Dec 11, 2023
We adjust our TV antenna rabbit ears back to the late 1970s for the origin story of one of the most influential firms in modern-day sports media - with Rick and Dee Ray, the founders of televised college sports juggernaut Raycom Sports.
In their new
George Hirthler-penned memoir "Unstoppable: A Story of Love, Faith and
the Power Couple Who Ignited the College Sports Broadcasting
Boom," the Rays rewind the videotape to a time when a new
technology called "cable" was still in its infancy, and the
American television landscape was largely defined by a web of
powerful broadcast network-affiliated stations - save for a handful
of scrappy alternative "independent" signals in each
market.
While pro sports
filled plenty of prime/weekend network TV windows, and individual
teams provided a steady slate of in-season games to local indie
station audiences - regularly scheduled D-I college sports was
virtually non-existent outside of limited national broadcasts
featuring only big-name schools.
It was against
this backdrop that an entrepreneurially minded local station
programmer and a never-say-no ad executive saw an opening for
regularly scheduled regional broadcasts of Atlantic Coast
Conference basketball that not only delighted rabid fans throughout
the Southeast, but also laid the groundwork for a sports
syndication force that would eventually rewrite the rules for
college sports media - and beyond.
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