Owning the play-by-play rights can be a good deal until the teams have bad seasons. Broadcasting games can be a real challenge.

Padres:

The Padres may be turning the corner with all this young talent playing much better. But it is never an easy time when the rights holders — XX-1090 Radio and Cox Cable Channel 4 — are left paying big fees for a team that is a big loser. Ratings are plummeting, interest has dropped and advertising dollars have disappeared in the abyss of the economy.

John Lynch, the radio pioneer who brought sports talk radio to San Diego with the legendary 690, showed enormous patience through bad Chargers seasons. Those 4-12 and 6-10 years eventually brought his station a Super Bowl appearance.

Lynch is victimized now by last-place baseball at a high rights fee in a bad advertising environment. Patience will be the only thing he can exhibit in a deal that stretches three more years after this season’s last pitch. Paying north of $4 million per year in rights fees for this team in a limited market has proven too expensive.

This may be the last big radio contract the Padres ever get. The next offer should be revenue sharing with bonuses based on wins and losses. No more suffering on the radio dial while your partner slashes the payroll and trades away good players.

The value of the radio package has diminished too because most every game is on TV. But staying on a 50,000-watt station is vital for the Padres big league image.

On the television side, Cox is headed toward the end of a good contract with a bad team. Their ratings have held up despite abysmal play on the field. The 10-year deal was good initially, but not so good in the era of exploding TV rights revenues for the team.

Former Padres CEO Sandy Alderson was bothered to no end by what he thought was an undervalued television package negotiated when Cox was starting up Channel 4 and the team was in the midst of moving downtown. The next negotiations will be costly and may likely be packaged differently.

Look for the Padres to take their deal in house, sell the ads, keep the money, and package it with stadium signage. Cox 4 has the broadcast time to do extensive baseball. I don’t think network affiliates can offer more than first pitch to last out programming time.

Cox 4 general manager Craig Nichols changed the culture of the broadcast from just baseball to all things wrapped around baseball. The demographics are indeed different — more women viewers, less core baseball content, but still graphically and creatively pleasing to watch.

The broadcast teams on radio remain the same, though I think Jerry Coleman is being underutilized. Let him do color for more than just a couple of innings, make him a story teller of the history of the game he has seen dating back 60-plus years. Forced out and phased out are cruel terms. The correct term should be reinventing him.

Ted Leitner is what he is — paid by the word and never speechless. Let the game breathe some. Outside of Yankees radio cheerleader John Sterling, I have never seen a broadcaster so polarizing in his own community. Overshadowed by the greatness of Vin Scully, he has never made an impact north of Camp Pendleton. If you close your eyes and listen, though, he sounds like the legendary Lindsey Nelson [1].

Andy Masur has been a consistently solid addition to the broadcast booth. Straight as an arrow with good information, I would like to see him get more innings to work.

On TV, Mark Neely has moved into the seamless transition, replacing the free-spirited Matt Vasgersian. Vanilla and Chocolate, solid sound, packed with information, never overbearing. He’s quiet, unassuming and a nice guy.

Mark Grant has become a cartoon character. Nice hats. He’s a poor man’s version of Harry Caray. Excellent analysis, some fun, always informative, and sometimes just left of center define Grant. He’s a super color guy.

Tony Gwynn, the legendary Hall of Fame hitter is now an excellent TV pinch hitter. Wish he was there was more, or at least on a more consistent schedule — like every Saturday-Sunday during the season.

Bob Scanlan is a better broadcaster than pitcher. An excellent addition, I’d love to see him get the chance to do color analyst work, in addition to his postgame anchor work. A superb surprise as a broadcaster.

Lost in the celebration of their 40th anniversary, I would hope the Padres would not forget Bob Chandler, all those years as part of that original three-man rotation. A nice gentleman pushed into retirement, he deserves to be remembered.

Chargers:

Once upon a time the Chargers were on the biggest station in the nation, the 77,000-watt XTRA-690, and getting a massive rights fee. They walked away from that relationship, and now have been on three different stations since exiting 690 10 years ago.

Currently parked on Rock 105.3, they are pleased with the marketing they get from their Clear Channel teammates and their group of stations. But the signal has lots of holes in the North County, and the team has tried to put together a better network of out of town affiliates. The LA affiliate 570 has a better signal than the flagship.

The Bolts have taken the advertising sales in house, not necessarily by choice, but rather by Clear Channel’s budget slashing. They no longer get the massive rights fee they used to. Packaging stadium signage and preseason television may help them make up what they lost, but getting lots less in rights fees has to sting, considering how good the franchise has become. They should never have turned down the $3 million per year they were offered to stay at 690 back in the day.

The NFL TV package is lucrative, and all road games are on CBS-Channel 8, which rakes in big local dollars. The home games have been virtual sellouts for the last five years, meaning a ratings winner and revenue producer for the flagship station. And now that they are good, they get the best broadcast teams too.

It is odd though, the Chargers have never had a consistent broadcast partner in terms of a coaches show or a players show. Compare San Diego television to what the Cowboys or Redskins package and produce, and it is like the difference in the winter weather in San Diego compared to Alaska. A Norv Turner TV show would be fun. An A.J. Smith general manager segment would be must watch television.

Josh Lewin, the Chargers’ radio announcer, lives in Texas, is not part of the community, and is a virtual unknown. He does Texas Rangers baseball. He’s a nice guy but a TV guy doing radio. Before that they hired an announcer from Minnesota and before that they had the Padres baseball announcer. Nice choices, no linkage, no rational reasons. What, there are no good play-by–play guys in San Diego you like or respect?

Hank Bauer returns as a color analyst. Fun guy, great knowledge, too much talk. The game should be more important than the broadcaster. They suffered through some awful football, those Ryan Leaf years; now they are having a blast. They have the opportunity to have a great sideline guy, Jim Laslavic; use him, use him a lot.

As the Chargers celebrate their 50th Year with powder blue throwbacks, the all white jerseys and colored diamonds in the end zones, they are working with NFL Films on a 50th Anniversary video. They should put that on sale for all the fans here. They could sell 50,000 of them. It would be a prized possession for everyone’s bookshelf. That along with a trip to the Super Bowl they should make this a special year.

Lee Hamilton was the longtime Voice of the Chargers, and this fall will broadcast NFL Games of the Week for the new NFL-Compass Media Networks. He writes two columns a week for SDNN.