Trying to “cover” the hypefest known as the Super Bowl is tough. Advice for the Charlotte-area media types giving it a go for the first time: wear sneakers, plan on plenty of coffee and humble pie. And please, no “where’s the best chili in Texas” stories.
In 1989, I honchoed some Super Bowl coverage for an Ohio TV station when the Bengals played the 49ers in Miami. To our Ohio chagrin, we had to fight our way through the hundreds of brethren each day to get our soundbites each day from our team’s players and coaches. Parking lots were dedicated to hundreds of TV satellite trucks, and in the truck next to us were two guys from Japan, doing reports in Japanese.
So Charlotte’s TV stations, newspaper, and radio stations will strap on the pads and get in there, coveted press passes in hand, to join the Big Hoedown in Houston. I predict we’ll see lots of the same-old gangbang press conference stuff, then cameras, microphones, and pencils will breathlessly seek out anyone vaguely looking like Panthers fans to track their Houston experience. Someone might give a Panther player a camcorder to record his “diary.” Sports columnists may gag us.
I checked in with some of the folks headed there to cover the game, like elder sports statesman Harold Johnson. Like competitors 3, 36, Fox 18 and News 14, his station is sending personnel in the double digits to Houston, complete with sportsies, news anchors, and satellites to beam back live shots and reports. Johnson predicts: “The (Coach John) Fox Factor is the key. I certainly think he will find a way to contain New England’s quarterback.”
Fox 18 news director Ken White, who already helped field-produce his station’s coverage in St. Louis and Philly, was sending at least a dozen staffers, especially since the station’s the “official” Panthers station. “We may even call our coverage, “Houston, we have a problem,’ he joked. At least we think it was a joke.
WBTV is in the best position ratings-wise, since CBS is carrying the Super Bowl. Several specials are planned, and perhaps a bit better media access could be theirs in Texas.
WCNC-TV news director Keith Connor was readying his plans, and summed it up best: “There’s nothing like covering something that’s actually uplifting and fun for the community.”
Stay tuned.
This article appears in Jan 28 – Feb 3, 2004.
