For more than a decade, the Saint Joseph’s Sports Network has produced and broadcast Hawk athletics to the Greater Philadelphia region and beyond. Begun as an outgrowth of a four-game package of Saint Joseph’s women’s basketball broadcasts during the 1989-90 season (then a first on commercial radio in Philadelphia), SJSN was founded in the fall of 1990. While continuing to build coverage of women’s basketball, SJSN also initially filled in the gaps of an annually incomplete schedule of men’s basketball broadcasts by outside rights holders.
THE BEGINNINGS…
The first SJSN broadcast took place on November 23, 1990 on WCZN-1590 AM from Delaware County, with a women’s game between the Hawks and Oregon from SJU’s Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse. Ken Krsolovic, then SJU’s Sports Media Relations Director, handled play-by-play with former Hawk coach Ellen Ryan serving as color commentator. The first men’s game aired on that same station five days later with Saint Joseph’s at Drexel. Krsolovic was joined by Associated Press writer Jack Scheuer as the analyst. That 1990-91 season marked the first in school history in which every Hawk men’s game aired on Philadelphia-area commercial radio.
By January, 1991, SJSN picked up its first affiliate station, WVSJ in South Jersey. Krsolovic did the play-by-play on the majority of the 26 broadcasts that season, primarily with former Hawk player Missy Foy on the women’s games and with a variety of analysts for the men. In the final men’s game that season, February 26 versus West Virginia, Joe Lunardi was teamed with Krsolovic for the first time. Lunardi headed the University’s public relations office and was a longtime area basketball writer.
RADIO EXPANSION…
Additional stations were added to SJSN for the following season, 1991-92, expanding the coverage area of the broadcasts. WJBR in Wilmington, Delaware, WSKR at the Jersey Shore and WTTM in Trenton, New Jersey joined the group. The first-ever version of the HawkTalk radio show was produced that year on the Delaware County flagship station on Wednesday afternoons with taped replays on two of the affiliates at night. A half-hour interview and update show, it lasted just that season.
The first Philadelphia-city based outlet, WDAS-1480 AM was added for the 1992-93 season as the SJSN station lineup continued to evolve. On that year’s women’s games, another former Hawk player, Terri Mohr, took over as analyst. Krsolovic continued on play-by-play for both teams, again with various analysts on the men’s broadcasts. For the first time, broadcasts were made available beyond the traditional radio coverage areas with the addition of the “Teamline” telephone system, which continues to this day, allowing listeners to dial in at for a per minute charge to hear the games.
An even stronger lineup of stations was in place for the 1993-94 campaign, with WHAT-1340 AM taking over as the Philadelphia outlet along with the holdovers in Delaware County, Wilmington, Trenton and WNPV in Lansdale, Pa. for the Montgomery and Bucks County areas. It was that year when Lunardi began joining Krsolovic on a regular basis for the men’s games. Former Hawk player and assistant coach Renie Shields took over the role as analyst for the women’s games.
Through the mid-1990’s, games continued to air over the SJSN stations with the men’s package expanding to take over approximately half of the game broadcasts each year while outside entities controlled the other half. Women’s games remained a vital cog in the SJSN broadcast machine, accounting for about half of the games produced annually by the Network. The HawkTalk radio show reappeared when Phil Martelli became the men’s head coach in the 1995-96 season. The format switched to a weekly, hour-long call-in show on WHAT. It was that year when the network first reached its peak with a total of as many as six stations carrying the games simultaneously.
Worldwide access to the broadcasts began on December 27, 1997 when the Hawk men faced Mississippi State in El Paso, Texas. That was the first Saint Joseph’s game relayed over the internet. That 1997-98 season saw a separate, pre-game interview show with the Hawks’ coach instituted before each game broadcast. Also, the HawkTalk call-in show moved out of the studio to a live remote location for the first time. It also shifted on the dial, moving to Philadelphia’s WFIL-560 AM airwaves.
INTO THE BIG TIME…
The 1998-99 season was an historic one in Saint Joseph’s broadcasting as all of the men’s games came under the SJSN production umbrella. Legendary Philadelphia station WPEN-950 AM carried every game, the first time in team history that a single city station aired each Hawk contest. Coupling the powerful new flagship with web and telephone access to the games, the affiliate carriers were eliminated. Krsolovic took over play-by-play description for all games, the first time in school history anyone had held that role on a permanent basis. HawkTalk also moved to WPEN. A package of women’s games continued to be produced on a variety of stations, including outlets WFIL-560 AM and WZZD-990 AM in Philadelphia.
The next year, 1999-2000, every Hawk women’s game was scheduled to be broadcast for the first time. The old WCZN, which was the first SJSN station nearly a decade earlier, took the entire schedule of women’s games under its latest moniker, WPWA. That station, in fact, has carried parts of the SJSN package in every season, often as the network’s flagship, or feeder source. With all men’s and women’s games now on the air (along with web and telephone access), WPWA station manager Jim Havens joined the broadcast team on play-by-play of the women’s contests when Krsolovic had a conflict while doing the men’s games. Meanwhile, on the men’s side, the 99-00 campaign marked the first in which Krsolovic was joined by Lunardi for every broadcast.
TV PRODUCTIONS…
On television, the Saint Joseph’s Sports Network first broadcast Hawk games in the 1992-93 season, when a three-game package of men’s games aired on WGTW-Channel 48. The first broadcast took place on January 28, 1993 with Hofstra at Saint Joseph’s. Harry Donahue called the play-by-play with former coach Jim Boyle as color commentator. SJSN’s TV broadcasts have since aired on SportsChannel Philadelphia, Comcast SportsNet and WYBE-Channel 35 locally, with some games also picked up in out-of-town markets. Other broadcasters to have worked SJSN telecasts include Larry Rosen, John McAdams and Cliff Anderson as well as radio voices Krsolovic, Lunardi and Shields.
A total of 22 Hawk men’s and women’s basketball games were produced under the SJSN banner through the 1999-2000 season but Atlantic 10 Conference rules restricted the number of games in institutionally-produced TV packages such as SJSN in the later seasons. The network, meanwhile, turned to its first weekly half hour show, beginning in Jauary, 1997. Also christened HawkTalk, like the radio show, the TV version’s debut coincided with NCAA Tournament runs by both the men’s and women’s teams that year. The show created an immediate stir for its SportsChannel Philadelphia viewers with a unique format. The antithesis of the traditional coaches’ show, HawkTalk put personable coach Phil Martelli as host from behind the desk - a la Johnny Carson - for wacky interviews and shtick…and a few basketball highlites too. With Krsolovic as producer and Lunardi as Martelli’s straight man, the show gained attention almost immediately, with clips airing nationally on ESPN and CBS. Print coverage peaked with a Sports Illustrated profile that year. Renamed Phil Martelli’s HawkTalk in its second year, the show was honored in January 2001 as the Best Coaches’ Show in all of college basketball by The Sporting News. The show has aired on regional cable channel Comcast SportsNet since 1998 and was moved from its original Saturday morning slot to prime time (Fridays at 7:00 p.m.) for the 2001-02 season. It has been produced since 1999 at CCI Communications in West Chester after single years at both WYBE and Parkside Studios in Philadelphia.
St. Joseph’s women’s basketball show, which debuted as The Hawks’ Nest, joined the SJSN stable of productions in the 1997-98 season. It switched from a studio to magazine format in the 1999-2000 season and was renamed Saint Joseph’s Women’s Basketball TV Magazine for the 2001-02 year. The only area show dedicated exclusively to women’s college basketball, it currently airs occasionally each season on Comcast SportsNet.
BASEBALL AND BEYOND…
Over the years, SJSN has also produced broadcasts of the radio-friendly sport of baseball. Begun in 1992 with a 14-game schedule on the Delaware County outlet, 1590 AM, the baseball broadcasts have continued each year since. That station has been the primary carrier of baseball over the years, although occasional games have aired on WNPV and WPAZ. Again on WPWA, the games now feature the broadcast tandem of Jim Havens and Phil Denne. Previous regular broadcasters of Hawk baseball have been John Rafal, Bill Avington and Dan Loney, who is now the voice of minor league baseball’s Trenton Thunder. SJSN also experimented with men’s soccer on the radio, originating a pair of games on 1590-AM in 1994.
