St. Louis, MO - HDTV - Page 315

If you have a rant about kSDk, you should know that you're going to be standing in a VERY LONG line.

But kSDk aside, the root of the problem here is that there's a built-in incompatibility with a major network affiliate handling local sports broadcasts, particularly for baseball, basketball and hockey, due to the large number of games and resulting pre-emptions of network-originated programming. No doubt there's a strong and attractive financial incentive for the local station to present Cardinal baseball broadcasts, but it inevitably results in unhappy local viewers who don't care about the local sports team and equally unhappy networks executives who lose out a chunk of their national audience.

This largely explains why local sports broadcasts on network affiliates are nowadays pretty much limited to the weekend, as that approach at least avoids stepping on the toes of the most lucrative portion of the network's prime-time programming. FWIW, this is a major departure from the 1960s and 1970s, when the 50 or so Cardinal baseball broadcasts were all on NBC affiliate kSDk, resulting in repeated pre-emptions of local network programming.

Anyway, the local sports advertising jackpot is the reason that golf gets trumped by Cardinal baseball this weekend -- there's a lot more local advertising dollars to be reaped from Cardinal baseball than a golf tournament with relatively limited local appeal.

But it does get worse. My guess, based on your location, is that you're unlikely to receive WRBU at all. Many households in the immediate St. Louis area have difficulty receiving this station, though that tends to be a bigger problem with the digital signal rather than the soon-to-be-defunct analog signal. I hope I'm wrong and you're not completely shut out.

WRBU is a second-rate operation in every possible way, and I'd suggest that rather than blaming them, which is pointless as they simply don't have the finances to even pretend to be a legitimate TV station, you'd be better off lobbying kSDk to make alternative carriage arrangements with some other station in future. But be warned that kSDk is not known for its attentiveness to viewer feedback.

But thanks for your rant -- there's nothing better for me than having a chance to slam my two least favorite local broadcasters in a single post. Almost feels like I've done a day's work here...

"Chuck" comes in second (a distant second) in voting to determine which "on the bubble" TV series was most deserving of renewal. "Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles" was named by over 50% of voters.

From Celebrity News Service (http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7015060228):
____________________________________________________________ ____

Los Angeles: CA (CNS) - The fans have spoken. Out of all the shows currently on the fence for the Fall 2009 season, they want 'Terminator" to be back. Save One Show, a poll conducted by E! each year, asks television fans what's their pick for the show in danger of cancellation which needs to be saved. After 300,000 votes, "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" led the pack with 53% of the vote.

The runner-up, NBC's "Chuck" was a far second with 25%. "Dollhouse" followed with 10%, while "Life" earned 8% and "Privileged" another 4%. Previous winners of the Save One Show poll include Angel, One Tree Hill, and Veronica Mars.
____________________________________________________________ ____