Didn't get to see ALL of the Boilermaker coverage this morning, but I did see quite a bit. Tuned in at about 8:45, happened to miss the men's winner, but caught the women's winner and watched for almost 45 minutes after that.
WKTV - As usual, good job bringing in their running expert, having talent and cameras all over the course. Only channel that continually had the race clock going in the corner of the screen. Only complaint I had was that Sports Director Jason Powles and their "expert" race analyst left the coverage at 9:00, when Steve McMurray and Kristen Copeland took over. McMurray, as a former sports anchor himself, does a good job. Copeland, on the other hand, just babbled about random BS... you could tell WKTV's main purpose from 8-9 was to cover the "serious" sports angle, and from 9 onward, just filling time to get faces on TV.
WUTR - Gotta give 'em credit for pulling it off, for a station that gutted news almost 10 years ago, and usually doesn't really do anything else live the rest of the year. Luckily, they always manage to bring back some former talent like Joe Kelly and Mark Dudek. Flipping around the channels, they had some unknown girl on at some points, not really adding much value to the broadcast. Graphics were kinda primitive looking too... but again, not bad for a crew that only pulls off live events of any kind, just once or twice a year.
Time Warner - As much as I could go off on a rant about the cable company in general about rates, the new cable box software, or other things... I have to hand it to TWCS for moving in and kicking the Utica stations square in the a$$. TWCS was the only station on with 16:9 pictures... whether they were HD or not, doesn't matter -- still way better huge blocks of empty space on the sides of the screen like KTV and UTR had. They seemed to have just as many cameras, if not more, than the other stations, and every shot was 16:9. Over the years, TW had hired former Utica broadcasters Chris Watson and Brian Sandler - good move, as they both know the Boilermaker well. But the "fluff" interviewer, Amy Johnson... not sure where she came from, but another non-plus. Three times in a row, she interviewed runners at the finish line just because she happened to like their unique t-shirts or other apparel. I was waiting for Watson to start referring to her as "the fashion correspondent" or something.
The "final thought" roundup from Time Warner was also interesting (until they got to Amy) and I thought their 9:30 signoff was sufficient. The bulk of the action is done by then. All you're going to see after 9:30 are stragglers, and rather than try to fill time with more BS and getting people on TV "just because," they knew when to sign it off.
Other random notes:
WKTV loses a point for keeping "Today" and "NewsChannel 2 Weekend Today" in the program guide.
WUTR/WFXV win a bonus point for having the time properly blocked out as "Boilermaker 2010 Road Race" (or similar).
Time Warner loses a point for simply listing it as "Running" in the guide, requiring you to hit "Info" one more time to see it was the Boilermaker.
As much as I criticized WKTV for being "fluff" after 9am, they and WUTR most likely (not sure, didn't watch that long) stayed on long enough to show the F-16 flyover and other big events at the post-race party before signing off. TWCS missed that, but I suppose if they were piping the show out to other cable systems beyond CNY, the post-race party would be irrelevant to viewers elsewhere.
WKTV - As usual, good job bringing in their running expert, having talent and cameras all over the course. Only channel that continually had the race clock going in the corner of the screen. Only complaint I had was that Sports Director Jason Powles and their "expert" race analyst left the coverage at 9:00, when Steve McMurray and Kristen Copeland took over. McMurray, as a former sports anchor himself, does a good job. Copeland, on the other hand, just babbled about random BS... you could tell WKTV's main purpose from 8-9 was to cover the "serious" sports angle, and from 9 onward, just filling time to get faces on TV.
WUTR - Gotta give 'em credit for pulling it off, for a station that gutted news almost 10 years ago, and usually doesn't really do anything else live the rest of the year. Luckily, they always manage to bring back some former talent like Joe Kelly and Mark Dudek. Flipping around the channels, they had some unknown girl on at some points, not really adding much value to the broadcast. Graphics were kinda primitive looking too... but again, not bad for a crew that only pulls off live events of any kind, just once or twice a year.
Time Warner - As much as I could go off on a rant about the cable company in general about rates, the new cable box software, or other things... I have to hand it to TWCS for moving in and kicking the Utica stations square in the a$$. TWCS was the only station on with 16:9 pictures... whether they were HD or not, doesn't matter -- still way better huge blocks of empty space on the sides of the screen like KTV and UTR had. They seemed to have just as many cameras, if not more, than the other stations, and every shot was 16:9. Over the years, TW had hired former Utica broadcasters Chris Watson and Brian Sandler - good move, as they both know the Boilermaker well. But the "fluff" interviewer, Amy Johnson... not sure where she came from, but another non-plus. Three times in a row, she interviewed runners at the finish line just because she happened to like their unique t-shirts or other apparel. I was waiting for Watson to start referring to her as "the fashion correspondent" or something.
The "final thought" roundup from Time Warner was also interesting (until they got to Amy) and I thought their 9:30 signoff was sufficient. The bulk of the action is done by then. All you're going to see after 9:30 are stragglers, and rather than try to fill time with more BS and getting people on TV "just because," they knew when to sign it off.
Other random notes:
WKTV loses a point for keeping "Today" and "NewsChannel 2 Weekend Today" in the program guide.
WUTR/WFXV win a bonus point for having the time properly blocked out as "Boilermaker 2010 Road Race" (or similar).
Time Warner loses a point for simply listing it as "Running" in the guide, requiring you to hit "Info" one more time to see it was the Boilermaker.
As much as I criticized WKTV for being "fluff" after 9am, they and WUTR most likely (not sure, didn't watch that long) stayed on long enough to show the F-16 flyover and other big events at the post-race party before signing off. TWCS missed that, but I suppose if they were piping the show out to other cable systems beyond CNY, the post-race party would be irrelevant to viewers elsewhere.
