Re: MESSAGE ID: 1EC610858

[KEVIN VAHEY <kvahey@dnsmain.vw.org>]

> 
> I remember that the Red Sox changed to WMEX and WSBK-TV after
> having been with WHDH since Time Immemorial.  Both the Channel 38
> signal and the WMEX nighttime signal were pretty bad in Bedford, prompting
> my father, who was a big sports fan, to remark, "Why is a big-league club
> doing business with minor-league stations!
> 

  Ok lets try to clean up the Red Sox timeline here......

  From 1958-1971 The Red Sox and WHDH AM-TV operated on what was in effect
a handshake deal and was renewed each year without question. First hint of
trouble came when there was a nasty tech strike around 1969 in which AFTRA
honored the picket line and leaving Sox listeners and viewers with Leo
Egan and Spike Jones.

  Now comes March 1972 and WHDH-TV would be going off the air in
mid-March. The station carried a spring training game from Winter Haven on
the last afternoon it was on the air and TV rights were switched to WBZ-TV
(4) for 3 years. 

  Now for the first time radio and tv would have seperate announcing
teams....WHDH kept Ned Martin and hired someone who didn't even make it to
the  all star break (he seemed to enjoy cold ones during the game)....and
then WHDH gave the role to Dave Martin, who would be replaced by Jim
Woods in 1974.
 
 WBZ kept Ken Coleman and Johnny Pesky and that team stay united for 3
years.

  In late 1974 the TV contract came up for bid and legend has it that the
Red Sox were still unsure of going to a UHF station. The Chicago White Sox
had switched to UHF (WFLD-TV) and  had taken a huge ratings hit (of course
the Cubs being on WGN-TV was a big part of the problem). WSBK GM Bill
Flynn walked into then Sox GM Dick O'Connell's office with a cashiers
check for $1,000,000 (unheard of price in those days) and a deal was
struck. 
 
 WSBK then brought in its own announcing team (Dick Stockton and Ken
Harrleson) and they did the games until 1978 when Stockton left for CBS
and  was replaced by Ned Martin who had been fired by WITS along with
Woods.  

 WITS brought back Coleman from Cincinnati and teamed him with Rico
Petrocelli in 1979 and the following year hired a young announcer from
California, Jon Miller.

 When WPLM got the contract, Miller was fired and Joe Castligone  was
brought in. 

 One footnote......in 1979 Ned Martin and Jim Woods did a few TV games on
the  old UA Sports Network, which would  become  USA cable.

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