I’m putting this in the Pit because this is more of a rant. There is a General Question here so I won’t piss & moan if this thread is moved.
WCIA-TV in Champaign, Illinois is the local CBS affiliate on Springfield cable. Every year during college basketball season they will pre-empt CBS programming at least two nights per week to show University of Illinois basketball.
I am enraged over this. Ignoring the fact that I wouldn’t watch an Illini basketball game if it were in my back yard and the food was free, there’s the unbelievable chutzpah being displayed here. Here we have a local network affiliate saying, “Ya know what? We think the people of central Illinois would much rather see Illini basketball then whatever CBS is showing tonight.”
So I sent an e-mail to WCIA. Their response, not unexpectedly, contained the words “responsibility to our viewers to broadcast local sports,” and “honor and tradition of Illini basketball” and “relationship with Illini basketball going back nearly forty years.” Strike one.
An e-mail to CBS won’t make any difference, as I’m sure they’ll gladly tell me that local network affiliates are free to broadcast whatever they choose so long as they pay their bill to CBS every month. Strike two.
An e-mail to the FCC won’t make any difference, as it will undoubtedly contain the words “bigger fish to fry.” Strike three.
Threatening to boycott local sponsors of Illini basketball won’t help, as I don’t live in Champaign and am thus already participating in a de facto boycott of Champaign businesses. Strike four.
But it gets worse…
The Springfield, Illinois NBC local affiliate, WICS-TV, for about two weeks every winter will pre-empt NBC programming for…
wait for it…
here it comes…
high school basketball :eek: ! Yup, high school basketball. If any team from the WICS viewing area, no matter how small or obscure, is in the state tournament, they show every last one of their games. And if they lose in the early rounds, WICS shows other games with no local teams because hey, everyone loves high school basketball! :rolleyes:
Fortunately, these games are generally played during daylight hours so the worst they’re likely to do is pre-empt soaps. Since I don’t watch soaps, this doesn’t affect me, but the principle is still there.
So what can be done about this? Maybe if I barrage my local network affiliate with complaints day in and day out they’ll get the idea? Any other ideas?
And since this is the Pit, I invite others to share stories of their local network affiliates pre-empting network programming for local programming.