ANybody know the story of why wally is in the booth now?

[disko]

I kinda miss robby buhl - brought a perspective of someone with skin in the game. Anyone know the real story of why wally d. is in the booth now?

[Jag_Warrior]

I'm not sure about that. I didn't even realize they'd given Jack A-root the boot (that has a nice ring to it, huh? :D ) until today. Maybe they gave Wally Jr. this job in hopes that they can talk his father into replacing Brian Barndoor. Imagine a world without Arute and Barnhart. No matter what else happens next year, that would be a beautiful way to start the 2012 season. And if they'd start giving E.J. Viso fake directions to the races, that would help too. :)

[booger]

Even worse. How did you like Willy T. in the booth for the Lights race? What rock did he crawl out from under?

[nigelred5]

Wally did NBC NASCAR broadcasts. Dick Ebersole (longtime NBC) is running the show at Versus now and immediately started crossing NBC personalities over to Versus. Dallenbach is/was a well known name in INDYCAR racing for years, so I've got no problem with the change. IIRC, Buhl was an ABC and an IRL guy, which I'd like to see all go away, but it's pretty much an even swap to me personality wise.

[bblocker68]

Does that mean we'll be seeing a re-visit from Bill Webber anytime soon??

[Dr. Krogshöj]

Just watched the race from torrent. I want Robbie back! Also, did the the ABC crew do the production? The director always seemed to cut AWAY from the action. Apart from Miller, I found the race to be a huge step back from what we saw from Versus in the last two years.

[nigelred5]

I finally got to watch the race last night and I have to say.....I fell asleep twice. It might have had somehting to do with 4 hours sleep, a 12 hour day and 2 hours of Lacrosse practice, but yawn I couldnt stay interested. I'll try to watch it again. It seems to be like they have a hard time with finding good camera angles that follow the action at Barber, but that may just be the directors.... :s hrug:

[DBell]

After seeing Wally in a couple of races now, I think he'll do a good job. He made some good points and observations in LB today and I think he'll grow into the job some more. Jenkins is up and down though. He has spots where he's ok, but has other of spots where he seems unsure or confused. He also has a way of speaking in monotone at times that drives my wife nuts. (actually, that makes it a little amusing for me.)

[Marbles]

Out of all motorsport commentators, I find Wally to be amongst the least annoying. As a matter of fact, I like his approach. Not a cheerleader and can be critical. Bringing the only (soon to be) pass early in the race to the director's attention is what I like to hear... Miller should stir it up a bit more. Does he do it in the pre-race -- maybe I'll have a reason to watch it.

[call_me_andrew]

Does that mean we'll be seeing a re-visit from Bill Webber anytime soon??

Last I checked, he gave up broadcasting to become a magician.

I am not joking.

[Will Rogers]

We'd all be better of if they'd nix Wally (as they did Robbie) and leave Jon Beekhuis as the only other announcer in the booth. He knows the racing, and he knows the broadcasting--he's the best explainer among all motorsports announcers, and he doesn't go on long rambles telling stories.

[garyshell]

I honestly didn't think Wally did a bad job. Sure as hell was a damn sight better than the idiots ESPN/ABC provided.

Gary

[nigelred5]

I've got no problem with Wally. He's a racer.

[Adamfree]

It is just a difficult show to watch. During the qualifying the whole last 10 seconds of the fast 6 just showed Power going down Pit Lane. In F-1 it is where the big dogs are finishing their hot laps. Now of course there is the possibility no one was out at the time but they should have told us that not gone radio silent as Power slows in the pits and the whole broadcast kind of does a slow fade to creative darkness. Yuccch. and what was with Willy T during the Indylights? terrible.

[nigelred5]

That's totally the director's fault, not the announcers IMO. when you think about the Speed F1 programs, from practice through the post race interviews, it's amazing how well that is produced considering they have virtually no control over the international video feed. It's also not directed to entertain, but to inform, more like a baseball game. The Indycar telecasts sometimes try to do TOO much, and with a relative dinosaur of a car, there's little to talk about from a technical aspect, so I suppose they have to fill it with fluff, but at least they are trying.

[nigelred5]

this article is a couple months old, but the management changes at NBC universal tell me a whole lot about what's on the horizon for NBC SPORTSNet.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/watch/2011/02/new-team-nbc-versus-golf-channel-csn-regionals

I can tell you, those changes had been in the works since the Comcast NBC deal was announced. Look for NBC branding on all of the Comcast Sportsnet channels and a move to see Versus become the flagship of hte NBC network plunked down right next to ESPN as basic cable on most cable networks by years end. They definitely have their eye on overtaking the reach of ESPN and FoxSports.

[call_me_andrew]

What will become of Universal Sports?

I asked as though anyone ever watched it.

[nigelred5]

Well, considering it appears to be carried on close to an insignificant numberof cable networks and a smattering of digital second channel OTA channesl, it doesn't look like there is alot invested in it at this point if they were to shut it down, however Comcast can now slot it in it's own network line up as basic cable and increase distribution by about 22million subscribers. That's a start. I know our NBC affiliate doesn't broadcast it on their HD.2 band. We get mostly weathwer and news re-runs. It reminds me a lot of what OLN was before the change to the Versus name. Looks like an espn3 tier channel somewhere between local sports and who cares about that sport 90% of the time.


I'll be honest, I'd never heard of it!

[NickFalzone]

VS has a number of problems. Most obvious is the lack of subscriber base, compared to ESPN, etc. However, another less discussed issue is that even IF Comcast/NBC put it on 20 million+ more cable boxes, the ratings for IndyCar may still not be stellar. They need to get it in more homes AND get people to KNOW it exists. If it's in everyone's homes, but on channel 243, people probably aren't going to have it as a top choice. It needs to be more available, more easily available, and have much greater brand awareness (ie advertising). Until/if this happens, IndyCar will not likely be getting much viewership, outside of the few ABC telecasts. I was optimistic a couple years ago when this deal was done, but the reality now is that VS+IndyCar has been a match made in ratings hell.

[nigelred5]

The sooner they get away from ABC the better IMO. You cannot cross promote races if you are broadcasting across rival networks. ABC surely isn't going to actively promote races on Versus. This arrangement has been flawed from the start. If they were goingto do it split, then it should have been continous on one network, not back and forth.

Get the series totally under the comcast/nbc umbrella and then there is a vested interest in promoting the races on ALL of the channels, especially once they all carry the NBC moniker. They want to be a 'broad spectrum" sports network, so INDYCAR is their racing element they will need to promote. If they are locked into a 10 year deal that costs them money, they certainly would be expected to promote it to recover their investment.

RE-branding Versus to NBC SPORTS Network and tying it into the brand will improve placement on rival networks.

There is also the distinct possibility/probability that a NBC Sports flagship channel will be made readily available on the companion digital signals most OTA stations now have.

FWIW, on our comcast lineup, Versus is on CH2 , golf 3, mid atlantic sports network ch4, ESPN2 ch5, espn ch6, usa 7 network stations are 11,12,13,14,15. Channel placement isn't always an issue, but that is on comcast which we have been for well over 30 years.