NBA teams over the air stations

[chris12]

What is the history of over the air stations for your NBA team. For the Chicago Bulls:
1966-1973 WGN 9
1973-76 WSNS 44
1976-85 WGN 9
1985-89 WFLD 32
1989-99 WGN 9
1999-present split between WGN 9 and WCIU 26

 

[KYLEBOOK]

Boston Celtics:

1960 - 1961 - (5) WHDH, games also shown on (18) WHCT Hartford, 1963-1965
1965 - 1966 - (38) WIHS
1966 - 1970 - (56) WKBG
1970 - 1973 - (27) WSMW, selected games shown on (18) WHCT Hartford, 1971 - 1973
1973 - 1985 - (4) WBZ, selected games shown on (32) WRLP Greenfield, MA, 1974 - 1977
1985 - 1990 - (56) WLVI - Games also shown on (61) WTIC Hartford, 1985-1988, (20) WTXX, Waterbury, CT, from 1988-1990
1990 - 1993 - (25) WFXT - Games also shown on (18) WHCT Hartford, 1990-1991, (26) WTWS, New London, CT, 1991-1993
1993 - 1998 - (38) WSBK
1998 - 1999 - (68) WABU
1999 - Present - Cable Only - Fox Sports New England/Comcast Sports New England

 

[Tim L]

Cleveland Cavaliers:

1970-73 WEWS-TV 5
1973-87 WUAB-43
1987-94 WOIO-19
1994-Present WUAB-43

Channel 43 simulcasts a few select games with Fox Sports Ohio. That arrangement is scheduled to end either the end of this season or nest.

 

[dhett]

Phoenix Suns:

1968-198? KTAR-TV 12 (KPNX since 1979)
198?-1988 KNXV-TV 15
1988-present KUTP 45

 

[KYLEBOOK]

Boston Celtics:
Correction:
1960 - 1965 - (5) WHDH, games also shown on (18) WHCT Hartford, 1963-1965
1965 - 1966 - (38) WIHS
1966 - 1970 - (56) WKBG
1970 - 1973 - (27) WSMW, selected games shown on (18) WHCT Hartford, 1971 - 1973
1973 - 1985 - (4) WBZ, selected games shown on (32) WRLP Greenfield, MA, 1974 - 1977
1985 - 1990 - (56) WLVI - Games also shown on (61) WTIC Hartford, 1985-1988, (20) WTXX, Waterbury, CT, from 1988-1990
1990 - 1993 - (25) WFXT - Games also shown on (18) WHCT Hartford, 1990-1991, (26) WTWS, New London, CT, 1991-1993
1993 - 1998 - (38) WSBK
1998 - 1999 - (68) WABU
1999 - Present - Cable Only - Fox Sports New England/Comcast Sports New England

 

[fybush]

I've found no evidence so far that my local Rochester Royals ever had local TV between 1949 (when the first station came on here) and 1957 (when they pulled up stakes and moved first to Cincinnati, then Kansas City, then eventually to Sacramento). I'm not even certain that the 1951 NBA Championships, which the Royals won, were on network TV.

 

[mleach]

Since some of the old ABA teams became part of the NBA later on, I wonder what the coverage was like when there was both the NBA and the ABA. Who showed what?

Someone once told me the old Virginia Squires of the ABA had no TV coverage whatsoever unless it was some rare event, even in Virginia.

Oddly when the old Charlotte Hornets were looking at cities to relocate to, I remember their top choice was Norfolk. However two things doomed that choice. The arena issue ( New Orleans already had one in place ) and television. From what I remember no Hampton Roads TV station, not even the indies such WSKY ) were interested and since the DC area's then Home Team Sports, well they already had the Wizards ), all of this meant no TV coverage at all !!

I have been told the "lack of TV" is one of the reasons why Norfolk will never get a team in any pro-sport even though there is enough population there to support at least one team and there are a few market SMALLER than Norfolk that have teams.

 

[Tim L]

I've found no evidence so far that my local Rochester Royals ever had local TV between 1949 (when the first station came on here) and 1957 (when they pulled up stakes and moved first to Cincinnati, then Kansas City, then eventually to Sacramento). I'm not even certain that the 1951 NBA Championships, which the Royals won, were on network TV.

There wasnt any "national" NBA Coverage until 1953-54, when DuMont, then NBC had the rights..as far back as 1951, the NBA was still very much in its infant stages and was not all that popular, which might explain the lack of TV coverage for the Royals in Rochester.

WKBF-61 Cleveland was part of the Royals TV Network from the station's January 1968 sign-on throuh at least the 1968-69 season. I've never been able to find out the Royals' Flagship station in Cincinnati though..

 

[desertv]

Phoenix Suns:

1968-198? KTAR-TV 12 (KPNX since 1979)
198?-1988 KNXV-TV 15
1988-present KUTP 45

They were on KPHO TV-5 for a few years during the 70s also

 

[Braves2005]

San Antonio Spurs:

1970's and 1980's: KENS and maybe WOAI(KMOL) in the 1970's when they were an ABA team.
1990's and 2000's: KSAT, KRRT(KMYS), KABB, and KENS
Today: KMYS and KENS

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

While the Cincinnati Royals were here (1957-58 - 1971-72) a selected few of their games were televised locally each season by WLW-T, Channel 5 although this really didn't start until approximately the 1962-63 season. When games were televised, Ed Kennedy, who was the Royals radio play-by-play announcer, would do them on TV with another announcer (Warren Johnson, for example) taking over the play-by-play duties on radio.

It should be noted that the NBC-TV Network was televising the NBA by the late 1950's usually using Lindsey Nelson or Curt Gowby in the play-by-play role. By the early 1960's, the ABC-TV Network assumed the televising of the NBA with Chris Schenkel doing the play-by-play and that continued into the 1970's. During a good portion of that time, televised games were blacked out in the city where the game was being played. So, Royals games at the Cincinnati Gardens could not be shown on the local network affiliate. It was possible, however, to try and get them from the Dayton, Ohio TV station about 50 miles away, if you could pick it up and if it was carrying the network program. By the early 1970's and with the team not doing well won-lost wise and on the verge of relocating the franchise, local TV coverage of Royals games was almost non-existent. When it was shown, someone from Channel 5 or the Royals did the announcing.

With regard to the Royals games being televised in Cleveland; there was an interest in the Royals in that city from the mid-1960's until Cleveland got the Cavaliers in 1970. As a result, the Royals took some of their home games each season to Cleveland during that time; playing them in the Cleveland Arena. They also took some other home games to Dayton, playing in the University of Dayton Fieldhouse. This caused several to remark that the team should be called the "Ohio Royals".

 

[jerseyfla]

Orlando Magic

WKCF 1989-1998
WRBW 1998-2007

Projected OTA games were moved to FSN Florida in 2007. The big uproar is the fact that Bright House Networks will not work out a deal to get FSN on their cable system in a basic tier despite sister network and Magic flagship cable network Sun Sports being on a basic tier.

Magic OTA games were seen in the Tampa Bay area on WMOR then WTTA then WXPX.

 

[ShawnHill1]

I don't the exact dates early on with regards to Los Angeles Lakers over-the-air coverage. However, I do know that the team aired games in the early 60s on KTTV or KHJ (now KCAL). KTLA carried some games from the late 60s to the mid-70s, and the Lakers have been on KHJ/KCAL since 1977.

I'm not sure about this one, but I read somewhere that the Clippers' first season (1984-85) in Los Angeles were televised on KTTV, but I was living in Milwaukee at the time (and was only 4 years old). But from 1985 and onward, they've been on KTLA (until '91), KCOP (1991-96), KCAL (1996-2001), and then back on KTLA (since 2002). The Clips didn't any over-the-air telecasts in the 2001-02 season, just about 45 games on FSN West 2 (Prime Ticket).

 

[Scoobyfan1]

Let's see... for a while now i've been doing research related to this subject and I know that the local NBA team up in my neck of the woods (in Washington State) the Seattle Supersonics have had games on OTA on the following stations over the years (i'm not sure about the years):
KSTW 11 (formerly KTNT 11) now the area's CW affilate, was the area's CBS affilate also was an independent station and a UPN station
KMYQ 22 (formerly KTZZ 22 & KTWB 22) now the area's My Network affilate, was the area's WB affilate and an independent station
KING 5 which is the area's NBC station
KIRO 7 which is our CBS station, was our UPN affilate
KONG 16 which is a sister station to KING 5 and is also an independent station

We haven't had Sonics games on OTA tv for a couple of years as the sonics are currently cable exclusive on FSN Northwest.

 

[SCV_Ears]

Golden State was on KTVU-2 for a while, then on KBHK-44, back to KTVU in the mid-70s (with quite a few home games on a fledgling over-the-air pay channel as well). I recall them being on KPIX-5 in the mid and late 80s, then on KICU-36 and Sportschannel, which was merged into what became Fox Sports Bay Area, now Comcast Sports Net Bay Area. Hank Greenwald did a lot of the TV games in the early days, then Lon Simmons for a year until the Warriors wised up and did a simulcast with Bill King (since everyone was turning down the TV sound and listening to each and every of King's "Holy Toledo's" on radio anyway) until he left for the A's. Greg Papa also bounced between TV and radio a lot. FSN took the whole schedule a few years ago, with Bob FitzGerald and Jim Barnett mikeside.

Sacramento Kings were on KOVR-13 for their first couple of years after leaving Kansas City, then channel 31 (which has had too many call letters to list over the years) until rights were moved late in the 2001(?) season to KXTV-10 after a dispute over advertising between 31 and the Maloofs. Comcast Sports Net also does quite a few games. I want to say Tom Curren did the games when they were on KOVR, but am not sure. Gary Gerrould and Grant Naphear have been the primary TV and radio voices since, though, usually with Jerry Reynolds on color.

 

[Newname]

I'd forgotten that the Warriors were on KPIX as well as KICU in the late '80s-early '90s.(There was an identical arrangement with the Oakland A's at the time)
Steve Albert, the oft-maligned younger brother of Marv, did TV play-by-play for a while(with Greg Papa doing games on other channels).
The Warriors' cable TV coverage began on 'Pacific Sports Net' in 1990(later Sportschannel Pacific, FSN, and now CSN Bay Area).
Never knew Lon Simmons ever did the Warriors. Was this during one of his hiatueses from baseball broadcasting in the mid-late '70s?

 

[Ultimajock]

...as I have indicated elsewhere on this site, the Milwaukee Bucks started out on WTMJ-TV/4 with the great Eddie Doucette announcing; through the 1971-72 season, many of those games were simulcast over KFIZ-TV/34 in Fond du Lac, which covered the northern half of the Milwaukee TV ADI. After KFIZ-TV folded in 1972, the next change was to WVTV/18, and after that WCGV/24, but I don't have the timelines involved...

 

[RicoGregg]

I don't the exact dates early on with regards to Los Angeles Lakers over-the-air coverage. However, I do know that the team aired games in the early 60s on KTTV or KHJ (now KCAL). KTLA carried some games from the late 60s to the mid-70s, and the Lakers have been on KHJ/KCAL since 1977.

Being a little older, I have a somewhat fuzzy recollection of those early Laker years in L.A., and maybe can approximate some dates.

When the team moved to L.A. in 1959, they didn't even have live radio coverage until the playoffs in 1960. Chick Hearn, then doing sports on Channel 4, was recruited to do the play-by-play along with Dick Schad for commentary.

I can't say for sure that there was TV coverage in that first season. From the second season until 1967 or 68, they were on KTTV. After that, they were on KTLA until 1977, then KHJ in 1977, who later became KCAL, where the Lakers remain today, and televise all 41 road games.

 

[Tim L]

Being a little older, I have a somewhat fuzzy recollection of those early Laker years in L.A., and maybe can approximate some dates.

When the team moved to L.A. in 1959, they didn't even have live radio coverage until the playoffs in 1960. Chick Hearn, then doing sports on Channel 4, was recruited to do the play-by-play along with Dick Schad for commentary.



[/quote]

The Lakers didnt move from Minneapolis to Los Angeles until the 1960-61 season


http://www.sportsecyclopedia.com/nba/mpls/mplslakers.html

 

[RicoGregg]

The Lakers didnt move from Minneapolis to Los Angeles until the 1960-61 season


http://www.sportsecyclopedia.com/nba/mpls/mplslakers.html

Your info is correct. So did they have TV coverage that first season? ???