How Many Television Sport Anchors Can You Name in Your Market?

I probably can, but that's because there are so many house ads for local programming that slip around the DVR commercial skip function. Also, I think most of them have been around awhile. Like so many others here, I don't recall the last time I watched the local or even national evening news.

 

I can name the two main sports guys on the ABC and CBS stations, NBC station here doesn't have sports I believe (in Toledo, the NBC affiliate is actually broadcast from South Bend but they have like 2 or 3 people working out of Toledo, it's wacky) .. weekends would be fuzzy for me.

And after writing this ... I checked the ABC website and it looks like they don't even do sports anymore! So those guys must have moved on. Looks like they moved the sports guys to news in Aug 2020 and never brought the coverage back. There is a cable system here that has its own sports channel and that seems to have

I think I know the weather people more and follow them on social media. Yeesh, I've become old!

 

NBC LA just offered buyouts and lost a half dozen longtime employees, including an anchor and a bunch of veteran field reporters, but no one in sports.

Do sports anchors even go to games any more? I covered a lot of games in the 80s and 90s and they were usually there.

 

I can name one in our mid-major market, and that's only because I interviewed her for a freelance story a couple of years ago and we've become sorta friends. The other two (three if you count the local Fox affiliate, which barely has a presence here), I haven't a clue who any of their people are, sports or news.

 

I'm over 50% in the MSP market, which I consider pretty good since I haven't had any TV in roughly 5 years.

 

I thought of about 4-5 “used to be” guys before I remembered a current one. All the prominent ones in this market either moved over to news side or went to flack for some politician or polluting industry.

 

Rod's Big Ol' Fish

 

Not. A. One.

Gregg Mace of ABC-27 in Harrisburg passed away two years ago. Mike Hostetler of WGAL-8 in Lancaster retired last month. That wiped out the veterans still recognizable to me.

 

The longest tenured sports anchor in the Bay Area, Mark Ibanez, retired after 43 years. It's amazing because I don't know if anyone ever considered him "the king" of the local sports scene. Columnists, talk show hosts, play by play people, the Bay had plenty of legends - but he just kind of kept being around, kept a low-profile, figure he didn't demand a huge salary and never wanted to leave. Started as the weekend guy, grew up in the area, and outlasted probably 50 sports anchors or more at the other stations.

Colin Cowherd was the sports guy at the NBC affiliate in Portland for a few years, took a sidegig on radio and the rest is history. The others? They all seemed to have other sidegigs outside of TV.

 

I remember reading an article in the 80's that said interviewed media relations directors of teams. They said that if even the number three sports guy in a market uttered an opinion it would generate more attention among the fan base than if the lead sports columnist wrote the same thing.

I am inclined to think that now the most influential sports media person in a market is the morning guy on the local sports talk station. I also wonder if the talk show host would make more money than the evening sports anchor.

 

The sports guys in the bay area tv stations were all pretty much rah-rah guys. Very tapioca. No commentaries. Gary Radnich may have been the most "opinionated" but he was funny about it. Became "the king" of local sports for a good chunk of the last 30 years.