The Cold, Chilly, Teeth-Chattering Monday Links

It's cold in the Northeast, but then again, it's usually cold this time of year. This is not a newsflash, but still, the local stations treat snowstorms as if this is the first time we've seen snow up here. When snow falls in Las Vegas, it's a news story because it rarely happens. Snow in New England? What a concept!

I'll give you a quick story before I do the links today. I used to work at a Providence TV station in the early 1990's where the News Director and Executive Producer were both from the South. Both of them rarely saw snow. In fact, I believe our Executive Producer came from Alabama or had worked there just before being hired in Providence. My friend, John Crowe of The Crowe's Nest blog may know better than I (John was Sports Producer, I was the Assignment Editor). So whenever there was "a weather event" as they called it, we were supposed to go into "Team Coverage" and go all out with reporters stationed in every county. Photographers and reporters who grew up in New England wondered why we had to "mobilize" as both the News Director and Executive Producer ordered. So when we had a storm predicted of about 4-8 inches, we "mobilized" so we would be known as "The Weather Station". I could understand the snowstorm of the century, let's say over 12 inches. Or like this weekend in Central Massachusetts when it snowed for 56 straight hours. That warrants coverage.

Six inches of snow? Mobilize? Yes, we did. Two inch dusting? Mobilize. We had to do it because we were going to be "The Weather Station". Did it work? No. The NBC affiliate which dominated Providence for years got the ratings. We could get close, but we never really closed the gap back then. Plus, we were in a period of producing more tabloid news stories which hurt us during the 1990's. I could go into it more and maybe I will, but for now, I'll end my rant. You want links so I'll give them to you.

First, one of my homepages on the three browsers on my computer is stuck on NBCOlympics.com. Up until today, it had focused on the Summer Olympics in Communist China. Now, the site has relaunched with a new focus, the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Instead of the logo for the Summer Games, the page has NBC's crest for the 2010 Games. So if you're an alpine skiing fan or into figure skating or get previews of the athletes you'll see in Vancouver, you can head over to the site and check it out.

USA Today's Michael Hiestand writes that with the bad weather in Seattle, CBS had to improvise to show the sidelines, yard markers, 1st and 10 line and the goal line as snow completely covered the field during the Jets-Seahawks game.

Over to the great Sports Business Journal where we have a bunch of links today. We start with a special section on the Year in Review. First, it looks back at the Stories of the Year. The SBJ has a good timeline of some of the stories the publication covered. And the SBJ has the People to Watch in 2009.

John Ourand writes about the competition for the NFL radio rights which includes long-time incumbent Westwood One Radio, ESPN Radio and Sporting News Radio.

Daniel Kaplan writes that the Detroit Lions' Bill Ford is leaving the NFL labor talks to focus more on the car industry crisis.

John Lombardo chronicles how the Arena Football League decided to suspend play for the 2009 season and ESPN's minor role in the decision. The SBJ says NBC is suing the Arena Football League for advertising revenue owed from the 2006 season.

Michael Smith says the Gridiron Bash which combines concerts and spring football games on multiple college campuses is making a bid to return in 2009.

Michael says NASCAR is looking to fill 4 sponsor openings for next year.

Terry Lefton talks with several top sports executives including in network TV on the outlook for 2009.

John Ourand and Eric Fisher write that the MLB Network is hitting up MLB's sponsors for possible programming opportunties.

Tripp Mickle says Major League Soccer and ESPN have sold the league's international TV rights.

Tripp writes that ESPN is launching a new high school basketball tournament.

Tripp says the NHL is looking at a 2 percent increase in revenues this season. Terry Lefton writes that McDonald's is extending its sponsorship deal with the NHL through the 2010 season.

Jon Show says spending on corporate hospitality for the 2009 PGA Tour is lagging behind 2008. And Jon writes that the nation's golf organizations are not going to cut staff at least for now.

Thanks to the Sports Business Journal for making so many links available today.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post is not a fan to the "Keys to the Game" portion of many sports broadcasts.

Laura Nachman has the names of two of the KYW sports staffers who are losing their jobs as the station is outsourcing its sports reports to sister sports radio station WIP.

Keith Thibeault of the Sports Media Journal gives some reasons as to why newspapers are dying.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times reviews the weekend in TV sports.

Barry Horn from the Dallas Morning News says Saturday night's Ravens-Cowboys game was a ratings hit. Barry has some nice words from Cowboys radio voice Brad Sham for Barry's readers.

Dusty Saunders of the Rocky Mountain News says a Denver broadcaster is heading East to call the Pittsburgh Pirates next season.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says TSN and Rogers continue to keep Raptors fans in the dark.

Christopher Byrne's Eye on Sports Media blog has a look at the broadcast information for the Poinsettia Bowl.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media starts his countdown of the top 10 hockey stories of 2008.

I'm going to end it here for now.