Olympics coverage~it can work

[DebiG54@aol.com]

To all:
 
 Televising a live endurance competition has been done, and well, but could 
be done much better quite easily.  It could be shot much like the Tour de 
France bike race is.  The leaders are followed, along with a lot of the 
intriguing side stories (oldest rider, youngest rider, that sort of thing).  
It wouldn't even take a lot of manpower.
 
 I used to be a TV reporter and helped Susan Gibson televise onsite her last 
Race of Champions in Pennsylvania.  There was one cameraman and me.  We 
preplanned where we would shoot the trail and zipped around like fools for 
the entire race.  He did the camera work, and I provided the on camera 
commentary and interviewing.  A couple of crews could easily blanket a race, 
both on the trail and in the vet checks and the finish line.  With satellite 
trucks, all of this could be broadcast live.  Otherwise, it can be edited and 
packaged later.  Not hard at all for experienced sports TV crews.
 
 My opinion is that, done professionally, endurance racing could have huge 
appeal to an audience.  There is a lot of drama in what we do.  There's 
sweat, blood, tears--a lot of thrill of victory and agony of defeat stuff.  
That's good TV.  And there's a lot of horse hugging, too.  It sounds corny, 
but people love the human bonding with animals theme, too.  There is a lot of 
potential for truly successful broadcasting of endurance racing.  
 
 Debi Gordon