Raise YOUR Voice!

Robert S. from Frederick, Maryland

Hi Bill,

Great work and nice website Bill! Hopefully the Penguin Fan poll and the FSN hiring of Ted Black are signs that favorable conditions are in place to get Mike Lange back on the TV broadcasts where he belongs. The only problem I see is exposure. How do we make more people aware of the Penguin fan poll? Your website is great, and the fan poll is encouraging, but we need to get more Mike Lange fans aware of the poll. Unless you’re looking for it, it’s just too damn easy to miss. The Smizik article did bring some attention to the issue, and I can applaud him for that, but I find it curious that he did not mention that the Penguins are actively seeking fan input.

So how do we get more people aware that they can actually become involved in bringing Mike Lange back on TV where he belongs? Since we don’t have the financial resources a corporation or business would have, we have to make the available outlets work for us. My suggestion would be to get people to call into the local sports call in shows and keep bringing up the Penguin fan poll. I am also going to write an email to Smizik and ask why he did not include the fan poll in his column, which to me is a major miscarriage of journalism 101. If as he claimed Penguin fans didn’t and don’t care, why wouldn’t he mention the fan poll to test his hypothesis? I will give him the benefit of the doubt, and assume he didn’t do his due diligence and even ask the Penguins what they are planning to recommend to FSN, or ask them if they have any desire to find out what Penguin fans think.

I don’t live in the Pittsburgh area any longer so it’s hard for me to know the best Pittsburgh call in shows, or to know the particular hosts that might be willing to champion this effort, or at the very least create a show with a poll of their own and see what their callers think of bringing Mike back to TV. One guy I did think of was Guy Junker (no pun intended J). Since he got screwed by FSN, maybe he wouldn’t mind bringing some attention to the issue.

Just brain storming here, I also thought of a flyer campaign that would hand out a flyer to fans attending games, and would simply notify them that they could make their opinion known by going to the Penguin website. I also thought that if any of your website visitors might know of any Penguin fan groups like: http://www.letsgopens.com/links/PensFanClubs/

Since I am not as plugged into the local Pittsburgh area and current potential fan venues that could be utilized, I’m thinking some of the visitors to your website might know better or have some other ideas. The Penguins are asking, we just have to make sure as many people as possible voice their opinions.

Thanks,

Robert S.

Frederick, MD