MINUS TV
What else is going to die without world-wide television coverage?
The “Miss America Competition” seems to have gone that way and that makes you wonder what will follow the same path.
Big league base baseball may be a candidate for such electronic execution in the mind of many largely due to the recent announcement saying that, beginning with next season's big league games, all such play-by-play will be carried on cable channels alone. Whether this is a good thing or a bad way to go, has not yet been determined, it appears.
One view might be that it will, at least, prevent a few 1950 sitcoms from being re-run so steadily. It should add to sports fan tune-in because it will be easier to find the exact game desired. It might, however, make it to tempting for viewers to watch more than one game at a time. Split- screen and quad-screen equipment will, no doubt, be in short supply for a time, if it goes that way.
Although I am not a solid schedule sports fan, I rather like the idea myself. I have enjoyed watching Atlanta “Braves” game because I always had a[pretty good idea of where to find them without consulting printed or run-on , too-fast or slow screen listings.
This is somewhat of a crisis in both sports and in TV programming lines, but it is becoming evident that some changes are in order.
The “Miss America” pageant pretty much what it has always been, I suppose we would have to agree, except for controlling star personality of long-timer emcee Bert Parks. To many TV viewers it seems that the “Miss America Competition” was a Bert Parks “special” of some sort. They were always modifying the format slightly, too - tinkering with it just a bit to suggest that the anticipated show might be just a bit more risque than we were accustomed to, a smidgen more outspoken, more revealing than in the past. The print media, too, played a critical role in this phase of planning especially in regard to the swim wear sequences which most of still called ”bathing suits” - more or less. As other elements of the entertainment world fleshed out the papers and magazines found the “Miss America” exhibit to be rather staid. I have a feeling this continued lack of interest from the earliest local and state contests caused the program to loose a lot of it's radio and TV audience.
It sounds odd to speak of “radio” now, doesn't it? But it did have a big part in keeping the annual contests both exciting and inviting. There was also a time when your local movie theaters ran extended “Newsreel” coverage of the annual events choosing our standard of national beauty as well.
Now, let's all sit back and enjoy this years awards “presentation” such as it may be, and we can wonder if the same thing is going to happen to high-budget baseball.
A.L.M. October 24, 2004 [c503wds]
