Throwback: Celtics on WLVI-TV 56

The Celtics moved their TV coverage from WBZ-TV to WLVI-TV, or Channel 56 as we called it prior to the 1985-1986 championship season. And unless you had cable TV (We didn't) we could watch all the Celtics away games on Channel 56, but only the home games if they were on national TV, which I believe was CBS at the time.

Gil Santos and Bob Cousy were the broadcast duo for four years with Mike Crispino replacing Santos for the 1989-90 season. Here's a little walk down 1980's memory lane for today's throwback.

In the 1990's the Celtics changed broadcast TV networks a few times, while Mike Gorman and Tommy Heinsohn continued to cover home games for Sportschannel on paid cable. Heinsohn actually covered all the Celtics games in the 1990's as he would serve as the play-by-play voice for Celtics away games alongside Cousy who remained the color commentator.

Heinsohn was quite impressive in the role of play-by-play as he almost took on a different character in those games and was much less of a homer, screaming at refs, and more a stricly "calling the game" announcer.

The 1998-1999 season would be the last season to feature Celtics games on free TV as Fox Sports New England took over all Celtics games for that season. While the Celtics only won one championship during the five years at WLVI, it was still a fun time to be a Celtic as the team made it deep into the playoffs each season and during the final three seasons you got to see the formative years in the league of the great Reggie Lewis.

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