Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 6, 1993 TAG: 9311060126
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The Hokies are scheduled to finish the season with the two rivals, and the games should bring sellout crowds to Lane Stadium. Although Tech would get about $370,000 in CFA television money for the move, the Hokies would risk infuriating their area fans with a late-season night game in Blacksburg, not to mention damaging their gate. Some out-of-town alumni wouldn't drive in for a weeknight game.
Tech hasn't gotten cash for a CFA telecast since 1990, and the Hokies, who will have most of their starters back, should be an attractive TV team next season. So, athletic director Dave Braine has a tough decision to make.
Stay tuned.
\ RELIEF? Jim DeSchepper, WSLS' vice president and general manager, said NBC affiliates in the region are "keeping their fingers crossed" that the NFL puts the new Carolina Panthers in the AFC, alleviating some of the ratings dominance by CBS affiliates in what is now the Washington Redskins' TV market.
Well, there's good news and bad news for Channel 10 and other stations. Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell, a member of the NFL's expansion and realignment committee, said there will be no realignment until the NFL expands to 32 teams down the road. That means the Charlotte club is likely to be added to the AFC Central quartet, with the other franchise to be awarded this month - St. Louis? - playing in the NFC West.
"We are not going to move one team from one division to the other because it has a ripple effect and before you know it, you're moving a dozen teams," Modell said.
However, NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol, citing NFL-predicted losses of $88 million by NBC this season, said "it's 50-50" the network will renew its NFL contract if the league expects similar dollars in the new contract that's being negotiated now.
That's probably posturing. With the NFL still the No. 1 televised sports package, it seems NBC hardly could afford to lose it, especially when ABC and CBS will stay in the game.
\ GOOD IDEA: The ACC, in hopes of getting more significant football games on its telecast schedule in the later weeks of the season, plans to discuss a delay in selecting some TV games until the preceding Sunday. Now, the Jefferson Pilot-ACC schedule is picked before the season, with changes made only when ABC or ESPN takes the designated JP noon game.
The JP schedule on Oct. 30 illustrated why the ACC is considering this move. While the crucial Virginia-N.C. State game wasn't televised, Maryland-Clemson and Georgia Tech-Duke were regionalized on the network. The league especially wants the six-day option when the network is split during November "sweeps" rating periods.
\ COACHSPEAK: The Radford University basketball TV show, only seen on cable outlets previously, will appear on WSLS (Channel 10) this season. Coach Ron Bradley's half-hour will air for 12 weeks on the Roanoke station, at 10:30 a.m. Saturdays starting Dec. 4. Radford is buying air time from WSLS, just as Virginia Tech and Virginia do for coaches' shows.
Radford also announced that former RU and Pulaski County player Ron Shelburne will become the analyst on Highlanders radio broadcasts this season. Shelburne, an insurance agent in Dublin, will join play-by-play man Dave Hunziker on the network.
\ CALL ME AL: CBS college hoops analyst Al McGuire, who guided Marquette to the 1977 NCAA title, isn't sure why the Milwaukee school is changing its Warriors nickname.
"In my mind, a warrior can be anything," McGuire said. "A warrior is a gladiator, a fighter. But since they are going to change it, I suggest the Marquette Abominable Snowmen. That way, only defrocked monks from Tibet would consider protesting, which, no matter what their reasoning, would be impossible, because they simply can't protest in the snow in sandals.
"Seriously, they are considering Marquette Explorers because Father Marquette was an explorer and he's always pictured pointing. Of course, he was probably pointing toward Europe and thinking, `Get me back to France.' "
\ AROUND THE DIAL: WSLS will join NBC's 10th anniversary Breeders' Cup telecast in progress at 3:30 p.m. today, following the Virginia Tech-Boston College football telecast. Viewers should see five of the seven races from Santa Anita Park during the telecast, which runs until 6 p.m. . . . ESPN has signed its most prominent personality, Chris Berman, to a contract through 2001. That will give Berman 23 years at the cable network, so Berman was asked how he saw the sports odyssey in 2001: "In the most exciting game to date, Bud will defeat Labatt's in Bud Bowl XIII on a rouge at the end of the game." . . . ESPN's one-hour college basketball preview, easily the most comprehensive televised, airs Friday at 9:30 p.m. The special, with John Saunders and Dick Vitale as hosts, will be taped at North Carolina's Dean Dome. . . . The late Jim Valvano is among 10 on-air nominees for a 1993 CableACE Award from ESPN. Valvano, who died of cancer in the spring, is nominated in the analyst category. . . . NBC has given the Atlanta Olympics free air time in 10 half-hour programs to promote the 1996 Summer Games. Advertising time in those 10 shows sold out in less than two weeks, at $400,000 per 30 seconds, to four sponsors. The first show airs Jan. 30, Super Bowl Sunday.
by CNB