Major sports events shown on tape delay or pre-empted in certain areas

[retrothoughts]

Then there was the year ('83, IIRC) WLOS pre-empted ABC's college football games. They aired an SEC game early Saturday
afternoons, then syndicated programs and local news while the network game was on (3:30 to conclusion). Late in the season,
when some of the games ABC was showing had bowl implications, people started deluging the station with protests. Needless to say, ABC's college football was back on WLOS the next year and has been there ever since.

It would've been 1984, months after the Supreme Court declared the fiendish[?] "NCAA football television plan" unconstitutional, when Turner Broadcasting syndicated SEC football to stations like WLOS, which, in that station's case, would've been odd back then because the Univ. of South Carolina Gamecocks were years away from joining the SEC, unless you count some UGA or Tennessee fans in the Asheville-Greenville-Spartanburg area.

 

[charlestondxman]

1997 Ryder Cup did not air OTA in Charleston area because WCBD, the NBC, preempted Saturday rounds for ACC football (Navy-Duke). NBC wouldn't let the station air Sunday coverage, so both days were relegated to cable. It didn't air OTA in Columbia either.

 

[spencerkarter85]

1997 Ryder Cup did not air OTA in Charleston area because WCBD, the NBC, preempted Saturday rounds for ACC football (Navy-Duke). NBC wouldn't let the station air Sunday coverage, so both days were relegated to cable. It didn't air OTA in Columbia either.

What about Greenville/Spartanburg?

Also, I've read an old edition of The News and Courier (now The Post and Courier) from Charleston, South Carolina in early 1983 I think, and WCBD 2 (when it was ABC at the time until it became a Peacock affiliate on August 19, 1996) refused to air the ABC Sports' Bowling games, and they got a angry protest from fans of bowling as I read in the article. At the time WCBD changed ownerships from Columbia, SC based State Telecasting to it's current owners Media General that year I think.

 

[bpatrick]

I keep WCBS and KCBS on DirecTV for the simple reason that
my two local CBS affiliates, WFMY and WRAL, usually pre-empt
CBS's college basketball games for Raycom's ACC coverage, and
there's been many a Saturday when Kentucky was on CBS and the
only way I could see them was to watch New York or Los Angeles.

Of course, all four of these stations will have Kentucky-Louisville this
Saturday.

 

[ShawnHill1]

Supposedly in Las Vegas, NBC affiliate KORK-TV Channel 3 (now KSNV) didn't clear the 1978 World Series, electing to carry news and syndicated fare instead. This drew the ire from local residents, whom in turn complained to the FCC, and it essentially forced an ownership change by the following year. Up until 1979, the station had been co-owned with Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Of course, with Las Vegas being in a practically-isolated location, the closest neighboring major cities being 200+ miles (such as Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, etc.), there would be no other way to pick up another set of stations...unless you lived on the northern outskirts and could somehow get stations from Reno, or one of the Salt Lake translators.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

I keep WCBS and KCBS on DirecTV for the simple reason that
my two local CBS affiliates, WFMY and WRAL, usually pre-empt
CBS's college basketball games for Raycom's ACC coverage, and
there's been many a Saturday when Kentucky was on CBS and the
only way I could see them was to watch New York or Los Angeles.

Of course, all four of these stations will have Kentucky-Louisville this
Saturday.

What happens when CBS shows an ACC game? I assume they're contractually obligated to air all of Raycom's games even the dogs.

 

[charlestondxman]

CBS's ACC games are always shown locally. The ACC schedules around the national dates. It's the other regional games that get affected.

Instead of an SEC game (in a SEC state) we get ACC basketball between 2 often-mediocre teams. This year was the first year in a long time that the area got to see the Saturday and Sunday games on Championship week on CBS as before they had the ACC tourney.

 

[dxtrfn]

ACC basketball used to widely preempt CBS national basketball games until very recently as Raycom had doubleheaders every Saturday and a game on most Sundays as well. Raycom has moved many games to FSN and ESPNU. The weeknight games by Raycom are picked up mainly by CW, MYtv and digital subchannels for many games. The local teams get shown by the main stations and the Duke-UNC first game is carried by the network affiliates. (WBTV, WFMY, WRAL, WDBJ etc) Due to this the SEC basketball final was not aired in my area for years until WDRL (now WEFC we think) and WXIV (now WGSR) picked up the SEC finals and the other CBS sports events preempted by the ACC games. The Atlantic 10 basketball finals had the same fate this year and thankfully the SEC semifinals and finals is on ABC now. The Pro Bowlers Tour suffered the same fate when ABC covered it as WSET aired ACC games when they had the package and WGHP aired a local high school quiz show and infomercials instead but WGHP joined the network for Wide World of Sports at 4:30pm. WSET did air bowling after the ACC tournament in mid-March so at least viewers got to see the PBA World Championship in SW VA.

 

[zman]

I remember in I think 1985 or sometime in the mid 80's WYZZ TV 43 in Peoria Illinois then an independent now FOX picked up an NBC. Saturday afternoon NFL game as the NBC affiliate in Peoria WEEK TV 25 had other programming. Can't remember what it was but the time of year that they would have been playing Saturday afternoon games makes me think it was some kind of local holiday special. Someone else might be able to remember.

 

[CrankyYankee]

Before todays satellite delivery of most programming, AFRTS outlets would get sports events about a week after they took
place via kinescopes. The SuperBowl or World Series games would be broadcast live, if satellite connections could be made with the outlet.

 

[Ultimajock]

The Indy 500 is STILL relegated to tape-delay in Indianapolis (at the insistence of IMS).

IIRC, it was same night tape-delay everywhere until 1985 or 86. They started the same night tape-delay in the early 70s. Before that, it was shown on "Wide World Of Sports" maybe a week after the race was actually run.

...occasionally in the '60s and '70s, ABC would air championship boxing matches live, but more commonly they'd run them on Wide World of Sports the weekend after they took place. I've caught several ESPN Video On Demand matches that had Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell in a New York studio commenting live during a videotape playback of an Ali match that took place elsewhere a few nights earlier...

 

[crainbebo]

Our local KIRO 7 (CBS) tape-delayed the Daytona 500 (which was won by local driver Derrick Cope) in 1990 to show a SuperSonics game instead. It was shown six hours later than broadcast.

-crainbebo

 

[EricStein]

In the early '90s, a few "NBA on NBC" games were seen on KUTP-45 instead of KPNX-12. KPNX was known for pre-empting NBC sporting events for local telethons and the like.

In 1994, right when CBS moved from KSAZ-10 (now a FOX O&O) to KPHO-5, a days worth of U.S. Open tennis matches aired on KUSK out of Prescott (now KAZT), which wasn't on every Phoenix area cable system at the time and had a couple of low-power translators to cover the Phoenix Metropolitan area. The reason: KPHO still had obligations to the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon (which moved to KTVK-3 a few years later).

 

[MHB]

The Indy 500 is STILL relegated to tape-delay in Indianapolis (at the insistence of IMS).

IIRC, it was same night tape-delay everywhere until 1985 or 86. They started the same night tape-delay in the early 70s. Before that, it was shown on "Wide World Of Sports" maybe a week after the race was actually run.

...occasionally in the '60s and '70s, ABC would air championship boxing matches live, but more commonly they'd run them on Wide World of Sports the weekend after they took place. I've caught several ESPN Video On Demand matches that had Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell in a New York studio commenting live during a videotape playback of an Ali match that took place elsewhere a few nights earlier...

I remember the boxing matches being delayed.

Typically they'd be live on "closed circuit TV" at local arenas. Before the match actually ran on ABC, free TV could show still pictures from it.

 

[MCarney]

I recently came across a TV Guide from April 1966. There was a Sunday listing for an NBA playoff game on ABC. It was the Eastern Division final - Philadelphia 76ers vs. the winner of the Boston Celtics/Cincinatti Royals series. The ABC stations in New Haven CT, Waterbury CT and Springfield MA were listed as carrying it, and there was a note under the listing that channel 7 in Boston may carry the game (I'm guessing if the Celtics were involved, which they were). I can't imagine a network allowing a station to opt out of carrying a playoff game if the hometown team wasn't involved, but it did happen back then.

 

[charlestondxman]

Probably would have been a blackout. The NBA and the other pro sports leagues beside the NFL used to blackout national games in the 80s and well into the 90s if they didn't sell out.

For example, the 1983 Eastern Conference Finals Game 1 between Philadelphia and Milwaukee was blacked out in Philly on Mother's Day and didn't air there.

The NCAA Tournament also did that for a long time.

 

[cd637299]

Bowling fan that I am, looking back at old Miami TV listings, it looks that "Pro Bowlers Tour" was not shown for its first 4 seasons here (1962-65)---and when it was finally shown, it was on a one-week delay at an earlier hour, for one season!

cd

 

[MCarney]

I didn't even stop to think about blackouts - so used to every Celtics, Bruins and Red Sox games being broadcast (albeit on cable), and the Patriots haven't had a blackout in over a decade. I was thinking in terms of WNAC, the then ABC affiliate in Boston, passing up on yet another ABC program. They were owned by RKO General and often pre-empted weekday programming for movies.

 

[johnnya2k6]

Before todays satellite delivery of most programming, AFRTS outlets would get sports events about a week after they took
place via kinescopes. The SuperBowl or World Series games would be broadcast live, if satellite connections could be made with the outlet.

That was the same case here in Alaska until the early '70s, when we started getting live sports via satellite (I was too young to even remember the "Not current in Alaska" v/o)!

 

[cd637299]

Before todays satellite delivery of most programming, AFRTS outlets would get sports events about a week after they took
place via kinescopes. The SuperBowl or World Series games would be broadcast live, if satellite connections could be made with the outlet.

That was the same case here in Alaska until the early '70s, when we started getting live sports via satellite (I was too young to even remember the "Not current in Alaska" v/o)!

Not me! I heard that on practically every "promo" shown during live sports events, while stationed at Elmendorf AFB, late 70s.

One time, a local DJ, in January, shouted out "Merry Christmas!" Then a fake "group" yelled out, "What?!?!" and then the DJ said "Not current in Alaska!"

cd