There will be no live coverage of Friday night's Utah State at Brigham Young football game - but don't go blaming any local television stations.
KSL-Ch. 5, which has the rights to BYU's home games, would love to broadcast the contest live. And we're talking looove to broadcast the game, because Cougar football is a big ratings draw and a big money maker for the station.What it comes down to is the fact that the game is being played on Friday night, so as not to conflict with Saturday's LDS General Conference. And NCAA rules prohibit college football games from being broadcast live when they're played at the same time as high school games. (The rule applies, basically, to Friday nights.)
"If we were to put it on we'd be in violation of NCAA rules," said David Manookin, KSL's vice president of programming.
A couple of years ago, KSL even tried to work out a deal with the Utah High School Activities Assocation, whereby the TV station would make a large contribution to the UHSAA in return for its approval to broadcast a Friday night BYU game.
"The high schools accepted it but the NCAA wouldn't," Manookin said.
You can still see the game Friday night on Ch. 5, but as a result of the NCAA rule it will be aired on tape-delay at 10:35 p.m.BASEBALL VS. FOOTBALL: KSL has another dilemma coming up - the Oct. 26 BYU at New Mexico game conflicts with Game 6 of the World Series.
KSL had thoughts of airing the BYU game and handing the baseball game to KXIV-Ch. 14 - a plan that didn't exactly please visiting CBS executives when they were in town recently. Ch. 5 found itself caught in a dilemma, between the money it stands to make on the football game and its loyalty to CBS, which has invested a billion bucks on baseball.
So, current plans call for KSL to air the World Series on Oct. 26, assuming it goes to six games, and then air the Cougar-Lobo game on tape delay.
But I don't suppose it would upset anyone at KSL if the baseball game happened to be rained out . . . `RON REAGAN' BITES THE DUST: Well, all you local "Star Trek: The Next Generation" fans, there's good news out of Hollywood - "The Ron Reagan Show" is dead.
The daily talk show, hosted by the son of the former president, died of that same disease that kills so many programs - terminally bad ratings. And less than two months after it appeared.
Technically, the show is going on "hiatus" at the end of the month. But it's common knowledge that that "hiatus" is a more polite way of saying "canceled."
Not only have the ratings been abominable (it's averaging a 1 rating nationally) but MCA and Fox, the two media giants that are partners in the program, reportedly haven't been getting along very well.
If you're wondering what all this has to do with "Star Trek: The Next Generation," you may recall that back in August KSTU-Ch. 13 replaced reruns of that program with "Ron Reagan" weeknights at 9 p.m., prompting a deluge of protests from Trekkers. Ch. 13 has been trying to dump the program for the last couple of weeks and bring back "ST:TNG," but contractual difficulties have prevented the switch.
(The negotiations have been on a day-to-day basis - by the time you read this KSTU may have already gotten "Star Trek" back on the air.)
At any rate, the former First Son is out looking for work again.ONE LINER: I can't help remembering what Jay Leno had to say about "The Ron Reagan Show" a few weeks ago on "The Tonight Show." He wished young Ron well, because "you know what happened the last time a Reagan failed in show business."