Last week Adam Lefkoe delivered a pro wrestling themed sportscast for Louisville ABC affiliate WHAS. This week? He chose the king of the 90’s sitcoms, “Seinfeld” as his muse.
Using the theme music from the show that aired between 1989 and 1998, Lefkoe sprinkled 41 “Seinfeld” references throughout his 11:00 p.m. Sunday night sports report. For his effort, all he got was a ‘slow clap’ and an attempted ‘Elaine Dance’ from co-anchor Chelsea Rabideau.
Lefkoe told TVSpy he’s planning on doing more themed sportscasts, which he’s branded #Sportcast, a concept he’s developed where he crowd-sources ideas for his weekend report. On his Tumblr page, he said he does it to engage his audience.
“Simply throw out a question on social media and farm the results,” Lefkoe said on his Tumblr page. “If no one responds, welp, just do your normal sportscast. If they reach out, embrace them. The return is a wonderful exchange of ideas.”
But is it a clever marketing ploy or just a gimmick? While Lefkoe seems to be aware of the thin line between the two, he said the concept seems to be drawing more eyeballs to his station, “I’ve been getting tweets and messages from local viewers claiming to be turning on our station for the first time…just to see what the fuss is about.”
As for how he does it? “I produce my show in advance, stacking and writing as if it were a normal broadcast. Then, I print out all of the tweets and messages I’ve received and try to figure out where each would work within the context of the already constructed block. Essentially, I’m producing two shows. If I feel like something might be a stretch, I ditch it.”
“I truly believe that everything involving #Sportscast (The title of the concept) must be decided on by the viewers,” said Lefkoe. “I’m not doing this for attention or self-serving purposes…it’s just a fun way to creatively produce local content that can bring back an engaged audience.”
[The Big Lead]