Bill Pidto (born April 20, 1965) is a former radio personality on

Mad Dog Radio Since 2008, Sirius XM Radio has had a similar channel lineup, with a few differences based on whether the individual has a Sirius, XM, or SiriusXM radio. For technical reasons, separate radios continue to be manufactured for the separate services ...

on the show ''The B-Team'' and is currently an anchor for

MSG Network The MSG Network (MSG) is an American regional cable and satellite television network, and radio service owned by MSG Entertainment, Inc.—a spin-off of the main Madison Square Garden Company operation (itself a spin-off of local cable provider ...

's coverage of

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...

road games and select

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

games. He was formerly a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

from 1993 to 2008. He was often seen as one of the

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄγ ...

s for

ESPNews ESPNews (pronounced "ESPN News", stylized ESPNEWS) is an American multinational digital cable and satellite television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company (which owns ...

Early years

A native of

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was estab ...

, California, Pidto was a 1987 graduate of

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology. At Cornell he began his broadcasting career as a sports anchor and reporter for

WVBR WVBR-FM (93.5 FM) is a commercial, student-owned and volunteer-run college radio station that broadcasts to Ithaca, New York and surrounding areas. It operates at 3 kilowatts from a transmitter on Hungerford Hill, in Ithaca. Prior to 2016, WVBR ...

, a radio station in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named a ...

. He was also a member of the

Delta Chi Delta Chi () is an international Fraternities and sororities, Greek letter collegiate social fraternity formed on October 13, 1890, at Cornell University, initially as a professional fraternity for law students. On April 30, 1922, Delta Chi be ...

fraternity.

Career

Pidto spent the following two years as the Sports director at

WBNG WBNG-TV (channel 12) is a television station in Binghamton, New York, United States, affiliated with CBS and CW+. The station is owned by Gray Television, and maintains studios on Columbia Drive in Johnson City and a transmitter on Ingraham ...

-TV, located in

Binghamton, New York Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflue ...

. In 1989, he left WBNG for a sports anchor job at

WSTM-TV WSTM-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Syracuse, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC and The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to CBS affiliate WTVH (channel 5) through a local marketing ...

in Syracuse, though he spent only a year at this station before moving on to the short-lived

Sports News Network Sports News Network (SNN) (sometimes referred to as Mizlou Sports News Network) was the first 24-hour sports news cable channel, owned by Mizlou Communications. It pre-dates NewSport, launched in 1993 & owned by Rainbow Programming Holdings, a joi ...

in 1990. He broke in with

as a field producer for the network's '' Scholastic Sports America'', program for two years. In 1992, he also spent time as a sports anchor for

New England Cable News New England Cable News (NECN) is a regional 24-hour cable news television network owned and operated by NBCUniversal (as part of the NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations division, both ultimately owned by Comcast) serving the New England regi ...

. When

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

was launched in 1993, Pidto was hired to anchor the program '' SportsSmash'', and hosted ''

NHL 2Night ''NHL 2Night'' is a former news magazine that used to broadcast highlights of National Hockey League games and stories about the league up to five nights a week on ESPN and ESPN2. It was usually broadcast live at 10:00PM ET or immediately follo ...

'' when it debuted in 1995. That same year, Pidto also joined ''

NFL Primetime ''NFL Primetime'' is a sports television program that has aired on ESPN since 1987. The show is presented similarly to ESPN's own '' SportsCenter'', featuring scores, highlights, and analysis of every game of the week in the NFL. When it debut ...

''. During his tenure at ESPN he has also served as an anchor for ''

Baseball Tonight ''Baseball Tonight'' (stylized as ''Baseball Tonight presented by Chevrolet'' for sponsorship reasons) is an American television program that airs on ESPN. The show, which covers the day's Major League Baseball action, has been on the air since ...

''. Prior to his work at ESPN, he worked at the

. On coverage of the New York Knicks, Pidto served anchor duties when either

Al Trautwig Alan Trautwig (born February 26, 1956) is a sports commentator who worked with MSG Network, ABC, NBC, NBC Sports Network, and USA Network. He most recently did pre-game and post-game shows for the New York Knicks and New York Rangers, as well a ...

was unavailable for a home game or when the Knicks were on the road (when the Rangers or Knicks are at home, Al Trautwig does the pre-game and halftime/intermission reports from the Geico Studio Suite on the 7th floor of MSG). When both the Knicks and Rangers are playing, Bill Pidto routinely did the pre-game, post-game, and intermission reports for the New York Rangers. Pidto is also one of the hosts for ''

NHL Live ''NHL Live'' is a television show on NBC Sports Network. The program airs after every National Hockey League game the network televises as part of ''NHL on NBC''. The postgame show was initially known as ''Hockey Central'', airing from their St ...

'' on NHL Network.

References

1965 births Living people American television sports announcers Television anchors from Boston Cornell University alumni Major League Baseball broadcasters National Hockey League broadcasters Television anchors from New York City Palo Alto High School alumni New York Knicks announcers New York Rangers announcers National Basketball Association broadcasters {{US-journalist-1960s-stub

Early years

Career

See also

References