Sports Survival   

C HRIS THOMAS, OF TAMPA'S WFLA-TV, thinks he and other local sportscasters are "dinosaurs," that their role on local newscasts is nearly extinct.
But some sportscasters are staying alive by changing their ways. Because sports fans can turn to a multitude of outlets--from score updates on their Palm Pilots to highlights galore on any number of cable shows--stations are allotting less time for sports in newscasts and concentrating on local coverage.
In Springfield, Massachusetts, WWLP Sports Director Rich Tettemer has watched the sports hole shrink. Tettemer is down from four minutes to three at 6:00 p.m., has two minutes and 30 seconds at 5:30, and has been off the five o'clock show altogether since May 2000. He and other sportscasters say the change has come primarily because consultants and managers are convinced that only a small percentage of viewers are interested in sports and that those viewers are watching ESPN or CNNSI.
KARE sports anchor Randy Shaver's time in Minneapolis is down by about 30 seconds on the 6 p.m. show compared with a couple of years ago. When Paul Silvi did weekend sports in Flint, Michigan, in the early '90s, he had six or seven minutes per show. Now, the sports director at Seattle's KING has watched his time decrease from 4:30 to 2:45 "on a good day." During ratings periods, the sports hole is about a minute and a half. Silvi says news managers "are doing a good job of making us feel lucky to have jobs."
But Silvi concedes that the accompanying shift in focus in the past few years can produce better sports journalism. WWLP's Tettemer still covers New England pro teams, but shows only a few brief highlights. His sportscast is "local, local, local," aimed at getting the whole family to watch coverage of Johnny's or Suzie's soccer match. KARE recognizes male and female high school athletes of the week and sends seven photographers to cover high school football on Friday nights. When Sports Director Mitch Roberts joined Las Vegas' KVBC two years ago, management "didn't want to continue doing national sports in their local news," he says. "The focus had to be on local sports or not at all."
In late January, Sacramento's KOVR did drop sports as a regular Monday-through-Friday segment. Weekend sports anchor Jennifer Krier will do periodic reports during the week. General Manager Bob Finke says there was virtually "no response" from viewers in the first weeks following the decision.
Drew Smith, sportscaster for WTVD in Raleigh, North Carolina, says the way to survive--and all interviewed for this story agree--is to find interesting personality stories and do in-depth sports journalism. It's not necessary "to do features about one-armed bowlers every day," Smith notes.
But with the change in who's watching, Roberts says, "you adapt or you die."