By David Barron
First and foremost, I hope each of you has fared as well as possible with this unprecedented period of subfreezing weather in Houston. As has always been the case during my years in Houston, friends and neighbors have been of great support and comfort.
Here are a few local notes of interest in the vein of the old Four DVRs, No Waiting section of the longtime Houston Chronicle TV-radio notebook.
— The NBA has postponed Friday night’s scheduled Mavericks-Rockets game at Toyota Center. There’s been no announcement on the scheduled Saturday night game at Toyota Center against the Pacers.
— MLB spring training is under way, and AT&T SportsNet Southwest will have a limited schedule of Astros spring training games. No word yet on the schedule. All Astros games will be on KBME (790 AM).
— Astros third base coach Gary Pettis continues to recover from multiple myeloma, which affects white blood cells, and will rejoin the team for the 2021 regular season, the Astros said Thursday. He will not, however, be on hand as planned for spring training.
— Sports Business Daily (subscription required) says that CBS Sports’ audience for the Sunday round of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am was up 19 percent from the year ago. CBS this weekend has the Genesis Invitational from Riviera Country Club at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
CBS analyst Ian Baker-Finch on Texas favorite Jordan Spieth: “He’s building back the layers of confidence that have been chipped away over the last three years. He is gradually building them back. He’s had the lead for several rounds. He’s had two or three really, really good low scores. Each time he does something special, each time he leads, he’s building back those layers of confidence. I like the way he’s trending.”
— Weather delays, alas, affected the audience for the Daytona 500 on Sunday. Viewership on Fox Sports averaged 4.83 million, according to Nielsen, down 35 percent from 7.33 million a year ago.
— It’s softball season. Weather permitting, ESPN+ will have the Oklahoma-Houston game at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
— Rice’s two scheduled home men’s basketball games against Marshall have been delayed because of the continued winter storm. Games are tentatively scheduled for Saturday and Sunday on ESPN+.
– The Houston Cougars, meanwhile, are on the big network for their two home games against AAC opponent Cincinnati. Kevin Brown and John Crispin have the call on both games, including the noon Sunday start at the Fertitta Center.
— No big surprise, but the Astros didn’t make the cut for ESPN’s first round of MLB exhibition game telecasts. The schedule begins Tuesday, March 2, with Rays- Red Sox, followed by Mariners-Cubs on March 3, Nationals-Mets on March 4 and Dodgers-Royals on March 5.
— Finally, I was interested to see a reference to Houston radio during ABC News’ obituary Wednesday for the talk show host Rush Limbaugh. Among the photos used from Limbaugh’s career was a photo of him telecasting from the studios of KSEV (700 AM), which was one of Limbaugh’s first affiliates in the late 1980s.
It’s interesting to consider the role that Houston radio played in building the Limbaugh brand – when I arrived in Houston in early 1990, I recall that a restaurant on the Katy Freeway set aside a portion of its dining room for lunchtime listeners who wanted to hear the Limbaugh program while they dined – just as it built the brand of Jim Rome on sports radio in the 1997 range.
4 DVRs and Beyond 