The Pro-Am Sports System (better known as PASS Sports or simply PASS) was an American
regional sports network
In the United States and Canada, a regional sports network (RSN) is a cable television channel (many of which are also distributed on direct broadcast satellite services) that presents sports programming to a local market or geographical region.
...
that operated from 1984 to 1997. It also served as an affiliate of the
Prime Network
Prime Sports (originally known as the Prime Sports Network (PSN), and also known as Prime Network or simply Prime) is the collective name for a former group of regional sports networks in the United States that were owned by Liberty Media, ope ...
from 1988 to 1996. Based in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
, the channel broadcast regional coverage of sports events throughout Michigan, mainly covering
professional, collegiate and high school sports in the
Metro Detroit
The Detroit metropolitan area, often referred to as Metro Detroit, is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. State of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and its Southeast Michigan, surrounding area. There are varied definitions of the a ...
area and throughout Michigan. After it lost coverage rights to all major Detroit teams to the new
Fox Sports Detroit
Bally Sports Detroit (BSD) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group that operates as a Bally Sports affiliate. It provides coverage of local sports teams in the state of Michigan, primarily focusing on those in Metro ...
, it was permanently shut down in 1997.
History
The network launched on April 17, 1984 as one of the first regional sports networks in the United States. PASS was owned by
John Fetzer
John Earl Fetzer (March 25, 1901 – February 20, 1991) was a radio and television executive who was best known as the owner of the Detroit Tigers from 1961 through 1983. Under his ownership, the 1968 Tigers won the World Series.
Biography
Bo ...
, the Principal owner of the Fetzer broadcast station group. Fetzer was also the previous owner of the
Detroit Tigers, having just sold the team months earlier to
Domino's Pizza
Domino's Pizza, Inc., trading as Domino's, is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960 and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware domiciled and headquartered at the Domino's Farms Office Park in Ann Arbor ...
owner
Tom Monaghan
Thomas Stephen Monaghan (born March 25, 1937) is an American entrepreneur who founded Domino's Pizza in 1960. He owned the Detroit Tigers from 1983 to 1992. Monaghan also owns the Domino's Farms Office Park, located in the Ann Arbor Charter Tow ...
. For its inaugural year, PASS carried 80 Tigers games (64 home and 16 away) as part of a seven year contract. At its launch it also had an agreement with the
Detroit Pistons
The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and play their home games at L ...
and to carry a series of local boxing matches. PASS contracted to use
WDIV-TV
WDIV-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with NBC. It serves as the flagship broadcast property of the Graham Media Group subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. WDIV-TV maintains studio facili ...
's studios to produce its programming. PASS was offered for $10 per month and marketed using the slogan "Your Season Pass".
In 1985,
Detroit Red Wings games were added to the network's sports programming slate, with the remainder of the team's games being shown on independent station
WKBD
WKBD-TV (channel 50) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside CBS owned-and-operated station WWJ-TV (channel 62). Both stations share studios o ...
(channel 50, now a
CW owned-and-operated station).In 1987, Fetzer sold PASS to Tigers owner Tom Monaghan and in 1988, PASS became an early charter affiliate of the
Prime Network
Prime Sports (originally known as the Prime Sports Network (PSN), and also known as Prime Network or simply Prime) is the collective name for a former group of regional sports networks in the United States that were owned by Liberty Media, ope ...
group of regional sports networks.
In 1992, Monaghan sold the Tigers to
Mike Ilitch
Michael Ilitch Sr. (July 20, 1929 – February 10, 2017) was an American entrepreneur, founder and owner of the international fast food franchise Little Caesars Pizza. He owned the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League and Detroit Tig ...
and sold PASS to Post-Newsweek Stations. PASS merged its operations with
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
affiliate
WDIV-TV
WDIV-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with NBC. It serves as the flagship broadcast property of the Graham Media Group subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. WDIV-TV maintains studio facili ...
(channel 4), which is still owned by what is now
Graham Media Group
Graham Media Group (formerly Post-Newsweek Stations) is the television broadcasting subsidiary of the Graham Holdings Company. It is now headquartered in Detroit, co-locating with its local NBC affiliate WDIV-TV, after spending 10 years in Chic ...
. Following the purchase, PASS moved its studios and offices from Ann Arbor to WDIV-TV's studios in Detroit. Post-Newsweek also changed it from an evening-only
premium cable
Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...
channel to a
basic cable channel and expanded it to 24 hours a day.
In the fall of 1995, PASS expanded its coverage area, adding providers such as C-TEC and Cable Plus. By April 1996, the network had reached 25% (or 22,700) of all cable television households in Metro Detroit and 80% (or 174,000 households) in other parts of its primary coverage area through expanded basic tiers.
Decline and shutdown
On October 31, 1995,
Liberty Media, owner of the Prime Network and most of its affiliates, sold a 50% ownership interest in the group to
News Corporation
News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New ...
. That company would immediately assume operational control of Prime following the purchase's closure, with plans to launch its own slate of regional sports networks as an outgrowth of its fledgling
Fox Sports
Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world.
The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...
division later announcing on July 3, 1996, that the Prime networks would be rebranded as
Fox Sports Net
Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on Mar ...
beginning that November.
In 1997, Fox/Liberty Networks – a newly formed
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and economic risk, risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four rea ...
between News Corporation and Liberty – made a surprise bid for the local cable television rights to
NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
games involving the
Detroit Red Wings. News Corporation announced plans to launch its own regional sports network for Michigan to serve as a competitor to PASS. The new channel, later named
Fox Sports Detroit
Bally Sports Detroit (BSD) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group that operates as a Bally Sports affiliate. It provides coverage of local sports teams in the state of Michigan, primarily focusing on those in Metro ...
(now Bally Sports Detroit), was originally targeted for a 1998 launch. As the respective broadcast rights to the Detroit Pistons and Detroit Tigers came up for renewal, Fox/Liberty made a joint bid with PASS for the contracts and was awarded the regional television rights to both teams on August 26, 1997.
Post-Newsweek concluded that its coverage area was not large enough to support two regional sports networks. As a result, on August 30, 1997, it chose to sell the remainder of the Tigers and Pistons contracts for the 1998 season and the contract of sportscaster
John Keating to Fox Sports Detroit. Fox/Liberty Networks ultimately decided to accelerate the launch date of the new channel in time for the
1997–98 NHL season and
1998 Major League Baseball season
The 1998 Major League Baseball season ended with the New York Yankees sweeping the San Diego Padres in the World Series, after they had won a then AL record 114 regular season games. The Yankees finished with 125 wins for the season (regular se ...
, the respective seasons in which the Red Wings and Tigers contracts began. Post-Newsweek then announced that it would shut down PASS.
The last program to air on the network was ''Trackside at
Ladbroke DRC''. The Pro-Am Sports System ceased operations at 12:00 a.m. on November 1, 1997, following a
public service announcement
A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...
for the
National Ski Hall of Fame
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame and Museum is located in Ishpeming, Michigan, the birthplace of organized skiing in the United States. Located in the state's Upper Peninsula, the building includes the hall of fame and museum, as well as a t ...
in
Ishpeming
Ishpeming ( ) is a city in Marquette County in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 6,470 at the 2010 census, less than it was in the 1950s and 1960s when the iron ore mines employed more workers. A statue of a ...
, a slide of the PASS logo was shown for two hours after the network formally shut down. In addition to Keating (who still works for Fox Sports Detroit), several other announcers and hosts that have worked for PASS moved over to Fox Sports Detroit, some of whom remain with that network to this day.
On-air staff
Former on-air staff
*
Marty Adler – ''Live on PASS'' host
*
Pat Caputo
Pat Caputo (born ) is an American sports writer and radio talk show host based in Southeast Michigan. He is an on-air host and sports columnist for WXYT-FM in Detroit. He also occasionally appears on the WJBK local sports discussion show ''Spor ...
– ''Live on PASS'' host (1990–1992)
*
Bill Freehan
William Ashley Freehan (November 29, 1941 – August 19, 2021) was an American catcher in Major League Baseball who played his entire 15-year career with the Detroit Tigers. The premier catcher in the American League for several years from the 19 ...
– Tigers analyst (1984–1985)
*
Steve Garagiola – ''Live on PASS'' host (1993–1996)
*
Ernie Harwell
William Earnest Harwell (January 25, 1918 – May 4, 2010) was an American sportscaster, known for his long career calling play-by-play of Major League Baseball games. For 55 seasons, 42 of them with the Detroit Tigers, Harwell called the actio ...
– Tigers play-by-play announcer (1994–1996)
*
John Keating – ''Live on PASS'' host (1993–1996)
*
Greg Kelser
Gregory Kelser (born September 17, 1957) is a retired American basketball player and current television color commentator. Kelser was a key member of the 1979 NCAA Champion Michigan State Spartans and spent six seasons playing professionally in t ...
– Pistons analyst (1993–1996)
*
Fred McLeod – Pistons play-by-play announcer (1984–1996)
*
Jim Northrup – Tigers analyst (1985–1994)
*
Larry Osterman
Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names.
Larry may refer to the following:
People Arts and entertainment
* Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer
*Larry Boone ...
– Tigers and CCHA Hockey play-by-play announcer (1984–1992)
*
Jim Price – Tigers analyst (1993–1996)
*
Mickey Redmond
Michael Edward Redmond (born December 27, 1947) is a Canadian former professional hockey player. He is currently a color commentator for Detroit Red Wings games on television for Bally Sports Detroit.
Playing career
Redmond played right win ...
– Red Wings analyst (1985–1996)
*
Jack Riggs – horse racing play-by-play announcer and trackside host
*
Dave Strader
David Strader (February 24, 1955 – October 1, 2017) was an American sportscaster, primarily known for his play-by-play commentary of ice hockey. During his career, he worked on telecasts for the Detroit Red Wings, Florida Panthers, Phoenix ...
– Red Wings play-by-play announcer, CCHA play-by-play announcer (1985–1996)
*
Kelly Tripucka
Peter Kelly Tripucka (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1981 to 1991. He was a two-time NBA All Star and averaged over twenty points a game ...
– Pistons analyst (1993–1996)
*
Eli Zaret – Tigers reporter
References
{{Prime Network
Sports in Detroit
Prime Sports
Television channels and stations established in 1984
Television channels and stations disestablished in 1997
Defunct television networks in the United States
Defunct local cable stations in the United States
Defunct mass media in Michigan
Defunct mass media in Ohio
Defunct mass media in Indiana
Defunct mass media in Wisconsin
1984 establishments in Michigan
1997 disestablishments in Michigan