FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 6, 2000
For more information, contact
Mark Bradley, 919-595-5103
FOX 50, Raleigh-Durham, N.C., To Multicast The Durham Bulls On Its Digital Channel
WRAZ-DT Explorer Scouts To Produce Broadcast Raleigh-Durham
On Thursday, June 8, FOX 50 “WRAZ-DT” will broadcast the Durham Bulls/Rochester Red Wings baseball game live from the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, N.C., beginning at 7pm. The new digital television standards allow broadcasters to originate more than one channel of programming (multicasting) within their assigned digital channel. This will be the inaugural digital multicast for WRAZ-DT.
To watch the broadcast, viewers will need either a digital receiver tuned to channel 49 or be a subscriber to the Time-Warner Pegasus digital cable service (currently available to approximately 20,000 households) where the game will be carried on channel 251.
Each member of the camera and production crew is a member of Explorer Post 50. The crew of twenty 14 – 19 year-olds come from Durham area high schools and work production positions during Durham Bulls home games. The Explorer Post, an extension of the Boy Scouts of America, offers teens an opportunity to gain valuable experience operating television production equipment and working on a complicated live show. Explorer Post 50 is sponsored by the Durham Bulls and FOX 50.
Play-by-play for the broadcast will be supplied by WDNC-AM 620, the flagship station of the Durham Bulls. Steve Barnes, the voice of the Durham Bulls, will call the action. Ken Tanner will provide color commentary.
The Durham Bulls are the triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc. owns the Durham Bulls as well as FOX 50 WRAZ-DT.
Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc. is a diversified communications company which owns and/or operates WRAL-TV, WRAL-Digital, WRAL-FM, Microspace, the North Carolina News Network, DTV Plus, Wolfpack Sports Marketing, and Capitol Sports Management in Raleigh, NC; WJZY-TV and WFVT-TV in Charlotte, NC; WILM-TV in Wilmington, NC; WRAZ-TV and the Durham Bulls Baseball Club in Durham, NC; and the Myrtle Beach Pelicans Baseball Club in Myrtle Beach, SC; Capitol Broadcasting Company also founded Local TV on Satellite in Raleigh, NC.
