Update: Going to let comments on this topic continue through the weekend as fans add the issues they want to see followed-up by the NASCAR TV partners. So far, there have certainly been some interesting suggestions.
The big topic in our email, tweets and Facebook posts has been just how big the information gap appears on SPEED and ESPN since the NASCAR studio news shows all went off the air at the end of the season.
What is making this situation stand-out like a sore thumb this year is the fact that so many fans have access to social media. Events now unfold online and fans know the basics of what is transpiring. So, while it's great that a reporter can tweet something with a link to a breaking story webpage, it's ridiculous that the NASCAR TV shows viewers have come to trust and depend on to then flush-out those stories are gone.
Mike Joy from FOX tweeted: "Great time at "Stocks For Tots" last night. North Carolina Motorsports Hall of Fame and NASCAR Tech made a great effort to help kids in need this Christmas season." There were lots of big names signing autographs in one of the classic off-season functions. Joy made a point to pass along that local TV station WSIC and MRN's Kyle Rickey were the only media at the function.
Pete Pistone from MRN and CBS Sports tweeted: "Baseball season has been over for 6 weeks yet I've watched a ton of the MLB Network - sure wish we had a NASCAR TV option for off season."
The debate continued on the future of Kurt Busch, the new driver and crew chief for the Penske #22 and how Danica will find her way into the Daytona 500. Mike Ford is gone from the Denny Hamlin team and Darian Grubb still has not landed. Those are just a few of the topics in play this week.
This issue in general is not, however, a new one. Let's check the progress of TDP talking about off-season TV over the past few years.
December 27. 2008: "NASCAR TV Needs To Continue In December And January" - This was at the end of the second year of the current NASCAR TV contract. NASCAR Now had finally shown some promise, all of the NASCAR shows on SPEED were either Sunday or Monday and RaceHub did not exist.
December 23, 2009: "NASCAR Needs Off-Season TV Coverage" - End of year number three and in the first season of RaceHub it joined all the other motorsports shows on SPEED and ESPN by ending shortly after the NASCAR season.
December 13, 2010: "All Quiet On The Western Front" - Daytona had a new coat of asphalt, but that same old off-season silence in TV land was just the tip of the iceberg of issues for the TV coveage.
The most poignant story of this season in terms of affecting the sport in general may be about to unfold on Thursday.
Here is a brief excerpt from Dave Moody's update at Sirius-Speedway.com:
"Red Bull Racing's four-year run as a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team will come to an end tomorrow (Thursday), when the last of approximately 150 employees will be laid-off and the competition shop shut down, presumably for good."
The failure of a global brand like Red Bull to mesh with NASCAR is amazing. Built from Red Bull dollars, this company chose to own the entire racing operation in Mooresville, NC. The closure is a story that needs national television coverage on SPEED, a network located literally right down the street from the race shop.
Unfortunately, this topic will not be discussed and debated with Dave Despain on Wind Tunnel. Ray Evernham will not be in the studio to give his reaction on Speed Center. Steve Byrnes will not be able to have the key personalities in this story drive over for an interview on RaceHub.
One fan wrote in an email, "It's like NASCAR TV just fell off a cliff." While ESPN is certainly out of the mix until February, let's keep an eye out and see if SPEED follows-up on the thrown together Monday night Kurt Busch Speed Center special and rolls-out some sort of regular off-season studio programming. It's certainly not too late to get back in the game, even if the rules may have changed.
As usual, we welcome your comments on this topic. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. Thank you for stopping by The Daly Planet.
48 comments:
I once sent the late great David Poole and email during is commanding reign on TMD /Sirius NASCAR radio. I asked him about NASCAR having a NASCAR cable network Channel on Cable and running the NASCAR .com web site. He thought in 2 or 3 years it would happen but his comment about NASCAR.com really intrigued me.. It is quoted below..
NASCAR "outsourced" its website to AOL, which is Turner and which is a pretty solid media company. If NASCAR ran the website, it'd be even more of a Polyanna house organ than it is now.
What am I getting at other than to remember our friend David Poole? Substitute Website for TV and you see what has happened. They have lost or don't care about the prize.
The NFL is the perfect example of 24/7/265 coverage, they where never out of the news in the past 5 years or so the draft, free agency, NFL Films, NFL Network. It just keeps the drumbeat going year round.
Remember what JD has said about the awesome product from NASCAR Media Group? You know the NASCAR equivalent of NFL Films, can you find there stuff on any day on TV or web? Nope!! I can find NFL Films stuff online on tv all the time. NMG not so much, sponsors and such are losing the lifeline to the customer. NASCAR needs to find a way to be relavent every day during the off season..
I will never say I am a wordsmith, I hope my message comes across..
So much air time wasted on crap at Speed. Heck we watch replays of replays because we are so hungry for the sport we love. Nascar.com could be a bonus but it's terrible the way it is right now. I hope Nascar TV happens before it's too late.
Sadly, it is not just NASCAR that is without TV coverage! How many people other than those who read Robin Miller's columns on Speed.com know that IndyCar's Newman-Haas has closed their doors?
How many people knew that a couple weeks ago that construction on the new race track at Austin TX had been stopped (due to a payment that had not been sent to FIA and the resulting dropping on the F1 race date) and then started back up today because FIA had finally received the payment?
I forgot to mention that I heard on SiriusXM NASCAR IIRC from Dave Moody that CBS is going to broadcast the Chili Bowl race this year.
Yeah JD its a shame... If it wasnt for Nascar there would be no Speed station... I expect ESPN to offer no off season coverage but speed????? Seriously somthing is wrong there
SD80mac...FYI, I found out both of those things from scrolls...can't say if it was ESPN or SPEED or both, I don't remember.
I do think David & David have a point. We might be getting news from those sources, but it would be controlled with the powers that be only giving us what they want us to hear.
But I have to bring up the same thing I always do....what kind of audience are we talking here? If I am a network, I am not going to spend effort on programs that few people watch. How many die-hards are there? I would be one, mind you, but I'm just thinking practically. An on-line program might be the best option if someone wanted to do it. IIRC, baseball's ratings for individual games are comparable to NASCAR, but that doesn't take into account the people that are 'baseball fans', which is a much larger number across the country. NASCAR's teams all play each other each week. And you can't compare to football, which has WAY more fans and can support that kind of programming. The 'wasted' air time at SPEED sometimes has ready made sponsors. THAT would be the way to do it, get NASCAR sponsors to sign up to advertise. Just thinkin' aloud.
I don't believe having a Nascar racing show once a week during the offseason is that so time-consuming and would cost a lot of money. Why can't Speed see that and do a Race Hub for us? How hard can it be? It will keep the folks up to date who don't have twitter, facebook or other social medias (and can't even read these comments). I'm sure there are plenty of drivers who would love to be interviewed, especially those looking for rides. And who watches Speed channel with those shows Pass Time, Pinks and whatever other shows are on? Not us!
Do we have any idea what kind of ratings Race Hub and NASCAR Now get?
As nice as it would be for these shows to be on year-round, maybe they just don't make sense economically to be on during the off-season. The NFL is the only sport that gets year-round coverage on TV other then the sports self-owned network.
When Speed Center was The Speed Report, they continued the weekly Sunday show throughout the winter, only breaking for a couple of weeks around Christmas.
Why did this change?
"it's ridiculous that the NASCAR TV shows viewers have come to trust and depend on to then flush-out those stories are gone."
I don't agree with this at all, JD. The TV side of NASCAR reporting is very mediocre. Print/online journalists are much better at what they do and get the information out to interested fans as it happens, not as it is convenient to present which is how it works at SPEED & ESPN.
Appointment viewing is dying a slow death because it is only convenient or even available for a small percentage of fans. And I doubt a NASCAR or pure racing channel is the answer.
What fans want is more or less instant content accessible by computer or smart device. When providers find a way to do this, and monetize it somehow without excluding the majority of users, everybody will be happy.
I'm afraid a NASCAR cable channel would be like the SiriusXM NASCAR channel on the radio. I got a new car a couple of months ago with Sirius radio and I immediately tuned in to the NASCAR station. I listened for a while and it nothing but Rah Rah for NASCAR, best racing this year in the history of racing, callers with nothing but positive propaganda (sounded like planted callers or fake callers), etc. I turned in on frequently in the next days and weeks in the hope of hearing something newsworthy and objective. I was disappointed and gave up on getting the truth from the radio. I seldom tune in to the Pravda of NASCAR.
Earl,
Nothing replaces a regularly scheduled TV series that caters to NASCAR fans. Various online sites do a great job of reporting, but video is still a challenge for most of them.
ESPN killed NASCAR Now this season with the time change and no re-air. SPEED damaged Race Hub with the late season move from 7 to 6PM.
It's been a frustrating year for these series and the lack of any off-season coverage just compounds the issue.
I remember when TNN was carrying NASCAR and their show "Inside Winston Cup" was always on through the off-season. They did a good job of reporting on off-season stories even if they were a week behind.
In addition to that show,, we also had the Winter Heat series that showed racing out west that featured a number of up-and-coming drivers. It was pretty good racing.
SPEED needs programs like these in December and January. There is no reason to have a Sunday night episode of Race Hub or continue Wind Tunnel through the winter months. It's insane to think once racing is done for the year that anything racing related on TV should also be done. It just goes to show how out of touch the NASCAR Media Group is.
One more interesting thought is the motorsports calendar no longer finishes with Homestead now. There are two other major races between Homestead and the end of the year, in series that Speed coverage. One is the F1 Grande Premio Petrobras do Brasil at Interlagos (which was Thanksgiving weekend for Yanks, and could be moved back eventually), and the V8 Supercars Sydney Telstra 500km at Sydney Olympic Park (Homebush) in early December. The V8 races could be perfect for same-day (Saturday afternoon) coverage for Race One, and either prime-time coverage for Race Two (Saturday night) or next-day (Sunday), or next-week, depending on what V8TV does (but V8TV is not HD; Speed worked with Seven on the HD races).
Add to that the big F1 banquet, where major news is announced, this weekend, and Speed should look at extending Speed Center, Wind Tunnel, or even Race Hub all the way until Christmas with two "end of year" Year in Review shows before starting in January with the Supercross season.
Here's what the ideal setup would be:
Thanksgiving Week: Speed Center only.
Sprint Cup Banquet: Speed Center and Wind Tunnel.
Next two weeks: Speed Center with F1, V8, and Sprint Cup updates, and Daytona testing. (ARCA and Grand-Am).
Christmas and New Year's: Off, but Speed Center Year in Review shows. NASCAR Hall of Fame programming starts.
First full week of January: Speed Center, Supercross.
Testing Weeks: Race Hub starts.
Forcing the V8's final two races to be put on weekday afternoons after having the entire season on one or two week delays (based on V8TV editing for foreign markets) on weekends except for the live Great Race and Surfers 2 makes no sense. Speed will also have to look at making WTCC a same-day event for 2012 with WTCC at Sonoma.
OsbornK, glad to know that I am not the only person that got that impression from the Sirius Nascar coverage. While I enjoy Moody and the gang when they call the race, many of the shows, IMO, went from being fun and fan friendly to being angry and hostile to the fans. Plus, the "staff" for the shows lean so hard in favor of NASCAR that it isn't fair and balanced coverage.
I cancelled my subscription to Sirius radio since it wasn't worth the money to me.
I can understand why Speed and ESPN aren't doing a daily show, but not being able to spring for a weekly show, well that seems just cheap to me.
I have to agree to that "in depth" coverage is hard to find - the newspapers have cut most of their NASCAR reporters, too, so I'll get my breaking news and in depth coverage here and watch the tapes of old races to fill my need for speed during the off season.
"Internet Killed the Video Star"
Is that the mantra for this new age? As the Buggles' video was broadcast on brand-new MTV back in 1981, it signaled a sweeping change in the way kids could listen to music, and its success began to influence the rest of the industry.
We cry and moan that NASCAR TV is slippin' away, but we can still get the news we crave via online resources.
NASCAR's meteoric rise in popularity through the early 2000s can be attributed to a simple curiosity of a sport that the majority of the TV viewing public rarely had a chance to see.
But NASCAR was ill prepared for all this attention, and the age-old practice of 500 mile endurance races being the ultimate test of man and machine can often be mind numbingly boring to watch, especially to a new or casual viewer. NASCAR did respond with the Chase, double-file restarts and “boys have at it,” but they need much more than that to keep a viewer’s attention for 500 miles or 500 laps. Even Indycar’s 250 and 300 mile races haven’t been able to keep their fans from leaving in droves.
Unless NASCAR makes sweeping changes to the race format, it is going to settle back into a niche market, as the dearth of TV coverage has already begun to demonstrate. We should all rejoice that the internet may be our sport’s savior, as one day all races, save for the Daytona 500 may be relegated to online viewing.
Here’s my suggestion: NASCAR, go back to your roots. Heat races and a Main event. Yes, at ALL tracks. One day I always circle on my calendar is the Daytona Dual 150 Thursday (although I think the Twin 125 idea was better). Who doesn’t love the shootout and go for broke style? Start & Parkers MUST mix it up with the big boys, else they ain’t racin’ on Sunday, and since finishing order is so important, teams must push hard all race.
That’s what fans want to see! Racin’! We can all jump in our cars, set the cruise and drive for 500 miles. What’s the sport in that? Restructure the endurance aspect, as one engine for every two races or something, but if it’s not exciting, the fans won’t watch. Period. Bring racin’ back to the sport, and the fans and the TV coverage will come. They will come, Ray.
"Nothing replaces a regularly scheduled TV series that caters to NASCAR fans. Various online sites do a great job of reporting, but video is still a challenge for most of them."
A big challenge for sure. But folks are open to it. Remember the practices and whatnot SPEED put online at Daytona? Lots of eyeballs, and everyone picked up how and when to tune in pretty quick. Not bad considering how awful SPEED.com (and NASCAR.com for that matter) is to navigate.
I really think it would be worth a try to put a weekly SpeedCenter online in the offseason. If Speed stuck with it, there would be interest from fans.
It's not only TV that has died with regards to Nascar. Just take a look at Jayski's. The list of articles is down to a very few, so either there's nothing going on or everyone is ignoring it. Heck, I didn't know that Newman/Haas shut down !!! But there's still a lot happening in racing, like the testing that's going on with the Hendrick team. Then there's all the hiring and firing that's of interest. But yet, we hear nothing. Sheesh, the NBA hasn't even started and there are tons of stories about that sport. And even in baseball, where the bidding wars for a certain few players is going on, but not much else, we still see Baseball Tonight on ESPN. Why don't they abandon baseball during the off season, but they dump racing in the trash bin?
Very sad Red Bull will be shut down. Nobody has reported why Red Bull execs. rejected offers and what they were looking for in an investor.
It was reported most of the team is headed for MWR. But the amount of employees released from other teams remains unknown.
When David Ragan was first rumored to move into the #22, Jayski reported the rumor Ragan had offers to drive the #71 & #51, yet nobody reported Cassill was possibly out of a ride in the first place.
Where is the media?
Buschseries, yes where is the media to report on these stories? It's almost like during the season, the broadcasters liked picking drivers who would/could possibly move up into the top 12 for the Chase, however, they never mentioned who they thought would move out of the top 12 ignoring that all together. I'm glad we have TDP to read to find out info on Nascar you can't find much stuff on Jayski as it's owned by ESPN and they only have a few good rumors a month now.
Seems to me that SPEED or Velocity could throw together a Motorsports news update show that airs once a week, and would cover NASCAR, INDYCAR, F-1, AMA and NHRA news of the week, and then show a classic race (Nascar or Indy) from a few years ago. It could even be edited to fit into a neat time slot on a Saturday afternoon or something.
We record various Nascar races throughout the year at our house to watch in the off season just to keep our sanity and hear the engines roar. This year I got the idea to plug the in-car audio into one side of the dvd recorder. Way cool!
And less offseason TV means fewer chances for sponsor-clad racecars to be seen.
Nobody wants to see anyone get hurt, or these expensive cars damaged, but you know sponsors drool when their car is shown from twenty angles after a crash.
I'm sure that's why NASCAR so tightly controls use of video, as each shot is a potential advertisement. Ratings, schmatings! I want my NASCARTV! Sponsors would crave more exposure, and the happier they are, the happier everyone is.
ESPN may own Jayski's site but he sold it with his ability to control 100% of the content. He can (and has) linked article/blogs that are not complementary to ESPN. Over the years I have found him to be a stand up guy, and I haven't noticed any lack of content on his site; while there are occasional exceptions, I find most of the breaking stories show up their rather quickly after being posted on their original sites (including those mentioned in this blog post)--Jayski is still the first place I go for NASCAR information, along with the article feed at the top of this page. While I applaud the idea of more racing TV coverage in the offseason, which JD has been pounding on for years, I am not going to criticize the places that provide helpful links to the print reporters who usually have the details, not just rumors. This is about what we're not getting on TV more than it is on what we do get online.
I think cheap and simple. Someone could do a 15 minute daily racing newscast and post it on You Tube. The link could be posted on Jayski and/or interested people could subscribe and we could watch it when it was convenient.
glenc1, Jayski still does fine as an aggregator of NASCAR articles and blogs, but the best part was the rumors that he would get from his network of sources. The story used to be that drivers would read Jayski to see if their jobs were in trouble. That has seemed to steadily diminish since the purchase by ESPN.
In all fairness, this is the first NASCAR offseason I can remember with this much news after the banquet weekend. And I'm prettu sure it costs money to put these shows on. I get what people are saying, but if you've ever watched the MLB Network in November or looked in on the NBA's channel during the lockout, it's pretty dang boring.
J.D.,
Contrast this week's NASCAR news with this morning's bombshell announcement that after 11 years with the St. Louis Cardinals, Albert Pujols has signed a ten-year, $260million, guaranteed contract with a no-trade clause during the entire length of the contract.
MLB Network was live from baseball's Winter Meetings in Dallas and had no fewer than 7 of their reporters covering this story like ants over a picnic basket.
For at least two hours they had the venerable Peter Gammons of MLB Network, MLB.com and NESN, Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated and SI.com, and Fox and MLB Network's baseball analyst Ken Rosenthal, three of the sport's most-respected reporters dissecting every angle of the story.
We heard behind-the-scenes news about the timing of the Angels' offer, the affect it has on St. Louis' hopes of defending their World Series Championship, what the Texas Rangers must be thinking now that they have the stronger Angels fighting them for the AL West, what this means to the powerhouse AL East teams now that the AL West has a potential Wild Card threat... This was covered like white on rice.
Now granted, Kurt Busch is not Albert Pujols. But the combined news of Kurt Busch's availability, an empty seat with Shell sponsorship in the 22 Penske Dodge, who's sitting on top of the #11's pit box next season, where Darian Grubb will land, what happens to the 100+ employees of Red Bull Racing; all these stories beg for in-depth reporting. Individually, they're not as compelling, but taken as an aggregate, they demand at least several half hours a week during the Silly Season.
WCK
AndyPandy, I don't see that as a good thing...it really is irresponsible journalism to print those kind of rumors, people finding out they may be fired for example, without a basis in fact. Jayski's site had sources that had Mike Skinner fired from the RCR car about 6 times over a couple seasons. While I was always intrigued by them, when it's wrong it can be very bad.
I listen to Mark Garrow daily on his show Garage Pass. Very good show. If ESPN carries NASCAR races they should include updates on Sportscenter. The off season in NASCAR is up against the NFL for Pete's sake! I'd like Speed to air a once a week NASCAR show without ANY fluff and give us the news! Speed should show replays like they do with Racehub.This week they should have been at Red Bull when it shut down!
Apparently, all the barely reported Team shutdowns have not been without some problems, according to word on the street,unsubstantiated as news fact, but well spread as rumors. (similar Rumors from multiple sources)
Such as:
Weeks ago, Red Bull cars in the Fab Shop began to mysteriously lose hoods and doors until the shop was locked down.
One shop had a security guard assigned to watch the employees at work and the comings and goings of all visitors.
Transfers of Red Bull cars and parts to other Teams were halted this week because someone noticed about $7M is missing somewhere.
Other Teams are frantically merging, down-sizing, several have been laying off all employees (some 15 year loyal Team Members) to "temporarily reduce payroll costs". (Thank the unemployment compensation system for picking up the employee's shortfall. The Teams have learned how to play this system by submitting the legal warnings in a timely fashion.)Hmiel, Glover, Gibbs Engine Shop, KHI, etc. What are the real reasons for all the sudden changes of long term programs?
Too many people have the same version of why KHI was so quickly dispersed, right down to names and places. None of these potential stories would probably show up on the Hub or now even as rumors on Jayski unless a Team Rep issues a formal statement. They would all be vigorously denied until it becomes so obvious that the same stories are coming from so many sources that there has to be a grain of truth to be investigated as news. or "NASCAR News"
Anonymous 8:35pm this is the stuff Jayski used to have years ago and doesn't anymore. ESPN and NASCAR have fixed that for sure. No news on dispersals of teams and everything is in an orderly fashion. We all know better but never get the details. The guys on Sirius are actually the worst, they tease so many good stories but never tell them. Larry Mac DW everyone has stories but they are still afraid they they might lose their TV gig and have to work for a team again.. Don't want to even get the bridge dirty much less burn it down.. Anonymous maybe you should start a blogger site for info like that, I am sure there is a market for it. Hey how bout letting us know about the KHI deal sounds interesting...
There are only 2 likely reasons why a seemingly successful racing business needs to be suddenly and mysteriously dispersed.
1. They are out of money and the prospects of continuing sponsorship - not likely at KHI, Red Bull and RFR.
2. There needs to be an immediate settlement of the business asset value so the partners in the business can separate, sorta like a divorce. The cleanest way is to quickly disperse the personal property assets into cash and then separate the real estate. Oh and by the way, all those 100+ crewmen need to be told to go somewhere, a messy detail.
At KHI, the future was clear, the young drivers were almost ready, once they got their respective Championship tickets punched this year and the sponsors and patrons (i.e., PawPaw) were there eager and ready to go.
Then start connecting the dots. Who owns which assets? Who built a building on whose land? How could some assets be so quickly transferred by a new partner taking on about say 50% of the old partnership for cash?
Without naming names, now go back and review all the disjointed news out of KHI and RCR this year. Who was fired when from where and supposedly why? The answers and names are there.
The prevailing simplified version is that someone was caught playing with someone from another Team and vice versa. Then the Cleaner sat everyone down and laid out a solution to protect everyone's interests while sweeping the offenders out of the sand box.
The dirty little secret of the modern era limit of 4 Teams per Owner is that only 6 players control all the engines and they all go back home after use. Likewise the cars are now coming from the same limited number of Vertically Integrated Manufacturers (Teams). That leaves each satellite Team really owning only its shop real estate and the "payroll costs" of its crew. Even the industry's aircraft are now packaged in 6-7 fleets. 5 Times' personal jet crashes in Key West and, surprise, he is nowhere in sight.
Now follow how many times recently drivers, crew chiefs and crew members have seemingly transparently moved between the big Teams and their various Satellites. This was exposed publicly when one big Team benched one of its crews mid-race and brought in the crew from its satellite. Almost like we all work under one HR department with one benefits plan. Which they probably do.
Imagine the HR turmoil you would cause by moving from working at Wal-Mart to Target. Yet these Inter-Team personnel moves seem to be transparent. You need a driver or crew chief, here take one of ours who fell out of our rotation because of "chemistry"...
So we have 12-15 Cup Teams fed from one Manufacturing Group and 8-10 from the other and 6-8 from... and so on and so on. But the shops all have separate addresses and somebody's mother as the listed car owner, so the scheme meets the 4 team limit.
KHI was probably this same business model just extended further from Cup to Nationwide and CW Truck. The recent RCR auction exposed some more of the interlinks. If you knew what you were looking at and where it had come from. Follow the money, as Tom Cruise would say.
That is so obvious to the Industry that it would only take the investigative skills of a hard-hitting reporter like Rutledge Wood or Marianela to reveal the truth by asking someone. It is apparently way beyond the talents of a Dillner or Pemberton to penetrate this ironclad veil of secrecy.
That brings us back to the TV relevancy of this dialogue. None of the current talking heads have the credibility or the independence or the chutzpah to explore this. We need a new Chris Economaki to expose this new reality so the knowledgable fan can better understand Team Orders and Inter-Team Orders as they became blatantly apparent at Talladega.
Bill France, Jr. warned everyone this wouldn't be healthy for the sport...or the business of NASCAR.
He was far more visionary than the guy picking his nose behind Michelle Obama.
Hey John,
YOU.... need a "thumbs up/down", "like/bs" , "YES..../H*** No", or "awesome/sx" option. We need choices, too, LOL
lovingnascar
Anon, I don't think that's much a secret. We all know about putting cars/property in other people's names, and we know about 'satellite teams' sharing resources. Like the 14 would not even be competitive without help from HMS. But my question would be this. Not that I haven't always been bothered by the wall of silence in NASCAR...and its fear of the real truths being told....but if the sport is being covered on TV, radio and in print by people who require Hot passes to do their jobs....
What would you suggest these reporters do for a living after that gets yanked? Just sayin'....ask Mike Massaro to go back to the helipad? It would take an independent person *not* dependent on NASCAR to make a living.
The purpose, we are told, for moving Speed's operations to Charlotte was to place it in the "hub" of NASCAR activity.
OK. So far so good. They built a studio, transmission infrastructure, etc. in Charlotte. This facility exists every day of every year.
Now, I have been around TV & Radio for enough years to know that given a studio and transmission capability (in this case satellite time) it does not take that much to fire up a broadcast particularly if many of your on-airs and crew live nearby which they do.
I also know were you to do a once a week off-season show it would be mostly talky-talky (contracts, realignments, etc. not having that much visual interest) and that would be fine and show prep would be very light duty. 44 to 48 minutes of chatter once a week can be done by nearly anyone. Is not that hard. Works for public affairs shows, anyway.
My preference, then, would be for a once a week, weekend morning hour long show recapping the news, rumors, gossip -- call it what you will -- of the week. A sponsor(s) could be found I am sure, and the people are there, and, just like us fans out here in the great beyond, the people in Charlotte do not quit thinking about or talking about racing during the off-season.
It is a no-brainer. It is simple, and maybe that is the problem. It is too simple.
AR - I wish Speed is reading these comments! Yours is so simple! Dot would be kinda surprised that the Word Verification was whizzed - too bad it wasn't fizzed!
Ancient, wow, what a concept! That would be great.
Jenna Fryer says Darian Grubb has been hired by JGR to crew chief the 11. No real surprise there.
This is a media blog, and I know its editor and the people who post here are interested in accuracy. In that regard, I would like to gently suggest one correction.
The editor and various posters have occasionally mentioned that someone was "fired." That is incorrect.
Nobody was fired. Everyone left by mutual agreement. The organization thanked the departing person for all their many contributions and successes over the past years. The organization regrets that they were unable to provide the resources for the departing person to reach their full potential. By mutual agreement, they have agreed to release the person to pursue other opportunities and achieve greater success. They wish him the best in all future endeavors.
The departing person made many personal friendships within the organization and had excellent relationships with the sponsors. He is greatful for the many successes he and his team experienced, but he feels they still did not live up to their full potential. He will always be grateful for the wonderful experiences with the organization, but it was time to move on to free up the organization to achieve more. He is grateful for being allowed to pursue wonderful new opportunities.
Thank you
George Orwell
Mr. Orwell
Nice explantion, but are you from Eastasia or Eurasia? Are we in Oceana at war with you today or is it the other guys?
With Kind Regards,
Winston Smith
I just put in a demand for MAVTV.
Could this be the beginning of a network to truly cover motor sports?
I mean this is Morgan Lucas here....
Go to their website and fill out the form to get the network.
I rarely watch video on the web. Same goes for most of my racing friends.
This is the truth:
"Nothing replaces a regularly scheduled TV series that caters to NASCAR fans."
Hopefully someone will create a true racing network, one not polluted by the "lifestyle channel" junk that apparently must be cheap to produce and purchase.
This dead zone in the broadcast calendar is nothing short of amazing. But that's what you get when execs are not race fans.
I am greatful to have this blog to read and comment on without any scolding. Happy holidays!
This is kinda-sorta off topic, but I think still worth mentioning, and caused totally by a mistake I made. I just watched on DVR an episode of Speed TV's "Ride of Honor". I DVRed it using the alphabetical search feature on Time Warner Cable's DVR, thinking I was getting something else but apparently did not pay attention to the channel it was on. My Oops, but I am glad that I made the mistake!
Ride of Honor on Speed is a Reality series where a custom car shop in California picks up cars or trucks from where ever that belong to US Military who are deployed overseas. I this episode, it was an old very generic 4 cylinder 4WD Ford Ranger pickup that belonged to a Marine stationed in Afghanistan. At no cost to him or his family, they rebuilt it into a top quality off roader with a Roush V8 with a custom body kit, lifted to off-road ground clearance with a custom paint job and interior and a 1500 watt sound system, high-end GPS and a lot of other custom goodies. At the end of the show, they presented the customized truck to the Marine when he got off the plane returning home from the deployment.
Watch you DVR program guide for this show. It is one of Speed's "Lifestyle" Reality series, but very much worth watching in my opinion! There are currently no episodes of Ride of Honor coming up in the next 8 days that are searchable on my DVR, but I will be watching for more episodes of this show.
Dave
Thanks for the tip, Dave!
Not really seeing the need to have Nascar show on every evening in the off season. We've had 2 days worth of news since Homestead. Kurt Busch and Darian Grubb along with a few other odds and ends. To Speed's credit, they did do the special when Busch was canned. The people that want to keep updated have the means just for that. As mentioned, you have social media and other internet forums. Granted I wish Speed had other programming on other than Pimp my Ride, or Dumbest Stuff on Wheels. But Nascar 24/7 isn't the answer either unless they replayed old races from when we actually enjoyed the broadcasts.
"Daly Planet Editor said...
Thanks for the tip, Dave!"
Another Off Topic Speed TV reality show that I like is Stuntbusters. It shows how movie stunts are done. The last episode I watched showed how cars are made to explode and flip into the air over and over. If you like the special effects in movies and TV shows, this shows the behindthe-scenes how they are done.
And this coming week is another important NASCAR-related series of events. The ARCA Daytona testing season begins Friday morning at 9 AM EST.
Josh Richards, the dirt late model star who drove in a few Truck races for Kyle Busch, is testing for Venturini, as is Brandon McReynolds (Turner Motorsports), Joey Coulter (family team), Frank Kimmel (ThorSport). Both Turner and ThorSport are there, but neither team has listed their truck drivers, and ThorSport needs this test as they transition to Toyota.
When ARCA moved the Talladega race from the fall to the spring in 2008, it opened a concern for NASCAR by taking away a late-season race used by rookies who wanted to pass NASCAR's minimum proficiency standards to run the ensuing February's Daytona Nationwide or Truck races.
Expect some potential Truck or Nationwide rookies to test here, as this session and the ARCA race before the Shootout are the only chances these candidates can show NASCAR proficiency in the Plate Tracks to race at Daytona to start the season the next week.
Should be interesting to see how many potential Nationwide or Truck candidates appear for this test.
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