Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 20, 1994 TAG: 9408230015
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The speedway's season finale Oct.22, the Chevy Dealers 250, will become the second live telecast from the New River oval with a 21/2-hour show at 3 p.m. The Roanoke station figures to return to the track for live racing next season, too.
The WDBJ 200 on July 31 gave Channel 7 a Nielsen rating of 9 and a 17 share of the Roanoke-Lynchburg market audience, very competitive numbers in summer prime time. Mike Bell, WDBJ's director of programming, said the station virtually broke even on the production, as well.
WDBJ will go head-to-head with college football on the October race, but Bell said ratings for NASCAR events also helped make the station's decision on more dates at New River. For one half-hour segment of the Diehard 500 at Talladega, Ala., in July on CBS, WDBJ had a 21 rating and stunning 79 share (market percentage of homes using TV).
Jim Shaver, WDBJ's vice president of news and programming, said the station is negotiating with New River Valley Speedway for three live races next season. Shaver said Channel 7 would prefer to do one event each in the spring, summer and fall, on weekends when the Winston Cup circuit does not have a race scheduled.
WDBJ would prefer Saturday afternoon races, because of more favorable lighting conditions. That would give the track and station Sunday afternoon as a rain date. The station's first production effort from the Pulaski County track was as solid as those Nielsen numbers, too.
YOUR VOTE: WSLS (Channel 10) will bring back its somewhat-democratic NFL telecast selection process of last season. ``Name the Game'' allows viewers to vote by phone on which NFL games from NBC they want to see.
Channel 10 will begin the balloting with Week 2 of the NFL season, after airing Seattle-Washington as the Sept.4 opener.
Viewers can call 1-800-VOTE-TEN (868-3836) to hear WSLS sports director Greg Roberts give the options, and then make a choice from among the NBC regional games available.
For example, viewers can vote Sept.4-7 for Miami-Green Bay or Pittsburgh-Cleveland as the 1 p.m. game to air before the Houston-Dallas national telecast at 4 p.m. The weekly poll will close at 11 a.m. Wednesdays, and the winning game will be announced on Channel 10 newscasts that day.
The balloting is a solid concept, particularly since there is no dominant AFC club in the Roanoke-Lynchburg market to challenge viewership of the Washington Redskins in the NFC package, which moves this season from CBS to Fox (WJPR/WFXR Channels 21/27). It also is a very popular concept.
Last season, WSLS received more than 80,000 ``Name the Game'' phone votes. Viewers can call as often as they wish, as it was obvious Cleveland Browns fans did last season.
PPV KICKOFF: Many area cable systems again will be offering the weekly college football pay-per-view package from ABC and ESPN Enterprises. Locally, Cox Cable Roanoke and Salem Cable TV are selling the 12-week series for $59.95 and any individual game for $9.95.
The Roanoke and Salem systems each will air one game in each time slot, a different contest from the regional game that ABC Sports feeds to WSET (Channel 13). For example, when WSET airs Virginia-Florida State at 3:30 p.m. on Sept.3, the PPV game will be Boston College-Michigan or Washington-Southern California.
Cox Cable Roanoke is taking college football PPV orders at its new customer service number, 776-3848. Salem Cable TV's number is 389-9385. The series runs through Nov.19.
DIALING DUEL: The state's two Division I-A football coaches will be clashing long before the Nov.19 Virginia-Virginia Tech game in Blacksburg. The call-in radio shows featuring Tech coach Frank Beamer and UVa coach George Welsh will air in the same time slot Monday nights this season.
Virginia's ``Cavalier Call-In'' moves from Sunday nights. Tech's show moves from Thursday nights. Beamer's show gets a five-minute head start at 7 p.m. and both air until 8 p.m.
AROUND THE DIAL: WDBJ (Channel 7) begins its 11th year of ``Friday Football Extra'' next week with the high school season preview show at 11:30 p.m. ... Former Washington Redskins tight end Rick ``Doc'' Walker is the new telecast analyst on the Big East network. Walker, familiar to regional viewers primarily from his work on Home Team Sports, replaces Todd Blackledge. Dave Sims is back for his second season on Big East TV play-by-play. ... If the baseball strike continues through next weekend, the first of NBC's dates on the new ``Baseball Network'' will be wiped out. The network will replace any scrubbed Friday prime-time games with movies. ... Medalist Sports Inc. president Mike Plant said the Tour DuPont, which has been televised in highlights form since its inception in 1989 by CBS, is negotiating with ABC and NBC, as well as CBS, for rights starting with the '95 Tour. ... Virginia's pregame football show on its radio network has been lengthened to 90 minutes this season.
ESPN has dropped its plans to air another Birmingham Barons' game as a fill-in on ``Sunday Night Baseball'' this weekend, because Michael Jordan still is out with an injury. ...
by CNB