Wayne Hagin ?

[Frayed Knot]

Neil Best; Newsday:
Veteren baseball announcer Wayne Hagin, who most recently called games for the Rockies and Cardinals, is the leading candidate for the vacant spot in WFAN's radio booth opposite Howie Rose, a person familiar with the search confirmed.

Anyone even hear or know anything about this guy?

[Guest AG/DC]

Hagin had the unenviable job of replacing Jack Buck in St. Louis.

A quick search on the Cardinet suggests he was fine but didn't blend well with Mike Shannon, which is nothing to be ashamed of.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

He's the one who caused a minor sensation by tattling on Todd Helton for using steroids on air, then awkwardly backed away from the claim.

[bmfc1]

Yeesh, this is the best that the Mets can come up with? A second banana from St. Louis? He's not bad (he doesn't make me ill like some others) but he's not New York quality, either. I also don't want somebody in there that was happy at the end of Game 7, 2006 NLCS. Ed Coleman's no great shakes but he's now a Mets guy. I certainly don't want a "fan" in there cheering for three hours--this isn't the Lowe's Broadcast Booth at Yankee Stadium--but I prefer somebody with at least a little blue and orange in his blood.

[Guest AG/DC]

I think Howie and Gary are as good as any booth can get with guys who are (a) historical fans and ( don't let it turn them into fools.

Ted Robinson grew up a Met fan, but he didn't last long. I was thinking I was going to get him in the parody challenge.

[Frayed Knot]

One would think that if they were inclined to go with Ed Coleman they'd have done so already. He's openly said he wants the job.

Of course, they'd then have to find a new Eddie to be Eddie.

[Benjamin Grimm]

They could choose this Eddie:

except that he's too busy suing everyone.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Not an Ed Coleman fan here. I think Sal/Ira and, um, did he get banned again? summed up his investigative work by calling him "The Enuch." PbP I suppose he doesn;t suck.

I'm thinking I could do a good job alongside Howie. Pick me.

[Frayed Knot]

Sal/Ira/Bret/Doc's problem with Coleman had to do with his reporting skills(or lack thereof). I agree that he's pretty vanilla at times, while also acknowledging that he sometimes had a delicate line to walk as he bounced between beat reporter, pre/post-game show host, and regular FAN staffer. No guy who's in the locker room every day is going to be as confrontational and opinionated as say M&MD for the same reason that Adam Rubin isn't going to tee off on some player with the same degree of freedom as Mike Lupica, or even the regular White House beat crew as compared to their op-ed commentator collegues on the Sunday talk show circuit. Howie Rose, when he used to juggle the same beat, handled it better IMO but would still occasionally catch grief from several directions as he tried to navigate the differences between when the NYM portion of the broadcast ended and the regular WFAN programming took over.

Ed has done p-b-p on a fill-in basis and is OK at it but nothing special IMO.
I'm pretty indifferent as to whether he gets the job or not. I'm just thinking that either they have no intention of picking him or he's going to look like the ultimate fall-back choice if they do.

[Frayed Knot]

In other broadcasting news;
Keith - who was previously committed to SNY only through '08 - has signed a longer-term deal (no specifics).

The entire SNY crew (Gary, Ron, Keith & Kevin Burkhardt) are now locked up for several years.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Good news!

[Gwreck]

That's, um, debatable.

[Guest AG/DC]

Hagin is the winner.

[Frayed Knot]

Meet Wayne Hagin

[metirish]

In that bit it mentions that the Mets WFAN deal is set to expire after 08, surely they won't leave the FAN , will they?

Where would they go etc?

[Guest AG/DC]

My house.

[Frayed Knot]

metirish wrote: In that bit it mentions that the Mets WFAN deal is set to expire after 08, surely they won't leave the FAN , will they?

Probably not, but it's always possible.

The MSG teams (Knicks, Rangers) left a few years back when they and FAN mgmt had a vast difference of opinion as to the worth of their broadcasting value. Basically FAN said they weren't in the business to lose money on rights fees simply for the 'prestiege' of hosting those teams and they refused to pay what MSG was asking.
So MSG decided to produce their own games and simply sell them to a station looking for an entry into the NYC market - and found one in the desperate-to-get-a-toehold ESPN affiliate (1050 WEPN).

]Where would they go etc?

Any one of a number of stations would pay good money for baseball on the radio. The question the Mets would have to ask themselves, if it ever comes to that, is whether whatever extra money they might score from shopping themselves around would be worth losing the reflected exposure by being associated with the 800-pound gorilla of sports radio stations.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I don't care where they go, as long as the station has a powerful signal that I can pick up in Southeastern Pennsylvania as easily as I can WFAN.

I think WABC (770) and WCBS (880) would qualify. I'm not sure of any others.

I doubt that WCBS would want to commit to broadcasting 162 games.

And does WABC still do Yankee games? I thought I heard something about them moving but I don't remember for sure.

[Guest AG/DC]

I imagine, if the Mets were shopping around, WFAN would go hog wild trying to get the Yankees on board to replace them as signature programming.

[nymr83]

]I think WABC (770) and WCBS (880) would qualify. I'm not sure of any others. I doubt that WCBS would want to commit to broadcasting 162 games. And does WABC still do Yankee games? I thought I heard something about them moving but I don't remember for sure.

WCBS (880) does Yankee games. WABC (770) is conservative talk radio, so you'd have Sean Hannity, baseball, and then Laura Ingram.

[metirish]

The FAN now does NJ Devils games with Matt Loughlin of all people on pbp.

[Frayed Knot]

Yanx moved to CBS 880 from ABC 770 a couple years back.

I believe ABC still does some "minor" sports (Seton Hall hoops I think) but I'm not sure whether they'd want to blow a hole in their evening talkers' lineup (Mark Levin, Bob Grant and blondie Laura whatshername would be most affected) on an every night basis like they'd have to do for baseball.

The weak signal problem was one side-effect to the Knicks/Rangers (and Jets) move to 1050. The quickly found out that there are a ton of "dead" areas where that signal doesn't carry well (the main reason why the fledgling WFAN got outta there quickly when 660 became available). That frequency now has signed up smaller stations on the east end of LI, for instance, to reach previously unreachable fans.
If 1050 could prove to that they can cover a wider area they would kill to have baseball.

[seawolf17]

I lose 1050 a lot... I'd hate to see the Mets leave WFAN, but as long as they're on a clear-channel station, I don't terribly care.

[Gwreck]

There are 5 clear-channel stations in the NY Area:

660 WFAN
710 WOR
770 WABC
880 WCBS
1130 WBBR

[Guest AG/DC]

Isn't clear channel a mafia?

[Fman99]

I get them on XM as I'm too far from NYC.

XM always uses the home broadcasters... so I get to hear other teams' radio squads on road trips. They vary in quality.

[Gwreck]

AG/DC wrote: Isn't clear channel a mafia?

Two different terms.

"Clear-channel" is an adjective as to how the AM frequency is broadcast. Basically it means that nobody else can broadcast on that particular frequency within 10,000 miles, or something like that.

"Clear Channel" is a private monopolistic evil company.

[Guest AG/DC]

Gotcha.

Me so thick.

[Guest Kong76]

And these stations have licenses to broadcast at the maximum number of
watts (power) allowed by the government (FCC?) which is 50,000 watts.

Amazing in these days of satellites and a global computer network that this
old stuff still matters.

[metsmarathon]

Frayed Knot wrote: Yanx moved to CBS 880 from ABC 770 a couple years back. I believe ABC still does some "minor" sports (Seton Hall hoops I think) but I'm not sure whether they'd want to blow a hole in their evening talkers' lineup (Mark Levin, Bob Grant and blondie Laura whatshername would be most affected) on an every night basis like they'd have to do for baseball. The weak signal problem was one side-effect to the Knicks/Rangers (and Jets) move to 1050. The quickly found out that there are a ton of "dead" areas where that signal doesn't carry well (the main reason why the fledgling WFAN got outta there quickly when 660 became available). That frequency now has signed up smaller stations on the east end of LI, for instance, to reach previously unreachable fans. If 1050 could prove to that they can cover a wider area they would kill to have baseball.

1050 needs to do something about that damned toronto chum station... friggin oldies is all i friggin get! um, or enlist help that i can receive in NW jersey.