Football Is In The Air
…not for long of course, because of gravity (or because for some reason, since expansion the ACC has steadily disappeared from the final Top 25 poll each consecutive year).
The college football season gets started tonight with ESPN’s marquee game, South Carolina at N.C. State. The network signs on at 7:00 PM, live, from Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina. The game marks the return of opposing coach Steve Spurrier, who quarterbacked his alma mater against the Pack in the stadium’s second ever game.
It also marks the return of Erin Andrews . It will be her first television appearance since the scandalous Peeping Tom video of her in her hotel room hit the internet. Andrews, for all of your Oprah fans, is a sideline reporter for ESPN. She has long hair, and, well, you know the rest of the story. Anyone had an Erin sighting (other than herself in the mirror) today?
Follow me on Twitter for all of the game-time coverage. I’ll be live and on-site (that site being my den because for the first time in months there is actually something decent to watch on TV).
We’re #26!
TBJ is reporting that Nielsen Media Research has listed the Raleigh-Durham television market as the country’s 26th largest, up one spot from last year’s rank. The move puts this market, which includes Fayetteville, ahead of Baltimore and two spots behind Charlotte.
Clayton High Teacher to be on Jeopardy!
On September 25, Clayton High School Science teacher Andy Srinivasan will appear on Jeopardy! (WTVD, 7:30p)
Jimmy V Classic Comes Home
On Sunday the stars will be out at the brand new
Lonnie Poole Golf Course
on N.C. State’s Centennial Campus for the 16th annual
Jimmy V Classic
. In addition to the main event, several other events will comprise this special week such as tomorrow night’s Wine & Dine event at the convention center (
tix
), the cancer research symposium (Saturday, free), and the black tie Gala featuring
Lyle Lovett and his Large Band
on Saturday night (
tix
).
The Big Event
Sunday’s main event begins with a shotgun start at 9:30am. Tickets are only $5 thru Ticketmaster . Fans will need to park on Centennial Campus in the designated parking deck on Varsity Drive, and take a shore ride on the shuttle bus to the course. From the classic’s site:
There is no public parking at the golf course. Spectator parking is available in several lots on Centennial Campus. For those entering from Varsity Drive, take the 2nd right off Varsity to the parking deck adjacent to the Venture buildings. For those entering from Loop Rd. via Centennial Parkway, take Main Campus Drive to Varsity; then left on Varsity; then left onto Partners Way to the parking deck there. Satellite lots will be available if the main lots fill. Look for the signs to help guide you. For reference, the following lots are our primary spectator parking lots:
- Lot A : Venture parking deck, between Varsity Dr. and Research Drive
- Lot E1 : Monteith Research parking deck, at the corner of Main Campus Drive and Campus Shore Drive
- Lot V1 : Partners Way parking deck, on Partners Way off Varsity Drive
Celebrities
The classic this year has many familiar faces as well as some extremely interesting lesser-known celebs. Here is the current list:
- Bates Battaglia (Former NHL, Carolina Hurricanes)
- Tim Brando (CBS Sports Announcer)
- Rod Brind’Amour (NHL, Carolina Hurricanes)
- Kimberlin Brown (Shelia Carter, "The Young and The Restless")
- M.L. Carr (Retired NBA, Boston Celtics)
- Rick Cerone (Retired MLB, NY Yankees and Boston Red Sox)
- Erik Cole (NHL, Carolina Hurricanes)
- Joe Corvo (NHL, Carolina Hurricanes)
- Bobby Cremins (Head Coach, College of Charleston’s Men’s Basketball)
- Paul DiMeo (ABC’s "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition")
- Dakoda Dowd (16-year-old Golf Prodigy)
- Todd Eldredge (U.S. Figure Skater)
- Jack Ford (Co-anchor, "Banfield & Ford: Courtside"; on tru TV)
- John Forslund (TV Play-By-Play Announcer, Carolina Hurricanes)
- Terry Gannon (Commentator, ABC Sports and ESPN)
- Bill Goldberg (Retired WWE Wrestler, Host of Spike TV’s "Bullrun")
- Seth Greenberg (Head Coach, Virginia Tech Basketball )
- Chris Harrison (Host of ABC’s "The Bachelor")
- Gregory Harrison (Actor, Producer, Director)
- Dennis Haskins (Mr. Belding, "Saved by the Bell")
- Dennis Haysbert (Jonas Blane, ‘The Unit’)
- Gregory Itzin (Virgil Minelli, "The Mentalist")
- Chad LaRose (NHL, Carolina Hurricanes)
- Matthew Laurance (Former Duke Radio Analyst)
- Ewa Laurance (ESPN Billiards Analyst / Former World Champion)
- Mitch Laurance (Host, "On The Green Golf Video Magazine")
- Meat Loaf (Recording Artist)
- Sidney Lowe (Head Coach, NC State Men’s Basketball)
- David Mobley (Long Drive Champion)
- Tom Penders (Head Coach, University of Houston Basketball)
- Jeff Ruland (Former Head Coach, Iona College Basketball)
- Stefanie Schaeffer (Season Six Winner of The Apprentice)
- Stuart Scott (ESPN SportsCenter / Studio Host)
- Howard M. Stevens, Jr. (Retired NFL, Baltimore Colts)
- Bob Valvano (ESPN Radio Host/Former College Basketball Coach)
- Dennis Walters (Host, "The Dennis Walters Golf Show", The Golf Channel)
- Bucky Waters (Former Head Coach, Duke Men’s Basketball)
- Garo Yepremian (Retired NFL, Miami Dolphins)
Donate
Whether you can or cannot make the event, you still can make a difference. We still have a long way to go with cancer research, and more funding is needed. Anything you can do to help may save a loved-one’s life. The V Foundation’s site has more information on how you can help .
Don’t Give Up, Don’t Ever Give Up
When I held up the bumper sticker featuring this phrase from the second row behind the UNC bench at a game in 1993 and Phil Ford gave me a thumbs up, I knew it was the beginning of something big. Soon after, Jimmy V’s ESPY speech would become an important part of his legacy; a speech that time will never erode. It takes just over 11 minutes to watch, but it lives with you much longer (just be sure to have the tissues handy).
Direct TV Ad Features Philip Rivers
This is even cooler than if Philip himself were the pitch-man.
DVR Alert: Ed Mitchell To Appear on Today Show
Tomorrow (Thursday) morning Ed Mitchell of The Pit in downtown Raleigh is scheduled to be on the Today Show. He’ll be cooking BBQ Ribs alongside several other well known pitmasters. The show airs from 7am to 11am on NBC (TWC channels 6 and 217).
TWC Adding More HD Channels
On August 25 Time Warner Cable will add a few more channels to the line up. Of course, these channels will be added using SDV .
- CBS College Sports HD (333) – (presumably only in the Sports and Tier?)
- FuseHD (237)
- Fox News Channel (238)
- Fox Business News (239)
Also, on August 1 YES (334) will be added to the Sports and Games Tier.
Fayetteville Ad Prompts Head Scratching
Bizarre. Fayetteville respects and loves its soldiers, with a some PDA, fat jokes, a hot blonde, fart noises, and cross-dressing thrown in. I kinda like my “Find yourself…in Raleigh” idea better.
Time Warner Cable Rolls Out Start Over
Yesterday Time Warner Cable rolled out a new service called Start Over. It allows viewers to restart a select program from the beginning even if they didn’t record it. Currently the service is only available on the following channels:
- Boomerang
- Biography
- Fine Living
- Fox Movie Channel
- Hallmark Channel
- National Geographic
- Noggin
- Showtime
- TMC
- TruTV
When tuning to one of these channels mid-show, a window pops up and offers users a chance to watch from the beginning. Start Over is completely independent of one’s DVR functions, so it does not include fast forward functions the DVRs possess.
The service is likely to not only roll out to other channels soon, but will probably eventually become the “cloud DVR” service that will replace today’s DVRs. This would simplify TWC’s user equipment operations as well as allow them to placate Hollywood by giving TWC the power to inhibit fast forwarding through commercials. Users would benefit because they wouldn’t have to worry about storage space or remembering to record shows in advance. They will just be able to pick shows from menus. Users also wouldn’t have to exchange equipment at the TWC office. The premium cloud DVR service could simply be activated over the network.
Time Warner Cable Prepares Massive SDV Dump
A recent letter from Time Warner Cable announces a massive change that makes the CableCARD technology almost useless. Starting July 28, fifty “lesser-viewed” channels will only be available to customers using tuners that can handle SDV technology. (This bypass of CableCARD’s functionality is in strict violation to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 , mind you).
Time Warner’s rented set-top boxes will continue to work as they currently do. Customers with TiVo Series 3 units will be able to continue viewing these channels so long as they have one of the SDV adapters supplied by TWC. Hopefully, ATI will indeed be rolling out support for SDV tuning adapters before the October 22 release of Windows 7, but I highly doubt it.
The channels that will be moved over to SDV are:
Holliday and Calloway Exit WRAL
Friday was the last day for two veterans at WRAL. After 28 years with the station, Bob Holliday , a sports reporter and weekend anchor accepted a voluntary buyout offer. After eight years at WRAL, Volanda Calloway saw her last day at the station, too.
Cameron Village and Wake Forest Road Blockbusters Closing
The Raleigh Downtowner posted today that both the Cameron Village and (beyond horrible) Wake Forest Road Blockbuster locations will be closing on July 12. Somewhere that North American Video guy (who incidentally was charging over $100 for video rental memberships at one point) is laughing uncontrollably.
In other news I just cancelled HBO, TWC’s HDSuite, and got a Netflix subscription yesterday.
Dean Dome Featured in Movie Trailer
Those watching Game 5 of the NBA Championships the other night may have seen the Dean Dome pop up in a commercial. The spot was a short one for, presumably, the upcoming June 26 release of Transformers sequel,
Revenge of the Fallen
.
Filmed from the Tar Heels’ tunnel, the spot shows the Smith Center interior from floor level with a graphic overlay of “Will You Be Ready”. After a few quick movie clips of some giant destructive robot playing basketball with humanity, only a release date is given. The ambiguity is intended to spur interest. However because this is a Michael Bay movie, it is likely the last from this production that makes us think.
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