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TheSabres Hockey Network is the official radio network and production company of theBuffalo Sabres of theNational Hockey League (NHL). The network is currently operated jointly by the Sabres (Pegula Sports and Entertainment) andAudacy, Inc.
Rick Jeanneret was the network's primary play-by-play voice and served in that capacity from 1971 to 2022,Dan Dunleavy has taken his place since then, withRob Ray currently serving as color commentator. In the 2008–2009 season, formerWinnipeg Jets/Phoenix Coyotes broadcaster Curt Keilback covered for Jeanneret during the team's western road trip. In the 2009–2010 season, the Sabres did not send their television broadcast crew on the western road trip and used the local broadcasts of the Phoenix Coyotes,Anaheim Ducks,Los Angeles Kings andVancouver Canucks as the "home" broadcast. Jeanneret and then color commentatorHarry Neale had reduced duties for 2011–2012, with the duo only handling home games and a third of the road games;Kevin Sylvester andDanny Gare handled the broadcasts of the remaining games that season.
The radio network's postgame show is hosted by WGR personality Brian Koziol.Mike Schopp andChris "Bulldog" Parker host the pre-game show, which airs only on WGR. On television, a pregame show and postgame show are broadcast, and hosted by Brian Duff andMartin Biron. (Prior to 2005, the television pregame-postgame shows were simulcast on radio. The postgame was known asHockey Hotline and hosted byMike Robitaille, first with host Brian Blessing and then Josh Mora.)
The theme song for broadcasts has been the "Sabre Dance" byAram Khachaturian since the team's debut. From the2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs through the 2009–10 season, the team used for its main theme an instrumental cut of "Hurricane 2000," an orchestral arrangement of the song "Rock You Like a Hurricane" recorded byScorpions and theBerlin Philharmonic Orchestra on the albumMoment of Glory. From the 1990s through 2006 the team used a custom-made theme. Beginning shortly afterTerry Pegula's acquisition of the team, the song was changed back to "Sabre Dance." For the 2011–12 season, a hard-rock version of "Sabre Dance" rotates withMSG Network's standard hockey theme as the theme for the Sabres Hockey Network broadcasts.
The Sabres Hockey Network has produced Sabres games since the team's days on theEmpire Sports Network; Empire and the Sabres were both under the control ofJohn Rigas from 1996 until Rigas's arrest in 2003. Prior to the launch of the Empire Sports Network, Sabres telecasts were managed under the brandNiagara Frontier Sports Network and syndicated to local television stations. NFSN briefly owned the station now known asWNYO-TV in the late 1980s but sold off that station after a short time after it became clear that scrambled subscription over-the-air television (a proposition that NFSN had planned on being its primary business model) was not going to be a viable enterprise and launched the cable- and satellite-exclusive Empire Sports Network instead.
On September 10, 2016, MSG launched a Buffalo-centric version ofMSG Network calledMSG Western New York, which incorporates content from both the Sabres and theBuffalo Bills[1] including 70 Sabres games. The play-by-play and commentary is radio simulcasted over video, an arrangement unique in the National Hockey League. The other 12 games air only on the radio network, including all games broadcast on the league's national outlets. InNew York City and the surrounding areas, Sabres games against theNew York Rangers,New York Islanders orNew Jersey Devils (other hockey teams to which MSG owns TV rights) have usually carried the Sabres Hockey Network feed on theSAP of MSG orMSG Plus. The Sabres also have the capabilities to broadcast preseason home games on the team's Web site.
MSG Western New York is carried onDirecTV, channel 635-1. The network is also available onCharter Spectrum, the predominant cable provider in New York State. The channel is available onVerizon FiOS, with high-definition feeds only arriving in late 2011 after a protracted legal dispute in which MSG refused to provide Verizon with an HD feed. The channel and therefore most Sabres games are not available onDish Network due to a years-long continuingcarriage dispute between the Dish andMSG Networks.
The practice of syndicating games to a local broadcast station has happened only once since MSG took over the broadcast contract: WGRZ andWHEC-TV were given rights to simulcast MSG's coverage of the February 11, 2012 game between the Sabres and theTampa Bay Lightning, as a one-time goodwill gesture in the ongoing dispute betweenTime Warner Cable and MSG; the two sides had an approximately 11⁄2-month contract dispute that left games unavailable on cable for most of the state.[2]
Games carried byTNT, TBS,ESPN, ABC, andCBC Television are not produced by the Sabres, and these television broadcasts are not considered to be part of the Sabres Hockey Network. The network produces "radio only" broadcasts for its terrestrial affiliates when an ABC game airs.
Current:[3]
Past:
The Sabres radio network also simulcastsSchopp andthe Bulldog to WROC in Rochester.
The Rochester situation is unique in that a different station carries regular season games than in the postseason. This is because WROC has a much weaker AM signal, and the network switched to FM stationWBZA to maximize coverage during the postseason. In 2008, with Entercom's purchase ofWCMF, Sabres games moved to that station instead.
Since 1997, the radio play-by-play has been simulcast on the station's cable partner (Empire Sports Network from 1997 to 2004, andMSG Network/MSG Western New York from 2005 to the present). Prior to this,Ted Darling was the team's television play-by-play voice, though he was forced to retire due toPick's disease in 1991. John Gurtler did TV play-by-play from 1991 to 1995, and Rick Jeanneret took over those duties from that point, adding radio simulcasts in 1997. Unlike most shows onMSG Network, the Sabres control all television broadcasts of their games.
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