– The Chicago Blackhawks begin the Stanley Cup Playoffs tomorrow night when hosting the Minnesota Wild. On television, game one will air nationally on the NBC Sports Network and locally on Comcast SportsNet Chicago. As for radio, that may still be up in the air still due to WGN-AM 720 having a Cubs game scheduled at the same time (though WGN is the radio home for both the Cubs and the Hawks, the Cubs have priority).
So far this season, when the Cubs/Blackhawks conflict arised, Hawks games have aired on WLUP-FM/97.9 The Loop, and it would make sense that such would be the case tomorrow night. No such announcement has been made yet by WGN or The Loop though — and the official Chicago Blackhawks Facebook page posted late last night that radio coverage is still to be determined.
[Addendum: On WGN’s 10 a.m. newscast, anchor Steve Bertrand announced the game will be heard on WIND-AM/560 The Answer.]
– The Southtown Star posted an interesting write-up of Mitch Rosen’s visit to St. Xavier University last week. Rosen, program director at WSCR-AM/670 The Score spoke to students about getting into radio and broadcasting. Rosen made no effort to sugar coat just how hard it is to get into sports talk radio — and I would imagine radio in general — by saying that if one is lucky enough to find a job, not to expect to make much money. Instead of going the traditional route, Rosen encouraged students to use social media to network and share ideas.
The write-up wasn’t overly long, so I would be curious to hear Rosen further expound on the social media idea. Overall, the prospect of going into terrestrial radio is no better now than it was when I was in high school or college, 10 years ago. On the other hand, podcasting is slowly becoming a more legitimate way to get your voice out there and can also be useful for practicing one’s craft.
– While listening to Hit & Run yesterday morning on The Score, it was a nice surprise to hear Dave Wills join hosts Barry Rozner and Connor McKnight to talk about today’s White Sox and Tampa Bay Rays. Wills, previously the White Sox radio pre/post-game show host, is now the play-by-play voice for the Rays. Though I was happy for him, I was sad to see him go when he took the Rays job in 2004. I always liked his work and to this day, think he would make an excellent broadcaster for the White Sox.
– I had a chance to watch most of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner coverage on Saturday night via CNN. This was honestly the first year I made any special effort to watch it live. It goes without saying that the parody video of “House of Cards” was absolutely fantastic. Asides from some previous year highlights and a few other interesting features, I could probably go without the first hour that resembles a “pre-game” you might view on the night of the Oscars.
In short, while I thought President Barack Obama’s performance was good, it was going to be hard to beat what he accomplished last year.
Conan O’Brien, on the other hand, I was disappointed in. While he had a few good jokes, I found his delivery and constant reading off his script distracting. His performance resembled nothing of the Conan you normally see on his late night stage. One of Conan’s best skills is improvising and interacting with his audience- — which he did none of on Saturday night. Instead, he came across as nervous and possibly rushed. I wonder if he was given strict orders that prevented him for performing in his normal fashion. And if so, then what was the point of inviting him in the first place?