The following are the broadcasters on TV and radio who have worked for the New York Rangers.
For the first two games of the 2008–09 season, in Prague, WEPN carried a simulcast of MSG audio with Sam Rosen and Joe Micheletti in Prague, and Don La Greca and Pete Stemkowski in the New York studio for intermissions.
Year | Channel | Play-by-play | Color commentator(s) | Studio host |
1999–2000 | MSG Network | Sam Rosen | John Davidson (primary) Sal Messina (during Davidson's NHL on ABC assignments) | Al Trautwig |
1998–99 | MSG Network | Sam Rosen | John Davidson (primary) Sal Messina (during Davidson's NHL on Fox assignments) | Al Trautwig |
1997–98 | MSG Network | Sam Rosen | John Davidson (primary) Sal Messina (during Davidson's NHL on Fox assignments) | Al Trautwig |
1996–97 | MSG Network | Sam Rosen | John Davidson (primary) Sal Messina (during Davidson's NHL on Fox assignments) | Al Trautwig |
1995–96 | MSG Network | Sam Rosen | John Davidson | Al Trautwig |
1995 | MSG Network | Sam Rosen | John Davidson | Al Trautwig |
1993–94 | MSG Network (main) | Sam Rosen | John Davidson | Al Trautwig |
MSG II (alternate) | ||||
1992–93 | MSG Network | Sam Rosen | John Davidson | Al Trautwig |
1991–92 | MSG Network | Sam Rosen | John Davidson | Bruce Beck |
1990–91 | MSG Network | Sam Rosen | John Davidson | Bruce Beck |
HBO's first sports broadcast was of a New York Rangers-Vancouver Canucks NHL game, transmitted to a Service Electric cable system in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on November 8, 1972. From 1972 to 1974, HBO used only one announcer on Rangers games so Marty Glickman, who was in charge of HBO Sports, hired other announcers to replace him when he was unavailable, generally owing to his radio commitments to Giants football.
Win Eliot called the Rangers games on WPIX-11 as part of The Saturday Night Sports Special. In the early 1960s, the Rangers played Saturday afternoon games, which were tape delayed [1] for evening re-broadcast on Channel 11. The Saturday night [2] hockey games were almost always shown at 9 p.m. Road games were usually aired live if the Rangers were at Chicago, where the game was at 8:30 p.m., and after expansion, in St. Louis or Minnesota, where 9 p.m. would be the actual start time. In the 1964–65 season, Win Elliott did all the Saturday night games until March 20, which was the first Saturday of the racing season at Aqueduct, where Elliott hosted a Saturday afternoon series. Jim Gordon therefore, did the last two Saturday nights of the season. When the Rangers weren't scheduled on Saturday nights, Channel 11 would run events such as track and field and ECAC Basketball. This occurred from 1962 to 1965, before the Knicks and Rangers moved to Channel 9. They even showed a different NHL game on occasion, which was the case on March 27, 1965, when Jim Gordon went to Toronto to do a Detroit-Toronto game for WPIX.
The Rangers' home game against the Montreal Canadiens on February 25, 1940, was the first National Hockey League game to ever be broadcast on television.
Year | Channel | Play-by-play | Color commentator(s) | Studio host |
2023–24 | WEPN | Kenny Albert (primary) Don La Greca (select games during Albert's NFL on Fox, TNT, Knicks on MSG TV assignments) Ed Cohen (select games during Albert's NFL on Fox, TNT, Knicks on MSG TV assignments) Sam Rosen (during select national broadcasts) Alex Faust (select games) | Dave Maloney (primary) Pete Stemkowski (during Maloney's absences) | Don La Greca or Pat O'Keefe |
2022–23 | WEPN | Kenny Albert (primary) Don La Greca (select games during Albert's NFL on Fox, TNT, Knicks on MSG TV assignments) Ed Cohen (select games during Albert's NFL on Fox, TNT, Knicks on MSG TV assignments) Sam Rosen (during select national broadcasts) | Dave Maloney (primary) Pete Stemkowski (during Maloney's absences) | Don La Greca or Pat O'Keefe |
2021–22 | WEPN | Kenny Albert (primary) Don La Greca (select games during Albert's NFL on Fox, TNT, Knicks on MSG TV assignments) Ed Cohen (select games during Albert's NFL on Fox, TNT, Knicks on MSG TV assignments) Sam Rosen (during select national broadcasts) | Dave Maloney (primary) Pete Stemkowski (during Maloney's absences) | Don La Greca or Pat O'Keefe |
2021 | WEPN | Kenny Albert (primary) Don La Greca (select games during Albert's NFL on Fox, TNT, Knicks on MSG TV assignments) Ed Cohen (select games during Albert's NFL on Fox, TNT, Knicks on MSG TV assignments) Sam Rosen (during select national broadcasts) | Dave Maloney (primary) Pete Stemkowski (during Maloney's absences) | Don La Greca or Pat O'Keefe |
Year | Channel | Play-by-play | Color commentator(s) | Studio host |
1999–2000 | WFAN | Kenny Albert | Sal Messina | |
1998–99 | WFAN | Kenny Albert | Sal Messina | |
1997–98 | WFAN | Kenny Albert | Sal Messina | |
1996–97 | WFAN | Kenny Albert | Sal Messina | |
1995–96 | WFAN | Kenny Albert | Sal Messina | |
1994–95 | WFAN | Marv Albert | Sal Messina | |
1993–94 | WFAN–AM 660 (main) WEVD–AM 1050 (alternate) | Marv Albert (main) Howie Rose (alternate) | Sal Messina | Howie Rose (main) Steve Somers (alternate) |
1992–93 | WFAN | Marv Albert | Sal Messina | |
1991–92 | WFAN | Marv Albert | Sal Messina | |
1990–91 | WFAN | Marv Albert | Sal Messina |
For many years when he was the radio voice of the Rangers, Marv Albert missed more games than he called. Marv had multiple commitments that forced him to miss games. The alternate radio play-by-play announcers from 1985–1987 actually did more games than Marv Albert. In his 19-year career as the color commentator, Sal Messina worked with 18 different play-by-play partners, even though nominally his only partners were Marv or Kenny Albert. Messina also did play-by-play on several games. Sal Messina also sometimes did TV, filling in for Bill Chadwick, Phil Esposito, and later John Davidson. So there were some additional radio analysts at times. Pete Stemkowski, Dave Maloney, Ron Greschner, Pierre Larouche, Emile Francis, Chris Nilan, and Ulf Nilsson filled in for Messina. During the years when only the non-televised road games were broadcast, at times the TV crew, Sal Marchiano/Bill Chadwick (in 1972–73), Jim Gordon/Chadwick, and Gordon/Phil Esposito later did the games on radio, especially on lengthy road trips.
Year | Channel | Play-by-play |
1939–40 | WHN | Bert Lee |
1931–32 | WMCA | Jack Filman |
1930–31 | WMCA | Jack Filman |
Year | Channel | Play-by-play | Studio host |
1928–29 | WMSG | Jack Filman [3] | |
1927–28 | WMSG | Jack Filman | Horace Beaver [4] |
It was not until the 1987–88 season that all Rangers' games was broadcast locally on radio in New York; for many years prior to that, only home games and (after the late 1940s) a handful of away games were heard. Regular-season away games heard on radio after the early 1960s were generally not broadcast locally on television.
Marv Albert is an American former sportscaster. Honored for his work by the Basketball Hall of Fame, he was commonly referred to as "the voice of basketball". From 1967 to 2004, he was also known as "the voice of the New York Knicks". Albert was best known nationally for his work as the lead announcer for both the NBA on NBC and NBA games on TNT. In 2015, he was inducted into the broadcasting Hall of Fame.
Kenneth Gary Albert is an American sportscaster, the son of NBA sportscaster Marv Albert and nephew of sportscasters Al Albert and Steve Albert. He is the only sportscaster who currently does play-by-play for all four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada.
Martin Irving Glickman was an American radio announcer who was famous for his broadcasts of the New York Knicks basketball games and the football games of the New York Giants and the New York Jets.
WEPN is a sports radio station licensed to New York, New York. The station is owned-and-operated by Good Karma Brands and its transmitter site is located in North Bergen, New Jersey.
The MSG Network (MSG) is an American regional cable and satellite television network, and radio service owned by Sphere Entertainment.—a spin-off of the main Madison Square Garden Company operation.
William Leroy "The Big Whistle" Chadwick was the first US-born referee to serve in the National Hockey League (NHL). Despite being blind in his right eye, his on-ice officiating career spanned the greater part of the 1940s and 1950s, during which he pioneered the system of hand signals for penalties which is now used in all hockey games internationally. He later was a popular broadcaster for the New York Rangers on radio and television.
The NHL Network was an American television syndication package that broadcast National Hockey League games from the 1975–76 through 1978–79 seasons. The NHL Network was distributed by the Hughes Television Network.
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John Kenneth Andariese, nicknamed "Johnny Hoops", was a New York basketball analyst on both radio and television for more than 40 years. Andariese broadcast for the New York Knicks and announced some of the most memorable Knicks games ever played. He also is well known for hosting NBA Legends with Johnny Hoops on NBA TV.
Jim Gordon was an American television and radio newscaster and play-by-play sportscaster in the New York City area for nearly 40 years.
Robert Wischusen is an American sports commentator who is currently a hockey, college football and basketball voice for ESPN and the radio voice announcer for the New York Jets on WAXQ-FM.
Mike Crispino is an American sportscaster. Crispino is the lead play by play announcer for UCONN Men's Basketball team on iHeart Radio ESPN 97.9, as well as UCONN Football and Baseball. Crispino was also a play by play announcer for MSG Network for almost 20 years mainly covering New York Knicks basketball before moving on in 2017.
The National Hockey League (NHL), a professional ice hockey league active in the United States and Canada, is broadcast over the radio mainly in its participating countries.
Donald Marcievius La Greca is an American sports broadcaster and analyst. He is the co-host of The Michael Kay Show, heard on ESPN New York WEPN-FM and simulcast on the YES Network. He is also the radio host of the New York Rangers pregame and postgame shows, having served in the position since the 2005–2006 season.
From 1965 through 1975, in addition to the Saturday night game on CBC, Hockey Night in Canada also produced and broadcast a Wednesday night game on CTV, CBC's privately owned competitor; beginning in the 1975–76 NHL season, these midweek games began to broadcast by local stations. In 1970–71, the Vancouver Canucks joined the NHL, meaning that there were now three possible venues for an HNIC telecast.