Dan Caesar | Post-Dispatch
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It was a shock to Blues television broadcaster John Kelly, and enraged many of the team’s fans, when he was ousted over the summer after nearly a quarter century on the job across two stints, that last covering two decades.
Adding to the fan outcry are the deep ties between the Kelly family and the club. John’s father, Dan, was a legendary Blues and NHL broadcaster; his uncle Hal called some games and so did his brother Dan.
It was termed a “mutual decision” by the Blues and tbeir telecaster, FanDuel Sports Network, but certainly seems more like a club move in that Kelly has been rehired by FDSN to be its lead Los Angeles Kings play-by-play announcer.
It won’t take long for Kelly to make a return visit to St. Louis as the Kings are set to play in town on Oct. 21 — just two weeks after they open their season. He’s going to do about 60 of the Kings’ regular-season games, and that’s one of them.
Kelly has said he will come in with his head held high, and Blues CEO Chris Zimmerman said the club plans to honor Kelly at some point. While an exact date has not been finalized, it seems logical that the event would take place then.
“John Kelly and the Kelly name are synonymous with our brand,” Zimmerman said this week. “We — and I — have nothing but respect. John was a critical contributor to our brand for over two decades, so we will always hold John at the highest level.”
It was announced in July that Kelly was out as part of a consolidation to a simulcast model in which the audio of the team’s radio broadcasters, Chris Kerber and Joey Vitale, will also be used on TV. Zimmerman said then he “definitely wouldn’t characterize it as a cost-cut move,” which many perceived as a slap at Kelly. It also came at a time when the only NHL local play-by-play TV job open was the Kings’.
Zimmerman was asked if he expected the amount of fan backlash that has occurred.
“Announcing the change we made was a surprise to our fans and quite honestly an imperfect situation,” he said. “If I could have had some things happen differently, that would have been less shocking. The timing was imperfect, so I was not surprised by the level of commitment and support John has from our fan base and not surprised how quickly John found a different opportunity. He’s one of the best in the business.
“We will definitely honor him when he comes back. We’ve had captains leave our team and come back to play. Certainly, this is going to be a unique situation of really a Blues legend coming back and broadcasting in a different seat. Our fans, the city and our organization will absolutely honor John Kelly. The Kelly family is iconic to our brand.”
Blues have ‘free TV’ obstacles
Last season, the Blues placed a handful of their locally produced telecasts on over-the-air TV for the first time in 16 years. The Cardinals followed suit this season, adding broadcast television for the first time in 15 years.
But now with the start of the new season less than two weeks away, the Blues have no deal in place to send any of their local productions back to broadcast television, Zimmerman said.
He said that the fact 14 Blues games this season have been picked to be shown exclusively be national networks, four more than last year, makes it tougher to take games from FDSN and move them to a broadcast channel. Unlike the Cardinals, the Blues’ over-the-air-games last season were exclusives. But if the Blues do reach a “free TV” agreement this time, the deal likely will include the contests also being on their cablecaster.
“The league likes airing our games nationally, which speaks to the strength of our fan base not just in St. Louis but beyond,” Zimmerman said. “I think that makes it much less likely” for exclusive over-the-air games this season.
Three Blues games were shown over the air last season, two on long-established KMOV (Channel 4) and all on newcomer Matrix Midwest (Channel 32). The ratings on KMOV were solid. They were not on Matrix. That trend followed with the Cardinals this season, who also utilized those channels for 10 telecasts.
“We were pleased with the results with KMOV, they were a great partner,” Zimmerman said. “Obviously, a lot of learning with Matrix Midwest.”
KMOV and Matrix general manager JD Sosnoff could not be reached for comment.
Zimmerman then looked at the big picture in this rapidly changing and expanding media landscape in which streaming has soared.
“All of this has represented what is the unsettled nature, let’s call it the evolving nature, of local broadcasting,” he said. “Particularly the NBA, NHL and MLB, we’re all trying to understand what the future is. We have a lot of commitment to the linear (television) part of our audience, which is still the most significant part. FanDuel Sports Network is really in some ways is its own emerging network — all new leadership, very talented pros I think are going to help us create a better product. That and sorting out the best way to distribute it are the two core elements.
“There’s quite a bit of innovation and exploration that we’re going to be doing. Ultimately, we have to compete for peoples’ time. Whether you’re talking about the newspaper business, the radio business, the podcast business — it’s all trying to compete for the space. The thing that’s really encouraging is that live sports content is so critically valuable in this changing media ecosystem.”
St. Louis native Staats honored on milestone
Tampa Bay Rays television announcer Dewayne Staats, who grew up in East Alton and went to Wood River High then Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, was honored last weekend by the team in celebration of the recent 50th anniversary of his first major league broadcast.
Staats, who grew up listening to Harry Caray and Jack Buck call Cardinals games on radio, told the Tampa Tribune he is grateful for his long run.
“This is what I’ve wanted to do my whole life,” he said.
Staats, who called some minor league games while he was a student at SIUE, was working as the sports director at KPLR (Channel 11) in 1976 when he was offered an on-air audition in the Houston Astros’ booth. That led to him being hired as one of the team’s broadcasters the following year, and he also had stints with the Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees before being hired to call Tampa Bay games when the franchise made its debut in 1998.
He has reduced his schedule a bit in recent years, dropping some road games, and told the Tribune he’s not sure how much longer he wants to continue.
“At some point, you’re going to have to stop,” he said. “I guess the best way just to say it is, ‘I’m day to day.’ I still entertain the idea of doing it only because I haven’t really said, ‘Hey, I’m not going to do it anymore.’ I still love coming to the game, sitting down and doing this — it’s the best part. I can do without the travel. …
“I don’t know if there’s anything in broadcasting or any kind of job that’s as good as just sitting down doing a live broadcast, radio or TV. It’s a great little activity to be involved in, and it’ll keep you semi-sharp to do it. So, I don’t know, we’ll see. Things have a way of working out, one way or the other.”
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Dan Caesar | Post-Dispatch
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