Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 29, 1993 TAG: 9305290088
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The prospective schedule for the Big East's 10-week noontime schedule has been shopped to four stations in the Roanoke-Lynchburg market. Among the only two interested stations, either WSLS (Channel 10) or WJPR/WVFT (Channels 21/27) is likely to carry no more than five games.
The reason is simple. There's no interest in this region in most Big East teams. There's no assurance the Hokies will appear more than once, and West Virginia, which also has a fan base in the area, is uncertain of more than two appearances. Because powerhouse Miami will find most of its games taken by ABC and ESPN, Big East associate commissioner and TV coordinator Tom McElroy doesn't expect the Hurricanes to have more than two lunchtime dates.
One of the Tech and WVU appearances is likely to be the game they play against each other, on Oct. 2. WSLS carried several Big East games last year, but this year the station went after the ACC package from Jefferson-Pilot Sports, upping the ante for WSET (Channel 13) to keep it. Virginia has four dates on the J-P schedule.
WDBJ is locked into postseason baseball from CBS. WSLS has Notre Dame football from NBC on five of the 10 Big East Saturdays, and several of the Fighting Irish's games are very attractive. WJPR/WVFT again is seeking to grab ABC's noon CFA games that WSET must pre-empt. That schedule includes Miami- Florida State and Michigan-Penn State.
Tech is listed for tentative appearances in November against Boston College and Syracuse, but depending on the Hokies' success or lack of it, those dates could change. However, if the Big East wants ratings, it must air winning teams that are familiar. Just as Rutgers, Temple and Pitt don't play big here, the Hokies' don't fly in New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
The Big East has to begin enlarging its identity this season.
\ INDY EYES: ABC Sports will use 34 cameras to televise the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday (11 a.m., WSET), and producer Bob Goodrich is promising "the best coverage ever for an auto race."
If that happens, an NBC executive will take a large - and deserved - bow. Don Ohlmeyer, longtime sports TV executive, has been permitted to keep his director's role on auto racing coverage for ABC, although he has been appointed president of NBC's West Coast Entertainment Division.
Goodrich isn't worried about a conflict of interest. He knows ABC has won two Emmys for its Indy coverage with Ohlmeyer calling the camera shots.
ABC's play-by-play voice for the race, Paul Page, is picking veteran Mario Andretti to win the race, which Page sees as a throwback.
"It harkens back to the '60s, when many of the Formula One drivers used to come over for this race," said Page, in reference to foreign-born drivers being nine of the top 10 starters. "The difference though is that where it used to be that only five or six had a chance to win, now half, if not two-thirds of them, have a chance."
\ COMRADES' CARS: The Russians will be watching the Stanley Cup Finals, and afterward they will see Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 from Charlotte Motor Speedway. The four-hour race will be edited to 80 minutes and shown to viewers in Russia and the Ukraine in June.
Announcers from both nations are at the speedway this week preparing, including picking up tips from Ken Squier, who will call Sunday's 4:05 p.m. telecast for cable's TBS. There is no auto racing in the former Soviet Union.
"We got the idea last May when five Russian generals on a goodwill tour of the United States visited us during the 600," said speedway President Humpy Wheeler. "They were so excited and enthusiastic. They said, `You've got to get this televised in Russia.' "
Russian announcer Enver Safir, a sportscaster for Voice of America in Washington, called stock-car racing "so uniquely American."
"Russians don't know anything about stock car racing, but they love motorsports," he said.
\ CUP RUNNETH: Hockey fans in Russia will watch the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time. The question is how many viewers in the United States will see them.
ESPN, in signing a five-year, $79 million contract with the NHL just before this season, also acquired international telecast rights to the league, except in Canada. The cable giant has had its own international network for several years. Now, ESPN is going to deliver the NHL championship round to an international audience that usually only sees the Olympics.
For the first time, ESPN will be seen in Russia's 70 million TV homes, through an agreement with Russian State Television and Radio. Working with Eurosport, which feeds 40 million homes on that continent, ESPN's games will air in four languages, in prime time, on a one-day delay.
Including countries in the Pacific Rim, South America and Latin America, viewers in more than 80 nations will have access to the Stanley Cup Finals, which begin Tuesday night at Montreal's Forum.
While the folks in New Caledonia might be tuned in, ESPN has to wonder about its domestic audience. Although the 79 NHL playoff games to date have included 26 overtime periods, ESPN's audience is off 30 percent from the playoff rating when the network last had the rights, in 1989. In its five Sunday telecasts, ABC Sports didn't reach 2 million homes.
Needless to say, ESPN is rooting for the Los Angeles Kings to win Game 7 of the Campbell Conference finals tonight at Toronto. With the Kings, ESPN gets Wayne Gretzky for the star-struck U.S. viewers against Montreal. If the Maple Leafs win, the NHL will have its second all-Canadian championship series in five years. In '89, Calgary defeated Montreal.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB