The first thing that popped into my mind when I heard of the buyout was, crap, this will probably go as bad as when Sirius bought out XM. XM was by far a better outlet then Sirius ever thought about being. They had better programming, on air announcers, better stock price, and certainly better music. You would think that after borrowing over 500 million for the purchase that Sirius would have tried to fix something that wasn't really working. No, they eliminated most of the on air talent, dropped good programming for bad, (currently there are 12 Spanish channels). They kept doing what had made them an also ran in the first place. Their market share has trended downward since 2002. I have an XM receiver so I get all of Steve's show but Down the stretch is cut off mid show or earlier to hear Gameday which is broadcast on at least a dozen other channels. I know for a while if you had a Sirius receiver you only got an hour of ATR. Every other month Sirius will activate all inactive radios for a couple of weeks trying to get people to come back to the same bad product that they probably left for in the first place.
Now we are seeing the same thing in the TVG buyout of HRTV. On air talent was far superior on HRTV. Shows like Pursuit of the Crown/ Cup and On The Horizon were invaluable to many of us who closely follow the sport. On The Edge, First Call(while it lasted) and Players gave out excellent handicapping info. It was always nice to get historical views of long ago races and interviews with ex jocks, trainers, and owners. TVG has never had anything to offer. Their KD pre show doesn't take place until a day or 2 before the derby and even then they don't really tell you anything. Then there are the days when you have 1 announcer trying to fill in 15 or 20 minutes between races. There is nothing but incessant babbling, and talking to e mailers. The list of differences goes on and on.
It was kinda sad Saturday when I heard Scott H and Christina tell listeners if they wanted to see the big races they had to turn to TVG. Then the announcers at TVG had already stolen the catch phrase "The great race place" when speaking of Santa Anita. I know some of the better on air talent have gotten jobs on TVG and will probably be in the regular line-up and that some of the younger guys from TVG have been moved to the smaller track coverage at HRTV and that is fine. I think it is the likes of Siegel, Free, Hoover, Mandela, and others I have left out who will be missed the most. Certainly the lead up shows to the big events will be missed.
As I reluctantly turned the channel to TVG Saturday (I am a Dish subscriber) to watch the big races I was at least happy that I didn't hear Matt "where's my mirror" Carruthers and Todd "the human boat anchor" Chump with their dog and pony show. In my opinion they are pretty hard to put up with. Carruthers is as at least knowledgable on the game but there is just something about him that as a listener rubs me the wrong way. Todd Chump just doesn't know much at all. I could mute the tv but since I am out of the room a lot I have to know when the horses are loading so I am forced to leave the volume up. At least we are blessed that Ken Rudolph resigned a year or so ago. That would be impossible.
Maybe in the future TVG will bring back some of the good shows that HRTV provided but I am not going to hold my breath. To me the bottom line is that TVG is only interested in getting you to bet on their website. I don't see them trying to improve on their already bad product, which now is the only product in town. Johnny D, it's time for Express Bet to start a channel.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are mine and only mine. If you agree, fine; if you disagree, fine. If you don't care, fine. If you are offended you might see if your Dr. can prescribe some skin thickening cream. I personally just don't see where this can be good for racing. Oh yes, as far as most of the International racing they show late at night, I really don't care to watch horses running the wrong direction!
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