Chicago Sun-Times: All posts by Jeff Agrest

Jason Benetti’s departure tops Chicago sports-media stories of 2023

2023-12-14T13:50:36.57-06:00

Bill Walton joined Jason Benetti to call a White Sox-Angels game in 2019 on NBC Sports Chicago.

Joe Reedy/AP

In January 2021, I wrote that Chicago was entering its next golden age of sports broadcasting.

National jobs had affirmed our announcers’ place in the industry. The Cubs had just hired ESPN’s Jon Sciambi to replace TV voice Len Kasper, who left for the White Sox’ radio booth. Sox voice Jason Benetti had increased his profile at ESPN, Bulls voice Adam Amin had done the same at Fox and Blackhawks analyst Eddie Olczyk was on NBC’s top crew. Plus, Hall of Famer Pat Foley was still in the Hawks’ booth.

Pan to Lee Corso: “Not so fast, my friend.”

Five months later, the Hawks announced that the 2021-22 season would be Foley’s last. Thirteen months after that, Olczyk and the Hawks couldn’t agree on a new contract, and he left for the Kraken. Sixteen months after that, Benetti left the Sox to join the Tigers.

My “golden age” comment didn’t age well.

Which leads to our top story on the list of the 10 biggest Chicago sports-media stories of 2023.

1. Jason Benetti leaves White Sox for Tigers

It wasn’t a secret that the Benetti-Sox marriage was on the rocks. At the end of January, the Sox announced that they had picked up the two-year option on Benetti’s contract. But the run-up to the agreement was, in Benetti’s words, “kind of a pain.”

Fast forward to Nov. 9. The Sox announced Benetti was leaving, the Tigers announced he was coming and Sox fans, already reeling from a tumultuous season, announced their disgust. After losing 101 games, they lost a beloved broadcaster who was a lifelong Sox fan himself.

Later, we revealed that tension between Benetti and Sox executive Brooks Boyer played a big part in Benetti leaving with a year left on his deal. There were other factors, including those national commitments, but it was clear that the Sox didn’t like how Benetti called a game.

Never mind that most of their fans did.

2. Pat Hughes inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame

The longtime Cubs radio voice officially became a Hall of Famer in July when he received the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting. His induction speech was what you’d expect: eloquent, humorous and filled with gratitude. Here’s hoping to many more years behind the mic.

3. Olin Kreutz returns to The Score

After being off the air for the 2022 NFL season because of an incident in sports-media startup CHGO’s office, Kreutz returned to The Score in July. “I guess you could say we took a break, and [The Score] treated me fairly,” Kreutz said then. “I know what I did was wrong.” His biting analysis was missed.

4. Darren Pang becomes Blackhawks TV analyst

Pang’s return to Chicago softened the blow of losing Olczyk. The former Hawks goalie, who began his broadcast career in Chicago in 1990, brings enthusiasm and levity to the broadcast, which is no easy task in another difficult season. He and play-by-play voice Chris Vosters are off to a good start together.

5. Chicago Street Race delivers on TV

In July, Chicago hosted the first street race in NASCAR’s 75-year history, and it was a spectacle on TV – when it wasn’t raining. Despite weather delays, the broadcast on NBC and Peacock averaged 4.795 million viewers. It was the network’s most-watched NASCAR Cup Series race since 2017.

6. WNBA delivers record viewership

The league had its most-watched regular season in 21 years. Viewership across national-TV partners ABC/ESPN and CBS was up 21% over the 2022 season. The postseason, on ESPN channels, was the most watched in 16 years. And the Sky-Lynx preseason game in Toronto sold out, drawing about 20,000.

7. Cubs launch DTC service

All of the Cubs’ programming dreams have come true. After launching Marquee Sports Network in February 2020, they debuted a direct-to-consumer service in July, allowing in-market viewers to stream the channel for the tidy sum of $19.99 a month – all of which is going straight toward the team, right?

8. Baseball adds pitch timer

While fans wondered how it would affect games, broadcasters wondered how it would affect broadcasts. They ended up handling it fine, but the production crews must’ve gone nuts trying to run replays without missing a pitch. And for the first time, a clock regularly appeared on the screen.

9. Former Bears tight end Greg Olsen calls Super Bowl

It might end up being the only Super Bowl he calls, but Olsen, the Bears’ first-round pick in 2007, did an outstanding job calling the game in February with Kevin Burkhardt. Olsen has been a quick study in the booth, but Tom Brady is expected to knock him to the No. 2 team next year. Olsen doesn’t deserve that.

10. Jon Sciambi is national voice for World Series

Since networks stopped using local announcers to call the Fall Classic in 1979, five men have had the honor: Vin Scully, Jack Buck, Jon Miller, Dan Shulman … and Cubs TV voice “Boog” Sciambi, who called this past Series on ESPN Radio. “It feels silly to be in that grouping with those guys,” he said. It shouldn’t.

Tony Granato takes leave from NBC Sports Chicago after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma

2023-12-11T09:50:50.818-06:00

Tony Granato said that he has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and is taking a leave of absence from TV work for NBC Sports Chicago and the NHL Network.

Paul Sancya/AP file photo

Tony Granato last appeared on NBC Sports Chicago on Dec. 5, joining Charlie Roumeliotis on the debut of “HawkCast,” the supplementary broadcast of the Blackhawks’ game against the Predators. Granato and Roumeliotis did a fine job keeping their conversation going while commenting on the game, giving the show promise for its remaining nine broadcasts this season.

But late Sunday, Granato announced on social media that he would be stepping away from his TV work to deal with a recent cancer diagnosis.

“I will be taking a temporary leave of absence from NBC Sports Chicago and the Blackhawks broadcasts, as well as NHL Network,” Granato, 59, posted on X, formerly Twitter. “I was recently diagnosed with a form of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and will begin treatment this week.

“My family, faith and friends will be my strength to help me through my treatments. I appreciate all the love and support I have received already.”

In his first season with NBCSCH, Granato already has improved the Hawks’ pregame and postgame shows, providing the credibility they had been lacking. Granato, a Downers Grove native, played 13 seasons in the NHL (1988-2001) with the Rangers, Kings and Sharks. He also coached the Avalanche for three seasons (2002-04, 2008-09).

Granato had 248 goals and 244 assists in 773 NHL games. In 1998, he won the Bill Masterson Trophy, which goes to the player who best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey. With the Avs, he went 104-78-33 (ties and overtime losses). His first team lost a first-round series that went seven games. His second team reached the second round, where it lost in six games.

Granato was an assistant coach with the Penguins and Red Wings before returning to his alma mater, Wisconsin, to take over the Badgers’ program. He was fired in March after seven seasons. Granato also coached the United States in the 2018 Winter Olympics.

The U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer comes from a hockey family. His brother, Don, is the Sabres’ coach, and his sister, Cammi, was the first woman inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.

Former Hawk John Scott figures to see more airtime in his first season with the network. The initial plan for “HawkCast” was to rotate contributors, so Scott figures to appear there, as well, along with regular commentator Caley Chelios.

The Hawks’ next appearance on NBCSCH is Thursday, when they visit the Kraken. NBCSCH’s next “HawkCast” is next Tuesday for the game against the Avalanche.

pic.twitter.com/XQD3HVx7WV
— Tony Granato (@TonyGranato) December 11, 2023

Broadcast TV is attracting sports in parts of the country. Why not in Chicago?

2023-12-07T15:45:15.468-06:00

An liang - stock.adobe.com

For as much as it feels like sports media are living in a “Jetsons” world, parts of it are returning to a “Flintstones” world.

While streaming continues to make inroads in the industry, broadcast television is showing it still has value. You remember broadcast TV, don’t you? Those channels we used to watch regularly by the tens of millions and required only a TV set and an antenna? For local sports, that mostly meant watching WGN, which carried Blackhawks, Bulls, Cubs and White Sox games until the teams migrated solely to cable.

Cable and satellite bundled those broadcast channels with a hundred others, many of which you never watched. Customers complained about the cost and yearned for an a la carte option. Years later, streaming came along to solve that problem, and customers cut the cord. But that, too, became costly and fragmented the audience so much that streamers now are bundling themselves.

All the while, broadcast TV was sitting off to the side, saying, “I still got it.”

Broadcast TV is coming in handy for teams and leagues looking for new homes and wider distribution amid the upheaval pervading regional sports networks, particularly the dozens of Bally Sports-branded channels whose owner, Diamond Sports Group, is in bankruptcy court.

The CW is airing ACC football and basketball games and will begin airing the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2025. Those ACC games appear locally on fellow Nexstar property WGN, which makes for an odd pairing given the station’s history airing Chicago sports.

Nationally, the partnership already has benefitted The CW, which said it drew 1.3 million viewers for the North Alabama-Florida State game Nov. 18, its largest prime-time audience in over six years. Locally, it’s fair to wonder whether people know — or care — that the games are on WGN.

Scripps Sports, a new division of the 145-year-old E.W. Scripps Company, entered the fray this year, airing WNBA games on over-the-air Ion. It recently added the NWSL to its portfolio, which also includes the NHL’s Coyotes, whose RSN (Bally) shut down, and Golden Knights, who left theirs (AT&T) before it did.

Gray Television, the second-largest local broadcaster behind Nexstar, is airing the NBA’s Suns and WNBA’s Mercury on over-the-air stations in Phoenix. The Suns were even kind enough to offer free antennas to fans. And the NBA’s Jazz put their games on a local Sinclair-owned station for free.

So if you’re a Coyotes and Suns fan in Arizona, you can watch your teams for free. How great is that?

It got me thinking: Would Chicago teams ever return to their roots on broadcast TV?

The possibility became real when NBC Chicago announced last month that it would simulcast two Blackhawks and two Bulls games on NBC Sports Chicago and NBC 5. Though scheduling conflicts took one simulcast away from each team, it still marked the first time either appeared on local over-the-air TV since bailing on good ol’ WGN in 2019.

If NBC Sports Chicago remains the exclusive home of Hawks, Bulls and Sox games next year (the teams’ contract with the broadcaster expires in October), might NBC 5 air a handful of simulcasts to appease fans subject to rising rates and regional-sports fees, not to mention increase distribution?

And what about Marquee Sports Network, which isn’t distributed as widely on streaming services as NBC Sports Chicago (though it did launch a direct-to-consumer app this year)? It’d be nice if Marquee aired a package of games on WGN, which helped make the Cubs big enough to have their own RSN.

Such arrangements exist in other markets. The NBA’s Clippers put 11 regular-season games on over-the-air KTLA. MLB’s Mets put 24 regular-season games on WPIX last season. But neither is because of the failing RSN model. Those teams made a choice. Just as the Yankees chose to remove their games from WPIX and put them behind a paywall on Amazon’s Prime Video.

This is a market-specific issue that depends on each RSN’s situation. The RSNs in Chicago aren’t nearly as distressed as they are elsewhere. So the chances of them putting games on broadcast TV are slim. It would be bad business to hand over coveted inventory out of the goodness of their hearts. Expect to keep paying those fees hand over fist for the foreseeable future.

Or move to Phoenix.

Remote patrol

Congratulations to Chicago-area native Tom Fletcher, who will be inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame on Tuesday in New York. Fletcher helped innovate sports TV production by creating now-prevalent remote-controlled cameras, such as those above the rim and behind the backboard in basketball, on the goal post in football and inside the net in hockey. Fletcher’s favorite sport is hockey, and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman credited him with revolutionizing the production of games.

“Tom Fletcher and his group gave us an opportunity to show views of the game that nobody had ever seen before,” Bettman said.

Congratulations to Bulls TV voice Adam Amin, who was named The Big Lead’s best play-by-play announcer for 2023. Amin and analyst Mark Schlereth will call the Lions-Bears game Sunday on Fox.

Best wishes to Marquee Sports Network general manager Mike McCarthy, who is stepping down from his role to focus on his health. He’ll continue with the network as a consultant and assist in its search for his successor. “I need to spend more time on myself and less time stressing about typos on the ticker,” he said.

The final two episodes of longtime Chicago radio voice George Ofman’s podcast, “Tell Me a Story I Don’t Know,” drop the next two weeks — featuring Ofman.

Why couldn’t White Sox treat Jason Benetti like Bulls treat Adam Amin?

2023-11-30T11:45:33.663-06:00

Bulls TV voice Adam Amin also has national commitments with Fox, as does former White Sox voice Jason Benetti.

Provided

The White Sox are doing their due diligence as they seek a replacement for TV voice Jason Benetti. All is quiet at the moment, but that figures to change soon.

Sox fans were anything but quiet three weeks ago when the team announced Benetti’s departure and the Tigers announced his arrival. Benetti had developed a kinship with fans, having grown up in Homewood as one of them. He understood them.

That makes it all the more bewildering how a chasm could’ve existed between Benetti and Sox brass — in particular, senior vice president Brooks Boyer and chairman Jerry Reinsdorf.

Benetti was good for the Sox’ brand. He has a national following from his work at ESPN and now Fox. Granted, Benetti missed Sox games because of those commitments, and that became a point of contention with the team. But whenever he was on the air elsewhere, many viewers knew he was the Sox’ guy, and others likely came away impressed with him.

There’s another announcer in town who’s in a similar situation to the one Benetti was in. He works for Reinsdorf, he’s adored by fans and he misses games because he also appears nationally on Fox — Bulls TV voice Adam Amin.

Yet there are no fault lines in his relationship with the team, and the Bulls have no problem accommodating his busy fall schedule.

Last week, Amin missed the first three games of a four-game trip to call the Michigan State-Arizona basketball game on Thanksgiving near Palm Springs, California, and the Panthers-Titans game Sunday in Nashville, Tennessee. Those are among the 12-13 games Amin will miss this season.

Baseball broadcasters with national commitments — such as Benetti and Cubs TV voice Jon Sciambi, who also calls “Sunday Night Baseball” on ESPN Radio — miss roughly 30 of their local team’s games. Do the math: Benetti will call a minimum of 127 games for the Tigers, or 78% of the schedule. If Amin misses 13 of the Bulls’ 78 scheduled local broadcasts, he’ll call 83%. It’s not a big difference.

In the Sox’ defense, they allowed Benetti to become the voice of Peacock’s “MLB Sunday Leadoff” games in 2022. Later that year, they signed off on his move to Fox. But as Benetti’s national profile continued to grow, the Sox became uneasy and the relationship deteriorated. Benetti, who called 140 games for the Sox in 2018, became too big for them.

Now the Sox want someone to call all or most of their games. That could eliminate some worthy candidates. These days, prominent local announcers often have some sort of national package. It’s a stamp of approval for the broadcaster, as well as the local team, that he or she is good enough to work national events. For the team, granting that flexibility is the cost of doing business on that level.

The Sox could pull someone out of the minor leagues who’d drop everything for the opportunity, and maybe they’d get lucky. But if they want a quality broadcaster, that person likely will have another commitment to accommodate.

That makes Mike Monaco’s situation interesting. He’s the front-runner for the job, having made a favorable impression filling in on Sox and Bulls games in the last two years. But Monaco recently renewed his contract with ESPN for three years. He has called the College World Series and the Little League World Series for the network.

It would come down to a game of give-and-take in negotiations, which the Sox notoriously don’t conduct with broadcasters’ agents. The Sox are believed to be the only MLB team with that policy. Reinsdorf is expected to be involved personally, and talks with candidates figure to pick up in the next week.

In the meantime, fans are left to question why the rules for two broadcasters under one owner can be so different. The answer is likely what led Benetti to leave – a relationship that became irreparable.

Remote patrol

NBC Sports Chicago will air a supplementary telecast of 10 Blackhawks home games called HawkCast, featuring a camera focused solely on select Hawks players. All HawkCasts will air on NBCSCH+ with a separate broadcast team. The regular broadcast will air on the main channel. The first HawkCast will be Tuesday for the game against the Predators.
ESPN and TNT will combine broadcast crews for coverage of the NBA In-Season Tournament semifinals Thursday. Mike Breen will call ESPN’s game with Doris Burke and TNT’s Reggie Miller. Kevin Harlan will call TNT’s game with Candace Parker and ESPN’s Doc Rivers. TNT’s “Inside the NBA” will follow and include ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith and Michael Wilbon.
NASCAR announced a seven-year media deal Wednesday that begins in 2025 and adds Amazon’s Prime Video and TNT to incumbents Fox and NBC. Fox/FS1 and NBC/USA each will carry 14 Cup Series races; Prime Video and TNT will carry five each, plus every practice and qualifying session. Including the CW’s Xfinity Series deal, the agreements reportedly total $7.7 billion.

NFL making flex scheduling inflexible

2023-11-23T17:55:12.945-06:00

The Bears-Vikings game in Week 12 was spared from being the first game flexed out of “Monday Night Football.”

Quinn Harris/Getty Images

The Bears and Vikings could’ve made history in Week 12.

You have to look back to Week 6 to understand.

That’s when the Vikings beat the Bears 19-13 in an uninspiring game that saw neither team reach 300 yards of offense. The Vikings “improved” to 2-4, and the Bears fell to 1-5.

The teams’ next meeting would be in six weeks, and it had the makings of another dud, particularly if Bears backup quarterback Tyson Bagent was still playing for injured Justin Fields.

As luck would have it, the NFL designated Week 12 as the beginning of the first flexible-scheduling window in the history of “Monday Night Football.” Surely, a Week 12 game not protected by CBS or Fox would pop up to save America from another Bears-Vikings slog.

Alas, before the deadline Nov. 15 to swap out the game, the league stood pat, saving the historic first flex for another matchup – to the chagrin of many football fans.

As it turned out, the Vikings’ victory over the Bears was the first of five in a row, putting them in the playoff picture. The Bears remain far out of it, but Fields is back and he can draw an audience.

So the NFL might get away with keeping Bears-Vikings in prime time, but the truth is the league gave itself little choice. Week 12 begins with the annual Thanksgiving tripleheader, and now it includes what’s expected to be an annual Black Friday game. There was nowhere else to turn.

For all of its flexing options, the NFL is facing more inflexibility this season because of more national windows, which also include 8:30 a.m. kickoffs overseas, two additional “Monday Night Football” games and the Christmas Day tripleheader. The NFL schedule has become so spread out that there’s less inventory available for Sunday afternoons, thus limiting the opportunities to flex.

The league has flexed two games this season, and neither was moved to prime time. It moved Lions-Buccaneers to 3:25 p.m. in Week 6, and on Tuesday it moved Panthers-Bucs in Week 13 to 3:05 p.m. Last season, the NFL flexed four games into “Sunday Night Football,” in Weeks 11, 14, 15 and 17.

“If we look back since we started flex in ’06, we’ve only averaged about 1½ flex games a year,” Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive vice president for media distribution, said when the schedule was released in May. “Last year was a little bit higher than that. There’s a few things that broke.

“Flex is an incredibly valuable tool for us when things do change in a year, but we’re also pretty judicious with how we use that. Our scheduling history would tell us it’s the exception, not the rule.”

With Monday and Thursday nights no longer immune to flexing, the league is proving to be even more judicious, raising the bar for a switch to prevent scheduling upheaval. That helps explain why Bears-Chargers in Week 8, a battle of two-win teams, stayed on Sunday night.

But keep in mind why the NFL created flexible scheduling. It wasn’t about moving better games into prime time. It was about moving “meaningless” games out. If you ask the league, it would argue that standard hasn’t been met this season.

Plus, this is a zero-sum game. If the NFL moves a game to a prime-time network and gifts an extra ratings point, the day-time network that lost the game likely lost that ratings point, as well. The networks are paying billions of dollars for these games, and the league tries to keep them happy.

Remote patrol

The IHSA football state championships will air Friday on The U (Ch. 26.2) and Saturday on CW26 (Ch. 26.1) from Hancock Stadium at Illinois State. Matt Rodewald and Mark Lindo will call the first two games each day; Dave Bernhard and Jack McInerney have the last two. Kacy Standohar will report from the sidelines for all eight games.

• Marquee Sports Network will air the 93rd annual Prep Bowl at 1 p.m. Friday from Lane Stadium between St. Rita of the Catholic League and Kenwood of the Public League. Alex Cohen and Henry Burris will call the game, and Karli Bell will report from the sidelines.

• The Notre Dame-Stanford game at 6 p.m. Saturday will air on the Pac-12 Network. Ted Robinson, a Notre Dame graduate, and Yogi Roth will call the game, which could be the network’s last as the conference nears collapsing.

NFL FLEX SCHEDULING PROCEDURES

NBC’s “Sunday Night Football”

Games may be flexed up to three times between Weeks 5-14 and at the NFL’s discretion during Weeks 15-17.

In Weeks 5-13, the decision will be made no later than 12 days before the game. In Weeks 14-17, it generally will be made no later than six days before the game.

ESPN’s “Monday Night Football”

Games maybe flexed at the NFL’s discretion in Weeks 12-17. The decision will be made no later than 12 days before the game.

Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football”

Game may be flexed up to two times between Weeks 13-17. The decision will be made no later than 28 days before the game.

Only Sunday afternoon games (or those listed as TBD) are eligible to be moved to Sunday night, Monday night or Thursday night.

Sunday afternoon games may also be moved between noon and 3:05 p.m. or 3:25 p.m.

Source: nfl.com

Charissa Thompson’s admission of fabricating sideline reports draws ire

2023-11-16T16:22:38.34-06:00

Charissa Thompson on the set of “TNF Tonight,” Prime Video’s NFL pregame show, before the Titans-Steelers game Nov. 2.

Matt Freed/AP

As a longtime NFL studio host, Charissa Thompson has the gift of gab. But she used it poorly when she was a sideline reporter about 15 years ago. This week on the podcast “Pardon My Take,” Thompson admitted to making up reports if she had nothing to report.

“I’ve said this before,” said Thompson, who discussed this two years ago on her own podcast, only not to this extent. “I haven’t been fired for saying it, but I’ll say it again: I would make up the report sometimes because, A, the coach wouldn’t come out at halftime, or it was too late and I didn’t want to screw up the report. So I was like, ‘I’m just gonna make this up.’

‘‘Because, first of all, no coach is gonna get mad if I say, ‘Hey, we need to stop hurting ourselves, we need to be better on third down, we need to stop turning the ball over and do a better job of getting off the field.’ They’re not gonna correct me on that. So I’m like, ‘It’s fine, I’ll just make up the report.’ ’’

Thompson hosts ‘‘Fox NFL Kickoff,’’ the lead-in to ‘‘Fox NFL Sunday,’’ and ‘‘TNF Tonight,’’ Prime Video’s pregame show for ‘‘Thursday Night Football.’’ She was a sideline reporter from 2007 to 2009 for the NFL on Fox and Big Ten Network.

The comments caused a firestorm on social media among current sideline reporters who felt disparaged — and rightly so. They often are the eyes and ears of the broadcast booth and production truck, given their proximity to the action. Many times, their contributions go unnoticed by viewers. But with their access, they can have a huge impact on the broadcast.

‘‘THE privilege of a sideline role is being the 1 person in the entire world who has the opportunity to ask coaches what’s happening in that moment,’’ Fox sideline reporter Laura Okmin posted on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. ‘‘I can’t express the amount of time it takes to build that trust. Devastated w/the texts I’m getting asking if this is ok. No. Never.’’

Jason Benetti’s departure from White Sox hastened by contentious relationship with exec Brooks Boyer

2023-11-16T14:10:10.981-06:00

Jason Benetti and Steve Stone worked together on White Sox TV broadcasts for eight years.

Ron Vesely/White Sox

Jason Benetti’s dream job was to broadcast games for the White Sox, the team of his youth. Against all odds, Benetti, who grew up in south suburban Homewood, lived out that dream when he became a Sox TV announcer in 2016. He turned into a fan favorite and grew his national profile.

But circumstances around the job became anything but dreamy. Last week, Benetti left the Sox, who let him out of the final year of his contract, to become the TV voice of the American League Central rival Tigers, who offered more money and scheduling flexibility.

Multiple sources said a contentious relationship with Sox senior vice president and chief revenue and marketing officer Brooks Boyer was at the center of the situation, particularly an inappropriate remark Boyer made to Benetti.

Appearing on the podcast ‘‘Sports Media with Richard Deitsch’’ this week, Benetti explained how he likened himself to Detroiters for being ‘‘underestimated.’’ Benetti, who has cerebral palsy, related that message to a conversation he had during his career.

Said Benetti: ‘‘I had somebody say to me when I asked for more respect — and basically demanded more respect just in the way I was being treated — they said, ‘Respect according to normal human beings, or respect according to Jason Benetti?’ That is one of those things that I say, that’s disqualifying and will be for a long time. I’ll have a relationship, but I don’t want to do that long-term.’’

Those sources said the ‘‘somebody’’ was Boyer.

When asked for comment, Boyer said: “Jason and I had a friendly and positive conversation last week when he called to say goodbye, and I wish him nothing but the best.”

Benetti confirmed the conversation, saying: “Brooks and I had a great conversation last week. I deeply appreciate what he said to me over the course of that discussion and fully believe we’ve moved beyond anything in the past.”

But the damage had been done, and it was evident to those close to Benetti.

Jason Benetti on White Sox contract talks: ‘It was kind of a pain’

“I don’t know that Jason was as happy as he possibly could have been the last year or so,” said Chris Withers, the producer for Sox games on NBC Sports Chicago. “So the fact that he is happy now and going to be in a place that is going to just love what he brings to a broadcast, that’s most important.

“We had dinner on Sunday; it was great to see him. I saw someone who’s just happy to be doing baseball where they have some great plans. The Tigers know what they want, and, in my mind, they got the best in the business.”

Despite perceptions of an organization in turmoil this year — from speculation about relocating or selling the team to the firings of top executive Ken Williams and general manager Rick Hahn — potential successors to Benetti have been lining up.

The leading candidate is Mike Monaco, who has filled in on Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks games over the last two years and proved to be a high-quality broadcaster. When Benetti was out with COVID in August 2021, Monaco jumped in. He was living in Chicago while working for Big Ten Network and ESPN, and he made quite an impression on Sox analyst Steve Stone.

“Fast-forward six or seven years, you’ve got Jason Benetti,’’ Stone said at the time. ‘‘Mike is going to be outstanding. He does a lot of different sports. He’s very good at each one. He will get better. If you were in the stock market, you’d like to buy Mike Monaco futures.’’

Monaco, however, recently agreed to a three-year deal with ESPN. The Massachusetts native and Notre Dame graduate also fills in on about 10 Red Sox games for NESN. The Sox would have to navigate Monaco’s ESPN commitment, just as they did Benetti’s commitment to Fox. Plus, they’d have to wonder if he’d be lured back to Boston by a larger schedule.

Another top candidate is Connor McKnight, who regularly hosts Sox pregame and postgame shows on ESPN 1000 and has filled in for radio play-by-play voice Len Kasper, as well as Benetti. McKnight has performed well in limited time on TV and would come with no strings attached. But he’d have to grow into the job, as opposed to more experienced TV announcers.

Connor Onion, who grew up in La Grange and lives in Chicago, also figures to be considered. He works for Big Ten Network and ESPN and called minor-league baseball from 2017 to 2022, including the Kane County Cougars when they were in the Diamondbacks’ system (2018-19).

Two potential candidates with name recognition are Chris and Stefan Caray, the twin sons of former Cubs announcer Chip Caray and the great-grandsons of the late Harry Caray, who called Sox and Cubs games. For the last two seasons, the identical twins have called games together for the Diamondbacks’ Double-A affiliate, the Amarillo Sod Poodles, in the Texas League. It’s unknown whether they’re a package deal or if they’re willing to work apart.

The Sox are leading the search and will make the final decision, but rights-holder NBC Sports Chicago can recommend and discuss candidates. For a team in disarray after a 101-loss season, its TV job is still highly sought.

“I don’t think that matters because there’s only 30 of these jobs,” Withers said. ‘Yes, it’s attractive by the city and the market size. But this is a job that only 30 people have. I wouldn’t be surprised by any name that is interested in sitting in that booth.”

2023 Chicago sports media power rankings: Bulls voice Adam Amin tops the list

Jason Benetti leaves White Sox’ TV booth for Tigers’ with one year left on contract

2023-11-09T09:36:26.846-06:00

Ron Vesely/White Sox

The White Sox suffered their biggest loss of the offseason just as it was beginning.

TV voice Jason Benetti left to join the division-rival Tigers’ booth, the teams announced. Benetti had one year remaining on a contract he signed before last season.

That last negotiation was filled with acrimony partly because of Benetti’s national obligations with Fox, which he joined last year. The relationship had soured, and the Tigers swooped in with a significant offer that prompted Benetti to ask out of his contract, a source said.

Benetti’s multiyear deal with the Tigers will have him call a minimum of 127 games each season, allowing him to maintain national commitments. He figures to make his Tigers regular-season debut in the season opener March 28 at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Benetti’s departure ends a pairing with Steve Stone that began in 2016, when Benetti called a partial schedule. He called 140 Sox games in 2018, and he and Stone became popular among viewers locally and nationally.

“Certainly, I enjoyed all of my time with Jason,” Stone said. “He’s a wonderful broadcaster. He’s probably the most well-prepared broadcaster that I know of. We all do things that either make our life easier, or we do things for assorted reasons. I wish him a whole lot of luck.”

Sox chief revenue and marketing officer Brooks Boyer said in a statement: “We want to thank Jason Benetti for all he has done for the Chicago White Sox and for all he means to White Sox fans. With Len Kasper fully committed to radio, our next step is to find the best person to pair with Steve Stone to continue to provide White Sox fans with smart, entertaining, and informative broadcasts in 2024.”

The Tigers held a Zoom call for Benetti, who knew how his move would be perceived.

“I know what people might say about me leaving and all of that, but the White Sox didn’t have to grant permission to have this opportunity,” he said. “There are a lot of great people I care about deeply. The White Sox hired me, a person who doesn’t walk normally [because of cerebral palsy], to be the front facing person in their organization in 2016. The only reason I’m here is because of them.”

Stone understands that the parting won’t sit well with Sox fans, who already are frustrated with the team’s performance on the field after a 101-loss season.

“Jason was a great listen and a wonderful broadcaster, and he’s certainly gonna be missed,” Stone said. “I told him many years ago, he will be as successful as he wants to be and make as much money as he really needs because he’s that good.”

Benetti’s portfolio of national broadcasts had been increasing for years. At ESPN, he called college football and basketball and “Sunday Night Baseball” Statcasts. With NBC Sports, he called Olympic baseball and was the first voice of Peacock’s “MLB Sunday Leadoff.” Now he’s calling major-league baseball and college football and basketball for Fox.

His increased profile became too big for the Sox, even though many local announcers also work some sort of national package. The practice has become more prevalent than ever. The days of teams having one dedicated announcer are long over.

Just look around Chicago. Bulls TV voice Adam Amin calls NFL and MLB games for Fox. Cubs TV voice Jon Sciambi calls “Sunday Night Baseball” for ESPN Radio and college basketball for ESPN. Blackhawks TV voice Chris Vosters calls college football for Big Ten Network and college basketball on FS1.

The writing was on the wall in January even after the Sox announced they had picked up a two-year option on Benetti’s contract.

“It was kind of a pain, really,” Benetti told me Feb. 1 of contract talks. “Things get said, and then you end up with a deal. There were some things that we had to get through that I thought were silly, and I’m sure they thought some of the stuff that I was talking about might’ve been silly. But we got there in the end.”

Regardless of how the team has fared on the field, the Sox’ TV job is a good get. It’s in the nation’s No. 3 media market, and Sox rights-holder NBC Sports Chicago is in much better standing than its brethren at Bally Sports networks, whose owner is in bankruptcy court.

There figures to be a lot of interest, but keep an eye on Mike Monaco. He filled in for Benetti when he was out with COVID in 2021. He also has filled in for Amin on Bulls broadcasts and was a strong candidate for the Blackhawks’ job after Pat Foley retired.

George Ofman turns ‘Tell Me a Story I Don’t Know’ podcast into book

2023-11-08T12:00:31.397-06:00

In 50 years in sports broadcasting, George Ofman has learned to adapt. After being laid off by WBBM-AM in 2020 following 33 years in Chicago radio, Ofman created a podcast on which he interviews sports personalities with connections to the city.

Next week, that show will be released in book form.

“I was a sportscaster. I became a podcaster and a book-caster,” he said.

Ofman’s “Tell Me a Story I Don’t Know,” published by Triumph Books in Chicago, personalizes his podcast of the same name. Of the nearly 100 people he has interviewed, Ofman selected 50 to expound upon in vignettes about his relationship with each.

“The whole idea of the podcast is to bring these people to life,” said Ofman, who’s concluding the ninth and final season of the show. “Same with the book, where you’re going to read something about a person that you wouldn’t normally read. Like [Big Ten Network host] Dave Revsine’s incredible story about the golf outing when he was on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard.

“He told his wife, I’m just going to look for a golf game, and he found a foursome. He’s running late, he gets to the foursome and they introduce each other, and the last guy is O.J. Simpson.”

Another story comes from Northwestern basketball and football radio voice Dave Eanet, who as a child attended the funeral of President John F. Kennedy.

ESPN’s Mike Greenberg wrote the foreword. His first job after college was at all-news WMAQ-AM with Ofman, and they were The Score’s last hires before the station went on the air in 1992.

“I asked him, ‘Would you do this?’ ” Ofman said. “[He said] ‘Love to.’ Two hours later, it was in.”

Ofman worked at defunct Chicago outlets such as Sports Phone and WFYR-FM, where the legendary Red Motlow hired him. He also was a successful freelancer for 13 years. He has had enough experiences to interview himself for his podcast.

“You have no idea what life will throw at you,” Ofman said. “My whole career has been that way.”

Remote patrol

ESPN’s next “E60” tells the story of the late Mayra Ramirez, a running enthusiast from Chicago. In June 2020, she was the first person in the United States to receive a double lung transplant because of COVID. The episode focuses on her pact with Univision’s Jorge Ramos, an idol of hers, to run together on the lakefront when she recovered. It will air at 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

Marquee Sports Network will air the Chicago Public League football semifinal between Simeon and Young at 4 p.m. Saturday from Lane Stadium. Iowa Cubs broadcaster Alex Cohen and Marquee Bears analyst Henry Burris will call the game.

NFL games that will air Sunday in the Chicago market: Packers at Steelers, noon, CBS 2 (Ian Eagle, Charles Davis); Saints at Vikings, noon, Fox 32 (Adam Amin, Mark Schlereth); Giants at Cowboys, 3:25 p.m., Fox 32 (Kevin Burkhardt, Greg Olsen).

Prime Video’s ‘Thursday Night Football’ grows audience before, during, after games

2023-11-08T10:40:23.329-06:00

Prime Video’s pregame and postgame shows will be at Soldier Field for the Panthers-Bears game Thursday night.

Prime Video

YouTube TV had been receiving rave reviews for its presentation of NFL Sunday Ticket, which streams out-of-market games on Sunday afternoons. But on Oct. 29, many viewers encountered significant buffering issues, preventing them from watching.

The next night, the direct-to-consumer service Bally Sports+ suffered a widespread outage that kept fans from watching in-market games.

Meanwhile, Amazon’s Prime Video continues to host millions of NFL fans for “Thursday Night Football” and has yet to experience a noticeable glitch, let alone an outage.

As more games migrate to streaming services, these platforms must have the bandwidth to accommodate large audiences without fail. Through a season and a half carrying the NFL, Amazon has it figured out.

“That has always been our biggest priority in live sports — making sure that customers have that flawless experience the minute they turn it on,” said Jared Stacy, director of global live sports production for Prime Video. “It’s something that this company obsesses over every day.”

Prime Video will deliver the Panthers-Bears game Thursday night to the nation (it also will air locally on Fox 32), and though its infrastructure can handle a big crowd, it’ll be interesting to see if all that bandwidth is needed for two teams that have combined for three wins.

It was needed for Prime Video’s first eight games this season. According to Nielsen, “Thursday Night Football” has made double-digit, year-over-year gains each week. It’s averaging 12.52 million viewers, up 25% from the eight-game average last season (10.01 million), when it finished at 9.58 million and had some questioning the package’s viability.

“People understand that Prime is the long-term home of ‘Thursday Night Football’ now,” Stacy said. “We’ve helped build that habitual behavior. We’ve made a concerted effort on the marketing side to make sure that every football fan in America knows that ‘Thursday Night Football’ is on Prime.”

Stacy and his team also have assembled a quality broadcast crew beyond the game booth of Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit. The numbers bear that out. The pregame “TNF Tonight” is averaging 1.40 million viewers, up 25% from the full-season average last year (1.12 million).

The postgame “TNF Nightcap” is averaging 1.93 million viewers, up 15% from the full-season average last year (1.68 million). That’s quite a number for a show that extends past midnight Eastern time.

“We thought there was a space postgame on Thursday night to do something that wasn’t being done in the NFL space,” Stacy said, “which was break down the game that you just saw and get you ready for the weekend ahead. It’s part NFL show and part late-night show. You have to give fans a reason to stay up.”

Stacy credits host Charissa Thompson and the production crew with bringing along a group of mostly TV neophytes. A year ago, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Richard Sherman and Andrew Whitworth came right off the field to join Prime Video. Tony Gonzalez was the only one with experience. You wouldn’t know it by watching.

“You don’t need to yell at the audience and tell them how much you know,” Stacy said. “The audience wants to feel like they’re part of a gang. When you look at the most successful shows in sports TV history, ‘Inside the NBA’ or ‘College GameDay’ or ‘Fox NFL Sunday,’ there’s a genuine camaraderie with those crews. Fans really respond to that, and it’s a fun hang for NFL fans late at night.”

On Thursday, they’ll be joined by Eagles center Jason Kelce, who’s on a bye week. Kelce partnered with Prime Video and NFL Films for the popular documentary “Kelce.” He also will visit with Michaels and Herbstreit during the game.

“The big thing is taking a big step forward in Season 2,” Stacy said. “We were fortunate enough in Season 1 to realize that we had a strong foundation and a great culture behind the scenes. Everybody really commits to working hard and having fun and giving fans the best experience possible.”