CSN Bay Area
Encyclopedia
Comcast SportsNet Bay Area (CSN Bay Area for short) is a regional sports network
Regional sports network
In the United States of America and Canada, a regional sports network, or RSN, is a cable television station that presents sports programming to a local market. The most important programming on an RSN consists of live broadcasts of professional and college sporting events, as those games generate...

 that serves cable outlets throughout the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

, as well as other parts of Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...

, Central California
Central California
Central California, sometimes referenced as Mid-State, is an area of California south of the San Francisco Bay Area and north of Southern California...

, Southern Oregon
Southern Oregon
Southern Oregon is a region of the U.S. state of Oregon south of Lane County and generally west of the Cascade Range, excluding the southern Oregon Coast. Counties include Douglas, Jackson, Klamath, and Josephine. It includes the Southern Oregon American Viticultural Area, which consists of the...

, and Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

.

History

Originally launched as SportsChannel Bay Area in April 1990, it merged with the Pacific Sports Network in the July 1991 and became SportsChannel Pacific. When the SportsChannel networks joined the Fox Sports Net
Fox Sports Net
The Fox Sports Regional Networks, or simply Fox Sports Net , are a collection of cable TV regional sports networks in the United States owned and operated by News Corporation.- Beginnings :...

 family, the channel was rebranded as Fox Sports Bay Area in January 1998, and to FSN Bay Area in 2004. With the network being 45% owned by NBCUniversal, 30% owned by the San Francisco Giants
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....

 and 25% owned by Fox
Fox Entertainment Group
The Fox Entertainment Group is an American entertainment industry company that owns film studios and terrestrial, cable, and direct broadcast satellite television properties...

, the network was rebranded as a part of the Comcast SportsNet
Comcast SportsNet
Comcast SportsNet is a group of regional sports networks in the United States primarily owned by the Comcast cable television company....

 family on March 31, 2008.

CSN Bay Area was the first Comcast SportsNet-branded network to use the current logo, which was later adopted by all the other CSN-branded networks on October 1, 2008.

With NBCUniversal also owning NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 O&O KNTV
KNTV
KNTV, channel 11, is the NBC owned-and-operated television station in the Bay Area market. It is licensed to San Jose, with its transmitter located on San Bruno Mountain, just south of San Francisco. It shares facilities in San Jose with NBC Universal sister station KSTS and CNBC's Silicon...

 and Telemundo
Telemundo
Telemundo is an American television network that broadcasts in Spanish. The network is the second-largest Spanish-language content producer in the world, and the second-largest Spanish-language network in the United States, behind Univision....

 affiliate KSTS
KSTS
KSTS is the NBCUniversal owned and operated Telemundo television station in the San Francisco Bay Area market. The station is located in San Jose, California and broadcasts on digital channel 49. KSTS shares facilities with NBC sister operation KNTV. The new all-digital broadcast center was opened...

, on April 19, 2011, the network announced plans to build an additional set specifically for KNTV sports segments. The revamp will also include in-depth interviews in addition to scores and highlights, and hosted by its sports anchors and analysts. KNTV plans to begin the segments in June 2011. The new segment, along with the unveiling of the new set, began on June 13, 2011.

Programming

CSN Bay Area is the main television channel for MLB
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

's San Francisco Giants
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....

 and the NBA
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...

's Golden State Warriors
Golden State Warriors
The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in Oakland, California. They are part of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association...

, and also shows select games from MLS
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer is a professional soccer league based in the United States and sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation . The league is composed of 19 teams — 16 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada...

's San Jose Earthquakes
San Jose Earthquakes
The San Jose Earthquakes professional soccer team is located in the San Jose, California, United States suburb of Santa Clara, and participates in Major League Soccer , the top level soccer league in the United States and Canada....

 along with sister-network CSN California. The channel also broadcasts college sports, mainly involving the Stanford Cardinal
Stanford Cardinal
The Stanford Cardinal is the nickname of the athletic teams at Stanford University.-Nickname and mascot history:Following its win over Cal in the first-ever Big Game in 1892, the color cardinal was picked as the primary color of Stanford's athletic teams...

 and the California Golden Bears
California Golden Bears
The California Golden Bears is the nickname used for 29 varsity athletic programs and various club teams of the University of California, Berkeley...

 as well as sports involving the Pacific-10, Western Athletic
Western Athletic Conference
The Western Athletic Conference is an American collegiate athletic conference, which was formed on July 27, 1962, making it the sixth oldest of the 11 college athletic conferences currently participating in the NCAA's Division I FBS...

, Mountain West
Mountain West Conference
The Mountain West Conference , popularly known as the Mountain West, is the youngest of the college athletic conferences affiliated with the NCAA’s Division I FBS . The MWC officially began operations in July 1999...

 and West Coast
West Coast Conference
The West Coast Conference is an NCAA collegiate athletics conference consisting of nine member schools across the states of California, Oregon, Utah and Washington....

 Conferences.

Until 2004, the network also broadcast games involving the NBA
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...

's Sacramento Kings
Sacramento Kings
The Sacramento Kings are a professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California, United States. They are currently members of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association...

 and the WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs
Sacramento Monarchs
The Sacramento Monarchs were a basketball team based in Sacramento, California. They played in the Women's National Basketball Association from 1997 until folding on November 20, 2009...

. Following the expiration of their contracts with the then-FSN Bay Area, the owners of the Kings and Monarchs went on to create CSN Bay Area's sister station, Comcast SportsNet West (now Comcast SportsNet California). The network was also home to MLB
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

's Oakland Athletics
Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum....

 up to the end of the 2008 baseball season
2008 Oakland Athletics season
The Oakland Athletics' season marked their 40th year in Oakland, California, after the franchise move from Kansas City, Missouri in 1968.-Potential free agents:...

, when they also moved to CSN California; similarly, the network was the home of the NHL
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

's San Jose Sharks
San Jose Sharks
The San Jose Sharks are a professional ice hockey team based in San Jose, California, United States. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League...

 until the end of the 2008-09 NHL season when they also moved to CSN California. Until the demise of the Arena Football League, the network also occasionally broadcast games featuring the AFL's San Jose Sabercats
San Jose SaberCats
The San Jose SaberCats are a professional arena football team in the Arena Football League. They began play as a 1995 expansion team. They played in the Western Division of the American Conference. Their final coach in the original Arena Football League was Darren Arbet, who will be a part of the...

.

CSN Bay Area carries FSN programming in lieu of an FSN affiliate due to being partially owned by Fox. This offers the regions access to a variety of college sports, notably ACC men's and women's basketball on Sundays, Pac-10 basketball on various nights, plus Big 12 and Pac-10 football on Saturdays during their respective seasons. They also air studio shows, such as The Best Damn Sports Show Period
The Best Damn Sports Show Period
The Best Damn Sports Show Period is an American sports television show on Fox Sports Net and Comcast SportsNet. The show regularly featured irreverent and opinionated interviews with top athletes, coaches, celebrities, and entertainers. It also aired Top 50 countdown shows and other sports...

and the FSN Final Score
FSN Final Score
Final Score was the nightly sports news program that aired across the United States on Fox Sports Net....

, and simulcasted radio shows such as The Dan Patrick Show
The Dan Patrick Show
The Dan Patrick Show is a syndicated sports talk show hosted by former ESPN personality Dan Patrick. It is currently produced by DirecTV Sports Group and is syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks. The three-hour program broadcasts live every day beginning at 9 a.m. Eastern/6 a.m. Pacific time on Fox...

. This arrangement is to secure national coverage for its collegiate lineup of games.

Original programming

Every Thursday night, CSN Bay Area airs an out-of-market National Hockey League game, usually either from Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia or Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic
Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic
Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic is a regional sports network that delivers live-game coverage and sports news and entertainment television programming to more than 4.7 million households throughout the Washington, D.C...

.

Beginning with the Comcast SportsNet era, most Giants home games and California road games are preceded and followed by a half an hour plus show previewing and analyzing the day's game respectively. Although the Warriors and Sharks were still playing when CSN launched, their games did not feature pre-game and post-game shows (except a few Sharks playoff games which had pre-game shows, and the Warriors who already had their own pre-game show), but Sharks pre-game and post-games were introduced for their 2008-2009 seasons with former ESPN personality and Stanford grad Scott Reiss
Scott Reiss
Scott Reiss is an American journalist who has worked for ESPN. He is currently an anchor at CSN Bay Area and CSN California, where he hosts SportsNet Central, as well as pre- and post-game shows for the San Francisco Giants and San Jose Sharks. He was formerly seen as an anchor on College...

. The Warriors do not have a pre-game or post-game show, but Reiss and Matt Steinmetz
Matt Steinmetz
Matthew Steinmetz is an American journalist and television sportscaster who works as the pregame and postgame analyst for Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, the broadcast home of the Golden State Warriors of the NBA...

 do a short segment analyzing the Warrior's current game during halftime and after the game. In both cases (Warriors and Sharks), only home games have the feature, and only when a pre-game/post-game show would not conflict with another scheduled game.

On April 6, 2009, CSN Bay Area premiered their news show, Sportsnet Central. The half-hour news show will feature up-to-date scores, highlights and news of all the Bay Area teams (including those on CSN California, like the 49ers
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...

, Raiders
Oakland Raiders
The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

, Sharks
San Jose Sharks
The San Jose Sharks are a professional ice hockey team based in San Jose, California, United States. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League...

, A's and Kings
Sacramento Kings
The Sacramento Kings are a professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California, United States. They are currently members of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association...

). Reporters include current CSN Bay Area personalities Scott Reiss, Kate Longworth, Jaymee Sire, and Matt Morrison. The same day, the network also premiered Chronicle Live
Chronicle Live
Chronicle Live is a television sports talk show that airs on Comcast Sportsnet Bay Area at 5PM PST/PDT and reairing normally at 11PM on the same network, and midnight on Comcast Sportsnet California...

, hosted by Bay Area sports announcer Greg Papa (Giants pre-game and post-game host, Giants substitute play-by-play announcer and Raiders play-by-play caller), which features analysis and debates on hot topics on Bay Area sports, with the panel consisting of writers and experts mainly (but not exclusive) from the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

, Oakland Tribune and San Jose Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
The San Jose Mercury News is a daily newspaper in San Jose, California. On its web site, however, it calls itself Silicon Valley Mercury News. The paper is owned by MediaNews Group...

.

With the debut of the Sportsnet Central shows, all road games for the Giants and Sharks (when not overlapping another game) now have post and pre-game shows. Also, post-game shows, home or away are usually done from the San Francisco Sportsnet Central studios, with the exception of some home games which are done on-site. Previously, all home games were done on-site and road games did not feature pre or post game except for some Giants games in Southern California.

For the 2009-2010 season, Warriors pre and post-game live shows were added to the schedule.

Additional channels

CSN Bay Area also operates two additional channels for their programming. CSN Bay Area Plus is an overflow channel utilized for scheduling conflicts when more than one team broadcast by the station is playing at the same time.

Comcast SportsNet Bay Area HD

Comcast SportsNet Bay Area HD is the 1080i
1080i
1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels...

 high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...

 simulcast feed of the network. Starting in 2010, all of the Warriors and Giants games, as well as most of the network's original programming, are broadcast in HD.

Personalities

  • Damon P. Andrews, SportsNet Central co-host and Golden State Warriors
    Golden State Warriors
    The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in Oakland, California. They are part of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association...

     pre-game and post-game host
  • Shooty Babbit, A's studio analyst
  • Mindi Bach, Athletics pre-game and post-game host
  • Jim Barnett
    Jim Barnett (basketball)
    James Franklin Barnett is a former professional basketball player. He is in his 25th season as a television analyst for the Golden State Warriors.-Youth and college career:...

    , Warriors color analyst
  • Dave Benz, Sportsnet Central co-host, Chronicle Live substitute host
  • Brodie Brazil
    Brodie Brazil
    Brodie Brazil is an American television broadcaster who has been nominated for seventeen and won seven Regional Emmy Awards .-Professional life:...

    , SportsNet Central Reporter and Sharks sideline reporter
  • Dan Dibley, Earthquakes sideline reporter
  • Shawn Estes
    Shawn Estes
    Aaron Shawn Estes is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. After he attended Douglas High School in Minden, Nevada, he was offered a scholarship by Stanford University...

    , Giants Studio analyst
  • Ray Fosse
    Ray Fosse
    Raymond Earl Fosse is a former professional baseball player who was a catcher in the Major Leagues. He was drafted in the first round of the 1965 amateur draft by the Cleveland Indians. Fosse also holds the distinction of being the Indians' first ever draft pick, as 1965 was the first year of the...

    , Athletics color analyst
  • Bob Fitzgerald
    Bob Fitzgerald
    Bob Fitzgerald is a TV play-by-play voice for the Golden State Warriors and San Jose SaberCats on CSN Bay Area, and is a co-host of the show Fitz and Brooks on KNBR with co-host Rod Brooks.-Education:...

    , Warriors and SaberCats play-by-play announcer
  • Amy Gutierrez, Giants sideline reporter
  • Randy Hahn
    Randy Hahn
    Randy Hahn is a play-by-play commentator for the San Jose Sharks on Comcast SportsNet California, and has held that position for over 17 seasons. He has over 25 years of broadcast experience, mostly in hockey. He broadcast his 1,000th Sharks game on December 5, 2009 when the San Jose Sharks faced...

    , Sharks play-by-play announcer
  • Bret Hedican
    Bret Hedican
    Bret Michael Hedican is a retired American professional ice hockey player and a two-time US Olympian.-Playing career:Hedican was drafted 198th overall by the St. Louis Blues in the 1988 NHL Entry Draft. A product of St. Cloud State University, Hedican made his NHL debut in the 1991–92 season with...

    , Sharks pre-game, intermission and post-game analyst
  • Jim Kozimor
    Jim Kozimor
    Jim Kozimor is the play-by-play announcer for the Major League Soccer team San Jose Earthquakes on Comcast SportsNet California and Comcast SportsNet Bay Area. In addition, Kozimor also serves as an anchor for SportsNet Central at CSN Bay Area....

    , SportsNet Central anchor, Earthquakes play-by-play announcer
  • Duane Kuiper
    Duane Kuiper
    Duane Eugene Kuiper is a former Major League Baseball second baseman, and is currently a five-time Emmy award-winning radio and television sportscaster for the San Francisco Giants...

    , Giants play-by-play announcer
  • Glen Kuiper
    Glen Kuiper
    Glen Alan Kuiper is a broadcaster for the Oakland Athletics Major League Baseball team. He is the younger brother of Duane Kuiper, a former Major League player and current broadcaster for the San Francisco Giants...

    , Athletics play-by-play announcer and Warriors sideline reporter
  • Mike Krukow
    Mike Krukow
    Michael Edward "Mike" Krukow is a former starting pitcher in Major League Baseball. He is currently a television color commentator for the San Francisco Giants.-Early life:...

    , Giants color analyst
  • Kate Longworth, Sharks, Athletics, and Giants sideline reporter
  • Matt Maiocco, 49ers reporter
  • Greg Papa
    Greg Papa
    Greg Papa is an American sportscaster working in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has been broadcasting for most of the Bay Area professional sports franchises for 21 years, covering the Oakland Raiders, Oakland Athletics, Golden State Warriors and San Francisco Giants.Currently, he is best known as...

    , Chronicle Live host, Giants pre-game and post-game host, Giants substitute play-by-play announcer
  • Scott Reiss
    Scott Reiss
    Scott Reiss is an American journalist who has worked for ESPN. He is currently an anchor at CSN Bay Area and CSN California, where he hosts SportsNet Central, as well as pre- and post-game shows for the San Francisco Giants and San Jose Sharks. He was formerly seen as an anchor on College...

    , Sharks pre-game, intermission and post-game host
  • Drew Remenda
    Drew Remenda
    Drew Remenda is a Canadian former hockey coach and current radio broadcaster and television hockey analyst. He serves as color commentator for television broadcasts of San Jose Sharks games on CSN California, as well as the co-host of Sports Night with Jamie Nye and Drew Remenda for CKOM in...

    , Sharks color analyst
  • Bip Roberts
    Bip Roberts
    Leon Joseph "Bip" Roberts is a former Major League Baseball second baseman and outfielder who played from 1986 to 1998 for the San Diego Padres, Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, and Oakland Athletics.-Career:He was a speedy second baseman, largely associated...

    , Giants studio analyst
  • John Shrader
    John Shrader
    John Shrader is an American sports broadcaster, currently working for Comcast SportsNet Bay Area and Comcast SportsNet California.He was a sports anchor and fill in host for KNBR , San Francisco, known locally as "The Sports Leader." In addition to his regular duties, Shrader was a sideline...

    , Earthquakes color analyst
  • Jaymee Sire, Giants and Warriors sideline reporter, Sportsnet Central co-host
  • Mychael Urban
    Mychael Urban
    Mychael Urban is the MLB Insider for . He has a vast resume of sports journalism highlights.Urban spent a summer serving as the pitching coach for the Slovakian National Baseball Team...

    , MLB Insider
  • Fernando Viña
    Fernando Viña
    Fernando Viña is a retired Cuban-American Major League Baseball second baseman and current MLB analyst for Oakland Athletics...

    , A's Studio Analyst
  • Henry Wofford, A's and Warriors Pre/Post Game Host, Race Week Host, Sportsnet Central co-host
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