Re: [IRCA] AFN

We’ll never know. Nobody ever asked if turning off the SW broadcasts via the VoA facilities, in 1988, was a welcome move “out there.” No reason to think they’ll ask now. Unless they asked “which would you prefer?” and anybody would take the NFL on TV over radio. But to assume preference is exclusionary would be inaccurate. It’s inane of them to carry the same event on TV and radio, but explain that to them.

AFN had a long history of being just somewhat out of touch with their target audience, IMHO. That declining audience probably still includes the guys at the guard shacks, on watch, patrol…you get the idea, people without TVs in front of them. Those guys on the Korean DMZ better get used to missing events they used to hear.

Gerry Bishop

Niceville, FL

From: irca-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:irca-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Art Blair
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 7:02 PM
To: Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America
Subject: [IRCA] AFN

From EETIMES [www.eetimes.com]

WASHINGTON-The days of sitting around the barracks listening to a ballgame on the radio are apparently over.

The Defense Department said Wednesday (July 5) it is discontinuing later this summer play-by-play radio broadcasts of sporting events. The reason?

Armed Forces Radio "audiences prefer to watch the greater variety of sports on television rather than listen to them on the radio," Robert Matheson, director of broadcasting at the AFN Broadcast Center (Riverside, Calif.) said in a Pentagon statement. "When radio sports coverage comes on, most listeners tune out."

Most AFN radio coverage of major sporting events ended with the NBA championships in June. The radio finale will be a NASCAR race from Richmond, VA, on Sept. 9.

The DoD network has been steadily expanding TV sports coverage that is beamed to U.S. military posts around the world. The network now carries about 80 events a week.

I wonder how those troopers in the field think about this?

Art

Folsom, CA