Intense Rush Compels Q6 To Call Audible

The peril in asking people what they want is that they’re going to tell you.

And in opening up a Cityline extension to allow football fans a say in the broadcasting dilemma KHQ-TV has on NFL game days, we may have underestimated both the potential volume and vitriol of the response.

The issue: cutting away from the first game of a doubleheader on NBC before its conclusion to air the 1 p.m. kickoff of a Seahawks game. The case in point: the Chiefs-Raiders game of Sept. 17, which was tied and headed for overtime when the switch was made.

The prevailing reaction: you bloody idiots.

“I am absolutely against Q6 breaking away from the first game,” voted one caller. “I want to see the first game completed no matter what the score. In fact, I’d just as soon they never switch it over to the Seahawks game. I’d rather watch Bloomsday reruns than watch the Seahawks.”

“You people are lucky it wasn’t a Dallas-San Francisco game,” said another.

“Someone’s going to go up to KHQ with a missile launcher,” warned a third.

Nothing quite like dispassionate, reasoned discourse, is there?

Well, it’s the sentiment that counts - along with the impression it makes on Lon Lee, the general manager and chief bucks-topper at Q6.

And for now, he’s taking the voice of the people as the voice of God.

“Judging by your poll,” he told us, “and the calls we got, we’ll stay with the first game until its conclusion.”

He means starting this Sunday, when NBC’s morning opener is Miami vs. Cincinnati - even if the Dolphins are leading by three touchdowns with 3 minutes to play and Todd Peterson has the ball teed up at the Kingdome and ready to fly.

Lee knows, then, that he can expect a whole new batch of phone calls if Game 1 runs long.

“I don’t live in Pittsburgh,” one Cityline caller said. “I don’t live in Oakland, I don’t live in Dallas, I don’t live in Miami. I live in Washington state. My local team is the Seahawks. I don’t care if the stadium is burning down and it’s 3-3 and they’re going for the final field goal (in the early game). Get me on to the Seahawks, even as bad as they are.”

Sorry, pal. You were outvoted.

A total of 326 callers responded to our Cityline query last week - and 215 of them wanted KHQ to air the first game in its entirety. Many preferred the station to switch games if the opener wasn’t close, but as Lee explained last week, that’s not an option.

“We’re flexible, but that flexibility runs out Friday afternoon,” he said. “That’s when we have to let NBC know what we want to do - and obviously at that point we don’t know what the score is going to be. We can’t switch on Sunday at 1 o’clock depending on the score.”

Why not? After all, your favorite sports bar - or your neighbor who’s hooked up to Direct TV - can.

KHQ, Lee said, must play by different rules. NBC’s rules.

“We’re being compensated to run those games by NBC,” he explained, “as well as selling our own spots on it. The reason NBC compensates us is that they’ve sold advertising in there. For their clients, they have to know where the games are going. They have to know what cities are getting what games.

“Logic would tell you that, yes, we could be able at 1 o’clock to have a variety of transponders up looking at a variety of different birds and go to whatever signal we want. We can control it, but they can control it, too. For football games, our primary incoming dish is controlled by a computer in New York. That’s why when the game switched over (the last time), our master control operator was as surprised as the viewers.”

According to Lee, Q6 has favored-station’s status in just being able to choose its course of action on Fridays. Stations in most markets have no such choice. KING-TV in Seattle, for instance, must air the Seahawks from kickoff - unless, of course, it’s a home game that isn’t sold out. Other stations in markets with no particular attachment generally just air the national feed.

“We’re in the gray area,” Lee said. “They’ve given us the flexibility. We can make it the choice week to week, which is an advantage. And it kind of depends on how people are feeling about the primary team at the moment.”

There’s some history here.

Many callers who wanted Q6 to switch to Seattle games on time recalled the good old bad old days, when the Seahawks were winning but weren’t always on the tube on time.

“They were playing important games,” one caller remembered, “and we were missing the whole first quarter sometimes. People demanded they start switching at 1 p.m.”

Threatened another, “You go back to that and you’re going to have your switchboard really lighting up.”

Unless the NFL ever comes to the rescue and agrees to 12:30 EDT starts for early games, there’s bound to be occasional overlaps - though Lee offered optimistically that “we could go the rest of the year and never have a problem arise. The league is trying to speed up games and generally, (Seahawks) kickoff doesn’t happen until 1:10 or so. And we may look down the schedule and see a game so important that nobody will want to miss any of it.

“Or we’ll see a no-brainer and decide to go with the Seahawks if the first game looks to be meaningless.”

But for now, the switch is off. And what is a highly partisan issue for many football fans is merely an aesthetic one for others.

“Missing the last part of the first game,” said one caller, “is like tearing the last few pages out of a good book.”

You can contact John Blanchette by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5509.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Viewers air opinions With the Chiefs-Raiders telecast of Sept. 17 cut off before overtime, The Spokesman-Review’s Cityline polled viewers on KHQ-TV’s standing policy of pulling the plug on the first game of an NFL doubleheader to show the kickoff of a Seahawks game. The phone-in survey drew 326 responses - 215 of them opposed to such a switch. A sampling of those opposed:

To heck with the Hawks “I’d like to see the first game in its entirety no matter what the score. In fact, I’d rather watch Heidi play with her grandfather than watch the Seahawks play football.” - “Monday morning I ordered a satellite (dish) and KHQ will never be shown in my house again.” - “It has annoyed me to no end to switch away to pregame comments after I’ve invested 3 hours in a game.” - “Being robbed of watching an overtime game like that, I felt like a thief had come in and picked my pocket. I turned the channel and went to the allsports network to get the scores that came in.” - “I’m a Seahawks fan, but we see them every week and read about them in the paper. I vote for staying.” - “I’m not going to watch anymore Channel 6 football. I’m going to watch Fox. I don’t care if my team is playing or not on Channel 6.” - “Take a survey and find out how many Seattle fans there are around here. It’s a pretty limited number. In any case, whatever game you start with you ought to be able to finish with.” - “What you’re doing is creating enemies. When cutting away from the first game, you’re introducing the second game to an audience of angry people that don’t look at the commercials and have nothing but animosity for the Seahawks - which makes liking them or following them even worse.”

It’s 1 p.m., so bring on Hawks Callers who wanted to see the entire Seahawks game numbered 111 - but were no less adamant: - “I think you should go with the Seahawks since we are in Seahawks home territory and they won’t be lousy forever.” - “If people want to watch games out of the area, they should buy a satellite dish.” - “Go with the Seahawks. I don’t care what kind of a game it was. I don’t care if they were giving away free T-shirts. Who likes the Chiefs and Raiders anyway?” - “The last few weeks, we’ve had Oakland on TV in the morning. I don’t care for Oakland. We had Oakland stuffed down our throats before we had the Seahawks. Please, please start the Seahawks game when it’s supposed to.” - “When the Hawks start to win, KHQ is going to have the same problem. A few years ago, I remember they didn’t show the Hawks in full - they finished the first game and then switched over. Now, if they want to change back again, they’re going to have problems.” - “I prefer to see the kickoff of the Seahawks game. We might miss something exciting (on the Seahawks telecast) and as we all know, we haven’t had much exciting for the last couple of years.”

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