Friday, October 29, 1999
SPORTS ON TV-RADIO
First telecast from Yager Stadium for Channel 19
BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Dave Ashbrock has been directing and producing sports programming in the area for 20 years. He has done all sorts of sports from all sorts of venues.
But Saturday, when he does the Miami-Cincinnati game for WXIX-TV (Channel 19) from Oxford, it will be the first time he has done a game from Yager Stadium. Dan Hoard and John Arena will call the action for 19.
“My technical guy (Roy Smith) and I were talking,” Ashbrock said. “Neither of us has originated a game from Yager. That's unbelievable.”
Past administrations at Miami discouraged airing the UC game. That's not the case anymore. “They bent over backward for us,” Ashbrock said.
Miami switched the game from 2 p.m. to 12:30 p.m., so it wouldn't conflict with Conference USA games.
This is the first road game Channel 19 has done under its current contract with UC. WXIX added football to its UC basketball package last year.
Ashbrock doesn't foresee any problems. Because Oxford is only 35 miles up the road, the 30-man crew will be local.
Ashbrock has a closet full of Emmys for his work on UC basketball broadcasts. The idea is to bring football to the same standard.
“It's getting easier as we do it more,” Ashbrock said. “I thought the Kent game went extremely well for a first game.”
SMART SWITCH: WKRC-TV (Channel 12) dropped the West Virginia at Miami (Fla.) game, which CBS is showing, to pick up Ohio State-Iowa off ESPN Regional Saturday.
TRIBUTE TO STEWART: ESPN will air a tribute to Payne Stewart today from 3 to 6 p.m. Mike Tirico and Curtis Strange will be hosts. The show will include coverage of today's memorial service in Orlando.
VCR ALERT: Howard Cosell: Telling It Like It Is will make its debut at 8 p.m. Monday. The one-hour documentary takes a look at Cosell.
There's footage of Cosell at work, along with new perspective from Muhammad Ali, Roone Arledge, Al Michaels, Billy Crystal and Al Davis. Cosell's daughters give their views of their father.
Michaels probably best explains the Cosell phenomenon: “He really carved out a role that had not existed in this business and I'm not sure exists to this day.”
This show is worth watching but is not great by HBO standards.
ON THE BENGALS: If you can get CBS' broadcast of the Bengals game — it's blacked out in our area — you'll hear Gus Johnson and Brent Jones.
NEW GADGET: The folks at ESPN, who brought you the “1st and Ten” technology, will unveil “SuperStrator” on Sunday night when Tampa Bay takes on Detroit.
SuperStrator is an updated version of the telestrator. The system draws lines on the field so viewers can see the play unfold with the diagram in the background.
PARTING SHOT: NBC sports honcho Dick Ebersol called Jim Gray “the best TV sports reporter of his generation.”
Does that make Ahmad Rashad No.2?
John Fay covers radio/TV sports for the Enquirer. He can be reached at 768-8445.
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