This development came last night when it was learned that Los Angeles Lakers radio voice Spero Dedes, certainly on the fast track to be one of the signature voices of the next generation, decided not to take the job as the team’s TV voice. He was to replace Joel Myers this upcoming season and also be with the team when it moved to the new Time Warner Cable Lakers channel for the 2012-13 season. However, that will not come to fruition as Dedes decided to go home to his native New York and as Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News writes, become the radio voice of the New York Knicks replacing Mike Crispino.
Dedes had been the radio voice of the Lakers, replacing Joel Myers who went to the TV side. The Lakers decided to have Dedes replace Myers on TV for the upcoming season and bring in Fox Sports West pregame and postgame host and occasional fill-in Bill MacDonald for the radio play-by-play. However, as the months passed, Dedes found that the Lakers wanted him to be the full-time voice and would not allow him to call NFL and NCAA Tournament games for CBS, something he has done for the past few years. In addition, Dedes did some hosting work for NFL Network and NBA TV.
His new contract with the Knicks gives him the freedom to continue his CBS work.
So the Lakers had to do a shuffle and brought MacDonald in for TV to finish out the team’s run with Fox Sports Net. For the radio side, the Lakers have hired John Ireland who’s been associated with the team on its KCAL broadcasts.
Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register writes about the whole Lakers announcing shuffle.
Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says the Lakers had a verbal commitment from Dedes back in April, but apparently had a change of heart.
Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star says both Ireland and MacDonald have been signed to one year contracts.
So it appears the Lakers will assess Ireland and MacDonald after the 2011-12 season to determine if both men will remain in their positions long-term.
