Bulls season opener best left unwatched
There was a time when antenna television was an exciting adventure.
One of the most coveted pieces of suburban equipment was a rotating TV antenna on top of the roof. When Bears games inevitably did not sell out and were blacked out locally, you could go on a Sunday afternoon treasure hunt.
Point it north toward Milwaukee. Aww, they're showing the Packers.
Try Rockford, northwest. Looks like it might be the Bears, but really fuzzy.
What else, try Grand Rapids, maybe. Sometimes it would work. That antenna would spin around and 20 seconds later, you could be rewarded with forbidden viewing of a Jack Pardee-coached Bears squad.
The same thing could happen in NBA season. National broadcasts of Bulls home playoff games would often be blacked out. The process of trying to find the game was both excitement and effortless.
The latest version of antenna TV is no fun at all. After initially assuming Comcast would come to a last-minute agreement with the new Chicago Sports Network (it didn't), I decided to order an antenna in hopes of watching the Bulls season opener in New Orleans on Wednesday.
Had it succeeded, you could be reading expert analysis on this new, 3-point happy Bulls team's 123-111 loss right here in this space. It didn't work. My antenna TV picked up every other Chicago station. I was able to watch a few minutes of “Love Boat,” but it never landed on 62.2, supposed home of this new regional sports channel.
I know this works for some people but have also heard plenty of complaints. Audio, but no video. The tuner starts drifting after a few minutes. I called the CHSN help line, which featured no helpful advice, then abruptly ended.
So who knows what the problem was? Placement of the antenna seemed to make a big difference. It's a tedious process — scan for channels, move the antenna, scan for channels, try a different room, scan for channels again, give up.
The bosses at CHSN promised their station was available for free to everyone. Well, it's not. And you could end up wasting $20 to find out it's not available.
The NBA League Pass free trial was up and running. So local cable viewers could watch every NBA game except Bulls-Pelicans.
The obvious question here is why start a new channel? The Bulls, Blackhawks and White Sox had one that was available on all platforms. The goal was to make more money, of course, but this is a treacherous time for regional sports networks, with bankruptcies and some teams losing their carriers. Popular vehicles like YouTube TV has been staying away from RSNs.
Surely, teams wouldn't risk starting a new channel unless there were assurances it would be carried by the local cable juggernaut, right? Apparently not. Chicago Sports Network is basically available only on DirectTV right now and those who managed to find a perfect spot for the antenna.
The three franchises that gave us 121 losses, a cringe-fest Ring of Honor ceremony and an ugly assault investigation have struck again. Look, I know there are plenty of smart, caring people working for these teams, but the bad mistakes keep piling up.
Plenty of analysis is available in the box score. The Bulls plan to be a heavy 3-point shooting team this season. When Zach LaVine knocked down his first 5 shots from 3-point range, they opened a lead in the second quarter. Overall, though, they went 10-for-34 from long range (29%) with 21 turnovers (7 by LaVine). A New Orleans 8-0 run midway through the fourth quarter put the game out of reach.
If the main goal this season is to rehab LaVine's trade value and tank for a top-10 pick, then the Bulls succeeded. If they want to win games, develop the young talent with as many fans watching as possible, the night was a complete failure.