In early-1970s, the CBS television network aired American Basketball Association (ABA) games, specifically league's annual All-Star Game[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] /selected playoff games.[6] Pat Summerall[7] [8] served as the CBS analyst on some ABA games alongside Don Criqui[9] on play-by-play. Game 5 of the 1970 ABA Finals (Indiana vs. Los Angeles) was nationally televised by CBS[10] on Saturday, May 23 at 3 p.m Eastern Time. The broadcast was however, blacked out in Indiana. After that league's 1972-73 season, CBS lost its TV airing rights as they started airing National Basketball Association (NBA) games in its 1973-74 season onward.
The 1973 ABA All-Star Game was a syndicated telecast with Andy Musser[11] and Alex Hannum providing the play–by–play and color commentary respectively.
For the 1973–74 season, the ABA signed a television contract with the Hughes Television Network.[12] The first game under Hughes' contract was the 1974 ABA All-Star Game on January 30. Ray Scott and Wilt Chamberlain provided the play–by–play and color commentary for the All-Star Game respectively.
Had there been a seventh game of the 1975-76 season's championship playoff series it would've been televised by NBC,[13] [14] because that network signed contract to a potential seventh game on Sunday, May 16, 1976. Since the ABA Finals ultimately ended in six games, with the New York Nets triumphing over the Denver Nuggets in what would become the ABA's final game of its nine year existence, NBC's contract was void.
| Team | Radio station | Radio announcers | Television station | Television announcers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anaheim | KTTV 11[15] | Dick Schad[16] [17] | |||
| Dallas | |||||
| Dick Carlson[18] | |||||
| Houston | KNUZ[19] | Gary DeLaune[20] | |||
| Jerry Baker[21] | Brian Madden | ||||
| Rod Trongard[22] | |||||
| Spencer Ross[23] | |||||
| Chuck Hinkle[24] and Rick Barry | |||||
| Jack Fleming[25] |
When the American Basketball Association began play in 1967, Terry Stembridge broadcast the Dallas Chaparrals games on radio. Stembridge continued as the team's announcer after it became the San Antonio Spurs and when the Spurs moved into the NBA as part of the ABA-NBA merger. Stembridge broadcast 1,252 consecutive Chaparrals/Spurs games and served as their announcer for fifteen years.[26]
| Team | Radio station | Radio announcers | Television station | Television announcers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frank Filesi | |||||
| Bob Martin and Dick Carlson | |||||
| Brian Madden | |||||
| WHAS[27] [28] [29] | Ed Kallay[30] | ||||
| KBIG | Bob Rhodes | Chuck Benedict[31] | |||
| WOCN[32] | Dick Kumble | ||||
| Rod Trongard | |||||
| Spencer Ross | |||||
| Bruce Miller and Lynn Cole | |||||
| Oakland | KEMO 20[33] | Hal Peterson |
| Team | Radio station | Radio announcers | Television station | Television announcers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bill Currie and Bob Lamey | |||||
| KRLD[34] | Terry Stembridge | ||||
| Bob Martin and Dick Carlson | |||||
| Don Hein | |||||
| Ed Kallay | |||||
| XERB[35] | Sam Balter[36] | ||||
| Bob Martin[37] | |||||
| Bruce Miller and Lynn Cole | WDSU 6 | ||||
| New York | |||||
| Washington |
WGBS broadcast the Miami Floridians of the American Basketball Association for three of their four seasons of existence, taking over from WOCN (1450 AM) in 1969.[38]
During the New York Nets' ABA years, announcers included Marty Glickman,[39] Marv Albert's brothers Al Albert and Steve Albert, baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson, Bob Goldsholl, as well as John Sterling and Mike DiTomasso. The latter two joined the club's move into the NBA.
WDCA 20 continued to promote itself as a sports station, airing 10 games of the Washington Caps of the American Basketball Association in the 1969–70 season[40] and serving as the originating station for Baltimore Bullets basketball even though the team had not yet moved to Washington.[41]
| Team | Radio station | Radio announcers | Television station | Television announcers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WSJS 12 | Bill Currie[42] and Bob Lamey | ||||
| Bob Martin, Dick Carlson, and Bob Rubin | |||||
| WGBS | Bob Martin | ||||
| Jerry Baker | |||||
| Cawood Ledford and Van Vance[43] | Larry Goodridge | ||||
| Memphis | |||||
| New York | |||||
| Pittsburgh | |||||
| Terry Stembridge | |||||
| Bill Howard[44] | |||||
| WTAR | Marty Brennaman[45] |
WHAS was the original radio home to locally produced coverage of American Basketball Association games involving the Kentucky Colonels during that league's 1967–1976 existence.[46] [47] [48]
Van Vance appeared on WHAS radio as the announcer for the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association, often with Cawood Ledford. After the Colonels folded as part of the ABA-NBA merger in June 1976, Vance was best known for broadcasting University of Louisville basketball games (including the 1986 NCAA National Championship Team) on the same station. Vance worked on the air for WHAS from 1957 through 1999.
| Team | Radio station | Radio announcers | Television station | Television announcers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carolina | WSOC | Bob Lamey and Bones McKinney | WSJS 12 | Gene Overby | |
| Terry Stembridge and Brad Sham | |||||
| KOA[49] | Bob Martin, Bob Rubin and Larry Zimmer | Bob Rubin | |||
| WGBS | WCIX 6 | Sammy Smith | |||
| Don Hein[50] | |||||
| Howard Hoffman, Alex Groza and Bud Olsen | |||||
| Terry Lee | |||||
| WPIX 11[51] | Marty Glickman and Bob Gibson[52] | ||||
| Dick Overdorf | |||||
| Bill Howard | Bill Marcroft[53] | ||||
| Bud Kaatz |
Marty Glickman joined the radio station WHN in 1939 and was its sports director by 1943. Glickman was also the first announcer for the New York Nets before the ABA-NBA merger, when they played in their first home, the Island Garden in Nassau County. Many feel he became the voice of the New York Nets as a favor to Lou Carnesecca, who left a successful stint as the basketball coach of St. John's University to be the first coach of the New York Nets.
| Team | Radio station | Radio announcers | Television station | Television announcers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gene Overby and Bob Lamey | |||||
| WRR | Terry Stembridge | Terry Stembridge and Verne Lundquist | |||
| Larry Zimmer | |||||
| Joe McConnell[54] | Don Hein | ||||
| Kentucky | |||||
| Dick Palmer | |||||
| WHN | Al Albert | ||||
| Bill Howard | Bill Marcroft | ||||
| WTAR | WTAR 3 |
| Team | Radio station | Radio announcers | Television station | Television announcers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Denver | Mike Wolfe | ||||
| WTTV 4 | Jerry Baker | ||||
| WHAS | WHAS 32 | Van Vance | |||
| Dick Palmer | |||||
| Dom Valentino[55] and Mike DiTomasso | WOR 9 | Al Albert and Bob Goldsholl | |||
| Bob Costas[56] and Bill Wilkinson (home games) | KPLR 11 | ||||
| Terry Stembridge and Gary DeLaune | Terry Stembridge and Steve Grad | ||||
| Frank Sims | |||||
| Bill Howard | |||||
| Warner Fusselle[57] | Dave Sullivan and Bobi Boecker |
WTTV served as the television flagship for the Indiana Pacers from the team's days in the original American Basketball Association (except in 1984–85, when those rights were held by present-day sister station WXIN due to Pacers owner Melvin Simon's part-ownership of the station) to 2006. WTTV lost the rights to the Pacers telecasts after the 2005–06 season,[58] when the NBA team moved their local game telecasts to Fox Sports Indiana.
After leaving school in 1974, Bob Costas joined KMOX radio in St. Louis. He covered games of the American Basketball Association (ABA).[59] Costas would call Missouri Tigers basketball and co-host KMOX's Open Line call-in program.
| Team | Radio station | Radio announcers | Television station | Television announcers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Al Albert[60] and Bob Martin | Al Albert and Tom Jorgensen[61] | ||||
| WHAS | Van Vance[62] | ||||
| WMCA | John Sterling[63] and Mike DiTomasso | Steve Albert[64] [65] and Bob Goldsholl[66] | |||
| KPLR 11 | Bob Costas and Arlene Wellman | ||||
| Terry Stembridge and Gary DeLaune | Terry Stembridge and Steve Grad | ||||
| Ralph Lawler[67] | |||||
| KALL[68] | Jack Briggs[69] | Jack Briggs |
In 1976, CBS sought to establish a postseason playoff between the ABA and NBA, and to win the rights to broadcast those games.[71]
In June 1976, the remaining ABA owners agreed to a merger with the National Basketball Association, in return for the Spirits of St. Louis folding, to pay the St. Louis owners $2.2 million in cash up front in addition to a 1/7 share of the four remaining teams' television revenues in perpetuity. As the NBA's popularity exploded in the 1980s and 1990s, the league's television rights were sold to CBS and then NBC, and additional deals were struck with the TNT and TBS cable networks; league television revenue soared into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Ozzie and Daniel Silna continued to receive millions of dollars in television revenue from the NBA until reaching a revised agreement in April 2014, which included a $500 million payment to the Silnas from the four former ABA teams.[72] [73]
The NBA imposed one of the following terms on the four ABA refugees—the Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, New York Nets and San Antonio Spurs:
During the 1976–77 season, the NBA's first after the ABA–NBA merger brought the American Basketball Association into the league, CBS held a slam dunk contest that ran during halftime of the Game of the Week telecasts. Don Criqui was the host of this particular competition. The final, which pitted Larry McNeill of the Golden State Warriors against eventual winner Darnell "Dr. Dunk" Hillman of the Indiana Pacers, took place during Game 6 of the 1977 NBA Finals. At the time of the final, Hillman's rights had been traded to the New York Nets, but he had not yet signed a contract. Since he was not officially a member of any NBA team, instead of wearing a jersey, he competed in a plain white tank top. Then for the post-competition interview, Hillman donned a shirt with the words "Bottle Shoppe" – the name of an Indianapolis liquor store, which is still in existence, and was the sponsor of a city parks softball league team for which Hillman played left field (and the only team he was a member of at the time).[74] Other players to compete in the slam dunk tournament included Julius Erving, George Gervin, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Moses Malone. CBS, anxious for star power, also gave David Thompson the opportunity to be eliminated three times.[75] [76]