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Home > Blogs > Flyer Connection: University of Dayton sports > Archives > 2009 > January > 23 > Entry
WHIO broadcast of UD game faulty
WHIO Radio experienced technical difficulties during the broadcast of Dayton’s 63-61 win at George Washington on Thursday, leaving fans frustrated as the station struggled to produce a consistent signal from the Smith Center in Washington D.C.
Larry Hansgen, who does the producing for the games along with the play-by-play, said neither of the two enhanced phone lines he tried — called ISDN lines — would allow him to dial out or the station to dial in. He was forced to go with a standard phone line, and it proved to be unreliable.
“The problem when you’re using a phone line at a college is that it’s an extension off a universal line, and the quality is terrible,” he said. “That’s what we ran into. It was just an awful, awful phone line.”
Hansgen said the station received some complaints, as did the Dayton Daily News. With the signal breaking in and out, listeners caught about every third word.
“No one was probably more upset than me. … What they’re hearing, my ears are hearing it at the same time (through his headset), and it was distracting and unnerving. It was not a good situation for all involved.”
WHIO eliminated a broadcast producer for games a few years ago in a cost-cutting measure, but Hansgen said having that technical support wouldn’t have helped.
“We could have had Alexander Graham Bell there, we could have had Marconi there, we could have had Tesla there, and I still don’t know how it would have been any better,” he said.
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Comments
By Hank
January 23, 2009 8:48 PM | Link to this
Tesla? http://www.teslatheband.com/home.aspx What about Stryper?
By Ron G
January 23, 2009 10:34 PM | Link to this
How about finding another means of communication? Surely there’s a wireless solution.
By sports guy
January 23, 2009 11:15 PM | Link to this
I heard part of this and thought it sounded like a Comrex having issues. Apparently Larry doesn’t know how to force it to renegotiate and lower the connection speed if they had bad line conditions. If they couldn’t keep it going, they should have switched to straight analog phone audio…it may not have the fidelity but at least that wouldn’t stutter and skip. I think the WSU guys use a cell phone as backup in case this sort of thing happens.
By Terry
January 24, 2009 6:00 AM | Link to this
This article just reiterated what we listeners already knew! The brordcast was awful and unlistenable. WHIO should see that as unacceptable and demand an action plan to see that it does not happen again. They also need to extract some retribution from the owner of the cause of the problem for the WHIO listeners!The real troublesome part is that it did not appear to be any body trying to fix it. They just chose to live with it. Were lines replaced on Firday so the next guy does not have to deal with it? Doubt it! The attitude seems to be of well …….
By Terry
January 24, 2009 6:07 AM | Link to this
If WHIO is so strapped for the resources to monitor and improve the quality of UD events, why don’t they ask the UD department of electronic media to provde student support, led by their faculty? These young kids today are really really sharp with this kind of stuff!
By Goldelks
January 24, 2009 7:27 AM | Link to this
Ok, but what is there excuse for the horrible television reception they provide during Dayton Flyers home and away televised games?
By FlyBoy
January 24, 2009 8:09 AM | Link to this
WHIO SUCKS!!!!
By Bleeb
January 24, 2009 8:20 AM | Link to this
I feel bad for Larry. However, there should have been a tech and a back up unit (eg; a cellphone) at the game. WHIO is trying to save money, but this is what happens when you cut back. Advertisers for this game should be completely refunded as well.
By Omar
January 24, 2009 8:23 AM | Link to this
I can just see DIck Johnson chuckling the whole game as Larry and Bucky cursed off the air wishing Wires were around to make it work.
By Bugerbutt
January 24, 2009 8:39 AM | Link to this
They must be using the same telephone lines for the T V broadcasts!!!!!!!!!!They are just not even worth trying to watch.Pretty SAD
By Norman Moore
January 24, 2009 9:09 AM | Link to this
The problem is not WHIO, the problem is that telephone companies have cut back on technical support. As an internet user and IT pro I feel the pain everyday. There is no one to fix problems anymore. ISDN is a digital technology and as things like DSL and Fiber Optics take the fore telephone companies are dropping support for the older ISDN technology which was once an improvement for people using dial up access to the web. Cell phones can be used for backup but if you are a regular user of cell phones you know how that goes. Basically there was nothing they could have done given the circumstances. By the way ISDN is not fast enough for video. Any TV issues were unrelated.
By Jack
January 24, 2009 9:19 AM | Link to this
Some of this is getting ridiculous. It’s nearly impossible to watch the games on WHIO’s broadcasts on TV, now we can’t even hear the games on the radio. This is embarrassing that for a DI prominent A10 college team we cant get better broadcasts.
By Jim
January 24, 2009 9:50 AM | Link to this
The GW game broadcast sounded like it originated from a third world…yet it was from our nation’s capital. We can put men on the moon and hear (or see) clearer transmissions than what WHIO broadcasts locally.
By Dick
January 24, 2009 10:06 AM | Link to this
Why should we expect any thing coming out of Washington DC to be of good quality?
By scott
January 24, 2009 11:14 AM | Link to this
I have always wondered why on the TV broadcasts on WHIO the crowd noise seems muted. It is very noticeable when you switch to another game and hear the difference.
By thepummeler
January 24, 2009 11:22 AM | Link to this
I guess channel 7 doesn’t care about owninig up to their transmission and reception problems during Flyer games. They’re responsible a heck of a lot more often than WHIO radio. The game broadcast at UMass was not watchable but you don’t hear any apologies from WHIO TV or Time Warner, right?
By thepummeler
January 24, 2009 11:27 AM | Link to this
What do they run that TV station with, a friction motor and rabbit ears? But, you can bet the execs still get their “fair” share!
By thepummeler
January 24, 2009 11:35 AM | Link to this
….one good thing about it though? Not falling victom to the atrocious sports commentary and play by play affectionately known in these parts as the Hartsock and Dukes debacle, huh?
By Mike
January 24, 2009 12:02 PM | Link to this
I listen to the entire game. It was difficult to hear but Larry & Bucky as always did a professional job. Look at the bright side, GW had 6 men on the court at the right time and we came away with a W.
By Flyer '72
January 24, 2009 3:30 PM | Link to this
Like many Flyers fans located outside of Dayton or even the country, we are glad to be able to have the opportunity to listen to WHIO via computer. This is the first major problem that I can remember, and any team can have a bad away game, even WHIO. I am still thankful for what they do.
By Jeremy
January 24, 2009 10:10 PM | Link to this
WHIO, like UD basketball is a joke. Get your games on TV like Xavier and play with the big boys one of these days.
By goldelks
January 25, 2009 12:02 AM | Link to this
Just give up on whio tv and radio and switch to www.channelsurfing.com and watch the games on internet explorer.
By Xman
January 25, 2009 11:24 AM | Link to this
UD played a joke of a schedule. Their SoS is 100 points worse than the worst Horizon League team, Youngstown State. A true embarrassment. I can’t wait till we get out of the A10, and don’t think for a minute that we want UD to tag along on our coat tails.
By BobSchrunkle
February 5, 2010 11:54 PM | Link to this
WHIO has problems they refuse to acknowledge: Their equipment is not up to the standards required to broadcast at a proffesional level. But why should they care? They are slurping at the money fountain offered by their cable and satellite customers and could care less if people listen or watch their broadcasts. They only acknowledged a problem when Dish Network and Direct TV lost their feed. The proudly announced that they “Fixed” the problem, after a day or two it was business as usual again: OTA TV disappears for days at a time. I feel sorry for their tech staff. I am certain they would all resign if they could find respectable jobs. WHIO and CoxMedia ought to fire the jerk who refuses to budget proper maintenance for their transmitters. I’ll bet he gets a huge bonus for “saving” the company all that money.