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Some leftovers before the Memorial Day weekend holiday:
* I’m not so sure that the applications for Rick Jeanneret’s job as the voice of the Buffalo Sabres will spike after Thursday’s announcement that he is cutting down his road schedule and only will work about 50-55 regular season games next season.
It’s a great deal for Jeanneret, who gets to call the shots because he is Buffalo icon. I wonder if Jim Lorentz would still be doing color commentary if he got the same deal a few years back.
I’m sure many of Jeanneret’s fans are thrilled that he’ll be around as the Terry Pegula era enters its first full regular season.
But what quality NHL radio play-by-play man (or woman) would apply this season to fill Jeanneret’s shoes to work a part-time schedule of 25-30 games and that wouldn’t include any playoff games?
The Sabres surely would have to give Jeanneret’s replacement another job in the organization and a guarantee about when he would be taking over for the 68-year-old legend. That would require Jeanneret to give the Sabres a date for his retirement, something I wouldn’t be so sure he is willing to do if he hasn’t already.
The job isn’t attractive for another reason – no one wants to replace a legend. It is better to be the second person to replace a legend.
Since it is going to be a part-time job, it is more likely that the Sabres will go in-house this season unless Team President Ted Black has someone in mind that he has followed in his years in the league.
I am a Facebook friend of former Channel 4 anchor Mylous Hairston, who suggested pre-game, intermission and post-game host Kevin Sylvester do the games that Jeanneret doesn’t do this season.
Since Sylvester already is on the Sabres payroll that would make sense this season, and Hairston got support for his plan. Long-term, I can’t see it being the answer. Sylvester is excellent as a host of the Sabres broadcast, average as a play-by-play man.
WGR’s Paul Hamilton also is getting support, but his full-time job is to be an objective reporter, a role that can be a contradictory to a play-by-play man these days.
A third candidate being mentioned — Rick’s son, Mark (who does Portland games) — was an unpopular Facebook choice. Some of the comments about him were pretty brutal.
When Jeanneret does retire, bigger names are likely to surface with Buffalo ties. Former Buffalo broadcaster Pete Weber (TV) and Buffalo native Tom Callahan (radio) do play-by-play for the Nashville Predators. It wouldn’t be shocking if they were mentioned as candidates even if they’re
not interested.
The Buffalo News reported today that the Sabres and WGR would consider having separate radio and TV announce teams for the games without Jeanneret.
That would come at some cost, which probably means that Pegula would have to open up his check book and the Sabres would pay. I can’t see the need for that.
While many fans are celebrating the fact that Jeanneret is staying on board, the situation does have some potential problems.
What would happen if Black brings in a new guy and he is impressive enough to have some fans thinking the unthinkable – that he should replace Jeanneret?
As popular as Jeanneret is, he seems to be putting the Marv Levy philosophy (“once you’re thinking of retiring, you are already retired”) to a test and he has some Facebook critics.
All right, it was just a thought. I can’t really see much of a chance of that happening.
* Talk about Election Night upsets, Channel 7 won the 11 p.m. local news battle the night that Democrat Kathy Hochul won the race for the 26th Congressional District.
The local ABC affiliate — which usually is a poor third in news ratings — rode the coattails of the lead-in it received from “Dancing with the Stars” to victory. “Stars” averaged a 17.9 rating in the final 15 minutes on Channel 7 when Hines Ward and Kym Johnson (see above) were crowned champs, which was about triple what its rival stations averaged then.
Eyewitness News started the 11 p.m. news with a 10.6 rating that slipped about one-third to a 7.2 at 11:15 p.m. for an 8.9 average. Channel 4 started with a 9.0 at 11 p.m. and lost 10 percent to an 8.1 rating at 11:15 for an average of 8.6. Channel 2 had a 7.5 at 11 p.m. and gained slightly to a
7.6 at 11:15.
* To those who asked: Channel 23’s new 8 a.m. show “Wingin It! Buffalo Style” had a 1.5 rating in its first sweeps period, down only slightly from the 1.6 rating the station had a year ago when it carried another hour of “Wake Up!” Of course, the program isn’t about ratings, it is about making its advertisers happy.
* You may have read in the Buffalo News that VH-1 President Tom Calderone is a
Buffalo native. Not so. He is a graduate of Buffalo State College who is originally from my native Long Island. Of course, after you spend so much time in Buffalo it is easy to feel like a WNY native. I certainly do.
Alan Pergament was the television critic for The Buffalo News for 28 years. He currently is an adjunct professor at Buffalo State College and Medaille College, teaching courses in communications. He also writes a monthly column on the media for Buffalo Spree magazine.
