Idea: Car Chase Channel

Back in college, we'd occasionally catch a car chase on TV, but they're pretty rare up here.  But my roommate was from California and he'd tell me the tales of the chases he'd seen.  When I moved to California after college, I got to see quite a few.  Eventually they made evasion a felony instead of a misdemeanor and it cut down on them.  That is a good thing, as thrilling as they are to watch, they're very dangerous.  Today, the car chases are broadcast over the internet and so Kevin will send me a Facebook message when there's one on so I can watch it, but after two decades, that's all we have? Internet? The chases are usually accompanied by the audio of a helicopter pilot talking to himself or to other pilots (so we only hear half the conversation) or by babbling news anchors who add almost nothing as they argue with each other and the pilot all the while asking repeatedly "where are they now?"

Way back in college my roommate and I imagined a cable network dedicated to car chases.  It would need to be a careful balance - provide entertainment to the viewers without glorifying the criminal. You want to make the most of the ones that occur but certainly not encourage people to do it for the fame.

For awhile there Fox had a dreadful show.  It was was scripted, full of fake sound effects and while the off-screen voiceovers did paint the runner in a negative light, it was so over the top that eventually all of the viewers of the show learned to watch it with the sound muted.

But I've never understood why no L.A. station bothered to differentiate itself by adding useful information that would make the broadcast more interesting and informative while taking advantage of modern advances in design, mapping, video games, etc.

To that end, I present a quick idea I hacked together.  (When did Photoshop get so complicated and counter intuitive?)

click to enlarge