Much of the country will have the opportunity to watch the first Iowa debate of Republican presidential challengers, but not those in the Joplin area. KODE just broke away from the debate, which is being held on This Week with George Stephanopoulos , which still has a half hour to go, to go to its regularly scheduled church service.
While I certainly would not argue with the need to have religious programming on Sunday mornings, I would have hoped that KODE would have found a way to fit something this important into its programming, even by showing the last half hour later in the day.
It is early in the political process, and no doubt there will be more debates, but the issues and ideas that will be the focus next year are being formed right now and those of us who are interested in them deserve better treatment.
I can't find the debate available on the abc website or itunes. The few clips they have are filled with commercials. However, Ugly Betty, Lost and Scrubs are all there. So much for informed democracy.
ReplyDeleteKODE has done this in the past. When Jean Van De Velde was melting down on the 18th of the British Open nearly 7 years ago they swapped out to the "Hour of Power" and screwed all of us who watched the first 4 hours of coverage.
ReplyDeleteThere is just a lack of foresight between management and a master control operator who is told what shows and commercials are supposed to run.
A contingency plan should be discussed before managers head home for the weekend.
I was watching CFL on the MSSU TV station a few weeks ago and the same thing happened. The game was exciting and went to overtime. Before OT began the station switched to the MSSU infomercial.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago, the manager of KODE radio gave me the benefit of his advice/order/experience when he said:
ReplyDelete"When it comes to putting church or the baseball game or anything else on the air, choose church. Those people will eat you alive."
"When it comes to putting church or the baseball game or anything else on the air, choose church. Those people will eat you alive."
ReplyDeleteThat is so true. (Not exactly the same topic, but this shows how people get into a routine). When I worked in radio a long time ago, I decided to skip the morning's obituaries. Not only did management have a few words with me, confused listeners called just minutes after obits should have been on because they wanted to know who died yesturday.