Let the Madness begin! It’s college basketball conference tourney time across the country and selection show weekend for this year’s NCAA tournament. We’re a little busy…
Dennis Smith is heading to Washington, D.C. for Sunday’s Patriot League women’s final, as American University hosts Navy for what will surely be an exciting game.
Dave Buckman was at Sojka Pavilion at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday for the Patriot League men’s championship. On Sunday, Mr. Buckman heads down to Radford, Virginia, where the Radford Highlanders await their fate on Selection Sunday. This will be their first visit to the Big Dance since 2009, so the campus will be electric.
It’s a similar situation in Nashville, where John Bright will be on hand at Lipscomb University. The Lipscomb Bisons (yes, Bisons with an “s”) will be in the NCAA tournament for the first time in the program’s history after winning the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament. There are fewer than 3,000 undergrads at Lipscomb, but it would be safe to say that every single one of them will be fired up on Sunday night when they hear where their team is headed for the first round. If they stay right there in Nashville, we will be right there with them, as Benny Griffis is all set for the first round action at Bridgestone Arena starting next week.
Mike Lemieux’s making his way up to Burlington, Vermont, for Saturday’s America East men’s championship, where the Vermont Catamounts host the UMBC Retrievers, live on ESPN2.
Mike Howley’s already made the trip down to Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. for the Atlantic 10 tournament that will finish up on Sunday.
Rick Kolinek starts his tourney time a little earlier than most in Dayton, Ohio, which is hosting this year’s play-in game. Rick will be spending his week transmitting all the game action and pre- and post-game press conferences. Before that he’ll get his hockey fix up in Milwaukee on Friday night, as the Chicago Wolves are in town for some AHL action.
Steve Hagerty’s all set for his opening round action in Detroit at the Little Caesars Arena starting next week. Depending on some outcomes in the CIT tournament, he might swing by the University of Central Michigan for a bonus game on Monday before the big tournament starts in earnest.
Might as well throw in some NBA G League action. Pittsburgh-based Dave Mitchell is heading over to Canton, Ohio for Sunday when the Canton Charge host the Erie BayHawks at the Canton Memorial Civic Center. He’ll get into the college swing at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, which is hosting more NCAA tourney hoops.
Our friends at CBS and Hammond Communications also have us headed to Wichita (Mike Sheehan), Dallas (Ron Ford), Charlotte (Marty Smitherman), San Diego (Larry Sheets and Wes Hill), and Boise (Brian Blomstrom and Todd Harvey). And that’s just the first round!
There are plenty more sports on our schedule this weekend, to be sure.
Jim Flowers is keeping busy with spring training baseball in his home state of Arizona. It’s the Cubs versus the White Sox on Saturday at Sloan Park in Mesa, followed by the San Diego Padres against the San Francisco Giants on Sunday in Scottsdale.
On the other side of the country, Rick Ball’s spending a couple of days at the ballpark (at the beach) for some Cardinals baseball. Friday they face the Astros, and Sunday they play the Washington Nationals, both at the beautiful Ballpark of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Back in Arizona, the C27 mobile teleport, Jonathan Ayala and Kyle Meyer are in Avondale, Arizona, at ISM Raceway (previously Phoenix International Raceway) for the TicketGuardian 500 this weekend. We hope you all have seen the recent news about our latest technological achievements in partnership with NASCAR. We love to push the boundaries with our long-standing customers and collaborators.
Speaking of long-standing customers, we have some golf on the schedule. Larry Sheets is down at the Newport Beach Country Club for Golf Channel’s coverage of the Toshiba Classic this weekend. Across the country again, Chris Golden hustled down to Innisbrook Golf Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida, for NBC’s broadcast of the Valspar Championship. Tiger Woods is making a run, and we’ll be making sure every minute of the action makes it to television screens around the nation!
WWE has a pay-per-view in Columbus on Sunday night. It’s WWE Fastlane, and project manager Logan Schinto has all the domestic and international paths buttoned up (with plenty of help from our team at PIT). Zane Michaels and Nick Ray will handle the CK30 mobile teleport, while driver Joe Kelderhouse will be nearby to move the truck forward to Detroit for Monday Night Raw and then on to Indianapolis for Tuesday’s SmackDown show.
There’s more fighting down in Texas, where we’ve circled the wagons at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio. John May and Ron Ford are there for Showtime’s diverse domestic paths, and John Poss is there for the international feed, as Mikey Garcia faces Sergey Lipinets for the junior welterweight title. Project manager Victor Verno is on hand to ensure a flawless broadcast for fight fans around the world.
Busy fight weekend in California, too. Friday night Mark Huss and project manager Michael Hollander will be at the Orange County fairgrounds for Golden Boy on ESPN. It’s a three-channel mux for Mark, with ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes broadcasting the fight in North America, while that third channel is the origination for boxing fans worldwide.
The K19 truck then heads up to the StubHub Center in Carson, California, for a Top Rank fight on Saturday night. It’s John Jennings and project manager David Gallardo working the Valdez versus Quigg fight.
We’re not resting on our laurels after yet another perfect Oscars transmission. We have more awards action down at the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood, California, where Wes Hill will be working for the Turner networks at the iHeart Radio Awards.
Last but not least, we should note just how busy the PIT Studio manager Shelby Schmidt has been the past two weeks. In just 12 days, Shelby and her team at the Studio (and at PIT) have managed 38 live shots for the likes of CNN, Fox News, Democracy Now! and CNBC. When it rains it pours, but we are thankful to have Shelby there to make sure each customer gets exactly what they need, from hair and makeup to transmission routing.
We may have a lot on the schedule, but we’re happy to be busy doing what we love.