OLN's First Mistake

Time Cop <[email hidden]> wrote in news:3f070b52$1_3 @news.chariot.net.au:

Quoted message said:

Who was the brainiac in charge at OLN that decided to go to commercial the moment Lance rolled
down the start line?

Then, as the final half-dozen starters came to the finish line, half of them didn't have their
automatic finish times and positions flash up on the screen.

And did I mention Beloki getting supered as "Armstrong" during his ride?

I hope this isn't a sign of things to come for the coverage.

I noticed those issues as well. However, the video feed is actually from French TV. Paul and Phill
just comment over it and OLN has no control over the French supers which the end time results were.
So, blame French TV directors for the lack of time supers when the guys came in and OLN for going to
commercial!

2. Not mentioning Levi Leipheimer once during the day's coverage, despite a fine 12th
place showing.

2000", please save her for the primetime coverage and spare the daily live viewers - thank you.

Damn, it's hard to believe someone is already complaining about the coverage on OLN. Maybe you'd
like to go back to the days of CBS and the likes of John Tesh with only an hour of coverage on
Sunday for four weeks. Or when the whole program was edited for American viewers and you had to
listen to [censored] editorial's for 75% of the show with an American spin on everything. There was no
such thing as countless hours of coverage from motor bikes or commentating by European announcers
who actually know something about the sport. Having raced themselves Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin
have excellent insight to the sport and have a lot to offer to American viewers, especially those
that are not actually cyclists.

Speaking for myself I find the coverage fantastic and can deal with some glitches here and there. As
far as Armstrong being slighted a little, so what. The race is about more than one guy and one point
of view. Yeah I want to see Lance kick ass and win the race but I also enjoy watching great
competitors from other parts of the world who devote everything to the sport. It wouldn't be much of
a race for Armstrong were it not for outstanding cyclist's such as Ullrich, Beloki, Simoni and other
great's who come from other parts of the world.

Thanks OLN for a job well done, I hope you continue to provide us with the great coverage you have
in the past. Kudos to Liggett and Sherwin for the great commentating you will continue to provide.
Tony Columbia, Maryland

"Time Cop" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Who was the brainiac in charge at OLN that decided to go to commercial the moment Lance rolled
down the start line?

Then, as the final half-dozen starters came to the finish line, half of them didn't have their
automatic finish times and positions flash up on the screen.

And did I mention Beloki getting supered as "Armstrong" during his ride?

I hope this isn't a sign of things to come for the coverage.

--

Quoted message said:

--------------------------<

Posted via cyclingforums.com cyclingforums.comcyclingforums.comOpen ↗

I am going to complain about the coverage and nitpick it, too. As a longtime television producer myself, I know what it takes to broadcast a two-hour plus live sports program. Going to commercial when you theorically have your biggest audience in place is a great way to tick off your viewers.

As for CBS Sports' coverage of the Tour from 1983 to 1988 (Two hours of coverage on Saturdays and Sundays mixed between boxing matches), it won numerous Emmys for broadcast excellence - regardless of the features and John Tesh's music. I remember the days when getting any Tour results meant convincing your local newspaper to print them.

With OLN pouring so much money into the broadcast rights, it should spend just as much on staff and equipment to ensure production values are of a network quality. For starters, I would do away with the "Denise Austin" lookalike host.

Sean Weide
Omaha, Neb.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Tony Norton said:

Damn, it's hard to believe someone is already complaining about the coverage on OLN. Maybe you'd
like to go back to the days of CBS and the likes of John Tesh

SNiP

You beat me to it.

Since OLN started covering the Tour two years ago, we previously hapless Americans have been in
relative cycling heaven. These whiners remind me of Jason Alexander's character in 'Shallow Hal' who
breaks up with a total babe because of the length of one of her toes.

Know when you've got it good.

MrBob

Quoted message said:

Going to commercial when you theorically have your biggest audience in place is a great way to tick
off your viewers.

no [censored]. 4 of them in fact, and one of the commercials was promoting OLN's coverage!!!!

chris

I'll tale "Kirsten" over the parade of pretty boy color comentator "Karstens" they've had over the
years, At least she's easy on the eyes and not enthusiastically ignorant and obnoxious.

Zeno

RoyG said:

2. Not mentioning Levi Leipheimer once during the day's coverage, despite a fine 12th place
showing.

Quoted message said:

2000", please save her for the primetime coverage and spare the daily live viewers - thank you.

"RoyG" <royg at nospam> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

2. Not mentioning Levi Leipheimer once during the day's coverage, despite

a

Quoted message said:

fine 12th place showing.

I think you have to cut OLN some slack on this one. First we should all be thankful we can watch the
Tour at all here in America. OLN is not the originator of the coverage. They simply tap into the
French feed. Other than having a few more French riders than you'd like, I think all the major
players were covered. They showed all the green jersey contenders, who by putting in a good TT could
be in yellow in the a day or two. They showed the prologue specialists. They showed the top GC
contenders. Leipheimer will be a top 20 GC guy, but I don't think we'll see him on the podium in
Paris. He's an American riding for a Dutch team. If you were French TV, would you have shown him. Or
look at it this way. If this was the Tour of America, do you think NBC would show a French guy on a
Dutch team that might be in the top 20 at then end of it all?

Quoted message said:

2000", please save her for the primetime coverage and spare the daily live viewers - thank you.

I watched most of the live coverage, but I don't know what you're talking about here. Do what I do
when the fluff comes on. Change the channel for a minute or two. You do have a remote, right? Or if
you tape it, simply fast forward.

We could all sit here and criticize this or that 'til the cows come home. But jeez, c'mon. The Tour
was on for 2 hours today. I'm pretty sure they had 2 rebroadcasts if you missed the first. The
coverage was very good. Be happy...

Wade

A couple of small, early glitches and a less than perfect female color commentator (who we'll really
not see much of). These are nothing compared to the friggin' *gift* of being able to see multiple
hours of coverage every day, not to mention that it's *same-day* coverage, not to mention that it's
*live* every morning.

You whiners must be Freddie-come-latelies to following the Tour from the US, or ingrates in the
extreme. Only a couple of years ago you would've had to settle for the [censored] 30-minute, delayed
"highlights", half of which consisted of a recap of the previous few days and half of the other half
was embarassingly bad commentary by clueless network hairdo's.

OLN is going way out on a limb giving us all the coverage we're getting: each stage shown three
times per day, including

Sure, they'll make some mistakes and we'll get to hear some real howlers from some of the added
commentators. So what! The alternative is CBS and its worthless wrapups.

Time Cop said:

I am going to complain about the coverage and nitpick it, too.

thanks for the warning,

bye heather

Julio Steen said:

You whiners must be Freddie-come-latelies to following the Tour from the US, or ingrates in the
extreme. Only a couple of years ago you would've had to settle for the [censored] 30-minute, delayed
"highlights", half of which consisted of a recap of the previous few days and half of the other
half was embarassingly bad commentary by clueless network hairdo's.

If no one complains, they won't know about (some of) their errors. Presumably, OLN wants to
continually improve their product. Kirsten Gum IS a lot more attractive than the guy last year or
Bob Varsha, so that's an improvement. And Bobke is back. :-)

Of course, people could just write OLN directly, but I think it's certain by now that OLN reads
this group.

--
--
Lynn Wallace xmission.com~lawallOpen ↗ "I'm not proud. We really haven't done everything we
could to protect our customers. Our products just aren't engineered for security." --Microsoft VP in
charge of Windows OS Development, Brian Valentine.

It's also a good time to sell soap, or Festina watches, since many have tuned in for just
that moment.

I'm not surprised French television broke coverage right at that time, but it's still pretty
irritating.

Michael

"Time Cop" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I am going to complain about the coverage and nitpick it, too. As a longtime television producer
myself, I know what it takes to broadcast a two-hour plus live sports program. Going to commercial
when you theorically have your biggest audience in place is a great way to tick off your viewers.

As for CBS Sports' coverage of the Tour from 1983 to 1988 (Two hours of coverage on Saturdays and
Sundays mixed between boxing matches), it won numerous Emmys for broadcast excellence - regardless
of the features and John Tesh's music. I remember the days when getting any Tour results meant
convincing your local newspaper to print them.

With OLN pouring so much money into the broadcast rights, it should spend just as much on staff
and equipment to ensure production values are of a network quality. For starters, I would do away
with the "Denise Austin" lookalike host.

Sean Weide Omaha, Neb.

--

Quoted message said:

--------------------------<

Posted via cyclingforums.com cyclingforums.comcyclingforums.comOpen ↗

Raptor said:

Julio Steen said:

You whiners must be Freddie-come-latelies to following the Tour from the US, or ingrates in the
extreme. Only a couple of years ago you would've had to settle for the [censored] 30-minute, delayed
"highlights", half of which consisted of a recap of the previous few days and half of the other
half was embarassingly bad commentary by clueless network hairdo's.

If no one complains, they won't know about (some of) their errors. Presumably, OLN wants to
continually improve their product. Kirsten Gum IS a lot more attractive than the guy last year or
Bob Varsha, so that's an improvement. And Bobke is back. :-)

I don't care if she's more attractive ... Bob Varsha was pretty good as a commentator/host ... He
didn't know a lot at the beginning, but you could sense it gelling as the Tour went on ... And his
enthusiasm was obvious.

They should have given him a second chance, rather than using that other bonehead last year.

Quoted message said:

Of course, people could just write OLN directly, but I think it's certain by now that OLN reads
this group.

In article <[email hidden]>, "Michael"

Quoted message said:

I'm not surprised French television broke coverage right at that time, but it's still pretty
irritating.

considering that the Tour is shown on France 2 or France 3, with no interruptions for commercials
during the race, I am not quite sure how they would manage to "break" coverage just as Armstrong was
starting his race. Just to make sure I will call my brother in France later today, but I am willing
to bet that he saw Armstrong's race from start to finish.

You guys seem to be wasting a lot of time thinking/worrying about all the foul things these nasty
French might be thinking about or plotting behind your back. :-)

jyh.

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timecop-<< Who was the brainiac in charge at OLN that decided to go to commercial the moment Lance
rolled down the start line? >><BR><BR>

Nobody ay OLN...somebody running the french feed...

<< I hope this isn't a sign of things to come for the coverage. >><BR><BR>

short memory!!!

remember when the bike racing was about 10 minutes during Wide World of Sports once per weekk????

Peter Chisholm Vecchio's Bicicletteria 1833 Pearl St. Boulder, CO, 80302
(303)440-3535 vecchios.comvecchios.comOpen ↗ "Ruote convenzionali costruite eccezionalmente bene"

"jean-yves hervé" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>, "Michael"

Quoted message said:

I'm not surprised French television broke coverage right at that time, but it's still pretty
irritating.

considering that the Tour is shown on France 2 or France 3, with no interruptions for commercials
during the race, I am not quite sure how they would manage to "break" coverage just as Armstrong
was starting his race. Just to make sure I will call my brother in France later today, but I am
willing to bet that he saw Armstrong's race from start to finish.

You guys seem to be wasting a lot of time thinking/worrying about all the foul things these nasty
French might be thinking about or plotting behind your back. :-)

jyh.

Yeah, I'm sure that the French orchestrated the crash to keep the Americans off of the podium! ;-)

Dashii

Time Cop said:

Who was the brainiac in charge at OLN that decided to go to commercial the moment Lance rolled
down the start line?

Somebody read your criticism. PL said when they came back with 8km or so to go (st.1) that they were
going from there to the end. TV execs would have put in one more commercial break for suspense that
would have come back to the action a few seconds after the crash.

Quoted message said:

Then, as the final half-dozen starters came to the finish line, half of them didn't have their
automatic finish times and positions flash up on the screen.

And did I mention Beloki getting supered as "Armstrong" during his ride?

I hope this isn't a sign of things to come for the coverage.

Time Cop said:

Who was the brainiac in charge at OLN that decided to go to commercial the moment Lance rolled
down the start line?

Somebody read your criticism. PL said when they came back with 8km or so to go (st.1) that they were
going from there to the end. TV execs would have put in one more commercial break for suspense that
would have come back to the action a few seconds after the crash.

Quoted message said:

Then, as the final half-dozen starters came to the finish line, half of them didn't have their
automatic finish times and positions flash up on the screen.

And did I mention Beloki getting supered as "Armstrong" during his ride?

I hope this isn't a sign of things to come for the coverage.

Time Cop said:

Who was the brainiac in charge at OLN that decided to go to commercial the moment Lance rolled
down the start line?

Somebody read your criticism. PL said when they came back with 8km or so to go (st.1) that they were
going from there to the end. TV execs would have put in one more commercial break for suspense that
would have come back to the action a few seconds after the crash.

Quoted message said:

Then, as the final half-dozen starters came to the finish line, half of them didn't have their
automatic finish times and positions flash up on the screen.

And did I mention Beloki getting supered as "Armstrong" during his ride?

I hope this isn't a sign of things to come for the coverage.