Submitted by Mike Martin, Tiny Radio
For the past eight years, Friday Harbor Tiny Radio has hosted high school sports on 1650 AM and on FHTinyRadio.com. FH Tiny Radio will now stream live football, basketball, soccer, softball and baseball games for the 2019-20 season. With little fanfare, it started with last at the home opener for the football team.
“Surprisingly we had over 350 viewers,” said Tiny Radio/TV creator Ken Norris. Originally, the radio station grew out of necessity, he said. “For most schools, a league game is a 20-minute drive.”
Norris added that for islanders to attend a single game it can be an all-day event which includes missing a day of work and often getting home in the wee hours of the morning.
The addition of Tiny TV doesn’t mean an end to Tiny Radio. Many listeners expressed that they love to listen to games at work, while driving, or going about their day so the two entities will simulcast for away games on FHTinyRadio.com and YouTube. However, home games will only be accessible through Tiny TV.
For the football season, Bryan Jackson will do the play-by-play and he will be joined by John Volk providing the color commentary. For basketball season Kaila Olin will return for her third season and second as play-by-play with Jackson providing color commentary.
“Since day one, the community has been immensely supportive of our efforts,” Norris said, adding that it’s not just listeners. “Most of our sponsors have been with it since the inception.”
Tiny Radio/TVs Executive Producer Mike Martin said the company endeavors to keep reinvesting in the community. He said that the new streaming system wasn’t cheap, “but we’ve been frugal with the funds. This system has the capability of handling up to eight cameras.”
Martin said that for football they will utilize four cameras whenever possible.
For away games, Tiny TV will also have live statistics. Friday Harbor resident Cherie Joyce developed a Google spreadsheet that can transmit live statistics to the announcers. Joyce will listen or watch the games from Friday Harbor and track player stats.
“Through the automatic updates of the live Google document, Jackson and Volk can give viewers and listeners up-to-date information on individual players and the team throughout the games,” Martin said.
Norris’ vision is to have an island media group that can utilize the talents on the island. Especially with it being a national, regional and local election year, viewers will have many more reasons to turn to Tiny TV. He said that in the coming year there will be opportunities to host live non-sporting events like candidate forums and public meetings.
“Through our channel on YouTube we have the ability to distribute content from the island’s content producers,” Norris said. “We are continually developing our brand and expanding our forward-facing products.”
With locally-produced material at times, it will have the old public access channel feel, as well. Although Tiny TV is partnered with Martin’s Howlin’ Husky Productions for much of the channel’s content, Norris is opening his audience to other projects as well.
Martin encourages viewers to log in to YouTube through a Google account, if possible. “By subscribing, viewers will get content updates and schedules,” he explained. “Plus, once we hit 100 subscribers we will have a permanent YouTube channel.”
Wolverine fans can listen to games at www.FHTinyRadio.com or watch at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCabxVyMn2nr-rGBvJlG7l_Q.
