Baltimore Orioles - MASN TV

[Matt]

Last year, we carried 60+ games of the Baltimore Orioles. At the end of the season last year, their TV office said that we would have the games again this year. After a springtime of hearing nothing from them, I called to find that their affilliate director had left, and the new guy in the office was not talking to me, but rather shuffled me off to a secretary, who told me that they were going to be exclusively on cable this year, but have no outlet in my market.

After getting the same treatment from his boss, and leaving many voice mails without getting response to any of them (except for one friend of the station's former owner who tells me she is powerless to influence anyone in that part of the business), I am resigned to the fact that they've decided we're worthless to their organization.

However, I'm curious to know if they've really cut off all of the stations on their network...or if they extended one more unprofessional discourtesy to me and lied about that.

I do take names!
Matt Smith, Station Manager
WGSR-TV

 

[KML0224]

Orioles games in North Carolina? I've never thought of that! Then again, New York Yankees games do air on radio in the Tampa area...

 

[ShawnHill1]

From what I read on DCRTV.com, it's going to be a dramatically reduced over-the-air schedule, with only about 20-25 games (I forget the exact number) on CBS's WJZ-TV. The O's didn't renew their over-the-air with their second outlet, WNUV, a CW affiliate. I think it's going to be one of these scenarios similar to Milwaukee and the Twin Cities, where the Brewers and Twins over-the-air telecasts are simulcast on the regional cable network (in this case, FSN North) outside of their immediate home markets.

 

[EnbyCee]

Orioles games in North Carolina? I've never thought of that! Then again, New York Yankees games do air on radio in the Tampa area...

Well, think about it, there's no MLB team anywhere between DC and Atlanta. But in these days of extensive regional cable sports nets, it's still kind of surprising that a team would be carried over the air that far away from its home city.

During an E-skip event in June 2004, I actually saw part of an O's game airing on WSKY Manteo/Kitty Hawk's now-defunct channel 4 analog signal......in the suburbs of Chicago.

 

[Matt]

We had carried the Orioles for six seasons, and had every expectation of carrying a seventh. I had also approached them about carrying the Nationals, but they wouldn't give me a definitive answer.

What galls me about this is the unprofessional way in which they let me know (or didn't) that the situation had changed. I don't know if I'll ever be in a position to return the "favor", or even if I would if I had the opportunity, but I have to keep hoping that professional relationships come down to something more than how meaty your bone is.

Oh well...perhaps Charlotte gets an MLB team one day...

Later....
Matt Smith
WGSR-TV

 

[bhayes1016]

From the Orioles' website:

Orioles games are televised exclusively by MASN, the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. Viewers in Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Delaware, North Carolina and Pennsylvania can find their MASN and MASN2 channel numbers by visiting www.masnsports.com .

Please consult our Broadcast Schedule and your local listings
for up-to-date information. Thank you.

Viewers in Baltimore will be able to watch 25 over-the-air games via "MASN on WJZ." WJZ-TV in Baltimore will serve as MASN's Baltimore affiliate and will simulcast these select games. However, all games aired outside of Baltimore can only be seen on MASN.

 

[Matt]

I've now heard that one of the other stations that has carried the Orioles for many seasons, WDBJ-7 in Roanoke, is protesting their loss of the games all the way to the Commissioner.

It seems that they were treated in EXACTLY the same way that our station was...and if no change in this arrangement is forthcoming, at least MASN's behavior in this matter will become known to the industry.

Later....
Matt Smith
WGSR-TV

 

[chuckydoll]

No OTA baseball for your station? Live with it

Like it or not that's the way pro sports are going. Several Major League Baseball clubs now have their games on cable/sat only. The Orioles are in that group.

If you can't see Orioles games every day in Reidsville this year it's because Time Warner Cable doesn't carry MASN for whatever reason.

I wouldn't go complaining all the way to Bud Selig. He has bigger fish to fry.

 

[dhett]

During an E-skip event in June 2004, I actually saw part of an O's game airing on WSKY Manteo/Kitty Hawk's now-defunct channel 4 analog signal......in the suburbs of Chicago.

The station isn't defunct. They shut off their analog signal in November 2006 with the intent of going digital-only on channel 4 from a new tower, located closer to the Hampton Roads cities. Their digital station was supposed to be ready to go this week, however on March 2nd, their tower collapsed during a storm, damaging their transmitter building.

WSKY Wikipedia article (includes references)

 

[JeeperOne]

Hi everyone:

It seems that they were treated in EXACTLY the same way that our station was...and if no change in this arrangement is forthcoming, at least MASN's behavior in this matter will become known to the industry.

Actually (And unfortunately) its not all that uncommon Matt.

Here in Denver for example, Colorado Avalanche & Denver Nuggets owner Stan Kronecke moved BOTH franchises off of FSN Rocky Mountain and onto the then-upstart Altitude Sports & Entertainment Network which he started, beginning with the first full season in which he could do so for both franchises after Altitude hit the air. This meant NO MORE Nuggets or Avs games would be seen over then-UPN affiliate KTVD 20, whom FSN was producing games for OTA broadcast.

And to add insult to injury, THIS TOOK EFFECT BEGINNING WITH THE SEASON OF THE NHL LOCKOUT. That meant that the Nuggets were only available via cable or satellite while the Avs weren't even playing at all.

After the lockout though, Altitude got into creating a second "channel", which isn't really a channel at all (At least not on Comcast) that they call "Altitude 2". This "channel" is used as a backup for their sports programming (Just last night for example it was used for a Colorado Mammoth NLL Lacrosse game). This "Altitiude 2" is on Channel 5 on Comcast (They bump Comcast's own network on that channel) and two others on DISH & DirecTV respectively.

My guess is they mainly use the channel as a syndication channel for outlets such as Comcast's channel 5 (Which is otherwise the Denver home of CET - Comcast Entertainment Television. Don't get me started on what I think of this network. Suffice to say, they're ION on steroids, but without the religion).

Anyway getting back to the subject at hand, FSN still produces games for OTA broadcast on KTVD 20 of the Colorado Rockies, though whenever the Rockies are at home and at other times as dictated by MLB and/or the big FOX network, Saturday games are usually played in the daytime EVEN IF it is FSN who carries the game (This is mainly so that the big FOX network can join the game in progress should events warrant or if they so choose for whatever reason). Aside from that, KTVD 20 has the Friday & Sunday games (Unless ESPN picks up the Sunday game for Sunday Night Baseball, which I might add they haven't done IN YEARS :-[ ).

Okay, I can see I've drifted off onto other things in addition to the thing with the Altitude Network, the Nuggets & the Avalanche. Time to post this now.

Cheers