Milwaukee sports fans now have two national voices calling local team play-by-play on their telecasts, with the naming of Lisa Byington as the new play-by-play voice for the Milwaukee Bucks. Byington was chosen to replace Jim Paschke, who had called the Bucks games for the previous 35 seasons. Paschke gets to go out "on top" with the Bucks having won their first NBA Championship in 50 years back in July.
Byington has been calling college basketball for Fox Sports and the Big10 Network, in addition to having been the first woman to do play-by-play for Turner Sports and CBS during this year's NCAA Tournament. She also called a football game for Big10 Network back in 2017.
In addition to becoming the first woman to be named primary play-by-play announcer for an NBA team, she adds this to her incredible year which also includes calling Olympics events for NBC.
The other "national" voice calling games in Milwaukee continues to be Brian Anderson, who also calls NBA games, as a primary play-by-play voice for TNT's coverage. Anderson continues as the lead voice of Brewers TV for every game his TBS/TNT baseball and basketball schedule allows him to. Although the networks generally don't want national telecasts to include the local team's announcer, it is worth noting that TBS will carry the National League Division Series and the NLCS. Look for Anderson to call the series not involving the Brewers in the NLDS. If the Brewers advance, it will be interesting to see if TBS goes with Ernie Johnson on the call instead of Anderson.
Speaking of TNT, the network is preparing to debut its NHL coverage next month with a number of national games. Adding none other than Wayne Gretzky to their studio staff brings them major credibility. Kenny Albert and Brendan Burke will share play-by-play duties. For primary analyst, the network will have a Chicago Blackhawks flavor. Ed Olczyk joins TNT as primary analyst to work with Albert, while continuing as local analyst for every Chicago Blackhawks telecast his TNT schedule allows. Working with Burke most night will be Darren Pang, who also played in Chicago for most of his career.
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