ECU Athletics and WITN Extend Televison Agreement
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- East Carolina University and WITN-TV (Channel 7) have extended their exclusive television agreement through 2005, as announced today by ECU Director of Athletics Mike Hamrick.
As the "official television station of the Pirates," WITN, an affiliate of NBC, has the rights to air ECU football, basketball, and baseball games, in addition to the Steve Logan and Bill Herrion coaches shows.

"We are pleased to continue our partnership with WITN," Hamrick said. "Mike Weeks [WITN President/General Manager] and his staff have done an outstanding job with their presentation of our student-athletes and increasing our exposure in eastern North Carolina. Not many programs in the country are fortunate enough to have a relationship such as we have with WITN."

Since the initial contract was signed in 1998, WITN has aired a minimum of four football games and three basketball games yearly as part of the Pirate Sports Television Network package. The four football contests to be televised in the coming season are to be announced.

"We`re excited about continuing our relationship with East Carolina University`s athletics department and working to increase the awareness and presence of the Pirates," said WITN`s Weeks.

The Steve Logan show will air Sundays this fall at 12 noon while The Bill Herrion Show will be seen weekly in the same time slot during basketball season.

WITN-TV, with main studios located in Washington, N.C., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Gray Communications Systems, Inc., a southeast U.S. communications leader located in Atlanta, Ga. Gray Communications owns and operates 13 televisions stations, four daily newspapers, a weekly advertising shopper, a communications and paging business, and a satellite uplink business. Gray is a publicly held company with two classes of common stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbols GCS and GCS.B.

Posted on: 07/25/2002