Islanders' decision to replace radio broadcasters Chris King and Greg Picker with a TV simulcast was not the right move
Islanders radio broadcaster Chris King at Nassau Coliseum. Credit: Getty Images/Bruce Bennett
Most Islanders fans were on board on Tuesday.
The team said it would not renew Lou Lamoriello’s contract as the team’s grand poobah. Thanks for your service, Lou, but time for a change, for fresh ideas, etc.
Then came Wednesday, and with it a record-scratch sound effect that abruptly and unnecessarily changed the vibe.
Turns out the Islanders decided that along with Lamoriello, they would replace their longtime radio team of Chris King and Greg Picker with . . . nothing.
Presumably to save money, the team decided to go with a simulcast of the MSG Networks television production.
Compared with the Lamoriello news, this was small potatoes, a rounding error in financial terms and not nearly as important as upcoming hockey decisions.
But it managed within 24 hours to sour what had been an upbeat mood among fans, who like most fans in every sport have a soft spot for their radio voices.
King has been part of the family for so long — since 1998 — that his excited, high-pitched calls have become part of the fabric of the franchise.
Is he Vin Scully? He is not.
But his affection for the Islanders, the sport and the fans always shone through, never more so than when his voice cracked in big moments.
He called it his “Peter Brady Syndrome,” a reference to a long-ago “Brady Bunch” episode in which Peter’s voice adjusts to adolescence.
What was the point of this decision?
Taking King and Picker off the road two years ago and having them call away games remotely to save money was not ideal, but it was understandable.
Not this. Erasing them altogether cost more in public relations damage than whatever they are being paid to do the job.
Listenership for hockey on radio is modest at best, including for the Rangers. But think of the free publicity and goodwill the team derives from having King’s goal calls replayed the next morning on WFAN or on social media.
The Islanders have a checkered history of adequate radio signals. But terrestrial radio is a minor part of the reach of King and Picker. Most fans now access them through streaming.
Finally, there is the matter of how logistically problematic simulcasts are. Radio and TV are not the same.
The Islanders had a similar arrangement early in the late 1970s/early 1980s glory days, then tried it again in 2009-10 before going back to radio broadcasts after one season.
Howie Rose was MSG Networks’ play-by-play man at the time, and he was so upset by the arrangement he would intentionally undermine the radio side by not mentioning the score heading into commercial breaks. TV viewers could see it on their screens.
“If I recall, we did everything possible to sabotage it so it wouldn’t last more than a year,” Rose recalled in a text to Newsday.
Rose, the Mets’ longtime radio voice, is a fierce defender of the medium and was among many in the business who blasted the Islanders when the news broke.
In an “X” post after The Athletic first reported the news, Rose wrote, “If this is true it is incomprehensibly embarrassing. Radio is not a disposable commodity no matter how much things have changed in the industry.”
Don La Greca, a longtime fill-in on Rangers radio, also criticized the team on his ESPN New York radio show.
“From a reputation standpoint, from a professionalism standpoint, is it worth it?” he said. “Is it worth the few thousand dollars that you saved on this decision, and the answer’s clearly ‘no’ to me. C’mon.”
On WFAN, Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti also weighed in, with Esiason saying, “It seems cheap that the team would knock off the radio announcers. Those guys love that team.”
Other NHL teams have made the same move, but other teams are not in New York and other fan bases are not as sensitive to perceptions with an Original Six team operating in the same market.
The post-Lamoriello Islanders are making other changes in the organization, and other people have or will lose jobs. But fair or not, those people are not public voices of the franchise the way King and Picker are.
The 2025-26 opener is not until October, so the Islanders have time to reconsider this ill-considered move.
MSG Networks’ Brendan Burke praised King and Picker on “X” and also offered this potentially hopeful remark:
“I have lots of thoughts on today’s news,” he wrote. “I have and will share them with the people that need to hear them.”
Everyone should.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
