Lionbackers.com

FYI, Rintoul is back on TSN1040 today and they mentioned he is doing the Play by Play for the Lions still.

who is actually left at the province/sun ... iain macIntyre now retiring

canucksnet 650 will launch on sept. 4 and has unveiled its morning show lineup: Steve Darling, James Cybulski, and Mira Laurence
http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/steve-da ... rtsnet-650

program director for the station will be craig macewen http://theprovince.com/sports/craig-mac ... m-director

sat from the bro joke show on 1040 is believed to be headed to 650 http://theprovince.com/sports/hockey/nh ... his-future

apparently all other on air positions have been filled: https://jobs.rogers.com/job/Vancouver-T ... 404052800/

newcap will hand the keys to 650 over to rogers after red robinson's last ever show on august 27. makes you wonder what will fill the airwaves between then and sept. 4? when music radio stations change format, they sometimes "stunt" for a few days and play music non-stop commercial free. is 650 gonna do a 24/7 preview of every possible minute detail of the canucks roster and coming season for a whole week?

The drop off in coverage on the Lions has been very noticeable. You could argue it has stemmed from when the broadcast rights went from a local station (CKNW) to what is now a station run out of Toronto (TSN1040). At the end of the day, it's all about money, which is why guys like Lowell Ullrich and Iain MacIntyre are either not replaced, or done so as cheaply as possible, resulting in weaker coverage or none at all. Sadly it doesn't just impact the Lions, as we are now inundated with things like the Blue Jays and Raptors, while teams like the Mariners or sports like lacrosse barely get any mention anywhere.
The decline of Lions coverage has also mirrored the sharp rise in soccer coverage, which is odd. Why does one have to come at the cost of another? The ultimate question is what can be done to reverse the trend, if anything?

justabitoutside.podbean.com

JaboVancouver wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 06, 2017 2:13 pm

You could argue it has stemmed from when the broadcast rights went from a local station (CKNW) to what is now a station run out of Toronto (TSN1040).

not sure what you mean here, as when lions rights went from cknw to 1040 in 2004, cknw was owned by corus (HQ=toronto) and 1040 was owned by chum (HQ=toronto). there's been a tension between local vs. toronto at both stations, with toronto slowly winning out over the years with more and more cost cutting and brand centralization (cknw is now just a somewhat local slice of the toronto based global brand, ditto 1040/tsn). back in the day the lions got short shrift on NW outside of the broadcasts themselves, always second fiddle to canucks, a pattern which repeated itself when 1040 also got canucks rights a couple years later. on 1040 the lions at least got longer pre and post game shows than on NW and some coverage during the week. with 1040 remaining a niche station, and NW on an inexorable years long decline, as someone else pointed out on this board the lions would be wise to figure out a way to get some coverage on the #1 radio station in town: cbc (currently there is essentially zero). that station doesn't seem to have much interest in covering sports in general, though.

CBC jobbed themselves out of the sports market years ago. After looking at this thread, I decided to go and look at the local Radio station rankings. I remember some issue on this forum a ways back when Lions broadcasts were shunted to 1410. At the time I thought it was a terrible blow for the Lions despite some opinions to the contrary. Seeing that station is basically ranked dead last, I can't help but wonder about the implications of that switch to broadcasts on that station. If nothing else, the suggestion that the Lions broadcasts weren't worthy of anything but the lowest ranked station says little good, the power of suggestion and all that. When 650 comes on board, I think 1410 is dead. If this town couldn't support two SportsNews channels, then it certainly won't support 3. But with Canuckmania, being what it is, the disappearence of credible sports media in this town, that 1040 is going to be very 2nd tier as well so the Lions still lose out.
People will largely be tuning into 650 and as so often happens, people listen to whatever is playing when they get in their car. If the station is on 650 and the Lions aren't on 650, they won't go looking for them. They'll just listen to the Jays, or MLB or what have you. It's the law of intertia. We'll see how the Whitecaps fare on this as well.

The concept of 'sports talk radio' in this town and most of Canada is a complete joke. I would be quite happy if 650 was ALL Canucks/hockey, then 1040 could be a true mix of sports.

I know hockey drives ratings but programmers and station managers need to realize that when hockey dominates the airwaves to the extent that it does (yes, even in July), fans of other sports tune out. So when they try to talk other sports and they don't get the 'interest' they need, guess what? Back to hockey.....and hockey fans will tune in because they know that at any time of day, there's an 80+% chance that sport will be the topic.


DH

David wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 07, 2017 12:17 pm

The concept of 'sports talk radio' in this town and most of Canada is a complete joke. I would be quite happy if 650 was ALL Canucks/hockey, then 1040 could be a true mix of sports.

I know hockey drives ratings but programmers and station managers need to realize that when hockey dominates the airwaves to the extent that it does (yes, even in July), fans of other sports tune out. So when they try to talk other sports and they don't get the 'interest' they need, guess what? Back to hockey.....and hockey fans will tune in because they know that at any time of day, there's an 80+% chance that sport will be the topic.


DH

I love listening to syndicated ESPN radio or even Fox Sports radio shows on TSN 1410 because they offer a relief from the omnipresent hockey talk on 1040. I know it's a small niche and may not be sustainable when 650 becomes a sports station but I hope I can still find some access to other sports talk, even if it's all American.

The so called sports segment on Global is a joke. Squire Barnes is more interested in flirting with the news crews than talking about sports. Won't surprise me if Barnes will be joining Perry Solkowski is some other line of work.

You'd think 1040 would be gradually introducing more Lions and Whitecaps talk/segments etc. since that will be their only sports broadcasts, but no.....

We recycle the same when is Bo Horvat going to sign, is Olli Juolevi ready to play, what kind of towels did Travis Green get for his new house over and over. Seems even NFL insiders get better time slots than CFL ones

Canuck overkill

JaboVancouver wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 06, 2017 2:13 pm

The drop off in coverage on the Lions has been very noticeable. You could argue it has stemmed from when the broadcast rights went from a local station (CKNW) to what is now a station run out of Toronto (TSN1040). At the end of the day, it's all about money, which is why guys like Lowell Ullrich and Iain MacIntyre are either not replaced, or done so as cheaply as possible, resulting in weaker coverage or none at all. Sadly it doesn't just impact the Lions, as we are now inundated with things like the Blue Jays and Raptors, while teams like the Mariners or sports like lacrosse barely get any mention anywhere.
The decline of Lions coverage has also mirrored the sharp rise in soccer coverage, which is odd. Why does one have to come at the cost of another? The ultimate question is what can be done to reverse the trend, if anything?

justabitoutside.podbean.com

TSN 1040 is not run out of Toronto. The program director and General Manager of the Bell Media Vancouver cluster are both right here in town.

Remember when I told you all that Rogers would launch their own sports-talk station in Vancouver?

Cybulski gives them instant credibility for their morning show. He has been doing a great job on the Waggle podcast, so hopefully some of that enthusiasm for CFL football carries over to his morning show.

I don't know anything about Mira Laurence, but I like that she has a local sports background from outside Vancouver and that she is female. That should help keep their show from being another "bro-fest" (pun intentional).

Not sure what to think about Steve Darling, except that maybe will give a lot of suburban moms a reason to sample the new show? Or maybe they hired him so TV week will give them a few covers? Nothing against him, but with so many out of work sports journalists they could have filled that chair with someone else. Don't be surprised that as soon as the next round of belt tightening (in radio and TV it's an annual event now) that Darling gets the boot with the excuse that the show works better with only two hosts.

The timing of the debut; on the eve of Canucks training camp, start of NFL season, and last month of MLB, no doubt means the show is going to be talking Canucks-Seahawks-Blue Jays (in that order, unless the Jays pull off a miracle comeback in the next 6 weeks) with little to no time left for the Lions. Hopefully I am wrong about that, but Sportsnet has a stake in those 3 teams and none in the Lions or CFL.

Belize City Lion wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 19, 2017 8:22 am

The timing of the debut; on the eve of Canucks training camp, start of NFL season, and last month of MLB, no doubt means the show is going to be talking Canucks-Seahawks-Blue Jays (in that order, unless the Jays pull off a miracle comeback in the next 6 weeks) with little to no time left for the Lions. Hopefully I am wrong about that, but Sportsnet has a stake in those 3 teams and none in the Lions or CFL.

One of the biggest blows to Lions coverage in the Vancouever electronic media was the demise of nightly Sports Page on City, or whatever CKVU was called then. That was appointment viewing for local sports fans, with regular coverage of the Lions, Canucks, Canadians, Whitecaps (or their predecessors) and high school and university sports.

Nowadays, I seldom watch any TV sports news unless I want to catch some CFL highlights. I usually watch all the games anyway, and can find highlights elsewhere if I want.

Belize City Lion wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 19, 2017 8:22 am

Not sure what to think about Steve Darling, except that maybe will give a lot of suburban moms a reason to sample the new show? Or maybe they hired him so TV week will give them a few covers? Nothing against him, but with so many out of work sports journalists they could have filled that chair with someone else. Don't be surprised that as soon as the next round of belt tightening (in radio and TV it's an annual event now) that Darling gets the boot with the excuse that the show works better with only two hosts.

Long before Darling became a GlobalBC news anchor he was handling sports news on one of the Vancouver radio stations. Can't remember if it was 'NW or 'WX but that's where I first remember him appearing in Vancouver media. Mind you in recent years when he did get into sports conversations on Global I often thought for a guy who started in sports he seemed to be out of touch.