Steve Czaban Commentary on ESPN's DREAMJOB

Hmmmmmm, would Steve Czaban come back to Charlotte and work for Bob Johnson's new Regional Sports Network ? ? ? ? Just wondering . . .


================


Dream Job, Or Sportscasting Sweatshop? - 03/09/04

ESPN Blues

Don’t know if you have been watching ESPN’s “Dream Job” but it’s pretty safe to say that nobody currently on SportsCenter should lose any sleep. Aside from a distinct lack of noticeable or natural talent from this crop of wanna-be Johnny Booya’s, the show itself has none of the admittedly manufactured “drama” of good reality shows.

More importantly, the concept that the winner has landed a “Dream Job” is debatable in and of itself. Sure, for a guy stacking boxes or a girl answering phones, yeah, it’s a dream job. But for those in the TV business, ESPN is hardly nirvana in Connecticut. In fact, ESPN has a long track record of negotiating hard “take it or leave it deals” with their talent. Why? Because they can. And I don’t blame them for it, its good business for the company. The “big four red letters” are the star. The brand endures, no matter who is shouting “boo-yah!” So why overpay? I know several people who have worked for ESPN in the TV side, and they all attest that every anchor is living week to week, waiting to see the schedule and whether they are on SportsCenter, or relegated to the AAA club for rehab (aka: ESPNews). The call-ups and send-downs from SC to News are often whimsical, and without explanation. Often, what seem like rising stars on SportsCenter, disappear altogether, or get sent back to News for shifts for no apparent reason.

For example, Trey Wingo had been a feature on the 6 p.m. SC for quite some time. The other day, I look up and see Wingo, and he’s on News in the middle of the day. WTF? I like him, he’s good. Remember the nerdy and bland Bob Stevens? He too was a SC staple in the evening, and I haven’t seen him since. Neil Everett is pretty good, and slightly different from the typical SC mold, and yet he can’t seem to stick with the “big club.” What anybody sees in Steve Berthiaume above being a ‘News guy, is beyond me, yet he’s getting a lot of SC run these days. Another thing, ever notice how many big guns have to work weekends at ESPN? Must be great for family life. Poor Mike Greenberg, this guy does a four hour radio show in the morning, and then also does SC at night some days. What, does he sleep in his office? Oh yeah, never mind. Only the biggest of the ESPN honchos have an actual office. Guys like Berman. Almost everyone else is in a cubicle, like glorified Dilberts. A lot of the TV talent ESPN has in house, is really good. But the sheer numbers almost makes it like a bushel of crabs, with everybody trying to desperately claw each other’s eyes out to get to the top.

Dream Job? You’ll have to ask somebody who has worked there for that answer.

 

Wouldn't Czaban love to come back to Charlotte and kick FNZ'z ass in ratings

 

that would be nice... 610 has been going downhill since he left.

 

I've heard from a pretty good source that Steve & WFNZ Mgmt. made up recently down in Houston (they bumped into each other on Radio Row at the SUPER BOWL I surmise) . . . If this is true, perhaps there can be peace in the middle east eventually !!!!!!

 

Czabe's got a good job in DC and is heard of Fox Sports Radio on XM Radio. He ain't coming back.

I listen to him alot and he seems happy where he is.

 

Kellogg did him a favor by firing him. Coming here from 1-on-1 was almost as big a career killer as Keith Olbermann going to MSNBC and talking about Monica Lewinsky for a year.

He is really talented, still relatively young (35 or so), and should probably be on a show like the Sports Reporters, where he would be a good counterweight to whiny liberals like Albom and Kornheiser. Of course calling ESPN a sports-anchor mill probably won't help his chances if he ever wanted to do that. I guess he does have a tendency to rock the boat a bit, as evidenced by his stormy tenure here.

 

Keith Obermann does a great show that few people watch named "Countdown"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/