Overview
Sports Junkies Rejoice is the fast-paced account of an incredible 14 month journey that led to the September 7, 1979 launch of ESPN. Bill Rasmussen introduces you to all the players that made it possible and shares with you the frustrations, tensions, emotions and excitement from concept to launch! When ESPN debuted on September 7th at 7:00 PM, there were no 24 hour networks. The ""Big Three"" ABC, CBS, NBC did not broadcast from 1:00 - 7:00 AM. HBO was live only five hours nightly. CNN and FNC hadn't yet begun to blanket us with news 24/7. As for MTV, The Weather Channel, The Discovery Channel, The History Channel and many others - they all came later. Over 90% of all cable systems in America had only 12 channels available and with over 50 new channels proposed ESPN led the way and became America's first 24 / 7 cable network. In 1979, Sports Illustrated opined, ""ESPN may become the biggest thing in TV Sports since Monday Night Football and nighttime World Series Games."" How prophetic!
Full Product Details
Author: Bill Rasmussen
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Imprint: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Dimensions:
Width: 13.30cm
, Height: 1.40cm
, Length: 20.30cm
Weight: 0.277kg
ISBN: 9781451569575
ISBN 10: 1451569572
Pages: 262
Publication Date: 12 May 2010
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Awaiting stock
The supplier is currently out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out for you.
Author Information
On Sept. 7, 1979, ESPN went on the air for the first time. Entrepreneurial daring, irrepressible enthusiasm and a dash of good luck gave the world the first 24-hour television network. Once unleashed upon sports fans, ESPN's impact forever changed the way we watch television. The man who had the dream, the founder of ESPN, is Bill Rasmussen. A life-long entrepreneur and sports fan, Rasmussen's innovations in advertising, sports and broadcasting are numerous and include the creation of ""Sports Center,"" wall-to-wall coverage of NCAA regular-season and ""March Madness"" college basketball, and coverage of the NFL Draft. He broke the advertising barrier to cable television by signing Anheuser Busch to the largest cable TV advertising contract ever. For his many accomplishments, Rasmussen was named to The Sports 100, honoring the 100 most important people in American Sports History. His place in sports history was further recognized by Sports Illustrated in 1994, when he was honored as one of the ""Forty for the Ages,"" one of forty individuals who has significantly altered and elevated the world of sport during the second half of the 20th century. He has been called ""The Father of Cable Sports"" by USA Today.
