By George Eichorn of The Detroit Monitor

  Hoops mania hit the broadcast airwaves this week as the new NBA season is off and running in the United States and Toronto, Canada. There’s plenty of action for roundball fans. A few new wrinkles and some new faces will dot the broadcast schedule yet durable veteran announcers are also back. Here is our annual Monitor preview.

        OLocal TV: George Blaha is Detroit Pistons basketball. Now in his 33rd consecutive NBA season, the recognizable Blaha adds another honor to his career when he’s inducted next February into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame joining broadcaster greats like Ty Tyson, Ernie Harwell, Budd Lynch, Van Patrick, Bob Reynolds and J.P. McCarthy.

        Blaha calls all Pistons games televised on Fox Sports Net Detroit alongside Greg Kelser (12th season). They make an enjoyable and knowledgable pair. Pregame and post-game shows are handled by the likes of Mickey York, Ryan Field, Trevor Thompson and Matt Shepard. Blaha also hosts a weekly Pistons-produced feature show (shown midnights on WDIV-TV, channel 4).

        WXYZ-TV (channel 7) has the ABC-TV slate of NBA action starting December 25. There is a likelihood that games featuring the Pistons could have a locally-produced pre-game show anchored by sports director Don Shane with reporters Vic Faust and Tom Leyden.

        OLocal Radio: When Blaha is now doing the games on radio, the very capable Mark Chamopion is in his ninth season of his second stint on Detroit Pistons radio broadcasts. As heard on flagship WDFN-AM 1130, Pistons broadcasts feature analysis with Rick Mahorn at home. Matt Dery and Rob Otto return to host pre-game and post-game shows, many of them live at the Palace.

        ONational TV: ABC Sports begins its season coverage on Christmas Day with a doubleheader — San Antonio at Phoenix (2:30 p.m.) and Boston at the L.A. Lakers (5:15 p.m.). NBA Sunday typically airs on Sunday afternoons at 1 or 3:30 p.m. Since its return to ABC in 2002, the production has been packaged by sister network ESPN.

        Mike Breen, Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy serve as the lead announce team for ABC. Mike Tirico of Ann Arbor and Hubie Brown form the second team. The pregame and half-time host is Stuart Scott with ex-Piston Jon Barry, Mike Wilbon and former MSU great Earvin “Magic” Johnson (over from TBT). Mark Jones (play-by-play), Ahmad Rashad (features) and Lisa Salters (sideline reporter) also contribute.

        The NBA on ABC will include several weekend playoff games as well as the entire NBA Finals next June. has a contract through the 2015-16 season. The Pistons are scheduled for two possible games on ABC: February 1 hosting Cleveland and March 1 at Boston.

        ONational Cable: ESPN tipped off its NBA season on October 29 with a doubleheader featuring Phoenix/San Antonio and L.A. Lakers/L.A. Clippers. All of ESPN’s NBA telecasts will be available in high definition and simulcast on ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile TV.

        Next up on ESPN: October 31 with Chicago/Boston following by San Antonio/Portland. The Pistons are slated for these ESPN dates: November 14 at L.A. Lakers, January 23 hosting Dallas, January 25 hosting Houston, January 30 hosting Boston, February 8 hosting Phoenix, February 22 at Cleveland, March 18 at Houston and April 4 at Philadelphia.

        ESPN returns Breen, Jackson and Van Gundy on its top broadcast team with Tirico or Dan Shulman and Brown the next team. Also on play-by-play are Jones, Kevin Calabro and Dave Pasch, analysts are Barry and Doris Burke and reporters are Salters, Burke, Ric Bucher, Heather Cox and Nancy Lieberman, the one-time Detroit Shock coach.

        “NBA Shootaround” (generally Wednesdays and Fridays) is hosted by Scott or Mark Jones with newcomer Avery Johnson plus Barry, Bill Walton, Jalen Rose (former Fab Five player) and Jamel Mashburn. “NBA Fastbreak,“ the nightly highlights show, is hosted by Matt Winer with analysts Tim Legler, Lieberman, Mashburn and Rose.

        ESPN2 has a single telecast, April 10 for Washington-Toronto. Its Tuesday night NBA highlights show is hosted by Winer and analysts Legler, Mashburn and Rose.

        TNT Sports started airing NBA games in 1988. TNT opened its NBA schedule with a twin bill on October 28 featuring Cleveland/Boston and Portland/L.A. Lakers. Next up is October 30 with Houston-Dallas and New Orleans-Phoenix. The Pistons are slated for these appearances: November 20 at Boston, January 19 at Memphis, February 19 hosting San Antonio and March 24 at Chicago.

        Marv Alberts has been the top TNT play-by-play man since 1999. He’ll work alongside Doug Collins, the former Pistons coach, and Reggie Miller. Other talent includes David Aldridge (NBA insider and sideline reporter), Charles Barkley (studio analyst), Matt Devlin (play-by-play), Mike Fratello (color analyst), Kevin Harlan (p-by-p), Ernie Johnson Jr. (studio host), Dei Lynam (sidelines), Cheryl Miller (sidelines), Pam Oliver (sidelines), Craig Sager (sidelines), Dick Stockton (p-by-p), Kenny Smith (studio analyst), John Thompson (analyst) and ex-Fab Five member Chris Webber (studio analyst).

        TNT highlights include the NBA All-Star Friday and All-Star Saturday events in Phoenix, February 13-14, NBA All-Star Game on February 15, NBA playoff games and one of the Conference finals series in its entirety.

        In Canada, the following networks have contracts to televise NBA games: Rogers Sports Net National (RSN), The Score (SCR), TSN, Raptors NBA TV (RTV) and Rogers Sports Net operations in Ontario, East, West and Pacific.

        ONBA TV is an all-access channel for everything basketball, featuring live NBA and WNBA games, behind-the-scenes access, live HDTV game broadcasts, new original programming and more. NBA TV currently has affiliation deals with digital cable providers Comcast, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision and others. It opens with a doubleheader on November 1 with the Pistons hosting Washington followed by Portland at Phoenix. NBA TV also has these Pistons games: November 9 hosting Boston, November 16 at Phoenix, December 29 hosting Orlando,  April 13 hosting Chicago.

        0National Radio: ESPN Radio is back with select NBA broadcasts of key regular-season (primarily Thursdays and Sunmdays), the All-Star Game and playoff games plus the entire NBA Eastern and Western finals and NBA Finals. Jim Durham and Dr. Jack Ramsay form one team and Calabro with analyst Will Perdue another.

        Sirius Radio carries a minimum of 70 NBA games live featuring the home team’s play-by-play broadcasts such as Blaha or Champion of the Pistons. They opened with a doubleheader on October 29 and return October 31 with Chicago-Boston followed by San Antonio-Portland.

        Reach George Eichorn at geichorn@yahoo.com.

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