| Author | Message | ||
     Hybridmomentspass |
Is anyone else discouraged by how bad the coverage of the AMA races is on Speed? Now I am not even talking about 'well they arent showing May enough..." But more "hey that guy just wrecked and even the announcers have no idea what happened" Example is Filmore from Saturdays race - there was a shot of him pushing his bike and the announcers were saying something like "dont know if he's have a mechanical issue or if he's crashed..." Really? Im just frustrated by how motorcycles get crap treatment when it comes to media coverage. Today I was watching the US Nationals a bit on ESPN and out of four classes the bike class was the only one that didnt show each run from firing the vehicle to burnout to staging to the run. The bikesonly had the runs, that was it. | ||
| Beugs |
Their coverage does suck, but the thing that burns me the most is scott russel. Don't care how great he might have been, might be the nicest guy in the world, but please shut up. | ||
| Just_ziptab |
Could be worse...nascar sensationalizes EVERYTHING.........even the awards that the singer of the national anthem has received. Every sentences spoken is so raved/sponsored/ hyped....it makes me sick! | ||
| Cyclonedon |
is there coverage great? NO!!! but it's better than nothing! | ||
| Hybridmomentspass |
Agreed on Russels voice being annoying | ||
| Notpurples2 |
I often have to mute the tv because I can't stand the announcer. | ||
| Trbulnt |
Glad I am not the only one that can't stand his voice! | ||
| Badlionsfan |
The prostock motorcycle class is the red-headed step child of the NHRA. Back when they had the PS Truck class there was a joke in the NHRA pits something along the lines of "put a motorcycle in the bed of all of the trucks and send them out of here". | ||
| Johnnylunchbox |
I might be in the minority, but I think Scott Russel adds a bit of color and humor to the commentary. He's kind of like the goofy redneck cousin. I think the AMA should partner with a channel like Versus, and thus get higher billing in the TV pecking order. We might even get to watch a live race. Imagine that. | ||
| Redbuelljunkie |
My wife says Scott Russell doesn't have a face for tv or a voice for radio, and the only way she'll watch the races is if his face is digitized out and his commentary is dubbed with a voice synthesizer. Harsh- but I understand where she's coming from. It dawned on me that Scott Russell is the only person I've ever heard that actually speaks like Forrest Gump... (Message edited by redbuelljunkie on September 06, 2011) | ||
| Blake |
Jason Pridmore needs to be in the booth. He subbed in the booth for a few races last year or maybe 2009; he was excellent! | ||
| Davegess |
At this point AMA is lucky to be on TV with same day coverage. If they keep putting on the great show perhaps they can get enough viewers to push themselves up the ladder. It is gonna be a while before they go live on any network. Keep watching, send emails to Speed TV, get your friend to watch, etc. the Superbike race on Sunday was the best race on TV all day and may be the best race broadcast all year. They keep having races like that and the audience will grow. | ||
| Hughlysses |
I might be in the minority, but I think Scott Russel adds a bit of color and humor to the commentary. He's kind of like the goofy redneck cousin. +1. It took me a while to acclimate to Scott, but I've grown to enjoy his commentary. | ||
| Strokizator |
On the other hand, AMA motocross and supercross coverage is excellent. I've been watching the 250 MX this year and have become of fan of Dean Wilson. Chad Reed is 3rd in points on what started as a privateer endeavor. | ||
| Blake |
Dave, What is the current audience? What size TV audience is required for live broadcasts? If they aired live broadcasts or taped but at something earlier than the near midnight I'm thinking that viewership might increase. It's quite curious that as soon as DMG took the reigns, Speed ditched the live broadcasts. Almost like DMG pushed for more NASCAR coverage, or Speed was punishing the new owner of AMA Pro Racing at the behest of Advertisers? Conpiracies are fun. | ||
| Fast1075 |
Ya'll ease up on Scott Russell..he talks like a lot of folk down my way..includin' me  . OK, so he doesn't have that rich deep voice with crisp enunciation...but I for one would tend to listen to what he says...he is, after all...Scott Russell. He does a dang good job of explaining things about the bikes and the sport. Not everybody can be a pretty boy...or be gifted with a Walter Cronkite voice. A lot of truly gifted athletes dedicated themselves to their sports BECAUSE of some real or perceived social shortcoming. | ||
| Johnnylunchbox |
I think Scott should run as VP on Johnny Rock Page's ticket for the upcoming election. The race coverage wouldn't be the same without Scott's foibles and grammatical near-asphyxiation. Whenever he makes up a new word, my wife and I end up using it for a month at least. Scott is the man! | ||
| Hybridmomentspass |
"If they aired live broadcasts or taped but at something earlier than the near midnight I'm thinking that viewership might increase. " Truth. I am an AMA fan and I often cant stay up to watch the races cause they come on so late | ||
| Doerman |
I'm not getting it with the complaining. My favorite announcers are Johnathan Green and Steve Martin for WSB. I love Mr. Green's enthusiasm and Martin dry delivery of facts Least favorite is MotoGP. It is stale and produced. The team covering AMA is somewhere in between. Here's my Speed coverage observations; - What Speed does right is the pre and post race interviews and commentary. We get to hear the racers talk about what they are going to do and how it went afterwards. Greg White is good at talking with the folks and getting some soundbites. Over the course of the year, they will have covered a reasonable cross section of the field. - Drop the trackmap. If they need to keep on doing it, at least get some 3d graphics of the track so we can get a feel for elevation changes. - I think Scott Russel's accent/voice/looks is rather irrelevant. He is a skilled observer and can relay details about the race that I do not pick up on. He adds value to the visual. Ralph Sheheen (sp) does add excitement value and a sparring partner for Scott. It is Scott that carries the commentary. Good thing we don't have smellivision though. I spoke with Scott Russel in 09 at Fontana. He douses himself in Aqua Velva!! And then there's the incident covering Indy MotoGP, when he referred to Karel Abraham from Czechoslovakia. Just a minor glitch there. - Camera work is steadily improving. The announcers are not at the camera location and are looking at multiple screens. To figure out who went off track on the other side of the race course is difficult. It's the producer that selects camera - not the announcers.The team is not able to figure out/cover everything around the track, but they are doing a decent job of it. Speed is what we got. By DVRing it I get to watch it when convenient for me. I think they are doing just fine. To get more cameras, better coverage slicker announcers - that's up to us by showing up and tuning in en masse. | ||
| Hybridmomentspass |
I understand that they are not physically at each corner seeing every bit of action. But I do know they have plenty of cameras. Sure, its not the announcers fault, its the producers for not giving their announcers information. Like I said, something happens to Filmore and they are absolutely clueless. Watching GrandAm or Nascar and if anything happens there are usually at least 2 views of it. Yes, I know AMA isnt as big as Nascar, but it is still ridiculous to me that they dont even know whats happening on the track | ||
| Chauly |
To enhance the chances of TV coverage improving, attend a race! Most all of us are within some hours' drive of a track having an AMA race. The cost is reasonable, the access to the racers in the paddock is the easiest I've seen in motorsports, and the AMA seems to be getting their act together: it's not a one-brand parade (Ok, the XL1200 race is... :-) and the racing is close and challenging. Try flattrack, roadracing, motocross; just go! | ||
| Skinstains |
My biggest problem is the fact that speed shows races in different order from the order the races actually took place. The commentators then mention the outcome of these other races thereby "spoiling" them for the viewer. They also don't cover the stupid HD class or the youngbloods super sport class. Very weak if you ask me. If I had enough money I would start my own motorcycle channel covering all of the two wheel racing the world over. Imagine that...Trials, Speedway, ISDE, ISDT, Hillclimbs, Flat track, TT, Real Road Racing, all of it ! It would be great. Sooner or later I suppose it will happen or later on the interweb. I'm waiting... | ||
| Notpurples2 |
A T.W.O Channel would be awesome | ||
| Jonzin |
Russell's voice used to get to me until I started picturing him as Huckleberry Hound... |
