Sports on the Air /
Sports on the Air: Sabres, HD won’t mix on the road
This is what I’m thinking: • It is my unfortunate duty to advise you that the Buffalo Sabres’ road telecasts on MSG won’t be carried in high definition in the upcoming season. The home games will be in HD again, reminding HD viewers how much better they look from HSBC Arena.
• Former Sabre Matthew Barnaby remains a candidate for Barry Melrose’s job as ESPN’s hockey analyst. Barnaby, who co-hosts a Time Warner Cable show with Rob Ray, auditioned a while ago. Melrose now coaches the Tampa Bay Lightning.
• South Buffalo’s Patrick Kane is one of four NHL stars being used in national TV spots for the NHL’s advertising campaign for the upcoming season. Last year’s Rookie of the Year for the Chicago Blackhawks is in pretty impressive company. The other three stars are Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby, the Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist and Calgary’s Dion Phaneuf.
• In case you wondered, the Sirius and XM satellite radio show hosted by Chris (Mad Dog) Russo officially launches on Sept. 15. A preview show ran Thursday. Somehow, I doubt he’ll bring in as many listeners as Howard Stern did. By the way, Bills coach Dick Jauron — who isn’t exactly a quote machine — is one of 18 NFL coaches who are participating in weekly in-depth reports on Sirius.
• Bills fans had better hope that NFL Network’s Marshall Faulk knows what he is talking about. The analyst on the network’s Game Day Morning has picked the Bills as this year’s NFL surprise team.
“If they can stay healthy at the linebacker position they’re definitely going to be a threat,” Faulk said before Angelo Crowell had season-ending knee surgery. “They can pressure the quarterback to make up for some of the inexperience that they have in the secondary. Offensively, with their receivers and running backs and the line, which is the biggest in the league, I expect them to make some noise in the AFC East.”
• In notable NFL broadcasting moves this season, former Baltimore coach Brian Billick has joined Fox as an analyst; former New York Giants great Michael Strahan is a newcomer to the aging Fox pregame team; former “Inside the NFL” analyst Cris Carter is now on ESPN; and Dan Patrick has reteamed with former “SportsCenter” partner Keith Olbermann on NBC’s Sunday Night Football pregame show.
• Mike Schopp and Chris Parker’s afternoon show on WGR is now being syndicated on a Rochester AM station, Sports Radio 950 ESPN, that just switched from a progressive talk format to all-sports. Like WGR, the station is owned by Entercom Communications and also carries the Sabres. Schopp graduated from St. John Fisher College in Rochester. The Rochester station isn’t paying for the show, WGR programmer Andy Roth said.
• ESPN’s Mike Tirico gave Buffalo fans some props in a preseason Monday Night Football conference call.
Asked to pick games to watch on ESPN’s schedule, Tirico said: “Any game at Lambeau Field, especially the opening game, especially the opening game of a new era in [Green Bay] Packer football, which you haven’t had in a decade and a half. Truly a generation has not experienced the Packers playing a meaningful game without [Brett] Favre as their quarterback. . . . You can put any combination of the NFC East together and it draws people to the television. A couple of games I’m looking forward to are the Giants at Cleveland and Cleveland at Buffalo in November.
“What we saw in Buffalo last year, it’s just a reminder of the 39-year continuum that Monday Night Football has been. When Monday Night Football shows up, people are more excited than they are for another game during the regular season. There’s a sense that all the sports fans around the country are watching your fans, your team and your city. The players still feel that as well and they understand the special nature of it.”
• In case you wondered, Channel 4 has to carry a 1 p. m. Sunday game (Miami- Jets) opposite the Bills-Seattle opener because of CBS’ 4 p. m. coverage of the men’s tennis title match of the U. S. Open. Because the Bills’ sold-out home game is against an NFC road team, Channel 29 carries it at 1 p. m. and the Dallas-Cleveland game after it because it is a Fox doubleheader weekend.
