Brian Powell from Awful Announcing joins the show to tell us why he wasn’t able to join the show last week (we crush him!) and yes, to talk about the news in sports media. Before we get to the interview we get the story behind why Powell couldn’t talk last Thursday. His power went out (now he HAS THE POWER) but why not use his cell phone? Turns out, he doesn’t get cell service in his “dwelling” (which sounds like a basement...how ironic).

First, we talk about the report last week that advertisers are focusing more on men for household decisions than ever before. This  means than in a terrible economic climate, ESPN has figured out a way to make even MORE money. Good for them.

Speaking of the economy, we talk about the newspaper industry’s struggle to survive. We’ve talked with newsies who think the printed news won’t be totally going away (it will just be changing, somehow), so we wanted to ask an online writer like Powell what he thought of the situation.

We juxtapose the ‘news news’ with some ‘online news’ to try and figure out what the endgame of this constant reshuffling is going to be. Specifically, when Yahoo partnered with SB Nation did that signify a shift in the way blogs are done. In other words, create a blog to get noticed by a blog service like SB Nation or MVN. Produce your blog for this service for a negotiated fee based on traffic and ad revenue. Wait until said blog service gets enough blogs under their belt to “partner” with a large company. Profit?

That’s the thing we aren’t sure about. Surely this partnership will benefit Yahoo, and SB Nation, but what of the people actually doing the work. (We discuss but don’t really know, so please, SB Nation bloggers, let us know what your deal is).

We talk about the MLB Network and how the first three months have been for the network. We also wonder if the NFL has learned anything from MLB’s rollout and discuss the recent report that Comcast may drop the NFL Network.

Next, we look at March Madness, and specifically the job that CBS has done providing their content online during March Madness On Demand (get your spreadsheet ready for the boss). Powell uses that example to again slam the NFL’s antiquated mindset on providing content to consumers, lauding CBS and the NCAA for providing high-quality FREE content to millions of users.

Speaking of March Madness, who is Powell looking forward to hearing call the games? Is Clark Kellogg prepared? And why no love for Bill Raftery?

We close with some talk about the best reality show on TV -- The Hank Haney Project with Charles Barkley. How did it take so long to get this on the air? And have they been protecting him so we don’t see if his swing is still ‘turrible?’

Is Powell excited about the UFL? It’s just so stupid it has to work? Or fail. By work I meant fail. We equate it to the mistakes of other pro football leagues, including the XFL and wonder who in the world will watch these games?

Oh, and some more Kornheiser/Phil’s Mom news. Thanks PTI Twitter!

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