Sports Media with Richard Deitsch

Episode 272 of the Sports Media Podcast features a conversation with Fox NFL play by play announcer Kevin Burkhardt and analyst Greg Olsen. Burkhardt and Olsen will call the Niners-Eagles NFC Championship Game, and then Super Bowl LVII on Feb. 12. In this podcast, Burkhardt and Olsen discuss how they judge success for their broadcast; Olsen’s specific preparation for each game; how Burkhardt approaches calling his Super Bowl; Olsen on Tom Brady having a contract with Fox to call the No. 1 game whenever Brady retires; how Olsen has approached the season with regard to the Brady contract; whether Olsen would work in a three-person booth; Burkhardt on Olsen’s audition; Olsen on how Burkhardt’s humility helps the broadcast; the value of looking at the field away from the quarterback position; whether it is an advantage to going into the broadcast booth immediately after retiring; advice Burkhardt received from Mets broadcaster Gary Cohen, and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 271 of the Sports Media Podcast features an NFL conversation with Nicki Jhabvala of The Washington Post and Lindsay Jones of The Ringer. They are followed by Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle, who remembers her friend and the writer and editor, Gwen Knapp, who passed away last week at age 61. In this podcast, Jhabvala and Jones discuss how they would approach covering Niners-Eagles and Bengals-Chiefs; the challenges of covering postseason games if you are a beat person from another market; how to differentiate your stories at a Super Bowl; what they want from an NFL analyst and play by play; an update on the possible sale of the Commanders; the best sites for NFL statistics; what they would you say to fans who love the NFL but also hate certain aspects of the game and more. Slusser discusses what made Knapp such a unique and nuanced writer; Knapp’s career as a columnist and writer in Philadelphia and San Francisco; her being one of the first sports journalists to raise doubts about the validity of Lance Armstrong’s performances; her brilliant July 4, 1993 piece after the Phillies completed a doubleheader at 4:40 in the morning; why she move to the editing desk at the New York Times; the outpouring of love for her and some of the pieces that were written on her this week, and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 270 of the Sports Media Podcast features a conversation with Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Jeff Zimbalist, the director and executive producer of “Super League: The War for Football,” which is airing on Apple TV + and chronicles the attempts of teams such as Real Madrid, Arsenal and Juventus to form a breakaway European soccer league. In this episode, Zimbalist discusses his four-part docuseries; the background of why the European super clubs attempted to form their own league; how UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin was able to ward off the breakaway project for now; how to get access from the super-rich; the challenge of recreating events for dramatic purposes; the future of European soccer and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 269 of the Sports Media Podcast features a roundtable sports media discussion with Boston Globe sports media writer Chad Finn and Sports Business Journal managing editor/digital Austin Karp. In this podcast, Deitsch, Finn, and Karp discuss the NFL Super Wild Card Weekend; ESPN’s Cowboys-Bucs coverage; Greg Olsen; Tony Romo; Al Michaels; Tony Dungy; Tom Brady’s future ; Fred Gaudelli; Netflix’s sports documentaries including “Break Point”; Apple TV+’s “Super League: The War for Football”; Australian Open coverage and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 268 of the Sports Media Podcast features Al Michaels, the iconic sports broadcaster who is coming off his first season as the play by play voice for Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football. He will also call the opening round of the NFL postseason for NBC. In this podcast, Michaels discusses his first year in the booth for Amazon; working with Kirk Herbstreit; his being critical of some dud game Amazon aired; having never had a pet; the broadcasting prospects of Sean McVay, Tom Brady and Mike Tomlin; Joe Buck and Damar Hamlin information; where sports gambling is heading on NFL broadcasts; the 2024 Paris Olympics; Greg Olsen and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 267 of the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch features a conversation with The Boston Globe sports media writer Chad Finn on ESPN’s studio and broadcast coverage of Damar Hamlin, a 24-year-old safety for the Buffalo Bills, who collapsed on the field during the first quarter of a Jan. 2, 2023 game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Deitsch and Finn discuss how ESPN approached and handled the coverage. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 266 of the Sports Media Podcast features two guests. First up is Tara Slone, a digital, television, and podcast host for the San Jose Sharks and a contributor to NBC Sports Bay Area. She is followed by Stephen Brunt, one of Canada’s most well-known sports voices and the author of multiple bestselling books. including his two latest, “Playing the Long Game,” written with Christine Sinclair, and “All Roads Home: A Life On and Off the Ice,” written with Bryan Trottier. In this podcast, Slone discusses her new job with the NHL’s Sharks and how that came to be; living and working in a new country; her long and distinguished run as a host at Sportsnet (Canada) including her work as co-host on the long-running Rogers Hometown Hockey, which aired on Sportsnet; the shock of being let go by Rogers; dealing with vitriol on social media after her thoughts on Don Cherry and getting hate mail; her previous life as the lead singer of the Juno-nominated band Joydrop; where she thinks sports media is heading in Canada; the issues surrounding hockey culture in Canada and her unique view given her background; the importance of having a platform; what she hopes to do heading forward, and more. Brunt discusses his recent books; how one collaborates with an athlete on a book; how the book with Sinclair came to be; the demand for sports books in Canada; where Brunt thinks sports media is heading in the next five years; the emergence of sports gambling in Canada; the power of sports radio and why we think it’s end days in Canada and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 265 of the Sports Media Podcast features The Boston Globe sports media writer Chad Finn and Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal. In this podcast we discuss the sports media stories we expect to be notable in 2023; the upcoming rights for the college football playoffs, the NBA, and LIV Golf; the prospect of Tom Brady in the Fox booth; what we expect viewership-wise for Brittney Griner’s first WNBA game this year; 2023 sports media talents to watch including Malika Andrews, Chiney Ogwumike, and Marie Donoghue; a deep look at Fox’s World Cup coverage and we hope for 2026; Pat McAfee’s 2022; what we expect from sports gambling in 2023, and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 264 of the Sports Media Podcast features two guests and the first sisters on the podcast. Malika Andrews is the host of ESPN’s weekday NBA studio show, NBA Today and an NBA reporter for the company. Her sister, Kendra Andrews, covers the Golden State Warriors for ESPN. In this podcast, Kendra and Malika discuss how they gravitated toward NBA media jobs; the qualities they admire about each other; how Malika’s reporting in the NBA bubble in 2020 impacted her professionally and personally; navigating a certain level of being recognized by the sports viewing public; Malika’s struggles as a teen and attending a therapeutic boarding school; Malika asking Paige Bueckers for basketball analysis to help her with her job; how Kendra sees the challenges and benefits of the Warriors beat; Malika on Hilary Guy, NBA Today’s coordinating producer; the best interviews in the NBA right now; advice for young people of color, particularly women, who want to go into this business; dreams of doing longform pieces and covering the Olympics and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 263 of the Sports Media Podcast features a conversation on the soccer journalist Grant Wahl with three of his longtime friends and colleagues— Jon Wertheim, senior writer for Sports Illustrated, a senior correspondent for 60 Minutes and a senior analyst for The Tennis Channel; Mark Mravic, a longtime editor for Sports Illustrated who was the editor for GrantWahl.com and best-selling author Jeff Pearlman, the author of  “The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson” and a longtime former Sports Illustrated writer. In this podcast, we talk about Grant’s impact on people professionally and personally; the outpouring of love for him on social media and elsewhere; our earliest memories of him; how he approached his work; his relationship with his wife, Dr. Celine Gounder; his work as an independent journalist and growing his own business; his support and work for U.S. women’s soccer; his enduring legacy and much more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices