Monday, August 27, 2007

There went 30 years of my life....

Braves, TBS parting waysStation's 30 years of telecasting team's games is ending in style

Over the past three decades, thousands of Braves games have been televised nationally on TBS. Just 10 more to go. Sunday's Braves-Cardinals game and nine others will end a tradition that began in 1977, when Ted Turner had the seemingly outrageous idea of bouncing his bad baseball team's games off a satellite and across the nation. It was an idea that would help shape the fledgling industry of cable television, as well as the business of sports media. For a while, the ubiquitous Braves even earned the moniker "America's Team." But after years of declining ratings for Braves games outside the Southeast, TBS next season will replace the team as national programming with a package of Sunday afternoon league-wide games. TBS also will carry postseason games for the first time starting this fall, airing all four division series plus the National League Championship Series. Braves games will continue to air locally next season on over-the-air channel WTBS, which will be renamed Peachtree TV, as well as on regional cable networks SportSouth and FSN South. First, though, TBS will mark the end of an era.

4 comments:

Tom said...

Sad, Mike. But I cant say I did not see it coming. TBS has been gradually cutting back coverage the last several years. But, its still sad.

Mike Wilhelm said...

Really, it is Tom. Remember the old WTCG 17?

Sharp said...

You can see old WTCG Update clips at Bill Tush's website:

http://www.billtush.com/update.html

Mike Wilhelm said...

Cool, Johnny...thanks for the link...that is really a blast from the past!