The Bygone Era of Tape-Delayed Sports

Problogue: I am sad that I won't live long enough to see all the cool things that can be done on the internet.  Yeah, there's trash and annoyance and lots of sin, but some really great things also.  Like online broadcasting...

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Twenty years ago I was co-owner of TEAM Sports in Kansas City, doing video play by play (with one camera, exactly what people are doing now) of local high school sports.  

Twenty years ago, there was no internet to stream to, so we recorded on SVHS tape and then hustled that tape to Comcast Cable in eastern Jackson County (Missouri) for airing on Tuesday and Thursday nights.

Tape delay of high school sports was pretty cool at that time; the game would be played, we did a fair job of putting it on tape, and players/parents/friends/fans were thrilled to be able to see the replay in their home.

We even tape-delayed the state high school basketball and wrestling tournaments for a couple of years, distributing the broadcast tape to cable outlets across Missouri.  I believe it was the first ever state-wide video coverage of those events.

And it was pretty new.  And it was pretty cool...for awhile.  And, importantly, there were interested sponsors.

The truth, though, became apparent to me fairly soon: the fun part of sports is the drama of the game as it's happening.  It's a real life soap opera (click the link if you don't know what a soap opera is) being played out in front of you.  It's what we love...it makes it worth being there, even if "being there" means watching it on TV.

Tape delayed sports is subject to spoiler alerts.  If you know the result and the details, it's really not a lot of fun to watch, at least as a fan.  Maybe players want to see how they look in their uniform, or impress other people that they're on TV, but the drama is long over if you know the outcome.

Radio knew it all the time...live radio sports beats delayed video sports, although in the early 2000s it was close for awhile.

There came a point where we just couldn't find interested advertisers to back delayed sports coverage, and our company came to an end.

We had discussions and disagreements over implementing the internet for broadcasting, giving us the ability to go live.

I decided it was worth the gamble.

My first online broadcast was in the Missouri-Iowa-Nebraska-Kansas (MINK) League, with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes team the Kansas City Grays.  With the help of TEAM Sport's computer guru Mike Perry, we set up a small audio system (maybe WireCast?) to do a game from Blue Springs.

My anxiety over doing the game itself was pretty high, but my head was about to explode when I started getting messages on my broadcast laptop that the system was failing, and that I was continually being disconnected.

I struggled through the game with the notion that nobody could hear it.  And had a terrible feeling, of course.

Come to find out the next day, the system only had the capacity to support five listeners at a time.  So, we kind of blew up the system with an overload of listeners, which helped my attitude immensely.

That fall, I received a phone call from Rockhurst University's athletic director, asking if I could do online streamed radio coverage of Hawks basketball home games.

Rockhurst Hawks

Heck yes!

So I became the play by play announcer and chief engineer for RockU for two years in the NCAA.

That led to twelve wonderful years online, both audio and video, with William Jewell College, and now 2+ years at North Central Missouri College.

During that time we also formed broadcast networks for a couple of high schools, led by high school students wanting to have the experience.  I helped initiate the first-ever NCAA Division II conference-wide broadcast network, and have done internet coverage of national basketball, baseball, volleyball and softball broadcasts.

The point is, after 2005 or so, none of that would have happened using the tape delay concept.

"Live" is king in sports.

The internet allows everyone to go live if they choose to.

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Jon Gruden: Wow.  Takeaway: you shouldn't be thinking it, but if you are, you better not write it down anywhere.  But still, we should know by now not to think it.

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We have a staff of 10 people who are interested in our sports broadcast production team at North Central Missouri College, where we start our video basketball coverage on
Pirates Digital Media November 2nd with a Women's/Men's doubleheader.

Our multi-camera approach is pretty impressive with the right numbers of staff, and not only is this group good by the numbers, I think they're  going to be pretty good when they get going (maybe great!)

Blog 6: What I Do at North Central Missouri College as Digital Media Specialist

Problogue: I'm a dreamer.  Mostly realistic, I think, but still a dreamer.  As I've gotten older I've seen many of my early dreams contained within my reality but still not disappearing.  It's like what Bob Segar said in the song "Against the Wind": 

Well those drifter’s days are past me now
I’ve got so much more to think about
Deadlines and commitments
What to leave in, what to leave out

Had a birthday the other day and turned 59.  But I'm still dreaming.--RC

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When I was a kid, I dreamed of being a professional athlete, playing baseball, basketball and football at the same time.  I would win the world championship and be the MVP every year!

As I got just a bit older, I thought being a radio announcer must be pretty cool also.

Time went on.  I wasn't a good athlete but I was extremely interested in sports, and I still thought being on the air would be cool.  

Circa 1978

I got a job at my hometown radio station in Sidney, Nebraska at the end of my sophomore year.  It was cool! And I got a chance to be exposed to sports announcing as well as playing records (late 1970's disco!) reading news and doing time/temperature on the mighty KSID AM/FM (right).

Radio certainly fit me better than playing sports.  So radio became my dream.  And doing sports on the radio was the nice convergence of the two dreams in a nice package.

I was KSID's Sports Director at age 19, working in that role for two and a half years before deciding to pursue teaching and coaching.  But I always found work while I was pursuing my degree at Chadron, Nebraska and at Wayne, Nebraska, and also while I was actually teaching.  The broadcast bug never went away.

Fast forward to the fall of 2019.  I came to Kansas City with the idea that I would simply teach, with no extra duties and no broadcast schedule.  That idea didn't last long.

TEAM Sports era

My wife and I formed a video broadcast company, TEAM Sports (right), that ultimately evolved to online broadcast networks for summer collegiate baseball in the MINK League, Rockhurst University basketball, William Jewell College's entire athletic program, and now the new Digital Media and broadcasting program at North Central Missouri College in Trenton, Missouri.

And at North Central Missouri College, I'm looking for students that might want a similar experience to the one I've had.

So there's that.  But, here's something else.

I want to form the best Junior College broadcast team in America. 

Is that arrogant?  Stupid?  Ego-driven?  Sometimes I get the blank stare and an eye roll afforded to someone who dares to mention something so audacious so loudly.

I've been doubted in the past.  I've failed before...but I've also succeeded before.  And I have a outline for success at NCMC.

 Here's the plan:

·        Build a broadcast team, just like a basketball or softball team, that allows students to perform roles they are passionate about as they learn about digital media through hands-on training and some coursework for college credit.

·         Cover all aspects of NCMC life with feature stories, social media posts, and live broadcasts of events.

·         Use the talents of our team members, working alongside full-time staff, to make NCMC the best and the most unique broadcast team in the country at the JUCO level.

Specifically for our live sports broadcasts, here's what will make us the best:

• The drama of each game will be the centerpiece of the broadcast.
• We'll use students to run a multiple camera system for our live events, and not a simple "one-camera-shoots-all" broadcast.
• We know that our opponent, watching their team on the road, is a big part of our audience, and we include them in our game plan, featuring announcers who are (mostly) unbiased in their call of the game, and have taken time to know not only NCMC athletes and coaches, but also the opponent.
• We will feature announcers who believe telling the game story is more important than showing off how cool they are.
• We'll have a game on when we say we'll have a game on.

That's not arrogant, stupid, or ego-driven.  That's a plan that has worked before for me, when William Jewell College was the leader in NCAA D2 video streaming.

Pirate students will make the difference at NCMC, just as students made the difference at William Jewell.

Now we have to find the students.  And keep the dream alive.

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Know of a student who's interested in college media and broadcasting?  Get in touch with me at rcole@mail.ncmissouri.edu or call/text 816.589.8500 or contact NCMC Admissions.