SPORTS MACHINE Goes Off The Air As MICHAEL Responds To NBC Cuts

(From Sports Business Daily)

GEORGE MICHAEL in March will step down as WRC-NBC Sports Director and host of the nationally syndicated
SPORTS MACHINE, according to KARA ROWLAND of
THE WASHINGTON TIMES.

Michael will stay on to host THE REDSKINS REPORT and
FULL COURT PRESS. He also will continue to host Monday interviews with Redskins coaches.

Michael said that he was "offered a new long-term contract but chose to turn it down amid budget cuts so that other employees wouldn't be laid off."

Rowland notes NBC UNIVERSAL plans to cut 700 jobs in an "effort to reverse falling profits and shrink expenses by
$750 million in the next two years."

Michael -- "If there have to be budget cuts, then the first one (to go) has to be me."

Also in DC, JOHN MAYNARD notes that "more than half of WRC's sports staff's 20 members are being let go."

The AP's MARTY NILAND wrote SPORTS MACHINE, which will go off the air when Michael steps down, "was trendsetting programming, gaining its footing in the days before cable television and ESPN were widely available. The show was the first to give regular national TV exposure to once-obscure sports such as NASCAR and professional rodeo."

Michael "helped the TV careers of several national sports personalities," including DAVID ALDEIDGE, BONNIE BERNSTEIN, TONY KORNHEISER, JOE THEISMANN and MICHAEL WILBON, among others.

ESPN's CHRIS McKENDRY, who was part of Michael's competition in DC at WJLA-ABC from 1994-1996, said of Michael, "He was us before we were us."