With all remaining local teams gone from the NCAA men's basketball tournament, CBS affiliate WUSA/9 adopted West Virginia as a favorite but apparently not enough of a favorite to showcase WVU's regional semifinal game. WUSA will instead air West Virginia vs. Xavier this Thursday on subchannel 9.2, normally used for a 24-hour loop of the station's weather radar. CBS will feed ACC power North Carolina vs. Washington State on the main WUSA signal.
Even a subchannel broadcast seemed a remote prospect for West Virginia fans in the Washington, D.C. television market which extends into the eastern panhandle of West Virginia itself. WUSA sports anchor Sara Walsh instead promoted the conflicting North Carolina game as late as Monday night's 11 p.m. newscast, promising only cut-ins to the West Virginia game. Walsh said words to the effect that the station couldn't please everybody.
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The multitude of protest posts directed towards the station Web site since Monday, orchestrated in large measure by West Virginia's scout.com forum, likely forced WUSA to see the man on the mountaintop.
On cable systems, WUSA/9.2 will be picked up for this game only on Comcast channel 182 in the eastern West Virginia panhandle, reports Blue Gold News. In the immediate D.C. area, 9.2 can be picked up on Comcast channel 203, Cox channel 965 and Verizon channel 861.
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Relevant link: Blue Gold News
