2008 Tentative Regular Season High School Baseball & Softball Broadcast Schedule
Presented By Broome Community College

*ALL broadcasts, due to potentially inclement weather, could be live or "tape delayed." If tape delayed, they will be posted to the STSN "Archive," will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week free of charge. Please check the STSN homepage for current broadcast status for the above games.

2008 Tentative BCC Baseball & Softball Broadcast Schedule
Presented By Broome Community College

*ALL BCC baseball and softball broadcasts will be doubleheaders, unless otherwise changed by the weather or other unforeseen factors.

Binghamton Senators Intern And STSN Announcer Featured In Press & Sun Bulletin

Courtesy: Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, pressconnects.com
Author: Michael Sharp
Date originally published: January 6, 2008

BINGHAMTON--Forget your fear of public speaking, the bigger hurdle to becoming a radio announcer might just be brushing off that pesky fear of heights.

After all, it's one thing to sit at a Binghamton Senators game and look up to see an employee walking along one of the catwalks high above the ice, maybe fixing a microphone or rebooting the arena's wireless Internet system. It's another thing entirely to pace that suspended maze of narrow walkways yourself.

But such is the course 19-year-old Windsor High grad Rob Lippolis treks each game night, first climbing 12 rungs of a black ladder at the back of a closet along the suite level, radio gear slung over his shoulder, then making his way across those catwalks and down into a light loft at the top of section four.

Lipper's loft, it's been dubbed. Home of the unheard voice of the Binghamton Senators.

"Believe it or not, I liked (that first climb to the catwalks) a lot ... it's a great view," said Lippolis, a Broome Community College freshman who for parts of two seasons now has been training to become a radio announcer by recording mock broadcasts alone in the northeast corner of the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena during B-Sens home games.

They are recordings few people will ever hear, but that Lippolis himself pours over, picking up on overused phrases, learning to temper his excitement at times, trying to find better and better ways to paint the picture of the play unfolding before him.

"It's great," Lippolis said of the opportunity, "because without me getting this internship, being able to come to these games and practice what I'm doing ... there'd be no other way to do it, other than the real thing."

Not that he isn't doing the real thing, too. Because as of November, he very much is.

Three seasons after getting his start as a broadcast intern with the B-Sens, Lippolis is now calling high school hockey games for online broadcasts at
southerntiersportsnetwork.com.

He started by doing stats for football broadcasts this fall, and the plan is for him to do high school and college baseball and softball games in the spring, as he continues to chase his dream of someday calling games "in the show," be it the Major League Baseball, or more preferably, the NHL show.

"Fantastic," Southern Tier Sports Network President and CEO Matt Brannen said, when asked about Lippolis' start. "He's extremely professional for being such a younger guy. He has done a terrific job (in) how he goes about presenting the game, how he goes about his professionalism in preparing for the game, the fact he contacts all the coaches and all of the team managers. And he really is a first-rate professional when it comes to not only before the game, but during the broadcast as well."

The son of a former Maine-Endwell coach and Broome CC hockey player, Lippolis grew up playing hockey on a frozen pond in the woods near his Windsor home. The pond has since dried up, but he remains just as passionate about the sport, following in his father's footsteps as a left wing for Maine-Endwell's club team and now BCC, and continuing to cheer on his beloved New York Rangers.

The broadcasting bug came later, as he and his younger brother Evan would film mock news broadcasts in their basement, and Lippolis would pretend to call out play-by-play for televised Rangers games when no one else was home.

Eventually, after his father, Mark, mentioned his interest in broadcasting one day to B-Sens executive vice president Tom Mitchell, Lippolis searched out some contact information for former B-Sens radio announcer Grady Whittenburg.

An e-mail was sent. A meeting was held. And a high school internship began.

"He's just very enthusiastic," said Whittenburg, now with the ECHL's Elmira Jackals. "A real go-getter, almost to the point where it was like almost running on Jolt Cola. ... He really took the bull by the horns and really hit the road running."

Running, it turns out, on a very similar path.

Whittenburg himself got his start by doing mock broadcasts of Binghamton Whalers games as a 21- and 22-year-old on nights when the press box had an empty seat or two. He went on to earn an internship at Cornell, which led to a 13-year run calling hockey games for the Big Red before stops in Binghamton and now Elmira.

"Obviously when you're starting out, you need to find your own identity," Whittenburg said. "I think no matter what your profession, whether it's a writer, whether it's a broadcaster, you need to find your own identity and not try to copy somebody's style, maybe take the best of several different styles and put them together into something that you can put your stamp on.

"So I think that's something that we all struggle with in trying to come up with something we can say that's uniquely our own. I think just doing what he's doing,getting the practice so young in life, coming out of high school having done this, and now in his freshman year at college, (it's) a situation where, you start early enough, you're going to come up with your own style."

And as he goes, Lippolis appears to have taken to heart at least two big pieces of advice from Whittenburg. The first being that the vast majority of a broadcast is in the preparation, and the second being the need to gain as much experience in as many different facets of the front office as possible, considering most minor league broadcasters also share public relations and other such duties.

Along those lines, Lippolis began with the B-Sens by keeping stats for Whittenburg during games, and eventually reading the previous day's scores on the air during the pregame show. He would later help set up press row, man the media room during the pregame meal, help track down a referee's signature for the final game sheet, and then deliver those sheets to the visiting locker room.

In the second half of last season, he began doing the mock broadcasts as well, sitting alone on a small platform, a laptop in the seat to his right, a mixer to his left, and the crowd bustling around the concourse underneath him. Afterward, he'd send clips on to Whittenburg to review.

"Grady got me started with everything," Lippolis said. "Mentioned all the equipment I needed, helped me set everything up. Basically everything I know now, he taught me."

Of those first broadcasts, he added: "We laughed about it sometimes, because some of them were pretty bad. Got better though."

Even so, he's still breaking down his recordings, picking apart his nights at the Arena like a right wing might a game film.

His focus recently was on cutting down overused phrases like "long outlet pass" or "dumps it down" or "fires one on net." He's cognizant of the fact he's broadcasting games on radio, not television, and that he must keep getting more descriptive in how he relays a play, from where the shot came from, to which pad the goalie kicked it out with, to which side the defense is now heading back up the ice on.

"Just working on expanding the vocabulary," he said. "And being, I mean, I am a fan, I'm always going to be a fan, but being less of a fan. Cause I get too into it sometimes."

Not that he wants to toy too much with one of his trademarks, though.

"I haven't been able to listen to a game yet that he's done this season, as far as local high school hockey, but on some of his tapes from last year, his enthusiasm level is great," said Whittenburg, hinting that the kind of self-analysis Lippolis is doing now isn't likely to end any time soon.

"I'm 43 years old, and I always still think I'm still refining my style and stuff like that. So he's a youngster, and he's gotten a great start, and I hope it turns into something big for him somewhere down the road."

STSN January & February 2008 High School Basketball Broadcast Schedule
Playoffs Presented By Broome Community College

*NOTE: 2007-2008 High School Basketball Playoff Broadcast Schedule To Be Announced.
Please Check STSN Regularly For Playoff Broadcast Schedule Updates!

Tenative November & December 2007 STSN Greater Binghamton Area
High School Basketball Broadcast Schedule (All Games Broadcasted Live, Unless Otherwise Noted)

2007 STOP DWI Holiday Classic Basketball Tournament Broadcast Schedule
Presented By Broome County STOP DWI Program
(All Games Broadcasted Live, Unless Otherwise Noted)

BCHSHA URL: http://home.stny.rr.com/mbeach3/bchsha/main.html

BCHSHA Press Release

Date: October 16, 2007

Selected Broome CountyHigh School Hockey Association Games To Be Broadcast On Southern Tier Sports Network During 2007-2008 Season

Binghamton, NY; The Broome County High School Hockey Association and Southern Tier Sports Network announced that 13 BCHSHA games will be broadcast, via streaming audio, on Southern Tier Sports Network during the upcoming 2007-2008 regular season. STSN President and CEO Matt Brannen indicated that the website will broadcast a different BCHSHA game each week during the 4 month regular season. Brannen stated, “STSN is extremely proud to be partnering with the BCHSHA. Our broadcast agreement will hopefully help give new exposure to a league and sport in the Greater Binghamton area which has seen tremendous growth over the last several years.” In making the broadcast agreement announcement, Brannen also reported that former BCHSHA player and current Binghamton Senators broadcast intern Rob Lippolis will be the play-by-play “voice” of BCHSHA broadcasts on STSN during the 2007-2008 season. Brannen remarked, “Rob is one of the finest young announcers in the Greater Binghamton area. His familiarity with the BCHSHA and excitement for amateur ice hockey will undoubtedly show through in our broadcasts.” Due to technological limitations at the game sites, these regular season broadcasts will be “tape delayed” but it is expected that broadcasts will be available on the STSN “Archive” the same night that the games are played. As with all STSN “Archived” games, broadcasts will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week completely free of charge. It is expected that STSN will expand its coverage of BCHSHA game broadcasts during the 2007-2008 playoffs to include the championship contest. The STSN BCHSHA playoff broadcast schedule will be announced just prior to the playoffs beginning. The 2007-2008 STSN BCHSHA regular season broadcast schedule is posted on the STSN “News” page. For more information about the BCHSHA, please log onto http://home.stny.rr.com/mbeach3/bchsha/main.html. For more information on Southern Tier Sports Network, log onto http://www.southerntiersportsnetwork.com.

Tentative STSN 2007-2008 BCHSHA Regular Season Broadcast Schedule

Date: October 18, 2007
For Immediate Release:

Selected 2007-2008 Davis College Falcons Men's Basketball Games To Be Broadcast on Southern Tier Sports Network
- Presented by GHS Federal Credit Union.

Don Giovanni, Director of Development at Davis College, has announced that selected Davis College Falcons Men's basketball home games will be broadcast on the Internet at SouthernTierSportsNetwork.com. Davis College Athletic Director and Men's basketball head coach Tom O'Connor said, "We have a very talented group of athletes and this promises to be a real exciting season for Falcon Basketball in Johnson City!" Coach O'Connor continued, "I am thrilled to have this new relationship with Matt Brannen (President of Southern Tier Sports Network). This will be tremendous exposure for Davis College all over the world and a real blessing for the player's families who live out of town." Southern Tier Sports Network President and CEO Matt Brannen said, "Broadcasting selected Davis College Men's basketball games this upcoming season is another example of our website's mission to broadcast the best local high school and college sports in the Greater Binghamton area. Davis College is not only a very well-respected institution of higher learning, but is also a leader in the community We are very proud to be associated with Davis College athletics and hope that this is the beginning of a long and productive relationship for both organizations."
The Southern Tier Sports Network broadcast schedule of Davis College Men's basketball can be accessed on the News page at SouthernTierSportsNetwork.com. The expectation is that the selected home games will be broadcasted live, as well as archived at www.southerntiersportsnetwork.com. Any businesses or organizations interested in sponsoring upcoming Davis College men's basketball broadcasts on Southern Tier Sports Network should contact Don Giovanni, Davis College Director of Development, at (607) 729-1581, extension 336 or via e-mail at dgiovanni@davisny.edu. For more information on Southern Tier Sports Network, log onto www.southerntiersportsnetwork.com.

Selected 2007-2008 Davis College Falcons Men's Basketball Games To Be Broadcast on Southern Tier Sports Network,
Presented By GHS Federal Credit Union

Friday, Nov. 2	Christendom College	@	Davis College	Tape Delayed
Monday, Nov. 5	Word of Life	@	Davis College	Tape Delayed
Tuesday, Nov. 13	Johnson College	@	Davis College	Live, 7PM
Friday, Nov. 30	Washington Bible College	@	Davis College	Live, 7PM
Tuesday, Jan. 29	Lancaster Bible College	@	Davis College	Live, 7PM
Monday, Feb.4	Cazenovia JV	@	Davis College	Live, 7PM
Thursday, Feb. 7	Albany College of Pharmacy	@	Davis College	Live, 7PM
Saturday, Feb.16	Valley Forge Christian College	@	Davis College	Tape Delayed

*NOTE-Please check back to STSN as more games may be added to the broadcast schedule as the season progresses!

2007-2008 BCC "Winter" Sports Streaming Audio Broadcast Schedule
(All Games Webcasted Live Unless Otherwise Noted)