FIRST Nationals on "Regular" TV

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally posted by mgreenley
Sorry, but I'm going to follow Ashley's lead...
Sorry to throw the thread off, and back to its originating discussion...

...PBS?...

I think PBS is a great idea! They have the right demographical vewer base to enjoy this, work as a non-profit orginization so they don't need to show shows only to make money, and its the Public Broadcast Station, or in other words the one basic station that operates almost anywhere. What would we do without people like Ashley...Thanks again!
Mike

Mike et. al.,
Yes PBS would be ideal for this type of show but one thing jumps in to block any hope and that is funding. PBS has so little money for show development that even if they threw all of it (the annual budget for show development) into this show, it would not be enough. I work for a PBS station in Chicago, the most watched PBS station in the country, and I had to beat down doors to get a news crew out to the Midwest regional for a two minute piece. What was more surprising is that the reporter had spent hours on this competition when he worked for FOXthing In The Morning. Even with local teams coming home with an International Championship (Hammond/Beatty and now Wildstang) over several years, there has been little to no coverage in this market. If we were to find an underwriter for the show, I am sure it could be ported to PBS national for distribution. Back in the dark ages (1970's and 1980's) a young(er) mechanical engineering prof at MIT held an annual competition that was broadcast from Boston to PBS stations around the country and it got audience!