Trail Blazers & Rip City Radio Reach New Deal
Joe DeCamara & Jon Ritchie Reveal Contributors To New WIP Morning Show
As the days countdown to tip-off for the new 2015-16 NBA season, the Portland Trail Blazers and iHeartMedia-Portland, owners of Rip City Radio 620-AM, have announced a multi-year agreement to continue broadcasting Trail Blazers games. Trail Blazers President & CEO Chris McGowan and Robert Dove, President for iHeartMedia-Portland, revealed the finalized agreement today as the Trail Blazers prepare for their season opener on October 28 at Moda Center versus the New Orleans Pelicans.
The agreement also continues the on-air talents of Brian Wheeler and Antonio Harvey as broadcast tandem for the 31 cities and 19 stations along the Trail Blazers Radio Network. Wheeler is beginning his 18th season as the play-by-play voice of the Trail Blazers, while NBA veteran and former Trail Blazers player Harvey steps to the microphone as analyst for his 11th season. Terms of the agreement call for all preseason, 82 regular season and any postseason games to be broadcasted by network affiliates, and includes other marketing and promotional considerations.
"We've enjoyed a solid relationship with iHeartMedia-Portland as our primary radio partner," said McGowan. "Reaching this new agreement as we begin our 46th season as an NBA franchise will continue to provide our amazing fans in Portland, and across Oregon and Southwest Washington, with radio access to every Trail Blazers game."
"I'm thrilled with this new agreement and having the opportunity to expand our Portland Trail Blazers coverage to the NBA's greatest fans," Dove said. "For all things Blazers, make sure you tune into Rip City Radio 620 and Go Blazers!"
Credit to the Trail Blazers who originally published this article
Related Topics:BroadcastbroadcastingJason Barretton-airPortland RadioPortland Trail BlazersProgrammingradio newsRip City RadioRip City Radio 620sports mediaSports Media Newssports radiotalk radio
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"Angelo for many, many years has had a wonderful team. And obviously we're indebted to what he did for all the years putting everything together."
The Philadelphia Eagles postseason run will determine how much longer Angelo Cataldi hosts his morning show on 94 WIP. While hosts Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie wait in the wings to take the reins from Angelo, they took time on Wednesday to reveal the rest of the cast of contributors and fill-in hosts for the new WIP morning show.
"Angelo for many, many years has had a wonderful team. And obviously we're indebted to what he did for all the years putting everything together," DeCamara said. "We want to just sort of duplicate it at a similar level of success and longevity. And to do that you want to put together a group that you really believe in and want to have a great shot with and entertain people for years."
DeCamara and Ritchie revealed that longtime morning contributors Rhea Hughes and Joe Weachter will continue to serve in their capacities. DeCamara said he's excited to work with such a tenured producer and have him and producer James Seltzer collaborate.
"Everybody cares about Joe, because he's been such a huge part of Angelo's show for so many years behind the scenes as the producer," DeCamara said. "He's gonna be producing this show in addition to helping James out. And we got ambitious plans for social media and ways we can get Joe involved in all sorts of ways to help present our show to the public. So that'll be a big part of it."
WIP newcomer Devan Kaney will also be a regular on the morning show. DeCamara also announced Philly sports media legend Ray Didinger will also be heard at certain points.
As for insiders and contributors to discussions on the Philly sports teams, it was announced former Phillies TV analyst Ruben Amaro, former Phils announcer Ben Davis, former Eagles linebacker Seth Joyner and Ron Jaworski will be in the lineup.
Ritchie said having someone like Amaro on to talk baseball is going to be a great chance to soak up as much knowledge as possible.
"You know so much, and I feel like I'm gonna learn so much from you," he said. "And I think we're all so fortunate."
Additionally, comedian Joe Conklin will be added to keep things lively and fun.
"You were just trying to play music and not ignore the fans. Still don't think it was a great speech, but again, you're the biggest football hero in Georgia football history."
Wednesday's edition of The Steakhouse was one Atlanta sports fans were waiting for. Late Tuesday night, Steak Shapiro took to Twitter to promise that he would address Stetson Bennett IV's reaction to his criticism of the way the quarterback behaved at Georgia's National Championship parade on Saturday.
"The notion is that Steak was basically roasted," he said of the coverage the social media spat received. "He was put on the grill and taken to task."
Shapiro had tweeted that he did not think it was a good look for Bennett to be on his phone during the championship parade and that his speech seemed more about settling old grudges than it was about celebrating the team or the fans. In a message on Twitter, which began by addressing Shapiro as "Mr. Med Rare", Bennett explained that he was using his phone to play music in the car he was riding in. He was not ignoring the moment or the fans.
After giving Bennett credit for coming up with a funny nickname, Steak Shapiro said that he was surprised that the quarterback took the criticism so personally.
"My job is to give an opinion. I didn't think it was that inflammatory. I didn't think it was that dramatic."
He added that has no problem with Stetson's disdain for the media. He just thought the parade should have been about the fans and the accomplishment rather than Stetson Bennett IV trying to settle old grudges. Still, Shapiro wanted to make it clear that he does not hate the Georgia quarterback. He remains one of Bennett's most vocal fans.
"On three or four occasions, I was lambasted because I said I thought he was the greatest player in Georgia history, and I said that before he won the national title," Shapiro said. "I said that when they had the undefeated regular season, and then people started saying 'stop saying that about Stetson' or 'Stetson's overrated'. I just kinda had his back the entire year and probably had his back the last two years. I just didn't think Saturday was a great day. That is what I have been saying, and I stand by it. I just didn't think it was a great-looking day."
Steak Shapiro did offer an apology to Bennett. He said that if the quarterback was just trying to play music on his phone, that isn't that big of a deal, and if he had known that is what was happening, his reaction may have been different.
"My bad," he concluded. "You were just trying to play music and not ignore the fans. Still don't think it was a great speech, but again, you're the biggest football hero in Georgia football history. You're one of the iconic sports figures — maybe number one — in a town of Hank Aaron, and Chipper Jones, and Domonique Wilkins, and Matt Ryan, and Deion Sanders. You're probably number one all time."
"Learning under skilled leaders such as Terry Foxx, Sean Thompson, Reggie Rouse, and Mike Conti helped prepare Gebhardt for the next step."
Sactown Sports 1140 has found their next program director. After an extensive search, GM Steve Cottingim and Bonneville Sacramento's Group Director of Programming Chad Rufer have found their next leader in Atlanta, GA, tabbing Brian Gebhardt to guide the brand's programming department.
Gebhardt heads west to join Bonneville Sacramento after enjoying over seven years of success at 92.9 The Game. He has served recently as the Executive Producer of the 'Andy & Randy' show featuring Randy McMichael and Andy Bunker. During his time with the Atlanta sports station, Gebhardt has learned under skilled leaders such as Terry Foxx, Sean Thompson, Reggie Rouse, and Mike Conti. Those experiences prepared Gebhardt for the next step, as did working with numerous on-air talents who have helped The Game become a model of consistency in Georgia.
"Brian's experience working with both premiere talent and professional sports franchises will help us help the Sactown Sports brand grow both on-air and on-line ," said Cottingim.
"Brian demonstrated to us a real passion for leading extraordinary talent," shared Rufer. "We are very confident that he will help us grow Sactown Sports into Sacramento's premiere sports brand."
"I can't wait to get started and I am beyond excited to be working with Bonneville," added Gebhardt.
The hiring of the Georgia native as new PD allows Nick Cattles to focus exclusively on hosting the station's afternoon show, a role he's wanted to invest more time. Cattles joined Sactown Sports in November 2021 and has pulled double duty since arriving in Northern California. He hired Ramie Makhlouf as his afternoon drive co-host and the duo have built a solid foundation in afternoons. Having the ability now to focus solely on the show should allow Cattles and Ramie to elevate their program even more.
The first day on the job for Gebhardt will be Monday February 3rd. Depending on what develops with the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC playoffs, there's a possibility he could be walking into two straight weeks of Super Bowl planning. Regardless, Gebhardt has a new market to learn, a new team to meet, a new company to deliver results for, and an opportunity to take a big step in his radio career.