The 'South' belongs to Fox By TIM TUCKER The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 05/07/06 Some Turner South staples disappeared from the network this past week — Skip Caray, Pete Van Wieren and "In the Heat of the Night, " to name a few. But it'll be late in the year before Turner South, now owned by Fox, completes its metamorphosis into a regional sports network. "We see getting one really good shot at this," said Jeff Genthner, newly appointed by Fox to head the to-be-renamed Turner South, "and we want to make sure we fully explore what is the most appealing brand and network name and programming [mix]." Genthner, who also retains his previous role as vice president and general manager of FSN South, said Turner South's rebranding and relaunch as Fox's second Atlanta-based regional sports network will come "probably sometime between the end of the baseball season and the end of the year." In the meantime, the network — acquired by Fox from Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting for $375 million last week — is something of a hybrid of its former and future incarnations. Gone are the syndicated shows, such as "In the Heat of the Night," and movies that previously filled much of Turner South's schedule. Those shows were licensed to Turner Broadcasting and could not be aired once the network changed owners. Also gone is Turner's Braves broadcast lineup of Caray, Van Wieren, Don Sutton, Joe Simpson and Chip Caray, replaced on the Turner South games by FSN South's Bob Rathbun and Jeff Torborg. Turner South's current transitional lineup is a mix of live telecasts of Braves and college baseball games and reruns of Braves games, FSN South programs and Turner South shows such as "Bushwhacked" and "Junkin.'" For now, two blocks of time are devoted to non-sports programming — 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. all days. But the shift to sports has begun, with a large number of hours being filled by twice-daily replays of Fox's Braves telecasts — one at 11 p.m. and the second at noon the following day. The Turner South purchase gives Fox the local television rights to all Hawks and Thrashers games, as well as the majority of Braves games. The deal marks the first time since the 1970s that a non-Turner channel is the dominant provider of the local teams' games. "So now we have acquired this great asset that has distribution, that gives us all the Hawks games, all the Thrashers games and makes us all of a sudden the largest provider of Braves games, and now we are very committed to creating a great programming network out of it," Genthner said. Fox plans to rename Turner South to reflect its new focus, but Genthner says a name hasn't been decided. It apparently won't be something as obvious as, say, FSN South 2. "We don't want to create another 'FSN' brand in the market where the consumer gets confusion between the two," Genthner said. How Braves games are divvied up in future seasons between FSN South and the renamed Turner South, how many Hawks and Thrashers games get televised, what type of changes might be made in various teams' lineups of announcers, how college sports figure into the mix — all of those things remain to be worked out, Genthner said. "We're very early in the process," he said. Genthner is a 25-year veteran of regional sports television and ran FSN Florida before coming to Atlanta to take over FSN South last summer. "We have a very busy few months [ahead]," he said a few days ago, seated at a conference table in FSN South's offices in Midtown. "We're excited because we really think we have the tools here . . . to be something special for sports fans across the South." Turner South is available in about 8 million homes in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina. FSN South is available in 11.3 million homes in those states, plus Kentucky. In addition to the Atlanta teams, FSN South owns rights to games of the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies and the NHL's Nashville Predators and Carolina Hurricanes, as well as SEC and ACC programming. —————————— Belkin calls for 'remedy' A Maryland judge ruled last month that, while estranged Hawks-Thrashers part-owner Steve Belkin "may very well succeed" in gaining the right to buy out the teams' other owners at cost, he hasn't made that case yet. So Belkin's attorneys this past week tried to make the case with a new 99-page court filing, which included exhibits and affidavits. The latest filing in the battle for the franchises details Belkin's argument that he is entitled to buy out the other owners and asks Montgomery County (Md.) Circuit Court Judge Eric Johnson to issue a summary judgment to that effect. Belkin contends the other owners failed to meet the terms and time frames of their agreement to purchase his stake, triggering the "remedy" of his right to buy them out. "It is time to end the [other owners'] charade and enforce the clear and unambiguous 'remedy' the parties contracted for," Belkin's filing states. The other owners — principally Bruce Levenson, Ed Peskowitz and Michael Gearon Jr. — have until May 17 to respond. In previous filings, they have denied they breached the buyout agreement, arguing that Belkin sidetracked it by filing a lawsuit. The next hearing in the case could be in June. The dispute erupted last summer when Belkin attempted to block a Hawks trade for guard Joe Johnson. The feud seemed to end when Levenson, Peskowitz and Gearon agreed in August to buy Belkin's 30 percent stake for a price to be determined by a series of as many as three appraisals. But by November the owners were at odds over the appraisal process. —————————— "Two of my children already have told me they don't think they can root against the Braves. But we will have further conversations about that." — STAN KASTEN, former Braves president, after being named president and part-owner of the Washington Nationals 资料来源 http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/stories/0507sptbiz.html --

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