No broadcast yet for Powerball lottery in western N.C.

Jun 9, 2006, 8:27 am (5 comments)

Powerball

Western North Carolina lottery players may have to turn to a South Carolina television station to watch Powerball drawings.

State lottery administrators said this week they're having difficulty finding a television station in the western region to broadcast the drawings. Drawings are at 10:59 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday.

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Stations in Charlotte, Greenville and Raleigh are airing the drawings. The lottery doesn't pay for the airtime, but instead offers to advertise the station on billboards, printed promotional material and some radio spots, said Alice Garland, a lottery spokeswoman.

WLOS, the only broadcast station based in and licensed to serve WNC, has talked with lottery administrators, said Jack Connors, the station's general manager.

"They want us to delay our newscast and carry the drawings for free," Connors said Wednesday. "We just can't give out broadcast time for free around a newscast."

Alternatives include striking a deal with a local cable television station to air the ads. But WNC audiences can already see the Powerball drawings on South Carolina stations WSPA/WASV and WHNS. South Carolina is among the 29 states that participate in Powerball.

"When you have televised drawings, it creates excitement and interest," said Max Cogburn Jr., a state lottery commissioner from Asheville. "It reminds them we do have an education lottery in North Carolina. But I think this will be taken care of."

The state's Powerball sales as of Monday were $6.5 million. Overall, lottery sales, including Powerball, are just less than $175 million.

North Carolina was the top state last week in gross sales and among the top five states in per capita sales, said Tom Shaheen, lottery executive director.

Shaheen said it was difficult to compare North Carolina's launch to that of other states because large jackpots draw more players, which mean higher lottery profits. Last week's jackpot was $38 million.

This week's estimated jackpot is $60 million.

Cogburn said the state is on track in terms of lottery sales. Administrators expect to earmark $420 million for public school construction, college scholarships and other education programs.

"We'll keep bringing in new games and are considering having other games that are similar to Powerball but are contained within the state," he said. "All of those things are on the table."

Asheville Citizen-Times

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NCPicks

Most western counties can see the drawings,just not from a NC TV station.Those SC stations cover Southwestern NC and the Northwestern counties are covered by Tenn. stations.You would be hard pressed to find someone who wanted to see the drawings that couldn't.

JimmySand9

Seeing there's only one station in WNC (WLOS, which may or may not want to show the draws), and the fact people in those counties can get the drawings on WHNS (WSPA used to show the drawings, but not anymore) may mean no NC Lottery station at least until the in-state games start.

Ladyluck2005's avatarLadyluck2005

Most western counties can see the drawings,just not from a NC TV station.Those SC stations cover Southwestern NC and the Northwestern counties are covered by Tenn. stations.You would be hard pressed to find someone who wanted to see the drawings that couldn't.

Thats what I was going to say.  I went to WCU & we watched news channels from SC (Greenville & Spartanburg).

LOTTOMIKE's avatarLOTTOMIKE

they still have a number they can call for results.or look online if they have a computer......

LOTTOMIKE's avatarLOTTOMIKE

hopefully this doesn't cause confusion and someone throws away a winning ticket......

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