Chad Finn on whether the Olympics will be a viewership hit or miss and ESPN’s Manning Megacast and Melanie Newman on her journey calling MLB games
Episode 152 of the Sports Media Podcast features two guests. First up is Chad Finn, the sports media writer and columnist for the Boston Globe. He is followed by Melanie Newman, a broadcaster for the Baltimore Orioles and MASN and the play by play voice for the first game in Major League Baseball history featuring an all-female announcing crew (She called the game alongside analyst Sarah Langs, reporter Alanna Rizzo and pre- and postgame hosts Lauren Gardner and Heidi Watney.) In this podcast, Finn discusses the interest in the Olympics as a television experience; whether NBC will get the viewership it has received in previous Olympics; how NBC will navigate the news elements of the Olympics with the competition; ESPN’s hiring of Peyton and Eli Manning for a Monday Night Football Megacast; the NHL’s television schedule on ESPN and Turner Sports; Cleveland changing its MLB name to the Guardians and more. Newman discusses her journey to do doing MLB play by play and the minor league stops along the way; the women who are following her currently calling minor league baseball; representation in sports broadcasting; whether her all-female group will call another game; the prospects of the O’s heading forward in the A.L. East and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher and more.
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Kavitha Davidson on declining Olympic viewership and how Simone Biles was covered
About The Show
The Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch is a weekly show that features interviews with members of the sports media about their work, as well as roundtables with sports media reporters about television, digital, audio/radio, print, and other forms of media. You can read Richard’s work at The Athletic.