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I've been in the video business industry now for over 25 years and many of us have tried very hard to get our sport exposure. D.O. and I, together and on our own, over the years, have done so many different things with video, but with everything it comes down to sponsor dollars. Many years ago, I worked for the cable company and was incharge of video production and the Local Access channel, so if I wanted to produce a show and sell the ads, I could broadcast it on my own channel. But I also reached out to all of my peers in the country, who also had local access. We traded shows to broadcast.
We ended up on 18 Local Access channels on cable... So I created Hoosier Motor Racing Update with Larry Nuber as the host. We had a remote truck so we made our set at a sponsor's store or location. It lasted about 6 weeks before the money ran out. To be honest, I was exhausted from trying to manage a department and then going to all the races on the weekends, write the show and pull and organize the footage, edit the highlight packages together, laydown the voice track to explain the highlights, have Howdy Bell come in to voice "Up Coming Races and Race Results" then shoot the anchor, Larry Nuber with the remote truck on Wednesday, edit everything on Thursday and air it that same night. I had Dave Argabright as one of the reporters and I played one as well. That way we could cover two different tracks.
Well I was pretty much used up and the sponsorship dollars were gone after the six weeks, so I proposed the idea to DO and that is how "Racin' with DO and the King" got started. I just can't explain the time and effort it takes to do a racing show and do it right.
When you produce a show or produce a live to tape racing event, you not only have to pay for the production, but you have to pay for the air time. What you see on Speed is mostly programs that pay for the air time and that money of course comes from sponsors. The Torc series has a great show, but it's on an HD channel that not everyone can get. I'm on Brighthouse out in Brownsburg and I just have the basic service, so I can't get Discovery HD theatre, which is a real bummer, because I've heard it's produced in an entirely different way compared to the standard two guys in the booth, pit reporters, etc. From what I understand they have like 100 in-car and out-of-car cameras mounted everywhere and all of them are HD. But, again, it's all paid for by the sponsors.
I'm sorry I couldn't paint a pretty picture. Sprints and midgets provide thrilling entertainment, but we are all still in this bubble called a nitch market. We all love it and understand it, but the only way we can get more people interested right now is through the internet, which Kevin Miller I'm sure is trying to use it as a launching pad to something bigger on down the road. Sometimes you have to start small and work your way up and just a reminder... remember the movie Blair Witch? It was promoted on the internet and it became a huge it. So the internet is a great place to get the word out, if marketed and promoted.
Sorry for the long thread, but I wanted to be clear on what it takes to get our Market Nitch on TV.
George Wilkins
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