I just finished watching the Sports Media Special on HBO that was hosted by Bob Costas. I thought the show, as a whole, was extremely well done. My biggest complaint is that there wasn’t more time for each panel to discuss certain issues, but, as a sports fan, and a person who is extremely interested in all of these issues, I’ll take what I can get.

It was refreshing though to hear what some of the titans in each industry had to say, in an open forum. A few quick thoughts, before I go into each specific subject that was discussed in the special.

Bob Costas is the best sportscaster in the business. Period. He knows everything, and has the clout to pull off something like this.

Why in the heck wasn’t there a panel discussion on newspapers? I guess the Internet portion was supposed to cover that, but still, why couldn’t the producers have fit in 10 minutes for a panel discussion on where newspapers, specifically sports pages, are headed.

I liked the idea of a town-hall style forum, but I always thought the point of a town hall style forum was so that people in the audience could say something. Not only did no one in the audience get to say anything, but it seemed pointless to even have an audience, a lot of the stuff they did on the show could have been done in a studio.

Now, a quick thought on each topic…

Sports Radio: I think that sports radio, except in the large markets, is on a serious decline. The money just simply isn’t there. More and more stations are going with national programs all the time. In many cities, there is just the drive time host, and that’s it.

Now, this isn’t to say that sports talk radio can’t be profitable, because I believe it can. The difference is, I think that the Internet will become more and more important to sports-talk radio. A host, especially in a local market, must be able to use the Internet to his or her advantage, and draw listeners, readers to that station or that site in other ways.

Internet: Blogs are here to stay. That’s why I finally started one of my own. I think any writer, young or old, would be stupid in this day and age not to keep a blog. I didn’t always think this way, but in the last few years, I have realized that most people my age, (myself included) get their news from blogs, and websites…not newspapers.

If this portion of the program taught me anything, it was that newspapers, specifically sports pages in those newspapers, are going to be obsolete in lots of markets across the country in the coming years.

Television: I felt like I got some good information out of this part of the program, but all I kept thinking was how pompous and arrogant Joe Buck, Dan Patrick, and to a lesser extent Mike Tirico seemed. All three men are extremely smart, and like Costas, well-versed in a lot of topics, but it felt like they were afraid to say something they were going to regret.

Bottom line here, ESPN is massive, and until someone figures out how to compete with them, which I don’t think will happen for a while, that is not going to change….like Don Ohlmeyer said…”They have all the gold.”

Athletes and the Media: I agreed with a lot of what was said during this segment, specifically when it came to writers being nice to an athlete one second, and then ripping them after they walk away. For that reason, and probably many others, athletes don’t trust the media. But, as Selena Roberts pointed out, athletes now have handlers and a wall between them and the media these days, which makes it harder for writers/reporters to connect to them on a personal level.

I’m not saying I blame the athletes for wanting some protection, in the form of a PR person, or a marketing guru, I’m just saying that there are some journalists who would just like the chance to talk to you as human being, and are not trying to make you look bad all the time.

Race and Sports: I thought Cris Carter said it best when he said that people don’t want to talk about race. I agree with him. You just can’t win when you talk about race right now in America.