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Friday, July 7, 2000

’Bows get more
national exposure

KFVE-TV to feed selected football
games to stations in
Iowa, South Dakota,
and Louisiana

By Dave Reardon
Star-Bulletin

The number of TV sets across the country with access to University of Hawaii football games is growing by thousands daily.

Yesterday at least three more sister stations of KFVE, the Honolulu station which owns the rights to UH home games, agreed to televise Rainbow games this fall.

KFVE general manager and president John Fink said WAFB in Baton Rouge, La., will show the Hawaii-Louisiana Tech game live, and at least two stations plan to air the UH-Wisconsin game: KSFY in Sioux Falls, S.D., and KWWL in Waterloo/Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Combined, over 800,000 homes receive the three stations' cable signals.

Stations in Detroit and Colorado Springs, Colo., are also interested, Fink said.

Earlier this week, Fink secured an agreement with KVFS, which televises in Cape Giradeu, Mo., and Paducah, Ky. (371,000 homes), as well as a two-year extension with Fox Sports West 2, which already makes UH home games available to 2.7 million homes in Southern California.

Fink said the arrangements are possible because KFVE is one of 36 Raycom Sports stations.

"It gives us a bunch of opportunities. We've put on a full-court press the past couple days," Fink said. "If anything, the numbers will grow."

The telecasts are subject to "network or national cable recapture," Fink said, meaning the Western Athletic Conference television contract with Fox could supercede KFVE's arrangements with its sister stations.

But the current WAC/Fox national schedule for this season doesn't include any Hawaii games.

UH coach June Jones has said KFVE's mainland feeds last year helped UH lock up some recruits it might not have gotten otherwise.

"It's always a big plus whenever we can get (exposure) outside of the state," athletic director Hugh Yoshida said. "Getting people around the country to know our program can only be good.

"John has always worked with Fox West in the California area. Now he's reaching out to Louisiana and we have a presence there."

Raycom Sports also airs ACC basketball games.

"We are also looking at some basketball, in particular the Rainbow Classic," Fink said.

Also, starting July 15, KFVE will re-telecast UH victories from last season on seven consecutive Saturdays. Starting time is 7 p.m., except for July 22, which will begin at 8. Each game is preceded by an analysis from Jones.

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UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii