From the start, the idea to brand his station as the place for local sports seemed like a good one to Channel 2 general manager Steve Gigliotti and it still does more than 1 1/2 years later.
But Channel 2's new package of lacrosse telecasts has run smack against auto racing, angering NASCAR devotees in Charm City and environs. Gigliotti says he's attempting to make the best of a bad situation.
"I don't want the NASCAR fans to think I'm not listening to them. I hear them. I'm caught, and what I'm trying to do is appease as many people as I can," Gigliotti said.
The genesis of the problem dates to the fall of 1997 when Gigliotti, new to the job, talked to athletic department officials from Maryland, Johns Hopkins, Loyola, UMBC and Towson about arranging to telecast men's lacrosse games. The station aired three contests last spring to test the market for interest and Gigliotti said the results were favorable.
With that as a starting point, Gigliotti got the schools to agree last April to a 12-contest "game of the week" package, with games usually taking place at 1 p.m. on Sundays, a time when ABC, the network the station is affiliated with, usually didn't air sports programming.
It all seemed perfect. That is, until ABC beefed up its NASCAR schedule, adding races in the early Sunday afternoon window, unbeknownst to Channel 2.
The conflicts left Gigliotti with some very unappealing choices. On the one hand, he was attempting to build something new and exciting for the station, while on the other hand trying to please the network and the demanding fans of a sport whose fan base is growing.
"My priority commitment here is to take and showcase what I think is the purest of sports," Gigliotti said. "These guys who play lacrosse in the spring are playing entirely for the love of the game and this is the mecca of lacrosse."
It should be noted right about here that there is a financial component at work, and it revolves around commercials.
Simply put, Channel 2 makes more money from carrying locally televised lacrosse games than from airing ABC's telecasts of NASCAR races or golf tournament or just about anything else, because it has more commercial inventory from locally produced programming than from the network. Last Sunday's Maryland-Duke game finished tied for second in its time slot, so the station seemed to make a solid financial decision.
But while Gigliotti is trying to work out something that will irritate fewer NASCAR fans, ABC is apparently not helping. The station had originally been told that last Sunday's Las Vegas 400 could not be joined in progress, as Channel 2 wanted to do, but had to be tape-delayed. During the week, however, the network agreed to let the race be aired in progress, but the station still received more than 100 calls and e-mails in protest.
This Sunday's Maryland-Towson game will conflict with the Cracker Barrel 500 race, and ABC apparently will not permit the station to join that race in progress, either, so Channel 2 will carry the race on tape at 12: 05 a.m.
Channel 2 will also carry tonight's Loyola-Johns Hopkins game from Homewood at 8, with Scott Garceau and Keith Mills on the call.
Notes from the first day
We'll have more in this space next week regarding CBS' NCAA tournament coverage, but the network seemed to get off to a good start editorially yesterday.
Local viewers got an afternoon full of a pretty good on-air tandem of Gus Johnson and Dan Bonner, who worked the Maryland-Valparaiso game.
Bonner and Johnson had not worked together before yesterday and it took them about a half to get their timing down, but once they did, they meshed quite well. Regular readers know that Bonner is held in high esteem in this column, and Johnson brings a youthful enthusiasm to his play-by-play.
The network is to be commended for its coverage of the Minnesota test-taking scandal, as it addressed the issue right at the top of the telecast, albeit briefly. But nary a word has been heard about a federal judge's ruling this week that effectively tossed out the NCAA's minimum entrance requirement rules. CBS should have plenty of time this weekend to gather people on both sides of the issue and give it a reasonably thorough debate.
Around the dial
ESPN Classic will mark this week's passing of Joe DiMaggio with a six-hour block of programming tomorrow, starting at noon, while the entire 30 minutes of Sunday's "SportsWeekly" (ESPN, 9: 30 a.m.) will be devoted to the "Yankee Clipper."
The NCAA women's basketball tournament begins this weekend, with first-round games tonight on ESPN2 at 6 and midnight, then tomorrow at 9: 30, as three-time defending champion Tennessee plays Appalachian State. ESPN will have the UCLA/Wisconsin-Green Bay game tomorrow at midnight. ESPN2 will have second-round games Sunday at 1, 7, 9 and 11 p.m. and at 7: 30 and 9: 30 on Monday, while ESPN will carry second-round games Monday at 9: 30 and midnight.
Pub Date: 3/12/99