Gary will be returning with a new blog post on May 19. This week, he’s asked race announcer Randy Kane to guest blog. RCN-TV viewers should recognize Randy from the Grandview Speedway broadcasts airing April through August each year. Click here to read Randy’s bio from the RCN-TV “Our Broadcasters” page.
With the boom in the number of sports-oriented television networks, you can now find short track racing coverage just about anywhere. It used to be strictly on ESPN, TNN and SPEED, but those no longer have coverage as we saw back in the day. Today there is Fox Sports, CBS Sports, NBC Sports and MAV TV, all filling that void. You get national exposure, quality productions, looks at the stars and the series that are involved with short track racing.
NASCAR still brings you the complete coverage for hours each week and you get the best draw of all, the Indianapolis 500, with complete and full coverage. Those events reach millions and that is what everyone in the sport wants the most. Exposure. That is strictly the business side of things and that pleases sponsors.
You can now see dirt track Late Models, local dirt track Modifieds, different asphalt racers, several lower NASCAR divisions, plus the Midgets and Sprint Cars on your home television. These days there’s also a growing list of computer outlets that show weekly racing and series specials if you subscribe to a package that’s probably for the full season or race-to-race. Racing is all over the television dial; these days you’ll just have to surf to locate what you want.
The real racing, which appeals to the weekly fans, though, is racing such as the action you can find on RCN TV, presently from Grandview Speedway in Bechtelsville, PA. It’s local short track, dirt track racing. It is the local standouts. It is good, close and competitive for the most part, which is seat-of-the pants and grassroots style racing. The best part is, though, it is affordable. You don’t get dirt in your beer watching a race from Grandview Speedway on RCN TV, true, but the television program certainly gets you excited enough to get you out there to the speedway to watch it live some Saturday night.
SPEED TV became Fox Sports and the coverage is there, still, but it is much more corporate styled and a lot different from the old, much more personal, pleasing style SPEED TV had. CBS Sports is a new deal, which is looking to cut out its own piece of the overall coverage pie. Many regular viewers cried foul when SPEED TV was swallowed up by that much bigger FOX Sports television fish, but that’s the way things go these days. It is all corporate and just a lot more business, sponsorships and dollar signs.
RCN TV and local dirt track, short track racing is a great marriage. Grandview Speedway gets coverage in addition to all the usual outlets. The shows are replayed over and over and racers from Bethlehem or Easton or Wescosville or Boyertown or Scranton, as well as other local towns, all become stars on that local level. Race team sponsors love the fact they see their names on television, thanks to racing and it sells to the viewers, also, because they can watch it live and watch a replay to see something that they may have missed.
Local short track dirt racing is a program that just continues to grow. It is “Must See” television and each show is a tremendous tool for racers to use to attract sponsors. It is a great formula for success for every person involved. Everybody wins. Racers. Sponsors. Race tracks. Car builders and engine builders. The fans also benefit from it all. Racing just grows and prospers on television.
In the 1970s, RCN TV brought racing to local viewers from the now closed Nazareth Raceway half-mile track. They brought you racing from Pocono International Speedway and the Nazareth National Speedway, a one-mile speedway that was located right next to the old half-mile track. RCN TV additionally brought you asphalt racing from Flemington Fair Speedway in New Jersey, Nazareth Raceway racing on RCN TV lasted some 17 seasons. And for the past 14 years, Grandview Speedway, a one-third-mile high-banked dirt oval, has been the main focus. All in, racing now has been on RCN TV a good 30 to 35 years. That means if you are a motorsports fan, you got to go to RCN TV. There’s no doubt about it.
At the end of the day you have close competition, great coverage of the on-track action and, together, it gets the viewers interested enough to watch. RCN TV at Grandview brings fans all types of racing divisions on the Grandview dirt track. The television production sells the product for the speedway and everybody benefits from all that success. It is not the corporate coverage. It is not the slick, national productions. It is just racing at its best and the fans get excited. Word of mouth gets even more viewers.
While national coverage has blossomed to all kinds of networks, RCN TV remains loyal to the local, hometown, dirt track, short track racers. The RCN TV formula just helps everyone involved and it’s been successful for many years. RCN TV continues to bring the viewers the best product around. A local, well-rounded, very informative and extremely exciting product. Local racing has grown through local television racing coverage and RCN TV remains the leader of the pack. Right where RCN TV has been, now, for so many years. That’s a great feeling.