ISU-Mizzou Not on TV in Eastern Iowa

**cjclone** · 02-29-2012, 08:42 AM

I saw an advertisement for 8.3 carrying the game in the Quad Cities.

**KidSilverhair** · 02-29-2012, 08:58 AM

Originally Posted by MNCyGuy

I'm sorry, I did choir in hs so I'm sure it's great for those kids to get to be on TV, but why the hell is KCRG showing a HS show choir contest in place of an ISU MBB game? Who in their programming office thought that made a lick of business sense?

This may blow your mind even more, but the Xtravaganza contest they're showing on Saturday night is a middle school show choir contest. Your premise is incorrect anyway: they're not showing it in place of the Iowa State game; they're showing it in addition to the Iowa State game. You can see them both.

But bear with me here ..

1) Show choir is a big deal in Iowa, especially eastern Iowa. Believe me, I know. They will get good viewership for this on 9.2.

2) They've already sold the ads for the contest, based on them being shown on 9.2. I don't think KCRG is going to offer that money back to the sponsors ...

3) Music and athletics aren't mutually exclusive. My son was a 2nd-team all state tackle for a football team that made it to the state semifinals. He also performed all four years of high school on a kick-*** show choir. He's rightfully proud of both those activities.

D) There is no way on God's green earth that KCRG is going to take the girls' state basketball tournament off channel 9. So regardless, the Iowa State game is going to be relegated to a subchannel. 9.3 or 9.2, what's the difference? They're pretty much the same thing. Iowa State-Baylor is not going to bump the girls' tournament off KCRG ... I for one am glad they're at least on television somewhere, even if it is 9.3. It all looks the same on my TV.

**ruxCYtable** · 02-29-2012, 09:00 AM

Originally Posted by cytech

One of the issues I remember seeing an number of years back when all the games were on KCRG is that KCRG was having a hard time selling the advertising slots on during the game broadcasts. I remember seeing a message on the screen during the games. The next season alot of the games went to mediacom connections channel, and they have not been back to KCRG exclusively since then.

I don't know if this is still a issue or not, but I can't expect KCRG to air the game just to lose money on it, though I can't see how they could not generate advertising income for the ISU vs Missouri game.

This is unfortunately true. We Cyclone fans are a vocal bunch but the sad truth of the matter is, despite the number of alumni in eastern Iowa, KCRG has had a lot of trouble selling advertising for our games. It is also the reason WMT FM dropped the Cyclones several years ago.

How hard they tried to sell said advertising is something we'll probably never know. As biased and homerish as the media in this area is, I wouldn't put it past them.

**KidSilverhair** · 02-29-2012, 09:04 AM

Originally Posted by ruxCYtable

This is unfortunately true. We Cyclone fans are a vocal bunch but the sad truth of the matter is, despite the number of alumni in eastern Iowa, KCRG has had a lot of trouble selling advertising for our games. It is also the reason WMT FM dropped the Cyclones several years ago.

How hard they tried to sell said advertising is something we'll probably never know. As biased and homerish as the media in this area is, I wouldn't put it past them.

KGYM 1600 AM in Cedar Rapids has carried Cyclone football and basketball for the past several years. I realize quality/coverage area isn't nearly as good as WMT-FM was, but for the immediate Cedar Rapids area, it works great.

They've also recently added an FM transmitter in Iowa City, so now all (both?) the Cyclone fans in Iowa City can hear John Walters down there.

**KidSilverhair** · 02-29-2012, 09:06 AM

Originally Posted by SNEDDS3

Here is KCRG's reply.....

"Scott,

Thank you very much for taking the time to write to us. We always love hearing from our loyal viewers! Yes, it is true that we do not have the broadcast rights to tonight’s ISU game, and we do not have the broadcast rights to any Iowa games; however, we do have the rights to air five ISU games this year. We have already aired four games, and we have one more this Saturday night at 6pm (vs. Baylor). That game will air on KCRG WX NOW (a.k.a. KCRG 9.3).

Thanks again for writing, and I hope that you enjoy the girls high school state semi-finals tonight on KCRG 9.2! Please let me know if you have any questions about our programming lineup, or if you are unsure how to get KCRG WX NOW.

Kevin Schrader
Director of Broadcast Technical Operations
501 2nd Avenue SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
W: 319-398-8418
C: 319-431-9426
twitter: @kevinschrader1
kevin.schrader@kcrg.com"

This is good to know. Apparently they couldn't put the Mizzou game on 9.3 even if they wanted to .. not without dropping the Baylor game on Saturday.

Now whether or not another local TV outlet could have picked up the rights for tonight's game is another question ....

**intrepid27** · 02-29-2012, 09:13 AM

Originally Posted by KidSilverhair

This may blow your mind even more, but the Xtravaganza contest they're showing on Saturday night is a middle school show choir contest. Your premise is incorrect anyway: they're not showing it in place of the Iowa State game; they're showing it in addition to the Iowa State game. You can see them both.

But bear with me here ..

1) Show choir is a big deal in Iowa, especially eastern Iowa. Believe me, I know. They will get good viewership for this on 9.2.

2) They've already sold the ads for the contest, based on them being shown on 9.2. I don't think KCRG is going to offer that money back to the sponsors ...

3) Music and athletics aren't mutually exclusive. My son was a 2nd-team all state tackle for a football team that made it to the state semifinals. He also performed all four years of high school on a kick-*** show choir. He's rightfully proud of both those activities.

D) There is no way on God's green earth that KCRG is going to take the girls' state basketball tournament off channel 9. So regardless, the Iowa State game is going to be relegated to a subchannel. 9.3 or 9.2, what's the difference? They're pretty much the same thing. Iowa State-Baylor is not going to bump the girls' tournament off KCRG ... I for one am glad they're at least on television somewhere, even if it is 9.3. It all looks the same on my TV.

KCRG panders to the Sr citizen market in CR. Their morning news cast is produced for retired people who can't or won't make it to the local coffee shop to gossip and gripe.

**MNCyGuy** · 02-29-2012, 09:23 AM

Originally Posted by KidSilverhair

This may blow your mind even more, but the Xtravaganza contest they're showing on Saturday night is a middle school show choir contest. Your premise is incorrect anyway: they're not showing it in place of the Iowa State game; they're showing it in addition to the Iowa State game. You can see them both.

But bear with me here ..

1) Show choir is a big deal in Iowa, especially eastern Iowa. Believe me, I know. They will get good viewership for this on 9.2.

2) They've already sold the ads for the contest, based on them being shown on 9.2. I don't think KCRG is going to offer that money back to the sponsors ...

3) Music and athletics aren't mutually exclusive. My son was a 2nd-team all state tackle for a football team that made it to the state semifinals. He also performed all four years of high school on a kick-*** show choir. He's rightfully proud of both those activities.

D) There is no way on God's green earth that KCRG is going to take the girls' state basketball tournament off channel 9. So regardless, the Iowa State game is going to be relegated to a subchannel. 9.3 or 9.2, what's the difference? They're pretty much the same thing. Iowa State-Baylor is not going to bump the girls' tournament off KCRG ... I for one am glad they're at least on television somewhere, even if it is 9.3. It all looks the same on my TV.

I'm big on supporting arts in the schools, don't get me wrong. It just seemed like something that maybe you could have shown on tape delay at anytime, not something that needed to be scheduled around. That being said, a lot of this makes more sense if KCRG only has rights to x amount of games. That leads to another question: Why the hell isn't the ISU AD making sure that between KCRG and KFXA all the ISU games available between CTN and B12N are being picked up in Eastern Iowa? Are the packages not structured in a way that makes that possible?

**shawn_200m** · 02-29-2012, 09:37 AM

I believe that it is KFXA not KCRG that has the Big 12 network rights in Eastern Iowa. KCRG has the CTN games. If you think that KCRG is a hawk homer station, they are nothing compared to KGAN/KFXA. I have complained numerous times to them about carrying the cyclone games and their overall cyclones coverage and have never even gotten a response. To KCRG's credit, everytime I have contacted them, they have at least given me a response.

**MNCyGuy** · 02-29-2012, 09:42 AM

Originally Posted by shawn_200m

I believe that it is KFXA not KCRG that has the Big 12 network rights in Eastern Iowa. KCRG has the CTN games. If you think that KCRG is a hawk homer station, they are nothing compared to KGAN/KFXA. I have complained numerous times to them about carrying the cyclone games and their overall cyclones coverage and have never even gotten a response. To KCRG's credit, everytime I have contacted them, they have at least given me a response.

The problem with KFXA/KGAN is that they don't have the sub-channels to dump the ISU games to if they interfere with prime-time programming. I'm not sure if their contracts with CoolTV and TCN allow them to bump their programming.

**cyspy** · 02-29-2012, 09:44 AM

KCRG 9.1 hasn't had many ISU games on in the past several years to begin with. One of the main problems in this is the fact that NASCAR moved Daytona to later in February. KFXA (Fox) in C.R. has broadcast the high school wrestling and basketball for the past several years,when Daytona was moved KFXA had a problem with high school wrestling and the Bud Shootout being on at the same time and with NASCAR a much better sell than high school wrestling they went with showing NASCAR and the high school tourneys were moved to KCRG 9.1,9.2 whatever. KCRG already had these show choir concerts scheduled and will live up to that original agreement. Also you may notice that the high school wrestling and basketball tournament games are shown on stations that for the most part have little to no news,stations like KCRG,KWWL,WHO and KCCI will not show high school sports because it preempts and delays the most important show on those stations and that is the 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts. These stations can live with pro sports delaying newscasts but not high school sports.

**cyinbett** · 02-29-2012, 07:15 PM

Game is on mediacom 8.3 or 16 in the qc. The broadcast is terrible but it is on.

**isugcs** · 02-29-2012, 07:23 PM

I emailed KCRG (Kevin.Schrader@kcrg.com) with a polite request to broadcast more games in the future. I encourage you all in eastern Iowa to send a polite note requesting games be aired. I'm sure this is what JP would recommend. Thanks!

**huntt26** · 02-29-2012, 08:04 PM

Originally Posted by isugcs

I emailed KCRG (Kevin.Schrader@kcrg.com) with a polite request to broadcast more games in the future. I encourage you all in eastern Iowa to send a polite note requesting games be aired. I'm sure this is what JP would recommend. Thanks!

I will do the same. I will also thank him for showing the other 4 or so games already this year.