The Media Notepad: Cubs-Reds Field Of Dreams game a base hit for Fox
Also: NBC 5 makes a new hire while a Baltimore TV reporter gets fired.
The second edition of The Field Of Dreams game didn’t have the theatrics of last year’s contest, but still drew a healthy amount of eyeballs.
The game featured two teams who were already out of playoff contention this season: The 44-64 Chicago Cubs and the 44-64 Cincinnati Reds, which may have depressed turnout a bit. But the game still drew 3.1 million viewers, though down 47 percent from last year’s Chicago White Sox-New York Yankees contest, which drew 5.9 million viewers.
Cincinnati’s WXIX scored the highest local rating for the game with a 12.2 rating and a 30 share with Chicago’s WFLD in second with a 5.3 rating and a 15 share, a 53 percent drop from last year when the White Sox were involved. Regardless of what Fox Sports says, it is not a Chicago baseball “record rating”, by far (is Fox already forgetting what the Cubs achieved in 2016?) but then again what do you expect from an operation who shares the same corporate parent as Fox “News”? The lower Chicago number was a bit of a surprise, given the Cubs were always a strong draw locally win or lose (before they moved to their own cable channel), but it is an acceptable number in today’s fragmented viewing environment.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this game was the seventh inning stretch performed by a Haray Caray “hologram” which was panned on social media for the most part – especially with Caray being off-sync and all, but the Caray family didn’t seem to mind, and it’s the only opinion that matters.
The Field Of Dreams game’s future is in question as the event won’t take place next year due to construction at the Dyersville site and Major League Baseball hasn’t committed to future games there – or at all. With the Cubs 4-2 victory over the Reds, Chicago is now 2-0 in Field Of Dreams games.
NBCUniversal’s local cluster of stations in Chicago have hired Matt Kunston as the vice resident of Multi-Platform Content, as reported by TV Spy. Kunston will develop and strategize non-news content across the cluster’s platforms, including linear TV and streaming apps.
The company owns NBC 5 (WMAQ), Telemundo Chicago (WSNS), and NBC Sports Chicago.
“We are thrilled to have Matt on the team”, said Kevin Cross in a statement, who is president and general manager of NBCUniversal Local’s cluster and who Kunston will report to. “With his wealth of experience, he will round out our commitment to quality local content by focusing on the programming for our new channels and streaming opportunities in the space between news and sports.”
Kunston worked at the former Tribune Broadcasting in 2010, where he helped launched the now-defunct Chicago’s Best and later jumped to ABC 7 (WLS-TV) where he was the director of content innovation, where he had a hand in producing Being Blago, a Hulu documentary on former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagoveich and his political downfall and also helped launch Localish, a digital subchannel which replaced LiveWell Network on the ABC owned-and-operated stations.
A reporter for Scripps’ ABC affiliate WMAR in Baltimore is out of a job after asking a question some said was insensitive at a press conference Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott held on August 2, asking about the murders of squeegee workers in the city.
Squeegee workers are those who clean motorists’ windshield while they are sitting at red lights. While something like this isn’t too common in Chicago (at least from this writer’s experience), the practice is more common in the Northeast, in cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.
During the presser, WMAR reporter Dave Detling asked about young black men carrying guns. Here’s the exchange as follows:
Detling: “To the young black men who may be watching, listening, who you may be interacting with, what do you say to them and their parents—some who may be squeegee workers, the teens I am referring to—who are knowingly and actively carrying illegal weapons either for protection or to commit another crime, what do you specifically say to them?”
Scott: “Well, I would say that people in general carry guns, Dave. I wouldn’t say that we should limit it to young black men. That’s …”
Detling: “We’ve seen they’ve admitted to it – for protection. So in relation to the squeegee workers …”
Scott: “I think that we have to be very careful, Dave, when we’re talking about saying that guns are only in the hands of young black men. Many of us would see that as racist.”
The line of questioning obviously didn’t go well. The Baltimore Association of Black Journalists slammed Detling, saying it had racist overtones. And reaction on social media was just as critical. A few days later, WMAR terminated Detling: “During a recent press conference with Mayor Scott, one of our reporters did not uphold [a commitment to fair reporting involving race] and asked a question that contained broad characterizations based on race. Both WMAR and the reporter regret the phrasing of the question”, said WMAR in a statement.
WMAR acknowledged Detling accepted a new job, but did not elaborate and it’s not known if he accepted a new job with another station, or one out of the industry. Coverage of black communities from journalists have come more under scrutiny since George Floyd’s death two years ago, and in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody seven years ago.
Owned by Scripps since 1991, WMAR has been at the bottom of the Baltimore news ratings since at least 1995, when the company made a five-station ABC affiliation deal in the wake of the Fox-New World shakeup that rocked the industry during this time as WMAR had been with NBC and before that, a longtime relationship with CBS. Also in 1995, WMAR lost the rights to The Oprah Winfrey Show to Hearst’s WBAL-TV, who also nabbed the NBC affiliation during this time. WMAR usually ranks fourth, behind CBS-owned WJZ-TV, WBAL, and Sinclair Fox affiliate WBFF and doesn’t even run any weekend morning newscasts and no Saturday newscasts at all. The sorry way this question was asked explains further why WMAR stays in the ratings basement.
Further reading:
Carol Fowler, who worked at a number of Chicago TV stations in several roles, speaks with TVNewscheck about crime and TV News, the GReat Resignation, and the 75-year anniversary of the station where she is now, NBC affiliate KSDK St. Louis. (TV Newscheck)
Sports talk seems to be popular everywhere – except in Los Angeles. Why radio execs aren’t worried. (LA Times)
Disney is raising prices of all of its streaming services, including their bundles as they are introducing an ad-supported tier. (Anime Superhero)
Former WCFL exec Ken Draper dies at 89. (Radio Ink)
Bandleader Jon Batiste is exiting The Late Show With Stephen Colbert after seven years. (Deadline)
Have any news tips? E-mail them to terehend@tdogmedia.com and I’ll be more than happy to publish them here.