Following the end of last season, smack dab in the midst of the bottoming out of the national economy, Fox Sports Rocky Mountain, part owner and TV outlet for more than 150 Rockies telecasts, dissolved the majority of its locally produced programming, including “FSN Live” and all other studio shows. More than two dozen local FSN staff were let go the Monday following the final Rockies game.

This season, all Rockies pre and post game coverage will originate at the site of the game, with any studio coverage coming out of the Fox studios in Seattle. The plans have not all been finalized, but the play-by-play team of Drew Goodman and George Frazier is scheduled to remain intact, with Jeff Huson handling color duties with, or in place of, Frazier for approximately 70 games. Along with the guys in the booth, Tom Helmer is scheduled to handle some pre and post game coverage, with Marc Stout and Alana Rizzo doing sideline work.

On the radio side, the recent lay-offs at Clear Channel should not have much impact on the coverage of the Rockies, nor the Denver Broncos or the University of Colorado Buffaloes on AM 850 KOA or AM 760 KKZN.

MAKING WAVES: It’s widely assumed that CBS4, the official television station of the Denver Broncos, will be airing “The Josh McDaniels Show” this summer and fall, as they did with former Broncos coach Mike Shanahan. However, as of early February, the sports guys at Channel 4 had barely met the new coach. They fear that the Bill Belichick protégé will treat the local media the same way his former boss does, which is not a happy thought.

“It’s going to be funny to be sitting on the set for the first show,” Channel 4’s Gary Miller told me, “and the first thing I say is “Hi coach McDaniels. Nice to meet you.”

... A relatively new player in the radio landscape along the Front Range is AM 870 KJMP out of Fort Collins. The station has been an ESPN Radio affiliate for roughly a year now, and this fall picked up game broadcasts of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche. There are plans to begin local sports talk programming by the start of football season next September.

KJMP is part of a regional “network” of radio stations that are carrying the Nuggets and Avalanche games. Those stations include the flagship, AM 1510 KCKK out of Denver, as well as Denver-based FM 101.5 KTNI (for overflow games when both teams are playing at the same time) and AM 1060 KRCN out of Longmont.

...FM 104.3 “The Fan” has filled the void left by the loss of the Nuggets and Avalanche broadcasts by picking up Colorado College hockey (Denver University hockey games are also on AM 1510 KCKK) and will continue carrying the national broadcasts made available from ESPN Radio. Their “sister” AM sports station, AM 1600 KEPN, has the Rocky Mountain Rage Central Hockey League games and a full slate of ESPN Radio programming to go along with the old reliables, Irv Brown and Joe Williams in the afternoon.

Is everything rosy with The Fan’s FM format? Afternoon hosts Sandy Clough and Jim Armstrong have been on the air together for several months now, but there is still an ad on The Fan’s website for an “Afternoon Drive” show. The ad states, “Denver's Sports Station, FM Sports radio 104.3 The Fan, is looking for America's next great afternoon show. Entertaining? Let us know!”

We will. Stay tuned.