by Scott Agness | @ScottAgness
October 29, 2013
With the 2013-14 season upon us, here’s all you need to know about Pacers broadcast coverage this season.
Radio: ESPN FM 107.5/1070 The Fan
The flagship station of the Pacers remains ESPN 1070 The Fan in Indianapolis. They will broadcast every game, preseason included, on FM 107.5 The Fan and most will also air on 1070 AM.
For home games, Bobby ‘Slick’ Leonard will join the Radio Voice of the Pacers, Mark Boyle, on the broadcast. Boyle, who enters his 26th season with the team, will call road games by himself. Kevin Lee returns as pregame host and sideline reporter for home games. Michael Grady, the public address announcer at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, will serve as the studio host for away games.
PACERS.COM SEASON PREVIEW: Pacers.com has all the coverage you need to get ready for the 2013-14 NBA season.
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Immediately following the network broadcast, Eddie White will host Pacers Overtime for the second consecutive year. During the postgame show, White will analyze the game, point out the difference maker in his eyes, take calls from fans and have Pacers personalities on critique the game.
TV: FOX Sports Indiana
For the second year in a row, every Pacers regular season game will be televised. FSI will broadcast 80 of the 82 regular season games and TNT has the other two. The Pacers appear on national television 17 times: eight on ESPN, seven on NBATV and two on TNT.
Chris Denari and Quinn Buckner team up for the eighth straight year on FOX Sports Indiana, and Brooke Olzendam, the sideline reporter and host, begins her third season.
Once last season ended, Austin Croshere moved his family back to where he’s from – Los Angeles, California. Just because he’s gone doesn’t mean he’s done with Pacers broadcasts. Croshere will be the color analyst on FOX Sports Indiana for a select number of road games.
FOX Sports Indiana has also hired Fever associate head coach Stephanie White, who is well known among basketball fans in Indiana, to be an analyst on Pacers LIVE pregame and postgame for 15 home games this season. She’s thrilled to have the opportunity to analyze the Pacers and the NBA game, and the feeling is mutual. The coaching staff is very fond of her and believe she’ll do great.
The slogan from FOX this year is, “Cover the game. Think big.” They recognize that while the bells and whistles and production elements are great, folks at home want to see all the action.
“We want our fans when they watch the game, to feel like they’ve watched a national broadcast-quality show where they’ve been first of all, informed, and secondly, entertained,” said Matt Scott, the coordinating producer who enters his 20th year working on Pacers broadcasts.
Scott is the architect of the broadcasts. It’s his job to combine all the elements – talent, graphics, music, features, and the story – and make it flow smoothly into a quality broadcast for the audience.
There will continue to be a push for social media when it can enhance the show, but there aren’t going to force it in just so they use social media. Denari and Olzendam, along with Boyle, often tweet game updates and their thoughts on their personal accounts.
Jeremiah Johnson, formerly a sports reporter at FOX 59 for nearly nine years, has been hired as the pregame producer. He expects the show to be very similar to how it’s looked in the past, but he will add some of his own touches, especially as the season progresses.
“He’s an Indiana guy,” Scott said of Johnson. “He’s been in Indianapolis and around this team through some good times and some bad times and he’s a big basketball fan to begin with, so he brings that Hoosier element where he wants to see this team succeed and he knows what people in this community like. And he adds a fresh perspective.”
FOX will have a new set for its pregame and postgame show. And unlike previous years, it won’t be on the court. Instead, the set will be in the entry pavilion and in a fan-friendly environment that’s accessible to everyone.
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