BCVoice Midweek Radio Show April 1, 2020
BRANDON WELLS, HOST:
[00:00:41] Good evening to the 2-2-8-1-2 and welcome to the BCVoice Midweek Radio show. My name is Brandon Wells, co-station manager here at BCVoice. Due to the spread of the coronavirus, Bridgewater campus events, lectures and activities have been shut down until further notice, but we are dedicated to still bring you the most quality content without interference. The many broadcasters of bcvoice-dot-org have recorded segments for air, and we have all your news, sports and entertainment updates along with so much more here for the next hour. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
ZACHARY ROGERS, ENTERTAINMENT:
Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the BCVoice Midweek radio show. I’m Zachary Rogers, and I’ll be covering entertainment for y’all. So first up, we’re going to talk about movie and TV news. So streaming service viewership has surged to 85%, up to 85%, during the quarantine, because I’m sure you’re all aware, we there’s not much for us to do at the moment. So, we’re just flocking to Netflix to Hulu to Disney plus, and the data shows that that’s what most people are doing at the moment. And so according to Nerdist for the week of March 16, internet streamers, captured 23% of all viewing on American television compared to compared with 16% during the same time just a year ago, which is insane. Netflix is leading the charge representing 23% of all streaming minutes viewed during the week of March 16.
And judging from the internet, it might be that 99% of that viewing was just from folks watching Tiger King. I I have not watched Tiger King, but I heard that was a really good—gruesome but good—show. In second place is YouTube at 20% followed by Hulu at 10% and Amazon Prime video at 9%. Which I can attest—I’m watching a lot of Netflix, watching a lot of Amazon Prime.
And what’s not on here is Disney Plus, which is kind of hard to tell because Disney does not release their numbers that often. But between Saturday, March 14, 2020, and Monday, March 16, 2020—a week ago—the number of Disney Plus signups more than tripled compared to the same period from the week prior. Last week, Disney Plus released in most countries in Europe, which want to remind y’all that we got on March 16. Because if you have people streaming at 1080p and 4k, that is going to strain the internet capability of everyone, and especially in the UK, and living in Europe, where it’s a lot smaller radius. You’re gonna have people like using the network and it’s going to be slow everywhere, even if even if you have a fast network just because so many people are on it I honestly will see if this hits the United States because it could because there’s so many people going to watching on streaming services. And that’s what most people are doing these days, and we’ll see if that hits the United States.
So Bridgewater college students have been getting emails from Netflix, asking them to subscribe to them. I feel like that’s a lot for a [inaudible] That’s also for college students as like all college students as well. I’ve definitely gotten this email. I know my brother’s gotten his email to Netflix is basically like, hey, subscribe to us, you have nothing else better to do.
Omnia predicts $11 billion losses for the movie industry with a 25% decline and 15% drop in TV advertising, especially for ads promoting events such as concerts that can no longer take place. I mean, it makes sense because all theaters are shutting down. They can’t. They can’t show any because it’s 10 or more people. And that would increase the risk for getting COVID-19. And so it’s smart for them to shut down all the theaters, but they’re losing so much money because of this. And the surgeon demand comes coupled with a warning from the company that paid TV advertising may decline by 15%. And [Omnia] also predicted that industry recovery will start in 18 to 24 months, which is crazy and I might even take longer because of the increased hiatus for these theaters shutting down and movies can’t be released to the public. But because they’re not being released to the public and in like theaters, they are being released to various TV providers and online stores for rent or buy.
These, according to Business Insider, these include “Onward,” which was released March 20, and is releasing on Disney Plus on April 3; the “Invisible Man” which released on March 20; “The Hunt” also March 20; “Emma” March 20; “The Way Back” which released on March 24; and “Bloodshot” also released on March 24, as well as “Mercy Birds of Prey” also released on March 24. “I Still Believe” released March 27, “Call of the Wild” also on March 27, and “Sonic the Hedgehog” released on March 31, which was yesterday. So, if you want to watch those movies, you were like, I was going to watch it in theaters, but I can’t anymore. You can rent and or buy on various streaming services, and either like on iTunes or Google Play Store or if you have a TV provider like FIOS, you can buy-slash-rent there.
So onto some video game news. We have Animal Crossing New Horizons sold a whopping 1.8 million copies in three days in Japan, according to Nintendo Life, after being released on March 20. That’s insane, like, almost 2 million copies in three days. And I am definitely—I’m one of those—because I just bought Animal Crossing, and it’s been great. But millions of people have been flocking to play Animal Crossing New Horizons since they can’t leave their homes. It’s a huge success. Many people are playing it including myself. It just, it helps you disconnect from the world especially during these difficult times when you can’t go out of the house; you’re creating new life there.
So on to related topic with Animal Crossing, kind of, sort of, is the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo Switch is sold out more than usual due to factories being shut down and production is being halted. There are no new switches and stores which people have been resorting to buying them on secondary sites like eBay, Facebook Marketplace, etc. While you can get a Switch this way, I would not recommend it because people are up-selling—they’re up-charging their prices for the switch. In comparison, the regular Nintendo Switch goes for $300, which gives you the Switch, gives you the dock, gives you all the essentials. While on these other sites, they are charging $600—up to $600—because they’re so rare at the moment and they’re their production is halted. I would not recommend doing this because I’m sure in a matter of months they will begin production again especially since China is starting to see a decrease in their COVID-19 cases and people are going back to factories and going back to work. So, if you are wanting to get a Nintendo Switch I would not do it this way I would just wait for it to go back into production. And that is all for your TV and movie news and Video Game News. It’s all for entertainment for me tonight I hope you’re all having a good evening tonight. Please stay [safe] follow all the rules follow all the guidelines especially staying inside I know it really does suck but in order to decrease the amount of the cases just stay inside.
Stay safe, wash your hands, follow the rules—you know all that. Well. I hope y’all have a good night.
ISAAC MILLER, NATIONAL NEWS:
Good evening everyone and welcome back to another installment of BCVoice Midweek radio show’s national news segment. I’m Isaac and I’m going to be taking you through all the headlines that we have this week.
Unfortunately, as has been the case the last couple of weeks, they are mostly pertaining to the coronavirus, but we’ve tried to slip in a little bit of good news here so it’s not all gloom and doom. Unfortunately, we are going to start off with some gloom and doom projections. The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus has been estimated to reach anywhere from 100,000 to 240,000 individuals. Now this was reported by Dr. Anthony S. Fauci and Dr. Deborah L. Burks, both of whom are helping to lead the United States coronavirus response for the White House. They revealed these numbers during a briefing at the White House on Tuesday evening. Now these estimates are assuming that everyone will follow social distancing measures put into place by national and local authorities as well following stay at home orders issued by the same authorities. They do not represent a worst-case scenario, or what may happen if social distancing measures are ignored by the public. In such a scenario, the models estimate that anywhere from upwards to 2.2 million people could potentially die in the United States due to the coronavirus. Now the model was based on a continuing analysis of the current spread of the coronavirus in the United States, and it largely matches similar models produced by other independent researchers both in the United States and around the globe.
Now, Dr. Fauci and Dr. burst also showed that the virus is spreading much faster in New York and in New Jersey, and hoped that the grim situation here would further encourage other states to try and prevent a similar fate for themselves. Now President Trump last week extended federal guidelines limiting public gatherings.
Less terrible news about the coronavirus: There has been a new study in China that finds that a malaria drug may help treat symptoms of the coronavirus. Now the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine has been seen to help a small number of coronavirus patients recover from symptoms faster. According to this new study from Chinese scientists, symptoms such as cough fever and pneumonia, were seen to go away faster in those treated with it, and those who took the drug were also less likely to develop a severe illness due to the coronavirus. Now the study was performed on a small group of patients who were only mildly or moderately ill; the treatment was not tried on any patients who had severe cases of the coronavirus or COVID-19. Now the authors of the study have called the medication promising but they encourage further research into the usefulness of the drug before it is tried for treatment on a larger scale.
Now I want to end off as I have been for the last couple of weeks on the current state of the coronavirus in the United States. Now as of Wednesday morning, more than 188,247 people have contracted the coronavirus in the United States and more than 3,900 have unfortunately passed away. Now at this time last week per-person-perspective, there were about 50,000 infections in the United States and only 544 deaths. The United States now has more cases than any other country on earth, and now has more deaths than China where the outbreak first occurred. Of course, states are fighting back there are now 30 states in the country with a statewide shelter in place orders including Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia and Delaware. And there are another 11 more states with shelter in place orders in specific counties such as about 30 counties in Pennsylvania. Now on these orders, you are still permitted to leave your house but only for essential purposes such as going to the grocery store to get food, going to a pharmacy or going to a doctor. And generally, most states will also allow you to leave the house to get some form of exercise outside.
Now, whether or not you’re, you and your state are under a shelter in place order, you should really try to stay home as much as is possible. If you must leave your house, maintain social distancing as much as you physically can. Make sure to wash your hands often; do not touch your face. At this point, the virus as you can see from the numbers is spreading quicker and quicker every week. So every single week, every single day, it is becoming more and more important to do what we all can as individuals to stop the spread of the virus. In order to help save the lives of those who are at risk of potentially passing away from it, and you know, while young people are less likely to die from this, we’re not immune. So just we all need to maintain awareness. I think the rapid spread that’s going on now is kind of further emphasizing that we really need to do everything we can to stop this. But seriously, if you don’t need to leave your house, if you’re just bored, stay home. Tough through it. It’ll save could save countless lives potentially. So quite a depressing week, but we will get through this—there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The coronavirus will not hamper the world forever. So try and stay positive and of course stay safe out there guys.
WELLS, EAGLES SPORTS:
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the BC sports segment here on BCVoice Midweek radio show. My name is Brandon Wells, and I want to give a quick shout out to our host, Brandon Wells for a great hosting job, as always.
Starting us off, I want to talk a little bit about how COVID-19 has affected every single athlete here at Bridgewater College and I give my deepest condolences to every single player, coach, athlete, parent—everyone that was a part of the spring sports that never got to be finished or some sports never even got started. So my deepest condolences, especially to all you seniors who never got the chance to play in your senior year. As a senior myself this has been very hard on everyone, and I wish everyone the best, especially preparing for next season and getting even better than they were.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom as a lot of our sports had very successful seasons. Even though they were cut short, many of them were headed towards a championship caliber season. So I want to start off now talking about men’s baseball. Men’s baseball ended their season 11 and 4, 2 and 1 in the ODAC. Their last three games they scored over 10 runs each—lots of momentum going into next season. And there’s a lot of promising things a lot of young talent on that team, including first-year player, Jeff Snyder, who was announced as the final ODAC Player of the Week, just before we left campus. A lot of great things for that baseball team. They put a lot of heart and soul and that was a high scoring team, every single team they played against, you know, I wouldn’t have wanted to play against them if I was any other team in the ODAC, so a lot of good things going in the next year for the men’s baseball.
Women’s softball ended the season just as good 13 and 3. Sadly, they did not get the chance to play any conference games as they were 0 and 0 in that category. They ended their season with a 5-game win streak. And first year athlete Brantley Swift was ranked on almost every single category you can think. In the ODAC, she was first in appearances, second and wins third innings pitched, third and completed gains fourth and earned run average and 10th in strikeouts. Also she was ranked nationally as she was 8th in wins and 15th in completed games in the NCAA. It’s always impressive when a Bridgewater athlete gets ranked nationally. And women’s softball was another one of those programs that was headed for great things in the ODAC, perhaps could have gotten a ring. It’s very sad, their season’s cut short, but both of these teams both have a lot of young talent, so far as a fan, you cannot hold your head down because there’s a lot to look forward to going in the next season. They have a lot of time to prepare now.
Men’s Tennis is another sport that just got started and didn’t really get to get much going. But they were able to play five games as they ended their season 3 to 0; sadly, they did not get to play any conference games similar to softball, but you know, they played very well. It’s a winning record. So again, a lot to go off for next season. None of these teams did bad. Women’s Tennis into the season 3 and 1, and they actually got to play that conference game and they won it, so they were 1 and 0 in the ODAC at the end of this season.
Sadly, a lot of spring sports never quite were able to kick into that second gear. But just before we left on March 11, we had the annual Bridgewater Day of Giving, where the Bridgewater athletics department came together and did a big, long, live-stream. The campus does a lot to try to raise as much money as possible, and a huge fundraising attempt to reach out to allies and students and families and parents and friends. And it was a very successful day as we were nearing record breaking numbers. As we raised over $138,000 and got over 730 gifts. I want to thank every single person who donated. I was a part of that livestream, and so it kind of makes me happy that the numbers are able to be as high as they were, and every single contribution matters even if it’s a very small number. It goes to help out every single coach, athlete and friend that is associated with Bridgewater athletics, and just to campus in general, makes Bridgewater a better place a better environment for everyone to live in. So thank you to everyone who donated and please tune in next year, as always. Day of Giving is always a great fun time for everyone. It’s not just about money, it’s about relationships, it’s about connections. It’s about the campus. It’s about being connected to the campus. So please make sure you check that out next year as well. Day of Giving’s always a fun time. For more on the Day of Giving and please visit bridge please visit BCvoice-dot-org: there’s a nice little article about it on our website.
Sadly, there’s not too much more to talk about when it comes down to local sports, everything’s shut down but and those were your final season updates. So I hope that you know, you follow these teams closely and support them as they move into next season. And to all you seniors who didn’t quite get the opportunities that you desired, you know, it could always be worse. Hold your head high—you played very well. None of these teams were bad at all, everyone had winning records and especially Bridgewater baseball and softball looking towards that conference game—it sucks that you never got to prove yourselves, but you always have next year. Next year’s looking bright, so keep your heads up. My name has been Brandon Wells and you’ve been listening to the BCVoice Midweek radio show and off to the next segment.
JUSTIN ROGERS, NATIONAL SPORTS:
What’s up everybody? This is Justin Rogers for BC midweek radio bringing you some national sports for the week. Hope you guys have been good so far with everything going on with COVID-19. And for the BC students, with some of you not being able to go back on campus get some of your stuff. Well, how about some national sports news to cheer you up a little bit?
First thing I’ve got today is from ESPN. If you are an NBA fan, especially a fan of Michael Jordan, you are going to love this news. ESPN bumped up “The Last Dance” to April 19. And “The Last Dance” is a documentary event—a 10-part documentary event—on ESPN so it was moved up to April 19 at 9 p.m., so if you have ESPN, you can tune into that. And that will be over an entire week where you can watch those documentaries. It’s going over the Chicago Bulls, one of the greatest sports teams in NBA history, if not sports history, and it is going over their 1997 and ‘98 season looking at all their championship series and championship years through just that one year. And even during that season, they had a camera crew come in and have an in-depth look at the season through the eyes of the players and the coaches. So I would definitely check that out especially with COVID-19 and not being able to do too much especially with being at home if you are in Virginia—or really any state in the United States for that matter.
And another thing just to bring up I got some sports birthdays today, and these are courtesy of on this day.com a couple of birthdays we got today. One being Washington Redskins safety—former Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor would have been 37 today—he died in 2007 after being shot—one of the greatest safeties and Washington Redskins history, if not NFL history. If he would have been able to play for at least five or six more seasons, he would have been known as one of the greats maybe even greater than Ed Reed or Troy Polamalu. So I would definitely check out some of his sports highlights, and he had some of the greatest hits I’ve ever seen. And happy birthday as well to center Brook Lopez, center for the Nets and the Bucs, he turns 32 today, so happy birthday to him as well.
Another segment that I want to go into is positivity in the midst of the chaos and some of the aid that is happening with some of these sports teams and sports players. During the coronavirus, Magic guard DJ Augustine is at a New Orleans hospital, and this is according to ESPN, he made a donation of red beans that provided food for frontline hospital workers who are treating patients with COVID-19. So thank you, DJ Augustine, for that. And a lot of this other news now is coming from nfl-dot-com—quarterback Drew Brees donated $5 million to deliver meals to the needy people in Louisiana. So New Orleans in Louisiana getting a lot of aid from some big sports stars from the NBA and the NFL. And the Tennessee Titans also contributing $50,000 to the United Way for greater Nashville’s COVID-19 response fund, and the Buffalo Bills and Sabers, so NHL and NFL franchises and Buffalo are partnering up with sports and entertainment to donate $1.2 million to aid western New York residents; and the Cleveland Browns owner Dee and Jimmy Hazlitt are also giving.
A lot of NFL news, really the only sports that is going on is NFL free agency and some of the news that is coming out of the NFL. So we’re just going to go over a couple of the signings that happened since the last recording we had last Wednesday. And we’re just going to go with it right now. So the former Super Bowl champion Broncos d-end Derek Wolfe signs with the Ravens and not being able to get Brockers, which we’ll talk about in a little bit, really hurt the Ravens so they go out and they get a pretty good guy. I mean, he’s not really a starter in the league anymore, but he’s definitely, a guy can say, if you know baseball, a D-H, a guy who can come in late in the game on third down, come in and get you a game-clinching sack. I could see him being a really good player and especially getting Calais Campbell of the Ravens. Again, I’ll keep saying this, they are there for the number one seed in the AFC another Super Bowl, former Super Bowl champion.
Ronald Darby signs with the Washington Redskins so the Redskins last week traded Quintin Dunbar to the Seattle Seahawks for 5th-round pick. And now they get a guy to pair with Kendall Fuller This is making the backend of their defense really solid right now, and it’s gonna be interesting to see how the Redskins do within a week NFC east even though the Cowboys have one of the strongest rosters in the NFL. Also former Packers wide receiver Geronimo Allison he signs with the Lions so the Lions having a pretty decent wide receiver core already with Kenny Galaday, one of the better wide receivers last year, now you add a good slot, good third wide receiver and Dranama Allison. See what Matthew Stafford can do with him as a weapon there.
And Don Terry Poe and Gregory “The Leg” Zuerlein, the former kicker of the Los Angeles Rams, they both signed with the Dallas Cowboys, mentioned them a little bit earlier, trying to make a push for the NFC East, and these signs for Nick Foles earlier this offseason. And we talked about Michael Brockers a little bit earlier, the Ravens were so close to getting Michael Brockers, but because of an ankle issue, didn’t want to take a risk on him and instead went after Derek Wolfe. And so Michael Brockers has decided to resign with the Rams, who are having a pretty difficult off-season. I would say them and the Redskins are having difficult off-seasons.
It’s going to be hard because the NFC West is probably the toughest division in the NFL next year with the former NFC champs. The San Francisco 49ers, the Seattle Seahawks are always tough every year, and the Arizona Cardinals are on the rise because of the sign of DeAndre Hopkins. So the Rams, they need to be making some moves especially not having a first round pick and the 2020 draft and Xavier Rhodes probably one of the better corners coming out of this 2020 NFL free-agent class—probably one of the most disappointing seasons from a star corner that we saw last season—sign with the Colts who don’t have a number one corner. And this could be a make- or break-year for the Indianapolis Colts, we talked about this a little bit on my podcast with Brandon Wells, NFL podcast Beyond the Blitz. You can follow it on our Twitter page Beyond-underscore-Blitz. We talked about Xavier Rhodes a little bit Brandon very high on Xavier Rhodes possibly having a better year than he’s ever had this upcoming year. And I think Xavier Rhodes again make- or break-year for him. It would be interesting to see the impact that he has on the Indianapolis Colts safety Vaughn Bell, the former saints star at safety signs with the Bengals of veteran help for the Cincinnati Bengals, who are becoming a young team a rebuilding team especially with possibly getting Joe Burrow with the first overall pick in the Draft.
And speaking of the Bengals former Bengals tight end Tyler Eifert is a Jacksonville Jaguar. This is a good weapon for Gardner Minshew especially because you don’t have a lot of guys on that team who are reliable weapons except maybe DD Westbrook on that team. So be good especially in the red zone because Tyler Eifert is a red zone, touchdown machine. He was for the Cincinnati Bengals, and I think he could be a very reliable fantasy tight end for those who are looking for guys who could go in the eighth or the ninth round for you.
And Ndamukong Suh re-signs with the Bucs, and this is definitely showing that the Bucs who had the number one rush defense last year mainly because of Ndamukong Suh, you bring him back. You have Shaq Barrett back, and you add Tom Brady, who by the way is keeping number 12, Chris Godwin is going to have number 14 next year. So TB 12 is in TB Tampa Bay for the Buccaneers.
And the Buccaneers again another team that’s on the rise NFC South also an interesting division with the Buccaneers, the Falcons, the saints, the Panthers, not as much, I think, they’re another rebuilding team, kind of like the Cincinnati Bengals. But again, TB in TB making them push for a playoff berth next year for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
And another couple interesting headlines here. So we talked about the Kansas City Chiefs earlier releasing Reggie Raglan. Well, there’s a reason why they didn’t bring him back. Right now, I currently have more in my bank account then the Kansas City Chiefs do in their cap space. They currently have $177 in their cap space. And this is, again within the NFL that offers thousands and millions of dollars to players. They only have $177 in their cap space. And that is according to ProFootballTalk—PFT—and that’s just really interesting to think about, especially because they’re thinking about giving a deal to Pat Mahomes, and they already have Sammy Watkins on the roster. That’s 20-plus million dollars. For the 2020 season, are they going to trade him? Are they going to just cut him and save $14 million? I think it would be a good idea. But we’ll see what the Chiefs do.
And another interesting tidbit, the NFL will be showing wild card games on the kids’ network Nickelodeon. And the broadcasts are going to be tailored to NFL fans. And this is going to be on Sunday. So for a lot of the fans, like me when I was like 10, or 11 years old, where I just love watching football so much. Now they’re going to tap into that market that maybe never has been explored before. And they’re going to see if there is a market—I mean, what a time right now with COVID-19, and people just doing nothing but schoolwork, working from home and then watching TV. What a time to test that market, and to see if there’s really any market there for kids to watch football.
And then one last thing that I want to go over real quick is that we talked about the CBA and one of the things that they’re going to initiate is a 14-team playoff instead of a 12-team playoff. So there’s going to be seven teams in the AFC that get in, and seven teams in the NFC, and the owners approved expanding the NFL playoffs to 14 teams. So it’s going to be interesting to see what happens next year. I mean, you have teams like the Pittsburgh Steelers the past two years, if this was already initiated, they would have been in the playoffs last two years. It’s just gonna really be interesting this next season, especially if the season gets delayed a little bit. And there are some rumors that the NFL season may even go until March, which for the first time ever in sports history. I mean, we already had all the sports get canceled for the first time in sports history: Could we possibly have all the sports for the first time in history all play at the same time? You never know. But it’ll be interesting to see what this 17-playoff for both the NFC and the AFC, how that will affect the NFL.
Well, thank you guys for listening to the National Sports here on BCVoice Midweek.
WELLS:
And with that, our show has concluded. We want to thank each and every one of our broadcasters for their dedicated work to bring you the most quality updates you can get, along with our listeners for tuning in. My name has been Brandon Wells and you have been listening to the BCVoice Midweek radio show at BCVoice-dot-org. Tune in next Wednesday at seven o’clock for a brand new show. And thank you for listening.
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