Friday, October 10, 2008

For You Fans Of Indiana High School Sports

Are you a fan of Indiana High School Football and/or Basketball? Do you watch the special shows that come on after local TV news on Friday nights?

Like this one?

Or this version?

And this one?

Or maybe even, this one? (No, I wouldn't watch this one, either).

You may or may not know that these programs did not exist 10 years ago. High School sports received very little coverage, even on local newscasts. Oh, there were highlights each week of one, or at most, two games, but there wasn't the extended coverage given to HS sports as there is now. With Operation Football, Hoosier Friday Night, and the others, local Indianapolis TV stations give much more time to games, sometimes devoting up to 15 minutes to highlights and scores in an evening.

If you enjoy this much coverage of Indiana high school football and basketball, you should thank this show, and this guy. When Indiana Sports Talk started in August of 1994 on Network Indiana, high school sports was an afterthought on local television newscasts. Indiana Sports Talk, even as a radio show, changed that by showing that there was definitely an audience--and subsequently, advertising dollars--in covering high school sports.

Indiana Sports Talk hasn't changed much in its 14+ years on the air. The host, Bob Lovell, interviews high school coaches from around the state after their games. In addition, scores are updated every 15 minutes. Pretty simple, but it's proven to be a winning formula. Evidently, the Indianapolis TV stations thought so, too--which is why they followed and increased their own coverage of high school sports.

Make sure you remember who's responsible for that increased coverage when you tune in to watch your team's highlights on Friday night.

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1 Comments:

Blogger Zinglebert Bembledack said...

Having helped out Bob Lovell and a different version of Indiana Sports Talk, it is good that we had someone like that to push other media into realizing that it is worth it to cover high school sports. Instead of an afterthought, it carries the Friday night sports segment and even some Saturdays during basketball season.

I enjoy that we get to hear from the coaches and not just other sports writers or callers who think there team is the greatest or crappiest. Bob worked as a college basketball coach, a mid-level college conference administrator and has spent over 15 years in the booth. He knows what he is talking about and can present views from almost any angle, fan, player, coach and administrator.

Bob was a pleasure to work for and I hope we can have 15+ more years with him on the airwaves.

October 20, 2008 at 11:43 AM  

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