# WDAY Sports Coverage



## Tator (Dec 10, 2005)

We are in a big uproar about the Forum, which I agree 100%. I've been going back and forth with emails to channel 6 sports about their coverage of sports across the area. In my opinion, we see way too much MN basketball crap and hardly any ND stuff. so I wrote email to him, and he would reply to all of them. very nicely I might add. here's the last one, makes ya think, but still with they would cover the area of ND better.

Hi Todd,

Ok, my general reply is first, that it's good to hear your opinions. I believe that you are right when you say you speak for many people, there are always pockets of our community that will feel underserved from time to time. That being said, some replies to some of your points.

I watch what the other stations in our area do. You can not convince me that any one else in our area beats us in small school North Dakota . It's just not true. Now, it may not be the specific school that you're interested in, but talk to someone in Kindred, Lisbon , Wyndmere, Hankinson, etc. or anywhere near there. Don't just take my word for it, they will tell you that we seem to care as much or more than anyone.

The Perham baseball team probably gets coverage when it comes to Moorhead or Fergus Falls or DGF or Detroit Lakes . If LaMoure or BC North or Ellendale made the same trip, they'd probably get the same treatment. We don't travel that far for baseball very often. Also, Perham has a tradition of winning baseball, HS and legion, that few other teams have. That's a good combination.

When you talk about a certain day or event that you feel we messed up on, you have to look at it from our perspective. We don't operate in a vacuum. You look at where the games are, where the fan interest is, who is playing who, and what can you get to? Every night is a different combination of possibilities with different resources and different amounts of airtime. On a busy night, I may have 2 shooters to leave town. I'll send them to games where the teams are winning, with good fan interest, with fan bases in larger towns, if I have to choose. And I usually do.

I know what it's like to not get TV coverage, and learned early on that just because we're playing, it doesn't mean that we're entitled to anything. I grew up in a small town 60 miles north of the Twin Cities. We never had one highlight on TV. It didn't make us feel any certain way. We played because we loved to play, and if the cameras didn't show up, it never made us feel less important. It's easy to say "you never cover us" but next time you have a question about a certain day, call me and I'll talk about specific reasons because I will have them.

To answer your question--I did grow up in Minnesota . Again, I'd refer you to folks in Lisbon , Hankinson, Kindred, Northern Cass to see if they feel underserved. When you look at the region 3 tournament, it's very hard for me to send a camera to Jamestown for LaMoure versus Linton. There are just too many other things that are going to get a higher priority on that day because of the reasons I went through earlier.

This is probably going to sound bad, but in reality, I can not be "fair" with our coverage as you would define fair. We simply cannot give Enderlin the same coverage as Fargo South or Moorhead. Can't even get close to it. Because it's a business. We're judged on our ability to win the ratings wars and that means population bases are very important to us. Class B and small schools are important to us but there has to be a compelling reason. Not just because they get our signal. It's a tough balancing act. We de-prioritize things at South and Moorhead too when the teams are struggling because the mass interest is not there.

I try to sound excited about whatever we're covering. It's just what we do. The lead story will have energy to it because of it's placement in the show and generally speaking the community interest or importance associated with it. Watch me some slow night in April when there's nothing going on and my lead story is about the Concordia Intramural Badminton championship. J Seriously, part of what we do is make things seem huge if we're covering it. I have to give you some reason to stick around!

We're never going to see eye to eye on things, and that's ok. What fun would it be if we all agreed all the time? Just know that whether you believe it or not, I'm always looking for good small school stuff, and I truly believe our track record in Class B North Dakota has been, and will continue to be, very good. It's easy to criticize, but sometime put yourself in my shoes and look at what we put on our show, and try to think through why I put it where I did. Most of the time, I think you'll see the method to our madness, but I'll admit that there are always little things here or there that could have been, or should have been, done differently. But I promise you that decisions to cover this or that have not been made because I like certain schools or states more than others.

Our email exchange has been good, because it's caused me to think back and justify what we've done, and to remember that there are folks like Todd who want to see Class B teams represented on WDAY. That's something that I should always remember and be aware of when we're planning our work days.

Sincerely,

Steve Hallstrom


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## Maverick (Mar 4, 2002)

It reads like he was on air while typing it. His news casts are the same way. I actually find him quite boring!!!! But that's just me....


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## Norm70 (Aug 26, 2005)

Wow,

I think Steve Hallstrom confirmed what most of us are thinking. Small schools are not a high priority. I am usually not all that opinionated about things, but this really hits home.

I don't remeber his exact word but Hallstom justifies his coverage of western minnesota baseball b/c of winning tradition. Tell me if i am not right, but 3 of the towns mentioned in the letter Lamore, Enderlin, and Ellendale have excellent winning traditions in baseball.

One thing that espically irks me about fargo sports coverage of class b towns, is the fact i think it has gotten worse over the years. I graduated in 1998 and my football team made it to the state semi-finals my senior year. Both the forum and WDAY did an excellent job at covering our football team and also other area teams in the playoffs. the coverage is becoming less and less, this year when Hankinson played Lisbon, a 1 vs 2 matchup in state and it was not the lead story in the forum or WDAY i was very dissapointed.

Mr. Hallstrom turns aginst Tator by saying "we played for the love of the game" this has nothing to do with local sports coverage. In north dakota, the local sports coverage is for the fans. Someone from Lisbon WILL be interested in how Lamoure is doing and vice versa. We are not a state where a kid strives to make the WDAY top ten plays. The kids can't, WDAY does not cover most of them. :eyeroll:

I am sorry about my negitive responses about the Forum and WDAY, but my passion for Class B sports runs right up there with the Twins.


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## g/o (Jul 13, 2004)

Norm, One thing you will discover after living in the southern part of the state . We would be better off if they moved the state line to highway 13. Anyone living below that line really doesn't matter as far as most of ND feels.


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## djleye (Nov 14, 2002)

The other thing you might want to keep in mind is that they probably hype the MN stuff because that will probably help boost their TV ratings when they televise it.
Not saying that is right, just what they are doing.


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## djleye (Nov 14, 2002)

> Norm, One thing you will discover after living in the southern part of the state . We would be better off if they moved the state line to highway 13. Anyone living below that line really doesn't matter as far as most of ND feels.


 :fiddle: :fiddle: :fiddle:

I heard it has gotten so bad that some guys actually tried to skip out on their bill because they figured you "hicks" couldn't catch 'em anyway!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## g/o (Jul 13, 2004)

> heard it has gotten so bad that some guys actually tried to skip out on their bill because they figured you "hicks" couldn't catch 'em anyway!!!!


You are correct on that one, and they still haven't paid in full!!!! And guess what town the leader of the gang is from. Starts with F and ends with O


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