This past Thursday night, the Islanders played their final preseason game against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.  The Islanders won the game in a shootout, and my partner John Wiedeman and I had the opportunity to bring you all of the exciting action on our new radio home, Bloomberg 1130-AM.  I'd like to take a few moments of your time to introduce you to our new station, and also to give you a sneak preview of some of the new features on our radio broadcasts this season.

The Signal:
Bloomberg 1130-AM is a 50,000-watt, clear channel signal that gives us incredible coverage of all of Long Island and New York City, as well as blanketing New Jersey, Connecticut and a large portion of the northeast states.  Listeners on the east end of Long Island can also enjoy an FM simulcast of our broadcast on 96.7 WHBE.  For those of you that subscribe to satellite radio, select broadcasts will be available on both Sirius and XM for the 2005-06 season.
 
Pre-Game Now 30 Minutes:
The biggest change you will notice right off the top is that our pre-game show is now 30 minutes long, more than double what it has been in past seasons.  It's the first time any Islanders radio broadcast has had this much time to get you ready for the action.  We can now do extensive interviews with Islanders head coach Steve Stirling and his staff, bring you all the latest Islanders news, review the last game and preview the game that will follow, and hear from the opposing head coach as well.  We will try to cover all the bases for you prior to puck drop every night.
 
Third Man In:
We also have a new voice that will join us on-the-air every night a host to bring us in and out of every broadcast and provide the latest sports news updates throughout the game.  Veteran New York sportscaster Bob Goldsholl did a terrific job on Thursday night of welcoming Islanders hockey to Bloomberg 1130-AM and keeping us informed of everything going on in the sports world all evening long.  At home games this season, our host will also conduct live interviews with your favorite coaches and players from just outside the Islanders locker room during select intermissions and immediately following each game.
 
At the Break:
Intermissions will continue to showcase a variety of favorite features while adding some new ones as well.  You can expect to hear lots of live and taped interviews, regular updates on the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, John and I answering your e-mail questions, the NHL Plays of the Week, NHL news and notes and so much more.  We will also try to incorporate some audio highlights from other important games around the league, and we have plans to try to take your phone calls on-the-air as well.
 
Yes, The Coliseum Post-Game Show is Back:
The post-game show will also be slightly expanded to more fully break down and analyze exactly what happened on the ice that night.  We will always try to run audio replays of John's great calls of the most exciting goals, saves, and now shootouts, too!  At Nassau Coliseum, the only place to be for all the excitement of the post-game show is still the Blue Line Bar & Grill, located at ice level right next to where the Zamboni goes off.  You can get there easily from the main lobby by going down the big set of stairs and escalators and turning to your right when you reach the bottom.  John and I will continue to broadcast our show from that location, and we are almost always joined live by players, coaches, alumni and others, and of course the best fans in the entire NHL.  We have had some very special nights in that room the past few seasons. It is one of the few places in sports where fans can go and only a few minutes after the game, see the No. 1 star live and in person discussing a big win. We encourage everyone to please join us there after the games all year long.
 
Finally, I'd like to mention the names of some of the people who work so hard behind the scenes on every radio broadcast.  Engineering all of the games on-site at Nassau Coliseum will be Carl Infantino, Chris Majkowski and Jeremy Shumacher.  These are three of the best in the business at what they do.  They are the ones setting up all the broadcast equipment hours before the game begins and still breaking it down after the game ends.  They expertly juggle three broadcast locations the radio booth, the locker room area, and the Blue Line Bar & Grill and make it sound effortless.  Doing the same back in our Bloomberg studios in New York City will be Charlie Vollmer, the brightest young engineer I've ever come across.  John and I would simply not be able to do what we do without the work of œThe A-Team behind us making it all happen.
 
So as we shuffle off to Buffalo this week, we hope you'll check out our great new station and our expanded broadcast beginning this Wednesday night from upstate New York.  The pre-game show hits the airwaves at 6:35 PM, and we think you'll like what you hear.