Category: News

Fox gets Thursday night football for 5 years, $3B

By BARRY WILNER, AP Pro Football Writer
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (AP) — Fox and the NFL have agreed to a five-year deal for Thursday night football games.
Those games previously were televised by CBS and NBC, two of the league’s other network partners. Fox announced Wednesday that it will televise 11 games between Weeks 4 and 15, with simulcasts on NFL Network and Fox Deportes.
Fox, which has the Sunday afternoon NFC package, will produce all of the games under the deal, which is worth a little more than $3 billion, according to a person with direct knowledge of the terms of the deal who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the league didn’t announce its value.
“This is a single partner deal, we are not splitting the package,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a conference call. “We had tremendous amount of interest from all the broadcast partners, all of whom wanted it exclusively. We felt this was the best opportunity for the NFL to grow the Thursday night package.”
Goodell added that the league is exploring partnerships with digital outlets, also in conjunction with Fox.
The NFL has broadcast deals “five years out” with its other partners — ESPN has the Monday night package — so five years on this agreement made sense.
“Fundamentally, Fox was built on football,” said Peter Rice, president of 21st Century Fox, nothing that 25 years ago, the NFC package “helped launch a fledgling network into what it is today.”
“These opportunities come along very, very infrequently,” he added. “You either have the rights to the most-watched content in media or you don’t. If you don’t take the opportunity, this won’t come up again for five years. We believe in buying the very best rights, and the best rights are the NFL.”
CBS and NBC each paid $450 million for the previous two-year package.
“We explored a responsible bid for Thursday Night Football but in the end are very pleased to return to entertainment programming on television’s biggest night,” CBS said in a statement. “At the same time, we look forward to continuing our terrific long-term partnership with the NFL on Sunday afternoons, with more than 100 games per season including next year’s Super Bowl 53.”
Fox could have a conflict if weather causes a World Series game to be postponed from Wednesday to Thursday. In recent years, Series Game 2 and 6 have been scheduled for Wednesday.
“In that hypothetical kind of a scenario, the World Series game would stay on Fox and our Thursday night game would become an FS1/NFL Network simulcast,” Fox spokesman Eddie Motl said.
Goodell noted that the Thursday night games are a place for innovation.
“One of the things we’ve taken into consideration with Thursday night in general is to evolve this package, to use it as an opportunity to learn, to understand where these various platforms are going, and what we can do to make it a more attractive experience for our fans,” he said. “We will look at that in that context, and the term will be consistent with what it will take to make sure that we continue to evolve that platform as well as the experience for our fans.”
That means streaming outlets, of course.
“We have accepted bids for digital partners,” Goodell said. “We have very healthy competition. In fact, I would say it’s unprecedented competition from a number of digital partners.
“As I say, we put our focus on the broadcast package first. … We are not required to go coterminous with the broadcasts. We can do any length of deal that we get to an agreement on with that digital partner. As I mentioned earlier, we will be doing this in cooperation with our Fox partners.”
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For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL

Japanese Officials visit Beaver County

Beaver County Radio

Beaver County was visited this week by a delegation of high-level politicians within the Japanese government to learn how local officials approach emergency management situations involving nuclear power plants. The officials visited last year and when they learned that Beaver County Emergency Services was holding more training this month centered around the “radiological response to potential nuclear disasters.”, they decided to make the return trip .

Sandie Egley, chairwoman of the Beaver County Commissioners, said the county’s emergency management facility is new and equipped with cutting-edge technology, which likely played a role in the Japanese officials wanting to visit here.

“To catch the attention of international (delegates) is very prestigious,” she said. “For people in Tokyo to be noticing what we’re doing in Beaver County is really something.”

Coraopolis Woman Pleads Guilty

Beaver County Radio

A Pittsburgh woman, Kexuana Sayles, pleaded guilty Tuesday to participating in a 2013 robbery gone wrong in Coraopolis that resulted in the death of one man, Thomas Cassano. Police said his two young children were home at the time of the shooting.

Records show Sayles, who was charged in October 2015… nearly two years after the incident, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, robbery and conspiracy

Ask the Commissioners Today on Teleforum!!!

Tune into “Ask the Commissioners” today, February 1, 2018 during the 9 0’clock hour of Teleforum with Frank Sparks. Commission Chairwoman Sandie Egley and Commissioner Dan Camp will be in studio to take your questions and comments about what’s happening in Beaver County. If you can’t tune into Beaver County Radio 1230 WBVP and 1460 WMBA and would like to participate the segment will also be streaming live on Facebook. If you have a question or comment the phone lines will be open starting at 9:10 AM at 724-843-1888 and 724-774-1888. You can also ask any questions thru the Facebook live feed be leaving a comment in the comments section of the stream.

Chartered Train in Crash

Our U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus was on the chartered train heading to the GOP Retreat in West Virginia that collided with a garbage truck. One person on the truck was killed. Rothfus was uninjured and wrote “I am fine & safe but my prayers are with those who may be hurt,”

According to The Associated Press, the chartered train left Washington, D.C., for the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., before the collision with the truck just south of Charlottesville, Va., at about 11:15 a.m. Charlottesville is about 2½ hours south of the nation’s capital.
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey,said on Twitter that he was not on the train.

Water Authority opposes pipeline plans

Beaver County Radio

The Ambridge Water Authority board of directors released a statement Wednesday afternoon stating that the planned route of the 97-mile Shell pipeline won’t cross the Ambridge Reservoir at any location, but is projected to cross three streams in the watershed that directly flow into the reservoir and will “intersect at some point with our raw water line from our reservoir to our plant.” The statement made clear that the Ambridge Reservoir is “our only source of raw water.” As such, “we value it incredibly, and we will do everything in our power to protect it,” the board said.

“This is not acceptable to us, and we will do everything in our power to try and have the pipeline relocated outside of our watershed and away from our main, and only, raw water line,” the statement read. “It is very unsettling and honestly dangerous to imagine this pipeline being constructed as it has been proposed.” The statement also made clear that the water authority did not grant easements or enter into any kind of agreement with Shell Pipeline regarding the Falcon’s route.

Your Pie Recipes wanted

Beaver County Radio

The lead character in the nationally touring show “Waitress” playing at the Benedum Center next month wants your pie recipe. It’s a contest co-sponsored by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. They want from-the-heart, whimsical pie recipes. From 3 finalists, judges will choose the winner during a taste-test on a live locally broadcast TV program.

Submissions will be accepted online through 11:59 p.m. Feb. 14. For more details visit TrustArts.org/PieContest.

“Waitress” will be staged March 6-11 at the Benedum as part of the 2017-18 PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh series. For tickets visit TrustArts.org, call 412-456-6666 or visit Theater Square Box Office at 655 Penn Ave., downtown.

Quaker Valley’s Superintendent takes new position

Beaver County Radio

Quaker Valley School District’s superintendent Heidi Ondek, who has worked for the school district since 2004, will be taking a position as the executive director of the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children, effective at the end of this school year.

In a prepared statement Ondek said “Serving as the superintendent of schools in the community where my family and I live — and will continue to live — has been the pinnacle of my career and has been an immensely rewarding experience. I am proud of our shared vision, everything we have accomplished together and of the exceptional education our schools provide,”

WEATHER THURSDAY FEBRUARY 1, 2018

WEATHER THURSDAY FEBRUARY 1, 2018

TODAY: Rain and snow showers mixed for the afternoon. High 43F.

TONIGHT: Cloudy. Low 14F

FRIDAY: Overcast. Colder. High 21F. Low 13F

SATURDAY: Partly cloudy skies during the morning hours will become overcast in the afternoon. High 36F

SUNDAY: Periods of snow. Temps nearly steady in the mid 30s

70th Anniversary Moments – A Presidential Call.

This year commemorates the 70th anniversary of when Beaver County’s first radio station, WBVP, was heard over the airwaves for the the first time on May 25, 1948.  To mark the historical event, each week, another “70th Anniversary Moment” will be showcased on the airwaves and published on the station’s online feeds.

Perhaps the most famous caller to be on the other end of the phone when a WBVP announcer would “go to the phone lines” during an talk show  was none other than President Ronald Reagan.  Dave Felts was the host of “Teleforum”  in the early eighties and happened to be at the right place at the right time when The Chief Executive decided to dial in.  Local Beaver County historical writer, Kenneth Britten, wrote about the famous call to WBVP in a 1990 article entitled “Local Radio”:

Dave Felts hosting “Teleforum” on WBVP in the early 1980’s.

“A historic moment in WBVP history occurred when David Felts was hosting the morning talk show. It was on the morning of Tuesday,  April 22, 1981, as Felts was interviewing Democratic Congressman Eugene Atkinson on the air when the station received a call from the White House and Ronald Reagan, President of the United States. The assassination attempt by John Hinkly had  (just) occurred two weeks and one day before and the President was calling from the hospital to speak with the Congressman (publicly) about needing his vote concerning economic development.  For the President to call a talk show of a relatively small radio station was front page news. Dave and Congressman Atkinson were interviewed by members of the media from as far away as London, England.

The Staff and station received a Spot News Award from the Pennsylvania Association of  Broadcasters for that year along with others. WBVP had really cracked into the big time and became visible to Western PA as well as the World!”

“70th Anniversary Moments” is presented by Freedom United Federal Credit Union.