How about that Hangtown cablecast?

Those readers familiar with All Things Motocross know that I tend to be very critical of all media coverage of our sport, particularly television coverage. The reason is because I am a former television professional myself, and I am knowledgeable of the challenges and difficulties involved in covering a dynamic motorsport like motocross. I am also aware of the great impact television coverage has on the uneducated public, and I always want to encourage accurate portrayals of MX. So with this in mind, I sat down in front of a friend's TV to watch OLN's coverage of the Honda Hangtown Classic. Here's my review in a sentence: very cool.

Actually, I was very impressed with the job that Chet Burks Productions performed in capturing and cablecasting this race. Let me list some specifics...

What was cool about the show?

1. The rider ID graphics were very nice, and included all of the information you would want.
2. The fact that they included an interview with Kevin Windham and didn't limit their interviews to the Big Three.
3. The bit they did on the Toyota sponsorship, featuring a short interview with the AMA's John Farris. Good pit footage and good level of detail. I'd like to see even more footage from the pits.
4. The Track Facts section was good, informative and brief.
5. The fact that they showed all of the early action in moto one BEFORE cutting to commercial. That was very thoughtful.
6. The “Toyota Leaderboard” was good.
7. The overall camerawork was very good, and the camera placement was well thought out (I do have a small bone to pick about this; see below).
8. “Rider Tips from Suzuki”. Nice.
9. The announcers were competent. David Pingree's partner (can't recall his name!) had that “broadcast voice”, but it was never overbearing, and he seemed to have more than passing knowledge of the sport. Pingree himself came across as quite the expert on the sport.
10. Erin Bates did a great job on the podium. Her questions were smart and her rapport was evident.
11. The “Racer X Holeshot Award” replays were cool.
12. Erin Bate's mini-interview with Bob Hannah. He looked great!
13. The fact that the AMA actually ran its own commercial (even though it was kind of weird).
14. Showing the highlights from the WMA races; that was excellent. Even more excellent was the fact that they were sponsored by Hitachi.
15. The Carlsbad flashback from 1980 was fantastic.
16. Some of the new commercials: Polaris and Cuervo Black. Nice to see others step up to support the sport.

And what were the areas that could use some improvement?

1. Pingree sounded monotone; he should work on voice modulation. Content-wise, though, he's excellent.
2. The other guy just needs to stop saying “Jamesbubbastewart”. That was last year.
3. Show the lap times. We know the AMA is providing them, figure out a way to get them in the show.
4. How is it possible that they never mentioned Antonio Balbi's great first moto ride?
5. The camera angles and lens selections tended to flatten out the jumps. They lost all sense of the height and distance that the riders were jumping, which is a huge component of the dynamics of the sport. It's like losing the sensation of the speeds achieved at an autorace... a huge no-no. Rethink the camera placement.
6. Why did they use an old photo of James in his ID shot? He doesn't have dreadlocks anymore.
7. Speaking of James, the camera completely missed James taking the checkered flag in moto one. That's an unforgivable error. Imagine them missing the winner of the Indy 500...
8. When Reed said on the podium it was possible that this is his last season, Erin should have followed up on that for clarification. That was bad timing on Reed's part, but he should have been called on it.
9. This is not the fault of the production team, but the commercial mix was questionable. Where were the Kawasaki and Yamaha commercials? What happened to Thor?

And there you have it. Sixteen cool things and 9 areas for improvement. That's a winning score and the folks at Chet Burks Productions should be proud. Yes, it would have been nice to see more race footage, but considering the fact that the second moto was basically a procession it's completely understandable. And squeezing two 30-plus-minute motos in one 60 minute block while making room for commercials and other information mean that cuts have to be made somewhere. I think they did a good job of trimming the racing action in just the right places. I feel confident that our sport is in good hands with this group.