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It’s a first for Hockey East, New England Sports Network and a fledgling production company started by two former Bangor sportscasters.
Inside Hockey East, a half-hour television show making its debut Jan. 14 on NESN, is the first feature-oriented show developed exclusively for the Hockey East conference.
“The idea of the show is to bring fans where they aren’t normally allowed to be: in the locker rooms, on the bench with the coaches, and elsewhere,” said Dan Hannigan, the radio voice of University of Maine men’s hockey for Bangor’s WZON (620AM) and a former sports director at Bangor TV station WVII (Channel 7).
Hannigan, who is the show’s co-producer along with fellow former WVII sports director Eric Frede, started up Cod Rock Media Productions with Frede 18 months ago.
“When Hockey East approached us with this project, we thought it was a natural fit for both of us,” said Hannigan.
Frede joined NESN in 2003 and works as SportsDesk anchor, Red Sox field reporter, host of Red Sox Rewind, and play-by-play announcer for Boston College football.
The fact that the NHL lockout has dragged on through the winter made it a good time for the show to debut, especially for NESN, which is filling many of the prime-time hours it would normally devote to Boston Bruins games and coverage to increased Red Sox coverage, special projects, and shows such as Inside Hockey East.
“It’s a way to promote the league better, and they may have seen an opportunity with the NHL being out, but I don’t know that it was specifically because of the NHL lockout that this show came about,” Hannigan said.
The show is scheduled for a six-episode run with new episodes airing bi-weekly. The first will feature an in-depth look at Northeastern senior defenseman Tim Judy and wife Jessi and a first-hand, day-in-the-life segment on University of Massachusetts Lowell coach Blaise MacDonald.
Both segments are staples of the show. The first is called ‘Spotlight,’ which will profile coaches, players, or specific aspects of Hockey East, and the second is ‘Insider,’ in which a Hockey East personality is attached to a wireless microphone and followed around with a camera. One future Spotlight segment will feature UMaine’s Alfond Arena from the fans’ perspective.
“Because it’s on every other week, it can’t be a stat- or highlights-driven show,” Hannigan said. “We have to be more on the feature side of things because we want to make sure it’s kind of a timeless type of show.”
The project has helped Frede and Hannigan get back to their sports roots and flex a little creative muscle at the same time, from start to finish.
“That whole thing about putting a story together really appeals to us with our broadcasting backgrounds. It’s definitely been a nice creative outlet for us,” Hannigan said. “This whole business is a great way to have a different way to look at stories and how to present them. We really enjoy them.”
The show will first air every other Friday at 6 p.m. and be repeated at various times the following two weeks.
NESN gets Inside Out back on
New England Sports Network has returned its Red Sox Inside Out program. The weekly, half-hour “hot stove” baseball talk show will provide Boston baseball fans with in-depth analysis and studio discussion on all Red Sox off-season moves and developments.
The show is hosted by former Portland Pirates radio broadcaster Tom Caron and Boston Globe writer Gordon Edes.
Red Sox Inside Out’s nine-episode run started Jan. 4 and will conclude with two shots hosted from the Red Sox spring training facility in Fort Myers, Fla. First-run episodes air Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. and repeat Tuesdays at 10:30 p.m.
Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or aneff@bangordailynews.com
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