HEADS of local sporting associations have lashed out at the lack of local coverage on WIN Television news saying it is simply not good enough for a city the size of Griffith not to have regular news during weeknights.
Since October 23 last year Griffith sport has all but vanished from WIN Television's nightly Riverina bulliten with several spokespeople telling The Area News this week they have had enough.
The Griffith and District Cricket Association (GDCA) has been the big loser so far, with the competition receiving little to no coverage until the recently held Twenty20 tournament.
"There is less and less local content all the time, as far as I am told," GDCA president Peter Davis said.
"Last season Luke (Testoni) used to do a few things for us and at least once a week there'd be something on with myself or one of the local captains, so it is disappointing.
"But I don't think there is a lot that can be done about it, a lot of people are complaining about the lack of local content but we don't seem to get anywhere.
"You guys there (at The Area News) do a good job, but I don't know how many people watch the local news anymore."
WIN Television Griffith manager Greg Murphy admitted the coverage of local sport had been below average in recent times, but said the station was planning to rectify the situation very soon.
"We're looking for people at the moment and in the interim we've got a bit of an action plan so everything should return to normal shortly," Murphy said.
"Sport in general is a big part of the community, and our focus has been to provide a decent amount of sport and news it has been lacking."
However, Griffith City Sports Council president Lou Testoni was more blunt in his assessment of the situation labelling the cutbacks as "appalling" and "woeful" saying people in the Griffith region do not want to hear about sport in other parts of the state.
"There is usually such a great coverage, basically what WIN TV said would not happened has happened. We don't want to know what happened at Batemans Bay," Testoni said.
"It's appalling the way they are treating the country, it's appalling how they have held us to ransom, they'll take our money for advertising no worries at all, and they're are not the cheapest rates getting around - but what are we getting back in return?
"I have heard people are very annoyed and people have turned off, they can't be bothered any more and some of them were die-hard people that watched every night, because the local content, even in the news part, isn't there.
"I can't even tell you the last time I watched it."
Interestingly it is still yet to be seen if the Griffith and District Football Association (GDFA) will renew its sponsorship agreement with WIN Television for the naming rights of its competition in 2010.
GDFA president Angelo Dotta said it worried him that the competition might not be featured on the nightly bulliten despite being named after the station.
"That's something that we have to sort out shortly because it's a year by thing, so if they sponsor it again it will be called the WIN Television Cup," Dotta said.
"In all honesty we do get the bang for our buck in the advertising they do for us, because I was surprised what advertising was going to cost if we had to do it ourselves, so in that respect we do get a bit out of it, but on the other side of it if there are no stories then all we get is the advertising."
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