WCSN-location of commentator? Dwight Stones?

I agree - however, you may want to do an edit, Powell equaled his WR in Gateshead, England.

Well, production was great, showed all 6 attempts of Andrew, none of the officals changed his marks to get him a medal.

Where was Dwight located for his very insightful observations, from his laptop or undisclosed TV location? Who gave him the wrong start list? Where do you find the wrong start list?

the real question is-Is Birmingham closer to Gateshead than Hengelo?

Next time, turn off the audio, as Dwight has the same info as your laptop.....none

c'mon be happy it aint Ms Lewis.

2:38 per kilo is 7:54 pace, so not world record pace. But yes, he made lots of other mistakes. At least he pronounced the names right.

Who would pay for his autograph?

USATF, IAAF, FOX, ESPN, WCSN, OLN use independent producers to bring you t&f programnming. They can't bring you these shows unless they can make a profit. The cost of flying a production crew around Europe must be covered by the revenue from subscribers and advertisers. Remote production is the norm nowadays. Last year's Helsinki WC had the lowest number of T.V. personnel of all WC's. Dwight, Carol, Ato, and other track announcers have real fulltime jobs back in L.A. or wherever they live. There are not enough track meets year around for them to do this fulltime. The money is not great because the advertisers and sponsors are not spending the money on T.V. American audiences want American oriented commentary, so we cannot pipe in British or other english speaking feeds. The announcers could be making alot more money doing other things. But they graciously agree to annouce, to give back, because they love and appreciate the sport. We should be grateful to them for that.

BULLSHIT!!! The American (or any other) track and field audience wants to hear smart, accurate announcing. British feeds would be perfectly acceptable. I think american track fans actually enjoy the british announcers. American soccer fans flocked to spanish language television because of superior announcing IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE!!! First you say that these bad announcers have 'real fulltime jobs' and then say 'they could be making alot more money doing other things.' Oh yeah? Like what? If they already have full-time jobs, isn't this extra money? What are Carol Lewis, Dwight Stones and Larry Rawson giving up to 'give back, because they love and appreciate the sport?' If they so appreciated the sport, wouldn't they spend a little more time on homework? This may be a tough audience on LetsRun, but it is most certainly an informed audience. Missing an american record when you're working solely for an american audience is inexcusable. When an audience has respect for the announcers, an occasional mistake is pardonable. God knows that Steve Ovett makes some on those IAAF World X-C videos. The Brits don't try to over-flourish their announcing. It may be dry but it's to the point and usually accurate with insight. Track fans, despite some examples to the contrary are a smart audience. Baseball and football get by with corny, family hand-me-downs and ex-jocks who are supposed to appeal to the least common denominator. Our sport should be better than that.

Wasn't it funny how annoyed Stones kept getting at the European coverage, especially for Andrew Howe. He even said he thought his dad was the producer. And then for the pole vault he got annoyed because they never even showed the world number one, and the same with Dwight Phillips ("there finally is the world and Olympic champion"). And he also got pissed about the changing of bib numbers. I actually thought he did a good job given the circumstances and EU bias.

I just kept laughing at his comments about how they never showed the best people.

i think track fans - or, at the very least, the sort of fans who purchase this stuff - would likely prefer the british commentary. i also imagine, though, that the cost of purchasing their audio feed is much higher than that of just getting the video - certainly much more than it costs to have dwight sit in a production studio and do the commentary. i'm not sure exactly what the numbers look like, but those who purchase the service should make it known that the commentary leaves something to be desired. and suggest the alternative.

We've entered a new era where you can get lowcost video but you get quality announcing with it. Fans do not want British annoucers period in America, they don't know our athletes, and studies taken from 50 years ago consistently show that many viewers switch the channel upon hearing a foreign voice. Viceaversa for fans in Britain. You just have to accept what you get given the economics of the really cheap sport. If you can convince Nike, Adidas, Coca-Cola, etc. to fork up alot more money then the quality of the broadcasts will change. Else try to convince USATF, IAAF to cutback on the endless perks for the kids and spouses of the top brass brought along for the big international meets, which severely cut into the media production budget. We witness the same in the print and editorial market. Still picture quality has suffered tremendously, since Getty Images forcing the bazzokah cameramen out of the infield and finish line at major meets. Cameramen always complain to us that Sports Illustrated hogs highly prized photo postions but then print very few images in the magazine and website, or end up using images from Reuters, AP, Getty, etc. inspite of the many resources wasted. The lower prices writers get these days for articles have cut back on meet coverage. That is why you read the same information across the hundreds of newspapers, magazines, and websites, and why T&FN, Letsrun, Track Shark often have lifted information stolen from new souces without creditline, i.e. they have so little money, they are stealing material out of the dumpster ;-[

Everyone is using remote production. The Britsh too. Housing a production crew costs alot everywhere. Nobody can afford to bring along the large staffs that we used to years ago. It was alot of fun in those days, drinking after the meet, going to the Nike, Adidas, Asics, etc. hospitality suites. The Italians always had a nice hospitality for the media and invite all countries. It was fun schoomzing around with all the guys. But those days are over. Remote production has ended those days, and now we can bring you more meets, but you are not going to get Bob Costas, John Miller, Vin Scully, or Jack Buck as a announcer unless the sponsors and advertisers pony up.

I think you people really need to lighten up DS. Not only was he remote, but the camera and lighting made it really f**ing hard to make anyone out, and on top of it, the bib numbers were all changed at the last minute. I know most of you won't follow the field events, but when DS did the field commentary he was great, because it was clear who was up and what the competition was like. I think he really got frustrated towards the end because he couldn't give the commentary he would have liked and that other wcsn commentators got before him. If you're going to blame anyone, blame the camera feed from Rome, not Dwight.

HAHAHAHAHA. I'm surprised (but glad) that they even broadcast a clear money-loser like this. If you actually think that they're going to send a full crew around the European circuit for the summer, you obviously don't know shit about TV, or about money. Enjoy what we got. It could have bee a dog show (which would have sold more ads, by the way).

Video Producer wrote:

...but you are not going to get Bob Costas, John Miller, Vin Scully, or Jack Buck as a announcer unless the sponsors and advertisers pony up.

These are exactly the folksy, corny, lowest common denominator announcers I was talking about. Who needs or, more importantly, wants these guys. They're schmoozers, a mutual admiration society. Ther are probably fifty LetsRun posters who would do a much better job with a track meet than any of these clowns you're mentioning. U.S. audiences may have changed the channel away from a british accent 50 years ago, but...that was 50 years ago. We had six or seven channels to choose from...ther was entertainment and there was PBS which was considered very stodgy 50 years ago. If your summation is correct, please explain the number of english only speaking U.S. soccer fans watching a broadcast in spanish. I'd say it's that the passion comes through despite the different language and true fans of a sport want that passion

who wants Bob Costas announcing on a track meet? If the Ovett/Pickering combination is available they are much better.

It isn't an accent issue; just sport-specific knowledge and ability

Video Producer wrote:

but you are not going to get Bob Costas, John Miller, Vin Scully, or Jack Buck as a announcer unless the sponsors and advertisers pony up.

You're definitely not going to get Jack Buck, unless you dig him up from the cemetary, and even then I don't think you'll be happy with his commentary.

My only issue with Stones was his constant whining about his situation. It was immature and unprofessional. One apology would have been fine, but after that you're just trashing your own product.

i'm thinking of a Phil Liggett - Ato Boldon team.

I think that's bullshit. How many commercials on American TV feature British voices to attract customers? From Jonathon Pryce and his Infite commercials to that vacuum guy -- I don't see non-redneck Americans tuning out because the intelligent and talented commentator is British.