The Bass



April 28, 2001

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Forget TV game shows; never mind all those movies about World War II -- the hottest media trend these days is swimming in a lake near you. Bass. That's right. Bass is big. The cable network TNN averages about half a million viewers for the 4 programs they air which feature Bass. That's about the same number of viewers as ESPN gets for its national hockey league games, and as for NHL games on ESPN II-- forget about it. Bass fishing blows them out of the water. In order to hook into this burgeoning sport, the Total Sports Network took a bold step. Earlier this month ESPN bought B.A.S.S. On the Media's producer at large Mike Pesca explains. [BUCOLIC FLUTE MUSIC]

MIKE PESCA: In the hazy early hours, as the birds chirp their morning songs, anglers approach the shore with tackle boxes full of bait and bellies full of the 4.95 breakfast special -- the cast. [CASTING SOUNDS; KERPLUNK] A sound more satisfying is unimaginable. Just fresh air, calm water and the serenity of state-of-the-art 64-bit technology with a virtual fishing rod plugin! [

ANNOUNCER: FISHER RUNS BAIT - A BASS CHALLENGE]

MIKE PESCA: Two years ago one on-line video game reviewer referred to fishing games as the industry's deep dark secret, but two years is decades in the world of video games, eons on the Net, and to a bass -- a literal lifetime. Since then, bass video games whether at home or in the arcade have taken off, as have all bass-related media. Bass Masters Magazine now has 600,000 subscribers. There's bass radio shows and bass bands.

BAND MEMBERS SINGING: I'M THE BOSS BASS--

MIKE PESCA: Never mind the perch craze of the '70s or the much-hyped cod boom of a few years back. Bass is truly boss. Go to the web. There you'll find the Fantasy Bass Challenge. Bass enthusiasts select the professional anglers they think will haul in the heaviest bass, and while Mr. and Mrs. Non-Fisherperson might not know that bass is a 28 billion dollar a year industry, Corporate America has not been caught unaware by the lure of bass.

MAN: We're not looking to just absorb B.A.S.S.

MIKE PESCA: That's Mark Quenzel, vice president of programming at ESPN. The "bass" he's speaking of is the Bass Angler's Sportsmen's Society --B.A.S.S. -- which ESPN recently purchased. Bass, the group, does stage widely popular Bass Tournaments which ESPN has been covering as television events for years. But B.A.S.S.'s director of communications George McNeely says B.A.S.S. is so much more than just television. For millions of youngsters, B.A.S.S. is hope.

GEORGE McNEELY: Over 1.5 million dollars in scholarship funds have gone their way, all for pitching, flipping, and casting toward a target at various events where the champion is crowned at our championship event, the Bass Master's Classic.

MIKE PESCA: Mark Quenzel says that although ESPN has never before owned an enthusiast's organization, the Disney-owned sports network won't ignore B.A.S.S.'s many community and environmental efforts. Still, it's the television programming that dangled enticingly before ESPN like the proverbial zoom fluke lure. Whereas some men look at TV fishing and say what the-- ?!? -- Mark Quenzel says-- what if?

MARK QUENZEL: One of the first things we're going to look at is how do you make it more exciting for the viewer? The shows have evolved. We think they're a lot more compelling now. You get a lot more of the underwater shots, the shots where the, you know, the fish actually hits the lure or whatever the bait is -- you see a lot more of the technique. If you watch-- some of the medical shows you know that they have these cameras that literally go into, you know, veins and arteries and your - tiny, tiny miniaturized cameras, so-- it may not be beyond the realm of possibility that there would be lure cams somewhere in the future.

MIKE PESCA: Whatever technical wizardry is visited upon the lakes and reservoirs of America, ESPN and B.A.S.S. have a few challenges before them. Many Americans simply can't identify with a sporting event where one competitor can eat another, Mike Tyson fights notwithstanding. Also there's the question of overcoming the notion that fishing simply isn't a sport. Just listen to Peter Chan of the Urban Angler in Manhattan. He says that the type of fishing his store specializes in, fly fishing, is less sport and more chance to literally immerse oneself in nature.

PETER CHAN: Chad fishing can be highly technical and it's more energizing; it's much more cerebral. You have to know hatches. For fly fishermen, especially a trout fisherman, we're not looking to organize or to make it a big show. It's a - it's about you - you're there--; you're surrounded by the stream, and what the trout is doing and, and that's pretty much it.

MIKE PESCA: If other fishermen aren't that interested in watching, ESPN and B.A.S.S. will have to market their product more to the masses. That's why you'll find the bass-fishing video game at the ESPN Sports Zone restaurant in New York's Times Square. To the patrons playing video games devoted to football-- [

ANNOUNCER: HUT ONE, HUT TWO, LET'S GO!] Nascar-- [NASCAR RACING SOUNDS] and even horse racing-- [GALLOPING HORSES --

ANNOUNCER: [...?...] TAKES THE LEAD!!] -- a fishing video game seemed a little-- piscine.

MIKE PESCA: There's a - you know there's a bass fishing game here. Have, have you seen that at all?



WOMAN: I don't like fishing. That's boring!

MIKE PESCA: But what if the video game were to be, you know, twice as exciting as actual fishing --might that interest you?



WOMAN: No.

MIKE PESCA: What about you, you like fishing?

KID: No. It's too boring.

MIKE PESCA: Well if I told you that there was a video game which could take the fishing experience and make it really interesting, would you at all be interested in playing?

KID: No.

MIKE PESCA: You ever play the fishing video game?

KID: A fiction video game?!

MIKE PESCA: Fishing -- you know -- fish? With gills and--no, never?

KID: Never!



WOMAN: [...?...] really fishing video game?

MIKE PESCA: Yeah! There's a fishing video game around back! You want to play?



WOMAN: Nah.

MIKE PESCA: Oh-- my treat! I'll pay for it. Give it a whirl.

KID: I think it's a joke.

MIKE PESCA: While non-anglers refuse to seriously consider a fishing video game, fishermen took to it. Witness the sight of Ted and Matthew Clark of Allendale, New Jersey making like a modern day Andy and Opie. Ted proudly looked on as his son struggled to reel in the video image of a 2-pounder.

MATTHEW CLARK: Well I'm not very good in real life, but this could help me.

MIKE PESCA: Matthew's enthusiasm should be music to ESPN's ears.

TED CLARK: The cool thing about the video game experience is that you don't have that throw-up kind of feeling that you do on the boat, you know?

MIKE PESCA: And Ted's words could easily be the slogan for vicarious anglers everywhere. With video games, expanded TV coverage, and one of the world's largest media companies backing the world's largest fishing organization, the conclusion is inescapable -- it's a very bad time to be a bass. [BASS SONG UNDER] For On the Media, I'm Mike Pesca. 58:00

BOB GARFIELD: That's it for this week's show. On the Media was produced by Janeen Price and Katya Rogers, engineered by George Edwards and this week not-- edited by Brooke. She was off doing some sort of "special assignment." We had help from Dylan Keefe, David Serchuk and Kathleen Horan.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:Mike Pesca is our producer at large, Arun Rath our senior producer and Dean Cappello our executive producer. Bassist/composer Ben Allison wrote our theme -- not to be confused with this fishing number. You can listen to the program and get free transcripts at onthemedia.org and e-mail us at onthemedia@wnyc.org This is On the Media from National Public Radio. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

BOB GARFIELD: And I'm-- Gone Fishin'.