Dialing In the Signal for UCLA Basketball

Jack Allen, whose letter was printed in last Saturday’s Times, is erroneous in his assertion that the television situation for Bruin basketball has deteriorated during the tenure of Athletic Director Peter Dalis.

The members of the Pac-10 have assigned their rights to the conference office, as is the case with virtually all athletic conferences. The conference office arranges the network and syndication schedules and has provided the networks and syndicators with exclusivity for their broadcasts. If the conference syndicator is televising Oregon State at Arizona, UCLA is not allowed to originate a telecast during the same time period. This restriction was not in place in the early 1980s.

Allen states that there is less television of Bruin basketball than in the past. This is not the case. Of the 27 1995-96 regular-season games, 25 are scheduled to be on television, 20 live and five delayed.

In 1982-83, the season before Dalis’ becoming athletic director, 22 of 28 games were televised live and five were shown delayed. Seven of those games were on ESPN at a time when cable was not a household convenience, and three more were produced by ON TV, a subscription service. If one didn’t have a cable and ON TV, you could see only 17 of them live.

On the other hand, Allen is correct in his assessment of UCLA’s radio problems. When UCLA chose XTRA in 1994, it selected the best option available at the time, given XTRA’s assurances about its coverage areas. However, the signal strength continues to be a major concern to UCLA, and it is troublesome that our fans cannot clearly hear the broadcast in certain parts of Los Angeles. Although certain promises were made to UCLA regarding signal improvement, they have yet to occur to UCLA’s satisfaction.

MARC DELLINS

Sports information director

UCLA