Savage Words: It’s a magical time; here’s to hoping SDPB funding isn’t cut
Growing up a sports fan, one of the true magical times of the year was in mid-March when the state basketball tournaments were played in either Sioux Falls or Rapid City.
We went to a few games when the A or B tournaments came to town, but for the most part, we nestled up in our living room and watched the tournaments on KELO television. Listening to the legendary Jim Burt call the games on KELO was truly an enchanting moment for a youngster who stuck to his every word, and watched every second of both tournaments on our little TV on the east side of Sioux Falls.
Burt broadcast every boys’ basketball tournament from 1948-1982. He retired from KELO in 1987 and died in 1993 at the age of 75.
Burt’s voice has obviously been replaced in recent years, most notably by Mike Henriksen and Craig Mattick on South Dakota Public Broadcasting.
Now, there’s a proposal in Pierre that would make it all go away.
A little history behind where the broadcasts are now, and how we got here: For many years, KELO had the broadcast rights with the SDHSAA to cover the boys’ and girls’ basketball tournaments, along with the state football finals at the Dakota Dome in Vermillion.
In 1981, CBS acquired the rights to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. KELO is a CBS affiliate, and at the time, one of the highest rated affiliates in the country for the network. It also had the largest coverage area of any other CBS affiliate in the country.
Needless to say, KELO General Manager Evans Nord had some pull with the network. To accommodate both the NCAA tournament and the state high school basketball tournaments each March, Nord elected to put the NCAA games on KELO’s sister station – sort of like the KELOXTRA channel of today.
When Nord left KELO, the network put an end to Sioux Falls’ approach to the NCAA tournament. The station was forced to put the college basketball tournament on the network, forcing KELO to drop the high school tournaments.
A group out of Rapid City, called Pax Television, partnered with South Dakota Public Broadcasting to take over the tournaments. It was a rotating effort for several years as Pax covered one of the three boys’ tournaments, and one of the three girls’ tournaments.
When Pax failed, SDPB took over the entire project and in 2007, the company started broadcasting all 12 games for all six tournaments (three boys, three girls). That in itself was groundbreaking. During KELO’s heyday of covering the boys’ tournament, they covered the four quarterfinal games on Thursday, the two semifinal games on Friday, and the championship and third/fourth place games on Saturday. Under SDPB nearly 20 years ago, it was all 12 games over three days.
Since then, SDPB has been thriving in their sports coverage, both on television and online. SDPB coverage doesn’t stop at basketball and football. EVERY sport gets covered with quality photography at every state championship event, updated statistics and game stories written by award-winning journalists.
I say all of this because I’m concerned SDPB’s statewide budget is on the chopping block. At Governor Kristi Noem’s budget address in December, SDPB came into the crosshairs. Upwards of $4.2 million is the proposed cut, which would essentially wipe out all of the local programming, and that includes the magic of the state basketball tournaments.
That stings a bit for a longtime sportswriter. But I know it’s not all about sports, and it’s certainly not about me and my desire to watch the tournaments each year. SDPB does so much more than sports, and every student in South Dakota reaps its benefits.
South Dakota classrooms are loaded with educational programming thanks to SDPB. In fact, SDPB has been in classrooms from Belle Fourche to Elk Point long before SDPB began broadcasting sports. Everything from math, science, literature, geography, and lesson plans about the Lakota language can be accessed.
There’s also a ton of information about South Dakota history with specific lessons about different towns throughout the state. I’m a sports dude, but I love reading and learning about history as well. Reading about some of our state’s history on SDPB is a worthy trip online.
As it sits now, SDPB will be broadcasting the state basketball tournaments next month as part of the 2024 budget. But moving forward, unless our legislators in Pierre have the courage to not mess with SDPB’s budget, things could be dire.
If the cuts occur, next month’s tournaments could be the end of an amazing television experience.
Here’s to hoping our District 2 reps can hold strong and keep the SDPB funding in place. There really is a magic to buckets in March on SDPB.
