College Basketball on ABC
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In 1987, the American Broadcasting Company began televising college basketball games on a regular basis.
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[edit] Coverage overview
During this particular period, ABC primarily covered[1] the Big Ten, Big 8 and Pac-10. By 1991 (around the time in which NBC was phasing out their own college basketball coverage), ABC ramped up their own coverage in an effort to fill the void. Thus, they also started to cover the ACC and SEC. Otherwise, it was essentially, a considerable hodge-podge with an ACC game one week, or a Pac-10 or Big 10 game the next.
ABC's regular season broadcasts were for the most part, technically time buys, with organizations such as Raycom[2][3] (particularly, around 1990-1991) or sister network (under the Walt Disney Company umbrella), ESPN. This in return, was a way to avoid union contracts in which 100% of network shows had to be done by network union cameramen, etc.
[edit] Commentators
In the early years, Keith Jackson[4] and Dick Vitale[5] were the top announcing crew, while Gary Bender[6] was the number two play-by-play man behind Jackson. Meanwhile, Al Michaels[7] did regional games during this period. When Brent Musburger[8] came over from CBS in late 1990, he started working with Dick Vitale on the top team. Jim Valvano[9] did color commentary on games for ABC for a few years until his death in 1993.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ ABC Men's College Basketball TV Schedule
- ^ The biggest time-buy arrangement is between Raycom and ABC. For the 1991-92 season, it paid ABC $1.8 million for six weeks of air time--13 telecasts--covering 26 college basketball games regionally. Raycom used ABC on-air talent including Brent Musburger, Dick Vitale, Jim Valvano, Gary Bender, Cheryl Miller, and Mark Jones.
- ^ PaineWebber to sponsor ABC/Raycom college basketball.
- ^ Keith's long and illustrious career, marked by numerous awards, covers a variety of sports such as NCAA Basketball championships, major league baseball, boxing and championship auto racing. Throughout his sportscasting career, spanning 31 different countries, his simple broadcast philosophy prevails--"Amplify, Clarify and Punctuate and let the viewer draw his or her own conclusion."
- ^ He has been a college basketball analyst for ABC Sports since 1988, and has also covered the NBA Finals and the 1992 Summer Olympics for ABC Radio.
- ^ 1987-1991: Sportscaster for ABC covering college football, basketball and Monday Night Football
- ^ Michaels also has worked on ABC's "NCAA Football' and college basketball telecasts, in addition to covering a variety of "ABC's Wide World of Sports" events and "The Superstars."
- ^ A preeminent voice of college football and college basketball play-by-play, Musburger also hosted the 1991 Pan American Games from Cuba.
- ^ "Valvano Agrees To 3-Year Abc Deal" The Washington Post
