OLN TdF Coverage: Morning, Afternoon, or Prime Time?

In previous years, there's the morning live broadcast which
could be up to 2
1/2 hours of just racing (+ commercials) but no special
interviews. The afternoon show would be 90 minutes of
racing regardless how long the morning show was, and the
prime time would be just the most important moments on the
road plus interviews in 90 or 120 minutes.

If you tape the morning show, the mountain stage coverage
may start earlier than usual and/or may go longer than
usual, so pay attention to the announced start time for the
next day and record in SLP in case it goes long.

I'm planning on getting the morning and evening shows on one
6 hour SLP tape per day, but will have spares at the ready
since they are saying it's going to be "saturation
coverage".

Enjoy !!!

jw Milwaukee

[email hidden] (HKEK) wrote in
Message-id: <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I signed up for digital cable to get OLN's coverage of the
TdF but am trying to figure out their coverage. It seems
that they have 3 different broadcasts, based on today's
coverage of the prologue.

In the morning, the coverage appears to be live. Then, in
the afternoon, there is a program title "Roadside Tour",
which seems to be the same material but with some different
pieces (the "Cutters"😉 spliced in here and there. Then
there is prime time coverage in the evening, and I am not
sure what is different about that one.

Can anyone explain to me the differences? I want to
record each day, but once a day will be enough. Which
one? -- Thanks!

Based upon previous years, the live show is barebones racing
only. Good live shoot-from-the-hip spontaneous coverage. The
prime time show, being later, includes things such as
interviews with the stage winner, pre-prepared background
pieces about Tour history and geography which are generally
fairly well done. It looks as if this year the "Roadside
Tour" portions of the midday coverage will reach a new low.
It's a bit like watching a bunch of drunks who are having a
great time and think everything is funny. Sorry OLN, it
doesn't come across on TV. If you aren't part of the party
it's not very entertaining.

I'd recommend the prime time coverage. They've had the time
to edit it so the content is usually solid and there are no
time overruns. I'd skip the afternoon coverage completely
unless of course you like that sort of thing. KF

(KenFberg) said:

I'd recommend the prime time coverage. They've had the time
to edit it so the content is usually solid and there are no
time overruns. I'd skip the afternoon coverage completely
unless of course you like that sort of thing. KF

I just hope that we still get mostly Liggett and Sherwin's
call in the evening coverage instead of a lot of Trautwig
and Roll. One article I read made it sound that the latter
may be the case.

Dave Clary/Corpus Christi, Tx

On the 3 coveages I watched parts of all of them yesterday
The morning is good and mostly cycling, with PHil and Paul
commenting But the evening one is most of the live racing,
more commentaries and stuff on the rides, but most of all
You get Bob Roll commenting. I will probably watch the
night, just for Bob Roll

C.

On 3 Jul 2004 18:52:44 -0700, [email hidden] (HKEK)
blabbed on and on about:

0OI signed up for digital cable to get OLN's coverage of the
TdF but am 0Otrying to figure out their coverage. It seems
that they have 3 0Odifferent broadcasts, based on today's
coverage of the prologue. 0O 0OIn the morning, the coverage
appears to be live. Then, in the 0Oafternoon, there is a
program title "Roadside Tour", which seems to be 0Othe same
material but with some different pieces (the "Cutters"😉
0Ospliced in here and there. Then there is prime time
coverage in the 0Oevening, and I am not sure what is
different about that one. 0O 0OCan anyone explain to me the
differences? I want to record each day, 0Obut once a day
will be enough. Which one? -- Thanks!

_@
-\<,
(*) / (*)

On 07/03/2004 09:13 PM, in article
[email hidden], "KenFberg" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I'd recommend the prime time coverage. They've had the
time to edit it so the content is usually solid and there
are no time overruns. I'd skip the afternoon coverage
completely unless of course you like that sort of thing.

If the primetime coverage during the entire Tour is anything
like last night's coverage of the prologue, then they are
deleting Phil & Paul's commentary, and substituting Al
Trautwig and Bob Roll.

I like Bob, and I think he adds color to the commentary, but
with Trautwig at his side, he is NOT strong enough to carry
the Tour coverage.

As much as possible, I'll be taping and watching the
live coverage.

--
Steven L. Sheffield stevens at veloworks dot com veloworks
at worldnet dot ay tea tee dot net bellum pax est libertas
servitus est ignoratio vis est ess ay ell tea ell ay kay ee
sea aye tee why you ti ay aitch aitch tee tea pea colon [for
word] slash [four ward] slash double-you double-yew double-
ewe dot veloworks dot com [four word] slash

Steven L. Sheffield said:

If the primetime coverage during the entire Tour is
anything like last night's coverage of the prologue, then
they are deleting Phil & Paul's commentary, and
substituting Al Trautwig and Bob Roll.

Quoted message said:

I like Bob, and I think he adds color to the commentary,
but with Trautwig at his side, he is NOT strong enough to
carry the Tour coverage.

Quoted message said:

As much as possible, I'll be taping and watching the live
coverage.

I only watched a little bit of the primetime stuff,
but agree.

What disturbs me about this is that it seems like OLN
figures that the "primetime" audience needs an authoritative-
sounding (but basically uninformed) melodramatic voice like
Trautwig. Probably the OLN brass figure Phil and Paul are
too weird - they have funny accents and talk about strange
stuff like breakaways and sprints and things, and know the
names and palmares of all these riders from small countries
in Old Europe.

In a paranoid moment, I thought that the natural outcome is
that next year OLN ditches Phil and Paul entirely for Al
and Bob. But, I suspect Trautwig can't actually handle
doing that much live commentary. In his other down-dumbing
jobs, like the worst of the NBC Olympic coverage, he works
from a script.

"Steven L. Sheffield" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On 07/03/2004 09:13 PM, in article 20040703231340.29515.00000911@mb-
m16.aol.com, "KenFberg"

<[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I'd recommend the prime time coverage.

<snip>

Quoted message said:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

As much as possible, I'll be taping and watching the live
coverage.

I watched them both (I have an injury and don't have much
else to do!). I really prefer the live broadcast, but
will recommend the primetime to my friends who ask me
about cycling.

It explains things for novices that Phil and Paul take for
granted and *feels* like American TV, both of which will
make them enjoy it more. For example, Al had Bob talk
about the strategy the riders in the 5 man break would be
using and what the riders and the team car would be
discussing. These are the kind of questions my non cycling
friends ask me.

Phil and Paul are still the majority of the primetime, it
just appears that OLN uses Al and Bob to bring the audience
up to speed like Waylon Jennings in the Dukes of Hazard.

The good news is we have both! Now, if we could get ONE good
show covering the spring classics...

amother thing caught my attention during the prologue. Phil
was commentating, but you could hear Paul doing commentary
in the background. It seemeed that Paul and Phil were each
doing their own commentary, and that OLN was switching back
and forth. That is, Paul told a story about the last time
someone crashed out just before the start of the prologue,
and then Phil told the exact same story.

-r