Proposal: Buffalo Sports Network

[My Cozen Dylan]

Okay, this is purely my brain thinking about sports too much and not based on anything that is actually being discussed.

I notice a lot of people in WNY talk about how they'd rather have a new Empire Sports Network than the current MSG situation (I don't have a lot exposure to it due to living in FL, though I do notice the NYC commercials when watching the Sabres on Center Ice). Now that Pegula owns the Bills, why not have a TV Network devoted to Buffalo Sports?

Buffalo Sports Network

6-10 AM - Televise the Howard Simon Show (Like Dan Patrick/Mike & Mike do)
10-10:30 AM - Buffalo Bisons Now: Highlighting the Bisons/baseball news of the day
10:30 AM-11 AM - Beyond Blue & Gold: Expand on the current show, make it similar to Oil Change or Into the Wild
11 AM-2 PM - Buffalo Bills Today: Hosted by John Murphy, Chris Brown, Thurman Thomas, and Jim Kelly
2-2:30 PM - The Kris Baker Show: Sabres Prospects show
2:30-3 PM - Inside the Bills: Similar to the above idea about BBG
3-3:30 PM - Down on the Farm: Amerks and Jackals (and all AHL/ECHL) news.
3:30-4 PM - Buffalo Futures: HS/College Sports Highlights and news
4-7 PM - Sabres Hockey Central: Hosted by Brian Duff, Sal Capaccio, Marty Biron, and Danny Gare (Duff via satellite when Sabres are on the road). On game days, Pre-Game would be the last hour of the show.
Evening Time Slot Determined by Following Priority
1. Sabres
2. Special Events (i.e All-American Prospects Game)
3. Amerks
4. Bisons
5. WNY College Sporting Events (UB, Canisius, Niagara, etc)
6. Bandits
7. Local HS Sports games

Does this seem like a good idea and something TPegs should consider?

Click to read more...

 

[ZZamboni]

Too much of the same...
Ratings wouldn't be good all day

Add ...

Bisons coverage/games

 

[My Cozen Dylan]

Too much of the same...
Ratings wouldn't be good all day

Add ...

Bisons coverage/games

Ugh. I knew I forgot something. I meant to put them on there.

 

[My Cozen Dylan]

I've edited it to put in the Bisons.

Also, apparently the Sabres/MSG contract ends after the 16-17 season.

http://sabres.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=437214

 

[ZZamboni]

½ hour time slot for Amerks AND Elmira Jackals updates/interviews/highlights etc..

 

[My Cozen Dylan]

½ hour time slot for Amerks AND Elmira Jackals updates/interviews/highlights etc..

I was going to put something like that but I wanted to make sure there was a balance of Sabres and Bills...

Got it, I'll bump the Hockey Central back an hour, have game days include pre-game in it.

 

[My Cozen Dylan]

Has been edited again.

What's the feeling in Buffalo for basketball and/or soccer?

 

[ZZamboni]

You'll need to fill the time with something! ½ hour time slots, and see if it works

 

[Zman5778]

To save money, the station could air some replay of some national programming if they could get the rights during the afternoon. I doubt the hours of 9-3 would be heavily watched at all.

I like your Howard Simon idea. Keep it.

But then from 10-3 have national programming to save money.

From 2:30-5 can do the Sabres Prospects show, the Amerks/Jackals news, a Bisons 30 min thing, a HS/college 30 min thing and something on the Bills.

From 5-7 can do another "open mike" thing a la Howard Simon. On Mondays, it'd be heavy Bills talk. Maybe lure Zig back? He's got the chops to do hockey and football....and it's not Schopp and the Bulldog.

Then from 7-whenever can be game stuff. Bisons, Amerks, Bandits, Sabres...whatever. If there's nothing local going on in the game department, get something from a national network.

 

[Shoey]

if Comcast does wind up getting Time Warner perhaps CSN Buffalo could become a thing?

 

[Kublakhan]

we did have Empire Sports Network, it was pretty cool till the Sabres and Bills started sucking, then guess what, nobody cared to watch then poof..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_Sports_Network

 

[jBuds]

I think it's coming again

 

[Shoey]

we did have Empire Sports Network, it was pretty cool till the Sabres and Bills started sucking, then guess what, nobody cared to watch then poof..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_Sports_Network

You really shouldn't ignore the NHL lockout as a factor... it was likely the deciding reason.

 

[My Cozen Dylan]

Alright. Here's a revised schedule based on suggestions:

6-10 AM: Howard Simon Show
10 AM - 2 PM: Buffalo Classics: Show old Bisons/Bills/Sabres games that were good, saves money
2-2:30 PM: Buffalo Bisons Now: Bisons/baseball news
2:30-3 PM: The Kris Baker Show: Combine this with the Amerks/Jackals show; he can do both
3-5 PM: Buffalo Bills Today: Hosted by John Murphy, Chris Brown, Thurman Thomas, and Jim Kelly
5-7 PM: Sabres Hockey Central: Hosted by Brian Duff, Marty Biron, and Danny Gare (Duff via satellite when Sabres are on the road) Frequent interviews with Nolan, Murray, Pegula?, Black, Players, Visiting team personnel
Evening Time Slot: Same priority listed in OP

Weekends
Schedule fluctuates to air more Bisons games on Saturdays and Sundays, but have each of the following shows air both days:

Beyond Blue & Gold (more in-depth and documentary-like, see Oil Change)
Inside the Bills (Like BBG)
Buffalo Futures Now (College & HS Sports, local and national)
Buffalo Top Ten (All sorts of Top Tens: past, present, future; football, hockey, baseball, etc)
Some NHL Weekend Show
Some NFL Weekend Show

(Just Saturday): 11 AM-2 PM: Sports Talk Saturday with Sal Capaccio Televised like Howard Simon

 

[SackTastic]

we did have Empire Sports Network, it was pretty cool till the Sabres and Bills started sucking, then guess what, nobody cared to watch then poof..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_Sports_Network

It had zero to do with the Bills or Sabres sucking.

ESN was shut down because of the Adelphia collapse.

 

[Afino]

I've edited it to put in the Bisons.

Also, apparently the Sabres/MSG contract ends after the 16-17 season.

http://sabres.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=437214

So really, we'll see this in 2017.

 

[Duddy]

"Quote of the day"
hosted by Rob Ray.

 

[My Cozen Dylan]

So really, we'll see this in 2017.

Unless Pegulabucks buys out the contract if the Network is something he really wants.

 

[Slapshot85]

I don't see it working. I remember Ted Black was asked about this a while ago and said regional sports networks aren't profitable unless they have baseball to go along with the fall-spring sports.

 

[NotABadPeriod]

What we need to do is dump MSG and have like WNYO or someone pick up the whole package.

 

[Afino]

I don't see it working. I remember Ted Black was asked about this a while ago and said regional sports networks aren't profitable unless they have baseball to go along with the fall-spring sports.

Oil well, etc

 

[Djp]

A few things....

Remember rochester has a womens soccer pro team.

Summer programming would be bisons or picking up some MLB games.

The issue you need to look back at---why did Empire fall apart???? From there fix what the problems were.

As for the MSG issue with NYC commercials:

1. If center ice picked up a NYC based feed of the game then the ads.

2. Past seasons they would pick of the feed directly from MSG before the cable would insert their ads. thus on center ice it would blackout on commercial breaks.

 

[Taro Tsujimoto]

As far as baseball is concerned, seeing that they're the parent club of the Bisons and the closest MLB team to here, how about airing Blue Jays games (even if they're just Sportsnet simulcasts) for summer programming?

 

[26CornerBlitz]

Maybe the onebuffalo campaign will evolve into a sports network.

 

[Dex]

I don't see it working. I remember Ted Black was asked about this a while ago and said regional sports networks aren't profitable unless they have baseball to go along with the fall-spring sports.

Hmmmm...... I wonder how much Terry Pegula like baseball......