At 10:59 AM 9/21/95, Rand P. Hall wrote:
>Third, it comes as NO surprise. There's a Div I program in town and it is
>rarely covered. Looking over at the Press Box at a Merrimack game is
>pretty funny--Mike Machnik and the SID.
 
Don't forget Heather - she was credited on the highlight video too. :-)
 
>The AMAZING thing is that the Sports
>Editor is none other than Russ Conway. He's the guy who broke the Alan
>Eagleson/NHLPA story. He's a big time hockey writer. I can't figure out
>why he won't cover  a Division I hockey program that's literally 100
>yards away.
 
Yes, responsibility has to rest with Russ since he makes the decisions on
where his reporters will go.
 
I suspect that for many HOCKEY-L readers, it's hard to imagine how a DivI
hockey program can be relatively ignored by the media in its own town.  But
it's true.  We never know from game to game whether the Tribune will send
someone to cover the game - even a home game with the paper's home office
located, as Rand says, perhaps 100 yards up Turnpike Street.  And the
Tribune is a big paper with circulation of perhaps 60,000 or more.
 
In fairness, when the Tribune does send writers, they do a fine job - Billy
Burt and Hector Longo are good people and have written some good articles.
Billy in particular wrote some great pieces during the stretch drive last
year including the win over BU.  He's very upbeat about Merrimack's future
and constantly tells me, "They're only one or two good players away..."
 
But the coverage does tend to be sporadic.  The Lowell Sun consistently
covers Lowell hockey day in and out no matter how they're doing, and it's
been this way for a while.  I think it is directly related to the interest
that the editor has in the program.  Lowell's writer, Chaz Scoggins (he may
be sports editor too, I'm not sure), has followed Lowell hockey for a while
and even done some color on the radio with Bob Ellis.  On the other hand, I
don't think I have seen Russ at a Merrimack game since 1989 at least.  His
interest is in pro hockey, as Rand says, and auto racing, and those two
sports get covered in-depth by the Tribune.
 
We don't ask for coverage to the exclusion of other area sports happenings.
All I want is fair and consistent coverage.
 
Radio is another related area.  It looks like this will be the second
straight year that Merrimack goes without any radio coverage at all - there
isn't even a campus station.  The commercial station that I used to do the
games on, WCCM, has a sports director who is outspokenly anti-hockey; I
remember a phone interview a few years ago with Ron Anderson on the
Saturday morning local sports talk show there when this person put Anderson
on hold so he could take a call from a local high school girls basketball
coach.  His questions to Anderson were condescending and Anderson deserves
credit for remaining cordial.
 
Ever since my play-by-play partner, Danny Roche, left WCCM to work in
Boston (now at WBZ), Merrimack hockey has been without someone there to
champion local radio coverage.  WCCM brought someone in this year who
happened to also have a strong interest in bringing the games back, but it
looks like he will be leaving the station to take a prestigious DivI hockey
play-by-play job elsewhere (I'm sure it will be announced here soon).
 
It is embarrassing when other schools bring in one or two stations to do
their team's away games, and as the home team, we have none.  I do not know
of any other DivI hockey program that has zero radio coverage.  It is not
for lack of trying on the part of the athletic administration, either.
 
Yes, it is hard when you have so many people working against you.  Believe
it or not, HOCKEY-L is probably the place where more coverage of Merrimack
hockey gets out than anyplace else.  I expect some of these media outlets
will jump on the bandwagon when the team begins to enjoy some success -
possibly this season - but I'll take comfort in the personal knowledge that
I have been here through thick and thin since day one.
 
I think that the article I posted and responded to may have been a little
easier to take if it came from a columnist and paper that had been
providing consistent coverage of the program.  It sure does make me angry
when we get nothing for a while and then this appears.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                   [log in to unmask]            *HMM* 11/13/93
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