Several people did not believe me when I said that the various
media sources in WCHA/CCHA country screwed up when they announced
that the Minnesota--Duluth @ Wisconsin college hockey game
will be shown live on ESPN(1) on Saturday November 5.
Even though no one on this list bothered to check with ESPN's viewers
hotline [(203)585-2236] last week, I have absolutely no doubt
that the game is on ESPN2 "tHe deUce" rather than on ESPN(1).
During October 29's "CFA Prime Time" college football game (Georgia
at Florida) on ESPN(1) , a promo announced that ESPN(1) will have
a college football game on Saturday November 5 at 7:30pm Eastern Time
(Kansas State at Nebraska or Alabama at LSU).  This means the
UMD @ UW college hockey game, if it is being carried by one of ESPN's
networks in the US, will end up on ESPN2 to fill a slot vacated by
NHL hockey as I speculated last week.
 
I had asked you folks associated with Minnesota--Duluth or Wisconsin
to call ESPN's viewers hotline last week to check this out but no one did.
I will ask you folks to call ESPN on Monday to check this out.
I would have checked this out with ESPN myself if the game had
involved Cornell, but since the game involves Minnesota--Duluth and
Wisconsin, it is only fair that people on this list associated with the
two schools involved should be calling ESPN's viewers' hotline to
confirm telecasts before posting on this list.  I should not have to pay
long-distance charges to do your dirty work.
 
I suspect that the Sports Information Director at Wisconsin was the one
who screwed up and told newspapers, TV stations, and radio stations
that the UMD @ UW game will be on ESPN(1) rather than ESPN2.
 
A couple of other items regarding ESPN:
 
1)  ESPN does NOT accept email from anyone who isn't a member of
    ESPNET on Prodigy.  If you want to communicate with ESPN via
    email, ESPN wants you to spend $14.95 per month plus per-minute
    usage charges for the privilege.
 
2)  Programs such as dog shows and double-dutch championship
    appear on ESPN(1) because the producers of these shows purchased
    time to put these shows on ESPN(1).  ESPN(1) likes to sell
    time slots especially those slots that are opposite big sports
    events being shown on other networks.  The dog shows aired opposite
    two Thursday night NFL games on TNT; the double-dutch championship
    would have aired against Game 5 of the 1994 World Series if
    the baseball season was not cancelled by the strike.
 
3)  The slots on ESPN(1) that are being vacated by the NHL are
    some Tuesday and Friday nights in November and December and
    Sunday nights in January, February, and March.  Slots on ESPN2
    that are being vacated by the NHL are on Tuesday, Wednesday,
    Thursday, and Saturday nights.  Because most college hockey
    games are being played on Friday and Saturday nights, and
    because PRIME Network has a national TV contract for college
    hockey on Friday nights that prevents schools from putting games
    on ESPN(1) or ESPN2 to compete head-to-head, the college hockey
    games that get on one of ESPN's US channels will mainly be
    Saturday night games on ESPN2.  Of course, some schools might
    want to reschedule games on Sunday nights in order to get on
    a slot on ESPN(1) (Texas and Rice did this with football a few
    weeks ago), but ESPN(1) will probably want the school or league
    to purchase the time slot since college hockey has never
    gotten more than 0.5 rating point nationally and ESPN would
    rather want the schools or the league to assume the financial risk.
 
4)  People who are writing to ESPN should address their letters to:
 
    Mr. John Wildhack, Sr. VP--Programming
    ESPN/ESPN2
    ESPN Plaza
    935 Middle Street
    Bristol, CT 06010-7454
 
==
Oliver Tse                                  Phone:    +1(607)255-6684
Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering  FAX:      +1(607)255-2365
416 Bard Hall, Cornell University           Internet: [log in to unmask]
Ithaca, NY  14853-1501   USA