How to "improve" TDF coverage

If anybody has any doubts about the absolute awesome coverage that OLN provides
us here in the U.S. Just read Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist's John
Leveques ideas on how to improve the coverage.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/levesq...26_leve19.html


Tour de France lacks Tesh touch

By JOHN LEVESQUE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

Does anyone else miss John Tesh?

Back in the days before Tesh was the bête noire of arbiters who decide what's
cool and what's not, he was introducing us to other French terms, such as
peloton and le maillot jaune.

Most Americans don't remember him as the guy who brought the Tour de France to
American TV audiences. They think of him as that syrupy New Age musician the
late-night talkers love to bash, or maybe as Connie Selleca's husband from
those keys-to-a-happy- relationship infomercials.

But from 1981 to '87 he would take a break from his old "Entertainment Tonight"
hosting gig and do weekend broadcasts, mostly for CBS, giving sports fans and
sofa spuds a glimpse into the bizarre world of hurtling around hairpin turns on
two wheels and a prayer.

It was extreme sports before ESPN embraced the concept, but it didn't exactly
catch fire in the United States. Tesh says CBS covered the Tour because Peter
Tortorici, the head of CBS Sports at the time, found it interesting.

Tortorici teamed Tesh with producer David Michaels -- brother of sportscaster
Al -- and the two would ride from stage to stage, putting together 90-minute
programs for Saturday and Sunday broadcast during the three-week Tour. Michaels
would edit the footage. Tesh would do the commentary and, with a portable
synthesizer in tow, he'd do the music, too.

Having left TV for music, Tesh hasn't been back to the Tour in years. But he
still follows the action.

"I'm a big fan," he said yesterday from Los Angeles. "I don't watch it every
day, but I keep up. Before Lance Armstrong left for the Tour, we did an
interview with him."

That would be for Tesh's syndicated radio show, a weekly mix of music and chat
he likes to call "Music and Intelligence for Your Life." Tesh considers
Armstrong a good friend, says the racer's two main concerns this year were
being hailed as "St. Lance" for overcoming cancer and being assailed as an ugly
American by Frenchmen opposed to the Iraq war.



Tesh, who has typical broadcaster pipes, does a spot-on impression of
high-pitched Englishman Phil Liggett, with whom he worked in the '80s and who
now anchors the Tour coverage on the Outdoor Life Network with Paul Sherwen.

"He can say nothing and it's the most important thing in the world," Tesh
laughed. "He's brilliant."

But not so brilliant that Americans are flocking to OLN, which attracts about a
million viewers to its daily coverage of the Tour. Though it's an improvement
over audiences from last year and the year before, the Tour de France, even
with Armstrong's bid for a fifth consecutive victory as the major draw, remains
a niche event in U.S. televised sports.

Tesh thinks it could be more.

"If we can make 'Survivor' and 'Big Brother' and 'The Mole' interesting on TV,"
Tesh said, "we can certainly do it with the Tour."

The real challenge for OLN may come as early as next year if Armstrong decides
to retire. More likely the year after that if Armstrong wins the Tour this year
and decides to go for six victories, which would be a record. Four racers --
Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain -- have won
five Tours.

One idea to bring in more American viewers is to have some stages of the Tour
take place on American soil. The Tour doesn't always stay completely in France,
but Roger Williams, the head of OLN, told CBS.Marke****ch.com that the
likelihood of a U.S. segment is 50-50 at best.

The hope here is that it never gets past 20-80. The Tour may be an
international event but it should stay in France. If Americans can't get into
it, phonying it up to make it more appealing (see Major League Baseball,
All-Star Game) will only cheapen something that's managed to last a century
without being ruined by an American network.

Not that the Tour isn't a heavily commercialized entity already. The whole
thing is a rolling advertising circus. Has been for years.

Tesh thinks the same approach in this country would have a favorable impact.

"If you just promoted it and told the Lance Armstrong story and got Katie, Matt
and Al to talk about it every morning," he said, "it would be huge. Lance is
the most amazing athlete we've ever had on this planet."

He's got a point. Americans do respond to hype. Of course, the Armstrong factor
may be the only reason any Americans are watching at all. To most Yanks, a Tour
de France without a countryman in contention is just another esoteric sport to
be ignored by the masses and ridiculed by comedians.

Better to bring back Tesh, who had a knack for making the Tour exotic and
accessible at the same time. Tesh said he'd consider doing another Tour, but
only "if they could put the old team back together."

Wouldn't that be cool?

snow4ever wrote in
news
Better to bring back Tesh, who had a knack for making the Tour exotic
and accessible at the same time. Tesh said he'd consider doing another
Tour, but only "if they could put the old team back together."

Four words: Over my dead body.

I'm going to say "No" on that one.

__________________________________________________ _______
TimBenz wrote in message 96...
snow4ever wrote in
news
Better to bring back Tesh, who had a knack for making the Tour exotic
and accessible at the same time. Tesh said he'd consider doing another
Tour, but only "if they could put the old team back together."

Four words: Over my dead body.