Channel 5 cans sportscasters, outsources sports news to radio station
Tags: Channel 5, ESPN 760 am, Evan Cohen, Jason Pugh, Jay Gilmore, Ryan Lieber, Steve Politziner, WEFL, WPTV
| Thursday 3 December 2009 6:05 pm
Evan Cohen (Palm Beach Post photo)
WPTV-Channel 5 is letting the contracts of its two sportscasters, Ryan Lieber and Jay Gilmore, lapse and will outsource its sports news to West Palm Beach sports-talk radio station WEFL-760 am, the ESPN affiliate that covers Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast.
Starting Jan. 1, 760 afternoon drive-time star Evan Cohen will anchor the sports segments on Channel 5’s 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. 760’s Jason Pugh, a former Florida Atlantic University defensive lineman and Palm Beach Post sports department part-timer, will anchor weekend TV sportscasts. That’s in addition to their ESPN radio duties.
Ryan Lieber (Courtesy Channel 5)
“It’s a win-win situation for us and Channel 5,” said Steve Politziner, a part-owner of 760. “Members of our staff have been guests on the Channel 5’s extended sports Sunday nights for almost six years. We’ve always had a strong relationship with Channel 5.”
Politziner said 760 will be totally in charge of its segments and is providing three employees — Cohen, Pugh and producer Herb Uzzi — to replace Gilmore and Lieber. With the added body, he said, viewers will get more complete and far-reaching reports. Channel 5 gets the ESPN logo and news it doesn’t have to produce.
Jay Gilmore (Courtesy Channel 5)
Neither Gilmore, who’s been at the station for three years, nor Lieber, a nine-year veteran, returned calls.
A Channel 5 insider tells me the move isn’t as much a cost-cutting measure as it is a ploy to attract Cohen. No detail about the value or length of the contract is available.
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Personally, I think it’s a shame. I am glad they’re not outsourcing to a foreign country but I feel bad for these guys. Takes something away.
Half the problem with these jobs today is the outsourcing. Just my personal opinion.
can anyone honestly say that Jay Gilmore had talent?
How can Channel 5 attract Cohen? He’s never in town? He’s constantly in New York? They could have hired someone better for this position. This is only going to end badly for Channel 5.
I’m surprised Evan Cohen is still in WPB. Really, he’s too good not to be in a major market. I would expect his sports reports to be more informative, more insightful, altogether more interesting than the current programming.
But, I feel bad for Lieber and Gilmore. I don’t think the station cared about sports and basically gave them nothing more than a minute of Heat highlights. Shame on management for blaming the prompter readers.
I, too, feel bad for Lieber (talented) and Gilmore. Why Channel 5 did’nt make Lieber the sports director is a mystery. Gilmore can hardly speak - tongue tied most of the time. Replacing them with Evan Cohen who only cares about NYC sports is major supid. Cohen has the personality of a sink hole. He should move to NYC. He’s caused more people to move to XM, Sirus and 640AM than still listent to him.
that sucks …. ive been a long time viewer and this is making me not want to watch channel 5 anymore
I detected a “chip” on Jay’s shoulder within the last month when watching him on air. I new something was up. There are so many sports networks now, in “real time” that I’m afraid that it is no longer necessary to wait until the nightly newscasts to watch the scores.
Totally unrelated, but to follow, are books. They will be read on viewers and not by way of hard copies.
Wait and see……
The “Sports” segment is a joke now anyway. It seems like 2 minutes now. This is just one more reason to trashcan the local news and get my news off the Internet. GOOD RIDDANCE.
I’m not a big fan of anything the Main Stream Media does… but I think this is a good idea. Leave sports coverage to the professionals, instead of a crackpot staff that squeezes the sports news in between all the rest of TV 5’s lies and propaganda blitzes. It’s not as if this kind of business strategy is something new. ABC outsourced its football coverage to ESPN a long time ago and I thought that was a brilliant move. Another Example: We can only hope that NBC will eliminate its HORRIFIC in-house NFL coverage (overall its sports “coverage” sucks)and outsource it to, say, the NFL Network. That would be cool.
Ryan Leiber was by far, the better sports announcer.
I agree with Mike, the “Sports” segment is a joke,
and am tired of Channel 5, No real news stories,
and what is with all this animal news? NOT.
I’ll give Cohen credit, he works hard at what he does and sticks to a sports conversation unlike other radio wingnuts in this market. That said, he is nowhere near the “great talent” that some of you are depicting him as. Frequently he goes off on hypothetical rants and leaves me wondering what is swirling in his mind. It’s the same nonsense that national dolts like Mike Greenberg exhibit. Stick with the facts Cohen. These tangents that you run off on make you sound ignorant friend.
Also, I truly respect your work ethic Cohen, but your personal life is about as interesting as a box of hammers. Nobody cares where you traveled to over the weekend. Wow, Evan flew to New York. Ohhh myyyy! It’s like you’re insecure and are trying to validate your coolness. I dunno. You come up short in the personality department kiddo. The Brooklyn sounding accent and the Mets lovefest often chase me right off of your station too.
You do halots a lot of potential Cohen just learn to be more polished. Much more.
(don’t care what WPTV does, evening news/sportscasts are atrocious)
Channel 5 news is the “Walmart” of local news. Please Jim retire already and Take Dr. Rich with you! Except for the black guy channel 25 is much better.
nothing personal….but ch 5’s sports was a minute or two of headlines….my 8 yr old could do it and for $100 a week…….welcome to the new economy.
It seems in the last couple of years, ch 5 went to weather and traffic every 10 seconds and repeats the same thing over and over. Rox and John are the only people they have left, that really seem to care. Get rid of the weather and the traffic updates. It’s painful to watch. Watch everyday, but getting sick of
the same old. Both sports casters really S…! Off the wall comments should not get people jobs.
Since this is a $$$ issue it would be interesting and pertinent to the report to know what the two guys were being paid?
What is the channel cutting? 100g’s 200g’s…??? Now it’s only part of the story.
I liked both of them. I do watch ESPN a ton, but the fact is local sports need local sportscasters.
I hope both stick to it though. This could be the case of one door closing… Sportscasting is going to have a much better road coming along in this country, so we’ll see these two in different places.
Gilmore is a good guy, if you’ve ever met him. A really cool guy who has a good grasp of a lot of sports. Ryan is also a hell of a lot more learned about sports than Evan Cohen.
I recently stopped watching chump 5 after they canned Laurel Sauer. Their news casts have dropped drastically. I am a channel 25 fan now.
What do they say…MONEY TALKS-LOYALTY WALKS. Channel
5 lost me when Laurel Sauer was pushed out. No one’s
job is secure at that channel-isn’t that sad?
is this west palm beach or alabama, all i see is that this person cant do this, this person cant do that. the comment about the black guy on channel 25 is uncalled for, he graduated college and worked hard like everyone else. i listen to evan cohen and like his brand of talk radio its different and not good ole boy thinking. he covers sports, he s not walter cronkite or some fox news anchor which one sided views. Sports is entertaining, lets just enjoy it no matter who’s reporting it. love, peace, and happiness. don’t teach your kids hate because they’ll end up hating you
Evan Cohen is a self absorbed, obnoxious, egotistical child. Same goes for Steve Politziner, and I’m surprised that little twerp didn’t cast himself in the weekend anchor role. This move seals it for me…I’ll be getting ALL of my local sports news from Pat Murphy at Channel 12 from now on.
Thank God Gilmore is gone. He was horrible–just horrible.
It’s a good start. Next, Roxanne will be booted and the job outsourced to the Hypochondriac Society.
Evan Cohen blows! Bringing a junior varsity team?
Evan Cohen is the best option to listen to in WPB, but I do find myself changing the station quite a bit. He does talk about NY sports waaaaaaaaaaay too much and the second I hear him mention the Mets, or any other NY team I simply click away…..which seems to be often…
I apologize for the “black guy comment.”
The big news here shouldn’t be that ESPN 760 is taking over the sports department, it should be that Jay Gilmore is taken off Channel 5’s airwaves! Gilmore was a terrible hire from the start, replacing a very talented Ben Becker who went to ESPNews from WPTV. Gilmore was not creative and could never get his script out clearly. It really was disturbing to watch and I would be absolutely shocked if anyone is sad to see him go.
Evan Cohen is a great talent behind the mic at 760 but it remains to be seen how he handles the TV side of things. At the same time, he will have a lot on his plate with a daily 3-hour radio show and 11pm sportscast (he will not do sports at 6pm).
In the end, this most likely is a cost-cutting move by WPTV but it also a good move talent-wise. Gilmore was not suited for a market like this and while Lieber was here a while, he never really stood out, good or bad. Both will probobly find jobs in smaller markets and find themselves in better situations then in the 561.
A fascinating subplot to me is that Evan and co. are replacing Ryan Lieber who has appeared often on Evan’s show and is a good friend of Evan’s. Wonder how that friendship is tonight?
Just following Channel 25 in eliminating sports coverage.
You are missing the real story here: the latest station blowup is Peter Roghaar’s final act as news director. Fitting.They don’t call portly Petey “The Fire-man” for nothing. He loves firing people!! Guess he had to get two more firings in before hanging up his fat hat at WPTV 5 and he loads up the Bimmer for the move to Tampa!!! Good luck in Tampa Petey!!! You’ll need it. Your reputation has preceded you. Jose when are you sending the lifeboats to WPTV? This place is a sinking ship.
A channel 5 insider says it’s not a cost cutting move? Uhhhh Jose… wtf??? Let’s see here, they took away photographers vehicles, let a bunch of editors go, reduced reporters to one-man-bands, got rid of a bunch of anchors like Sauer and Chandra Bill, and then just killed the sports department. Oh, but no, the last one WASN’T a cost cutting move? Well, if that’s what your “insider” (Peter Rhotard) is telling you, then I guess you feel like you should throw it in there to cast some doubt. But I’m telling you Josiah, anyone who works here absolutely knows better. This place sux so bad, even Rhotard is jumping ship. But only AFTER shooting it completely full of holes.
Evan Cohen is an illiterate moron. What a horrible decision. Not that anyone watches TV news for sports information, but anyone who listens to this dork will be disappointed. I wish ESPN would find a real broadcaster now that we can’t get the Miami stations after 5:30.
Please add Keenan Smith, and Glenn Glazer to your list for the next go around of firings
Sportcasters here are like the rest of the news broadcasters “amateurish”. Not to mention they all seem to be stuck on a NO TEAM Miami DOllfins.
I have been a LOYAL viewer of WPTV, Channel Five for 45+ years. In the last two years, it has gradually and now more rapidly GONE DOWN HILL. Its morning, noon, 6:00 PM and 11:00 PM newspeople, weather, and sports persons are mediocre at best. Often times their timing is awful, their voices irratating, comments trivializing when handling a serious or sad story. I am now seriously watching Channel Five’s competitors and will continue to do so. ADVICE to the owners of Channel Five– try sacking, getting rid of your management team. Signing off for now– a 45+ year now former Channel Five viewer. GS
thank god that white guy is gone he was the worst.
How are you saying that WPTV is “getting rid of sports” do you not understand what is going on? They are enhancing their sports department. I dont think anyone fully understands this. This radio station sends reporters of their own to the games, WPTV was not sending Lieber to games to report on. He just read a teleprompter. This new deal will actually make the sports much better you will see, they are creating an actual sports department not getting rid of one. Regardless of whether you like Evan on the radio because of his opinions this is tv not radio and he cant just rant on and on about the mets on tv. “We are redefining how we bring sports to our station” Wasserman said. I think this pretty much breaks it down. Just give it a chance people!
Gwendole, please dear, you are out of your depth. “Enhancing their sports department”??? LMAO. How is someone who hosts a 3 hour radio show each day supposed to cover local sports?? Please tell me, I’d love to know. Also, TV has something radio does not…give up? Video. Cohen will have to go through a big learning curve when doing TV. You have to actually write scripts with specific instructions as to the video, and you have to edit that video. It’s more than just blabbing into a microphone. I’ll give it two chances, slim and none.
Channel 5 sports was a joke. Especially Gilmore, Lieber wasn’t much better. But not entirely their faulst either. You could tell that the station could care less about sports. I mean, who really gets their sports news from local broadcasters anyways? Yeah, sure some people get high school sports fromt the local stations, but they don’t even show much of that either.
While they’re at it they should outsource their newscasting duties to Channel 7 News (WSVN). The anchors they currently have are running on their last miles, and they suck.
I wouldn’t want to be either one of these sportscasters reading these comments.
Personally, I feel that Channel 5 can not hold onto any of their employees, it seems they are always letting someone go. It sure is not a channel you would want to make a job lifetime choice with.
I guess they feel they are the only station in town.
I am a loyal listener of ESPN 760 and I am extremely excited about this move for both parties. My only criticism is that J-Mart, Evan’s sidekick, won’t be involved. When they get into debates, I almost always end up seeing J-Mart’s side of it. He adds a lot to the show and I think he could help out on TV as well, but I guess you can’t have it all. Congrats to PTV and ESPN 760!
Very sad to hear about this. I don’t Evan has what it takes to make in on TV, he takes 5 mins to tell a 20 second story with all the pauses and drama he adds. Not to mention all he wants to talk about is the Mets and how great they are.
Looks like I will just move the rest of my sports cast watching to Pat Murphy. Still do not understand why NewsChannel 5 let him go.
They let him go because he’s an ego inflated, marbles-in-his-mouth, lazy hack. His sports producer is ready to quit, he can’t write or speak a coherant sentence, but otherwise he’s a deplorable human being. Quit posting on here Pat, it’s way too obvious.
Just saw Evan doing 5 Sports Live on the 760 website, and I gotta say he was very good. He’s obviously very well informed and was smooth on the air with the video highlights. It’s also nice to see him create a combination of talk radio and tv.
At any rate he’s WAY better than Pat Murphy. On his deathbed, he’d be better than Oremus.
Could be a good move for 5. Just don’t forget the local folks Evan.
Guy walks into the Palm Beach Post’s sports department and asks for a job. Not only as a reporter, but as a columnist. “What experience do you have?” asks the PBP Sports Editor. “Oh, I do radio sports,” is the reply. After the guy leaves the editor just shakes his head and wonders how someone with no print journalism experience whatsoever could have the ba*** to apply for a job with a newspaper. It’s bad enough to be replaced, but to be replaced by people with little or no TV experience is just wrong. This isn’t a commentary on the Evan Cohen’s of the world. This is a blight on the entire Tv/Radio business. Good luck to Evan. Take advantage of your opportunity and remember this…when you’re on television you don’t need to scream!!!
Seriously? These guys are losing their jobs in a tough market. Why is it necessary to criticize them? Ryan has dedicated 9 years to this station. I know Ryan personally and he is an outstanding human being and role model. He has worked his butt of for Channel 5 and has done an excellent job!
If this wasn’t a cost-cutting move, Gilmore and Leiber probably would have stayed at Channel 5 and had added duties on radio.
This was the worst decision they could ever make. Ryan Lieber was the best thing to ever happen to this station. I refuse to watch sports on this station anymore. We will see Ryan again I’m sure.
Evan Cohen is nothing short of a rising, shining, star.
The combination of his knowledge, enthusiasm,and creativity is fresh and new. He is filled with heart,soul and raw talent. I am postive this is a great move for him, ESPN and Channel 5. I, along with tons of others have great respect for his energetic style. If there’s anyone that can pick up the pieces and clean up a mess, it’s Evan. The guy is hard working and completely focused, having known what he has wanted to do,since he was five. Living the dream… Not so bad. Talk about insecure.. seems to me there’s a lot of you out there that fall into this category. C’mon, if not, you wouldn’t have to rip this fabulous guy to shreds. TV is a different venue for Evan, but, give him a chance. He is going to rise to the occasion. Evan is here to stay….The guy has game!
wow, finally a first class sports star to anchor channel 5 sports. I won’t miss a single broadcast. For all you doubters out there, just wait and see. This kid is entertaining and has great insites into the world of sports. WAY TO GO,BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
While there at it dump K9 Smith{but let him see the dentist 1st}Glenn Glazedover very arrogant talks to viewers like we are 10 yr.olds….Steve W.seems like good guy though doing weather.
Ryan was fantastic and will truly be missed. What a bummer that NBC let him go!
Finally, WPTV realized that these two guys were terrible and decided to do something about it. Evan will bring some much needed professionalism to the sports department at channel 5!
For a fairly large market station, the weekend sports has been a joke. I’m sure he’s a nice enough guy, but my 14 year old could do a better job broadcasting sports that JG. I have felt from the first time I saw him that he was just a horrible sports anchor. Just horrible.
Have not watched NBC for a long time as evening programming and shows have deteriated terribly. Did watch the news because of their sports casters. Evans voice and superiority complex do nothing for me. Here I come channel 12!!
Truthfully only weatched for, Friday night football,but can’t stand Cohen’s screaming. Actually you can tell how long it’s been since I watched Channel 5 news, since he’s been gone for a good while.
this is good
Wow! This post is really very appreciable. I think some new things if you add to your post like current affairs will increase It is popularity. your post is very advantageous for me and very good. Thanks a lot.I have felt from the first time I saw him that he was just a horrible sports anchor. Just horrible.