I'm pleased to share news about a pair of projects that I'm very excited about. There are two new projects that I am getting involved in and look forward to your feedback and participation in these processes.
First, I have recently agreed to add to my Examiner.com title of Los Angeles Kings Examiner the new position of Los Angeles Dodgers Examiner. I've had two tremendous years being associated with Examiner, and it has opened many doors for me both personally and professionally. The Kings organization has been as courteous and professional as I've ever dealt with the sports world, especially the trio of media relations guys Jeff Moller, Mike Kalinowski and Jeremy Zager.
I look forward to continuing to provide Kings' fans with the best coverage that they've come to expect from me. The addition of my Dodgers duties will not deter from my passion for the sport of hockey and my coverage of the Kings, and I am excited about continuing my writing about the Kings.
I am also energized and motivated to bring an equal amount of passionate writing about the Dodgers. My goal is to mirror what I've done with the Kings pieces in Examiner: to be precise and accurate in my reporting, to straddle the line between journalist and fan - leading towards the former but not ignoring the latter, and to bring unique story angles that others are not covering. I have followed baseball my entire life, growing up a Mets fan in New Jersey, but I am honored to be associated on even the most seemingly abstract manner with an organization as storied and tradition-filled as the Dodgers. I will be posting my first story later this week, so be sure to follow me on Twitter or Facebook so you can get the latest articles from me about two of L.A.'s biggest sports franchises.
Second bit of news will take place later today when I take part in the taping of a pilot episode for a proposed weekly Internet-based sports talk video series called This Week In SoCal Sports. The folks at ThisWeekIn.com have developed several outstanding programs that are available each week to watch from their website. The majority of these programs at the moment are "techie" type shows, but they also have a weekly chat show hosted by actor/comedian Kevin Pollak, and a show about start-up companies with Jason Calacanis. And I should point out that those techie shows I mentioned are actually quite good too. This Week in YouTube morphed from the Mahalo Daily podcast and features my buddy Lon Harris who puts the cool in snarkiness. This Week in Cloud Computing with Mark Jeffrey and the talented Amanda Coolong as co-host.
The idea and concept behind This Week in SoCal Sports is to present a one-hour live format that showcases all of what's happening in the sports scene around Greater Los Angeles. This means not just the big four sports league teams and the two major university sports programs here in town, though we will talk about them to be sure. We will talk about all of the other collegiate athletic programs in the area, provide coverage of amateur sports and those sports that only get occasional 'big event' mentioning like horse racing, boxing, track and field, swimming, and more.
High school sports seem to get some play in this market, but understandably the over-the-air locals can't devote a whole lot of time to them, and the cable nets don't see the upside for a show like this. But I do, and the forum that we're proposing will allow us to find a niche audience that is being vastly under served.
The show will include me and my co-host, Charles Smith from Hockey Talk, giving opinions and commentary on the major sports stories each week. Our spotlight segment will include live in-studio or via-Skype/phone interviews with people you'll want to get to know, as well as 'feature story' styled pieces. Our roundtable segment will include other members of the media joining us for forum-styled discussions. And by media, I don't just mean writers from the LA Times or FOX Sports Radio, although they'll be welcomed with open arms. I'm talking about credentialed and non-credentialed on-line writers and bloggers.
The show will air live every week and will feature a live chat room for viewers/listeners to ask us and our questions and make comments. In fact, another section of the show will be called the "No Huddle" segment where anyone can jump in and have one question and/or comment read live on the air for us to answer.
Additionally, some of the sport-specific correspondents from Moncrief in the Morning and having them resume those roles but in a much more localized fashion. By the way, I'm still looking to get Sunday Tailgate back on the air sometime in June, so stay tuned for that when it happens.
Tonight's 15-minute pilot taping will feature two brief guest appearances from soccer correspondent Mario Melara of the blog spot page USA Soccer News, and Los Angeles Kings sideline reporter Heidi Androl of Fox Sports West. I am excited about getting this show off the ground today and getting it into the "This Week In" rotation quickly.
As usual, I thank all of you that read my pieces on Examiner covering the Kings as well as those of you that know me personally for your continued support.
1 comment:
Nice! Now we get to talk about baseball as well as hockey. I think I like it!
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