Broadcasting Follies

 

A look in the sportpod yesterday at Brunswick

A few sports broadcasting items:

We have what I call the "Game of the Week" conundrum. Something told me when I saw Greenwich and Maloney on the schedule that broadcasting it wouldn't be easy.

I was right. Connecticut and, specifically, the CIAC, has begun a Game of the Week series with a radio and TV station (the radio station in question is neither WGCH or Robcasting). As I feared, they picked Greenwich/Maloney for Friday night.

I fear it mostly due to space constraints but, also, why not cover another game? It's hardly a secret that WGCH -- with and without me -- has covered GHS football since 1964. So of course the station will cover the game on Friday night.

So the game will be covered and I'd like to believe it will be covered pretty well on WGCH.

Why not do Fairfield Prep/Darien? However, that game will have DAF Media covering that but you get my point. There are games and schools that get no coverage. Why not work with us (WGCH) for highlights and drop-ins?

We should all be working together for the sake of the athletes.

I've been involved in a game of the week, both on WVIP Radio and HAN Network. The process is difficult and while all attempts are made to be fair, someone inevitably is disappointed. At HAN we made a firm effort to get everyone in the FCIAC involved, for instance, but we didn't always succeed.

We also tried to cover as many state championships as possible but the NFHS Network ultimately blocked us and CIAC went along with them. Funny thing was (and is) that wasn't enforced across the board.

But to the space issue. Chris Erway reached out to Maloney High School to inquire about where we could call Friday's game from and found resistance. I didn't understand when he told me but I do now. The state got preference.

We'll be in the crowd. The game will get called. By us.

While I can defensive on this topic, I'm not that in this case. There's no rivalry. We have our audience. We get some other listeners in the process (thank you, social media) and Chris and I will do what we do. We know this drill.

That doesn't mean we have to like it. Let's face it: after Friday night sitting in the bleachers at Cheshire Academy and Saturday on the roof at Stepinac, I could use a booth.

But, shocker, the state won out.

I considered backing out and the odds of that happening are minimal. Let's face it, I've literally never done that with a Greenwich game.

We'll be there. 

In that same way, a topic came up in the Facebook play-by-play group about being denied by an opposing school.

Personally, I've never had it happen during the years of covering Greenwich. Most schools seem to understand our being on-site to call a game is a good thing.

In the public school world, it's literally never a problem (the Maloney situation being an outlier). Even if there isn't space in the booth, we're never denied (to make it clear, Maloney didn't deny us).

Danbury's booth is small but they almost always make it work for us. Darien's booth is ridiculously small so I almost always call a game there from the plaza atop the bleachers. The same goes for Ridgefield.

Those are just a few of the schools we deal with.

I've found more resistance in the private school world and there are myriad reasons for it. Look, schools want their broadcast to be watched. The broadcast can, with minimal effort, be a free advertising and marketing tool. So an opposing broadcast can be less than desirable, and money becomes a factor.

Enter Chris and me with Gus our videographer and schools fear losing viewers.

I get it but I don't like it. I look at us as advocates for everyone. Reporters for sure. 

I specifically recall one school flat-out denying us and it took the Brunswick headmaster to intervene before I called that game. Of course, my take is nobody should be denied but it needs to be equitably handled. Like not booting team broadcasters to the stands but so it goes.

We're all there to cover the players. 

Isn't that the point?

Oh, to that end, I put the sportpod on our balcony today to dry out. My sneakers are still drying. My car seat also.

And I'm calling soccer again tomorrow.

Sun and warmth are expected.