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Old October 2nd 15, 03:08 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
BobW
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Posts: 504
Default What are your thoughts about the Parallel Glider Race

On 10/2/2015 5:36 AM, Muttley wrote:
Could be made interesting with real time tracking (very short intervals)
plus live video feed transmitting on the internet??


Flashes me back to some time in the 1990s, this does, when a late night
channel surf stumbled me upon the very first manufactured for TV "sporting
event" of my experience ("American Gladiators?"). My reaction then was an
admixture of disbelief and "You gotta be kidding me!" scornful mental
derision, only heightened by the presence of former Super Bowl winning
quarterback/American Icon/mainstream ESPN aports analyst Joe Thiesmann as
"analyst." The show's very presence seemed something bored or desperate people
with too much money and time might generate, the participants likely gathered
from a beach somewhere induced by promises of a free meal or two, "TV fame"
and "a new experience." In short, it ranked right down there with "TV's Most
Forgettable" in my view.

The World Air Games seems a child of the same sort of adults, but this time
having none of the newness and excitement among spectators as existed (say)
prior to WW-I when somewhat similar stadium air events were common. That's not
to suggest participants or viewers or even paying sponsors haven't been/can't
be found, but such events' presence seems to me a reverse of the time-tested
TV/sports paradigm of participants/critical mass first, TV exposure to follow.
Writing as "a lifelong Aviation Nut," The World Air Games strikes me as a
display of marketing in the absence of pre-existing substance if you will...

When that TV (the only one I ever purchased) died a few years later, I didn't
replace it.

Bob W.