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About 80% of the U.S. audience lives in the Eastern and Central time zones.

Central time, 30 minutes earlier than previously planned, to try to ensure that as many television viewers as possible are still awake when Obama takes the stage at the United Center.

There was speculation that convention programmers purposely pushed the president’s appearance out of television’s prime time on the East Coast and, by the time he finished, in the Central time zone.

Central Time to a minuteslong standing ovation.

One of the best examples, he said, of how “federal policies aren’t taken great locally” is the federally established time zone line, which, until the late 1960s, ran along Main Street, splitting Valentine between Mountain and Central time.