I have watched a few sports come and go on television. I remember when folks in my neighborhood bought their first black and white television sets. I was a kid, but I recall there being one baseball game on a week. They called it Game of the Week, and I believe it came on the set every Saturday afternoon. I do recall it was something almost everybody looked forward to seeing-the big league players and the big league teams. Now there is a baseball game on about any time you want to watch one, and there is nothing especially thrilling about watching most games.
Then there was boxing. We had professional boxing matches each Wednesday night and each Friday night. These were back in the days of black and white TV, but people knew the boxers, and they looked forward to seeing the fights. Then the fights went away. There were other sports, too, that were here once. The point I'm making is that with any product or anything you're trying to do, you can over saturate the market.
Today when you turn on a TV, baseball is on about all the time. During the winter, basketball is going full blast. Finally, you ask yourself if you really need this. Yes, you can overexpose rather easily. American people as a whole like new stuff, but you can overdo it.
The next rung on our racing ladder is how powerful television has become. It is more powerful than the racetracks, and it can tell a racetrack when each race is going to begin.
But, on the other hand, in order for us to get the prize we are after, we must do some things we don't like. It's the same way with our race cars. We may not like some of the rules, but we know we have to use them if we are going to race. NASCAR is in the same situation. It realizes TV is bigger than the tracks and that it must do things it might not like to do in order to get the prize it is after. TV is driving our product.
Our TV announcers not doing their jobs could also hurt us down the road. They want to be bigger than the race. Their attitude is, "We are the show, and while you're here watching our show, we're going to show you a little racing." Hey, let it happen guys. Explain what is happening, and let it go at that. A lot of what they are doing is not what I want to watch.
I just want TV announcers to tell me who is doing what and why they are doing it. It is not just me, either. I know a bunch of people who turn their TV on and turn off the sound when watching NASCAR races. They watch the screen and listen to the race on the radio. Barney Hall and his group (at MRN Radio, along with the PRN radio announcers) have to tell you what is happening because they can't show you. Also, they don't have the time to play around with jokes and laugh and wear funny looking hats.