Don Cherry begins his exit from Hockey Night in Canada (HNIC). This Saturday past he complained on air somewhat bitterly about the length of time Rogers assigned his Coach's Corner rant. Basically, Rogers sort of reneged on their commitment to Cherry. Before the deal was signed with the NHL Rogers swore up and down about giving Cherry a wider fan base. Well its seems that the new boss is retrenching or going back on the CBC veterans.
The new producers slyly began the process of putting Ron MacLean out to pasture. He has been assigned to a pathetic national grand tour of Canadian towns, designating one unlucky community as hockey town of the week. It shows on Sunday evening. Its the slow dismissal by a thousand cuts.
Why? Its very simple. They want their man Stroumboulopoulos to shine away from the shadow of McLean or Cherry. Its sort of working. Strombo has youth, experience and interview skills. Strombo also equals or excels most of the colleagues regarding sports, and especially hockey. He began his career as a sports producer on radio. One of his resume references comes from the fact that he produced Prime Time Sports hosted by the notoriously cranky Bob McCown. To survive that, and get a good reference out of McCown, one must know their stuff.
CBC rather in one of their bizarre moves employed Strombo as an Entertainment and pop host. Strombo emerged from the period when the CBC was trying to attract a younger audience. It was the motivation that deposed Definitely Not the Opera with Nora Young, with "Q" hosted by the now notoriouser Jian Ghomeshi. CBC made a mistake with both. Strombo being badly assigned and Jian a horror waiting to happen. But the Mother Corp. refused to put him into Sports where his real talent lies.
Rogers wanted to change everything. Its much like the spouse walking into a mansion with grand staircases, Victorian black oak furniture and simply disliking the place based on the fact that the drapes were all wrong. Cherry and MacLean are part of the HNIC furnishings. Typical of designers Rogers doesn't want to totally piss off the house owners. The house owners being the audience.
Cherry's confrontational style caused friction all the time with the CBC executives. But he was making them money, an unusual thing at that publicly owned broadcaster. Indeed their segment was the highest rated television period in all of the network. By association Ron MacLean's stock grew. Enter a new player Rogers/Sportsnet. They bought the entire NHL television rights for the next decade paying out Billions. Enter the dragon of private ownership.
Cherry chafes big time about everything. Like the Scorpion in folklore, its in his nature. Unlike the CBC though, Sportsnet isn't likely to be pushed around. They have control of the material for the next decade. They are locked in for success. Right now he has no leverage. He threatens to quit. They will just point to the door. Even if his certain departure comes sooner this company will not shed one tear.
And even if there is a furor over Cherry the Darth Rogers storm troopers have landed on the rebel planet hockey. Cherry has no more leverage on pay, time or issues. By the time the monopolist contract expires, departures of Cherry and MacLean become a distant dim memory in the media Oort Cloud.
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