MSG Network

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Madison Square Garden Network

Type	Regional cable television network
Country	United States
Availability	NY metro area; nationwide
Owner	Cablevision
Launch date	October 15, 1969
Website	MSG.com

The Madison Square Garden Network, more commonly referred to as the MSG Network or simply as MSG, is a regional cable television and radio network serving the New York City area. The network takes the name of Madison Square Garden and has long been the producer of radio and television broadcasts of the NBA's New York Knicks, the NHL's New York Rangers, and the WNBA's New York Liberty, which play their home games at the Garden. The New York Red Bulls of MLS also broadcast games on the channel. MSG also has a sister station, FSN New York, which is the primary home to the NHL's New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders as well as national Fox Sports Net programming.

MSG rebranded on October 5, 2006 with a new logo, new graphics and the removal of Network from promotion of the station's name. [1] Since the relaunch, more entertainment-oriented programming has aired on the network. This programming includes concerts and professional boxing and wrestling cards that have taken place at Madison Square Garden or Radio City Music Hall (both operated by MSG Entertainment) in the past and continue to occur to this day.

Contents 1 Radio division 2 Collegiate Programming 3 New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils on MSG Network 4 MSG2 and FSN New York 2 5 Original programming 5.1 MSG, NY 5.2 Basketball 5.3 Hockey 5.4 Soccer 5.5 Other sports 5.6 Talk shows 5.7 Entertainment 5.8 Archival 5.9 Online programming 6 Personalities 6.1 MSG Network 6.2 FSN New York 6.3 MSG Radio Network 6.4 Former personalities 7 Buffalo Sabres coverage 8 Upstate New York coverage 9 History 9.1 Baseball coverage 1989-2005 10 Ownership 11 Logos 12 MSG HD 13 External links

[edit] Radio division

The radio division of MSG Network, known as the Madison Square Garden (MSG) Radio Network, produces Knicks and Rangers broadcasts for 1050 ESPN Radio. All home Knicks games and selected Knicks away games have Spanish-language SAP that is a simulcast of its radio coverage on WADO Red Bulls games have Spanish-language SAP that is a simulcast of its radio coverage on WADO. Prior to the fall of 2004, MSG-produced Knicks and Rangers games aired on WFAN.There are rumblings [as of late fall 2006] that the Knicks and Rangers radio broadcasts could return to WFAN because of WEPN's spotty coverage pattern.

[edit] Collegiate Programming

MSG and its sister station FSN New York, also broadcast Big East football and basketball, MAAC basketball, NEC basketball, Atlantic 10 basketball, Pac 10 football and basketball, Big 12 football and women's basketball, and ACC basketball. The latter three are part of national FOX Sports Net broadcast contracts, while the others are either produced by the conferences themselves (Comcast co-produces Atlantic 10 games) or ESPN Plus. MSG also currently has the rights to the coaches shows for Rutgers University.

[edit] New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils on MSG Network

Selected New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils games also air on MSG when both teams play at the same time, with one airing on sister-channel FSN New York, which along with MSG are officially referred to as MSG Media, formerly MSG Networks. In turn, selected Rangers games air on FSN New York when the Knicks are on MSG and no live game is airing on FSNY at the same time. Any programming to which MSG owns the rights could air on either channel, although no Knicks games are scheduled to air on FSN NY during the 2006-07 season (most likely because New York Knicks are the highest-rated property of the Madison Square Garden).

[edit] MSG2 and FSN New York 2

If more than two of these four local teams are playing at the same time, either the Rangers or Knicks play on "MSG2," (the Knicks only play on MSG2 when they start later than the Rangers, as they are MSG's highest-rated property) and the Islanders or Devils play on "FSN New York 2," which are different selected channels for each cable system, many being broadcast on the TV Guide Channel, while satellite systems will show them on a sports alternate channel. These channels are sometimes not available outside New York City and nearby suburbs, although DirecTV, DISH, and Comcast typically offer them.

From the fall of 1998 until the spring of 2005, Cablevision chose not to open up an additional MSG2 channel, instead placing games on their MSG Metro Channels, which was only available in limited homes. Sometimes, games were also placed onto Riverhead-based WLNY. During this era, when two of the teams that the MSG Networks covered played against each other, only one broadcast would usually be produced using one of the team's announcing duos (this was either due to MSG's TV contracts, or a desire to show a different sporting event at the same time). With the discontinuation of Metro, and the loss of the New Jersey Nets from their winter lineup, the MSG Networks now produce two broadcasts when two of their teams are playing against each other.

[edit] Original programming

[edit] MSG, NY

• MSG's new flagship program, added in October 2006, is called MSG, NY. It is a daily sports and entertainment highlights show, which is shown numerous times during the day. Formerly called MSG Sportsdesk, and solely focusing on sports, the show has changed as part of MSG's 2006 rebranding to focus on anything taking place at MSG, although sports remains the primary focus. The show however, gives expanded coverage to the teams which the network carries, treating it as an expansion to the network's postgame coverage. Other New York area teams are covered, but not as much as the teams which MSG holds the rights to. This will likely keep the show out of direct competition with Sports Nite on SportsNet New York. MSG, NY is taped in a street-level studio, with a window overlooking Madison Square Garden across the street. The studio is also used by Cablevision-owned Fuse.

[edit] Basketball

• Inside the Knicks, added in 2005, is a regular Knicks magazine show.
• Knicks 101, added in 2005, features classic Knicks games augmented with MTV-style pop-up graphics and analysis from players who were involved in those games.
• SummerBall, added in 2006, is a series that highlights the major summer basketball leagues in New York City, featuring Hoops In The Sun, EBC at Rucker Park, Dyckman and the Uptowners Basketball League, hosted by Bobbito Garcia.

[edit] Hockey

• Hockey Night New York Live! was added in 2005 as a hockey interview/analysis show, hosted by Al Trautwig. The show usually has a segment covering each team that MSG broadcasts.
• Inside the Rangers, added in 2006, is a weekly Rangers magazine show.
• Rangers Classics, added in June 2004, re-broadcasts memorable games from the Rangers' 1979, 1994, and 1997 playoff runs. The series initially launched in June 2004 to mark the tenth anniversary of the Rangers' last Stanley Cup title (both MSG and WFAN rebroadcasted Game 7 on June 14, 2004, the exact anniversary date of the team's championship clincher).

[edit] Soccer

• MSG Soccer Report, added in 2002 (previously as the Metro Soccer Report, which underwent a format change in 2005 to focus primarily on the Red Bulls and MLS; it previously also covered regional college soccer and various European professional leagues), hosted by Shep Messing and former Survivor winner Ethan Zohn.
• English Premier League, added in 2002, is a rebroadcast of a game each week from that league, which originally aired on Fox Soccer Channel.

[edit] Other sports

• High School Weekly, one of MSG's longest-running shows, focuses on high school football and basketball from around the region, hosted by Mike Quick.
• High School Game of the Week, broadcasts a weekly high school football or basketball game on tape delay from various parts of the NYC metropolitan area; the games typically feature schools from the suburbs (where MSG's parent, Cablevision, tends to be the dominant cable provider), or private schools in NYC itself.
• The LAX Report, added in 2006, is a local high school lacrosse show similar to High School Weekly, hosted by Mike Quick.

[edit] Talk shows

• The Boomer Esiason Show features interviews and commentary from former NFL quarterback and current commentator Boomer Esiason. The show airs during the NFL season.

[edit] Entertainment

• Make it Hot, added in 2006, is a car customization show similar to MTV's Pimp My Ride, hosted by former NBA forward Jerome Williams, who last played for the Knicks. Make it Hot is produced by Romie Productions along with Phylon Media LLC

[edit] Archival

• The 50 Greatest Moments at Madison Square Garden, a look at the historic events that have gone on inside the famed arena, both sports and non-sports-related, that debuted in October 2006. [2]
• MSG Vault, added in 2006, is a series that features classic Knicks and Rangers games that have not been seen by the public in decades. In some cases, MSG no longer has complete tapes of the games, and so the content often resembles that of a grab-bag. It includes segments from Knicks 101. In launching MSG Vault, MSG indicated that it has over 90,000 tapes of Garden events in its archive, although some prior to the 1990s are incomplete (parts of events may have been taped over or erased). [3]
• WWE MSG Classics, added in 2006. Airs WWE Classic matches that have been held at Madison Square Garden, hosted by Mean Gene Okerlund.

[edit] Online programming

MSG's website, MSG.com, has had exclusive podcast programming only available via download starting in 2006. These include:

• This Week in Hockey, added in 2006, is a weekly hockey podcast hosted by Matt Loughlin, with guests from around the NHL and from MSG Networks, including Stan Fischler, Joe Micheletti, and the fantasy hockey perspective provided by the RinkRat.
• Batt'r Up!, added in 2006, is a weekly baseball podcast hosted by Matt Loughlin and long-time baseball analyst Fran Healy, with guests from around Major League Baseball, and fantasy advice from The Knuckler [4]. New York Post columnist and MSG baseball analyst Joel Sherman also contributes.

MSG.com has also been streaming Rangers games live on its website -- it is available to Cablevision high-speed internet subscribers only.

[edit] Personalities

[edit] MSG Network

• Glenn Anderson: Rangers pre-game and intermission analyst
• Mike Breen: Knicks play-by-play announcer
• Steve Cangialosi: Red Bulls and Devils pre-game host and sideline reporter; Fill-in Red Bulls play-by-play announcer
• Mike Crispino: Fill-in Rangers play-by-play announcer
• Bill Daughtry: Fill-in Knicks home game pre-game and intermission host
• JP Dellacamera: Red Bulls play-by-play announcer
• Boomer Esiason: Host of The Boomer Esiason Show
• Stan Fischler: hockey analyst; Rangers and Devils studio analyst
• Walt "Clyde" Frazier: Knicks game color announcer
• Anthony "Fooch" Fucilli: reporter (mostly football)
• Christopher Fusco: MSG legal analyst
• John Giannone: Rangers sideline reporter and occasional studio host; host of Inside the Rangers
• Rick Jeanneret: Sabres play-by-play announcer
• Dave Jennings: football analyst
• Deb Kaufman: Islanders pre-game host and sideline reporter
• Jim Lorentz: Sabres color analyst
• Dave Maloney: Fill-in Rangers color analyst
• Shep Messing: Red Bulls color analyst; co-host of MSG Soccer Report
• Joe Micheletti: Rangers color analyst
• Mary Murphy: Liberty color analyst
• Jesse Palmer: MSG, NY football analyst
• Mike Quick: Host of High School Weekly and The LAX Report; high school sports reporter
• Sam Rosen: Rangers play-by-play announcer
• Joel Sherman: MSG, NY baseball analyst
• Kenny Smith: Knicks color analyst
• John Starks: Fill-in Knicks color/studio analyst
• Al Trautwig: Rangers and Knicks home game pre-game and intermission host; host of Hockey Night New York Live!, Inside the Knicks, and MSG Vault
• Bob Wischusen: Liberty play-by-play announcer and fill-in Rangers TV/radio play-by-play announcer
• Ethan Zohn: Co-host of MSG Soccer Report

[edit] FSN New York

• Mike "Doc" Emrick: Devils play-by-play announcer
• Stan Fischler: Devils studio analyst
• Billy Jaffe: Islanders color announcer
• Glenn "Chico" Resch: Devils color announcer
• Howie Rose: Islanders play-by-play announcer

[edit] MSG Radio Network

• Kenny Albert: Rangers radio play-by-play announcer
• John Andariese: Knicks radio color announcer
• Gus Johnson: Knicks radio play-by-play announcer
• Don LaGreca: Rangers pre-game, intermission, and post-game radio host
• Dave Maloney: Rangers radio color announcer
• Spencer Ross: Knicks pre-game, halftime, and post-game radio host; Fill-in Knicks radio play-by-play announcer
• Bob Wischusen: Fill-in Rangers radio play-by-play announcer

[edit] Former personalities

• Marv Albert: Knicks and Rangers play-by-play announcer and MSG SportsDesk anchor (–2004; now with YES Network and TNT)
• Gary Apple: Fill-in anchor for MSG SportsDesk (2004–2005; now with SportsNet New York)
• John Davidson: Rangers color announcer (1983–2006; now president of the St. Louis Blues)
• Jim Kaat: Yankees color announcer (1994–2001; left for YES Network before retiring as a broadcaster in 2006)
• Michael Kay: Yankees post-game reporter and fill-in pre-game host (–2001; now with YES Network)
• Tony Kubek: Yankees announcer (1990–1994; retired)
• Curt Menefee: Unnecessary Roughness co-host and MSG SportsDesk anchor (–2004; now with Fox Sports)
• Ken Singleton: Yankees color announcer (–2002; now with YES Network)
• Keith Hernandez: Mets color announcer (–2005; now with SportsNet New York)
• Bob Page: Anchor for MSG SportsDesk
• Tommy Smyth: Red Bulls color announcer (now with ESPN)

[edit] Buffalo Sabres coverage

After the collapse of the Empire Sports Network caused by the bankruptcy of Adelphia, MSG now also broadcasts the Buffalo Sabres to Upstate New York customers (defined as virtually all of the state outside the New York City Nielsen DMA). The Sabres essentially control the entire broadcast, including the sale of advertising and production of an exclusive post-game show. Aside from Sabres games, MSG controls the broadcasts of all other local teams that it carries (with teams usually retaining the right to approve or reject MSG's choice of announcers).

The two sides agreed to a 10-year contract extension in 2006.[5]

[edit] Upstate New York coverage

MSG is available in most of upstate New York. Rangers, Devils, and Islanders games are blacked out in the Sabres' primary broadcast territory, which is the Buffalo and Rochester Nielsen Media markets, but Knicks games are broadcast on FSN New York or a temporary alternate channel when there is a conflict with the Sabres, except for Chautauqua County, part of which is within 100 miles of Cleveland and gets only Cleveland Cavaliers games on FSN Ohio as per NBA rules. The Knicks are also subject to blackout in eastern-most Connecticut, within 100 miles of Boston, Massachusetts.

Most of upstate New York (notably Albany, Binghamton, and Syracuse) gets all Sabres games but also the Rangers, Islanders, or Devils under certain conditions. A maximum of 50 Rangers, Islanders, and Devils games (per team) can be broadcast outside the New York City Nielsen market each season under current NHL rules; this also covers broadcasts in parts of the Hartford/New Haven and Northeast Pennsylvania (Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area) media markets. MSG's website lists what games are subject to blackout, and which are not. Outside Western New York, Knicks games air on MSG, while FSN New York carries the Sabres, should both play at the same time.

The presence of Sabres games in the Utica and Albany market led to some controversy, because most cable systems in that market had not carried the previous home of Sabres games (the now-defunct Empire Sports Network) for several years, and the fanbase for the Sabres is widely thought to be smaller than that of the New York City-area teams (and even Boston-area teams, as WSBK served the region for several years before each Upstate market got its own UPN and WB affiliate).

On the other hand, Time Warner Cable does not currently carry FSN New York on basic in Upstate New York (most likely because it would be heavily blacked out aside from the Sabres); SportsNet New York typically occupies FSN New York's old channel location so that New York Mets games can be shown throughout their designated market. Thus, Sabres fans outside Buffalo and Rochester must get digital cable or a satellite dish to see most of the games. (Since then, however, FSN New York has been re-added to the lineup at the end of the analog channel lineup in most markets.)

College sporting events may also be blacked out in parts of upstate New York, especially involving teams from the Big East Conference, because MSG usually only acquires broadcast rights in New York City and its immediate suburbs. Time Warner Cable, among others, often acquires rights to these games in order to put them on its own channels in markets such as Syracuse and Rochester.

[edit] History

The MSG Television network debuted on October 15, 1969 with a game between the Rangers and the Minnesota North Stars. MSG Network, thus, became the first regional sports network in North America, and one of the first of its kind in the world.

The channel, which at the time was not even named, was carried by Manhattan Cable Television under a one-year, 125-event deal that was signed in May, 1969. At the time, the cable company, which had televised Knickerbocker and Ranger post-season games the previous spring for a $25,000 rights fee, had only 13,000 subscribers.[6]

The Garden renewed the deal with the cable company, then called Sterling Manhattan Cable Television, in the fall on 1970 for five years at an estimated rights fee of $1m to $1.5m. Charles Dolan was the president of the cable company at the time.[7]

Games from the Garden later appeared throughout the early days of Home Box Office. By 1978, the first mentions of the "temporarily named" Madison Square Garden Network appeared in print. [8]

[edit] Baseball coverage 1989-2005

Between 1989 and 2001, the network was the cable home of the New York Yankees. MSG paid an average of $55 million a year for those rights, and the deal is widely credited as having started a national trend towards greater team coverage on regional sports networks, with more games being broadcast than over-the-air stations' regular programming schedules could usually permit. MSG also produced the Yankees radio broadcasts from 1994 to 2001, which aired on WABC-AM. MSG also owned the over the air broadcast rights to Yankee games, which they sold to long-time broadcaster WPIX from 1989-1998 and WNYW from 1999-2001 (at the time, NewsCorp owned part of MSG). In 2002, the Yankees left MSG to form the YES Network. From 2002 to 2005, MSG aired games from Major League Baseball's New York Mets on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, games which previously aired on FSNY (MSG, FSNY, and WPIX each carried about 50 games a season on consistent days of the week). Like the Yankee deals, Cablevision also owned the broadcast TV rights, placing games on WWOR before moving to WPIX in 1999. After the 2005 baseball season, Met games moved to SportsNet New York, a cable network partially owned by the Mets, although WPIX retained a reduced slate of games. Comcast and Time Warner, which generally control whatever NYC-area cable systems Cablevision doesn't (Time Warner controls most of Upstate New York as well), are the other partners.

[edit] Ownership

The network has been owned throughout its history by the owners of Madison Square Garden as well as the Knicks, Rangers and now the Liberty. The current owner of the Garden and MSG Network is Cablevision, as part of their Rainbow Media division.

[edit] Logos

Logo prior to 1996.

Logo from 1996 until October 2006.

MSG HD logo until October 2006.

Current MSG HD logo. (October 2006 –)

[edit] MSG HD

MSG HD is a high definition simulcast of the best programs from MSG Network, including virtually all home games of the NBA and NHL teams, and select away games (the Sabres may broadcast a handful of games in HD in the 2006-07 season). MSG HD can be seen on Cablevision, Time Warner & Comcast among other providers.

[edit] External links

• Official Site
• Podcasting Homepage
• MSG2 & FSNY 2 Channel Listings