FRIDAY MEDIA COLUMN

Viewers of WTVJ-NBC 6 might not notice yet, but slowly and sadly, we’re witnessing the deterioration of a sports department that for decades set the standard for excellence in local television sports coverage.

In the past three months, we’ve seen NBC-6:

### Buy out one of its most popular personalities, Joe Rose, with a year left on his contract. (Adam Kuperstein is expected to move back to sports to replace him.)

### Eliminate its 6 p.m. weeknight sportscast, becoming the market’s first station to do that, less than a year after it slashed the length of its 11 p.m. weeknight sportscast in half, from three minutes to 1:30.

### Cancel Sports Final, its signature Sunday night sports show for more than a quarter century, effective later this month. The final program airs Dec. 28.

“Taking the best local sports station in South Florida, by far, and just depleting it is very, very sad,” said Bernie Rosen, who guided or assisted, behind-the-scenes, on WTVJ’s sports coverage for more than half a century, until he retired for health reasons 18 months ago.

It’s even sadder when you consider the department’s rich, trail-blazing history. WTVJ was the nation’s first local station to hire a woman sportscaster, Jane Chastain, in 1967.

Under Rosen’s leadership, WTVJ always went the extra mile. Rosen remembers the day in 1959 when he took a flight to Gainesville, scurried to Florida Field to shoot video of the first half of a UF-LSU football game, raced back to the airport, flew home, rushed frantically back to the station and edited the tape for airing on the 6 p.m. news.

From Roy Firestone to Chris Myers to longtime former sports and news anchor Tony Segreto, WTVJ consistently hired quality talent. Several later moved on to network jobs: Firestone, Myers, Hank Goldberg, Karie Ross, Suzy Kolber, Kristina Pink and sports executives Ed Goren and Mike Pearl.

Rosen, 87, believes that Rose “has the best personality of anyone at NBC 6 and is the best sports personality in South Florida. I’m very, very surprised at the decision to buy him out, but they want to cut salary. And Joe said that once his contract was up, he would not keep doing television because of his radio show.”

But the station will be paying Rose not to work in 2015, which seems ridiculous. His last day at NBC 6 is Dec. 21, a week before the Dolphins’ regular-season finale.

WPLG-10 and WFOR-CBS 4 also have slashed the lengths of their 11 p.m. sportscasts over the years, but NBC 6 doing it was especially damaging because it curtailed a lot of coverage of UM and high school sports --- two areas where the station distinguished itself.

“I’ve heard the story from management so often that it’s not funny: ‘People aren’t interested in sports,’” Rosen said. “Now what they say is if people want sports they will get it from ESPN. That’s the biggest bunch of crap I’ve ever heard.

“If you are going to use that thinking, then why not do away with weather since they have a weather channel? News departments are very negative toward sports.

“It’s been like that for years. If I didn’t fight for Tony Segreto every single day, he would probably have been a shipping clerk. I was able to fight it [when Rosen ran the department from 1960 to 1985]. WTVJ’s GM at the time, Bill Brazzil, and the owner, Mitchell Wolfson, were always on my side.

“That does not exist today. You have a news director at the station [Migdalia Figueroa] that doesn’t like sports. And for whatever reason, the GM [Larry Olevitch] has allowed the news director to make all these decisions.”

Figueroa and Olevitch declined interview requests.

Firestone, the former ESPN personality, was so troubled by the station’s de-emphasis of sports that he wrote a letter to Olevitch telling him that “to withdraw coverage is an abandonment of the responsibility a local station has to its community.

“Clearly your station doesn't think it matters. It does Larry, maybe more than your station executives realize. The Dolphins, Marlins and Heat [and] the University of Miami have all won multiple championships and helped put South Florida on the map. Your map will not include [as much] coverage of these iconic symbols to the community. I find it sad and a dereliction of duty.”

Talent is not the issue at NBC 6. Kuperstein and new backup Stefano Fusaro are highly capable. But Rose --- who has declined to comment on the matter --- didn’t deserve to be bought out, and the station’s decision to dramatically diminish the time it allocates to sports is troubling.

GOLDEN COVERAGE

What is it about covering Al Golden that leads to so much inaccurate reporting? (Can’t blame Golden for this.)

In January, three media members (Gary Ferman, Andy Slater and Atlanta-based Marc James) incorrectly reported Penn State was set to hire Golden.

This week, WQAM-560’s Marc Hochman said on-air that a “UM confidant” told him Golden might be “gone” that night and that a Trustees meeting was being held later that day. Neither part of that report was accurate.

Hochman said, on air, that he’s not at fault because he told listeners that he’s not a journalist and was merely reporting what someone told him.

But fashioning yourself as an entertainer, not a journalist, doesn’t eliminate accountability for reporting misinformation. Hochman should have investigated the tip (at least call UM for a comment, as several writers did) and determined the accuracy before sharing it.

### UM isn’t happy with WQAM, not only because of Hochman’s false alarm but also because of Kuperstein’s report Thursday that claimed Golden sent an email to his staff giving them the weekend off and citing “compliance” and “Raising Canes” videos as reasons UM struggled against Pittsburgh.

Kuperstein said UM's compliance office allowed seniors to speak to agents before the Pittsburgh game and that his source believes that is what Golden was referencing.

UM called Kuperstein’s report “patently false,” adding that Golden never said anything of the kind and that coaches don’t have the weekend off. (Golden did send a text to UM players giving them the weekend off.) Kuperstein, who has broken several UM stories including Kevin Olsen’s suspension, responded to UM’s denial by saying his source is “good.”

Kuperstein also said the purported email to coaches included a reference to UM having a grueling schedule "with nine night games." Some UM fans have mocked Golden for mentioning UM having a lot of night games --- which was offered as an innocuous comment, not an excuse for losing six games --- but college coaches typically prefer earlier games so they get a jump-start on the next week. There are assuredly reasons for criticizing Golden, but this isn't one of the better ones.

Golden, in giving his players the weekend off, mentioned the nine night games in his text to them, but only in the context of it having been a long year, according to someone briefed on the text.

WQAM general manager Joe Bell declined to comment on the Hochman or Kuperstein reports, but UM has been in contact with the station to express concern.

The bigger question raised by the Kuperstein story is whether someone on Golden’s staff is trying to sabotage him.

What was leaked to Kuperstein leaves Golden open to ridicule from a fan base that's largely looking for any ammunition to criticize him. And Kuperstein's source assuredly knows that. So all of this makes you wonder whether someone at UM is trying to undermine Golden or make him appear as if he's reaching for excuses.

### CBS is sending Dolphins-Ravens to only 11 percent of the country: part of Florida, parts of the mid-Atlantic and pockets of New England, plus a small portion of Alabama and Georgia. See 506sports.com for a map.

The game, which carries great significance, is going to a limited audience for three reasons: It’s a single-header week for CBS; the network is juggling six games; and CBS deemed Cincinnati-Pittsburgh its more attractive 1 p.m. game....

Fox is taking Browns-Colts from CBS on Sunday to balance the schedules…. Andrew Catalon, Steve Bueurlein and Steve Tasker -- CBS' No. 6 announcing team ---- call the Dolphins game….

There will be two Saturday NFL games this season, both on Dec. 20. The league announced this week that NFL Net will air Redskins-Eagles at 4:30 and CBS will carry Chargers-49ers at 8 p.m. that day.

Twitter: @flasportsbuzz