
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 7, 1995                   TAG: 9509070048
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NFL VIEWERS PULL THE PLUG ON REDSKINS

The voters - and viewers - have spoken. And what they've told WSLS is that at least this Sunday, they don't want to watch the Washington Redskins.

In the weekly ``Name the Game'' toll-free phone poll conducted by Channel 10 on the NBC regional telecast schedule, Sunday's Oakland-Washington game at RFK Stadium was trounced. The poll winner was the Miami-New England game, by a 65-35 percent margin. The Miami-New England game got 6,129 of the nearly 9,500 votes.

So, in a portion of their home TV market, the Redskins will be replaced by the Dolphins-Patriots at 1 p.m., followed by the national telecast of Denver-Dallas at 4 p.m. WJPR/WFXR (Channels 21/27) has Carolina-Buffalo as its Fox Network regional at 1 p.m.

``We probably will get a lot of calls'' from Redskins fans, said WSLS sports director Greg Roberts after Channel 10 announced the game selection Wednesday. ``But we set up the poll for our viewers to call and determine what most of them want to watch. We're not going to rig the thing.

``We've asked our viewers to help us get the best matchup on the air, and that's what we're doing this week. In this instance, I can't question what happened. It's [Dan] Marino against [Drew] Bledsoe. These are probable playoff teams.''

Last weekend, Roberts said WSLS received irate calls for airing the Houston-Jacksonville game, which was the voters' 70-percent choice over Cleveland-New England. When the network heard of the poll results, it tried to get Channel 10 to air the Browns-Patriots game.

Roberts said WSLS general manager Randy Smith then phoned NBC and convinced the network that if the viewers voted for another game, the switch shouldn't be made.

``We're showing what most of the viewers tell us they want,'' Roberts said. ``If people aren't happy with the game, if they want to see a certain game, then all they have to do is pick up the phone and punch in their vote like other people are doing.''

Last season, WJPR/WFXR pulled a last-week Redskins-Rams game for a Dallas-New York Giants game with NFC playoff implications and the station heard from more than 100 angry callers.

``We took a beating,'' said Stan Marinoff, vice president and general manager of WJPR/WFXR. ``I decided then that we'd never do that [pass on a Washington telecast] again.''

With Washington coming off a season-opening victory Sunday over Arizona, a similar reaction to the Channel 10 poll from Redskins' fans wouldn't be surprising.

This is the third season WSLS has asked viewers to vote (1-800-VOTETEN) on the NBC regional game selections. The Roanoke station is one of only 13 NBC affiliates that uses the process to pick games, and originally, the concept was adopted here because the AFC telecasts sent into the market couldn't compete for Nielsen ratings with the Redskins on CBS (through 1993) and now Fox.

This season, NBC hasn't allowed more affiliates to join the ``televote'' plan. At most of the 200-plus affiliates, the network assigns games, at times with input from local station programmers.

Nationally, the two games voted on by WSLS viewers were a close call at NBC. The network is sending Miami-New England to 38 percent of the nation's TV homes. Oakland-Washington goes to 30 percent. Among eastern markets, the Raiders-Redskins telecast stretches from Philadelphia south to Charleston, S.C. The only markets within the Redskins' usual TV domain getting the other game are Roanoke-Lynchburg and Tri-Cities (Va.-Tenn.).

Keywords:
FOOTBALL

by CNB