The TV pestilence is officially out of hand.
Last weekend at Darlington Raceway, I tried to turn onto the same road I've used for years to get into the infield tunnel and there wasn't a road there anymore.
Instead, there were TV production trucks parked every which way. The television "compound" had, and this is a conservative guess, tripled in size.
When I got my credentials for Lowe's Motor Speedway, the envelope indluded a letter saying that the parking lot for those of us who work out of the press box had moved, too. We've figured this was coming because the TV compound that once took up a third of that lot had been slowly creeping outward. But this was a quantum leap in land grabs.
There's a lot more television stuff needed these days with Speed, Fox, ESPN all doing various things. But that doesn't make it any less annoying.
Friday in the media center, a cameraman for ESPN pulled a chair away from the row where I was sitting and parked in it about 8 feet away from me. For an hour, he sat there on the cell phone trying to get some kind of piece of equipment for his camera shipped to him and talking to pretty much everybody he could think of to call on his phone list.
One place where this gets totally out of hand is at New Hampshire. The TV locusts come into the media center there and literally lay around in the floor when they're not out running around doing whatever it is they do. I am talking about literally lying on their backs like they're napping, with their equipment strewn about them on the floor. Last year, I actually took them a bag of marshmallows just in case they decided to make S'mores.
Smile for the camera
Speaking of TV, the people working for ABC News who're doing a series of shows on NASCAR that will run this summer are looking for people who've traveled to Charlotte this week from long distances.
They're particularly looking for people who're fans of Regan Smith, David Stremme, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jeff Burton, Jimmie Johnson, or Mark Martin. If you're interested, you can email Alexa Danner at alexa.x.danner.-nd@abc.com .
Saturday, May 19, 2007
The TV compound fracture
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7 comments:
AAAH David you having to put up with the same guff the fans whose butt fills the seats...let's move the start time to accomodate the tv people..it's to bad those poor schmucks in the stands will be stuck in traffic late at night trying to get out of here.....The whole thing is becomiing a made for tv special...
David,
Laying around in the floor at NHIS' media center? I must have missed something here. In the years I've been in the media center I've never seen anyone laying around on the floor
Right there with you David on the media center at NHIS. Seems like every year there’s more TV folks making the floor in that room into their personal campground. And yes, I’ve witnessed more than a few taking catnaps in there.
Waaaahhhhh waaahhhh, David, the media is driving the ratings down to all time new lows. Too much media coverage. Three hours of boring gossip and hype between two networks before a race. Yaawwnnnnnn!
Nothing new but mind numbing what ifs, inuendo, speculation, scenarios , etc.
The pre-race shows, web sites and print media have the class of gossip tabloids at a grocery store checkout lane.
There are just so many ways to beat a dead horse. Apparently all of the college educated media can't put humpty dumpty wheeler, wee willie france and mother hubbard teresa earnhardt together again.
I have to laugh at all of you media types....you are now reaping what you have sown!
The ole print media verses TeVee media debate.
You know your sport is doing well when the print media dudes start complaining about TeVee getting all the perks!!!!
We're midseason in one of the most controversy laden seasons in recent memory, and you spend an entire column talking about crowding of the media center?!? Please! There is NO shortage of stories that you could dig into, and this is what you give us? The media covering the media?
I've always enjoyed your column, David, but you need to come off it and get back to work. We read your column for comments and insight into the sport. Sadly, this isn't it.
You get to go to every race. You get to know all the drivers and crews. You have behind the scenes conversations that none of the fans get to dream of. That's a tremendous privelege, yet you've now become so complacent to your position that you can't even use it to write a simple column that doesn't contain a whine-fest about what you 'had to put up with'. Well boo-hoo. I say, if you can't maintain perspective then you don't deserve the job.
Give us, the fans, OUR column back, or step aside for someone who will.
I am a great fan of these artist but i won't be joining.
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