Sunday, August 10, 2008
West coast viewers are spoiled
Yahoo’s Olympics blogger Chris Chase is ticked off that NBC is showing some of the Olympic events in Beijing on “tape delay”. Not that they still use magnetic tape to record sporting events or anything else for that matter. How old is Chris Chase? When he wants to make a phone call, does he “dial” the number? When he wants to listen to music, does he grab his Walkman? Does he write his blog on a manual typewriter? Is his car powered with steam?
Tonight’s swimming finals with Michael Phelps, Dara Torres and Katie Hoff were not shown live in the Mountain or Pacific time zones, nor will they be shown for the entirety of the competition. NBC will instead run the east coast feed three hours later; at 8:00 p.m. PT. So, at the moment (midnight on the east coast), viewers on the other side of the country still haven’t seen Phelps shatter his own world record in the 400-meter individual medley.
The day I feel sorry for sports fans on the left coast is the day alien lifeforms have taken over my body. The ones that look like worms and embed themselves in your brain stem and make you say and do kooky things.
I don’t get to watch many Big Time sporting events. The reason? Two reasons actually; I work for a living and I live on the east coast.
To make viewing optimal for people living out on the west coast, most major sporting events don’t start until after 9:00 p.m. on the right side of the country. They do this so the folks out on the west coast can watch the event on TV after they get home for work. They don’t care that people on the east coast — people like me — have to stay up past midnight to finish watching. If you’re unemployed, retired, or sell drugs for a living, it’s really no big deal. If you are none of the above, it sucks.
So people out of the west coast don’t get to watch it live when Michael Phelps sets a new record? I don’t get to watch the World Series, NBA Championships, Monday Night Football, or the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship final.
Consider us even.
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Hey Rick, Just found your website through Huxford’s page. Looks interesting!
I have to agree with you on the time issue. I live in the Central Time Zone, so it is not as bad, but still sucks trying to watch the College National Championship, or the World Series on a work night.