Baltimore Media Examiner
Showing entries for Category: analog
Where's the coverage ?
POSTED April 27, 10:29 PM
Baltimore is a sports hungry town.  Every spring Baltimore sports fans' blood runs orange and black, no matter how poorly the birds do or how high the prices go at the ballpark; and later in the year, it turns to purple.  On any given Sunday TV viewers will see long segments on "tailgating" and Ravens sidebar stories like clothing sales or ticket sales for the game. And even the NFL DRAFT garners more coverage than Baltimore's Best Kept Sports secret. Radio and Television Sports Departments are so limited on time, that usually their entire 3 to 4 minute segment is spent on just those two teams, The Orioles and The Ravens.  

But where is the  coverage of The Baltimore Blast?  Baltimore's Major Indoor Soccer League Team has won the equivalent of the SUPERBOWL for the 4th time in 6 years. Saturday night the Baltimore Blast beat the Monterray LaRaza  14-11 but for example, WBAL TV gives the story just four sentences:

From the WBAL TV website:

The Baltimore Blast defeated the Monterrey La Raza, 14-11, to win the 2008 MISL Championship Game at Milwaukee’s U.S. Cellular Arena.

Denison Cabral led Baltimore with three goals and was named MVP of the Championship Series.

The Blast, who won the MISL Title in 2003, 2004 and 2006 swept the New Jersey Ironmen in the Quarterfinals and the Milwaukee Wave in the Semifinals to advance to their fourth Championship in six years. The Blast went 2-2 against La Raza this season, with both teams winning on their home field.

From the WJZ TV website gives the story five sentences:

Blast Win MISL Title

BALTIMORE (WJZ) ? In Milwaukee, the Baltimore Blast defeated Monterrey La Raza 14-11 for the major Indoor Soccer League Championship.

It is the Blast's fourth championship in the last six years.

The game was tied 6-6 at the half. The Blast then took the lead in the third quarter and never trailed after that.

Dennison Cabral scored three goals and was named the game's MVP.

The Blast won all five of their playoff games in route to the championship.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

 From WMAR TV website,

There is no update on the Blast win and after searching Sunday night for any information pertaining to the MISL was MIA.

As  a sports fan attending indoor soccer games, Ravens games, and Orioles games, I can tell you the Blast fans are vocal and ethusiastic, screaming support every time a goal is scored.  The last game between the Milwaukee Wave and the Blast saw Denison Cabral leap onto the plexiglass after scoring!  The players acknowledging the fans, the fans showing their love and support for the home town team. 

Too bad this love doesn't always get the coverage it deserves.  Give the Blast a break,(next year) they deserve more television coverage of the induvidual players in the days and weeks leading up to the finals, and follow them to the Championship.  Hey Baltimore, you have another teams to cheer for, in between wins (?) by the other two Major League Teams.

 

 

2 Comments: Add | Read
 
Walking with Dinosaurs
POSTED April 20, 9:16 PM
Robot controlled LIFELIKE Dinosaurs invade the Arena formerly known as the Civic Center starting Wednesday April 30. 

Walking with Dinosaurs

Thinking about the show I realize radio, as we know it, could also be going the way of the Dinosaurs.  Years from now, our descendants may wonder what AM & FM were all about, what terrestrial  radio was like in the olden days, and what a transistor radio was used for.

Radio ruled not so long ago.  AM radio in the car, FM radio in stereo in the home.  But things changed after deregulation of radio in the 1990's, the arrival of satellite radio in the early part of this century, and the endless choices consumers now have, to get what only radio once provided.   MP3's and iPods plus cell phones bring what people want to hear, into their ear.

Music on AM radio?  Are you kidding?  In the 1960's and 1970's that's where you would find Casey Kasem, with American Top 40 played on WCAO Sunday afternoons.  The former music stations are now mostly news, talk, & sports.

Advertising on AM radio?  Sixty years ago radio was in it's prime with 94% of all households owning an AM radio.    

Although most homes have probably 5 or more radios around (go ahead count them) how big a part do radio ads play in consumer choices?  People are bombarded by not just radio ads, but television ads, digital ads online, and newspaper & magazines.  Back in the day, people bought what they heard about on the radio.

News on AM radio?  Still fills the niche, but with computers putting the Internet at your fingertips who needs to turn on another machine when LIVE AUDIO feeds are available from your PC? I like simplifying things and if I hear my AM news, get my nightly TV news fix, and read "the paper" all from my computer  that's where I'll do it.  Hopefully AM news will always have the front seat in the car. (I call shotgun)

Look ahead 20, 30, 50 years.  Digital technology has already hit radio, like the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs.  Smashing the old fashioned wires and tapes, the antiquated machinery,  the outdated mindset, which will all be buried beneath layers of fall out from the digital explosion, unearthed a million years from now like fossils.  Radio needs to be relevant, it needs to move into the next era by partnering with, instead of trying to compete with, the Internet.  No more debate over which is best, digital or analog.  The debate needs to be how fast and how far can radio gousing digital technology to keep up the pace?  Or will radio as we know it even survive til end of this century? 

Ironic, isn't it, that the "Walking with Dinosaurs" show relies on remote controlled radios to operate the beasts? Radio in some form will always be needed. Maybe not in the way we are used "needing" it for Music, Information, and Advertising. 

Adapt, or die, Radiosaurus. The large lumbering prehistoric reptiles whose skeltons show they had strong legs to support their massive size but relatively small brains.... provide an obvious analogy.

Radio  can survive ...but as Darwin points out:“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

 

4 Comments: Add | Read
 

Brenda Carl
Brenda Carl, News Director for WCBM Radio, is a born & bred Baltimorean who has been working in radio and television news for nearly 30 years.



 
 

(page generated in 0.13 seconds)