Remember the NHRA PPV races in 97??

[Tim5636sc]

Check this out... !!!

YouTube - NHRA Competition Eliminator in 1997 at Houston Quarterfinals

btw... who is that masked guy behind the mic????

 

[HEMI6point1]

I remember NOT seeing those, due to the local cable company (TKR at the time in NY before they became Cablevision) being d!cks about them. First, they said that they were only available to select cable providers and they weren't one of them. Then, the E-town race WAS available to us but they blacked it out due to us being within 200 miles from the track.

 

[chop]

I remember them well,my cable company didn't carry them but I had a buddy who had a dish and we watched them @ his crib.

 

[Unk]

PPV shows in '97. If I remember it was a $14.95 deal per event, but most cable companies didn't have an extra PPV channel @ that time.
Sure did spur a lot of satellite dish sales though.

Had some fun, learned alot, too much rain in Richmond.

PPV was a great idea, just a few years ahead of it's time (IMO)


Unk

 

[Outlaw Eric]

PPV was a great idea, just a few years ahead of it's time (IMO)


Unk

Yep.

If I was at home that weekend I would definately buy the PPV.

EDB

 

[MaC]

As Unk will attest because he worked it as well....those were some of the longest days I have ever spent on a race track. I was privileged to be the host of each of the pay per view shows, as memory recalls....and it started with the National Anthem and continued till the last car went down the track...regardless of the running time of the show or the lateness of the hour.

As long as cars were going down the track, we were on the air. Did a lot of talking...as did everyone who worked as talent on those shows.

Gave me some rather strong perceptions about drag racing being suitable, in its current form, for any successful live television broadcast. It is just to unpredictable...and no network is going to clear the time necessary for a completely live show, at least imho.

The pay per views, as noted by Samuel and others...had some real distribution problems...thus it was virtually impossible at the price charged to generate enough revenue to make it a worthwhile venture. Took a huge amount of work by everyone involved but I am proud to say I thought we did a pretty good job in presenting the entire race.

One favorite memory is of Ed McCulloch working as the color guy. By the end of the day, he was whipped...and walked away with considerable respect for those in the TV biz!!!

Unk, hope all is well with you. Louise is doing great after her double bypass surgery the last week of July. Made some dramatic improvements over the past couple of weeks...had to get past conflicting prescription medications that knocked her for a loop.

Thanks all...great memories indeed...even if a few may be flawed! Old age you know.

MaC

 

[Bob]

Houston
Atlanta
Richmond

PPV shows in '97. If I remember it was a $14.95 deal per event, but most cable companies didn't have an extra PPV channel @ that time.
Sure did spur a lot of satellite dish sales though.

Had some fun, learned alot, too much rain in Richmond.

PPV was a great idea, just a few years ahead of it's time (IMO)


Unk

I don't know if the cable systems didn't have the PPV channels available. I do know mine refused to carry the programming because they hadn't had enough requests for it. I was in their office begging them to let me buy the first one. Nope. I went back down to their office again as the second event approached, and begged again. Nope was the answer again. The next day I bought a dish, and even then the satellite provider was a factor. Dish Network wouldn't guarantee any PPV sports programming, while DirecTV was fully into it.

I got the last two events on my dish, and it was $14.95 each. Worth every penny! Sunday pre-race to the final final without commercials! Every class and every car that went down the track on Sunday was shown. I know back then it was a test-the-waters deal, and it was shelved because of low viewership. Duh! If the people who wanted to buy the programming couldn't buy it, what numbers could they expect to get?!?

 

[Dave]

Hey Big Mac,

Nice to see you here from time to time. Glad to hear your wife is doing better. I didn't know she had surgery. I will pray for her quick recovery.

Dave

BTW, I'm still wearing my old Tuna Tank T-Shirt.

 

[JL]

I loved it. I got to see some of my sportsman friends on tv in the super classes. It was pretty cool. I think it would be neat for the big pro mod shows back east to do something like that... Bobby, do you think Competition Plus could set something like that up?

 

[Bobby Bennett]

All it takes is money and manpower.

 

[handsome]

if i remember correctly, the first 2 were great, but richmond got rained out and i know my cable provider like most wouldn't give a refund and everybody went off on cable and nhra so the concept was scrapped

 

[chop]

If I'm not mistaken,the World Finals from Pomona were on one year,ANYBODY?

 

[khona]

I would be willing to pay around $10.00 an event if they broadcast the whole event and all classes - sportsmen, Pro Mod, and the Nitro cars.

I know a few years ago Formula One had a big pay per view program up and running in Europe with six or seven channels available but even that went bust. From what I saw of the Formula One ppv, it was very very nice.

I’ve been wishing IndyCar would have a PPV were they broadcast the whole event from Thursday/Friday to Sunday. I guess there are not enough potential buyers to make it worth doing. I wonder if NHRA would consider offering an online live video package.

 

[Bob]

if i remember correctly, the first 2 were great, but richmond got rained out and i know my cable provider like most wouldn't give a refund and everybody went off on cable and nhra so the concept was scrapped

The entire event was broadcast on satellite. I do remember Big Mac looked very tired by the end.

 

[Gregg Pickens]

Unk had the idea years ago, bring it back as a Web Cast. Use the video feed from the "Winston Vision" (or what ever the hell they call it now) and the audio feed from Audio Cast and make it a subscription based live stream. The only problem is getting ESPN on board.

 

[Rajunz]

I used to purchase those, I thought they were awesome.

So who is the masked man behind the mic?

 

[Tim5636sc]

I used to purchase those, I thought they were awesome.

So who is the masked man behind the mic?

Ask the 4th guy to post on this thread... he might have an idea who did the play by play for Comp Elim at these races..... Lewis Bloom did as well....


Timmah

 

[DrRocket]

The amount of people power required to do this type of programming mentioned by Mac explains why it never took off, especially when you consider that this is aimed at a pretty narrow audience. When you're a producer, you gotta look at the bottom line. (It's called a profit, folks.)

The comments by Dave that it resulted in long days, and comments by others that he looked pretty beat by the end of the event suggest that it would take two crews of announcers to properly do something like this again. (Probably two crews of tech people also.)

Guess what? Like anything else, we're talking some bucks. Two announcing crews. Two tech crews. Add it all up, we're talking some serious money. I believe Mac has it right, when you involve the nitro classes, drag racing is simply too unpredictable for live TV. In spite of some people's opinion that we need live TV, I will continue to disagree. I still believe same day but delayed is the best way for this sport.

 

[Z28LT1]

Unk had the idea years ago, bring it back as a Web Cast. Use the video feed from the "Winston Vision" (or what ever the hell they call it now) and the audio feed from Audio Cast and make it a subscription based live stream. The only problem is getting ESPN on board.

Hell yeah, sign me up!