodomized by your arch rival in YOUR HOUSE, if there aren't serious internal problems. A competent coaching staff will size up the current roster and address where current players need to improve. I believe we would have dramatic improvement with the exact same players, but we have also added some better ones. We will be better in all aspects of the game. Offense may improve the least, but defense, special teams and kicking game will help us to 4 wins.

[AV8RCAT]

oops

[TheCatInTheHat]

I was looking up the lineup of Week 0 NFL pre-season games for the weekend, when I stumbled across the college football kickoff games. Nebraska at Illinois is on FoX at 10 am Saturday, and Hawaii at UCLA is on ESPN at 12:30 Saturday. That's kind of a "meh" lineup. Oh, well. NEXT week there's a pretty good lineup of decent games (and hopefully ours will turn out to be one of them.)

[PHXCATS]

Am I the only one who finds Spears really annoying and really unprofessional?

I am sure he is a good person but when I see him with a tshirt on and an upside down Lakers mask at a UA press conference as well as his unprofessionalism on podcasts I am just annoyed. Still listen though because Lev is amazing

[TheCatInTheHat]

I'll just say that I agree Lev does a great job, and it's worth listening whenever and wherever he's on. I skip around a lot, depending on guests, and to avoid commercials. But I thought I might have heard part of a conversation the other day that 1490 might be looking in another direction. Don't know if it was a joke where I didn't catch all of or not. Maybe somebody else heard it and can clarify.

[UAEebs86]

Am I the only one who finds Spears really annoying and really unprofessional?

I am sure he is a good person but when I see him with a tshirt on and an upside down Lakers mask at a UA press conference as well as his unprofessionalism on podcasts I am just annoyed. Still listen though because Lev is amazing

Justin is a old friend and Cienega HS football teammate of my son. He is a good guy.

All that being said, we aren't big fans.

[TheCatInTheHat]

With the decline of the print media in our country, and evidently reading in general, I bag on both of our state's two primary newspapers for their mediocrity. But, it could be worse. I picked up a copy of the "RJ" (Las Vegas Review Journal) yesterday at the airport on the way back from the game. (BTW, it was really fun flying back into a full-blown monsoon.) I thought I'd read their coverage of our game. But, they apparently give everybody the weekend off in Vegas and print a "Saturday/Sunday" edition Friday night. You might as well buy a copy of People magazine. So I checked on-line today. Nope; they'd printed a preview of the game Friday, then moved right on today as though the game never happened, while the rival Las Vegas Sun carried a generic Associated Press game story. Ah, well...that may be the wave of the future. Just get your preview, game stats, photos, and summary from your team's website, form your own opinions, and share them on social media. I certainly don't rely on or trust the media, but it still feels weird to watch so much of it slowly fade away like Marty McFly's photograph.

[PHXCATS]

PHNX launched today. Seems like Mike Luke is taking his show to them.

PHNX is a network for Suns, Coyotes, Diamondbacks, Coyotes, Wildcats, Scumdevils, and betting shows and content. Sounds very interesting

[TheCatInTheHat]

Saw in the Star that UArizona is going to spend $48M (all from donors) on a new off-campus building for its TV and radio station studios and communications school. You can always periodically make a case for modernizing, but to me this raises questions about where you should focus fund-raising and and the university's mission. As far as I can tell, the PBS and NPR stations are almost exclusively a case of receiving a network satellite signal and microwaving it to the transmitters on Mt. Bigelow. Occasionally, they do "pledge breaks" where administrative types untrained in broadcasting are inflicted on the audience for their cash sweeps (which evidently work.) The classical station is pretty good, so I'll give them credit for that. But I can't recall much in the way of any real reporting originating there. I have to grudgingly acknowledge that ASU's apparently combined journalism and comms school seems more high-profile with it's reporting, and rather than just having a bloated staff of lifer university employees waiting for their pensions, they seem to occasionally let students get some experience. But, regardless of who's doing the work, while I guess they have some focus on immigration issues, I don't recall any supplementary coverage of the woefully under-reported stories involving local cartel activity, homeless issues, and fairly rampant issues of government corruption and misdirected tax dollars. If they were planning on doing that as part of their makeover, I'd be all for it. But, I suspect this will just be a case of some nice new digs. It's all donated, so no complaints there, but you can imagine how far $48M would help in areas of greater need.

[TheCatInTheHat]

So the win-or-go-home NL Wild Card game was on at 5 last night, and it turned out to be a classic game. I've got a TV at one end of my backyard, and a spa in the other, and I hate bad announcing and commercials, but they're too far apart to use a remote. I could've messed around with MLB.com for the radio broadcast, but that's too delayed over the internet and too much hassle. Ah, but ESPN Radio has the rights to the post-season, so I just grabbed a little radio and took it out there. But...the local affiliate wasn't carrying it. It was just their local gab-fest featuring the Jimmy Olsen guy from the Star fawning over his boss and colleagues, and the other guy who I assume writes the checks so the station will put him on. Finally, after their regular show was over, the game was Joined In Progress (JIP) at 6. Not that gigantic of an issue, but I think if your station is the local affiliate for post-season playoff coverage in one of the three major pro sports in this country, there's a responsibility to provide that coverage to the community. Or give up that network affiliation to somebody else. The latest Nielsen ratings I could find didn't have them showing up among the 23 rated stations, so that's apparently not a valid excuse. Thus endeth the mini-rant.