It’s back. Two hours tonight, two more tomorrow.
Reviled by some. Loved by me. The Tivo is armed.
-k-
24
Reply
Tag Archives: FOX
Leaving Arlen
Damn, FOX is cancelling King of the Hill after 13 seasons.
Time to fill out the DVD collection with the seasons of the show that we don’t already have. And grill up something with clean burning propane. And knock back a few Alamo brews.
Thanks for the giggles and grins, Hank and crew!
-k-
Prison Break Returns
Tomorrow night, on FOX, at 8PM Eastern. Looks like two episodes from last season, to refresh our memories of the Season Two goings-on. This should get us all prepped for the season premiere on Sept 17th.
My Tivo is already set.
-k-
[tags]Fox, prisonbreak[/tags]
A-List Lapdogs
Paula Zahn is jumping ship being released from her excreble prime-time CNN gig, to land again at Fox News, where I’m sure she will continue to distinguish herself in “broadcast journalism”.
Campbell Brown, currently at NBC will take over Paula’s prime-time slot. I actually liked Campbell Brown.
And the whole story differs little from the A-list blogger cluster eff we see almost daily.
At least WTOP news, wherein the link leads, had the good sense to classify this whole mess as “entertainment”. I want “news”, not “entertainment”.
Feh.
-k-
[tags]campbellbrown, CNN, paulazahn, FoxNews[/tags]
RIP, Bill France Jr.
Bill France Jr, who became NASCAR’s second president when he assumed the reins from his father, has passed away at age 74.
He oversaw NASCAR’s growth from a regional Southeastern US sport, to the coast-to-coast, border-to-border, and even international attraction is has become today.
Just a few of the things that molded NASCAR racing on Bill France Jr’s watch:
- All NASCAR races run on paved tracks – 1971.
- First live flag-to-flag coverage ov the Daytona 500 – 1979.
- First million dollar purse for the Daytona 500 – 1980.
- NASCAR’s post-season awards ceremony moved to New York City – 1981.
- Anheuser-Busch assumes title sponsorship of the NASCAR Busch Series – 1984.
- The Winston Million, a bonus for winning 3 of 4 of the Daytona 500, Winston 500, Coca-Cola 600 and Southern 500 is established – 1985.
- NASCAR’s top series becomes knows as the Winston Cup Series – 1986.
- Every Winston Cup event is televised live – 1989.
- Inaugural Brickyard 400 is run from Indianapolis – 1994.
- The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series runs its inaugural event – 1995.
- A demonstration race is run at Suzuka, Japan – 1996.
- 2.4 billion TV deal with Fox, NBC and Turner Sports – 1999. Coverage started in 2001.
He passed the presidency to Mike Helton in 2000, but stayed on as CEO. Since then, we’ve seen XM and now Sirius Satellite radio, with 24×7 NASCAR coverage, the unveiling of the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord NC, and the series major sponsor changed to Nextel from RJ Reynolds.
Quite an impressive list. I didn’t always agree with everything NASCAR did; I wish they could have found a way to keep the North Wilkesboro and Rockingham NC facilities open, and I don’t like the way they’ve marginalized the Darlington SC facility.
Still, I’m amazed every time I tune in to a race; I remember the humble beginnings. And all fans owe a large part of what we take for granted about to the sport to the vision and fortitide of Bill France Jr. His contributions were great, and he will be missed.
-k-
[tags]billfrancejr[/tags]
Happy Mother’s Day
Happy Mother’s Day! We sent SWMBO’s mom one of these; I wish we could have bought one for my Mom. That’s her favorite shade of lavender; she’d have loved it.
With the rainout of last night’s Dodge Avenger 500 from Darlington, there’s a rare unexpected treat: the races will be run at 1PM this afternoon on Fox.
Enjoy, and thanks to all the dedicated Moms of the world.
-k-
NASCAR HotPass Lineup
Not even an Arkansas Sabbatical will deter me from posting the HotPass Lineup for tonight’s running of Crown Royal Presents The Jim Stewart 400 from Richmond International Raceway. This race also has the distinction of winning the Faulkernesque Naming Award for the first half of the season.
#31-Jeff Burton, 795
#24-Jeff Gordon, 796 (fan choice)
#11-Denny Hamlin, 797
#99-Carl Edwards, 798
#8-Dale Earnhardt Jr, 799
Car number, driver, and channel are indicated above, in a slightly different format than before. H/T: Jayski for the lineups.
My brother-in-law doesn’t have DirecTV, so we’ll be watching the event on Fox Sports. Hmm, and today is Derby Day, too. Better check the beverage supply.
-k-
More Bostonian Paranoid Excesses
A scant few weeks after repelling the Mooninite Invasion, the Boston Police and Bomb Squad have turned their wrath on traffic counting devices.
While traffic counters are not child’s toys, they are capable of arousing Bostonian paranoia. The only difference between the counters and the Lite-Brites is that in the former case, there’s no big company from which to extort funds for police overtime.
Bruce Schneier sums it up succinctly:
Boston PD: Putting the “error” in “terror.”
-k-
Technorati Tags: Boston, yearofthechickenshit
Daytona 500 Pre-Race Hype
NASCAR and the NFL are a lot alike. I wrote here about the pre-game hypage for SB XLI. Not to be outdone, here’s the pre-Daytona 500 coverage, all times EST:
The FOX coverage also includes about an hour of pre-race hype; the green flag flies around 3:15. Also not included was ESPN2′s airing of the movie 3 at 8:00 this morning, as well as SPEEDtv’s marathon 70+ hours of broadcasting from Speed Weeks.
I plan to ass up and watch all the action on the new big teevee, and tune to one of the NASCAR HotPass channels (794 – 799 on DirecTV), to see a race as never before.
And, on this date in 2001, Dale Earnhardt was killed on the last lap of the 500. Another reason the racing’s not the same.
-k-
Technorati Tags: daleearnhardt, daytona500, directv, espn2, foxsports, hotpass, NASCAR, speedtv