Western NHL Fans No Longer Out In The Cold When It Comes To National TV Coverage

July 23, 2014 by Leave a comment

LOS ANGELES — Oh what a difference eight years and six Stanley Cup Championships makes.

On July 22, the National Hockey League and NBC Sports released their 2014-15 national television schedule, one that features at least one Western Conference team in 56 games of its 103-game schedule. It also offers 35 “West-friendly” games, that is, games played on weekends or that begin at 6:00 PM Pacific time or later on weekdays.

The schedule released by the NHL and NBC Sports states that the 2014 Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings will be on NBC or NBCSN twelve times, but lists 13 games with the Kings as one of the combatants. But looking at the schedule on a broader scale, the 2014-15 national television schedule is a huge improvement for the league compared just a handful of years ago when the West was treated as a forgotten stepchild.

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Professionalism And Pain: Bob Miller, Jim Fox Forced To Be Healthy Scratches During Most Of LA Kings Playoff Run

October 12, 2012 by 15 Comments

FROZEN ROYALTY EXCLUSIVE: As so many who follow the Los Angeles Kings are very much aware, their award-winning, highly-acclaimed television broadcasters, Bob Miller and Jim Fox, were forced out of the broadcast booth after Game 5 of the 2012 Western Conference Quarterfinals with NBC having exclusive rights to televise NHL playoff games from the second round on. In the tenth installment of a series featuring the Kings’ long-time broadcasters, Miller and Fox talk about what it was like to watch most of the Kings’ magical run to the Stanley Cup from a perspective that was completely different from what they’re used to.

LA Kings television broadcasters Jim Fox (left)
and Bob Miller (right), shown here at Miller’s
Stanley Cup party on June 26, 2012.
Photo courtesy Bob Miller

LOS ANGELES AND EL SEGUNDO, CA — The complaints were loud and clear, and very, very frequent, especially once the Los Angeles Kings reached the 2012 Stanley Cup Final.

Kings fans wanted to see and hear their long-time television broadcasters, Bob Miller and Jim Fox, who were unable to broadcast games after the first round of the playoffs.

Miller, the 39-season Voice of the Kings, who was the recipient of the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award in 2000, making him a media honoree in the Hockey Hall of Fame, and Fox, who has partnered with Miller for 22 seasons, were forced out of the broadcast booth because NBC’s contract with the National Hockey League gives them exclusive broadcast rights beginning with the second round of the playoffs, a fact that many fans were not aware of, or did not understand.

Miller and Fox knew, but that did not make it any easier.

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Stanley Cup Win Allays LA Kings’ Hall of Fame Announcer Bob Miller’s Greatest Fear

September 6, 2012 by 19 Comments

FROZEN ROYALTY EXCLUSIVE: In the second installment of a series featuring the television and radio broadcasters of the Los Angeles Kings, the Voice of the Kings, Bob Miller, shared his thoughts on the Kings winning the Stanley Cup, its impact, and what it all means to him.

After 39 years, Los Angeles Kings television play-by-play announcer
Bob Miller got his opportunity to hoist the Stanley Cup after the Kings
won it for the first time in franchise history on June 11, 2012.
(click above to view larger image)
Photo courtesy Bob Miller

LOS ANGELES — After 39 years behind the microphone, calling the action for the Los Angeles Kings—the first 17 years on radio and television (simulcast), and for the last 21 years, exclusively on television, the Voice of the Kings, Bob Miller, has finally been able to add the one thing that was missing on his resume…

…calling the action for a Stanley Cup Championship team.

Indeed, when the Kings won the first Stanley Cup Championship in the 45-year history of the franchise on Read more of this post

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Inconsistency Keeping LA Kings From Reaching Next Level

January 4, 2011 by 4 Comments

LOS ANGELES KINGS SEEK CONSISTENCY: The following is a look at one of the most significant reasons the Los Angeles Kings are struggling to reach the next level and beyond. Also includes post-game audio interviews following their game against the Chicago Blackhawks on January 3.

LOS ANGELES — Last season, the Los Angeles Kings tantalized their long-suffering fans with a 101-point regular season and their first playoff appearance since 2002. To top it off, they got off to a blazing hot start in 2010-11, earning a 12-3-0 record in their first 15 games.

But then the wheels fell off the cart in November, with the Kings losing seven out of eight games from November 15 to November 29.

The Kings followed that up with a 9-3-0 record in their next twelve games, only to lose their last four games, the latest being a 4-3 defeat at the hands of the defending Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks at Staples Center in Los Angeles on January 3. Read more of this post

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Overwhelming Outrage About NBC’s Winter Olympics Coverage Should Move IOC To End Exclusive TV Rights Deals

February 17, 2010 by 29 Comments

COMMENTARY: The criticism and outrage about NBC’s coverage of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver is both overwhelming and pervasive. The time has come to end exclusive television broadcast rights for a single television network here in the United States.

LOS ANGELES — As the heavy criticism of NBC’s coverage of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, British Columbia gets louder and more overwhelming, if that’s possible, it is clear that the time has come for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the United States Olympic Committee, assuming they have a say in the matter, to end the exclusive broadcasting deal with NBC for future Olympic Games.

Indeed, the criticism of NBC’s coverage has been vehement and unending since these Games began. But with their piece-meal, tape-delayed coverage of the Games, despite the fact that they are in Vancouver—not only in the same hemisphere as the United States, but also the same continent—NBC has no one to blame but themselves. Read more of this post

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