He was sad that he is leaving the FSN Southwest in Dallas. He is moving to FSN Houston. The studio shows now be brodcasted live from Houston in their new offices downtown.
He should be happt to be leaving Dallas. I went to Dallas for the first time a couple months ago, and just got back from their again yesterday doing some business, and that place is nasty. Houston is a MUCH better city to live in.
Eschenfelder is very underrated as a studio host and as a rockets fan. he really loves the rockets and always shows enthusiasm, but not over the edge homerism. i remember there was a poll at the end of a game which asked who was the best center in the west, and Erick Dampier had won the vote. Eschenfelder was like: "And.....Erick Dampier is the best center in the west........wow...ok time to go"
their new studio is in 4 Houston Center, which is halfway between Minute Maid, and Toyota Center. Should be under David Barrons column inthe chron.
Twenty-six years and one week removed from the birth of Home Sports Entertainment, Houston has its regional sports network back. Fox Sports Houston launches Monday as a 24-hour standalone program feed separate from the main Fox Sports Southwest feed that services the rest of Texas and the surrounding five states. The switchover is the next step in a process that began a year ago when Fox installed veteran cable executive Steve Tello to increase the company’s footprint in the town where cable sports in the Southwest was launched in January 1983. Tello has spent the year since his arrival assembling a staff of about 30 on- and off-camera staffers, building a new office and studio complex at 4 Houston Center, halfway between Toyota Center and Minute Maid Park, and working on programming initiatives that he believes will result in a 15 percent to 20 percent increase in local programming over the next year. Here are the most significant bullet points for viewers: • FSN Houston will remain in its current location at Comcast channel 37 and, at the moment for Rockets and Astros games only, at DirecTV channel 678. Channel selection will continue to vary on Dish Network, based on that company’s nightly programming load. Astros and Rockets games will air in HD on Comcast channel 302 and DirecTV channel 678-1. • Beginning Tuesday, FSH will expand its Rockets (and, in season) Astros nightly game replays. A 30-minute condensed version of each game will air at midnight, followed by a replay of the live postgame show and then a two-hour condensed game replay. The 30-minute replay and postgame repeat at 7 a.m., and the two-hour replay re-airs at noon. • FSH will continue to migrate more Astros games toward cable. As many as 150 games will air on the network in 2009, leaving only a dozen or so to air on KTXH (Channel 20). • With the return of anchor Kevin Eschenfelder to work alongside Bart Enis, Patti Smith and Greg Lucas, Tello says the network will increase by 50 percent the number of shows (from 17 in 2008) produced under the titles Spotlight, In My Own Words and Under the Lights. He hopes the new HD studio and master control center at 4 Houston Center will be working by March. One of the shows produced last year, on Hakeem Olajuwon’s induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame, debuts at 6 p.m. Monday. • Houston Sports Beat, hosted by Greg Lucas, will expand from once a week to twice a week, with new shows on Sundays and Thursdays. FSN Houston is an outgrowth of the decision in November 2004 to strike new deals with the Astros and Rockets rather than allow the teams to launch their own regional sports network. So while Tello is working on other program projects, the three pro teams are his focus. “The games and the teams – the Astros and Rockets, plus our relationship with the Texans – is the oxygen for the network here,” he said. “What I am trying to do is to enhance our coverage of those games and then look for other areas to make our network more appealing to the local viewer.” FSH did a couple of Houston Bowl-related shows last year, and Tello has chatted with athletic directors at Rice and Houston about a regularly scheduled show covering area colleges. He also continues to contemplate plans for a sports medicine show and, possibly, a nightly highlights show for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. “Building the facility, hiring staff, getting them here were things that were on our plate through Dec. 31,” Tello said. “Now we’re moved, we’re physically present and we have a new home. Now it’s time to dive into the new products.” Program possibilities Since I arrived in Houston in 1990 and started writing about sports TV in 1997, I’ve heard any number of stories about the glory days of HSE. While I don’t think the newly branded Fox Sports Houston will return to the days of showing the Beer Bike Race at Rice, for example, Tello is committed to expanding local programming. FSH expanded its Texans coverage last year by airing coach Gary Kubiak’s weekly news conferences, and the network will continue to look for similar opportunities with the Astros and Rockets. There will, of course, continue to be some overlap with Fox Sports Southwest, including Dallas Stars games, Big 12 events and news and documentary shows that are of interest to the entire state. “There is a great opportunity to do a southern Texas colleges-centric show,” Tello said. “We’ve talked about the interest in local colleges and whether to include them on Houston Sports Beat or elsewhere.” As for other options, I think FSH should take a page from a show I remember fondly from my days growing up in Tyler. WFAA, the Belo-owned station in Dallas, had a show every Saturday titled Let Me Speak to the Manager, hosted by the legendary Mike Shapiro, the station’s longtime general manager. Shapiro would sit behind his desk, and his assistant, with his back to the camera, would read viewer mail and questions. It was low-tech to the max, but it was fun to watch. I’d love to see a weekly show in which somebody posed questions to Drayton McLane, Tad Brown, Rick Smith or one of the college ADs. The success of ESPN Radio’s Mike and Mike morning show, which is simulcast on ESPN2, is another example. While it might be cost-prohibitive to put a camera at one of the local radio stations, a low-tech alternative would be to pipe in audio from one of the morning talk shows and slap it on the air with a static on-screen background. Tello and I also talked briefly about your favorite topic, HD programming. Randy Freer, who runs Fox’s cable networks, has pledged that all of Fox’s cable operations will be all-HD by the end of the year, and the local network will be in the forefront of that effort with its new HD studio downtown. With the company’s technical center in The Woodlands up and running since last year, Fox also is in the process of working on a new signal distribution center that will enable it to receive and distribute more HD programs from more sources. That, along with the increased availability of HD production trucks, should result in more HD programming this year and next. FSH also is working with Comcast to improve its distribution link to the cable company’s hub in the Bear Creek area and with DirecTV and Dish Network to provide more space on the satellite for more local programs. Covering Kubiak’s weekly news conferences and doing shows about the Lombardi Award and Texas Bowl may seem like incremental progress, but Tello is encouraged by the steps taken during his first year on the job. “There’s been a definite enhancement of covering local things with a little more ease,” he said. “We’re definitely more of a presence here in the sports community.” Four DVRs, no waiting Fox Sports Houston will re-air a two-hour condensed version of Texas’ win over Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl at 11:30 a.m. today. … Speaking of condensed, I’m not sure who struggled more with the Longhorns’ hurry-up offense, the Buckeyes’ defense or the Fox Sports production crew, which frequently got caught equally flat-footed as Texas switched into high-speed mode in the second half. … Despite the Virginia Tech-Cincinnati dud in the Orange Bowl, Fox was up from last year in average ratings and viewership for the first three BCS games. The Orange, Fiesta and Sugar bowls averaged 13.3 million viewers and a 7.9 Nielsen rating, up from 11.9 million and 7.4 last year. The 2007 games averaged 8.3 with 13 million viewers. Texas and Ohio State produced a 10.4 rating and 17.1 million viewers for the Fiesta Bowl, Fox’s best numbers for a non-BCS title game. In Houston, the game did a 16.8 rating and 25 share on KRIV (Channel 26). … The NFL says 225 million U.S. viewers watched its regular-season games in 2008, producing 13 of the 15 most-watched broadcast shows and 14 of the 15 most-watched cable shows of the current season. Fox had the highest regular-season Nielsen average rating at 10.5 and the highest viewership at 17 million, leading NBC at 10.2 and 16.6 million and CBS at 10.0 and 16.2 million. The Texans, alas, were a vast exception to the rule. Last year, the team’s 15 over-the-air games on CBS and Fox averaged a 16.4 Nielsen rating and 358,000 households. With three games this year not measured because of Hurricane Ike and one game on ESPN, the 12 CBS or Fox games in 2008 dropped to a 14.7 average and 308,000 households, down 10 percent and 14 percent, respectively. … Houston-UTEP will be one of five women’s basketball games on ESPN networks this weekend. Bob Wischusen and Nancy Lieberman will call the game at 1 p.m. Sunday on ESPN2. … HBO has set Feb. 23 to debut its new college basketball documentary Battle for Tobacco Road: Duke vs. Carolina. … In Arbitron’s first portable people meter report in Dallas-Fort Worth, the market’s three all-sports stations combined for a 5.4 percent market share, including a 2.6 share for KTCK, the Cowboys’ flagship station, among persons 12-plus. For the same month, Houston’s four sports stations combined for a mere 2.7 percent market share. The three D-FW stations had an average weekly cumulative audience of 1.23 million; the four Houston stations totaled 776,700. … We previously noted that MLB Network is airing Ken Burns’ Baseball documentary series on Tuesdays in January and Tuesdays and Thursdays in February. Next year, Burns returns to baseball with his newest installment of the series, The Tenth Inning, which will air on PBS stations. … The weekend’s NFL playoff assignments are Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf on Ravens-Titans at 3:30 p.m. Saturday on CBS, Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston and Tony Siragusa on Cardinals-Panthers at 7 p.m. Saturday on Fox, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on Eagles-Giants at noon Sunday on Fox and Jim Nantz and Phil Simms on Chargers-Steelers at 3:30 p.m. Sunday on CBS. … Matt Millen, who was a delightful TV analyst with Fox Sports before his disastrous turn as president of the Detroit Lions, had a guest stint on last Saturday’s NBC wild card games and will rejoin the network for its coverage of Super Bowl XLIII. Millen fell on his sword during a conversation with NBC’s Dan Patrick, saying he deserved to be fired (albeit after the season rather than earlier), but his appearance was still greeted with mixed emotions in most locales and, understandably, with absolute derision in Michigan. … NFL Today analyst Bill Cowher said Sunday he does not plan on coaching in 2009. “Why would I leave a team that I know is going to a Super Bowl next year?” he said. “Here’s my team right here.” … ABC or ESPN will air the first college game from the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington, matching Oklahoma and BYU, on Sept. 5. …Rick Reilly makes his debut as an ESPN on-camera host with the premiere at 7 p.m. today of Homecoming, a series of six hour-long shows focusing on athletes returning to their hometowns. The first two episodes feature Josh Hamilton of the Rangers in Raleigh, N.C., and Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway returning to Van Nuys, Calif. … Gus Johnson will replace Steve Albert as Showtime’s primary boxing announcer. … Ted Robinson, an affable acquaintance from Olympic venues over the years, is the new radio play by play voice of the San Francisco 49ers. … ESPN has signed on to swap promotional support and content with 20 college football fan sites, including InsideTexas.com and TexAgs.com. … ESPN is offering a free preview of its Full Court college basketball package from Saturday through Jan. 17 at Comcast channels 620-625. The second half of the season is available for $75. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/thingstodo/6201722.html
Does anyone know if we're gonna get FSN Houston in College STation? I don't want to watch the freaking Dallas Stars! I want my Rockets!
Thanks for the article Kam. I really like Eschenfelder so much more than that other guy - whose name I can never remember. So I was nervous he wasn't going to do the broadcasts anymore. Houston Sports Beat gets on my nerves, though I record it every week I end up getting frustrated cause I have to automatically fast forward through twenty minutes of football discussion to get three minutes of Rockets "discussion" every episode. Even when Adam Wexler is on.
WOW!!! I totally missed this!!! This is great news! Was so ridiculous to have the studio shows for the Houston Astros and the Houston Rockets in....dallas.
I really hate that they won't just show the entire games at midnight now, I wouldn't call that an "expanding" of the coverage
request that they do it... I know that the Cleveland Fox network does it... because I watch bits of the Cavs games every so often. If one network can do it surely they all can. When there is no other sport that is taking up much time in the schedule, they might as well.
I actually think the exact opposite about Eschenfelder. He always seems nervous, and fumbles his words as if he's either ahead of or behind the teleprompter. Overall, pretty bad.
Eschenfelder is terrible, IMHO. When he talks he leaves awkward pauses in the middle of sentences and even single phrases. I don't know, I just think that the entire FSN programing, from the hosts to the production value, is incredibly amateur.
Hope this doesn't screw up my Rockets feed up here in Nacogdoches. We get the game on FSNSW (it says the Stars or mavs are on...or even spurs....but they end up showing the Rockets instead) mislabeled.
