(Chippewa Township, PA) 72 years ago, WBVP started broadcasting local high school football and basketball games on the radio. Over the years, there have been several changes, improvements and innovations to the traditional A.M. radio broadcasts, including utilizing cell phone technology instead of old copper phone lines to send a feed back to the studio, broadcasting the games on F.M., and distributing the programs via an online audio stream. Friday night, yet another milestone was achieved as the station created a live video feed from Blackhawk Stadium to cover the Cougars season opener against the visiting Beaver Bobcats. Viewers to Friday night’s radio and video simulcast of the Blackhawk vs. Beaver high school football game were treated to live video synced with the play by play of Beaver County Radio broadcasters, Bob Barrickman and Jason Colangelo.
The stations had been dabbling in video streaming parts of their programming off and on for about 2 years. Recently, with the announcement that high school football games in Pennsylvania would in fact be played, but with limited fan attendance allowed due to COVID 19 restrictions, Program Director Frank Sparks convinced station ownership to invest in cameras and other equipment, and start video streaming high school football broadcasts. Sparks added “It was a perfect opportunity to fill a void and serve area residents who would have wanted to watch the games in person, but could not under the circumstances.” The new high tech audio and video simulcasts will also surely increase station usage and popularity throughout the fall on high school football game days, too. And so far, the gamble seems to be paying off. Friday night’s video program post reached over 5,200 people so far, and it also had many viewers posting positive accolades on social media about the station’s efforts to make the game available in a video format.
Here is the inaugural touchdown broadcast from an on site live stream video format created by Beaver County Radio:
The tradition of describing high school sporting events over the airwaves of WBVP began in 1948 with veteran, beloved broadcaster, Chuck Wilson, calling the action from behind a giant Western Electric bird cage ribbon microphone. Over the years, radio station listeners got to hear the dazzling plays made by about a dozen local future NFL Superbowl Champions, as they got their first publicity over the airwaves on WBVP, in Beaver Falls and WMBA in Ambridge. When history was being made in sports, WBVP and WMBA were there, and Friday was no exception. Although, it was the stations making a historic “play”, along with the athletes, on this balmy early fall night under the lights in Chippewa. Out on the field, it was a game that Blackhawk won 22-7.
In addition to Barrickman and Colangelo, Additional radio station staffers including Malik Garrett, Antonia Rotuna, Sly Washington and Rick Plassmeyer were onsite at Blackhawk Stadium to help produce the multi media feed.
Beaver County Radio has plans to do an audio/video simulcast from a featured game of the week throughout the season. Broadcast schedules can be found here.
