NW Makes Another Mess

[tuned]

In yet another brilliant programming strategy NW is loudly proclaiming they are Vancouvers "hockey station". Junior Hockey in the the boonies perhaps but the big league team is long gone and the promos sound like wishful thinking. Dan Russell has been avoiding talking about the Canucks, pretending that listeners give a hoot about the Whitecaps and a new team in Chilliwack. After the preseason Canucks game last night Sportstalk listeners were treated to a live broadcast from Chilliwack. The debut of the gazillion dollar Canuck goal was not worthy of Russells time but blathering on about some minor league team that he does play-by-play for was worthy of a full court press.
I tuned in to Brook Ward and got what I wanted and I'm sure I wasn't the only one. From the looks of it Russell without the Canucks is headed straight into the toilet. Instead of taking an aggressive approach now that they don't have to keep the owners happy Russell is going to pretend that they don't exist. Bad move. I am a Dan Russell fan and am sure he has been responsible for the few listeners NW had under the age of 40 but it also goes to show that Program Directors are necessary to keep talent on track and the arse kissing morons that are left at Corus aren't up to the task. I also listened to the Canucks telecast and it sounded unprofessional like most of what Chum does. Major gaps, gaffes and sloppy production but in the end it doesn't matter because listeners want the game. NW is going to take a major sh*tkicking in the ratings between now and the end of the year. It isn't going to be a "minor" adjustment either and might even be bad enough that Plasteras gets fired.

[Primitive]

In yet another brilliant programming strategy NW is loudly proclaiming they are Vancouvers "hockey station".  Junior Hockey in the the boonies perhaps but the big league team is long gone and the promos sound like wishful thinking.  Dan Russell has been avoiding talking about the Canucks, pretending that listeners give a hoot about the Whitecaps and a new team in Chilliwack.  After the preseason Canucks game last night Sportstalk listeners were treated to a live broadcast from Chilliwack.  The debut of the gazillion dollar Canuck goal was not worthy of Russells time but blathering on about some minor league team that he does play-by-play for was worthy of a full court press.
I tuned in to Brook Ward and got what I wanted and I'm sure I wasn't the only one.  From the looks of it Russell without the Canucks is headed straight into the toilet.  Instead of taking an aggressive approach now that they don't have to keep the owners happy Russell is going to pretend that they don't exist.  Bad move.  I am a Dan Russell fan and am sure he has been responsible for the few listeners NW had under the age of 40 but it also goes to show that Program Directors are necessary to keep talent on track and the arse kissing morons that are left at Corus aren't up to the task.  I also listened to the Canucks telecast and it sounded unprofessional like most of what Chum does.  Major gaps, gaffes and sloppy production but in the end it doesn't matter because listeners want the game.  NW is going to take a major sh*tkicking in the ratings between now and the end of the year.  It isn't going to be a "minor" adjustment either and might even be bad enough that Plasteras gets fired.

He was focusing on the first game of a brand new team. Nothing wrong with that.
I'm guessing you didn't actually listen to either broadcast in full, because the Team's coverage sounded virtually identical to CKNW's especially once the play-by-play began, and I didn't hear anything wrong except about one second of dead-air once. The intermissions were formatted the same as always, and so was the post-game show, with the post-game summary, and bringing John and Tom back to discuss the game.

Secondly, if you call hiring Gary Valk and having Russell do an expanded 1 hour pre-game show before every Canucks game this season, rather than the hour pre-game show they did before home games and the 30 minute pre-game show they did during away games last season ignoring the Canucks, I guess NW really is pretending they don't exist.

Maybe Russell didn't talk about them on that particular night, because it was a pre-season game with about 10 players who will be in Manitoba this season.

[tuned]

Having produced more than my fair share of hockey broadcasts there was a huge difference between what Chum put on the air and an NW game. First off the intros and bumpers on 1040 are lacklustre to put it mildly. There were numerous ackward pauses during both national anthems on the game that I listened too. The play by play guys seemed unsure about what to say when. There was no flow to the broadcast and it was rough and choppy. I really don't know why NW is bothering to do a pregame show with Russell and yet he seems to be ignoring the 'nucks on his 9-12 show. The next two books will tell the story and like I said it isn't going to be pretty. NW is going to sink lower and there will be more cutbacks. 730 is going to do nothing during drive and I mean nothing. I only wonder how long it will be before Jim Shaw gets tired of Corus and dumps it.

[glaherty]

Having produced more than my fair share of hockey broadcasts there was a huge difference between what Chum put on the air and an NW game.? First off the intros and bumpers on 1040 are lacklustre to put it mildly.? There were numerous ackward pauses during both national anthems on the game that I listened too.? The play by play guys seemed unsure about what to say when.? There was no flow to the broadcast and it was rough and choppy.? I really don't know why NW is bothering to do a pregame show with Russell and yet he seems to be ignoring the 'nucks on his 9-12 show.? The next two books will tell the story and like I said it isn't going to be pretty.?? NW is going to sink lower and there will be more cutbacks.? 730 is going to do nothing during drive and I mean nothing. I only wonder how long it will be before Jim Shaw gets tired of Corus and dumps it.

Tuned:

I did mention the same thing about the intros and bumpers to Rob Gray, (Team's PD). He agreed, and they are working on improving them. My point
would be that given a transfer of broadcast rights, and a complete new setup,
and the fact it's preseason, the broadcasts have been relatively free of glitches.
As far as the anthems go, I think you have to decide yay or nay. You either
carry them in entirety, or don't. I always felt they helped set the scene, but
maybe that's more true on TV.
I'm not sure what NW's aim is with their pre and post game shows, but I
have some hunches. I think they truly want to maintain
their hockey presence, I think they really want the spots to run from their
remaining hockey sponsors, and I believe they are in a bit of denial over losing
the rights. They saw that we were able to succeed to some degree with pre
and post game coverage at the Team without the rights and they are hoping
to emulate it. I would ask this however, how is their recent track record when
it comes to emulating formats etc? I agree with you about the promos and
ads in the paper about still being the hockey station, it's the old strategy,
you hope that just saying it will make it so. Not always the case. That said,
I do fear another brain cramp of a book, where people fill in 980 for the
broadcasts even though they've moved, because "we always fill in that there
980 Martha", yes we do dear, and wasn't Lester Pearson a great Prime MInister, that Diefenbaker
guy he was sure good too, yep yep yep.
I feel Dan did a good job, given the resources made available to him. Gary
Valk will be fine, Valky's a good guy, and does have some things to say.
Presentation will be his challenge. I think them even doing preseason when
there's no TV only magnifies to the listener that the broadcasts are elsewhere.
I think there was interest in CHilliwack's WHL debut, and Dan did some
interesting alternative programming around it, but he and I are friends, so
I have difficulty giving you an unbiased assesment. Hope some of this helps.

lee

[tuned]

I completely agree with all of your points. What bothers me is that the lousy opens/bumps even made it on the air. Isn't that why you have a PD? Running the anthems is a bad idea on radio and they should run spots instead. I think NW is in denial about alot more than hockey. Why the heck they didn't move Russell and the Canucks to 730 and build a station around them is beyond me. I like Russell btw...he is one of the few "real" guys on the air in this market but even great talent needs direction. I listened to him a little tonight and he was going easy on them after another stinko loss. If I was the PD I'd tell him to hammer the Canucks at every opportunity because 1040 is going to have to toe "the company line" no matter how bad a season the 'nucks dish up. NW is adrift from morning until night and even though there may be a few senile golden agers filling in diaries like drones the listeners that count to advertisers have to be jumping ship.

[radiofan]

They poor folks at the tower must really be in denial.

I can see an all sports station that doesn't have PBP doing a pre and post game show. Why the hell would a News/Talk station do it when they no longer have the rights?

This is now just an interruption in regular programming. Anybody that is listening to NW is listening for News/Talk programming. Give the remaining NW listeners some credit, they know where the games are on radio and TV if they really want to listen to or watch them.

Bullshit programming like this will do nothing but backfire in your face. In the not too distant future, you will pray to have the numbers you had this past spring!

Face this fact ... The Canucks are gone from 980! Change the god-damned page in the hymn book and get on with the show. It's tomorrow.

[nuahcerpel]

?Why the heck they didn't move Russell and the Canucks to 730 and build a station around them is beyond me".

Back in the day at the Black Tower when the brain trusts were
Running around coming up with NW2

Many were thinking all sports
Made the most sense.

Four formats and counting.