{"id":81064,"date":"2018-04-24T12:31:13","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T12:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"\/rcntv\/?p=81064"},"modified":"2023-03-01T21:47:14","modified_gmt":"2023-03-01T21:47:14","slug":"cruise-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/cruise-tv\/","title":{"rendered":"Cruise TV"},"content":{"rendered":"

The views expressed in this blog are<\/em> those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I just returned from vacation. I was on a cruise.\u00a0 My wife and I love to cruise.\u00a0 There\u2019s plenty of great food whenever you want to eat, high-level entertainment, comedians, bumping cars, rock-climbing, surfing, simulated sky-diving, and beautiful weather.\u00a0 You wake up when you want; a room steward cleans up your room and bathroom three times a day; and there is even a spot on the ship away from all children to relax by the pools and hot tubs.\u00a0 So what\u2019s NOT to like?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll tell you what\u2019s not to like \u2013 Cruise ship television!<\/p>\n

There are @ 20 channels to watch \u2013 five or six are for children, 10 are basically cruise ship commercials selling jewelry, tours, and future cruises. One channel simply reminds you to constantly wash your hands by playing a consistently annoying song and one channel is a live shot of the front of the ship (I\u2019m not sure why).\u00a0 That leaves MSNBC<\/a> and FOX<\/a> as a way to get any news and ESPN<\/a> for \u201csports\u201d. \u00a0The problem is all sports are SOCCER!!\u00a0 That\u2019s right, soccer.\u00a0 My room steward thought it was a nice gesture to leave soccer on our TV every time he finished up his work in our room.<\/p>\n

But I do not like soccer (apologies to all the soccer fans). I have just had too many bad experiences over the years with the game.\u00a0 As an example, allow me to relate to you my very first soccer broadcast:<\/p>\n

In the summer of 1975, I received a phone call from the station manager of Twin-County TV asking me if I knew the game of soccer. I surmised, since this was the middle of summer, he was asking because we were going to do some local youth soccer.\u00a0 Who else played in the summer?\u00a0 So I said, \u201cYes\u201d.\u00a0 Truth be told, I had never actually watched a game of soccer \u2013 oh, I knew that the object of the game was to put the ball into the net and I knew that did not happen very often, but that was the extent of my \u201cFutbol\u201d knowledge.\u00a0 I was told the game was the next day and it was at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

It turns out the station acquired the rights to do the Philadelphia Atoms<\/a>\u00a0games. The Atoms were part of the North American Soccer League<\/a>, the highest professional level of soccer in America and I was going to do the play-by-play of a game I had never watched.\u00a0 To add to that pressure, the opponent was the New York Cosmos<\/a>\u00a0and that night after the game they were going to sign Pele, the greatest soccer player of all time, to a contract.\u00a0 He was there and interest in this game could not have been any greater.<\/p>\n

Being a teacher, I decided to take the advice I gave to my students \u2013 before taking on a task, do your research. I went to our high school library and took out all the books they had on soccer (there were no computers yet).\u00a0 There were three.\u00a0 I was also teaching speed reading at the time so it was not hard for me to devour the three books, take notes, memorize position responsibilities, and do my best to understand the rules.\u00a0 After a day and a half of study, I left for the Stadium confident I could get through this.<\/p>\n

When I got to the Stadium, I was led to the press area where a nice full-course meal was served. I talked to some of the reporters about the strengths and weaknesses of both teams.\u00a0 Twenty minutes before the LIVE broadcast I ventured up to the booth on the 50-yard line.\u00a0 Leather reclining chairs were there for my comfort.<\/p>\n

However, discomfort set in as soon as I was handed the starting lineups. When I left my house, I knew positions and their roles.\u00a0 When I got the starting lineup, the names of the positions I had learned had changed.\u00a0 Except for the goalie, every position had a different name.\u00a0 Defenders became fullbacks, wing-backs and sweepers.\u00a0 Forwards were now midfielders and forwards.\u00a0 There were wingers and strikers.\u00a0 What there actually was \u2013 was confusion.\u00a0 I was lost.<\/p>\n

I did the game; did the best I could. When I finished, the owner of Twin-County came on the headset and in his heavy Chinese accent said, \u201cYou do god job!\u00a0 You do good job!\u201d\u00a0 I figured he didn\u2019t know anything about soccer either.<\/p>\n

I could tell you more career soccer horrors (15 overtimes that took 6 \u00bd hours to play and still ended in a tie; a 1 \u00bd hour pre-game due to a youth preliminary match that would not end; a high school game with green numbers on a green shirt that were impossible to distinguish, etc., etc.)<\/p>\n

So no one was happier to return to the RCN TV lineup than I was on Saturday. Cruising IS wonderful; cruise TV is not!<\/p>\n

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Finally, after all the hype, predictions, and recommendations, the NFL draft <\/a>is this week starting on April 26 at 8:00pm on FOX. We will finally find out where Saquan Barkley will play. The Eagles<\/a> have the 32nd<\/sup> and last pick of the first round and not again until the 30th<\/sup> and 32nd<\/sup> pick of the fourth round.<\/li>\n
  2. I will continue to remind you to keep your eyes on Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese sensation, who is now part of the LA Angels<\/a>\u00a0roster as both a pitcher and hitter. He is currently hitting .342 with three home runs and 11 RBIs and is 2-1 with a 3.60 ERA. He\u2019ll be fun to watch all season.<\/li>\n
  3. With all the talk of speeding up baseball, someone needs to talk to San Francisco Giant <\/a>first baseman Brandon Belt. He had a 21-pitch at bat on Sunday, fouling off 16 two-strike pitches. The time at the plate \u2013 12 minutes and 45 seconds. It is believed to be a record. By the way, he lined out to right. He later homered in the game.<\/li>\n
  4. The NBA playoffs<\/a>\u00a0are mean, nasty, and ugly. I thought hockey was vicious, but the NBA may be getting worse. The saying now should be, \u201cI went to a mugging, and an NBA game broke out.\u201d<\/li>\n
  5. Next week\u2019s blog will be guest-written by our basketball nut, John Leone. His blog will relate to anyone who grew up playing basketball on the summer playgrounds. It\u2019s terrific reading.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company. I just returned from vacation. I was on a cruise.\u00a0 My wife and I love to cruise.\u00a0 There\u2019s plenty of great food whenever you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-mic"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCruise TV - ATVN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cruise TV - ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company. I just returned from vacation. I was on a cruise.\u00a0 My wife and I love to cruise.\u00a0 There\u2019s plenty of great food whenever you...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/cruise-tv\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-24T12:31:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-01T21:47:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gary Laubach\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gary Laubach\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/cruise-tv\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/cruise-tv\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Gary Laubach\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/149d57a8e347f18c57a13b75a3c0f3ee\"},\"headline\":\"Cruise TV\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-24T12:31:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-01T21:47:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/cruise-tv\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1095,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Behind the Mic\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/cruise-tv\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/cruise-tv\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/cruise-tv\\\/\",\"name\":\"Cruise TV - ATVN\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-24T12:31:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-01T21:47:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/149d57a8e347f18c57a13b75a3c0f3ee\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/cruise-tv\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/\",\"name\":\"ATVN\",\"description\":\"Local Programming & Astound Digital Cable, Internet & Phone Services\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/149d57a8e347f18c57a13b75a3c0f3ee\",\"name\":\"Gary Laubach\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Gary-Laubach-Behind-the-Mic-Author-Image.jpg\",\"url\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Gary-Laubach-Behind-the-Mic-Author-Image.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Gary-Laubach-Behind-the-Mic-Author-Image.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Gary Laubach\"},\"description\":\"Gary began his broadcasting career with Twin County in 1972. Twin County eventually became C-TEC and then Astound Broadband. Gary is currently a Sports Broadcaster for Lafayette College.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/author\\\/rcntvgary\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cruise TV - ATVN","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Cruise TV - ATVN","og_description":"The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company. I just returned from vacation. I was on a cruise.\u00a0 My wife and I love to cruise.\u00a0 There\u2019s plenty of great food whenever you...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/cruise-tv\/","og_site_name":"ATVN","article_published_time":"2018-04-24T12:31:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-03-01T21:47:14+00:00","author":"Gary Laubach","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gary Laubach","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/cruise-tv\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/cruise-tv\/"},"author":{"name":"Gary Laubach","@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/#\/schema\/person\/149d57a8e347f18c57a13b75a3c0f3ee"},"headline":"Cruise TV","datePublished":"2018-04-24T12:31:13+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-01T21:47:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/cruise-tv\/"},"wordCount":1095,"commentCount":0,"articleSection":["Behind the Mic"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/cruise-tv\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/cruise-tv\/","url":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/cruise-tv\/","name":"Cruise TV - ATVN","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-04-24T12:31:13+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-01T21:47:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/#\/schema\/person\/149d57a8e347f18c57a13b75a3c0f3ee"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/cruise-tv\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/","name":"ATVN","description":"Local Programming & Astound Digital Cable, Internet & Phone Services","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/#\/schema\/person\/149d57a8e347f18c57a13b75a3c0f3ee","name":"Gary Laubach","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Gary-Laubach-Behind-the-Mic-Author-Image.jpg","url":"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Gary-Laubach-Behind-the-Mic-Author-Image.jpg","contentUrl":"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Gary-Laubach-Behind-the-Mic-Author-Image.jpg","caption":"Gary Laubach"},"description":"Gary began his broadcasting career with Twin County in 1972. Twin County eventually became C-TEC and then Astound Broadband. Gary is currently a Sports Broadcaster for Lafayette College.","url":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/author\/rcntvgary\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81064"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87276,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81064\/revisions\/87276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}