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Anthony Lima: NBA Ratings Have Become Political Talking Points

“I always laugh when people kind of rub people’s faces in the low ratings, like ‘Here you go. You guys watch something that wasn’t as watched as something last year.’ Cool. You got me.”

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Ratings matter to networks, but do they matter to the average fan that just wants to watch basketball or hockey? Ken Carman doesn’t think so. He said Tuesday on 92.3 The Fan that the talk is either dismissed or goes right over the audience’s head.

“I don’t think the general fan cares,” the Cleveland morning man said. “I don’t think that anybody in Northeast Ohio who is a basketball fan, like a guy who’s getting ready to go to work who is a 20-something NBA fan, I think they’re just going to watch. I don’t think they care.”

Carman’s partner Anthony Lima admits that he cares about ratings. That has more to do with being in the industry though. He thinks that the emphasis put on ratings in conversations that are not exclusively amongst industry professionals has taken on a largely political tone.

“Certain cable networks tell you not to watch sports because they feel they’ve gone too woke,” he said. “So they will celebrate people not watching sports. Fine, cool. If you get a rise out of that, then awesome for you.”

Ken Carman acknowledged that there are always going to be teams that draw a bigger audience than others. Usually, those are the teams in the biggest markets, but that isn’t always the case.

He pointed to the Green Bay Packers as a reliable ratings driver for the NFL. Superstars help too. The Cleveland Cavaliers were constantly put on national TV when LeBron James was on the team. That didn’t give him any sense of pride in his local team that he didn’t get from them winning and regularly contending for titles.

“It’s a weird galaxy brain thing,” Carman said. “I don’t need the NFL to have higher ratings. I don’t care. I don’t need the NBA to have higher ratings. I don’t care.”

Anthony Lima said he isn’t sure what people who celebrate low ratings are trying to accomplish or even why they are reported at all.

“I always laugh when people kind of rub people’s faces in the low ratings, like ‘Here you go. You guys watch something that wasn’t as watched as something last year.’ Cool. You got me.”

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Sports Radio News

Fred Toucher: ‘ESPN is Now Just 3 People’

“Stephen A. Smith is on in the morning. He’s on the radio. He does a podcast. He’s at all the games. He does the postgames.”

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How deep is the talent rotation at ESPN? Not very according to Fred Toucher. The 98.5 The Sports Hub morning host has certainly noticed that the network is turning to a small handfull of stars to do the bulk of the work.

“ESPN is now like three people, and Stephen A. Smith is on in the morning. He’s on the radio. He does a podcast. He’s at all the games. He does the postgames,” morning host Fred Toucher said. “Imagine if we had a microphone in front of us 12 hours a day…The guy’s going to snap one time.”

That led to a new segment on Toucher & Rich titled “Stephen A. Smith is horny” with music by R&B artist Barry White playing in the background. Throughout the nearly 20-minute aside, the show played clips from Smith’s Cadence 13-produced podcast recently renamed The Stephen A. Smith Show, and spoke about how he is now giving dating advice to close out episodes of his show.

“My man can’t help getting horny on it every single episode,” Jon Wallach said. “He is trapped with a microphone in front of him 18 hours a day – he really is. He’s on TV and the radio and podcast. It doesn’t stop.”

Because of Smith’s busy schedule across ESPN programming – including First Take, NBA Countdown, NBA in Stephen A’s World and guest appearances on shows such as SportsCenter and Get Up – he seems to be over the airwaves more often than not. On top of that, he hosts new episodes of his podcast at least three times a week. He has said the network did research that found he had reached 1.7 billion people on ESPN’s YouTube page last year, and that the number is expected to hit 2.4 billion at the end of this year.

The Boston morning show surmised that since Smith hardly has moments away from his profession, he cannot help but to talk about topics such as dating advice to vary the content.

“He just loves to drop into that sexy – ‘We’re going to do dating advice because everyone’s reaching out for dating advice from Stephen A. Smith,” Toucher said.

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Evan Roberts Says WFAN Found Next Star in Audition This Week

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Evan Roberts thinks he has heard the future of WFAN. The co-host of Carton & Roberts said Tuesday afternoon that an overnight audition he heard on the station is going to yield big results.

Roberts said he could not sleep on Monday night, so he turned on the station to hear a new voice on the air and he was impressed.

“Alvin was on the air from midnight to two, and I’m going to make your prediction. He will be full-time here in the next three years,” he said. “Very good. He was tremendous.”

The Alvin in question is Alvin Cintron. He is a listener that Carton & Roberts explained would make videos and send them to program director Spike Eskin with a note asking when he would get his shot on WFAN.

“I listened to about 45 minutes of it,” Roberts said. “First radio show ever! I think the story is Spike literally found the guy on social media and said, ‘You know what? I’ll give you a shot.’”

Cintron posted a video on Facebook of himself listening to the segment. He called it “surreal.”

Craig Carton joked that if Evan Roberts thinks Alvin Cintron is going to be part of WFAN’s full-time staff in the next three years, that means he has someone on the staff getting fired and that Alvin is going to jump ahead of the current WFAN part-timers working towards the same goal.

“I didn’t put anybody down,” Roberts answered. “All I said was I thought he was brilliant last night, and I’m making a prediction. I think within the next three years, he’s full time.”

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Binnie Media Brings VSiN to New Hampshire

“Their programming is best-in-class and the support from the VSiN team goes well beyond the content we air on the station.”

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VSiN is going to New England. Content from the sports betting network will be heard on Binnie Media’s 106.3-HD2 in Nashua. The station will be branded VSiN Radio 106.3-FM HD-2.

“We’re thrilled to team up with Binnie Media to deliver the real-time news and insights New Englanders need to inform their wagering decisions,” Brian Musburger, founder and CEO of VSiN, said in a press release. “New Hampshire was one of the first states to embrace legal sports betting and, with Massachusetts recently legalizing, there has never been more interest in the informative and educational sports betting programming VSiN delivers every day. We are excited to bring our team of betting experts to Binnie Media’s passionate sports audience, especially in Massachusetts, the home state of VSiN’s parent company, DraftKings.”

In addition to the long-form content on 106.3-HD2, VSiN will also have a presence on other Binnie Media stations. Brent Musburger’s Action Updates will be heard on eight other stations in the group. They will run twice a day, giving the network a multi-format presence across the state.

Binnie Media is the largest privately owned and locally managed media company in Maine and New Hampshire. It owns fifteen radio stations as well as digital and outdoor marketing brands.

“Sports betting is quickly becoming part of the daily conversation. As we evaluated the options in this space, we landed on VSiN,” added Heath Cole, VP of Programming at Binnie Media. “Their programming is best-in-class and the support from the VSiN team goes well beyond the content we air on the station. From the short-form Action Updates to the digital content the VSiN team creates for our listeners, we think this content is, by far, the best in the space. We’re very excited about the opportunity to bring this programming to our listeners.”

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