http://the506.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1242143625

The first tv coverage was in 1949 and 1950 by WFBM TV Channel 6 in
Indianapolis. In fact it was the first program on the station. The
announcers were Earle Townsend Jr, Dick Pittenger and Paul Roberts. It
was covered flag to flag but Tony Hulman fearing attendance problems
disallowed broadcasts. From 1964 to 1970 there was a closed circuit
live broadcast across the nation.

During the 1964 race, the Sachs/MacDonald crash frightened Hulman so
much, he was concerned about the race being on live TV and people
seeing drivers die on live TV. Thus when ABC came on board for race
day in 1965, they were not allowed (nor were they prepared) to do live
coverage. In addition during that period, the race was held during the
week anyway, so live coverage wasn't practical.

For the same-day tape broadcasts (1971-1985), WRTV-6 in Indianapolis
was not allowed to broadcast it. It was blacked out during that entire
era. They were allowed to show it once, taped, a couple weeks later. I
heard as late as mid-June or July, sometimes in the middle of the
night. And the pre-race was edited out.

When it went live, from 1986-1991, it was the same policy. Not allowed
to show it live, but they could show a chopped-up version a few weeks
later.

Starting in 1992, WRTV and ABC came to an agreement to allow the race
to be shown in its entirety in Indianapolis the same night. It has
followed that pattern ever since.

In 1994, the Brickyard 400 was shown same day tape on WRTV instead of
live. In 1995 (due to the rain delay), it was shown same day tape on
WRTV, while the rest of the country had to wait until Sunday
afternoon. From 1996-2000, it was same day tape on WRTV. When BY400
switched to NBC for 2001 (WTHR), at some point (I believe 2005),
WTHR-13 ditched the blackout, and reverted to a live broadcast. Since
it moved to ESPN in 2007, it has not been blacked out locally.

Plus, as noted before, from 1964-1970, the live broadcast of the race
was on theater TV, produced by MCA, then the parent company of
Universal Pictures. ABC had to show the race on a several-day delay
(minimum three days) under the terms of that contract.

In 1964, the lead MCA announcer was Charlie Brockman, who had worked
on the IMS Radio Network in the past.

1965 shown June 5 th Charlie Brockman
1966 shown in June Chris Schenkel
1967 shown June 10 Jim Mc Kay, Roger Ward
1968 shown June 15 Jim Mc Kay, Roger Ward
1969 shown June 7 Jim Mc Kay, Roger Ward, Chris Economaki
1970 shown June 6 Jim Mc Kay, Chirs Economaki

These were when it was on Wide World of Sports

this is the same day tape delayed coverage
1971 May 29 8:30 PM EDT Chris Schenkel, Jim Mc Kay, Jackie Stewart,
Chris Economaki, Bill Flemming, Keith Jackson and David Letterman
Letterman was a weatherman at Indy's then-ABC affiliate, WLW-I Channel
13 (now NBC affiliate WTHR) in the early '70s.
1972 May 27 8:30 PM EDT Schenkel, Mc Kay, Stewart, Economaki
1973 May 30 8:00 PM EDT Schenkel, Mc Kay, Stewart, Economaki, Dave
Diles
1974 May 26 9:00 PM EDT Schenkel, Mc Kay, Sam Posey, Economaki,
Flemming
1975 May 25 9:00 PM EDT Jackson, Stewart, Posey
1976 May 30 9:00 PM EDT Mc Kay, Stewart, Economaki
1977 May 29 9:00 PM EDT Schenkel, Mc Kay, Stewart, Economaki,
Flemming
1978 May 28 9:00 PM EDT McKay, Stewart, Economaki, Flemming
1979 May 27 9:00 PM EDT Schenkel, Mc Kay, Stewart, Economaki, Diles
Coverage was 2 1/2 hours in 1971-1972 then 2 hours from 1973-1975 then
2 hours and 10 minutes from 1976-1979

1980 May 25 9:00 PM EDT Schenkel, Mc Kay, Stewart, Economaki, Posey,
Diles
1981 May 24 9:00 PM EDT Diles, McKay, Stewart, Economaki, Posey
1982 May 30 9:00 PM EDT McKay, Posey, FLemming, Economaki, Jack
Whitaker, Stewart
1983 May 29 9:00 PM EDT Mc Kay, Posey, Economaki, Flemming, Lampley,
Anne Simon
1984 May 27 9:00 PM EDT McKay, Posey, Flemming, Jack Arute, Larry
Nuber, Ray Gandolf
1985 May 26 9:00 PM EDT McKay, Posey, Arute, Lampley, Flemming

This coverage was 3 hours. when schenkel was listed as first he was
the host same with Diles in 1991.

In 1986 came flag to flag coverage

1986 McKay, Lampley, Posey, Arute, Nuber, Al Trautwig, Dr. Joe
Randolph, Donna De Verona
The '86 race was actually run the following Saturday due to rain on
Sunday and Monday.
1987 McKay, Lampley, Posey, Bobby Unser, Arute, Nuber, Jerry Gappens
1988 Paul Page, Posey, Unser, Arute, Brian Hammons
1989 Page, Posey, Unser, Hammons, Arute, Dr. Jerry Punch
1990 Page, Posey, Unser, Arute, Punch, Gary Gerould
1991 page, Posey, Unser, Arute, Punch, Gerould, Jack Whittaker
(essayist)
1992 Page, Posey, Unser, Arute, Punch, Gerould
1993 Page, Posey, Unser, Arute, Punch, Gerould Unser in turn 2
1994 Page, Posey, Unser, Turn 4 Danny Sullivan, Arute, Punch, Gerould
1995 Page, Posey, Unser, Arute, Punch Gerould (Unser in turn 2)
1996 Page, Sullivan, Turn 2 Bobby Unser, Arute, Punch, Gerould
1997 Page, Tom Sneva, Turn 2 Unser, Turn 4 Sullivan, Arute, Punch,
Gerould
1998 Page, Sneva, Arute, Punch, Gerould,
1999 Michaels, Bob Jenkins, Sneva, Punch, Gerould, Jan Beekhuis

2000 Al Michaels, Bob Jenkins, Tom Sneva, Arie Luyendyk, Arute, Punch,
Gerould, Leslie Gudell
2001 Michaels, Jenkins, Larry Rice, Jason Priestley, Arute, Punch,
Gudell, Vince Welch
2002 Jenkins, Page, Goodyear, Arute, Punch, Gerould, Welch
2003 Jenkins, Page, Scott Goodyear, Arute, Punch, Georuld, Welch
2004 Terry Gannon, Page, Goodyear, Arute, Jim McKay, Punch, Gerould,
Welch, Todd Harris, Jamie Little
2005 Musberger, Todd Harris, Goodyear, Arute, Punch, Little, Penn
Holdnerness
2006 Musberger, Marty Reid, Scott Goodyear, Rusty Wallace, Arute,
Punch, Little, Welch
2007 Musberger, Reid, Goodyear, Wallace, Arute, Welch, Little, Brienne
Pedigo
2008 Musberger, Goodyear, Eddie Cheever, Jack Arute, Vince Welch,
Jamie Little, Brienne Pedigo
2009 Musberger, Reid, Goodyear, Cheever, Arute, Welch, Little, Pedigo

For a tremendous site containing historical Indy 500 TV, radio (and
other) info, see
http://johnsonindy500.trackforum.com/indy500/imstv.html

http://johnsonindy500.trackforum.com/indy500/imsradio.html

On Oct 22, 5:21*pm, TMC <tmc1... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:
Impressive historical research! One of my favorite moments was when
Sam Posey tried to talk with race leader Kevin Cogan during the yellow
before the final restart in the 1986 race and his response was
something to the effect: "I'm kind of busy right now." Bobby Rahal
promptly snookered Cogan when the green flew and took the win. IIRC,
that was the closest 1-2-3 finish at Indy ever up to that time, and
Rahal ran his fastest race lap on the white flag lap. I've got it on
VHS somewhere...