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USC and Citadel-New Deal

The shock would probably be the pricetag on the deal, which was not reported. I bet it is a very pretty bundle.... Rick Dames was paying a pretty penny for WVOC 17 years ago.
 
Sad, but Networks are paying big to get College Sports on decent signals. Who would have ever thought that we would all be so lazy that we would take a College's money to broadcast a game so we could be at home on the weekend. No promotions, no sponsors, just take the College's money and let their network sell to the miniscule faithful of that team.
 
Re-read my post. It was confusing. I was trying to say that WVOC paid a lot of money back in the late 1980's/early 1990's for the privilege of carring USC football. I am sure it is even more outrageous now.
 
I am sure that it cost them plenty, but especially with the way billing goes with sports radio these days, I am sure that they will make it back up and I am glad to see it on one network with a really good signal.
I can remember back in the day when WIS Radio 560 was the only Gamecock affiliate here in the Columbia area and I lived in Northeast Columbia and sometimes alte at night because of the antenna direction change, it did not always have the best signal in the world.
 
Maybe it's different in Columbia, but Learfield Sports is paying WTPT in Greenville to carry Clemson Football. They lease the time and take all of the inventory. At least it ensures Clemson Football on a decent signal outside of the smaller flagship WCCP that doesn't cover the market. None of the other big FMs want to touch it. The network takes all the Clemson loyal advertisers and leaves scraps for the local station to sell. Maybe it's different with the Gamecocks.
 
Dunno. Last time I was privy to the deal (again, 15-17 years ago), WVOC had to pay for the rights to broadcast the Gamecocks and had a number of technical demands placed on it by Liz McMillan and whoever else was involved. WVOC had to originate and produce the network broadcasts. Poor David Adair was a nervous wreck before every USC Football Game. In addition, WVOC had to carry a number of games from the non-marquee sports, such as Lady Gamecock basketball. I recall Rick saying at the time that they did not make a lot of money directly off USC Sports, but the halo effect was invaluable to selling the station as a whole.
 
DudeFan said:
".....WVOC had to pay for the rights to broadcast the Gamecocks and had a number of technical demands placed on it by Liz McMillan and whoever else was involved. WVOC had to originate and produce the network broadcasts. Poor David Adair was a nervous wreck before every USC Football Game...."
Click to expand...

As to me being a "nervous wreck", Steve, I'm sure you'll remember that I was production director of WARQ and WVOC at the time as well as being the network studio producer for the broadcasts. I'm also sure you'll remember me being there all night up till near broadcast time cranking out the spots for the game for both the network and the locals.
Maybe you remember Liz and I were actually running wires up till broadcast time to get it on the air. Liz was right there pulling wires and unspooling cables. Someone should've done that long before broadcast day, but instead Liz McMillan had to do it.
Also I wouldn't say that she "imposed" anything on them. They agreed to do that and left it to the too few of us to do it (and I thank you for what you and Angel did in those days). We pulled it off pretty damn well, in our day.
Yet with all of the years I put in doing that I had to suffer the indignity of a current upper management person there showing up for their first time ever during a weekend sports broadcast and asking me what I was doing there. Clearly they didn't have any idea about what went on during those broadcasts. I was laid off less than two weeks later, leaving them with no one who has ever run or has produced a USC broadcast.
As for me a newer and better opportunity arose. I came to work for Citadel Broadcasting. I don't have to be a one-man-do-everything-person at Citadel because there's Brent Johnson, George Kearnes, Ed Noyes, Billy Mack, Benji Norton, Bob Shields, Tommy Moody, Will King, Hal Stewart, Chris Logan, Tony Cyburn, Bill Deller, Mike Morgan, Heath Kline, Duce Staley, Michael Haney, Jay Phillips...and others.
Citadel is a class act with professional people who team together to put on a great broadcast. They've been sdoing it for six years and will continue for the next five. I contribute where and when I'm needed. Not once has Liz McMillan had to run wires and neither has Bill McElveen ever asked me what I'm doing here.
 
That's what I was implying, Dave. You filled in the details beautifully.

You did a yeoman's job pulling miracles off by yourself that usually were done by a staff of five or more!

My understanding from Rick was that a lot of the tech requirements were agreed to by WVOC, but the whole thing was pretty much a "you agree to do it or we'll find someone else that will." Of course, its clear that Citadel would, could, is, and will. You can't tell that the USC sports broadcasts aren't done by a national network. Smooth, well produced stuff. Of course, Citadel is one of the few fully-staffed clusters in town....

Can they have you do Gamecock Saturday on The Game? Maybe find some of those old 45's from the WVOC Bomb Shelter?
 
I have to agree that this Citadel cluster is a first rate operation and you can tell just by listening that the professionalism with what they pull off week in and week out with the Carolina games sounds really smooth and is a pleasure to listen to.
 
WOW! What a lot of moaning from Bustard on this issue! 'NKT doesn't carry to Lex or Irmo? What kind of crack is he smoking? And to say he was prepered to commit USC to FM full time if he "knew" about option 1 is, frankly, BS.

I love the smell of sour grapes in the morning.

G
 
Clear Channel = Sore losers

An interesting thought. ISP has a ton of properties and growing every day. Many current or potential flagship stations are CLear Channel. And this CC market manager is accusing them of misleading and untrue statements. Has he really thought about what he is saying and the implications?
 
WNKT does have a good signal, and Citadel has done a lot for the network since they started running the games in 2002.

The Charleston station on the network had been WCSC-AM for many years, then in the late 1990s, it got moved to the little 1,000 watt AM, WQSC, Bobby Hartin's station, but Citadel moved the games to WTMA, the best AM signal in the market, and until the middle of last year, they simulcasted on 107.5, enabling everyone in Eastern SC to get a good signal for the games.

Clemson, however, is stuck with 1340, which at night barely gets out to Ashley Phosphate, maybe College Park on I-26 with a good signal because of all the noise on the frequency.

In Columbia, they are on 93.1 :-[, which as you know, barely gets a signal even in the Sandhill area, forcing thousands of people to listen to WCAM in Camden or 94.7 from Sumter for their Tiger fix. Last year, they only had 22 stations on their network, including a big hole in the Grand Strand area, which they filled, as 94.9 the Surf will be the Tiger affiliate in the Grand Strand for the next two years.

USC, on the other hand, had 26 stations on their network, and in most of the major cities in the state, they were on FM. Clemson used to have 50 or more stations back in the late 1980s, and the most professional programming, but now, USC has edged them out, as when Clemson does their pre-game from away stadiums, it sometimes sounds like it is coming from a phone line, not a dedicated feed.
 
I think Bustard was vacationing before the wheel turns to get a new Market Manager for CC Columbia.
 
Could someone explain to me how something as important as getting football rights were left in the hands of this one guy? And how could he claim to not know the bidding process? I have to agree with you snailboy, sounds like a guy trying to save his job.
 
As usual, the sound of Clear Channel crying sour grapes and whne will they learn that because they are clear channel is still does not mean our way or the highway. I think that Buster needs to polish up his resume and CC needs to sell the Columbia cluster.
 
Remember that old battery commercial with Robert Conrad? You know, the one where he puts the battery on his shoulder and says something to the effect of "Go ahead, knock this battery off...I dare ya." Well, it looks like somebody keeps knocking the battery off of CC's shoulder. I'll paraphrase something I've always said ever since Christ was a corporal, "The roads leading out of Columbia are littered with the dead carcasses of managers who thought they knew what Columbia was about, what Columbia needed to hear, when Columbia needed to hear it and how much of it Columbia needed to hear". Seems like just about all outsiders think South Carolinians squat to piss anyway, why should this be any different? No matter who's fault it is, someone didn't do their homework.

Well played, Citadel.
 
That HAD to play into it. During the six years Citadel has had the rights, CC is on their third Market Manager. ISP has been dealing with the same managers and talent at Citadel the whole time.
 
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