Instead of showing all five games of the most crucial baseball series of the season between the University of Hawaii and Cal State-Northridge this week, KFVE-TV officials have opted to broadcast the two exhibition men's volleyball matches on Friday and Saturday, and a single baseball game on Sunday.
The top-ranked Rainbows volleyball team ends its regular season this weekend against the University of California, which competes at the club level. The games will not count toward Hawaii's record.
KFVE program director Dan Schmidt said last night that had the baseball team opted to play the makeup game with Northridge on Saturday after the regularly scheduled nine-inning game, the television station would have gone with both baseball and volleyball.
"But I was told by (UH assistant sports information director) Markus Owens that they didn't want to do it that way," Schmidt said.
"As it is, the nine-inning game would start too late for us to do both broadcasts. We wouldn't have time to set up for volleyball, so we can't possibly gamble on that.
"We also try as much as we can to televise the final regular-season home games in all sports. We can't always do it, but it's a nice salute to the seniors, so we want to be there."
The volleyball team also is producing huge television ratings. In four men's matches shown in February, the average household rating was 15.
In that same ratings period, baseball did about a 10 or 11, still strong, but not the same high-caliber numbers of volleyball.
"It's a romance as much as a rating," Schmidt said.
"We're probably going to see a lot of the second-string players on Friday and Saturday, but that's a romance that can build toward next year.
"We feel like volleyball is generating the most interest right now and the best way to service our viewers is to show volleyball. It's a gut feeling."
The volleyball matches are set for 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The two seven-inning games in baseball begin at 6:05 p.m. on Friday.
The suspended game begins at 1:05 p.m. on Saturday with the regularly scheduled game set to start 30 minutes after the completion of the first game.
The nine-inning game on Sunday begins at 2:05 p.m. to accommodate Northridge's travel plans. All of the baseball games will be broadcast live on radio.