Channel 90 Coverage

We're back for the fall season with our coverage of local sports from Mitchell High School and DWU. This week we kick the action up a notch with Kernel football LIVE from Joe Quintal Field on Tuesday, Thursday and the Varsity opener Friday (vs Harrisburg).

We get our first look of the Kernel volleyball team in action over the weekend when Harrisburg comes to town on Saturday.

As usual, you can follow all the action on Channel 90. 

Check our full fall schedule here - http://www.switchtomitchelltelecom.com/localtv/schedule.php

Busy Week for 90 / Schedule Changes

The start of post-season play is always a fun time for our Local Content Channel 90 crew and that fun began earlier in the week.  Tonight (Wednesday) doesn't have anything on tap for games, but we start hot and heavy tomorrow.

District 10B Girls action is slated for 6:30 & 8:00 tomorrow with the winners moving to Saturday's Championship. That game is also scheduled for 6:30 on Saturday and you'll be able to see it on Channel 90 as well. Friday brings two more District Championship games (11B & 12B), both of which can be seen live at 6:30 and 8:00.

The added hoops action on Channel 90 will bump our weekend coverage of Marlin's Hockey to Channel 91. Two games are slated for the weekend featuring Marlin Boy's Varsity. These will be our final hockey games covered for the year, so make sure to tune-in for a big weekend of action.

Hockey Coverage This Weekend (All Games Covered on Channel 91):
- Friday 7pm: Marlin Boys vs Brookings
- Saturday 4pm: Marlin Boys vs Aberdeen

We'll have a similar smashed schedule next week as Girl's Hoops hits Region play and the Boy's kick off Districts. Keep an eye on the blog and your guide for more information.

Go Kernels!

Happy Friday Kernel Fans! We were unable to get permission to bring you a copy of the internet feed over our cable system for tonight's big match-up in Sioux Falls. The best I can offer is a link to the webcast.

This option is from the Argus Leader and includes a chat with their sport's reporter - http://www.argusleader.com/section/washhssports

This feed comes from the Sioux Falls School District - http://media.sf.k12.sd.us/live_washington.php

With either of the above options, I'd suggest pairing the coverage with the play-by-play styling of either of our crack radio stations in town - http://www.kmit.com/ or http://www.1490korn.com/ - GO KERNELS!

In addition to the streaming options, we have a couple local options on our local content channels. We'll feature Kernel Wrestling (vs Yankton) on our flagship Channel 90 at 7:30 and a half-hour earlier, you can tune into Marlin Hockey action on our overflow Channel 91.

Tomorrow will be a jammed pack day of hoops. We have a DWU / MHS Boys Tripleheader on Channel 90 starting at 1PM. We'll also punch through an Internet feed from the MHS Girls trip to Aberdeen on Channel 91 starting at 7:30.

Marlins Intro

It turns out that our professional "trouble fixer" leads a double life as an amateur video producer between trouble calls at our office. No word yet on which version is his Spiderman and which is merely Peter Parker, but our very own, Chris, put this intro together for our Marlins coverage on Channel 90. It'll make it's debut this weekend with four Marlin games on the schedule and set to air Saturday and Sunday. See what you think...

 

More Channels Now Available

Your access to local content just quadrupled. Mitchell Telecom has partnered with our parent company, Santel Communications, to bring their local content into the Mitchell community. Santel has worked with four school districts in their service area (Parkston, Wolsey, Tripp-Delmont and Woonsocket) to set up local programming that originates from each of the high schools. Similar to our Channel 90, a big chunk of that coverage happens to be high school sporting events and I've included a schedule for the winter months below.

The new channels can be found in our digital package on Channels 101 (Parkston), 102 (Wolsey), 103 (Tripp), and 104 (Woonsocket). The channels along with the game schedule has been added to your digital guide - check there for complete information on dates and times.

CHANNEL 101, PARKSTON LOCAL SCHOOL CHANNEL

 December

4              GBB  vs Freeman

7              GBB vs Tea Area

14           GBB vs Chamberlain

                BBB vs Chamberlain

17           GBB vs Tripp/Delmont/Armour

18           BBB vs Avon

28           Parkston Classic, GBB

29           Parkston Classic, BBB

January

10           GBB vs Wagner

                BBB vs Wagner

14           BBB vs Andes Central

17           BBB vs Bon Homme

24           BBB vs Lennox

29           GBB vs McCook Central/Montrose

February

4              GBB vs Scotland

                BBB vs Scotland

8              BBB vs Tea Area

9              GBB vs Bridgewater/Emery

12           GBB vs Andes Central

15           BBB vs Mt. Vernon

 

CHANNEL 102, WOLSEY LOCAL SCHOOL CHANNEL

December

13           GBB vs Iroquois

17           BBB vs Mitchell Christian

January

3              GBB vs JVC

10           BBB  vs DeSmet

11           GBB 281 Tourney, 3:30

19           GBB vs Corsica/Stickney

22           GBB vs SBA

28           GBB  vs Kimball/White Lake

February

4              GBB vs Lake Preston

5              BBB vs Wessington Springs

9              GBB vs Aberdeen Christian, 1:00

11           BBB vs Hitchcock-Tulare

12           GBB Wolsey-Wessington vs Hitchcock-Tulare, 6:30

15           BBB Wolsey-Wessington vs SBA, 6:30

18           BBB Wolsey-Wessington vs JVC, 6:30

 

CHANNEL 103, TRIPP LOCAL SCHOOL CHANNEL

 December

8          GBB w/ Menno

BBB w/Menno

January

3          GBB vs Mitchell Christian

4          BBB vs Scotland

21        BBB vs Plankinton/Mt. Veron

28        BBB vs Wagner

29        GBB vs Ethan

February

1          GBB  vs Marty

BBB vs Marty

14        GBB vs Scotland

CHANNEL 104, WOONSOCKET LOCAL SCHOOL CHANNEL

December

8          GBB Sanborn Central/Woonsocket vs SBA (DH)

            BBB Sanborn Central/Woonsocket vs SBA (DH)

January

3          BBB Sanborn Central/Woonsocket vs Andes Central, 6:30

8          GBB Sanborn Central/Woonsocket vs Kimball/White Lake (DH, second game)

      BBB Sanborn Central/Woonsocket vs Kimball/White Lake (DH, first game)

11        GBB 281 Tourney, 3:30 (At Wolsey, Channel 102)

25        BBB Woonsocket/Sanborn Central vs Wessington Springs, 6:30

February

4          GBB Sanborn Central/Woonsocket vs Bridgewater/Emery, 6:30

8          GBB Sanborn Central/Woonsocket vs Highmore/Harrold (DH, second game)

      BBB Sanborn Central/Woonsocket vs Highmore/Harrold (DH, first game)

Winter Schedule

The Channel 90 Schedule for our winter coverage has been released. You can find a copy of it HERE. Our coverage will again feature Kernel Hoops and Wrestling along with DWU Hoops and Marlins Hockey. In addition to our local teams, we'll feature the Mike Miller, Hanson and DWU classics (one each month) during December, January and February.

New this year will be Final Round coverage of two Kernel Wrestling Tournaments. We'll bring you championship mat coverage during the finals of both the Jerry Opbroek Invite (1/12) and the ESD Conference Meet (2/9). In both cases, the tournaments overlap with coverage from a basketball classic - that means we'll have to feature them on our overflow channel (91).

We're looking forward to another great season from our local teams - Good Luck Kernels, Tigers & Marlins and have a great Thanksgiving, y'all!

Quick Hitters

Would you like Wi-Fi with that?
I read in Telecompetitor today that shipments of Wi-Fi enabled devices will nearly double in 2012. Over 1.5 Billion (with a 'B') devices shipped worldwide shows how far access to wireless Internet has grown into our everyday lives. TVs, Tablets, Mobile Devices, Blu-Ray Players, and hundreds of other devices all now connect to and use your in-home wireless network and they would no no where as useful without that connectivity.

The difficulty that growth can cause users comes from managing your in-home network and making sure each device 'plays' nicely. Mitchell Telecom can help with that headache with our Router Support & Care Plan. For less than $4/month we'll assist in router and security set up and help you connect devices to the network.

Sound interesting / want to learn more? Email our sales team - sales@mitchelltelecom.com and we'll take care of you.

Fo'get about it...
From the Not a Shocker file, I read this week that 'Made In Jersey' was the first casualty amongst the TV Series to premiere in 2012. To make matters worse, they only aired two episodes  - OUCH!

Not to toot our horn too loudly, but you'll recall we pegged Jersey as a Loser in our 2012 New Series Preview last month.

Winter Broadcast Schedule
We have received a more than a few requests for our winter schedule for broadcasts on Channel 90. I have our MHS and DWU coverage positioned and ready to go. We've also confirmed carriage for our basketball classics we've covered the past couple years. The final piece of the puzzle is an official schedule for Mitchell Marlins (Boys & Girls) Hockey. I'm told that will happen in the next week and with it we'll be able to round out the schedule.

23 Days

The calendar is about to pack away another July and open up the next August. For us, that signals the start of another season of local sports content on Channel 90, which is set to start on August 17^th – 23 days from today. That date will feature a Mitchell Christian / James Valley Christian contest in Boys Varsity Soccer, which is scheduled for 7:30pm from the Pepsi Soccer Complex.

For the Fall Season, we have over 50 games scheduled for LIVE coverage between August 17^th and November 10^th. That schedule will include the complete home schedule for Kernel and Tiger Football as well as Kernel Volleyball.   

Rounding out our coverage will be select games of DWU Soccer (Men & Women), DWU Volleyball, MHS Soccer (Boys & Girls) and MCHS Soccer (Boys). Look for a complete schedule for our fall coverage to be added to the site shortly and we will be distributing our pocket schedules in early August.

Here’s looking forward to another great season…starting in 23 days.

Channel 90's New Look / Survey Results

If you were checking out Channel 90 last week during at any time when games weren’t being shown, you probably saw a new look for what I call the splash screen. The splash screen is our way of running upcoming schedules / community events, current weather conditions and other items. The change was 100% the work of our employee Chris Tronnes, who wanted to come up with a better and more eye appealing layout. He did a such a good job, that we swapped the new look with our tired look and feel on Channel 7, the community channel.  Take a look at Channel 90 sometime and tell Chris what you think by emailing info@mitchelltelecom.com.

Also over the past couple weeks, we’ve been asking our customers what they thought about our coverage on Channel 90. Our goal was to learn more about the use of the programming and how we might be able to improve the overall service. You can view the complete results here: http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e5jghw4lgxxdsqta/results -- otherwise, here’s some highlights…

The top graph shows the engagement we receive from our customer base for Channel 90. About 90% of customers watch the Channel each month, with a bulk of the viewers (roughly 38%) watching 1 – 3 events during the month. A sizable group (28%) watches 4 – 6 events each month and another 23% watches 7 or more events. That is much more engagement than I think we could have anticipated.

On the next two graphics, you’ll also see that while the coverage for the Kernels (83%), Tigers (60%), State Tournaments (68%) and City Council (42%) is all highly watched, it is the Kernel coverage that our customers really love – over half the responses said it was their favorite! I would have expected the Kernels to be somewhat of a fan favorite, but that margin surprised me.
Of note, our annual expanded State Tournament Coverage started this past weekend with State Gymnastics. We’ll also have State ‘AA’ Wrestling this week (Friday & Saturday) on Channel 91.

The fourth graphic shows what other programming options the respondents would like to see added to Channel 90. While there were a number of options that scored well, finding additional programming from our schools was the top option (43%). We’ll make this more of a priority going forward.

While we’re here, we do have some non-Mitchell High School Basketball in the upcoming weeks from the Corn Palace. We’ll be providing live coverage of the District 11B & 12B District Tournament (Boys & Girls), the Region 5B (Girls) Championship and the Region 6B (Boys & Girls) Championship. Check your guide for dates and times.

Also, this summer we’ll be rolling out coverage of the Mitchell Parks & Recreation Youth Baseball and Softball leagues.

We also asked respondents on what they would change or improve about our Channel 90 coverage. The only common response focused on audio issues (no game announcers, low audio from the City Council). We’re tracking those items currently and working on a solution to provide a more consistent experience regardless of where we broadcast. We’ve received some of that feedback through customer calls, but this provided some specific examples that should allow us to improve the signal.

A view from press row...

Last week's Mike Miller Classic was a great couple days of basketball in what was a week long celebration of South Dakota High School Hoops on our cable system. Over 70 games aired over three channels and four days - ten of which originated from the Corn Palace (eight of those we provided play-by-play). First, allow me to share how all this content became available...

Our video network intersects with a number of other companies in the state. In the past, this made it easier to share equipment used for the provisioning of signal. More recently, we've began to explore other ways this can be used to provide additional value to the entire group. One such way is by creating and sharing content that is of interest across our different customer bases. The easy choice is through our youth sports. Which leads us up to last week...over Dec 27 - 30 we were able to feature HS Basketball Classics from Brookings, Aberdeen and Parkston in addition to our coverage from the Mike Miller Classic. This is something that Mitchell Telecom has been very invested in over the past three years and it is very gratifying to see last week actually happen. I trust that we'll be able to do more in the future and expect it to improve our overall product.  To anyone that watched last week and offered - thank you very much! If you haven't had a chance to offer your two cents please do so by emailing info@mitchelltelecom.com.

On a very different note, the Mike Miller Classic allowed some of our Mitchell Telecom staff to try on our announcer shoes (myself included). We typically provide KMIT's call along with our video of games because Tim Smith is very good at what he does, but since Tim was only covering the Kernels each night we needed some subs (our Junior Varsity if you will). I had a great time as did our other staff members - Jon and Brice. Plus we owe a big thanks to non-staff members - Jamie Hajek and Chase Waldner, who were gracious enough to help. 

We'll look forward to notching a few more games during the upcoming Hanson Classics (Girls 1/14/12 & Boys 1/21/12), but we'll gladly defer to Tim's talents anytime.

Until Next Time!

- Scott