Islanders' radio announcers won't travel to most road games this season
Islanders radio announcer Chris King poses before a game at Nassau Coliseum on Feb. 27, 2014. Credit: Richard T. Slattery
The Islanders’ radio announcers will not travel to most road games this season, the team confirmed to Newsday on Tuesday.
Announcers Chris King and Greg Picker will travel to nearby games against the Rangers, Devils and Flyers, but mostly will call games remotely, starting with Saturday night’s game in Buffalo.
An Islanders spokesman called the move an “organizational decision.”
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, TV and radio announcers across sports routinely called road games remotely. King and Picker worked out of Hofstra’s studios.
But most announcing teams in major sports have gone back to traveling, as the Islanders' radio team did last season.
MSG Networks’ television announcers, who work for MSG, will continue to work road games in person, with rare exceptions.
Unlike most NHL teams, the Islanders’ television and radio announcers do not travel on team charters, which means there is an added cost to sending them on the road.
The Islanders’ terrestrial radio outlets this season are ESPN Radio (on 1050 AM or 98.7 FM), Hofstra’s WRHU (88.7 FM) and WRCN (103.9 FM).
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.
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