Tuesday, August 15, 2006

NASCAR Fans Speak - WKYC Listens

We noted earlier that members of NASCAR Nation were not happy over the weekend, when local NBC affiliate WKYC/3 pre-empted much of Sunday's race for a previously-scheduled Cleveland Indians game.

It looks like WKYC is going to do its best to avoid another such, umm, crash, in October.

The Indians are scheduled to play on Channel 3 on October 1st, which will conflict with another NASCAR race. WKYC programmer Terry Moir tells Akron Beacon Journal TV columnist R.D. Heldenfels that the station "is in discussions about swapping" that day's Indians game with SportsTime Ohio for another game.

Why didn't Channel 3 do this in the first place?

Moir says the station didn't want to switch another game with STO "too soon" after doing so just last month. That switch apparently didn't involve NASCAR, with fans who roar nearly as loud as the engines in their favorite drivers' cars.

That roar was apparently heard. Moir's ears are probably still ringing. She says it was never WKYC's "intention to upset people"...

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think that the Cleveland market realized just how popular NASCAR is here. I hope, as a relatively new fan that maybe some good will come out of this, and the sport will get more coverage. One note to any other people who wish to comment: Please comment on OMW's article and don't leave your stereotypes on this page.

Anonymous said...

I think WKYC just figured out that NASCAR fans won't lose interest at the end of the season the way fans of a losing team eliminated from the playoffs will. (That's not a putdown of Tribe fans...happens in every sport for just about every team.)

Anonymous said...

RE: wixy guy

No comments on stereotypes are needed for NASCAR fans; they're a breed all to themselves. Thankfully most folks don't run in those, uh, "circles." But hey, if you wanna stand up and be proud of your zoom-zooms, have at it.

Anonymous said...

Thanks wixy guy...

Are you still telling jokes about the Cuyahoga river catching fire?

I have to go werk on my zoom-zoom for da race dis Sundey...

Anonymous said...

I'm so tired of the NASCAR fan stereotypes. I'm an educated individual, with a full-time job, all my teeth-- and I don't wear a wife beater. I enjoy racing for the mechanics of it. There are many of us who are not "rednecks" that enjoy racing.

Anonymous said...

Most are still there to see the smash-em-up's, though. Or the snazzy one-piece jump-suits littered with worthless advertising. And while your teeth are intact, can you say the same for those fellers sitting around you?

Anonymous said...

Why was this race so important? If WKYC got back to the race following the game, you still could see the end, right? There will be a built-in audience for Tribe games, especially broadcast ones. It makes more sense to show Indians games, even "meaningless" ones because so few are broadcast now. I would be surprised if a local sports team had lower ratings than an out-of-market car race.

Anonymous said...

i dont think this is the place for "cars go 'round in circles" jokes.

Anonymous said...

First off, I like NASCAR racing. Not a big fan, but I do enjoy watching it from time to time, and I don't sit there drooling for the first wreck.

However ... what if this was a discussion of decision-making between airing a Tribe game and an NFL game that conflict? Does that make you uppity NASCAR-haters feel any different?

Anonymous said...

There's no such thing as "an out-of-market car race" when it is NASCAR...all race events are for a national audience. If fans are upset, they should complain to NASCAR and NBC rather than WKYC. If the affiliates aren't locked in, NASCAR might just dump NBC.

Anonymous said...

To the previous poster, this is the final year of NASCAR on NBC.

Anonymous said...

GOOD. Put the cars-go-round-in-circle shows on some obscure cable channel position, where they belong. Stop cluttering up the local airwaves with that drivel.

Anonymous said...

Obscure cable channel? Wow, you really don't get it, do you? Read it and weep:

Where to Watch NASCAR: '2007-'2014

Nextel Cup: Speedweeks: FOX and SPEED
Budweiser Shootout: FOX
Daytona qualifying races: SPEED
Daytona 500: FOX
First 13 races: FOX
Races 14-19: TNT
Races 20-36: ABC, ESPN, ESPN2
Qualifying: FOX/SPEED, ESPN, ESPN2
Practice: SPEED, ESPN, ESPN2
All-Star Challenge: SPEED
Pit Crew Challenge: SPEED
Busch: ABC, ESPN, ESPN2
Craftsman Truck: FOX, SPEED

http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/5146988

Anonymous said...

I think he was going for that "NHL-on-OLN" kind of thing.

The thing is, anti-NASCAR types are in the minority, IMO. And they fear it because they don't understand it.

I work for a radio station that carries NASCAR, and which also used to carry the Tribe. On Sundays, the race ALWAYS pre-empted the Indians (even during the mid-1990s) because it was FAR MORE LUCRATIVE to the station. My boss used to say that when Tribe fans called him to complain, their voices were drowned out by all the KA-CHING sounds. LOL

Anonymous said...

maybe next time WKYC can do a split screen with the Indians on the left half and Nascar on the right.

Anonymous said...

Maybe if WKYC had those graphic arrows with the numbers and name follow the baseball players around like the NASCAR broadcasts do for the drivers we'd know who is playing for the Tribe now.

Anonymous said...

NASCAR fans are in the minority.

HAHAHAHA.

O man.

Minority as in the way NASCAR reaches out to the Hispanic, Black, Asian and Madagascar Buddhist immigrants and communities?

It is what it is.

Accept it.

Embrace it or you will drive yourself insane.

Me? I'm 'KYC GM? Screw NASCAR and the 14 fans in Cleveland that each call 28 times. Why?

Why else is anything done? Money.

Local commercial positions.

I'd say "Well, I'm sorry you feel that way. The end of the race will be on."

Cash.

Period.