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WBZ TV Channel 4's Misplaced Priorities To Serve The Community In The Public Interest

T

Tilden

Guest
WBZ- TV 4 has misplaced priorities in these trouble times.
Tonight they broadcast a meaningless Patriots game and then followed it with more than a half hour of Steve Burton babble ... a guy who is there only because his father was an original Patriots player. He is a marginal broadcaster at best.
When his babble was over past 11:30 PM WBZ TV 4 followed with a 3 or 4 minute newscast plus commercials. You couldn't even watch their usual 10 PM news on Channel 38 because the repeat of some second rate crime show which would have been rebroadcast on Channel 4 was put on TV 38. Therefore, no news.
Well, no wonder the world is in the state it is in when a gladiator sport preempts the news.
SHAME on WBZ -TV 4. Your priorities to serve the community in the public interest do not exist. Perhaps, someone like Ed Ansin's group will come along and challenge WBZ's broadcast license when it is up for renewal.
 
Tilden said:
WBZ- TV 4 has misplaced priorities in these trouble times.
Tonight they broadcast a meaningless Patriots game and then followed it with more than a half hour of Steve Burton babble ... a guy who is there only because his father was an original Patriots player. He is a marginal broadcaster at best.
When his babble was over past 11:30 PM WBZ TV 4 followed with a 3 or 4 minute newscast plus commercials. You couldn't even watch their usual 10 PM news on Channel 38 because the repeat of some second rate crime show which would have been rebroadcast on Channel 4 was put on TV 38. Therefore, no news.
Well, no wonder the world is in the state it is in when a gladiator sport preempts the news.
SHAME on WBZ -TV 4. Your priorities to serve the community in the public interest do not exist. Perhaps, someone like Ed Ansin's group will come along and challenge WBZ's broadcast license when it is up for renewal.
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Why would a station be challenged for broadcasting a home-team sporting event when there are multiple stations doing late news.

I'll betcha' that the Patriats game got much more audience than the regular newscasts. So tell me again how that is not serving the community interests of the market.

As far as community oriented programming, tell me how Ed Ansin, famous for implementing WSVN's "if it bleeds, it leads" blood and gore news style in Miami, is going to do anything different and/or better.
 
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DavidEduardo said:
I'll betcha' that the Patriats game got much more audience than the regular newscasts. So tell me again how that is not serving the community interests of the market.
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I'll betcha that the meaningless Pats game without Tom Brady in uniform on WBZ-TV got higher ratings than all the competing OTA stations combined, if Boston sports fans were true to form. I'm also willing to bet that the next highest rated program in Boston was the Yankees/Red Sox game on NESN, which was on at the same time.
 
KeithE4 said:
I'll betcha that the meaningless Pats game without Tom Brady in uniform on WBZ-TV got higher ratings than all the competing OTA stations combined, if Boston sports fans were true to form. I'm also willing to bet that the next highest rated program in Boston was the Yankees/Red Sox game on NESN, which was on at the same time.
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Also, the Olympics were on Channel 7. So, there was no news there. Again, WBZ TV and it sports lackeys have sold their collective souls to MISTER Kraft. No one says MISTER Henry and the Red Sox. Unnecessary bowing and scraping to the Kraft family.
 
Tilden said:
Also, the Olympics were on Channel 7. So, there was no news there.
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OK, so the Pats game probably had higher ratings than every other OTA station in Boston combined, other than WHDH. You couldn't watch Channels 5 or 25 for news?

Again, WBZ TV and it sports lackeys have sold their collective souls to MISTER Kraft. No one says MISTER Henry and the Red Sox. Unnecessary bowing and scraping to the Kraft family.
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It's not Kraft; it's Goodell. The NFL mandates that all of a team's games are broadcast OTA in that team's home market. CBS/WBZ bought the rights to the Pats' preseason games that Kraft was required by league rules to sell. I don't know which broadcast stations have the rights to Pats games on Monday and Thursday non-CBS nights, but those games will air in the Boston TV market on an OTA outlet as well. If those stations' local news is delayed by a game, too bad.

The Red Sox (and the rest of MLB) have all but disappeared from broadcast television other than those games on Fox. Some teams still air a few games on broadcast television, but they are now in the minority. The Red Sox are not one of those teams.
 
KeithE4 said:
OK, so the Pats game probably had higher ratings than every other OTA station in Boston combined, other than WHDH. You couldn't watch Channels 5 or 25 for news?



It's not Kraft; it's Goodell. The NFL mandates that all of a team's games are broadcast OTA in that team's home market. CBS/WBZ bought the rights to the Pats' preseason games that Kraft was required by league rules to sell. I don't know which broadcast stations have the rights to Pats games on Monday and Thursday non-CBS nights, but those games will air in the Boston TV market on an OTA outlet as well. If those stations' local news is delayed by a game, too bad.

The Red Sox (and the rest of MLB) have all but disappeared from broadcast television other than those games on Fox. Some teams still air a few games on broadcast television, but they are now in the minority. The Red Sox are not one of those teams.
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The problem is the post game crap. WBZ used to shift that crap to TV38 after the game.
 
CBS broadcasts afc games therefore WBZ being owned by CBS runs the Patriots games preseason and regular. Last I checked ch 5.2 and ch 56 and oh yea ch 25 all have news on at 10pm. NFL gets big ratings and WBZ was giving the fans what they want.
 
Wbzfm2010 said:
CBS broadcasts afc games therefore WBZ being owned by CBS runs the Patriots games preseason and regular. Last I checked ch 5.2 and ch 56 and oh yea ch 25 all have news on at 10pm. NFL gets big ratings and WBZ was giving the fans what they want.
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Yeah, "Bread and Circus". Or a twist on Karl Marx, the "NFL - The Opiate of the Masses...." !
 
Not so much the AFC on CBS. Although I live in greater Hartford, I seem to remember WCVB-TV (ABC) channel 5 airing the Patriots pre-season games in the past. In this area, their game aired on WCTX-TV (MY) channel 59 of New Haven. I heard nobody crying foul when their 10 PM news was either late or didn't air. Without assistance of sister station WTNH-TV (ABC) channel 8 of New Haven, they'd probably be off the air anyways.

The DOLPHINS vs Giants game, aired by WWOR-TV (MY) channel 9 in metro New York City, aired here on WCCT-TV (CW) channel 20 of Waterbury/Hartford. WCCT-TV is the sister station of WTIC-TV (FOX) channel 61 of Hartford. On occasion, they'll air channel 61's 10 PM news if it's known that FOX programming will be airing after 10 PM.
 
Tilden said:
Also, the Olympics were on Channel 7. So, there was no news there. Again, WBZ TV and it sports lackeys have sold their collective souls to MISTER Kraft. No one says MISTER Henry and the Red Sox. Unnecessary bowing and scraping to the Kraft family.
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Nobody forces sports broadcasts on a station. Stations bid for the rights, and offer conditions that they hope will get them the package. Nobody has sold their "soul" to anyone.
 
Tilden said:
Yeah, "Bread and Circus". Or a twist on Karl Marx, the "NFL - The Opiate of the Masses...." !
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Or, far more accurately, "NFL -- The Big Moneymaker that is the Favorite of the Masses."

Whether you like it or not (and I find it hard to believe that anyone in New England is not a Patriots fan), the NFL is THE big ratings and money generator in television. CBS has a big piece of that pie, specifically the AFC on Sunday afternoons, Thursday Night Football for half the season, and the Patriots' preseason games locally on WBZ-TV. And since the Pats always make the Playoffs and always have a shot at the Super Bowl (at least while Brady and Gronk are still playing), they are money to WBZ. Their local news can wait until the game is over.

If you don't like it, frankly it sucks to be you. You are in the minority. Watch another channel. Boston has plenty of them.
 
The thing I don't get is since when is local news on a higher intellectual level than football? Seems to me like they're very similar. And sports is a huge part of local news. I'd bet that game was the lead story on the other local stations.
 
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