When your local NFL game was blacked out...

... what did the local station that would have shown it do to fill the slot, particularly pre-1973 when blackouts were mandatory?

Note: this thread was inspired by the thread about scheduling syndication around sports. Thanks to whom initiated that thread.

ixnay

My guess is that they would have simply shown another game. However, that has never been an issue in Nashville, as "tight'uns" games have always sold out. Wouldn't have been an issue before 1973 here, because we did not have a team here back then.

I am curious, however, as to what might have been shown in Memphis in 1997 when the Tennessee Oilers (as they were briefly known at the time) were playing their games at the Liberty Bowl while Nissan Stadium (as it is known now) was being built. Oilers games never sold out in the bluff city while they were playing there (save for possibly the Steelers game), so Bud Adams moved the team to Nashville for the '98 season, and they played at Dudley Field at Vanderbilt. I can only guess that the paltry showing at games in Memphis, especially when compared to the fans who showed up for the Steelers game, was an embarrassment to Adams, so rather than play another season at Memphis, he moved them to Nashville a year ahead of time.

firepoint525 said:

My guess is that they would have simply shown another game.

Click to expand...

Nope, the station that could have aired the game would have had to run other programming.

For example: The Arizona Cardinals, in the days when they regularly stunk up Sun Devil Stadium, had most of their home games blacked out. Those games would have usually aired on Fox (KNXV/15 through 1994, and KSAZ/10 thereafter). What would usually happen is that a game would air on CBS (KTSP/10, and then KPHO/5 beginning with the 1994 season) at the same time as the Cards game, while the Fox station would get a game in the other time slot.

We'd get 2 games instead of the usual 3, and Tucson would also be blacked out. Infomercials or movies would generally replace the Cards game. It's been a moot point since 2006, when the current stadium in Glendale opened, and the team got good.

With my area, in Asheville, the Panthers have been blacked out only twice; in 2002. I guess i was lucky the first time, because the replacement game was the Jets-Bills game. I guess i was happy the Panthers game was blacked out. That game in Buffalo was the one were the quickest overtime touchdown occurred.

Pre-1973, stations would usually just show some B-movie to kill 2-2 1/2 hours, which at one time could cover an entire game broadcast. That was certainly the case with most MNF games in the 1970-72 era.

Happened all the time when I lived in Michigan in the late 80's. The Lions stunk, and they played in the 80,000 seat Silverdome which almost never sold out. They would show some other NFL game, generally involving a division rival like the Vikings or Bears.

FreddyE1977 said:

Happened all the time when I lived in Michigan in the late 80's. The Lions stunk, and they played in the 80,000 seat Silverdome which almost never sold out. They would show some other NFL game, generally involving a division rival like the Vikings or Bears.

Click to expand...

When the Lions played at the Silverdome, three other markets were blacked out in case of non-sellout (Flint/Saginaw/Bay City, Lansing, and Toledo) and one narrowly avoided it by a few miles (Grand Rapids). Even if they were awful, I bet WWMT (Kalamazoo/Grand Rapids), WWTV (Cadillac/Traverse City), and WBKB (Alpena) still aired every game.