No HD, but station has a clear picture of Skins' value

Starting with tonight's broadcast of the exhibition game against the Buffalo Bills, WTKR continues its partnership with the Washington Redskins.

The Redskins game package, station general manager Jeff Hoffman says, "was the highest-rated thing we had for the entire month of August last year."

August is a slow month for TV viewing. But the renewed spirit at Redskins Park should give local fans even more incentive to watch the four-game preseason schedule.

The WTKR audience will be missing something, though. For another year, the station cannot carry the exhibition games in high definition.

A year ago, I didn't have a hi-def TV. I didn't know what I was missing. Now that I do have hi-def, I can't imagine going back to a standard definition picture for anything but "M*A*S*H" reruns.

"High definition isn't available for us to purchase. Otherwise, I'd do it," Hoffman said. "It's the Redskins' decision."

WTKR isn't alone. None of the Redskins' affiliates throughout the state or in Washington, D.C., have access to HD feeds. The Skins sold exclusive HD rights to Comcast SportsNet, the team's cable partner.

What you have, then, is a situation in Hampton Roads in which fans with digital cable can choose between WTKR's standard def of Redskins exhibitions or Comcast's hi-def.

Seems like a no-brainer, though Hoffman doesn't sound concerned.

"We wish we had it in high-definition," he said, "but we know we're going to get a very substantial audience for it."

The old-school picture, Hoffman believes, is outweighed by everything WTKR gains from its relationship with the Redskins.

During the regular season, "The Mike Shanahan Coaches Show" will run on WTKR at 11:30 a.m. each Sunday, leading into CBS' "NFL Today."

On Saturday's at 11:30 p.m., the station will air the one-hour "Inside the Redskins," followed by the 30-minute "Redskins Game Plan."

Hoffman, who arrived two years ago to overhaul a then-floundering news operation, believes that the station's association with the Redskins is "one of the things that helped turn us around."

The Redskins connection, he said, "was the first thing people noticed."

"I think people said, 'Hey, these guys are to be taken seriously, they have the Redskins.' I think it made a difference for us, and still does today."

With or without HD.

For sheer entertainment value, nothing in golf at the moment can top the explosive "he said, he said" between U.S. Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin and intrepid TV journalist Jim Gray.

For the time being, the PGA Championship - the last and least major of the year - is even more of an afterthought.

By now, everybody knows the details - how Gray called Pavin "a liar" after Pavin, in so many words, called Gray the same. Pavin accused the Golf Channel reporter of misquoting him about what he said concerning the addition of Tiger Woods to the Ryder Cup team.

It's all sort of silly since the only one who can keep Tiger Woods off the team is Tiger Woods.

Television will see to that. The networks want Woods competing in the Ryder Cup from Wales the first weekend of October. TV and the entire corporate golf world are prepared to panic if Woods isn't there. Pavin knows this as well as anyone. His decision has been made for him. Everything else is simply rhetoric.

Speaking of decisions, who can forget Gray's drooling collaboration on "The Decision," the excruciating, unintentionally funny TV show featuring LeBron James?

Gray might have shaken up the sedate world of golf this week, but at least he didn't ask Woods if he still bites his nails.

Rick Dempsey, who appears on the pre- and post-game shows for MASN's Orioles broadcasts, interviewed for the manager's job that just went to Buck Showalter.

No shrinking violet, the former Orioles catcher and Norfolk Tides manager says that while he supports Showalter, "I will always feel I know more about this ballclub than anybody else."

This was Dempsey's fourth attempt to become O's manager.

"I think it is probably the biggest mistake made here in a long time, and I'm not talking just today, I mean over the years," he told The Baltimore Sun.

"I think with the relationship I have had with the fans and this city, I should have been a slam-dunk years ago. Someone dropped the ball a long time ago."

Outspokenness is a good quality in a TV analyst. In a manager, it's a godsend for the media. At least it might have been in Baltimore.

Since his comments, has Dempsey's disappointment revealed itself on TV? Not one bit, as far as I can see. On the air, he's managing well.

Bob Molinaro, (757) 446-2373, bob.molinaro@pilotonline.com