News From The House of Hubbard

Hot on the heels of purchasing a number of radio stations from a Mormon-owned media company, locally based Hubbard Broadcasting is still making news.

"The Kennedys" Have Landed

Hubbard-owned ReelzChannel, a heretofore little known cable network that runs old sitcoms and movie previews, has picked up a miniseries starring Greg Kinnear and Katie Holmes (best known these days as Mrs. Tom Cruise) about John F. Kennedy that was headed for oblivion.

The History channel, which had spent tons of money to produce the film, apparently took one look at "The Kennedys" before rejecting it.  They said it didn't measure up to their standards.  Oh?  And specials about Nostradamus, "Ice Road Truckers" and "Life Without People" do?

There's speculation that the real reason History (and other networks) passed on "The Kennedys" was the alleged influence of a certain Kennedy family member who didn't like the way JFK was portrayed, and that there were too many diversions from the truth in the name of advancing the story.

Reelz will run "The Kennedys" in April, so we'll get to decide for ourselves whether the film is accurate or not.  That is, unless someone in the Hubbard family knows a Kennedy or two.

Big Change at 1500ESPN

It's the end of "Saturday Morning Sports Talk" as we know it, and Joe Soucheray must be feeling fine.

Starting in mid-February, Soucheray won't be working weekends at KSTP-AM any more.  He'll be leaving the Saturday show to longtime broadcast partner Patrick Reusse and his new co-host Judd Zulgad, a Minneapolis Star tribune sportswriter who used to moonlight at KFAN-AM.

Reusse and Soucheray will still be together for one hour weekdays, but now the focus shifts to Soucheray's popular "Garage Logic", where he can still bash liberals and deny climate change in afternoon drive.  So, uh, why is there still a political talk show on what's supposed to be a sports station?

When "Sports Talk" began 30 years ago on Sunday nights (later Mondays), it was like no other talk show on Twin Cities radio.  It used to be wild and crazy with some of the quirkiest callers you've ever heard.  As the program migrated to Saturdays, it became old and boring with Soucheray and/or Reusse checking out some weeks, leaving producer "The Rookie" to hold the fort.  It got worse when (A) "Sports Talk" became an extension of "Garage Logic", and (B) the bottom-of-the-hour newscasts became extended and unlistenable when Soucheray or Reusse interrupted the newscaster all the time.

Since leaving the sports beat at what is now the Star Tribune a quarter-century ago, Soucheray hasn't written much about sports in his other job as a general columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press.  Now he doesn't have to pretend any more.