New Name, New Faces
By now you’ve noticed many changes to our company’s name and television network, but our evolution is continuing to grow with our on-air staff additions!
A few months back we introduced Megan Kane — one of four new broadcasters added to our sports team this past fall — to do color commentary for the high school basketball season. An accomplished scholastic and collegiate coach, Megan made history when she became the first female broadcaster to announce a boys’ basketball game in the Lehigh Valley this winter.
As a coach, she had the reputation of having one of the most prepared teams for each game among any schools in the Eastern Pennsylvania region. In working with her over the last few weeks preparing for the upcoming high school season and broadcasting our first few games, I can tell you she has been just as diligent in doing her homework and getting ready for our broadcasts on ATVN this winter.
Also last fall, we introduced Meagan Caffrey as the first female football sideline reporter in our network’s history, who continued to do work for the Lafayette Sports Network this winter.
But Megan and Meagan are not the only new announcers handling the ATVN microphones going forward, as we have now added additional three commentators to our on-air sports team.
Brittany Thomas was one of three one-thousand point scorers in one of the greatest basketball dynasties in the rich history of Catasauqua High School athletics. Her teams reached the state playoffs all four of her years with the Rough Riders. After playing in college at East Stroudsburg, she returned to coach at her alma mater, before accepting an assistant coaching position with Muhlenberg College.
I’ve had the honor to interview her at different stops over her tremendous career and always agreed when her coaches described her as having a high basketball IQ. Now, our ATVN audience can experience her wisdom on our broadcasts. Thomas will be making her debut this week as we will have no less than eight high school basketball games coming your way!
Last year, Erik Schmitt was announced as the new baseball coach at Whitehall High School and, in doing so, became the first minority to coach one of the four “major” sports in their school district.
In my 17 years as the station’s “SportsTalk” show host, very few people brought the passion and love of the game more than Eric has in his multiple appearances on the program. Eric will take the reins as the primary color analyst for our Blue Mountain League baseball “game of the week” this year. I look forward to Eric’s valuable insights as a former BML coach and player with the league and his thoughts on the current, local baseball players.
He had an excellent run as a player for the Martin’s Creek baseball team and became the youngest manager in the league, reaching the finals several times before he stepped away from the BML last year to devote more time to coaching at the high school level.
Last but not least, former Major League Baseball player Matt McBride will be joining us for our high school baseball broadcasts this spring.
McBride was drafted by the Cleveland Indians and played for the Colorado Rockies and Oakland Athletics. After several seasons, he signed with the Philadelphia Phillies organization and played for their Triple-A affiliate for three years before retiring. Always a great interviewee, Matt was excited for the opportunity to share his unique baseball background and experiences with us on our broadcasts and is looking forward to joining our ATVN sports family.
Please join me in welcoming these new voices to ATVN. I know our audience will appreciate their experience, wisdom with their respective sports experiences and unique insights when they tune into our broadcasts.
We are also hoping to add even more new on-air announcers over the next several months, along with a new internship position featuring someone looking to be in front of the camera.
We have always had crew positions available for internships in both the spring and fall semesters. However, I am hoping we can add to our work in the community by adding an “on camera” reporting and announcing position to help young people get a foot in the door of the communications field and bridge the gap into this wonderful industry.
I have spent the last several months reaching out to colleges both inside and outside of our viewing areas but am always looking to expand our program and contact as many schools as possible.
If you are interested or know of colleges or trade schools which participate in broadcasting internship programs, feel free to email me their contact information.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Astound Broadband or any other agency, organization, employer or company.
