Bye-bye BAL

by silverstadium on Jan 16, 2007 11:11 AM EST Comment 13 comments

The Sun reports that the O's have dumped WBAL and are going with an FM station for their 2007 broadcasts because they want more "creative control" over the pre- and post-game shows.

This is lame for two reasons.

It's more evidence of Petey's thin skin. Apparently he wants fewer irate fans on the call-in show and more player and manager interviews. Personally, players spouting cliches are rarely more enlightening than fans calling in--even ignorant ones. As the article mentions, ball club control of content is a national trend and not limited to Petey's thin skin--but it's still not a good thing.
I've lived in upstate New York my entire life and have enjoyed catching O's games on WBAL. As many know, after dark AM signals can travel quite a distance. But that's not the case with FM. Thankfully, I received the mlb.tv package for Christmas and will be able to follow the team that way. And the Internet certainly is where this is all headed, no matter how far away a fan lives. I'll still miss trying like hell to get that WBAL signal as it fades in and out on a summer night.

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re:

When I was in college in upstate NY, a fellow O's fan and I used to catch WBAL when possible.

I saw the article in the Sun, and figured it was a bit of Pete's thin skin and a bit the trend for teams and the leagues to control the product. But it is pretty damn lame that Pete and his dim witted PR lackeys criticize the criticism. I can't believe it's worse than anything I've heard in the northeast.

There is a solution Pete, and it's not whining and trying to control the media. Same as it ever was...

by drj on Jan 16, 2007 11:58 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

meh

there will still be plenty of call in shows critcizing the orioles. i don't see why they have to put up with it on their own network. it's pretty commonplace with other teams to hear lots of pre- and post-game interviews with coaches and players which is, i think, better for the team in the long run. it helps the community learn the players on its team and teminds the players who they have a responsibility to try for every day.

more to the point, if i owned the team and i had to listen to an idiot like peter schmuck talk pre-game, i'd switch stations as well.

the weird thing is a small part of this which has come full-circle. when i was growing up, orioles games were carried on WFBR 1300 AM. i understand that, as part of the new deal, 1300 AM (now with different call letters) will be carrying some orioles programming.

i remember being pissed when WBAL swooped in and outbid WFBR way back when all things change, i guess.

and silverstadium: i too have fond memories of picking up the atmospheric "skip" of o's broadcasts, as far north as brooklyn, and as far south as our summer vacations in north carolina.

Burch and Miller...
the future of a franchise

by zknower on Jan 16, 2007 12:47 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

oops...

1st graf:
"teminds"="reminds"
"who"="whom"

4th graf:
period after "when"

Burch and Miller...
the future of a franchise

by zknower on Jan 16, 2007 12:54 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Z

you've gotta chill out with this stuff.

by Jonnypops on Jan 16, 2007 1:05 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

yeah....

or actually start hitting "preview" before "post"...

Burch and Miller...
the future of a franchise

by zknower on Jan 17, 2007 2:13 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Not too worry

We here what you mean, just not what you say.

Why don't you go back to your home on whore island! -Ron Burgundy

by O face on Jan 16, 2007 5:11 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

re:

there will still be plenty of call in shows criticizing the orioles. i don't see why they have to put up with it on their own network.

WBAL is not "their own" (if you mean the Orioles) network. Best I can tell, it is owned by the Hearst corporation, and they have no duty to sugar coat reality. The Orioles (read Angelos) reacted similarly with Jon Miller. The Orioles PR machine seems more interested in having us ignore that fact that the emperor has no clothes (for what is approaching a decade) because the emperor is a thin skinned control freak. Come up to Boston and listen to WEEI, keeping in mind that they broadcast for a winning team. I can't imagine many northeast stations goes easy on the team (what's it like in Philly all you PA guys?).

I'm accepting that the O's want more control, as this is a growing trend in major league sports. Sure, give me more interviews with whomever. Let the community hear the players and coaches. They can script the content all they want. The O's can't script the play on the field and the standings. Fix that and they won't have to whine about as much criticism.

by drj on Jan 16, 2007 1:26 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Uh

I don't really want to talk about Petey having no clothes. Bad mixed metaphor.

by punkrawka on Jan 16, 2007 2:05 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

re

The irony of all this is that the Orioles have some of the worst PR of any team in professional sports. Angelos is despised thoughout the Baltimore-Washington area for various reasons and is reviled throughout the national sports press for being a particularly incompetent owner. I'm just not sure what they're protecting with defensive moves like this. I mean whether it's the uniforms, the designs and logos surrounding the club, the personnel decisions, or the ill timed public statements, the club shows again and again as being incapable of making good decisions. Makes me wonder how PA got all that money in the first place.

Another move I am not getting at all is this attempt at integrating DC and Baltimore sports fans on MASN. This is a stupid idea. People don't like Kumbaya communes when it comes to their sports teams. Baltimore people like the O's, DC people like the Nats. Two separate channels with separate focus should be formed to deal with the two respective teams and areas. A rivalry should be played up...since this adheres to the basest need of pro sports. They should not under any circumstances continue with this Bmore and DC are the same area stuff. They're close geographically....but they're light years away culturally.

by Jonnypops on Jan 16, 2007 2:27 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Couldn't agree more....

This is all too typical of Angelos era management.

Here was the kicker from the Sun article:

In recent years, Orioles officials have often complained about critical comments aimed at the club by WBAL commentators and call-in guests, Beauchamp said. The club has asked that certain personalities be steered away from baseball coverage and that call-in segments be limited because callers can't be stopped from bashing the Orioles.

Angelos wants a "see no evil, hear no evil" approach to Orioles coverage. The upshot will be that the coverage will have little credibility, and few will listen, and the precious access to personalities they give WHFS will be for nothing.

Despite the obvious ideological differences between the two, Angelos reminds me of our current Decider-in-Chief. In Petey's world his organization's incompetence is not the issue, the real problem is that people are allowed to call him on it.

This is the same problem that has contributed to the Orioles poor showing on the field for the last decade. Anyone even slightly critical of Angelos (Davey Johnson, John Miller, etc.) gets the axe, so he has developed an organization full of incompetent yes men (again shades of the Decider), where currying favor with the boss is more important than job performance.

I am more convinced than ever that nothing good will happen to this team until Angelos sells.

And yeah, the guys on WEEI, who carry Red Sox games, are often very harsh (sometimes unfairly, sometimes fairly) on the Red Sox. They are also mostly obnoxious idiots, but that is another story. But certainly their ability to contribute more than team approved PR and spin is part of their ratings success.

by rebop on Jan 16, 2007 4:52 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

but that's part of the problem

look, I'm not about to start defending angelos.

but a local sports radio channel is always going to get better ratings by tipping its balance towards the gripers...even on good teams.

10 years of yankee postseason play, aaaand what do we hear on WFAN? about rodriguez pouting over jeter and whether or not they can dump randy. the people who call into those shows have axes to grind, and want to say how they'd do it better. sometimes they'll even start by praising the team, only to lead into their gripe (i.e., "the yankees are totally going to win the WS this year....now, my problem is with sheffield's attitude...")

so the radio station, to get better and better ratings, encourages more and more manic behavior.

don't get me wrong: there's obviously plenty to complain about on the orioles. but between the local ESPN affiliate and other sports talk, there will be plenty of outlets for the disgruntled fans of the world. the orioles organization is not in business to improve their radio ratings. fans will always listen to the game. the organization is in business to field a competitive baseball team; part of turning things around involves improving morale and motivation (see Kevbo's rant last year) and i think it makes perfect sense for the FO to control the message somewhat.

besides, it remains to be seen how far they go in their homerism. at some point this season, some dark cloud will hover over the team (probably a few). a player will mouth off, or someone will test positive, or god knows what else will happen. i'd be shocked if that kind of thing doesn't get covered. it's not like they're censoring people. they're just trying to balance the pessimists with the optimists.

and even if the pessimists are going to be right, it's nice to hear good things about the team once in a while as well. say what you will, but the orioles have significantly improved the team from last year.

enough to finish third? probably not. but enough to finish at .500? quite possibly. in a thin offseason, the FO made what i thought were some decent decisions. they didn't do some things i'd have liked, but they also didn't do anything super-boneheaded like sign sosa or omar daal. it'll be nice if people give them some credit for that this coming year.

Burch and Miller...
the future of a franchise

by zknower on Jan 17, 2007 2:31 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

You sure are a "glass half full"...

kind of guy and of course there is nothing wrong with that. I admit that the Orioles look to have improved this offseason. Also, they were correct to not make certain moves, and others we all knew weren't going to happen. But they remained too conservative to really do what is necessary to make the franchise sucessful now or in the future. Frankly, I would have prefered to see them blow the whole roster up and start over. They should have seriously shopped Tejada and Roberts, even though I like both of them. Bedard is the only person on the roster who should have been untouchable.

As it is, the team will need some luck to reach the .500 mark, which is an improvement over last year, but hardly cause for celebration. And even if they do reach .500 they won't be creating something that can be built on for real future success--they are just filling in with stop gaps like Huff and Payton and the farm still does not have enough young studs to make the team a real competitor in the near future. We are looking at another 5 years of hoping for a .500 finish. The state of this franchise remains sorry because of Angelos.

And of course I realize that there will be plenty of forums for people to bitch about the Orioles (including right here). The fact that little to no criticism of the franchise will happen on the station that carries games matters little, except in so far as Angelos' desire to control the message is a direct reflection of his thin skin and inability to deal with reasonable dissent--two of the characteristics that make him an exceedingly poor owner.

In the end the team took less money to go with a station that would let them have more control over the content they air...it's hard to see how that benefits the team or its fans in any meaningful way. Morale isn't be built by puff pieces and not allowing critical voices to call in to radio shows. Morale is built by winning games.

And WHFS might let some criticism get through--if they do they will be sure to hear about it from Big Pete.

by rebop on Jan 17, 2007 12:34 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

re:

I was waiting for a "how do you feel about the upcoming season" thread before bringing up some of the points you mention above. Yeah, the team looks better than what we've seen for too many years now. Chat boards are talking about the possibility of .500 baseball. Maybe this season or the next or the next. Seems that's where the bar is set. Can you FEEL the excitement!

by drj on Jan 17, 2007 1:13 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs