Here is the word from KOMO KOMO will not be airing the MLS Cup on Sunday. The FCC regulations on Children's programming are extremely strict. Part of the requirements for retaining a broadcast license is that stations must air a specific amount of childrens programming each week during a specific window of time. ABC booked so many hours of sports programming this weekend that it was necessary for us to pre-empt some of the sports programming and air FCC children's programming. Unfortunately ESPN was not able to find another home in the Seattle market to air the soccer match - either on cable or broadcast television. The rumor is that it will still be aired on HD, but that has not been confirmed. It's a damn shame.
I call bullshit. If what they said is correct, tons of ABC affiliates all over the country wouldn't be able to show it. They preempted some children's programming for some crap (likely paid programming), so they're making up for it by preempting MLS Cup.
The girl at that answered the phone at the George&Dragon said it would be on! They must have an east coast satellite feed!
That doesn't do much for me, because I was hoping to DVR the match since I'll be at work when the match is on. This is absolute bullshit.
I just checked the programing schedule posted on the web: local news, Good Morning America and then local news again. What a pile of crap - there isn't any children's programing until 10 AM local time.
We don't get it up here. Lovely...absolutely lovely. And it blows that MLSnet won't televise the match. What garbage this is
So, of all this "so many hours of sports programming this weekend" programming... KOMO decided to pre-empt a once-a-year event?? I thought Seattle was a good soccer market.
We're gonna have to pray and hope that TVU player will have an online ABC feed on Sunday. But even then, I'LL BE AT WORK so I won't get to watch it anyways. I'd have to download a torrent of the match. Sweet.
I just sent him an e-mail. I didn't expect him to respond so quickly. He got back to me 10 minutes later. It is great to know that we have an owner that is responsive. I am certain they were all over this before I e-mailed Adrian. Thanks Greg. We are trying to get to the bottom of this. Adrian -----Original Message----- From: Greg Roth Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 8:08 PM To: Adrian Hanauer Subject: No MLS Cup on KOMO Not sure if you saw this. This is unbelievable. We are now an MLS City and we can't even watch the MLS cup in our own market. I am sure there is other programing that could have been shifted around. Shame on KOMO.
That's excellent. I love having a GM that listens to the fans. I just sent him an email 5 minutes ago, maybe I'll get a rapid response as well! *EDIT* Yep, heard back within 10 minutes as well with basically the same response.
Adrian has my vote for GM. It is definitely nice to have a GM that Reads and Responds to your email's. Hopefully he sends a email to you guys saying, the games on... I got it fixed.
Good thing I'm flying out to DC tomorrow. My wife on the other hand is not very happy right now. I sent KOMO an email, letting them know how unhappy I was.
Complete rubbish... guess the G&D is going to be packed to the gills to watch this, if that's the only option in town to see it live Probably tough to pull off at this late junction, but the ownership would score major P/R points if they could pull off showing it at a large public gathering... maybe the WaMu theatre at Qwest Field or something along those lines. Hell, even a big-ass beer tent or something.
I live in Olympia and it's set to show on both chanel 4 and 104 at 9AM. According to tvguide it's set to air on both Olympia comcast and Seattle comcast listings. 11/18/07 :: KOMO/KOMOHD 6am Local News 7am Good Morning America: Weekend Edition 8am Local News 9am MLS Soccer Championship
I hope that this is a joke. If not, here are the contacts for KOMO-4: http://www.komotv.com/about/contact I'm going to email the big cheese himself: Ken Schram. Maybe he can give his station a Schrammie!
My message to Komo Attention KOMOTV Program Director: I am writing to voice my frustration and disappointment that the 2007 Major League Soccer Cup will not be televised to the Seattle market this Sunday morning. This event is a once a year event, and is planned well in advance. It is not as if this was a surprise to KOMO. It is not as if this is an incidental regular season game, this is the League Championship. To further compound the absurdity of this situation our fine city was just awarded a franchise in this league. Perhaps Ken will award you a Schrammie for your obvious lack of foresight.
Here's what I figured out from doing some Googling. The FCC requires broadcast stations to air 3 hours of "core educational programming" each week. The programming has to be at least 30 min in length, air between 7am and 10pm, and be a regularly scheduled program. Here is KOMOs schedule for Sunday morning (http://www.komotv.com/about/schedule ): 9am-10am This Week (an ABC news show) 10am-10:30 The Emperor's New School (kid's show) 10:30-11am The Replacements (kid's show) 11am-11:30 Hanna Montana (educational programming??) 11:30-12pm The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (??) The rest of the day is NASCAR, News, Jeopardy, News, and the American Music Awards. I'm glad I heard about this before I Tivo'ed the game and got Hanna Montana!