The impending death of Bally Sports

[lordstanley]

3 hours ago, oblong said:

I could easily pick up a station out of Chicago, (1000 AM?) in the 90's and sometimes if it were a clear night a station out of St. Louis.  KMOX?

 

Here's the sports radio dial that was accessible to me at night in the '80s.

670 - WMAQ - Chicago - White Sox

700 - WLW Cincinnati - Reds 

760 - WJR Detroit

770 - WABC New York - Yankees

1000 - WCFL Chicago - Blackhawks games for a year or two. Also had a weekly late night sex show that pre-dated Dr. Ruth.

1120 - KMOX St. Louis - Cardinals (strong signal but Sarnia had a station at 1110 that often interfered)

I used to also get LSU Tigers football on Saturday nights and Kentucky Wildcats basketball, but for both I forget from where on the dial.

[Shinzaki]

I've been a fan of pro wrestling since I was a kid (don't judge me).  In the pre internet days, WFAN in New York had an hour of wrestling news on at like 2AM Sundays.  It was the only source of wrestling news out there that I knew of.  I would often tune in on my way home form the bars/girlfriend's house.    We were in a collective tizzy when the rumor that Ric Flair was in Toronto for Wrestlemania in 1990...was he leaving WCW for the WWF?

Good times....

 

 

[CMRivdogs]

The 80's cable systems also had the opportunity to watch teams on a regular basis. The Cubs on WGN, Braves on WSB (?) Ted Turner owned the station and the team. Same with the Cubs...The Tribune Company had control of WGN-AM and TV. There was also the Mets broadcast out of N.Y. in the Strawberry, Gooden hay day. There always seemed to be an afternoon game somewhere and gave the fans out of the metro areas to pick a team. 
 

Living in SE VA we had the Mets AAA team in the Tides as well as the Braves AAA guys in Richmond. That also contributed to an interest. 
 

Also the "Super Stations" as they were billed were over the air broadcasts they weren't blacked out in the home cities.

 

[CMRivdogs]

4 minutes ago, Shinzaki said:

I've been a fan of pro wrestling since I was a kid (don't judge me).  In the pre internet days, WFAN in New York had an hour of wrestling news on at like 2AM Sundays.  It was the only source of wrestling news out there that I knew of.  I would often tune in on my way home form the bars/girlfriend's house.    We were in a collective tizzy when the rumor that Ric Flair was in Toronto for Wrestlemania in 1990...was he leaving WCW for the WWF?

Good times....

 

 

My grandfather was a big fan of studio wrestling. Always on Saturday afternoons. I kind of picked up the habit for a while. We had the SE version (WCW) ??? Rick Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Anderson Brothers....the whole Jim Crockett group. I never really got involved with following the WWF

 

[oblong]

1 hour ago, Shinzaki said:

I've been a fan of pro wrestling since I was a kid (don't judge me).  In the pre internet days, WFAN in New York had an hour of wrestling news on at like 2AM Sundays.  It was the only source of wrestling news out there that I knew of.  I would often tune in on my way home form the bars/girlfriend's house.    We were in a collective tizzy when the rumor that Ric Flair was in Toronto for Wrestlemania in 1990...was he leaving WCW for the WWF?

Good times....

 

 

Flair came close to joining the WWF in 1988. I think summerslam was going to be his intro. 

[Shinzaki]

Bally just sent me a "please come back" email.  They'll take $5 off a month...since there's no long term commitment, I think I'm back in.  It's not like I'm fronting them for a year while they're literally going bankrupt

[Sports_Freak]

4 hours ago, Shinzaki said:

Bally just sent me a "please come back" email.  They'll take $5 off a month...since there's no long term commitment, I think I'm back in.  It's not like I'm fronting them for a year while they're literally going bankrupt

How many devices can you stream to? I have 2 smart TVs, a tablet and a phone. And how do you like their service?

[Shinzaki]

12 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

How many devices can you stream to? I have 2 smart TVs, a tablet and a phone. And how do you like their service?

I know none of those details...I had it for a month or so...got rid of it because I wasn't watching as much as I thought I would. But with the Wings in the playoff hunt...I'll probably revisit it.

[Screwball]

On 2/21/2023 at 7:46 AM, casimir said:

One would think trying to watch a ball game on TV would be easy given the current technology if one has the cash for it.

One would think so.  I've had Direct TV since 1998 or 99. I bought the sports package to get FSD so I could watch the Tigers, and paid extra for the NFL Sunday Ticket (so I'm not forced to watch the Cleveland Clowns every Sunday), but over the years DTV has gotten way too expensive so I want to drop it for something else.

The something else is where it gets complicated. I have decent streaming speeds (250-350 when I check) so I have choices like Hulu or YouTubeTV, but the channels are different of course. Each package have channels I want, but also some I can't get.

Sunday ticket is going to YouTube TV, but there is little information as of yet as far cost. Hulu has the ESPN+ which I use to watch basketball. This is part of a $11 sports pack. YouTube TV does not offer this, but I could still by it through ESPN.  Hulu has MavTV, YouTube TV does not without the sports package.  That doesn't even get to the MLB stuff that neither seem to offer, so I guess you go through MLB and buy something.

So you end up with an internet cable bill, a provider bill (Hulu or YouTube TV), a sports package charge, a MLB package bill, and the NFL Sunday ticket bill. So you could have 5 different subscriptions and bills to deal with - instead of one. And it all probably changes again in 5 years.

That's kind of ala carte but a long way to get there.  And don't get me started on the torture of cancelling Direct TV. 

[Tigeraholic1]

29 minutes ago, Screwball said:

One would think so.  I've had Direct TV since 1998 or 99. I bought the sports package to get FSD so I could watch the Tigers, and paid extra for the NFL Sunday Ticket (so I'm not forced to watch the Cleveland Clowns every Sunday), but over the years DTV has gotten way too expensive so I want to drop it for something else.

The something else is where it gets complicated. I have decent streaming speeds (250-350 when I check) so I have choices like Hulu or YouTubeTV, but the channels are different of course. Each package have channels I want, but also some I can't get.

Sunday ticket is going to YouTube TV, but there is little information as of yet as far cost. Hulu has the ESPN+ which I use to watch basketball. This is part of a $11 sports pack. YouTube TV does not offer this, but I could still by it through ESPN.  Hulu has MavTV, YouTube TV does not without the sports package.  That doesn't even get to the MLB stuff that neither seem to offer, so I guess you go through MLB and buy something.

So you end up with an internet cable bill, a provider bill (Hulu or YouTube TV), a sports package charge, a MLB package bill, and the NFL Sunday ticket bill. So you could have 5 different subscriptions and bills to deal with - instead of one. And it all probably changes again in 5 years.

That's kind of ala carte but a long way to get there.  And don't get me started on the torture of cancelling Direct TV. 

I have had Directv since around 2001, only way I can get Tigers in Indiana. Recently switched to Directv stream and its great. I get Bally in basic package. There units are all wireless, sent one with my daughter at school in Chicago. $120 a month... It sucked that Sunday tix was not offered but now available through app next year is nice.

[Tiger337]

On 2/21/2023 at 12:23 PM, lordstanley said:

Here's the sports radio dial that was accessible to me at night in the '80s.

670 - WMAQ - Chicago - White Sox

700 - WLW Cincinnati - Reds 

760 - WJR Detroit

770 - WABC New York - Yankees

1000 - WCFL Chicago - Blackhawks games for a year or two. Also had a weekly late night sex show that pre-dated Dr. Ruth.

1120 - KMOX St. Louis - Cardinals (strong signal but Sarnia had a station at 1110 that often interfered)

I used to also get LSU Tigers football on Saturday nights and Kentucky Wildcats basketball, but for both I forget from where on the dial.

I had access to Boston, Detroit, New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia,St. Louis (really far away, but a strong signal), Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cincinnati.  On really good nights, I could get Atlanta and Chicago.  I remember really getting excited when I got Minnesota once, but that was an oddity.  

[lordstanley]

25 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

I had access to Boston, Detroit, New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia,St. Louis (really far away, but a strong signal), Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cincinnati.  On really good nights, I could get Atlanta and Chicago.  I remember really getting excited when I got Minnesota once, but that was an oddity.  

I forgot about Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, got both, with Philly being very strong.

[Shinzaki]

I listened to 3WE out of Cleveland a lot when I was in HS.  Pete Franklin was entertainingly obnoxious to 16 year-old me

[Tiger337]

2 hours ago, lordstanley said:

I forgot about Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, got both, with Philly being very strong.

Yes it was.  I heard a lot of Harry Kalas.  

[Tiger337]

1 hour ago, Shinzaki said:

I listened to 3WE out of Cleveland a lot when I was in HS.  Pete Franklin was entertainingly obnoxious to 16 year-old me

I liked Pete Franklin too.  He was one of the first of those kind of sports talk show hosts.  It was funny when he did it.  Now, that kind of thing has gotten really old and common place.   

[chasfh]

3 hours ago, Shinzaki said:

I listened to 3WE out of Cleveland a lot when I was in HS.  Pete Franklin was entertainingly obnoxious to 16 year-old me

"Pigskin Pete predicts ..."

[chasfh]

I accidentally refer to Pete Davidson as "Pete Franklin" an embarrassingly high percentage of the time.

[Biff Mayhem]

13 hours ago, chasfh said:

I accidentally refer to Pete Davidson as "Pete Franklin" an embarrassingly high percentage of the time.

Your embarrassment should stem from referencing Pete Davidson.

[chasfh]

Just now, Biff Mayhem said:

Your embarrassment should stem from referencing Pete Davidson.

Ha ha, I know, right? But that’s how deeply embedded Pete Franklin is in my psyche from hearing him as a kid that I keep trying to repurpose Pete Davidson’s name into Franklin’s.

[oblong]

Pete Davidson is the modern day Greg Allman... an ugly dude that certain women are attracted to.

 

[Jim Cowan]

I'll give Pete Davidson credit for making me laugh once.  He was talking about how inconvenient it was to be living with his mother and his sister, and he'd already been caught masturbating twice.  "But who walks into the kitchen without knocking, right?"

[Edman85]

8 hours ago, Biff Mayhem said:

Your embarrassment should stem from referencing Pete Davidson.

This is something I just don't get, his fame.

[Tenacious D]

He’s made a career out of his self-deprecating humor and banging all of the Hollywood hotties. I like him, but agree that his actual talent is not particularly evident.  Has to be near the bottom of the all-time SNL performers.

[Edman85]

7 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

He’s made a career out of his self-deprecating humor and banging all of the Hollywood hotties. I like him, but agree that his actual talent is not particularly evident.  Has to be near the bottom of the all-time SNL performers.

I dispute them being hotties, but I digress. 

[Tenacious D]

Emily Ratjkowski, Kate Beckinsale, Kaia Gerber, Arianna Grande…all dogs.