I'm blogging just before the start of the Tiger Woods news conference at August National.

-Chris

NEWS BLOG (WSAU) Let’s give Tom King credit. He got this one right.

Tom speculated about the timing of Tiger Wood’s news conference. It’s the first time he truly stood before a room of reporters and answered questions. It happened this afternoon after his practice round at Augusta. Tom theorized that the news conference was being held on baseball’s opening day on purpose to minimize its exposure. Hundreds of sports-talk and news-talk stations are obligated to air baseball games today.

How do I know Tom is right? Because I just got the broadcast clearance rules from Westwood One radio. They control the radio rights to The Masters. They control the audio feed from Tiger’s news conference. They are trying to control who sees it, when, how, and how often.

Their rules: The news conference cannot be taped and played back. It is for live broadcast only. So all of those baseball affiliates cannot re-broadcast Tiger’s Q & A after their ballgame is over. More rules: Those baseball affiliates who can’t broadcast the news conference live will be able to air sound bites in the sportscasts and newscasts, but not more than 48-hours after the event ends. And radio affiliates who are airing coverage of The Masters may not use the sound bites as part of their local coverage of the tournament.

All of these rules are designed to do one thing: minimize the number of people who see Tiger Woods answer questions about his marital indiscretions.

Alas, the rules won’t work. In these days of the internet, social media, Facebook and YouTube there will be no way of controlling the dissemination of this news conference. Tiger’s answers will be out there, in cyberspace, forever.

Chris Conley
Operations Manager, Midwest Communications-Wausau
4.5.10