On weekends in the late 1980s , WNVC had an unusual reputation for sports coverage . The station showed as many syndicated college basketball games as possible , including from the NCAA Division I Men 's Basketball Tournament in the era before every game was on national television . As there was generally only demand for Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference games in Washington , WNVC picked up games from major and minor conferences in other regions for relatively low cost . Its noncommercial status in turn freed it from the prospect of having to sell advertising for games that were likely to draw microscopic audiences . Director of development Mike Baker went on air during commercial breaks and halftimes with live appeals for donations . This stream of programming began to dry up in the early 1990s , when CBS and ESPN began national coverage of the entire tournament and increased coverage of regular-season games
Big East
Big East Conference (1979–2013)
WNVT