1…They’re from Syracuse, from an operation that does 24/7 sports. More real sports talent (as opposed to 2 sports people complimented by an army of news and weather people), more toys.
2…Budget subsidized by cable bills. See above.
3…The talent does a lot more play-by-play coverage than anyone else covering the race. Between high school, college and minor league sports year round, they can do much better at live, unscripted coverage than the WKTV sports anchors who are accustomed to reading 4 minutes of highlights and reaction off a teleprompter every night.

I agree with your comments on WKTV. Flipping around, anytime I saw Jason on camera, his eyes were on the notes and scripts rather than the camera. The guy’s been there for more than 10 years and he can’t speak off-the-cuff about the race? Could you imagine if the President was his co-anchor, sitting at the finish line in West Utica with no teleprompters? There’s a sitcom waiting to happen.

WUTR… well, yeah. The Boilermaker, the Heart Walk and the Relay for Life are the ONLY things they do live anymore. You can’t expect much from a station that only goes live three times a year, when the competition is producing live programming several times every day. Look at how many years WUTR continued to use the same old “WIXT clone” lower-thirds, long after that tie had been severed. I think last year was the first time they had original CGs on the broadcast.

Joe Kelly may be a very well-respected personality in the community, but he’s not a sports broadcaster. Every time I flipped over to WUTR, he was just babbling on about nothing. I never even saw who else was on the UTR broadcast team, because I gave up on watching them. But if there were two other people like you said, I’d be willing to bet at least one of them was a former WKTV or WUTR personality.

Oh yeah, it’s a radio site… better talk about WIBX so I don’t get busted for being too far off topic. They did a pretty good job. I’m sure Regent is glad they picked up Gene Conte when the Sports Stars “Network” imploded. And even though Regent shares are cheaper than a pack of gum, they still find the money to bring in their 2 running experts, which always pays off. Of course, we have to be fair… it’s easy to bash TV because there’s so much room for problems in TV. In radio, going live is a matter of picking up a phone and dialing into the studio. You don’t have to worry about homemade transmitters on motorcycles or helicopters crapping out while their pictures are live on-air, or some airhead waving a big “Auntie Anne’s Pretzels” banner behind the GM while he’s doing a live hit from the middle of the course.

Despite any one outlet’s advantage or shortcomings, it’s still very nice to see so many outlets providing live coverage of the race. In a time when broadcasting is suffering big time, it’s amazing both Utica TV stations were still there, doing as much as they did, and to boot, they were joined by a new TV competitor. Unfortunately, it probably won’t be that way forever.

On two different $4000 to $5000 flat screen televisions, along with an expensive stereo, I watched all three television outlets and listened to WIBX radio present Boilermaker coverage. In my opinion, I thought the following. And I will make it brief.

1…Time Warner Sports hands down, was the solid winner. Their picture was the sharpest, they had a camera in front of the runners along the course, their graphics, maps and on screen information was very easy to understand and it provided plenty of knowledge. Their anchor team did a splendid job and knew what they were talking about.

2…WKTV…In my opinion, 2nd best. Picture quality very good, but not as sharp as Time Warner. Graphics and information pretty good, but not as detailed as Time Warner. WKTV had a two person anchor team which was a good idea, however, Jason their sports director doesn’t seem like he does his complete homework to sound knowledgeable. His co-anchor was fine. Ryan Sandler was a joke, and we will leave it at that. Other WKTV people except for Tom Coyne just ask stupid questions and sound foolish. Tom Coyne should be the anchor. Tom knows what to ask and is very knowledgeable. He is a pro.

3…WUTR…Not much to say here except terrible picture quality of the three and forget the reporters. They should not even bother doing the race.

4…WIBX…Just top notch. They had their reporters in front of the running pack. Katheryn Switzer is terrific. The entire overall sound and reporting, along with a wealth of information was excellent.