KCAL's production of the @SJ game was inexcusably poor. I hope some regular on this board has a connection to the folks at KCAL and can relay the message. I have the PPV package and what came across the air was an unusually high ambient volumn which covers all of the idiots yelling in the stands to drums to PA announcements at full blast. Combining to the annoying effect was that the announcers' volumn was signifigantly lower than the ambient sound levels. Net effect was anything the guys were saying wasn't audible as it was completely drowned out by crowd yelling, drums, and stadium announcements. I hit "Mute" about :30 in and checked in every so often. The poor sound was constant all game. Now, I'm not wild about the blatant homerism that can creep into their otherwise excellent call, but even at worst it's certainly preferable to what came across on the Direct Kick Saturday night. I don't know if the local air in LA was of a similarly poor sound mix. If it was, I'm surprised there wasn't already a thread about it. It's unusual to have such a poor effort, KCAL is normally one of the better locals leaguewide, right up there close to MSG. Maybe they were breaking in a new person who normally wouldn't even be doing high school games.
Were you watching on the Direct Kick feed at 7:00 or the taped delayed KCAL one? I watched the live version, and noted that we got Christian Miles and Christopher Sullivan announcing. I assumed KCAL got Rick & Joe. About Christian Miles, lets just say it takes an awful lot to make me wish I was listening to Joe Tutino, but.... I honestly did not notice the sound mix issue, but I had a real problem with the director, who must not be experienced in soccer matches. Time and again we got "tight" shots on players well after the play had moved away and we missed an awful lot. I found the close-ups useless and quite distracting/frustrating.
Hitting mute was probably the best option watching the FSW coverage of the match. Chris Sullivan is about has clueless as they come...and a smurf homer on top.
Direct Kick on DirecTV got the KCAL feed, with Max Bretos and Allen Hopkins at the mike. The mute button was very quickly hit at the Christmann household.
1. I really loved the "off camera" stuff. I've saved some of the more embarrasing bits for posterity. 2. Video quality. The video quality on the DirecTV version was about as bad a signal as I've seen in a long time, and it got progressively worse through the game. Looked like microwave interference.
Which begs the question as to why you didn't switch to the FSW or HDNet feeds of the game. I only caught the KCAL feed because I'm taping the whole season, and both the HDNet and FSW feeds were being rebroadcast.
you're not kidding there, i couldn't believe how uninformed he was about the teams, players and the game of soccer in general. i found myself yelling at the television on several occasions.
I would have paid extra to have the crowd noise turned up to drown out Miles and Sullivan. Miles does nothing but hype the stars and semi-stars of whatever team scored last. Sullivan drones on and on about what those players should have done on their last touch like some AYSO coach with four beers in him.
FSW: I don't subscribe to it, and I don't really miss it during MLS season, since the FSW announcers usually suck more than the local guys and MLS Wrap is a chore to watch. Besides, I end up watching about 95% of the games anyway. HDnet: I don't have an HD receiver.
Sullivan is such a tool with his spanish sayings and sounds here and there for whatever he is mumbling about. Wasn't he a US player at one point? It sounded like he wanted to make love to anything in a smurf blue shirt.
I saw this as well. However, I beleive it was very clear on the actual KCAL 9 broadcast that went over the airwaves on tape delay just an hour later. Not sure why... The biggest KCAL problem is the announcers imho
I watched the game on Direct Kick and there was some interference towards the end of the game, kind of like when a blow dryer or a vacum cleaner is turned on.
As if the game itself wasn't bad enough, I'll give my critique of the FSW broadcasting team: . I'm speechless! I've heard better announcing teams for JV high school basketball teams on public access channels. Sullivan was so awful, he actually made Myles seem halfway decent..... I'll take a Spanish-language broadcast any day and I don't speak the language well enough to order dinner at King Taco!