Familiar announcers returning to booth

(WEB UPDATE: FEB. 23, 2006)
SportsTime Ohio is the name of the new Cleveland Indians television network.

Jim Liberatore, president of the new network, announced at a press conference Feb. 23 at Jacobs Field that longtime Tribe announcers Mike Hegan, Rick Manning and John Sanders will broadcast the 130 regular season games carried by the new network. WKYC sports director Jim Donovan will join the returning broadcasters as play-by-play announcer on the 20 games telecast on Channel 3. Donovan will also host the pre-game show for SportsTime Ohio as well as a weekly baseball program to be carried by both WKYC and the cable network.

Liberatore said negotiations with cable operators and satellite companies to carry SportsTime Ohio are continuing. Only Time Warner Cable has finalized a deal to carry the network as of Thursday, but deals were imminent with several companies, Liberatore said.

On the Net:

• SportsTime Ohio
• 2006 Indians schedule with TV coverage
• Press release on new network

Jim Liberatore

Jim Liberatore hopes he’ll bring the Cleveland Indians some luck in the coming seasons.

The Bay Village native, who’s returning to Northeast Ohio to run the new television network the baseball team is setting up to carry its games, has two claims to being lucky for the Tribe.

He attended Len Barker’s perfect game in May 1981. And he witnessed the no-hitter Dennis Eckersley pitched in 1977.

“Hopefully, I’m a good luck charm for the Indians,” he said.

A graduate of St. Raphael Grade School, Liberatore played baseball and basketball at Bay High School before graduating in 1980. In his senior year, the Bay baseball team made it all the way to the state championship before losing in the final 8-5.

Liberatore, 43, recalls going to Huntington Beach, especially when the weather was rainy or snowing. And a classmate lived in a house just off Lake Erie.

“We had some great parties in high school down on the beach,” he said. “I just loved it.”

After graduating from Miami University with a liberal arts degree, Liberatore had no idea what he wanted o do for a career. His brother-in-law who sold TV ads in New York City arranged some interviews for him there. But he told Liberatore that in order to make it in the Big Apple, he’d really have to impress the executives. So in the middle of a Manhattan summer heat wave, Liberatore made an ice cream sundae during an interview. Each part of the sundae — from the dish to the cherry on top — was a metaphor to making a deal, he explained to his inerviewers.

Playing a soda jerk got him hired. He sold television ads in New York City for a company called MMT. After later selling ads on Madison Square Garden’s televiison network, Liberatore moved to Florida where be became vice president and general manager of the Sunshine Network, which carries the Florida Marlins, Miami Heat and Orlando Magic.

His most recent job was president of the Speed Channel, which was created in light of the growing popularity of NASCAR racing but later expanded to include other programming such as bobsled racing.

“Anything that was basically fast, we tried,” Liberatore recalled.

He learned about plans for the new Indians network through contacts he had maintained with industry people in the area.

“This is going to be a network that specifically programs to this region,” he said.

The network, whose name, logo and announcing team will be revealed at a press conference tomorrow, will focus initially on the Indians. The network will carry eight spring training games and 130 regular season games. WKYC-TV 3, which is managing the technical end of the network, will air 20 games. However, the WKYC games will feature the same graphical look and announcers as the Indians network, Liberatore said.

However, the ultimate goal is to create a year-round, 24-hour-a-day sports network, he said.

“We are starting to have conversations with a lot of other teams and look at different events,” he said. Such possibilities include high school sports and auto racing as well as other professional teams, he said.

Programming will be geared specifically toward the long-suffering Cleveland sports fan and his sometimes optimistic, sometimes fatalistic attitude, Liberatore said.

One regular program in the early stages of planning will be called “What If,” and will deal with alternative histories of famous Cleveland sports events.

“What if the Elway drive had stalled? What if Earnest Byner hadn’t fumbled?” Liberatore asked. The shows will speculate how the Browns would have fared in each Super Bowl if they had gotten past the Denver Broncos in those AFC Championship games.

“It’s going to take a look at all the things that people in this region have always said to themselves – ‘What if...?’” he said.

Liberatore promised much more in-depth coverage of the Indians, with the network offering comprehensive reporting on everything from trades to prospects down on the farm teams to what Tribe player is on a hot streak.

“The programming will be able to react to what’s happening on the field,” he said.

Ironically, Liberatore’s brother David works as national sales manager for Fox Sports Net Ohio, the network which lost the Indians games after last season. Nevertheless, his brother was excited for him when he got the top job at the Indians new network.

“We’ve gotten to the point where so many things are off the table in terms of what we can talk about,” Liberatore said, referring to the competitive rivalry sure to develop between their two employers. “We’ve got a lot of other things we can talk about besides work.”

His sister, Peggy, works as a counselor at Kensington Intermediate School in Rocky River. Three other sisters live out of the area.

His uncle, the Rev. David D. Liberatore, is pastor of St. John Bosco Catholic Church in Parma Heights.

Liberatore and his wife, Marcee, currently live in Lakewood.

Although he’s grateful for his work experience in New York City and Florida, Liberatore said he has been looking to come home to Cleveland for some time.

“It’s a great place to get back to,” he said.

So is running the new Indians television network his dream job?

“When the Indians win a championship,” he said, “then it will be a dream job.”