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COMMERCIAL COLUMINST NATE OLSON -- UAPV MAKES MARK WITH ITS TELEVISION DEAL
Arkansas-Pine Bluff will have more football games televised this season than its big brothers Arkansas and Arkansas State .
Heck, no one in the country at any level will receive more airplay than the Golden Lions this season.
"The only team that may be on TV more than us is Notre Dame," said UAPB Coach Lee Hardman with a laugh, referring to the catholic school's exclusive contract with NBC. "It is a great deal. People from all over the state are going to be able to watch us play. It is going to help our program and the school."
UAPB announced this week that eight of the 11 Golden Lion games are going to be aired on Pax or WB affiliates in Arkansas.
Two other games will be carried nationally by the MBC network, which is available to cable subscribers in the Little Rock area.
The only game that will not be carried live is the Gateway Classic. It will be rebroadcast on Tuesday, Sept. 30 on UAPB TV Channel 24.
That means UAPB fans can watch 10 of the 11 games live from their living rooms, no matter if the Golden Lions are playing in Baton Rouge, La. or Huntsville, Ala.
Also, all of the games will be broadcast on the school's internet site, allowing fans and alumni from across the country to root for UAPB as well.
"We have the capacity to get to get to 1.2 million viewers (in the state of Arkansas)," said UAPB Technical Services Department head Maurice Ficklin. "Now we have an ability to let people see UAPB football. So now, Coach Hardman is known across the state and guys like Antonio Lovelady and C.T. (Calvin Thomas) are known as well. People will know them now, and they will become household names.
"You don't have to just read about them in the newspaper. You can see them on television. That's going to help not only football, but it will help all athletics and the university."
Ficklin said commercials will be sold for the games, and he expects for the first season to break even. Eventually, the school will hire an advertising agency to sell more spots and possibly make money.
UAPB pays as Ficklin puts it "a nominal fee," for the airtime. The school must also pay for the use of a satellite truck.
Pine Bluff native Doug Walls will handle the play-by-play duties for the broadcast and will be teamed up with color commentator Vince Bailey, who has done television work in the Little Rock market and is now employed in the UAPB technical services department.
UAPB's campus radio
See OLSON on Page 3B
station KUAP 89.7 FM will again broadcast all of the games on the radio as well. KUAP's signal reaches well into Little Rock and all of Southeast Arkansas.
Timm Stubbs, who did TV play-by-play last year and is a Watson Chapel alum, will move to the radio booth and join longtime sports information director Carl Whimper, who will do the color. Johnny Jones will also do sideline reporting for the broadcast.
Ficklin, who starred for the football and track teams at Pine Bluff High School in the late 1970's, is leading the charge on the project that is a few years in the making.
"This is part of Chancellor Davis' (Lawrence A. Davis, Jr.) vision that he started about two years ago," Ficklin said. "Chancellor Davis wanted to bigger and better things.
"What we did was follow the particular vision the Chancellor had. We have created a package that no university, especially an HBC (Historically Black College), has ever done. Nobody in Division I-AA has a package like this. What's great is that it is UAPB TV doing it.
"It isn't ABC or UPN doing it. This is UAPB TV doing it, and that is what is so great about it."
Under Ficklin's leadership, Golden Lion Stadium became wireless and the campus TV station televised on a tape-delayed basis most of last year's football games and some basketball games. Ficklin also oversaw the internet webcasting of home games the last two years and the inception of live radio broadcast of football and basketball games.
Kudos to Ficklin, his staff and the administration at UAPB. It is that kind of innovative thinking that will help UAPB garner respect across the state.
UAPB suffers from the effects of negative stereotypes that have been perpetuated over the years because of ignorance.
There are some great things going on at the school, and the broadcasting venture proves it -- and proves it to a statewide audience.
What Ficklin and Co. is manufacturing is going to cause a trickle-down effect. The football team stands to benefit the most. Hardman is excited about the fact that people in Northwest Arkansas will get to see the games, especially recruits in the AAAAA--West territory where there is a wealth of talent that may not be familiar with the program.
Recruits also applies to prospective students and student athletes in other sports. The exposure can do nothing but help everyone associated with UAPB.
If the broadcasts are as professional and successful as Ficklin thinks they will be, UAPB has pulled of an historic deal that could pay big dividends in the years to come.
Arkansas-Pine Bluff will have more football games televised this season than its big brothers Arkansas and Arkansas State .
Heck, no one in the country at any level will receive more airplay than the Golden Lions this season.
"The only team that may be on TV more than us is Notre Dame," said UAPB Coach Lee Hardman with a laugh, referring to the catholic school's exclusive contract with NBC. "It is a great deal. People from all over the state are going to be able to watch us play. It is going to help our program and the school."
UAPB announced this week that eight of the 11 Golden Lion games are going to be aired on Pax or WB affiliates in Arkansas.
Two other games will be carried nationally by the MBC network, which is available to cable subscribers in the Little Rock area.
The only game that will not be carried live is the Gateway Classic. It will be rebroadcast on Tuesday, Sept. 30 on UAPB TV Channel 24.
That means UAPB fans can watch 10 of the 11 games live from their living rooms, no matter if the Golden Lions are playing in Baton Rouge, La. or Huntsville, Ala.
Also, all of the games will be broadcast on the school's internet site, allowing fans and alumni from across the country to root for UAPB as well.
"We have the capacity to get to get to 1.2 million viewers (in the state of Arkansas)," said UAPB Technical Services Department head Maurice Ficklin. "Now we have an ability to let people see UAPB football. So now, Coach Hardman is known across the state and guys like Antonio Lovelady and C.T. (Calvin Thomas) are known as well. People will know them now, and they will become household names.
"You don't have to just read about them in the newspaper. You can see them on television. That's going to help not only football, but it will help all athletics and the university."
Ficklin said commercials will be sold for the games, and he expects for the first season to break even. Eventually, the school will hire an advertising agency to sell more spots and possibly make money.
UAPB pays as Ficklin puts it "a nominal fee," for the airtime. The school must also pay for the use of a satellite truck.
Pine Bluff native Doug Walls will handle the play-by-play duties for the broadcast and will be teamed up with color commentator Vince Bailey, who has done television work in the Little Rock market and is now employed in the UAPB technical services department.
UAPB's campus radio
See OLSON on Page 3B
station KUAP 89.7 FM will again broadcast all of the games on the radio as well. KUAP's signal reaches well into Little Rock and all of Southeast Arkansas.
Timm Stubbs, who did TV play-by-play last year and is a Watson Chapel alum, will move to the radio booth and join longtime sports information director Carl Whimper, who will do the color. Johnny Jones will also do sideline reporting for the broadcast.
Ficklin, who starred for the football and track teams at Pine Bluff High School in the late 1970's, is leading the charge on the project that is a few years in the making.
"This is part of Chancellor Davis' (Lawrence A. Davis, Jr.) vision that he started about two years ago," Ficklin said. "Chancellor Davis wanted to bigger and better things.
"What we did was follow the particular vision the Chancellor had. We have created a package that no university, especially an HBC (Historically Black College), has ever done. Nobody in Division I-AA has a package like this. What's great is that it is UAPB TV doing it.
"It isn't ABC or UPN doing it. This is UAPB TV doing it, and that is what is so great about it."
Under Ficklin's leadership, Golden Lion Stadium became wireless and the campus TV station televised on a tape-delayed basis most of last year's football games and some basketball games. Ficklin also oversaw the internet webcasting of home games the last two years and the inception of live radio broadcast of football and basketball games.
Kudos to Ficklin, his staff and the administration at UAPB. It is that kind of innovative thinking that will help UAPB garner respect across the state.
UAPB suffers from the effects of negative stereotypes that have been perpetuated over the years because of ignorance.
There are some great things going on at the school, and the broadcasting venture proves it -- and proves it to a statewide audience.
What Ficklin and Co. is manufacturing is going to cause a trickle-down effect. The football team stands to benefit the most. Hardman is excited about the fact that people in Northwest Arkansas will get to see the games, especially recruits in the AAAAA--West territory where there is a wealth of talent that may not be familiar with the program.
Recruits also applies to prospective students and student athletes in other sports. The exposure can do nothing but help everyone associated with UAPB.
If the broadcasts are as professional and successful as Ficklin thinks they will be, UAPB has pulled of an historic deal that could pay big dividends in the years to come.
UAPBTV-24 IS THE WAY TO GO!!!
