BCSN Erie talent cut loose; company president says channel will continue

BCSN Erie has televised area high school sports for more than 10 years, but its product likely will look dramatically different this fall. Parent company BCSN told its Sandusky-based talent Monday morning that they no longer work for the cable channel. Buckeye Broadband president Geoff Shook said Monday afternoon, however, that BCSN Erie will not pull out of the Sandusky-area market despite his company's "reorganization." "What we shared with our team is that we are downsizing and the events that we have traditionally televised with our crew in Sandusky will be covered with our team in Toledo," Shook said. "Our intention is to continue to cover sports and have the channel active in Sandusky." Shook said he didn't have an exact number of employees at BCSN — which is based in the Toledo suburb of Northwood — and would not concede that fewer Sandusky-area games will be covered moving forward. "When we see the calendar of events, we will make the decision as to the volume of events we will carry out of Sandusky," Shook said. "I'm not trying to be fuzzy about this. I just don't know what the calendar looks like." Sources told the Register that more than 20 BCSN Erie staffers were let go. Most were independent contractors. BCSN Erie is a subsidiary of BCSN, which focuses on sports in the Toledo area. Both channels are housed on Buckeye Broadband Cable. The move to downsize came as a surprise to BCSN Erie talent as well as area coaches and athletes. "I'm surprised and very sad," said Steve Schuster, who worked as an announcer for soccer, football and basketball games on BCSN Erie. "I thought it provided such a service to the community that they were comfortable with it being a loss-leader product to get people to subscribe to Buckeye Cable. That was my assumption." Finances were at the heart of BCSN's decision to adjust its coverage plan. Cable television has seen subscriber declines in recent years, which means less revenue for channels such as BCSN and BCSN Erie. "I agree it was a matter of dollars and cents," said Ken Wolters, an announcer who was BCSN Erie from its inception. "This is a business decision — pure and simple. This was never a money-making proposition for BCSN." BCSN Erie, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, paid for coverage rights to showcase area high school events and sell advertising during games. Wolters, who started in the business in 1978, said BCSN Erie was a state-of-the-art operation when it launched. "When we first started it was major league," he said. "We had graphics, slow-motion replay, they did it right. But what's your return on investment?" Dan Lindsley saw the positives of BCSN Erie from the perspective of a coach (Huron baseball) and an announcer (fall and winter sports seasons). "It's a negative for all local sports," he said of BCSN's decision. "It was a really positive thing to showcase our local athletes. They also did other things — musicals, bands and choirs for all ages." Sandusky boys basketball coach DeMar Moore saw the impact of the sports station during the Blue Streaks' run to the state semifinals last season. "It was great for the kids. Fans were able to follow us all the way down to Dayton," Moore said. "A lot of people couldn't make that trip, but they were along for the ride." Schuster owns the Sandusky Bay Pancake House and a few years ago debuted the station's Pancake Player of the Game. The award presented to a top performer became a popular staple of BCSN Erie broadcasts. "I felt like we had no conclusion and felt there had to be something to celebrate a great high school game," Schuster said. "It felt anticlimactic so we came up with the Pancake Player of the Game." Schuster, who said he wants to keep the Pancake Player promotion alive, said its reach spread beyond the local footprint. "I was telling a Tiffin kid after one game about it, what we were going to do and what he should say," Schuster said. "He said, 'Dude, I get it.' It was a brand and I didn't have to prompt this kid from Tiffin." Huron's Paul Maloney, a football and baseball standout who recently graduated, was Pancake Player of the Game four times. "It was really cool, kind of a friendly competition," he said. "You'd get to see highlights from other teams in the area. It's too bad; they did a lot for our local athletes." Bellevue athletic director Cody Cramer welcomed BCSN Erie's crews to cover the Redmen and Lady Red. "They were able to provides games to people who couldn't go," Cramer said. "They provided a great product and made all our sports teams feel good. "They were great to work with. Just sad that we're going to lose that."