Going The Rounds
By Rick Anderson
reoccupied with other matters, I didn’t view KIRO Television’s taped highlights on Sunday’s Albert Lee Cup at Seafair unlimited hydroplane races on Sunday.
Nor I did spend much time lamenting the passing of a 65-year tradition of live television coverage of the Seattle hydro regatta. Like many in the Northwest, I once watched the races religiously, but cut back drastically over the last few years.
An era did end Sunday when KIRO executives, citing poor ratings, elected to forego live race coverage. But it was an era that was already on life support.
Changing times and interests were the primary reasons why live Seafair hydroplane coverage went dead in the water. But Seafair officials also deserve part of the blame for devising a schedule almost guaranteed to produce less-than-compelling television.
It’s hard to describe to anyone under the age of 60 just how big of a deal unlimited hydroplane racing was in Seattle in the 1950s and ’60s.
Big enough that three Seattle major TV stations once covered the Seattle races simultaneously and would often interrupt daytime programming just to show qualifying runs. Big enough that Hall of Fame sportscaster Keith Jackson, even after leaving his post as KOMO sports director to join the ABC network, was summoned back to Seattle for a couple of summers simply to call the event.
And big enough that KING, then the leader in Seattle sports television coverage, would send an entire crew to Detroit to cover the Gold Cup when the race was staged there. The station’s presence actually played a role in the Seattle-based Miss Thriftway, with driver Bill Muncey, winning the cup on the Detroit River one year.
The Thriftway seemingly captured the final heat but race officials, citing a report from an onlooker that Muncey had dislodged a buoy, refused to declare the results official. After viewing a videotape of KING’s coverage, they eventually ruled in Thriftway’s favor. But it was literally months (no joke) before the investigation was completed.
When the admittedly unsophisticated telecasts weren’t producing high drama, they often generated unintentional low comedy.
Charles Herring — a KING news anchor who also assisted with the race coverage — once interrupted his own live report to answer, on camera, a ringing telephone. KING’s periodic attempts to station a reporter on the Coast Guard patrol boat became Seattle’s equivalent of the Cone of Silence, from television’s “Get Smart.” I can’t recall the remote feeds from the patrol boat ever working, with most of the audio drowned out by static.
It is no knock on KIRO, which became Seafair’s exclusive rights-holder a couple of decades ago, that recent telecasts have been far less entertaining.
The decline in viewership reflected, in large measure, dwindling interest in the sport.
When the hydros ruled in the Northwest a half-century ago, Seattle didn’t have the Seahawks, Mariners, Sounders and, for a while, the SuperSonics.
Hydroplane’s image, never that strong nationally, took a major hit with a slew of racing accidents that claimed the lives of several top drivers (including Muncey). A long period of domination by Miss Budweiser and its bombastic owner Bernie Little didn’t help.
Nevertheless, Seafair officials unwittingly helped pull the plug on TV coverage with some questionable changes in the race format.
During their heyday, the Seafair races were contested on one day. There was virtually non-stop action, with only 30-minute intervals between most heats.
Now the regatta is spread over two days. On the concluding Sunday, the unlimited heats are sandwiched between racing in two other classifications, a long break for the Blue Angels’ annual performance and some of the most boring presentation ceremonies known to man.
In a relatively new wrinkle undoubtedly fueled by advertising dollars, the winners of each heat are awarded a monetary prize. The ceremonies generally consist of the winning driver thanking his crew and sponsors, race officials also thanking the sponsors and sometimes even sponsors thanking other sponsors.
After witnessing a couple rounds of these lovefests, many viewers are struck with an uncontrollable urge to weed their gardens.
At least until the winner-take-all final heat, recent live Seafair coverage has generated all the excitement of the middle portion of the Academy Awards ceremonies — the part in which Oscars are awarded in such categories as costume design and art direction.
Just as the Oscars could benefit by combining live and taped television coverage, KIRO conceivably could woo back some of its disgruntled viewers by streamlining coverage to two hours.
The station could come on the air perhaps 90 minutes prior to the final heat, show taped highlights of the previous races and the Blue Angels for about an hour and then switch to live coverage of the final. Keeping the presentation ceremonies on the cutting-room floor would also be a good idea.
None of this, however, would entirely rekindle the glory days of unlimited hydroplane coverage. Viewers have found too many other things to do on Seafair Sunday.
