Lots of email and links starting to come in about the rumors of Max Siegel buying Teresa Earnhardt completely out of DEI.
The very unofficial scoop is that she keeps the rights to the Dale Sr. name and logos and Siegel uses an outside investor to take-over the company. Earnhardt gets a generous income for life and out of the public eye. Interesting.
ESPN2 is currently scheduled for a big Richard Petty 50th anniversary NASCAR Now show from Petty Enterprises at 6PM. Shannon Spake is set to host this special and no doubt some plans are changing as we speak.
The weakness of ESPN is that they do not have a small studio or even an office on the ground in Mooresville, NC. They do have a company called ESPN Regional Television (ERT) down on the southside of Charlotte, but that is a long way from Mooresville, especially in traffic. ERT is the location most of the NASCAR Now Charlotte liveshots originate. There are no NASCAR reporters based at ERT.
Links to the story as it develops:
Captain Thunder - Updated
Dave Moody - Sirius Speedway
That's Racin blog - Mark Young
Virginian Pilot - Dustin Long
Update: Max says not right now - ESPN
Tonight's NASCAR Now should be a good one to record or watch as ESPN continues to become the source for NASCAR TV news on a daily basis. What a difference a year makes.
43 comments:
I was reading about this online overnight. Not surprised.(my opinion reading of the sponsor problems). But can you imagine what Dale Jr is thinking. And as I type this I am watching the 1996 Hanes 500 at Martinsville from 22 Sep 96 on MASN. I agree w/you JD, NASCAR Now is a must watch tonight. I have to say again. Can you imagine what Dale Jr is thinking. Still love your comment" Isn't TV fun". Thanks
JD,
Can you keep us updated w/this column? It will make it easier for us. This is BIG. Well to me anyway. Thanks again.
It is a unwritten rule in TV that, if you plan a 'special' show, somthing huge--and unrelated--will happen the same day.
I hope ESPN is up to handling this and doesn't just stick with the plan.
Here we go. On ESPN news, bottom crawl. "DEI president denies reports company is for sale".
JD- A couple of random thoughts & questions.
I believe MRN has moved their headquarters to the Charlotte area and have new studios. PRN has new "palatial" studios at Charlotte Motor Speedway and I thought I heard that NASCAR or ESPN had wired all the major team sites in the Charlotte area for remotes. With the availability of satellite trucks for hire, does ESPN really have a need for its own facility in the Charlotte/Mooresville area? Also, what about NASCAR Images, or whatever its named now?
An "outside investor" can be anyone - even a Jr.
richard,
A couple of weeks ago I was up in Concord and did my Sirius Satellite segment from the MRN studios. They are right down the street from LMS and next to the Concord Airport if you want to Google.
ESPN decided not to wire the garages/shops and uses a variety of transmission pathways for their network interviews.
NASCAR Images is now part of the NASCAR Media Group. They have a fixed facility in Charlotte and will move downtown into the office building associated with the NASCAR Hall of Fame next summer.
ESPN is in the middle of an eight year commitment to NASCAR that features a daily news show. All the NASCAR news comes from the Charlotte/Mooresville area and none comes from Bristol, CT.
Many years ago, ESPN made the commitment to RPM2Night and opened a studio in Charlotte for that show. Funny thing was, NASCAR was only a slice of that show's content. With NASCAR Now, it is 100%.
ESPN was worried about the costs of HD and that technology is now so portable you can buy an HD handicam at Best Buy.
With SPEED on the verge of building a new facility only miles away from MRN and LMS, the time is now for ESPN to stop throwing money down the drain and build.
Would be nice to have drivers and owner and everyone just "stop by" NASCAR Now when they had something to say.
JD
Lou, my first thoughts as I read this were also what must Jr be thinking? This has to hurt...actually it has to hurt all the kids.
Then I read Teresa wants out of the limelight due to the fall out of the NASCAR Nation after Jr split...man oh man. Jr and his sister have to be depressed over this one..they could not have it but a stranger can ?
As I recall, Max Siegel is a lawyer. The quote I saw on ESPN.com from him left a lot of wiggle room.
I bet this might have just thrown all of Tony Stewart's planning right back up in the air - and I believe he and Jr. are partners in a race track in Ky.
richard in n.c said:
. . . and I believe he (tony stewart) and Jr. are partners in a race track in Ky.
quick clarification: stewart, dale and ken schrader are all partners in the paducah racetrack in ky.
i'll keep my thoughts about the reality of all this to myself right now and focus on the media aspect. i had always assumed espn had a studio, with reporters/talent, in place, either in mooresville, concord or charlotte i hadn't connected that they only have a regional presence w/no nascar reporters in charlotte.
an 8 year committement is fairly substantial, especially when one of your competition is better placed and another is building its own studio presence. seems to me espn needs to figure out how to maximize its financial committment and get some sort of larger studio presence in the heart of the nascar world so that they can take advantage of stories like this one.
(and i simply can't resist this thought: could all this be a trial balloon being floated by dei? just wondering.)
on with the show,
It will be interesting to see if ESPN will trot out David Newton or Terry Blount to cover this event, seeing that they usually break the tabloid type sensational stories.
In all my years of being a NASCAR fan, denied usually means that the papers haven't been singed yet.
Nothing like a show that refuses to throw out the rundown when the story of the day changes.
"A Very Special edition" designed for a slow NASCAR news day....but now that there IS news, that ought to be the focus of the show.
You can cover PE any time.
There you go: 2:30 on the potential DEI sale. Great investigative journalism, there, ESPN.
Nicole does not look too happy to be there.
nicole looks confused: keeps looking off-camera when they come back from the video, seems to be stumbling a bit. she certainly didn't seem to press newton beyond the expected questions.
and i must say: newton using some variation of the word 'hate' (hateful? hate-filled? i couldn't quite catch it) to describe the relationship between dale and teresa seemed a bit harsh to me.
i'm liking this vintage footage, tho'! and seeing inman is a treat as well.
Seems like it should just be Nicole alone handling it. Shannon has asked the same question like three times.
audio seems off at times: an echo happens for few seconds then gets straightened out. anyone have an explanation? it's happened at least 3 times so far.
boy, i hope they plan some sort of tour on camera! i'd like a good look at that stuff behind them.
Think they added Nicole at the last moment? My info had Shannon there but nothing about Nicole.
Where is Nicole? Did she say?
daly planet editor said...
Think they added Nicole at the last moment? My info had Shannon there but nothing about Nicole.
i get that impression. maybe nicole is the "news" anchor, brought in to cover the #1 penalties and the dei rumor and shannon is the "soft" anchor? dunno.
(and there's chris economaki! woo-hoo!)
wow! what an awkward plug for espn sports century and the coming show isn't even on petty! whole thing seems disjointed to me. was this project a long time in th eplanning or a last moment decision?
hey jd? should we be having this discussion under the other column? i just realized we're posting under the dei rumor column . . .
nah, this is the NASCAR Now page, its fine.
I love the live interview with Richard.
I don't understand the use of the SportsCentury video, though. While relevant, it is at least 2 or 3 years old.
This switching back and forth between Shannon and Nicole, with both saying basically the same thing, is confusing and redundant.
didn't hear nicole say where she is but i think she had petty cars behind her so that reduces it to level cross or mooresville. maybe we'll see when she speaks with kyle after the break.
and it still feels confused to me right now. i'm disappointed.
red said...
audio seems off at times: an echo happens for few seconds then gets straightened out. anyone have an explanation? it's happened at least 3 times so far.
I keep hearing that echo, also.
Another theoretical option would be to use a flashcam at WSOC-TV, if that were any closer than the ERT outfit.
Would be an option, except that the Nascar Now show airs during the local news block!
Kyle just rattled through a list of TNT announcers on ESPN. So much for one network not existing on another.
that answers THAT question: nicole is on the other side of the museum.
Well, I am confused. Both anchors on-site in different sides of the same place and not Petty Enterprises, but Level Cross.
That museum is loaded with good stuff and the scenery of the old shop and the Petty home is great...wish we had seen them.
JD
I was expecting something much different, I guess.
I'm really quite disappointed.
However, watching the pit crew wrestle with the old style tools was good.
whew, swing and a miss on that one.
What a letdown. The interview w/the King was the best part of the hour. What this show did not have was energy in it. Shannon, it seemed was outmatched. I was looking for more indepth questions I quess.
well, that wasn't so much fun.
they closed with the same footage they'd used either in the show.
as texasracelady says, i also expected something different. there has to be a veritable wealth of images of the king available and any number of guys willing to talk about him on camera. i just have the sense that this could have been so much more interesting.
i like kyle and i appreciate his work on VJG but i thought the program was to be about the king? i would have rather heard more from kyle about being the king's son, maybe compare that experience to what dale jarrett or dale earnhardt jr experienced? and how about putting some more faces on camera from those great battles? we heard from pearson but what about a few of the others who are still around?
i also liked the piece with dj copp but it really didn't belong on this show. if you're going to do a tribute to the king, then do that. save the rest for another episode of NN.
all i can say is: i'm disappointed.
sorry: ". . . the same footage they used EARLIER in the show", not "either."
Well,, this could have been better. should've had Nicole doing the interviews. Spake just sat there seeming lost and saying "um" a lot. Could've been better questions asked and thought they would ask Kyle about being the son of King as well.
Hmmm..course intermittently the screen when black for a second here on digital tvs...storms in the area...both tvs. Not exactly what I was expecting.
Heck, it was fun seeing King on QVC last week and I would've never caught that but my mom called me 10 minutes into that show.
The show did seem to have poor direction and I also heard the echo sometimes.
ESPN might have been better served doing all this today and putting it together for airing on Wednesday. Might have flowed better especially if it could have been AB doing the interviewing. I also wonder if we would have seen a totally different show (I'm guessing yes) if it was just Shannon as first planned and the DEI/Truex stuff had not happened. I would have loved to see more of the "stuff" that is housed there instead of it just being used as a backdrop.
I haven't seen the show yet, but the Petty show is the type of event that Jerry Punch should have handled. He certainly would not have needed notes.
Not impressed w/this show. As someone else said-seems very disjointed. Not what I expected at alllll!
And the question Shannon asked to Richard & Dale was when was the first time they met and they are cousins so I thought that was a strange question.
vicky,
I am glad you said that. She was really in over her head and having a tough time. I wonder why Nicole just did not handle this like she did the DEI show?
JD
There is a new post up for Tuesday's edition of NASCAR Now.
JD
I haven't watched my recording yet but Oh My Land! She really asked The King and Mr. Inman when they first met? I think I learned about their relationship I believe my first year watching. Sounds like I'll be doing the headshake when I do check it out.
Vicky D said...
And the question Shannon asked to Richard & Dale was when was the first time they met and they are cousins so I thought that was a strange question.
I did not know they were cousins but Spake should have known it with a piece about their early years running on the same show.
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