Have you noticed something on TV lately? It is slowly enraging veteran viewers with its simplistic approach. The message is being portrayed with such simplicity and blandness that is putting us longtime viewers to sleep. Could I be speaking of one who couldn't improvise her way out of a wet paperbag due to an audio gaffe on 'Saturday Night Live?' Ah, no. It's certainly not about a scandalously dropped white terrycloth towel on a Monday night several weeks ago, either. What's it all about right now is how only one person thinks you just cannot grasp some concepts that have been ignored for too long. Blame is being placed on Dave Ryan and Randy Pedersen for not talking about equipment and grip layouts. But as one who studied and worked in the electronic media a few years ago, you may want to look somewhere else. It very well could be the producer/director of the PBA show right now. The producer sets the tone by outlining purpose and goals of each production while the director selects which images and audio you the viewer see and hear on the show. With a smaller production crew of about 10 or so, one person doubles in both positions, but ultimately decides what information gets put forth. The announcers can prep all they want, but if a producer does not want to mention a point or an area of information, YOU the viewer don't hear it mentioned. This is nothing new to insiders, however, the outside world is not privy to such information.

     But why not letting the public know more technical information? Does Grandma in Galesburg even care whether she knows about a 4 x 3 layout with the rev-leverage hole in Norm Duke's strike ball? How about the trend this year of not even naming the company or ball being used? The answer is a bit complex, but here we go. The PBA is much more viewer friendly now. They want to show off player personalities for now, which for years were virtually not acknowledged and flat out ignored. That 1960's thinking does not work anymore. Thus the show has more time to see players as themselves, like in both between-match segments, the Miller High Life Skills Challenge and the Miller Six Pack. The Skills Challenge allows the players to show off how many different ways a ball can be thrown at different spare combinations in a "H-O-R-S-E" format. Although they are competing for cash prizes, the players are more themselves and banter back and forth as they normally do outside a TV finals show. The other segment has drawn some ire of late. Randy Pedersen hosts this six question forum, again to show off player personalities without having to rely on the ever-rare sports magazine detailed interview. So forget about even hearing what brand and ball is being thrown by which player.

     What the critics are missing is this and it is boiled down to two words. Casual viewers. The PBA doesn't have enough of them. The hardcore viewers will be there no matter what, but it is the non-football fan and the fan flipping back and forth is who they want to make an impression. Read that before in this column? Ah, yeah, about once a year or so the last seven years or so. Notice how much more fluff is in NFL telecasts and especially those pregame shows? Pregame concerts on opening weekend? How about that Super Bowl halftime show (missed that particular one second moment from last year's show, sorry)? Do they really Jillian's weather report on the Fox pregame show? Give me the X's and O's. Hey, viewers on Monday Night Football are still shrinking, even after the Dennis Miller experiment. American TV viewership is ever changing, even football is no longer sacred. Most sports producers are following the KISS philosophy right now, keep it simple stupid. It's just a shame viewers are treated like drones who know a little about everything. What these people should be doing is to take their own advice and think outside the box. Watch some of the home rehab shows. They have technical information. Last time I checked, they were some of the most popular shows on cable. Wait a minute, the PBA is on cable. Don't you suppose?................

     So what about that nine-letter word flung around corporate boardrooms like wet clothes in a dryer? Marketing. Do you suppose the ESPN show could ever get away with a player walking off the set of the TV finals like Ashlee Simpson did on Saturday Night Live or open a show with Nicollette Sheridan dropping a towel in front of ANY pro bowler? We'll see a Cubs-Sox World Series before that happens. Besides, it's been done already. Haven't heard of Janet Jackson lately have you? All they are doing is showing off the players as regular people, positioning themselves away from the "new school" athletes, you know, the ones wanting to earn a lifetime of money in just 10 years. All these ideas and concepts are connected to bring the PBA into the bigger fishbowl of sports, designed to get more sponsors and bigger sponsors. Remember NASCAR ten years ago? At the time, their TV viewer demographics and the PBA's viewer demographics were the same. As driver personalities became more well-known, it became easier for even casual fans to pick and chose their favorites. Getting on the Sunday night SportsCenter was the easy part. Now staying there is the hard part.

     Finally, the 2005 Midwest PBA Regional tour was announced in early December and makes local stops at Willowbrook Lanes May 13-15, at Lombard Lanes June 10-12. Check your local centers for ProAm squads. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and keep bowling good ones for Don. He likes that, you know.