NESN is Having Technical Difficulties

During tonight’s Philadelphia Flyers-Boston Bruins game at TD Banknorth Garden, NESN started having audio difficulties. They began late in the second period when Andy Brickley’s microphone died in the middle of a replay. Jack Edwards had to go solo for a time, when NESN’s engineers gave both men regular stick microphones instead of their headset mics that you often see.

While the second intermission was ongoing, NESN tried to fix the problems, but could not. At the beginning of the third period, studio analysts Barry Pederson and Mike Milbury along with host Kathyrn Tappen were seen (luckily, NESN has their studio crew live from the Garden for home games). They explained that Barry and Mike would do the play-by-play and color as Jack and Andy were heading to their broadcast position behind one of the goal’s. Luckily, this lasted for just 13 seconds when we heard Jack & Brick coming in, but they were uncomfortable from a new vantage point.

They did adjust, but during a commercial break, we saw Barry & Mike again, explaining that Jack & Andy were going back to their regular broadcast position. Mike was about to do play-by-play, but that experiment ended just before the faceoff as we heard Jack & Andy return. Since then, there have been no more audio problems, but it certainly made for an interesting broadcast.

At least NESN did not have to resort to having someone call a game off a monitor as it did last year during a Hockey East game.

Hopefully, someone will pull the video and put it up on YouTube. I’ll post it here if it goes up tomorrow.

About Ken Fang

Ken has been covering the sports media in earnest at his own site, Fang's Bites since May 2007 and at Awful Announcing since March 2013. He provides a unique perspective having been an award-winning radio news reporter in Providence and having worked in local television. Fang celebrates the three Boston Red Sox World Championships in the 21st Century, but continues to be a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan.

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