The Mountain States Health Alliance Buccaneer Sports Network will begin the 2008-09 season Thursday night with the first Inside Buc Sports radio show of the new year at 7 p.m. inside Fanatics restaurant at the Doubletree Hotel in Johnson City.
The coaches show broadcast will launch an exciting new year for the MSHA Buccaneer Sports Network, a season that will include a combined 60 live radio broadcasts of ETSU men’s basketball, women’s basketball and baseball, over 80 live audio broadcasts of selected Buccaneer events at ETSUBucs.com, 26 television coaches shows, and over 75 live or on-demand video broadcasts courtesy of ASun.TV.
“We are poised for another standard-setting season when it comes to the number and the quality of broadcasts for our network,” said Jay Sandos, the radio “Voice of the Bucs” and ETSU’s assistant director for athletic media relations/broadcast operations. “Having so many strong radio partnerships, continuing our television relationship with Charter Communications and Fox College Sports Atlantic, and seeing the live video streaming product at ASun.TV continue to grow is exciting.”
For the second straight season, ETSU’s flagship radio station for men’s basketball and the Inside Buc Sports coaches call-in show will be WKOS-FM 104.9 The Peak, while the home for women’s basketball and baseball broadcasts will be the Holston Valley Broadcasting Corporation’s family of stations, which include WKPT-AM (1400) and WKPT-FM (94.3) in Kingsport, WKPT-AM (1490) and WKPT-FM (97.9) in Bristol, and WKPT-AM (1590) and WKPT-FM (97.7) in Johnson City.
Affiliate stations of the radio portion of the network will include WRGS-AM (1370) in Rogersville and WBEJ-AM (1240) in Elizabethton, with WRGS carrying men’s basketball games live, and WBEJ re-airing the weekly coach’s show on Friday evenings.
In addition, Holston’s six stations will carry 10 selected men’s basketball games live as an affiliate to the WKOS-FM coverage.
Along with live game coverage on the radio, fans are also encouraged to stop by or call in to the weekly “Inside Buc Sports” coaches show each week at Fanatics located in the Doubletree Hotel, across from The Mall at Johnson City. Sandos, along with selected ETSU coaches, will visit with fans every Thursday from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., taking phone calls as well as questions from fans inside the restaurant.
On the television side, the network will once again partner with Charter Media to bring fans the Inside Buc Sports television show every Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. on Charter Main Street 13 or Comcast Channel 14.
Finally, the ASun.TV video web streaming, pay-per-view package will only increase this year, with over 75 live video streaming broadcasts planned for sports such as women’s soccer, men’s soccer, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball and softball.
Fans can watch single games for a small charge, or purchase monthly or full season passes. To see a schedule of upcoming events and order the next game, visit ASun.TV or ETSUBucs.com.