Spectrum Sports is an American regional sports

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

and

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioi ...

television network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid- ...

owned by

Charter Communications Charter Communications, Inc., is an American telecommunications and mass media company with services branded as Spectrum. With over 32 million customers in 41 states, it is the second-largest cable operator in the United States by subscribe ...

. The channel mainly serves the Kansas City metropolitan area; Lawrence, Kansas; and the state of

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

. In addition to being carried on Charter Spectrum systems in the Kansas City area, it is currently available on cable providers such as Comcast and

MIDCO Midco (known as Midcontinent Communications until 2016) is a regional cable provider, providing a triple play service of Cable television, Internet and telephone service for both North Dakota and South Dakota, along with much of Minnesota, and ...

in metropolitan Kansas City, Lawrence, and areas of Nebraska. As of March 31, 2011, it was available in approximately 500,000 households.

Background

The channel was launched on December 12, 1996 as Metro Sports, and was founded by

Time Warner Cable Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...

. It has produced live sporting events for collegiate athletic conferences such as the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the third-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the midwest. History The MVC was established ...

, the

Summit League The Summit League, or The Summit, is an NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic conference with its membership mostly located in the Midwestern United States from Illinois on the East of the Mississippi River to the Dakotas and Nebraska on the W ...

, the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its st ...

(NAIA) and their individual members. The channel's other hallmark programming is its coverage of local Kansas City high school athletics, including its " HyVee High School Game of The Week" featuring top local teams in football,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

, soccer and other sports. Metro Sports also broadcast five games of the

Missouri Mavericks The Kansas City Mavericks are an ice hockey team in the ECHL. Founded in 2009 as the Missouri Mavericks of the Central Hockey League, CHL, the team plays in Independence, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, at the Cable Dahmer Arena. H ...

of the

Central Hockey League The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...

during the 2010-2011 Central Hockey League season. In March 2009, Metro Sports produced and televised live all 31 games of the

2009 NAIA Division I men's basketball tournament The 72nd Buffalo Funds - NAIA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament was held from March 18 to 24 at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. The 72nd annual NAIA basketball tournament featured 32 teams playing in a single-elimination for ...

, which was held in Kansas City, Missouri. Metro Sports formerly produced live sporting events for professional sports teams such as Major League Soccer's Kansas City Wizards (including a

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in th ...

audio simulcast transmitted over a

secondary audio program Second audio program (SAP), also known as secondary audio programming, is an auxiliary audio channel for analog television that can be broadcast or transmitted both over-the-air and by cable television. Used mostly for audio description or oth ...

channel during its final two seasons of coverage, before the Wizards declined to renew their broadcasting contract), and the Kansas City Brigade of the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

, before the league was liquidated and reincarnated. Metro Sports also produced and televised Kansas City Royals games from 2003 to 2007, after which it lost the rights to FSN Midwest. Metro Sports has published a book, ''More Than The Score: Kansas City Sports Memories''. On March 1, 2010, Metro Sports launched Metro Sports HD, a high definition simulcast feed of Metro Sports, and a secondary channel, Metro Sports 2. In September 2013, the channel was renamed as the Time Warner Cable SportsChannel, with its spin-off channel becoming known as Time Warner Cable SportsChannel 2; at that time, it adopted a logo similar to that implemented by

Time Warner Cable SportsNet Spectrum Sports (abbreviated as SPECTSN), also known under the corporate names Spectrum Networks, or Charter Sports Regional Networks, is the collective name for a group of regional sports networks in the United States that are primarily owned a ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

when it launched the year prior. Following the provider's acquisition of Time Warner Cable in May 2016, the Time Warner Cable SportsChannel services were rebranded under the Spectrum Sports banner in September 2016, as part of Charter's phaseout of the TWC brand. The channel's weekly fantasy football program ''Fantasy Huddle'' is also distributed to other Charter Spectrum systems formerly operated by Time Warner Cable systems nationwide.

Programming

On June 26, 2013, KU Athletics,

IMG College LEARFIELD, formerly Learfield IMG College, is a large collegiate sports marketing company, representing more than 200 of the nation's top collegiate properties including the NCAA and its 89 championships, NCAA Football, leading conferences, and ...

and Time Warner Cable Sports announced that TWC would broadcast live coverage of the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...

events. This includes the football, men's basketball, women's basketball, volleyball,

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

, soccer and the track and field events.KU Athletics, IMG College and Time Warner Cable Sports Announce TV Agreement
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Notable current on–air staff

* Richard Baldinger – football analyst * Danan Hughes – football analyst *

Brian McRae Brian Wesley McRae (; born August 27, 1967) is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Kansas City Royals, Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, Colorado Rockies and Toronto Blue Jays from to . McRae is the son of former ma ...

– baseball analyst * Jayice Pearson – football analyst

Notable former on–air staff

* Danyelle Sargent – anchor/reporter (2002–2004)

References

External links

* – Spectrum Sports Kansas City * – Time Warner Cable {{Time Warner Cable Kansas City Television channels and stations established in 1996