Tagged: ‘ESPN Audio’

posted by on May 7, 2013 8:00 AM

ESPN New York’s Jared Max on what the Jason Collins announcement meant to him

Plant a seed, watch the garden grow.
Throw a stone, see rippling waters flow.
Be courageous, step where no man thought he’d go.
Make sense for others of the most fearful unknown.

Jason Collins did it — others to follow.

Last Monday morning, the story in New York — and, nationally — was Tim Tebow’s release. I spoke at length on my “Maxed Out” radio show on ESPN-NY 98.7 FM about how I felt the Jets had grossly mistreated America’s most famous backup quarterback. Then, I went home and headed for bed. continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes

posted by on March 16, 2013 11:30 AM

ICYMI: The Week on Front Row

“Stephen Bardo was a leader on a great team,” said Dick Vitale when asked about his memories of the former University of Illinois star point guard. continue reading…

Filed in: ICYMI Highlights

posted by on March 12, 2013 8:00 AM

Inside ESPN Audio MLB Podcasts

ESPN Audio's MLB podcast lineup

ESPN Audio’s MLB podcast lineup

Baseball fans and podcast devotees have a new lineup of MLB shows to look forward to this season.

Today, ESPN Audio debuts Behind The Dish with Keith Law — a new podcast which offers listeners a “front office” perspective on the game of baseball.

ESPN's Keith Law

ESPN’s Keith Law (ESPN)

Law, who is known for his annual ESPN.com Top 100 Prospects list and his passion for baseball analytics, will have a weekly platform to showcase his unique perspectives.

Behind The Dish joins Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney and Fantasy Focus Baseball to round out ESPN Audio’s new baseball trifecta.

Front Row had the chance to catch up with Keith Goralski, ESPN senior director, digital audio content, about the changes this season.

What led to the change in our MLB podcast lineup this season?
We spend many hours reviewing our podcast formula and planning for a smarter future. We really did look at the future and thought, ‘This is how it can work better.’ Adding a Baseball Tonight-themed show, a fantasy baseball-themed show — they brand themselves. Now adding Keith’s Behind The Dish show really diversifies our podcast portfolio.

The first decision in ESPN’s MLB podcast evolution was to create Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney. How did this show come to fruition? continue reading…

Filed in: Announcements, Behind The Scenes

posted by on March 4, 2013 4:28 PM

ESPN by the numbers, March 2013

Digital Center 2 will add nearly 200,000 square feet of space to ESPN's Bristol, Conn. campus and be the new home of SportsCenter.

Digital Center 2 will add nearly 200,000 square feet of space to ESPN’s Bristol, Conn. campus and be the new home of SportsCenter.

When you’ve been delivering sports fans their news, entertainment and game coverage for 33 years, you tend to accumulate a lot of impressive statistics and factoids.

To help translate the size and scope of what ESPN does, Front Row presents:

ESPN By the Numbers, March 2013

Make up. . .
• 8 US cable networks with more than 18,000 hours of live event programming and more than 11,900 of live studio hours
• ESPN is in 98,516,000 homes nationwide and ESPN2 is in 98,477,000
• ESPN Audio presents 9,000 hours of talk/news/events to 24 million listeners a week via 450 affiliates (360 of which are full-time) including owned and operated stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas
• ESPN Digital Media accounted for 29 percent of all sports category usage in January 2013, more than the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 sports properties combined
• ESPN the Magazine delivers more than 14 million readers with the average issue.

Our people. . .
• 7,000 worldwide employees (more than 4,000 based at headquarters in Bristol, Conn.)
• More than 1000 public facing commentators, analysts, hosts and writers

Our Connecticut campus. . .
• 1.35 Million square feet
• 123 Acres (87 in Bristol, Conn. and 36 in Southington, Conn.)
• 16 Buildings
• 27 Satellite dishes
• Additional facilities in Los Angeles, Charlotte and Austin

Digital Center 1

  • 136,000 square feet
  • 4 studios
  • 8 production control rooms
  • 22 edit suites
  • 10 master control rooms

Digital Center 2 (Opening in 2014)

  • 193,000 square feet
  • 4 studios (including new home of SportsCenter)
  • 6 production control rooms

Programming and ratings in 2012. . .

• In the fourth quarter, ESPN averaged more than 980,000 households on a 24-hour basis, and more than 2.3 M homes in prime time.
• ESPN Networks averaged 1.34M HH overall and 2.84M HH in prime.
• In prime, ESPN was the top-rated cable net overall, and among M18-34, M18-49 and M25-54.
• ESPN had the top 10 most-watched programs on cable, 14 of top 15 and 22 of top 25
• SportsCenter aired its 50,000th program in September
• 113 million different people use ESPN media each week
• The average person spends 6 hours, 57 minutes with ESPN media each week

ESPN Digital and Social Media. . .
In January 2013:
• In total ESPN digital properties attracted 62.6 million unique visitors, logging 4.97 billion minutes of usage
• Users watched 292 million ESPN digital video clips in January
• ESPN television content generated 13 million social comments, making it the “most social” cable network and the second most social network overall in January
• ESPN video content on YouTube generated 30 million views

In 2012:

• ESPN.com continued to lead the Sports Category with an average minute audience of 77,000, 52 percent higher than its closest competitor
• The five ESPN Local sites (New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and Dallas) averaged 8.8 million unique visitors per month
• Grantland.com averaged 2.2 million unique visitors and 26.8 million total minutes per month
• WatchESPN distribution (which includes live access to ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3 and ESPN Goal Line/Buzzer Beater) is now available to more than 50 million households nationwide
• ESPN Mobile ranked No. 1 across the mobile Web and apps for total minutes (642 million), unique visitors (13.3 million), and an average minute audience of 14,600

ESPN’s value. . . 
• Almost all Americans have heard of the ESPN Brand (98 percent); while a vast majority (93 percent) are familiar with it
• ESPN is the favorite network (broadcast or cable) among men
• In Beta Research Corp’s annual Cable Operator Evaluation Study, operators named ESPN the network with the most average perceived value among all networks measured for the 13th straight year
• ESPN also ranked the most important network in their cable system for the ninth straight year with 95 percent of operators describing ESPN as “very important” for subscriber retention and acquisition
• ESPN2 ranked second in average perceived value among cable operators for the eighth straight year. The network also ranked No. 5 as the most important network to operators among the 46 measured networks, up from No. 9 in 2011

Note: Digital traffic numbers are from comScore.

Filed in: Behind The Scenes

posted by on January 29, 2013 12:15 PM

Front & Center: Michael Smith and Jemele Hill

“His & Hers” with Michael Smith and Jemele Hill debuts this coming Monday. (Joe Faraoni / ESPN Images)

“His & Hers” with Michael Smith and Jemele Hill debuts this coming Monday.
(Joe Faraoni / ESPN Images)

Click HERE to listen or visit iTunes to download the podcast and be sure to SUBSCRIBE to the Front & Center podcast. Also, make sure to check out the ESPN Radio app, available for the iPad.

They will argue. They will bicker. They will poke fun at each other.

And that will just be the first 30 seconds of ESPN Audio’s newest podcast, His & Hers with Michael Smith & Jemele Hill, which debuts next Monday, Feb. 4 on the front page ESPNRadio.com, ESPN PodCenter and on iTunes.

Smith, the host of Numbers Never* Lie, and Hill, an ESPN.com columnist and frequent contributor on various ESPN shows, are excited to have a project they can call their own.

In the Front & Center podcast above, Smith and Hill discuss, among other things: their decade-long friendship; their desire to both make news and include newsmakers as guests; and what sets their pairing apart from other sports podcasts.

Filed in: Behind The Scenes, Front & Center, Podcast

posted by on December 26, 2012 12:30 PM

Forward/Rewind: SportsCenter and ESPN Audio

ESPN AUDIO

Traug Keller

Traug Keller

Traug Keller, Senior Vice President, Production, Business Divisions

#Hashtags of the year for 2012:
#NY987FM and #ESPNDeportesNuevaYork. Both new stations added extensively to our reach in the country’s No.1 market. And the ability to have New York Mets games in Spanish is a great thing for baseball fans.

#Hashtag of the year for 2013:
#Multiscreen. Whether it’s Watch ESPN Deportes or ESPN Audio on XM Sirius, Tune-in, Slacker or a new one I can’t mention yet, our content will be reaching more eyes and ears in the new year.

A big prediction for your property in 2013:
The Knicks, heard on ESPN New York 98.7 FM, will make it to Eastern Conference Finals. Likewise, our growth in Hispanic Audio, TV and Digital will reach new heights.

FrontRowDesign_FinalEditor’s Note: With this two-week series — the Front Row Forward/Rewind, 2013/2012 — ESPN’s Communications Department takes the pulse of content executives throughout ESPN for their views on what’s ahead across ESPN for 2013 and some of what transpired in 2012. The snapshots provide a look at where ESPN has been, where it’s going and how it plans on getting there.

SportsCenter

Mark Gross, ESPN Sr. Vice President & Executive Producer

Best off camera moment:
That would have to be our reaction to Hurricane Sandy. There were certainly no lights or cameras capturing our people helping each other through the storm that impacted so many in Connecticut. Families took in families who lost power or whose houses were damaged. While everyone knows how important work is, people here always find the time to help out those they work with.

Mark Gross

Mark Gross

Favorite segment or interview:
That’s like asking who your favorite child is — I was proud of so many things we accomplished in 2012. There were so many memorable moments — analysis and interviews, story-telling and breaking news — that originated from our studio shows and game coverage that it’s impossible to single one out.

#Hashtag of the year for 2013: continue reading…

Filed in: Forward/Rewind 2012-13

posted by on December 12, 2012 9:47 AM

A new role with ESPN Audio for Phil “The Show Killer” Ceppaglia

ESPN’s Phil Ceppaglia at his desk. (Joe Faraoni / ESPN Images)

After 13 years “behind the glass,” ESPN Audio’s Phil “The Show Killer’ Ceppaglia is taking a commercial break.

Having helped shape the sounds of Dan Patrick, Tony Kornheiser, and most recently Mike Tirico and Scott Van Pelt, Ceppaglia shed his associate producer headphones last month to assume ESPN Audio’s newly created position of Commercial Production Coordinator.

The vacancy was created when ESPN ended its ad sales and distribution agreement with Cumulus Media Networks, and all the commercials, then played from New York, now air directly from Bristol.

A vintage shot of Phil Ceppaglia at a board in the control room. (ESPN)

“Phil becomes the bridge between the Sales group in New York and the Programming group in Bristol,” said Tim Thomas, production director. “His attention to detail is one of his strengths and a key reason I expect him to succeed.”

“I already have a good understanding of integrating commercials into our play lists and I’m excited to start working with our New York Sales and Traffic teams,” Ceppaglia says. “We’re all learning at the same time. Everyone has different terms — Traffic will ask me to ‘Export the XDS log,’ and then I’ll have to ask our engineers, ‘What are they saying?’ But I’m starting to understand it.” continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes

posted by on June 22, 2012 2:02 PM

Listen up: ESPN Audio is __________.

Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic on the set of Mike and Mike in the Morning.

ESPN Audio is the country’s largest sports radio network and launched over 20 years ago.
ESPN Audio is available in every conceivable way: desktop, mobile devices, car and satellite radios and personal radio platforms (including SiriusXM, Slacker and TuneIn).
ESPN Audio is featured event programming.
ESPN Audio is personality-driven studio programming.
ESPN Audio is ESPN Deportes.*
ESPN Audio is ESPNRadio.com.*
ESPN Audio is the creator of the award-winning ESPN Radio App.*
ESPN Audio is ESPN Podcasts.*
*see below

ESPN Audio is, in part, made up of 700 nationwide stations under the ESPN Radio banner:

ESPN Radio is the provider of more than 9,000 hours of talk and event content annually.
ESPN Radio is currently reaching 24 million listeners a week.
ESPN Radio is the owner and operator of FM stations in New York and Dallas, and AM signals in Chicago and Los Angeles.
ESPN Radio is comprised of more than 300 full-time affiliates.
ESPN Radio is the exclusive national home of marquee event programming including: the NBA regular season, playoffs and Finals; MLB regular season, playoffs and World Series; the BCS (with a full slate of regular season college football); the USGA’s U.S. Open; the 2014 FIFA World Cup; and the Open Championship.
ESPN Radio is the home of national weekday studio programming including: Mike and Mike in the Morning (Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic), 6-10 a.m. ET; The Herd with Colin Cowherd, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.; The Scott Van Pelt Show (with Ryen Russillo), 1-4 p.m.; The Doug Gottlieb Show, 4-7 p.m.; Hill & Schlereth (Mike Hill and Mark Schlereth), 7-10 p.m.
ESPN Radio is the home of national weekend programming including: the Emmy Award-winning Sporting Life with Jeremy Schaap (10-11 p.m. Friday); Dari & Mel (Dari Nowkhah and Mel Kiper Jr.), 8 a.m.-noon Saturday; Coach & Coleman (Jonathan Coachman and Freddie Coleman), noon-4 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday; The John Kincade Show, 7-10 a.m. Sunday; The V Show (Bob Valvano), overnight Saturday, Sunday; and SportsCenter updates.

*ESPN Deportes is the only all-sports Spanish radio network, and has 45 affiliates with stations in all ten of the Top 10 Hispanic markets.
*ESPNRadio.com is the most listened to live stream of any terrestrial broadcaster in the world — reaching more than 1.7 million unique listeners per month (source: Ando Media).
*The ESPN Radio app is one of the top paid sports apps since its debut in September 2009, and it was named Best Radio App by Radio Ink Magazine at the Digital Convergence Awards in 2011.
*ESPN Podcasts are reaching 358 million downloads through the ESPN PodCenter and iTunes (a year-to-year increase of more than 129 percent), including its most popular podcast The BS Report with Bill Simmons, which logged more than 92 million downloads (up 120 percent). For the third consecutive year, ESPN was awarded Best in Sports at the 7th Annual Podcast Awards.

Filed in: Behind The Scenes

posted by on May 25, 2012 4:38 PM

Another family reunion sounds good: Go inside Audio Avenue’s sequel

Putting opinionated and passionate sports radio hosts from Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Raleigh and Syracuse together for an entire day might seem like a risky proposition.

But that’s exactly what ESPN Radio’s day-long “Audio Avenue” initiative set out to do — and it worked.

ESPN’s Bristol, Conn., campus played host to 16 stations from across the country and the Dominican Republic during the second annual edition of the event. ESPN Radio’s national shows also participated.

“It was a fun day at the office — it felt like the energy you had when you went on a field trip at school,” said ESPN New York 98.7 FM co-host Ryan Ruocco, who did his 1-3 p.m. Stephen A. Smith and Ryan Ruocco Show outside on the campus’ “quad” on Wednesday.

He added: “It was a good way to build a feeling of community. We have a lot of ESPN analysts and guests on the phone, but it was great to hang with them, and actually get the chance to sit across from them for a change.”

Judd Zulgad, from 1500 ESPN Twin Cities’ Judd and Phunn Show in Minneapolis, agreed: “I anticipated that being on the ESPN campus would be a neat experience. But actually seeing the campus and broadcasting from the grounds with so many figures from the sports world present exceeded all of those expectations, and led to some great on-air conversations that helped make for a good show.”

Even a former Chicago Bear was welcomed in Patriots and Giants country. continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes

posted by on January 19, 2012 3:55 PM

Do you know Yu’s on First?

To listen to the “Who’s on First?” parody from ESPN Audio, CLICK HERE.

When ESPN Radio’s SportsCenter AllNight host Jay Reynolds and anchor Kevin Winter walked into the studio for their 2-6 a.m. ET show this morning, they weren’t thinking of making listeners laugh throughout a one-minute, nine-second dialog.

That changed when the production team learned the Texas Rangers signed Yu Darvish. Reprising a skit that was first heard on national radio 74 years ago this March (The Kate Smith Hour), they collaborated on a 2012 radio spoof of the classic Abbott & Costello Who’s on First routine. The premise was that producers inadvertently recorded Winter telling Reynolds, “Yu signed a six-year, $60 million contract,” much to Jay’s surprise.

“(Producer) Bill Ennever, Jay and I were doing a pre-show meeting and Jay made a joke about ‘You’ getting a big contract, and I replied ‘Who?’ and he said ‘No, he’s on first,’” says production assistant Mike Antoniou.

“We thought we should do something like that for the show, so I wrote a script, and my friend [production assistant] Ali Bronson helped me iron out the finishing touches.”

Winter says: “They performed it in front of us — they wanted us to listen to it so we’d get what they were looking for, and I thought ‘I’m going to have to do this with my head down, not looking at anyone, or I’m going to just start laughing.’”

Thus AllNight’s Yu’s on First was born, successfully recorded, and subsequently played once each hour through the show.

“You hope it’s funny the first time, but more importantly, you hope it’s stays funny the rest of the times,” Winter says.

As for the protagonists, Antoniou is a Yankees fan and Bronson is a Mets fan, which certainly has the potential for another humorous late-night routine.

A portrait of Bud Abbott holding the lapels of comedy partner Lou Costello's jacket.

KW – Hey Jay, did you hear? Yu signed a deal today!
JR – I did?

KW – No… Yu did. A big deal.
JR – it wasn’t that big…I mean, I’ve been here for 16 years. I don’t want to brag….but it was a good contract.

KW – No. NOT you. YU!
JR – What are you talking about? I’m the only one in the studio!

KW – No, Yu! Yu! In Texas!
JR – I wasn’t in Texas today. I was here!

KW – I’m not talking about you.
JR – Then who are you talking about?

KW – YU!
JR – That’s what I’ve been saying!

KW – You’re not listening to me. Yu signed a 6-year, $60 million dollar contract today.
JR – HOW MUCH DID I GET?!

KW – Not You! Yu did.
JR – Are you talking about you?

KW – Yes.
JR – So you got a 6-year, $60 million contract?

KW – Yes.
JR – Wow. Congratulations Kevin.

KW – No. Not me. Yu did.
JR – So it’s my money?

KW – No. it belongs to Yuu.
JR – THAT’S WHAT I’m SAYING. When the person cashes the checks…who signs them?

KW – Yu.
JR – Actually, my wife handles all the money.

KW – NO!. Not you. YU. I’m gonna explain this one more time. Yu signed a big deal. 6-year, $60 million.
JR – I did?

KW – I give up.

Filed in: Behind The Scenes