Is weaving sports stories into the news flow one viable alternative, and are there others?
Bradshaw: Since we discontinued sports (segments), we won an Emmy for NASCAR coverage, we’ve been live at every boxing match, so we haven’t eliminated sports coverage. But you don’t do those stories in the same time frame we did sports at 10:52, you do them in the first part of the news. Maathuis: If (sports departments) were an integral part of the newscast, which I think we are, then they’d stay around. We do some fun things in sports, so there would be some interesting things at the top of the newscast some days. But it’s that attitude of, “Oh, they’re sports so there’s no way they can do a fun, entertaining story.” Wait a minute! Stoldal: I want to do a nightly call-in sports program. It doesn’t have to be all about sports betting, but having fun with fantasy teams and a bunch of things, people calling in or Twittering. Would it have a large enough audience to make it financially feasible and service our community? The answer is yes. Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@rev
