Sports on the Air
Sports on the Air: RedZone Channel rates rave
My Top 10 list of annoyances a week ago got such a strong response from viewers with their own lists that I may have to address them in two columns.
Before allowing others to vent, I’m adding one new annoyance. I’m annoyed that Time Warner Cable doesn’t offer the NFL RedZone Channel. Verizon FiOS and DISH customers here are able to buy it and DirecTV has its own version.
For two Sundays, I’ve watched the RedZone on my computer via a free preview offered to media members. The RedZone takes viewers to every Sunday game being played in the NFL once a team gets inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.
The host of the show is Syracuse University graduate Scott Hanson, who quickly sets up the situation, offers some occasional light commentary and even may throw in a weather report.
The fast-paced RedZone doesn’t stop for annoying commercials and allows viewers to see most of Sunday’s important plays.
It probably is most popular with fantasy players, bettors and fans of teams like the Bills who want an alternative away from the hometown team rout carried by a local channel.
The one big drawback is that Red- Zone viewers don’t get the same feel for a game that they would get if they watched it from beginning to end.
But that’s a small price to pay for watching a live highlights show hours before ESPN and NBC carry their recorded prime time highlight shows.
Now for some edited reader annoyances.
• “Kevin Sylvester as Rick Jeanneret’s backup. Understand that Rick is getting along in years, and needs his vacation while the Sabres travel out west. Kevin is very good in the studio, he and Mike [Robitaille] make a great team. But that requires a completely different skill set than play-by-play. Kevin doesn’t have it.
“And the delay on WGR 550’s Internet broadcast of Sabres games. The Center Ice package is a great deal. Unfortunately, out-of-towners don’t get the ‘home’ broadcast with every game. This can be so annoying that I’ve tried to get the computer going to get Rick and Harry [Neale] via the ‘radio’ while watching the muted TV.
“Unfortunately, they are not in sync due to the delay in the radio broadcast. Really annoying.”— DLH, a Western New York native now in Virginia
• “Homer play-by-play callers (the Yankees’ John Sterling, even the Bills’ John Murphy from time to time) annoy me terribly. Ditto game analysts who state the obvious.
WGR is a disaster. The pontificating and the subjects that they (and only they) find interesting; the blah, blah, blah critiques of the Bills and Sabres from 22 year olds; the put downs of listeners (Mike Schopp is especially condescending) who apparently like to be verbally abused when they call.” — M. L.
• “You missed the No. 1 most annoying thing in the Buffalo area. . . . No NFL Network on TWC.”— PT23
• “Channel 4’s interruptions during Sunday afternoon’s 4 o’clock football game. What are the odds of a weather advisory of flash flooding today? Every Sunday it’s some weather advisory.”— Fritz
• “WGR’s Schopp is very, very, irritating to listen to. He is arrogant and most of the time uninformed. I like to listen when the Bulldog gives his informative comments or does a solo. Since when does sports talk radio consist of “American Idol,” “Dancing with the Stars,” and “Survivor?” Small market . . . small minds.”— Larry
• “Baseball: “Color” announcers who talk as though the viewers know nothing about the game. Likewise, when they describe a play the viewer can see with his own two eyes.
College basketball (ESPN style): Three men in the booth. Bill Raftery, Jay Bilas, Sean McDonough. Raftery and Bilas spend so much time explaining what has happened (again, as though the viewer knows nothing about the game) that McDonough can barely tell you what is happening (same as with Len Elmore, who never shuts up). Also, doesn’t keep track of substitutions. As always with ESPN, it’s about the announcers, not the game.”— S. G., Clarence
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