[Boca Junior]

William Houston's blog is no more. He's pulled the plug on it, saying he will be out of the country for a while and IF it starts up again, sports will only make up a small part of the subject matter.

He'd become quite acerbic and a bit nasty in some of his stuff. One particular column earlier this year caused a huge stir and no end of grief for him, even to the point where the comments section had to be closed down.

He may have held some bitterness over his departure from the G&M. Still it was a pretty entertaining column and we could use all of those we can find.

 

[rocket9]

Yep, I liked Houston's take on things. He was/is a bit pompous but that's not really a flaw for a sports reporter..Howard Cosell et al would no doubt agree.

 

[NB Josh]

I will miss his writing for one. Sure he stirred it up a bit, and that is probably the main reason that he is shutting it down. I think that it went from being a job (with the G&M) to being a hobby, to almost being a full time job again, which he didn't want. I hope that he comes back with the odd piece now and then.

I sent him an email wishing him a good retirement (I felt I owed it to him because he helped me whenever I asked a question, which wasn't often). He replied and said thanks.

 

[JoeSoap]

I was a regular until the column that Boca Junior referred to. Houston then told his audience to go F*** yourself because most didn't agree with that column. That comment prompted me to delete his site from my favourites.

No doubt his web site's traffic went way down after that. I suspect that is the reason he bailed as it was taking too much time to write for what was probably was only family and friends reading it.

 

[NB Josh]

I think that his comment was directed at a few people who were posting under various names. They were basically spamming the comments section with personal hate towards him (not just his piece). I don't think it was intended for the average reader, I have criticized Bill before and anytime I've talked to him (email, comments etc.) he has said he respects my (and others') opinion. Of course it didn't come across this way, but I don't think he intended to slander everyone who read his stuff.

I was told by the site admin that these same people had created a fake Bill Houston twitter account that they were presenting as though it really was Bill's too.

 

[Boca Junior]

I think the proverbial last straw may have been when he personally slammed Chris Zelkovich (and one or two others). Maybe he realized that he had crossed the line and it was time to move on. His credibility sure took a direct hit among many loyal readers. The column was never the same and I believe he truly regrets that particular blog.

I've exchanged many e-mails with both Houston and Zelkovich and they are both class acts. I wish Mr Houston well in whatever he does.

 

[Andrew1]

So what was the controversial column about? Jim Kelly?

 

[NB Josh]

No, he blasted James Mirtle (who basically replaced Houston at The Globe as a hockey writer) for not naming a souce inside the Maple Leafs dressing room. You can read a slightly edited version of the article here.

 

[din556]

Zelkovich?

Has Zelkovich left toronto star? I dont see his column anymore.

 

[kirjtc2]

Yup, Zelkovich is done.

http://torontosportsmedia.com/sports-and-toronto/star-sports-media-biz/9267

This leaves the brutal Bruce Dowbiggin as the closest thing this country has to a MSM sports media columnist.

 

[JohnnyCanuck]

"Zelkovich is done" implies he's been fired by the Sun. He hasn't and is still a columnist and reporter. Only Sports Media Watch has been ended. I agree that it's too bad, he was better than Houston and Dowbiggin isn't very good at all.

 

[Andrew1]

I hope they continue to list the ratings for each weekend. (I'm a big time ratings geek!).

 

[NB Josh]

Andrew, I doubt that they will, I haven't seen the ratings for weeks. However, I have emailed BBM to ask them if there is anyway that they could make them public on their site.

 

[sailmaker]

"Zelkovich is done" implies he's been fired by the Sun J Canuck hope you mean the Star. So now I am totally confused. Does Chris Z still write a column for the Star or not?

 

[JohnnyCanuck]

Oops ... you're right, I meant the Star.

 

[Boca Junior]

Well that really stinks. I always looked forward to Chris's blog each Monday, and I loved the "Good, Bad & Ugly" section.

Hardly worth visiting The Star sports section at all now. Certainly not to read Damien Cox or Richard Griffin.

 

[Andrew1]

So now we have virtually no coverage of sports media in any of the big Canadian newspapers. Does anyone know of a source for getting the weekly ratings?

 

[NB Josh]

AFAIK BBM doesn't make the information public. I've inquired about it, but they didn't respond.

 

[kirjtc2]

It's true. Even Zelkovich and Houston had to rely on the networks to pass the numbers onto them, as I recall.

 

[slickrick2369]

that truly bites...loved houston...dowbiggin sucks...and had zelkowich bookmarked but no one had the info like houston