LAWRENCE, Kan. – After putting forth my arbitrary list of the best in live television for the past year, I have seen that the Sports Emmy Awards were given out last night. I’ve decided that, since I have yet to look at the winners, I might as well give my picks to a slightly less arbitrary selection.

Here’s a quick digression: I’m sitting in the Kansas Union on the KU campus in Lawrence with ESPN’s newsmagazine attempt, E:60, on a television to my left. I can’t really hear what’s being said. What I can tell is that the film noir pitch meeting footage is horribly over the top, and the camerawork for the interviews in this Stephon Marbury piece is basically what I’d expect from ESPN trying to do break into this genre. Could someone please watch Real Sports or 60 Minutes?! They do it right.

Filed under:
Opinion/Editorial, Sports TV by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – For as long as I’ve been writing about the world of live television, I don’t think I’ve ever actually put forth a list of who I think is the best for on-air and production.

Here are a couple of rules: 1) individuals must still be active in their respective roles (network changes are okay); 2) there is no limit on how many people working for a particular network can be chosen (if the network happens to be that good, it wouldn’t make sense for me to suggest otherwise); 3) for sports, when I feel it is warranted, I may select multiple people holding the same position but for different sports.

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Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial, Sports TV by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – I’ve never really loved editing. Something about it always seemed anticlimactic to me, which is largely why I prefer live television over film. There is just something about the adrenaline rush of doing anything live in the moment that you can’t match in an edit room. But it’s a necessary evil and one that is becoming more and more a part of live broadcasting.

For the last six years I’ve been living in college towns: four years in Lawrence and two years in Syracuse. The University of Kansas offers the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications; Syracuse University boasts the prominent S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Whether students in those schools intend to be reporters, producers, directors, writers, announcers, anchors or something entirely different, nearly all of them will take at least one or two classes that require them to edit video.

(Both universities also have separate film departments, KU’s in its College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and SU’s in its College of Visual and Performing Arts. In most cases, students do more work with video than actual film, and editing is often required.)

Filed under:
College, Opinion/Editorial by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – You couldn’t tune in to last weekend’s Masters coverage without incessant reminders that Tiger Woods was playing. Honestly, how could we forget? CBS probably would have run promos mentioning Woods whether he was “within striking distance” or not. It’s understandable. Like Duke and North Carolina in basketball, a tournament with Tiger is sure to get big ratings, especially if he’s threatening the lead.

In this year’s case, however, CBS didn’t need golf’s biggest name to draw in viewers. Americans Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell did plenty to help. Oh, and they didn’t even win. Perry and Campbell led after two rounds at Augusta National and kept it more than interesting for the final two. Neither golfer is entirely unknown, which was a plus. But what really made the tournament was the competition.

Sure, Tiger has put up some wowing scores at the Masters, but he has often won convincingly with no threat on Sunday. This year’s final round had all the makings of a network executive’s dream. The scenery at Augusta is always something to behold, and high definition doesn’t hurt. That much is a given. After some concern of stormy weather earlier in the week, the clouds cleared and the stars on the course shone bright.

Filed under:
Opinion/Editorial, Sports TV by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – I first created “The Slog” and “Scott’s Shots” as variations of online columns. I used to post papers that I’d written for classes and later posted a lengthy review of a Super Bowl broadcast. After writing a few opinion pieces that I submitted as letters to the editor when I was at Syracuse, I decided just to start writing occasional columns.

The first installment of “Scott’s Shots” came in November 2004 when I wrote a column about sports television on an airplane and decided to post it to my site. From that point on, it became my place to pretend to be someone with far more inside knowledge than I ever actually had. I’d only write about certain topics and not very often.

Filed under:
Opinion/Editorial by Scott A. Winer