The 2016 Indianapolis 500 will be broadcast on local television! The race is a sellout, so the Speedway lifted the 70 mile ban to allow the folks in the Indianapolis area to view the ABC broadcast in their home on Sunday, May 29 at noon (WRTV Channel 6). Ladies and gentlemen, start your TVs!
ABC sports started broadcasting the race live in 1965, but this is the first time the locals will see it. Why, you ask? Because when the Indianapolis Motor Speedway “borrowed” billions of dollars from Indiana taxpayers, they had to agree to lift the local blackout when they had a sellout such as the Colts do. They felt the money was necessary to upgrade the facility over the next 20 years and keep it state of the art. They reluctantly went along — the key word is reluctantly — with the stipulation about the blackout lift. There was some speculation that the Speedway might try to cook the books and keep any word of a sellout under the table. Apparently they are worried that once the ban is lifted they will never be able to put it back again.
The first time the race was broadcast locally was in 1948 when it was the first program ever to be transmitted to the city. Channel 6 used the race as its introduction to the city. There were fewer than 1,000 television sets in Indianapolis at the time. There was, however, a great deal of excitement about the prospect of the city actually having a television station. While it is hard to believe now, most of the mid-size cities in the U.S. didn’t have a television station. One of the reasons for the early development of Channel 6 WFBM may have been the Philo Farnsworth laboratories in Fort Wayne. Farnsworth’s company developed the first usable television screen. The broadcast was a success as viewers got to see driver Mauri Rose win his third 500 mile race. Rose lived in Indianapolis and worked as a design engineer at Alison’s. With that, WFBM started a limited broadcasting schedule.
The race was broadcast here in 1949 and again in 1950, mostly to sell television sets. In 1951, the Speedway decided that live television broadcasts might hurt race attendance so they were stopped. The Speedway has always been very sensitive about actual race attendance, so their attitude is not surprising back then, but it could be that the showing of the 100th running of the race will bring about a new era in how we locals get to see the race. It will be really exciting to see action as it happens rather than waiting for a tape delayed broadcast in the evening after we already know the outcome.
I’m looking forward to seeing the Greatest Spectacle in Racing live from my comfy new chair this weekend surrounded by family and friends!
snicewanger@yahoo.com