Q-6 Now Leaves This Ot Thriller To Bring You …

The morning after our periodic dance with democracy, Lon Lee wants you back at the polls.

Not to vote for a retractable-roof science center. Not to rescue the county commissioner candidate endorsed by Playboy’s Party Jokes.

No, he proposes a highly partisan referendum, a bloody joust of ideologies. It challenges our basic values, threatens traumatic permutations to our quality of life and cuts to the very fabric of all we hold to be holy.

And the question is: Which football game do you want to watch on Sunday afternoon?

And people say we don’t address the burning social issues of the day.

Lee is the general manager of KHQ-TV, and he wants to poll you now so the poor maestro presiding at his station’s control board on Sunday doesn’t get pole-axed over the phone the next time NBC hits a switch in New York.

This is your opportunity to not get “Heidied” anymore.

Or your chance to show the colors for the home team which, for better or worse, is the Seattle Seahawks.

Possibly you already voted last Sunday, when KHQ cut away from the end of the Oakland-Kansas City game to bring you that all-important opening kickoff from that clash of AFC bullies, Seattle and Cincinnati.

Placekicker Lin Elliott had just skulled a wedge for what should have been Kansas City’s winning field goal. Overtime was dead ahead and NBC’s camera was once again locked onto the oily visage of Al “Just Extort, Baby” Davis when a tire commercial interrupted Cris Collinsworth in mid-cliche.

A few minutes later, we were teleported inside the Kingdome, looking for a Behring to boo.

And at Q-6’s clubhouse on the South Hill, the phones jangled irritably.

“People were angry,” reported Lee, “and the anger was valid.”

It was not a good time to be standing near any Raiders fans, who headbutt first and ask questions later for slights as trifling as the bartender not mixing their Aqua Velva-and-tonics stiff enough.

No doubt they’re still hypersensitive over that November afternoon back in 1968, when the Raiders trailed the Jets in the final minute and NBC cut away to show “Heidi.” Oakland, of course, scored twice in the final 9 seconds to win, 43-32. To this day, many Raiders fans show off their tattoos of the pirate with the eyepatch performing an unspeakable act with the NBC peacock.

Ah, but Q-6 cares.

“We need to know what viewers want,” he said. “On doubleheader days, do they want us to stick with the first game to the bitter end no matter who’s playing and miss the start of the Seahawks game, or is sentiment for the Seahawks so strong that they want us to switch over in time for kickoff?”

There are conditions, naturally.

“We know what the vote is going to be at 1 o’clock Sunday,” Lee said, “but by then it’s too late.”

Lee said Q-6 must decide on its Sunday game plan by Friday afternoon. You’d think technology advancements would allow the station some flexibility, but apparently not.

“I’ve asked that same question,” Lee said. “But our satellite receivers are controlled by computer in New York. We tell them what we want and that’s what we get. On Sunday, our master control operator was as surprised as much as the viewers. He assumed they’d stick with the first feed, but instead we got the Seahawks feed.”

Which is what they requested.

“If we were in the middle of Nebraska, we’d take whatever the network was doing - the national game,” Lee said. “But, obviously, history and support and geography dictate we go with the Seahawks - unless we hear differently.

“We don’t have to cut to the start of the Seattle game, but if we decide to stick with the first game, we’re there no matter what - because we can’t predict on Friday whether it’s going to be close or a laugher. So if it’s 52-7, well, you don’t want to think about that.”

He’s not on deadline. The station doesn’t have a doubleheader for two weeks.

“We’ve got time to modify,” he said. “We can even change it week to week. But we can’t do it on game day.”

You heard the man. He’s listening.

So just vote, baby.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CITYLINE SPOKANE To leave comments on Cityline, call 458-8800 on a Touch-Tone phone and press category 9892. When the Seahawks play the second game of an NBC doubleheader, should KHQ stay with the first game until its conclusion - no matter what the score - or cut away to air the start of the Seattle game?

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review