Brand New CMU Sports Network Set To Air Football And Basketball Games
July 2, 2003
MOUNT PLEASANT -- Fans who can't make it to Kelly/Shorts Stadium or Rose Arena to catch the Central Michigan University football and basketball teams can simply follow the action on the radio.
CMU has announced its brand new radio network for the 2003-04 season and will feature live broadcasts of both the Chippewa football and basketball teams.
Joining the network for the 2003-04 campaigns are WUPS - 98.5 FM in Houghton Lake, WCZY - 104.3 FM in Mount Pleasant, WMJH - 810 AM in Grand Rapids, WXDX - 1310 AM in Detroit, and WIOS - 1480 in Tawas City. The sports network is still in the process of adding more stations in order to increase its coverage in the state of Michigan.
The Michigan Talk Radio Network, a syndicator of various talk radio formats across the state of Michigan, will help distribute the broadcast. This will be the first season that CMU and the Michigan Talk Radio Network have combined to promote Chippewa athletics.
"With the creation of our new sports network, our hope is to reach more CMU alumni than we have been able to in the past, " commented sports network director Kurt Wilson. "And, by going out and cultivating new relationships, it allows CMU to become an integral part of not only our community but of the entire state."
"We are very excited to go in this new direction with regards to the radio broadcast of our football and basketball games," athletics director Herb Deromedi said. "We will cover the state of Michigan more effectively and it gives us the opportunity to reach new areas we had not been able to reach before in basketball."
The voice of Chippewa football will be Ed Phelps. He returns for his 27th season in the booth. At Phelps' side will be color commentator, Herb Deromedi.
New to this year's football broadcast will be a one-hour pregrame show called "Countdown to Kickoff." It will be hosted by Wilson and will include player and coach interviews and profiles, a Mid-American Conference report, as well as live, on-the-field updates.
Also new this season will be a three-station network that will broadcast the men's basketball games on WUPS, WCZY, and WMJH. Wilson will begin his first season as the voice of the Chippewa basketball team.
"It's exciting to see the creation of a brand new basketball radio network," Wilson said. "With the recent successes in basketball, we have been able to build a network to help our fans and alumni follow our basketball team as well."
The weekly radio talk show, Front Row Seat, will return to its usual time slot of seven o'clock on Thursday nights. The talk show, which features football head coach Mike DeBord, men's basketball head coach Jay Smith, as well as other CMU coaches and athletes, will air live from Buffalo Wild Wings in Mount Pleasant on WUPS and WCZY. Front Row Seat will be hosted by Wilson and Stan Shingles.
Parties interested in sponsoring the Central Michigan University football and basketball teams, and its radio network, should contact assistant athletics director Nick Williams at 989-774-2715.