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All-Star Telecast Available To Over 37 Million, Including America One, NHL Network

January 12, 2005 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


PRINCETON, N.J. – The ECHL announced on Wednesday that the 2005 Coors Light ECHL All-Star Game will again be televised coast-to-coast, shown live from 7-9:30 p.m. ET on January 26 to more than 28 million households and, including tape delay, will be available to over 37 million households.

The play-by-play will be handled by John Curtis of the host Reading Royals while former New York Rangers president and general manager and current ESPN, TSN and NHL Network analyst Neil Smith will be the color commentator. Josh Fisher of the Las Vegas Wranglers will handle in-game and between-period interviews with players, coaches and representatives from the ECHL and the National Hockey League.

For the third consecutive year, the telecast will be available live to subscribers of the NHL Network in Canada while also being available live on Comcast Charter Sports Southeast and America One. A complete list of America One affiliated stations can be found at americaone.com while a complete list of CSS stations can be found at css-sports.com. The television broadcast was offered free of charge to all ECHL teams and will be carried live in the following ECHL markets: Idaho (Cable One), Peoria (Insight Media), and San Diego (Cox Cable). The game will be televised on tape delay by Comcast Detroit at 7 p.m. on January 27, by Cox Sports Television Louisiana at 3 p.m. on January 29 and by CN8 on January 30 at 2 p.m.

The ECHL, in association with Yahoo! Broadcast, is also making the telecast available online with live broadband video for the third year in a row. The live broadcast video requires a minimum connection speed of 100 Kbytes and Real Player. Dial-up customers will be able to listen to the radio broadcast on Yahoo! Broadcast, marking the seventh consecutive year that Yahoo! Broadcast has carried the ECHL All-Star Game audio broadcast live on the Internet.

John Curtis is in his fourth season as director of broadcasting and media sales for Reading and his eighth season broadcasting professional hockey. In addition to being the "Voice of the Royals", each week Curtis hosts "Royals Weekly" on radio and "Royals Roundtable" on television. Curtis has broadcast over 500 professional hockey games, including four seasons in the now-defunct Western Professional Hockey League, handling play-by-play for both Monroe (Louisiana) and Amarillo (Texas). Curtis received his bachelor's degree in marketing from Bowling Green State University, where he broadcast men's and women's basketball, football and hockey, and he attended Specs Howard, School of Broadcast Arts. Curtis broadcast high school basketball, football and baseball while also hosting a weekly sports talk show for WXYQ radio before relocating to Grand Rapids where he worked in sales for WBBL radio and also did play-by-play for the high school game of the week on local television.

Neil Smith, who is the majority owner of the ECHL's Johnstown Chiefs, currently works as a color commentator on ESPN and a hockey analyst on the NHL Network while also appearing in studio on TSN. He was general manager of the Rangers from 1989-2000 and was promoted to president in 1992, becoming the first president in Rangers history to also hold the title of general manager. During his tenure, which, in the history of the franchise, was second only to the legendary Lester Patrick in terms of longevity, the Rangers captured three division titles, two Presidents' Trophy honors, an Eastern Conference Championship and a Stanley Cup Championship. The championship in 1993-94 was the culmination of a season in which the Rangers set club records with 52 wins and 112 points and ended a 54-year run of Stanley Cup frustration. Following the 1991-92 and 1993-94 seasons, Smith was named Executive of the Year by The Hockey News and The Sporting News, respectively.

Josh Fisher is in his second season as the director of broadcasting and media relations for the Wranglers and his fifth season broadcasting professional hockey. He was the play-by-play voice for Columbus (Georgia) in both the ECHL and the Central Hockey League was well as for Lexington (Kentucky) of the ECHL. A native of Cincinnati, Fisher worked five years as a sports reporter, producer and photographer for WKYT-TV in Lexington and was a sports anchorman with WRBL-TV in Columbus. Fisher received his bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Kentucky.

Live Broadcast Date and Time (All Times Local)
NHL Network (Canada) January 26, 7:05 p.m.
America One (United States) January 26, 7:05 p.m.
Comcast Charter Sports Southeast January 26, 7:05 p.m.
Insight Media (Peoria, Ill.) January 26, 7:05 p.m.
Cable One (Boise, Idaho) January 26, 7:05 p.m.
Cox Cable (San Diego, Calif.) January 26, 7:05 p.m.

Delayed Broadcast Date and Time (All Times Local)
Comcast Detroit January 27, 7 p.m.
Cox Sports Television Louisiana January 29, 3 p.m.
CN8 January 30, 2 p.m.

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