- Details
-
Published on Wednesday, 20 April 2011 17:52
Comcast SportsNet, Chicago's only local full-time sports television station, is preparing for a huge night of sports on their station, and making adjustments to try and fit it all in. Tomorrow night, CSN will find a way to show a playoff game for the Chicago Bulls, a playoff game for the Chicago Blackhawks and a tough game for the Chicago White Sox -- all almost simultaneously.
To manage this, major changes must take place from their regularly scheduled programming. So as not to be too confused, here are the plans for how the station will handle the situation.
At 6:00pm, it will be Game 3 of the Chicago Bulls first round NBA Playoff series against the Indiana Pacers. The game will be live on CSN with Neil Funk, Stacey King and Scottie Pippen calling the game. The Bulls Pre-Game will start at 5:30pm with hosts Mark Schanowski and Kendall Gill. If the game should end before 9:00pm, then the Bulls Post-Game show, also hosted by Mark Schanowski and Kendall Gill, will air on CSN. However, if the game ends just before, at, or after 9:00pm, then the post-game show will be seen only on CSNChicago.com, where it will stream live. There is an extremely good chance that most, if not all of the post-game show will be online only.
If the Chicago Bulls game goes on past 9:00pm, CSN will stay with the game, broadcasting it uninterrupted until the game is over, despite having the Blackhawks game scheduled to start at 9:00pm.
If the Bulls game ends at or before 9:00pm, then right at 9:00pm, CSN will begins airing Game 5 of the first round of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, with the Chicago Blackhawks trying to stay alive against the Vancouver Canucks. The Blackhawks game will air live with Pat Foley and Eddie Olczyk calling the game. The Blackhawks post-game show with hosts Chris Boden and Steve Konroyd, will also air on CSN, immediately following the conclusion of the Blackhawks game.
Since the Bulls game will be on until at least 9:00pm, that means the Blackhawks Pre-Game show, which starts at 8:30pm, will have to be broadcast on CSN+. Also, if the Bulls game should go beyond 9:00pm, the start of the Blackhawks game will be only on CSN+ and the switch over to CSN following the conclusion of the Bulls game.
Before the playoffs schedules for the NBA or NHL were announced, CSN was scheduled to air the Chicago White Sox game, as they take on the Tampa Bay Rays. That game starts at 5:30pm, but because of the important Bulls game, will now shift to CSN+. It will be called by Ken "Hawk" Harrelson and Steve Stone. The White Sox pre-game show with hosts Chuck Garfien and Bill Melton will be shown from 5:00pm-5:30pm, on both CSN and CSN+. The White Sox post game show will also be shown on CSN+... probably...
The reason it is only "probably" is because if the White Sox game and post-game shows do not end by 8:30pm, when the Blackhawks pre-game show has to start on CSN+, then the White Sox programming will have to shift to CSN+2.
For the most part, the three games, plus pre- and post-game shows will just air on CSN and CSN+. The only "danger zone" is the hour of 8:30pm-9:30pm, where programming for all three games could potentially overlap.
For viewers with Comcast Cable & RCN, the CSN+ channel is most often found on CLTV. CSN+2 is not available everywhere, but usually found on a local cable access/information channel. Among the locations that CSN+2 (if needed) will be found are: Comcast channel 100, AT&T U-verse channel 691, DirecTV channel 667 and Dish Network channel 453.
Since the various scenarios are confusing and since finding where the games will be shown can be even more so, Comcast SportsNet Chicago is urging fans to visit their website,
CSNChicago.com. The website will have up to the minute information as to where the games can be found, and will also be able to tell viewers exactly what channel to tune to for their area and television provider.
