M’s Jump To KIRO
Dave · July 22, 2008 at 9:43 am · Filed Under Mariners
The P-I makes it official – M’s to be back on KIRO starting next year, giving up about $4.5 million a year in what they were getting from KOMO for the rights.
The P-I makes it official – M’s to be back on KIRO starting next year, giving up about $4.5 million a year in what they were getting from KOMO for the rights.
Of course, since I still to this day switch to 710 first then remember they’re on KOMO, now I’ll start going to KOMO first…
hello? 710 KIRO Program Director Rod Arquette?
Keep Drayer. It would be the smart thing to do.
Keep Drayer. It would be the smart thing to do.
Definitely. She’s the best part of the entire broadcast package.
I believe KIRO has just provided an object lesson in how to not overpay for over-the-hill talent.
Well, in the team’s somewhat limited defense, that article is right in that the radio landscape has changed since the KOMO contract.
Heck, with Gamecast I don’t even bother trying to find the game on the radio anymore when I’m at work or whatever.
It’s nice to see that the continued suckitude of this team is continuing to sting them in the pocketbook a bit, though.
Note to Mariners: Do not renew Sims and Blowers.
Amen to that! But bring nobody else over from the current post-game crew besides her, though.
Actually, Sims is usually awesome. Rizzs and, especially, Blowers are the ones you don’t want back. No question about it.
Maybe KIRO won’t try and jam so many commercials in…KOMO was the worst and they tried to say the reason they were missing game action at the start of the inning was because of the varying amount of time between innings.
You really got the feeling that KOMO would feel better about the whole situation if there wasn’t an actual game going on, and they could just run the commercials.
I think it might be a good time to jettison Rick Rizzs.
I really don’t mind Sims. Are there better guys out there? Yeah. But I don’t turn it off because he’s on…unlike Rizzs and former broadcasting all-star Ron Fairly.
Ugh. Are you kidding me? Sims is like the guy at a party that’s trying WAY to hard to be funny/interesting.
Rizzs never shuts up and should stick to the radio side, even when Dave is not there.
Blowers is alright. I don’t have a problem with him except the rally fries are now quite stale.
I’d like to see Angie Mentink (Arlati) and Cara Capuano find other things to do besides be on my television, though.
I can paint a picture of what irritates me about the M’s broadcast with a very broad brush-stroke…
It’s all too happy.
If I wanted to smile, clap, laugh, hug, ride a unicorn and pet bunnies, I’d seek to do such things. When I’m watching baseball, and shows about baseball, I want quality journalism, interesting stories, and while I understand they can’t be too critical, I want some good objective insight.
And yeah…Angie Mentink is beyond annoying. She’s like that chipper over-happy blond cheerleader in high school. Fake attitudes are transparent, and they show a lack of reality.
…Boy do I sound grumpy…
Angie Mentink (Arlati) (Marzetta)
#8 >Rizzs and, especially, Blowers are the ones you don’t want back.
Rizzs definitely needs to go. We get enough of his banalities during the game.
Blowers I like. He knows and says things that the others don’t know, or won’t say. Way better than any of the other ex-player color guys they have had.
BUT I gotta ask…
If the Ms are willing to settle for 4.5 million less, does this mean ticket prices might also come down to reflect the poor quality product being offered at the park?
… ok, putting my crack pipe down now… sorry to bother you….
The on-air talent for both TV and radio have nothing to do with the broadcast rights. That isn’t to say that some changes won’t be made, but if they are, it will be unrelated to this.
FWIW (my opinion), I like Blowers and Sims ok. And I definitely love Drayer. She is the best part of the radio show. No contest.
As far as the FSN crew goes, Angie Mentink/Arlati/Marzetta/whatever grates me to no end. I can’t stand her. The others are ok I guess.
On a slightly different tangent;
What I have come to hate about the TV broadcasts is the way games are covered from a production standpoint. 95% of the time cameras are zoomed in on something irrelevant, making it almost impossible to get a feel for the game itself. Baseball is about the intricacies of lining up a defense, and the excitment of watching the outfielder’s break on a fly ball, and hoping for (or against) that fly ball becoming a home run. Instead we get treated to some a shakey camera struggling to get a good view of the label while the ball is in flight.
PAN BACK AND LET US WATCH THE GAME!!! Save the zoom shots for close plays on the bases, etc…!
I agree with those who hope KIRO hires Shannon Drayer to reprise her current role. She’s smart, hardworking and respected in the clubhouse.
that seems to be a Fox failing, nationwide.
I would love to hear Mike Curto on KIRO doing the radio play by play.
huh, I guess I was only half right.
After actually reading the article, the game announcers (Niehaus, Rizzs, Blowers and Sims) are all employed by the M’s, and their contracts are all up (but expected to be renewed).
The pre and post game folks, like Drayer, are employed by KOMO, and “Could be looking for work if KIRO doesn’t hire them”.
Drayer to KJR? Or FSN? 🙂
Sims is awesome.
The Trane Heating and Air Conditioning Comment is sponsored by Washington Mutual. Oops, missed a home run call.
The value of the media contract is worth less because the team sucks (I assume that’s why it’s worth $4.5 million less)…I wish ticket prices worked the same way.
Actually, it seems like FSN would be the more likely of the two, since KJR just made some cutbacks in their air staff (hence, Groz only occasionally filling in on his own without Gas these days).
If she did wind up there, though, I would hope they’d give her her own show this time — as opposed to having her make coffee for that idiot Mitch Levy in the morning like they used to have her doing, it seemed.
I agree wholeheartedly with #12. Dump Rizzs for sure and get someone in here who knows baseball and can be objective (Curto would be a significant improvement). Sims and Blowers are tolerable, particularly in view of the guys who preceeded them (Valle, Fairly, Rizzs again), but it’s still impossible to listen to the radio braodcasts. You think you’re grumpy. The 2008 Mariner experience is the worst in my 50 years of baseball fandom…….
No. 9–You nailed it–Exactly!
I long agon gave up trying to listen to KOMO and it’s non-stop commercials.
In fact, I dare anyone to try and listen to the hour leading up to a Mariners game on KOMO. There is ZERO substance and non-stop commercials.
The Mariners organization needs an entire makeover and a radical overhaul of the radio coverage, although a small step on the bigger scale, would be a nice start.
P.S.–Did anyone else notice in Dan Raley’s article on Dick Williams that the former M’s manager once again mentioned that Chuck Armstrong was already meddling back in 1986?
Next to world peace, the one thing that would make me most happy is if Chuck Armstrong was fired by the Mariners, and a restraining order requiring this idiot to stay at least 500-feet from Safeco Field was placed in effect.
People, it is no coincidence that Armstrong wields great power in the Mariners organization, and said organization once again is the laughingstock of baseball!
For the sake of principle, I will not attend another Mariners game as long as Chuck Armstrong continues to ride the Seattle Mariners’ gravy train. The man is beyond incompetent and a 26-year stain on my favorite baseball team.
This is Curto’s chance!
Maybe I’m missing something – but wouldn’t FSN have a pretty big if not final say on who does both sides of the broadcast since their contract is bigger?
the M’s site now has the announcement
I went over to the KIRO site to look for an email address to suggest support for Ms Drayer, and found this fine slide show of the announcement.
OK. . .here is dream ticket:
(1) ask Dave N. to retire
(2) send Rick Rizz back to Toledo
(3) keep Dave Sims/Blowers for backup crew (radio only)
(4) hire Kevin Calabro and Harold Reynolds as #1 team.
(5) kill the Rally fries promo
(6) Dan Wilson is a really nice guy, but is not an announcer.
(7) never let Valle anywhere close to the booth.
Problems solved. . . .
Bummer. One of the great things about KOMO was the power of the signal. I was driving in the LA Basin last Friday listening to the local teams, and just to check, tuned in 1000 and listened to the M’s-Cleveland game, just like I was in Seattle. After sunset, you can get KOMO pretty much anywhere on the west coast.
You guys can complain about Sims and Blowers, but you should be be happy you don’t have to listen to Rizzs/Fairly or Rizzs/Hendu anymore. Both of those were brutal.
Sims is a play-by-play guy. He thinks he is a color guy.
I think he belongs more on TBS or Fox where one doesn’t have to hear the same comments night after night.
I have seen Rich Waltz on the Marlins broadcasts and he would be a great upgrade over Sims. I am sure there are many others as well.
except over on the eastside by my dad’s, where it gets overridden by KJR….
I was sorry they let Waltz get away
Bingo! When that pre-game show was on KIRO years ago, it was a lot better — especially during the Mariners Magazine show on the weekends. When KOMO took over the broadcasts, they ruined it with their ridiculous number of commercials/traffic reports/”news” updates.
Weird. I live on the west side (across the Sound in Kingston, not really far away at all), and KJR’s signal is terribly weak. It’s unlistenable a big part of the time (ok, not a real loss). I despaired when I thought there was a chance they’d bid on the M’s contract.
And yeah, I hope Drayer makes the jump to KIRO.
The Mariners need to be creative in constructing their broadcast team. Intead of getting the best quality announcers, the M’s should put together the group that has the highest Unintentional Humor Potential (UHP). This little known metric is the cutting edge in broadcaster evaluation today.
With no further ado, I present your hometown Seattle Mariner 2009 broadcast team:
-Rick Rizzs (Lifetime Play-by-Play man)
-Dave Valle (Color guy. Will pronounce the word “shhrike” like a mantra during deadair moments.)
-Angie Marzetta Arlati Mentik (Super perky field reporter)
-Mike Blowers (Will chime in with his signature “There’s no doubt about it” on cue during broadcasts)
-Surprise guests.
I’d love to see Calabro announcing our games, but his contract with the Sounders could complicate that to a minor degree (scheduling conflicts, etc.). But I would be LIVID if we hired Reynolds. I understand the local connection, but I can’t stand him on ESPN’s broadcasts.
On a related note, Gas was tossing around the notion that KIRO is looking to possibly flip to all-sports at some point in the next year now that they have the Mariners again. I did some checking around, and apparently there’s some legs to this. There’s a whisper going around that they have a wink-nod deal in place with Steve Ballmer to host the Sonics on the radio if/when he gets a team, and they’ve been in talks with a number of local sports journalism personalities, most notably Mike Sando and one as-of-yet un-named KJR staffer.
Haven’t there been broadcast people who went from KIRO to KOMO?
I thought Drayer had been with KIRO when the M’s were there, but I was wrong, she went from KJR to KOMO. I think that there was someone who had gone KIRO-to-KOMO though – Valle and Henderson, perhaps?
My point in raising the question is to assess the chances that some KOMO folks will go to KIRO. I think it is very likely, and Drayer would be my #1 choice.
Drayer did move over KOMO from KJR…where, if I’m not mistaken, she actually managed to get a word in edgewise once in a while on Mitch’s morning show…
When his ego didn’t get in the way, that is.
New York Vinnie hosting the post-game again?
As far as announcers… bring back Ken Levine. The “Spicoli” comment will live in history.
And why would KIRO flip to all sports? That would make four sports stations in the Puget Sound area (KIRO, KJR, KRKO 1380 in Everett, and KHHO 850.) That sounds like market saturation.
I’ve really gotta disagree with you here. Asking Dave Niehaus to retire would cause an uproar like you would not believe. Personally I like him calling the game, even if the occasional “deep to right field…” doesn’t make it to the warning track. 🙂 Dave gets to hang up the mike when he’s ready to, and not a minute sooner.
Re: #42. . . .are you old enough to remember Willie Mays in the 1973 World Series? Dave has been very good for a long time–he is not quite that good any longer and would hate for him to have another stroke behind the mike.
Replacing him with a great announcer like Calabro would make it easier, replacing him with Rizz would make us all have a stroke!
*shrug* Not sure to be honest. KJR is so well-embedded around here, and KRKO and KHHO more than pick up the slack in the areas KJR can’t reach. Seems like a semi-suicidal move to me, unless they pull it off perfectly in a way that buries KJR. Of course, KIRO has been struggling in the last few years, so this may be their last-ditch effort to keep themselves afloat.
43
Respectfully, you’re talking apples and oranges. An aging player in the field with declining abilities (legendary or not) means the difference between success and failure. I was really young for the 73 series, but I grew up a Dodgers fan (Grandpa had been following them since they were in Brooklyn) and if you were to go to LA and say that Vin Scully should have been put out to pasture, you would have started a brawl. Likewise, tell a long time cubs fan that Harry Carry should have been retired, and you would have been treated like you were talking smack about their family. Niehaus has been the one consistent thing for the M’s through all of the losing, the winning, and the sucktitude that has been the past few years, he’s seen GM’s, managers, and players come and go, but his broadcasts through the years have helped to create the tapestry that is the M’s history. He deserves to be able to call it a career on his own terms. Once he hangs it up, he’s going to leave an incredible pair of shoes to fill.
Amen to that, bro. The Tigers (or, should I say specifically, Bo Schembechler — who was a legend as a college football coach but a complete idiot as a major league baseball GM) made that mistake years ago when, all of a sudden, they decided that Ernie Harwell — who’s also a Ford Frick Award winner and HOF broadcaster, BTW — had probably outlived his usefulness and should be set out to pasture after decades behind the microphone doing play-by-play. Needless to say, this sparked a HUGE public outcry in Tiger Nation for Ernie’s return — which eventually (about two seasons later) happened.
Ironically, the team who replaced Harwell & Paul Carey on the Tigers’ broadcasts during those years, you might ask? Why, none other than two fellas by the name of Bob Rathbun & (the M’s very own) Rick Rizzs!
Larry Stone mentions the all-sports rumor in his KIRO story today
And from McGrath:
When I heard that the Mariners had struck a five-year, $5.5 agreement with Cairo, I presumed it was the latest in their long line of insanely generous contracts extended to middle-aged role players. Then I found out it was a radio package with KIRO, not a new contract for Miguel Cairo, who is 34 and …