Olympic Notes

[RicoGregg]

Way back in 1968, ABC covered the opening ceremony of the Grenoble Winter Olympics live. That was on a weekday starting around 4am, Pacific Time. I was a senior in high school and I had school that day, but I got up at that time to watch it. Unfortunately, the guy at the switch of the San Diego ABC affiliate at the time, XETV/6/Tijuana, didn't sign the station on until after 5am, and just in time to show the U.S. team making it's entrance.

In sharp contrast, the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics is happening right now as I write this (Friday morning, 08/08/08), and unless you're lucky enough to get the CBC, you have to wait until later tonight to see it.

Olympic lovers, take note: You're stuck with NBC until at least 2012.

 

[CrankyYankee]

How about another great Olympic blast-from-the-past?

All together now..."Triplecast!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triplecast

 

[Davros2006]

I saw a bit of the opening ceremonies on CBC this morning. I wonder how CTV will handle the next few Winter/Summer Olympics starting in 2010 (may want to start a new thread on what CTV might do for future happenings).

I've never been a fan of NBC's take on the Olympics, but I have some footage from 1988 on tape that needs a bit of work on the audio (I may have said this in another part of the forum: the tape might mess up the audio heads so the project would have to be done by an outsider).

 

[bpatrick]

I wish I had the CBC. I'm told they don't do
a lot of the "up close and personal" stuff, and
that they try to cover all sports, not just those
like gymnastics and swimming that appeal primarily
to women. And I've known people with satellite dishes
that can pull in wild feeds who actually choose the CBC
over NBC.

And as professional as he is, Bob Costas, to
paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, is no Jim McKay.
Unfortunately, we will never see the man most
associated with the Games again, even if ABC
does get them back. I hope McKay's watching
up there, nevertheless.

 

[oldschooler1]

For those who stayed up past midnight Friday night to watch all of NBC's coverage of the opening ceremonies...At the very end, before the net outcue, they showed a slide dedicating the broadcast to Jim McKay.

 

[easttxtv]

There are archived vids at nbcolympics.com with the fireworks/performances segment and the parade-of-nations segment. Haven't looked around at the others to see if any include the Jim McKay tribute.

 

[timmyb]

I think I posted this some time ago, but in the spirit of the current games, here's a listing of all prime-time anchors since the first televised Olympic games in 1960:

Summer:
2008, Beijing, NBC: Bob Costas
2004, Athens, NBC: Bob Costas
2000, Sydney, NBC: Bob Costas
1996, Atlanta, NBC: Bob Costas
1992, Barcelona, NBC: Bob Costas
1988, Seoul, NBC: Bryant Gumbel
1984, Los Angeles, ABC: Jim McKay
1980, Moscow, NBC: Due to boycott, not really televised. Scheduled to have been co-anchors: Dick Enberg & Bryant Gumbel
1976, Montreal, ABC: Jim McKay
1972, Munich, ABC: Chris Schenkel
1968, Mexico City, ABC: Chris Schenkel
1964, Tokyo, NBC. Bill Henry
1960, Rome, CBS: Jim McKay (in New York)

Winter:
2006, Turin, NBC: Bob Costas
2002, Salt Lake, NBC: Bob Costas
1998, Nagano, CBS: Jim Nantz
1994, Lillehammer, CBS: Greg Gumbel
1992, Albertville, CBS: Tim McCarver & Paula Zahn
1988, Calgary, ABC: Jim McKay
1984, Sarajevo, ABC: Jim McKay
1980, Lake Placid, ABC: Jim McKay
1976, Innsbruck, ABC: Jim McKay
1972, Sapporo, NBC: Curt Gowdy
1968, Grenoble, ABC: Chris Schenkel
1964, Innsbruck, ABC: Jim McKay
1960, Squaw Valley, CBS: Walter Cronkite

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

Good work in researching and posting this information.

I recall the 1960 Winter and Summer Olympics coverage on CBS. Most particularly, I remember Bud Palmer doing the men's ice hockey games in the winter games and the men's basketball team's final game in the summer games. The United States won the gold metal in each of them.