Bob Koshinski

Bob Koshinski is an American broadcaster and multi-media communications specialist from Niagara Falls New York.

Empire Sports Career

Koshinski is best known for his time as Vice President/General Manager of the former Empire Sports Network. Bob Koshinski was Vice President/General Manager of Empire Sports Network from 1998 until its closing in 2005. Koshinski also served as Assistant GM, Executive Producer and Program Director over his 15 year career with Empire Sports Network which ran from from 1991 to 2005 when Adelphia Communications terminated operations.

One of Koshinski's significant contributions to the history of Empire Sports Network was the creation of the Fan-TV concept. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMMYbBVW-AM] Fan-TV was a daily, two and a-half hour live program hosted by Howard Simon and Jim Brinson. The program featured hourly segments on the Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Sabres and local and national sports stories. Fan-TV helped Empire Sports grow beyond the Buffalo region by featuring teams and players throughout New York state.

Koshinski also hosted several shows on Empire Sports such as "Not Just Sports" and "Fan Forum". "Fan Forum" teamed Koshinski with Buffalo Broadcast Hall of Famer Art Wander and included segments with NFL Network writer Vic Carucci and former Buffalo Sabre Danny Gare. Koshinski also co-hosted "Live From The Aud" [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbSVNZXIgE4] with Jennifer Smith for one NHL season. "Live From The Aud" was a Buffalo Sabres postgame show that was televised live from Buffalo's Memorial Auditorium after home Sabres games.

Koshinski also hosted the Thurman Thomas Show and Cornelius Bennett Show and anchored numerous live special station events over the years.

Empire Sports Network

Empire Sports Network was the flagship station for the Buffalo Sabres National Hockey League games, but featured a wide range of live events, live sports news and talk shows. Empire also aired a significant amount of programs covering the Buffalo Bills [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBf12pEmJoo] of the National Football League, which included the Thurman Thomas Show and Cornelius Bennett Show, both hosted by Koshinski. The Frank Reich Show, Don Beebe Show, Marv Levy Show, Bill Polian Show, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5YBK5CJP6U&feature=related] John Butler Show, Wade Phillips Show and The Bills on Monday Show. Empire Sports also produced and televised live play by play of the Buffalo Destroyers of the Arena Football League, the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National league, the Buffalo Bisons, Rochester Redwings and Syracuse Chiefs of the International League AAA, AHL hockey, and NCAA basketball. Buffalo Bandits lacrosse also received limited coverage on the station. Games of the Toronto Raptors of the NBA also aired for several seasons until January 2005. In 2004, the station also aired live Canadian Football League Friday Night Football games and on a tape delay Saturday mornings.

Empire Sports Report, was also a successful live studio program produced by the network. The Sports Report aired seven days a week with original anchor Mike DeGeorge anchoring Monday through Friday. DeGeorge then left the network in 2000 and was replaced by Josh Mora. Weekend reports were anchored by Bremante Bryant and Jason Bristol.

The most popular program on the network for 14 years was Hockey Hotline, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-N-KYT1LLc] the Sabres' postgame call-in show hosted by NHL veteran Mike Robitaille and later with Brian Blessing and Josh Mora.

Other popular shows were Fan Forum with Bob Koshinski and Art Wander, which aired from 1991 to 1998.

Pros and Cons [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucAw23FZUtM&feature=related] was created by Bob Koshinski and was one of the first shows produced by the network. Koshinski recruited WGRZ-TV's Ed Kilgore, then radio talk show host Art Wander and award winning writer and columnist Larry Felser to be regulars on the program. The show also featured a guest panelist each week and ran from 1992 to 1996; in a real sense, it can be considered a predecessor to ESPN's hit talk show "Pardon the Interruption".

Several national and professional sports announcers also worked for Empire Sports including former Buffalo Bills punter and ESPN NFL analyst Paul Maguire, who hosted the Budweiser Sportsline for 14 years. Also on the network were current NHL announcers Pete Weber and Danny Gare, Toronto Raptors color analyst Jack Armstrong and former Buffalo Bill Steve Tasker, now of CBS.

WNSA-FM 107.7 FM

Bob Koshinski was also General Manager of all-sports FM radio station WNSA from 2000 to 2004. Adelphia purchased then WNUC 107.7 FM in Wethersfield Township, in 2000. Koshinski was part of the management team that totally re-built and re-formatted the new FM all-sports station. The rare FM all-sports format had success against Buffalo's other sports talk station WGR-550 AM until Adelphia sold the station to WGR's owner, Entercom Communications, in 2004.

Koshinski put WNSA-FM in the thick of the Western New York radio wars with several unique promotions which included the Western New York Sports Symposium. The WNY Sports Symposium was a yearly, two day event held at an event center which included participation by the Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Sabres, Buffalo Bisons and most of the Buffalo area colleges. The Symposium featured two days of sports talk from the event location and numerous round table discussions with dozens of notable Buffalo sports team players, coaches, alumni, and announcers. The Symposium created hours and hours of rich discussion on Buffalo's sports history. [http://www.staffannouncer.com/airchecks.htm]

Another of Koshinski's WNSA-FM on-air promotions was the creation of a radio fantasy hockey game called "Sabres Showdown" that pitted the Buffalo Sabres 1975 Stanley Cup finalists against the 1999 Sabres finalist squad. The game, which first aired April 9, 2001 prior to the 2001 playoffs, featured actual Sabres play-by-play man Rick Jeanneret and analyst Mike Robitaille calling the action as well as staged and archival interviews with Sabres players and management from both eras; players that were on the 1975 Sabres team and also were part of the Sabres's broadcast team at the time (Jim Lorentz and Danny Gare) were held out of the broadcast to make it seem as if they were in the game; they were replaced by other WNSA personalities, including Mike Schopp and Howard Simon. In addition, classic archived audio clips of past interviews of players and owners Seymour and Northrup Knox were played during sports updates, interspersed with the real sports news of the day, leading up to the game. The taped broadcast was a hit and sounded incredibly real, to the point where it was replayed in April 2002. The game was first created on a video game (EA Sports's NHL 2001) with rosters created from players from both the 1970's team and that from the 1990s. Jeanneret and Robitaille watched the replay of the computer generated contest to create a realistic sounding broadcast. The game actually foretold several rule changes that would later be implemented by the league, including the use of dark home jerseys (the 1975 Sabres were said to be wearing jerseys virtually identical to the current Sabres alternate jerseys), and the implementation of a penalty shootout to decide the winner. The fictional game was won 4-3 in a shootout, with Gilbert Perreault netting the game winner.

WKBW-TV

Koshinski is also well known in Buffalo for his time at WKBW-TV prior to joining Empire Sports. Koshinski was hired by WKBW-TV in 1983 as a part-time sports producer and after six years was named Sports Director. Koshinski was named Sports Director in 1989 after the legendary Rick Azar retired.

During Koshinski's 8 years at Ch 7 he earned a reputation as a hard working investigative reporter. Koshinski broke several key Buffalo sport stories such as the Buffalo Bills signing of Jim Kelly and Bills' owner Ralph Wilson's demand for a new stadium. Koshinski was also known for his good humor as an anchor over his years at WKBW-TV and was a popular choice for Master of Ceremonies duties throughout the area.

Koshinski's titles included producer, reporter, weekend sports anchor and 5 PM anchor prior to being named Sports Director.

Koshinski left WKBW to join Empire Sports in 1991. Succeeding him was John Murphy, best known as the voice of the Buffalo Bills Radio Network.

WKBW's War of the Worlds

Bob Koshinski has also become one of the foremost authorities on WKBW radio's 1968 version of War of the Worlds. [http://wkbwradio.com/warintro.htm] Koshinski has written numerous articles on the subject and hosted and produced a 30 minute special on the broadcast that aired on WNED-TV on October 31st, 1998.

Career in Communications

Bob Koshinski served as Communications Director for Erie County, New York] from 2005 to 2007. Koshinski was also Senior Assistant to Erie County Executive Joel Giambra during that period of time.

Koshinski has been Master of Ceremonies for the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame Dinner [http://www.buffalosportshallfame.com/] from 1995 to 2005. He has also served in that capacity for such as events as Jim Kelly's placement on the Ralph Wilson Stadium Wall of Fame, [http://www.truveo.com/Jim-Kelly-Wall-of-Fame/id/1182027068] President Bill Clinton's speech at the HSBC Arena, Marv Levy's retirement banquet, Thurman Thomas celebrity roast [http://www.hanessupply.com/ThurmanThomas.asp] and many, many others.

Personal Info

Bob Koshinski lives in Wheatfield NY with his wife Mary and sons Robert, Jacob and Daniel.