Chris Myers, Beth Mowins, and longtime Cubs radio broadcaster Pat Hughes will act as fill-in announcers when Sciambi is not available. Jon Sciambi, then a television and radio play-by-play voice on ESPN's MLB national broadcasts, was hired to replace Kasper. Īfter the 2020 season, Kasper left the Cubs and Marquee to become the radio voice of the Chicago White Sox on WMVP. The channel also brought on Bob Vorwald, former executive producer of WGN Sports. Cole Wright, formerly of NFL Network, will serve as studio host, and Taylor McGregor, formerly field reporter for the Colorado Rockies on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, will serve as field reporter. On May 1, 2019, it was reported that David Kaplan-NBC Sports Chicago studio host for Cubs games-had renewed his contract with the channel, dispelling rumors that he planned to join Marquee. The Cubs' previous television commentators Len Kasper (play-by-play) and Jim "J.D." Deshaies (color) retained their roles on Marquee at the channel's launch. The network would use the slogan "We get it" in a marketing campaign to promote the new Cubs season and these tweaks. Alongside its new play-by-play voice Jon Sciambi, the network would no longer require commentators to wear a suit and tie on-air (a mandate made during the inaugural season by executives insisting that Marquee's broadcasts have a "national network quality"), and replaced an unorthodox bottom-centered score bar it had used during the first season with a more traditional scoreboard in the top-left of the screen (a move which also differentiated Marquee from its newly-relaunched sister networks in the Bally Sports group, whose on-air branding was derived from that of Marquee, but with an equally-unorthodox integration of a scoreboard and ticker). Marquee's Cubs broadcasts underwent tweaks for the 2021 season. However, because the start of the season was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, its first regular-season game was not until July 24, 2020. The channel aired its first live spring training game against the Oakland Athletics at Sloan Park later in the day the game had been postponed from the afternoon due to the threat of rain.
CT, with its first program being a launch special hosted by actor and Cubs fan Bill Murray, followed by a documentary on Ernie Banks. Marquee Sports Network officially launched on Februat 1 p.m. Įarly reception of Marquee was mixed by fans, culminating in fans booing Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts during the annual Cubs Convention in 2020 after mention of the new network.
The divestiture was mandated as part of Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox, who chose not to retain the networks under its successor Fox Corporation.
#MARQUEE SPORTS NETWORK PROFESSIONAL#
On August 22, 2019, a consortium of Sinclair and Entertainment Studios acquired Fox Sports Networks for $10.6 billion, thus making Marquee a sister to them (FSN previously operated a Chicago network, but it became defunct when Chicago's professional teams abandoned it in favor of a joint venture with Comcast-currently known as NBC Sports Chicago). He is the former president of the MSG Network and a former top official with the Milwaukee Bucks ( COO) and the St. On May 22, 2019, Michael McCarthy was named general manager of the Marquee Sports Network after being the Cubs' consultant on the channel. The venture was officially announced in February 2019 to be launched in 2020 with Sinclair. Sinclair had previously attempted to purchase WGN's parent company Tribune Media, and runs the national sports network Stadium with the White Sox's investment arm Silver Chalice. On December 18, 2018, it was reported by the Chicago Sun-Times that the team was preparing to launch its RSN, "Marquee", in 2020, and that Sinclair Broadcast Group was a frontrunner to serve as managing partner. On Novemin an interview with WSCR radio, the Cubs' president of business operations Crane Kenney stated that the team was seeking to launch its own in-house regional sports network after its current broadcast contracts with NBC Sports Chicago, WGN Sports, and WLS-TV expire after the 2019 season. The main entrance marquee outside Wrigley Field, from which the channel derives its name.
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