I'm not sure if anyone in these parts realizes it, but an era in regional sports broadcasting has ended.
I've always viewed Bob Lobel as a sportscaster you either loved or hated. More often than not, I fell into the latter category. For whatever reason, he rubbed me the wrong way, but I was clearly in the minority, because Lobel was and is revered by many sports and media fans, mainly inside I-495.
Lobel was unceremoniously dumped last week by WBZ-TV. It was a simple cost-cutting move that also claimed entertainment reporter Joyce Kulhawik—another love 'em or hate 'em type—sportscaster-turned-newshound Scott Wahle, and about 27 other people.
Of the group, Lobel was the marquee name, and, I'm guessing, the highest paid. And that, let's face it, is what's really important these days. It's not about heritage, loyalty, or even what the fans think. Lobel and his compatriots are and were casualties of a corporate media mentality that clearly favors profit over performance.
Whether there were grounds to dump Lobel for performance reasons will be a topic of debate for some time. But it's moments like these that I really wonder about the future of broadcast media in today's corporate culture. I'm probably peeing in my own pool by saying this as I work for a media corporation, but I continue to be struck and appalled by the willingness of corporate fat cats to toss aside talented personalities just to save a couple of bucks.
I'm guessing that in Lobel's case it was more than that, because he was one of WBZ's signature stars. But it doesn't change the fact that, in the minds of the bean counters, good broadcasters are not assets but expenses that they will make any excuse to trim. And the talent that does remain is largely homogenous, since the last thing the fat cats want is a "star" on the payroll—because one day that star may want to actually share in the profits, and who needs that?
That "anti-star" attitude is especially prevalent here in the western region, where the TV powers-that-be waved goodbye to the concept of personality a long time ago. But forget personalities—comprehensive sports coverage is an idea that also appears to have jumped the Valley shark. Make no mistake, I think the Springfield TV sports guys do the best they can with the resources they have. But those resources are limited and ever-dwindling, and no one seems to care.
Gone are the days when you had an anchor/reporter and a cameraman at local high school sporting events during the regular season. Now, in these days of multi-tasking, the reporters double as camera guys and are only out and about during the playoffs or on Friday nights during football season, when they still do the occasional highlight show. Beyond that, local coverage is minimal, as is the amount of nightly newscast air time that gets devoted to sports.
I have no doubt that area news directors view the limited amount of coverage devoted to sports as a waste of good candlepower. That attitude is also immensely shortsighted, but then again, these are the same geniuses who thought it would be a good idea to make the weather guys the personality centerpiece of every newscast, a role that used to be the sole province of the sportscaster.
That's the cache Lobel brought to WBZ, and it's a big reason why a lot of people are going to be crying buckets about his departure. I won't be one of them, because he'll land on his feet making big money doing stuff for the networks or on Boston sports talk radio.
I'm much more concerned about the TV industry as a whole, especially on the local level, which is in a lot more trouble than the people on the inside will ever be willing to admit.
