John Canzano will remain at Alpha Media Portland on 750 AM The Game, inking an extension with the outlet to continue hosting the syndicated program The Bald Faced Truth. The show currently airs on weekday afternoons from 3 to 6 p.m., one of two local programs in the station’s lineup. It’s also aired in Eugene and Klamath Falls.

“We are thrilled to announce our continued partnership with The Bald Faced Truth hosted by John Canzano on 750 The Game,” said market manager Lisa Decker in a statement. “John Canzano is key to 750 The Game’s success and longevity in Portland. He provides timely and in-depth content to our listeners with unparalleled access to key players, managers, and sports directors.”

“I’m thrilled with the momentum we have and love our team,” Canzano added. “We get the best guests and the in-depth reporting and commentary set the show apart, but more than anything, it’s three hours of fun. I love that the show serves as an escape for listeners.”

In addition to hosting his radio show, Canzano continues to write columns on his website and also engages in a subscriber chat to interact directly with fans. A former columnist for various newspapers, including The San Jose Mercury News, The Oregonian, and The Fresno Bee, Canzano was named the National Sports Columnist of the Year by the Society of Professional Journalists in 2010 and 2015. He is one of the authoritative voices on the Pac-12 and sports in the state.

“750 The Game is very fortunate to have John Canzano and The Bald Faced Truth as part of the team!,” said content director Keith Abrams. “He is the voice of truth regarding the Ducks, Beavers, Trail Blazers, the Pac-12, and all things sports!”

NFL games scheduled for Thursday nights toward the end of the regular season are now eligible to be flexed along with the Sunday and Monday night games during those weeks. Tuesday on 92.9 The Game in Atlanta, host Steak Shapiro and former Atlanta Falcons offensive lineman Mike Johnson talked about flexing Thursday night games for weeks 13-17.

Even though the league will have to give teams 21 days notice before a game is flexed, Johnson said players don’t like it because regardless of how much advance notice you get, you still have a quick turnaround time between games if you end up playing the Sunday before. He felt like the things NFL players put their bodies through over the course of a game doesn’t necessarily justify making more money.

“There’s a law of diminishing returns,” he told Shapiro. “And in the end yeah you look at the numbers and say ‘Oh that’s great I can’t wait to make a little bit more money.’ But when you wake up on Monday morning, and you know that you’ve got to turn around in three days and play one, I don’t know that financially the incentive is there for that much. You don’t think of that in the moment.”

Steak went on to say that the players ultimately come secondary in all this, as the whole idea is to just simply appease the league’s TV audience and the networks. Especially after Amazon made it pretty clear that they weren’t thrilled with the schedule of games they got for their maiden season as the new home to Thursday Night Football.

“It’s the fans watching on television, and getting Amazon and CBS and FOX,” he said. “They want great games on Thursday nights as well and that’s really what matters more than a guy that’s scheduled a flight to go see the Steelers in Pittsburgh and now the Steelers are playing three days earlier.”

Host Mark Zinno chimed in saying that the league proved during the COVID pandemic that it could survive without stadiums full of fans. The league and the owners know that the TV revenue is the cash cow, and so they have to prioritize the viewers in a way more so than people buying tickets and showing up to games.

“There’s no reason to cater to the fans in the stands,” he said.

A merger that would have seen Tegna sold to Standard General and taken private has been axed after scrutiny by elected officials and the Federal Communications Commission.

In addition to Tegna’s TV properties, the deal would have also seen Standard General acquire Columbus, Ohio’s two sports radio stations 97.1 The Fan and 1460 ESPN. The Locked On Podcast Network and Vault Studios are also under Tegna ownership and would’ve been part of the deal.

Standard General now has to pay a $136 million termination fee. The merger was valued at $5.4 billion. Tegna also plans to buy back $300 million worth of its own stock.

The deal was originally announced early last year and had cleared one hurdle federally, getting approval from the US Department of Justice.