The power of social media and public opinion paid off for Toronto Maple Leafs fans on Monday, not to mention the radio team of Joe Bowen and Jim Ralph.
Thanks to a storm of criticism on Twitter that spread to traditional forms of media, senior executives from both Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc., which share the Leafs’ radio rights as well as majority ownership of the team, reversed a decision to have Bowen and Ralph call the road games off a television monitor in a Toronto studio this season. Neither company would officially confirm the change, but sources from both companies said it was in the works. However, one source said both companies did agree that Bowen and Ralph would be travelling to the Leafs’ away games.
The Twitter firestorm erupted Monday in the wake of a story posted by the web site TorontoSportsMedia.com. The report said Bowen, who has been the Leafs’ play-by-play voice since 1982, and Ralph would be grounded this season and would call games from a studio for both Rogers Media and Bell Media. While Rogers Media won the NHL’s Canadian national broadcast rights in a 12-year deal for $5.2-billion in 2014, it split the radio and regional television rights for the Leafs with Bell.
The no-travel decision came after new Leafs general manager Lou Lamoriello instituted a policy he employed for years when he ran the New Jersey Devils – team charter flights were strictly for players, coaches and team executives. Broadcasters, including the television crew, could no longer take advantage of the charters and team buses.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/spor...oadcasters-will-hit-the-road/article26579019/