Who’s Ready For The Preakness?
I’m so torn as to what I should think about our local coverage of the Preakness Stakes. WBAL will be broadcasting the race on 1090 AM and they’ve been ramping up their game with Keith Mills and Scott Wykoff broadcasting live from 5-9 AM on Friday from the Stakes Barn on “Maryland’s Morning News With Bryan Nehman”. They better be careful that time of day out at Pimlico.
“Maryland’s News Now” will also have a special simulcast on WBAL radio and WBAL-TV plus, Mary Beth Marsden and the aforementioned Nehman are hosting reports from Pimlico from 3-6 PM. Brett Hollander will also be on site from the Jockey’s Porch while Phil Yacuboski will be live in the infield. Have fun with that, Phil.
I just can’t decide if the Preakness is this old event that we act like we care about a few days out of the year or if it’s legitimately something Marylanders long to see and hear covered. I’d be curious to see web traffic on Preakness preview pieces or ratings from BAL’s special coverage to find out.
Scary Moment At WMAR
I was glad to hear that everyone at Channel 2 WMAR in Towson was safe after a lunatic drove a stolen dump truck into the building. Talk about a bizarre story.
28-year-old Vladimir Mehul Baptiste, who claimed to be God (seriously), was arrested and faces three charges of attempted second-degree murder as well as first-degree assault, burglary and malicious destruction of property. He’ll definitely lose that last one.
Baptiste is being held in Baltimore County jail in lieu of $750,000 bail.
From a technical/broadcast standpoint, WMAR’s network programming went dark at 4 PM after the “accident”. The station’s engineers worked with KNXV in Phoenix, a sister station, to re-establish their signal.
WMAR streamed live coverage of the lobby crash on their website at 5 PM with Jamie Costello interviewing his colleagues about what they had seen. The staff was allowed back in the building at 7 PM.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/Ig_mqJe0a9I[/youtube]
PTI Isn’t Going Anywhere
Former Washington Post columnists Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon haven’t lost their edge. The duo reportedly both inked multi-year extensions to continue production of “Pardon the Interruption” on ESPN, which is shot in Washington D.C.
Though I haven’t tuned into PTI in quite some time, it was my favorite sports news show for a long while. No two hosts can replicate the chemistry that Kornheiser and Wilbon have together — which is part of the reason I can’t stand when fill in hosts are on.
What Is A “Pressbox”?
Every week I get emails from a PR person that works for Pressbox online about their latest happenings. And every week I glance at the email and wonder about the direction of their website/newspaper/TV show. Who is it intended for? What is the point of a monthly newspaper? Is anyone watching that show?
This week, one of the featured columns in my email is on Orioles relief pitcher Zach Britton and his turnaround this season. I skimmed through it, there’s some good stuff in there, but it’s all been written about for weeks on blogs or even in our daily newspaper.
Pressbox has partnered with Ted Leonsis’ Monumental Network, so there’s at least one local media mogul that believes in their strategy.
I must just be missing something.
Maybe they know something that I don’t.
What do you think?
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