By Tom Stosberg
So, it has come to this. [Sigh]
It’s not bad enough that the Louisville football team delivered a lackluster performance against Indiana State. But WHAS-TV had to go and add insult to ignominy by delivering an equally dismal and depressing telecast.
[quote]
WHAS-TV’s so-called “production†of Saturday’s event was somewhat akin to that of a high school game shot by a player’s parent standing on the highest seat in the stadium with a $200 video-cam.
It reminded me of old video from the early days of television before modern zoom lenses were invented as it rather gave one the feeling of sitting several miles up in the cheap seats with no binoculars.
Sadly, the person behind the main camera obviously had never ever actually witnessed a football game with his or her own eyes, either in person or on TV. The individual also had never actually operated any type of camera, muchless a television camera equipped with a Zoomar® lens.
Additionally, the person supposedly directing the telecast (setting up and calling the camera shots) did in fact perform one of the most pathetic jobs I have ever seen in over 55 years of watching college football. I have seen high school games shot with three cameras that looked like the Super Bowl compared with Saturday night’s atrocity.
Perhaps WHAS-TV and the University could save a fortune on future TV production costs by allowing a U of L communications student to earn extra credit at the next home game by simply holding up his/her iPhone.
On second thought, let’s not give them any ideas.
Received the game tape yesterday (thanks again, Paul).
Boy, rough to watch. Quality wise as well as performance wise. UK’s gonna murder us.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who noticed the horrid camera work. I watched it at a friend’s house with no HD. WHAS’ non HD programming is horrible looking on an HDTV. I’m happy Ari Wolfe is gone. He was a little to talky and goofy. I’ve got to say WDRB’s coverage of the Cardinals in previous years was much better than it is now that WHAS has it.
Aside from the camera work, the picture quality was so fuzzy, I actually changed the channel a few times thinking something must be wrong with my TV.
A copy of this review has been sent to WHAS-TV management. We’ll let you know if we get a response.
Just think of how it looks on a Slingbox over the internet. I was glad that option was available, but take the WHAS coverage and then make it fuzzy and choppy.
Charlie, Sonya, Paul….to share with your readers, here are some pics from our two photographers who were at the game:
http://hellinthehall.com/2009/09/06/ryan-payne-and-vic-anderson-seal-shaky-win-over-indiana-st/
Top notch work, Frankie! Judging by what I’m reading here…maybe you should take over the WHAS TV broadcasts…
I had to go to the wedding reception of the daughter of a close friend so the only way I could see it was on TV. The production quality was terrible, making it difficult to follow the action. WHAS-TV doesn’t have any brains when it comes to sports. Neither do people who schedule weddings during football season. Can you imagine having to celebrate your anniversaries the rest of your life on football Saturdays? The grooms needs to get backbones and speak out.
Linda, sorry to disagree. Eric is about as evenhanded as sports columnists come. We don’t like what he says sometimes but it’s always true. UK fans think he’s a U of L fan, which demonstrates that he dishes it out to both teams. We are lucky to have him.
Disagree all you want. That live blog was evidence. He was actually stirring up the “hate” with his posts. You call it even-handed, I call it really amateurish writing.
I only got to see a few minutes of the game on tv, but I did notice the terrible camera work.
I have another complaint though, and i am sorely tempted to write to the c-j on this one.
I was at work and sports sites are blocked, so i was following the c-js live blog. Has anyone ever done this? Because it was embarrassing. It is titled “game analysis” but no mention of anything actually going on in the game was noted. Occasionally a score was posted when followers would beg. It was essentially a group of whiners saying we suck, with eric crawford leading the way. He posted stats about how horrible ISU was, and compared the stats of the UL game to previous teams blow-outs. When someone complained all he would say is “we dont do play by play on the blog” Well, good for you, why not just call it card-bashing then? I wasn’t asking for play by play, but how about “powell just had a good run” or “Burke seems to have settled down and is making good passes” Anything positive at all would have helped.
I realize it wasn’t a great game, really I do. But Paul Rogers managed to find some positive aspects to discuss.
Why can’t we have a FAN thats a sports writer in this town? Other cities do. Eric Crawford is a UK fan and I want him sent far far away. He’s wretched. His article today displays that perfectly.
Given what I saw at the game I think I would have liked to have seen the TV production.
Glad most of us didn’t see it. Hopefully the road games will be televised by professional camera crews from their local stations but using our announcers who are pretty good.