The Braves traded CHRIS OGNIBEN to the Pirates for saying:
 CO> thing is to do is write or call your sports radio station in your area
 CO> and get them to find a way to carry it.
You've got about as much chance of that suceeding as Rush Limbaugh has of 
ridding himself of 100 unslightly pounds. Tulsa has two teams being beamed 
into the area via radio - Texas and St. Louis. Texas is the parent club for 
Tulsa's AA team while St. Louis used to be the parent club for the AAA team. 
The Royals show up on TV but not radio (and they barely show up on TV these 
days). If there are a 100 Mariners fans in Tulsa, they've got NO chance of 
getting their favorite team being brought in.
 CO> But what about the damage it does to the stations in the area that
 CO> are being broadcasted to the rest of us through the internet.
What damage? Remember, you're only repeating what the owners say. Don't 
forget that those same geniuses thought that CBS was right to limit the 
number of in-season telecasts and they lost a lot of fans because of their 
stupidity (Never mind the fact that the Braves were drawing in millions 
across the country with their 100+ games, CBS *had to* be right, right?).
The owners in the NFL were almost unanimously against Monday Night Football 
because they felt that it would mean too many games on the air and it would 
hurt their Sunday telecasts. Of course, MNF was one of the biggest reasons 
why the NFL grew in popularity. Had Pete Rozelle listened to the owners and 
not gone for it, the NFL would have taken many more years to become as 
popular as it did.
They talk about baseball being overexposed but that's not really the case. If 
you break down how local teams do during a telecast on ESPN, Fox or FX, 
you'll see that they do rather well. Telecasts of teams from outside the area 
don't do as well and that's to be expected. The NFL gave up long ago on the 
concept of going national with all of its broadcasts and they've regionalized 
most broadcasts.
 CO> Where their listeners probably end up listening through the internet
 CO> so they don't have to use radio's.
But you labor under a false assumption, the Internet ISN'T taking away fans 
from the local market, it's ADDING them. I'm NOT a fan of the Cardinals or 
the Rangers (I've been a fan of the Braves and A's for many decades) and I 
could give a rat's butt about either St. Louis or Texas. With the Internet, I 
can keep tabs on both; without the Internet, I DON'T turn on the Cardinals or 
the Rangers and I imagine, a lot of other fans don't turn on the local teams 
for the very same reasons.
--- TrekEd 1.00
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