WFLA: NHL / Lightning / Programming Miscue
Here’s the letter I sent to WFLA today in regards to their miss-queue of management decision making. If you feel the same, please write / call: Email: news@wfla.com Call: 813-221-5788
To an otherwise fine establishment:
The individual program director who made the command decision to interrupt NHL Winter Classic Fans to watch NFL press coverage of the already known News of Coach Morris’s release from the Buccanneers went too far today. This moment was handled sloppily from the get-go.
While I’m sure the decision was made because of the exposure of Bucs football in the Tampa Bay market being larger than the NHL / TampaBay Lightning, that fan base, when combined with the Winter Classic shows that the programming manager clearly does not understand Hockey.
I would wonder whether the program director consulted with the resident WFLA Sports Analyst / Hockey Expert before making this decision to break from intermission.
The WFLA Sports Analyst would understand that a simple break / short video promo, or brief pause to the press conference would have been understood by NHL fans, but I expect your Sports Expert would have emphasized how much importance Hockey Fans put on intermission coverage of Hockey Games, especially the 1 Time a year Winter Classic Game.
You also surely should have finished covering before the intermission was over, instead subjecting Hockey fans to losing actual gameplay.
Thank you,
Andrew Dorsey
