Quote Originally Posted by scott
I don't think SouthernFried is referring to the regulated delay that is used as a buffer to prevent obscenities.

The radio comes over a hair faster simply because it doesn't have to bounce off a bunch of satellites like the national TV broadcast does.
Actually the satelites bounce are irrelevant (radio waves travel at the speed of light so those distances are just too small to make a noticeable impact). What actually happens is that in order for the different broadcasters in the transmission chain to be able to mix the picture with other pictures (like graphics and stuff) they need to synchronize the signals in the whole broadcast facility - you can only do that by delaying the external feed (ie pics coming from the bball arena) to match your in-house master sync using so called frame synchronizers. The delay depends on how many such facilities there are in between the basketball court and your house.

Typical minimum: OB Van -> Host broadcaster -> Satelite uplink facility -> local cable/sat operater ->your TV set. In that scenario the signal would have been delayed three times.