Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Kings announced they were going to provide a radio/TV simulcast for fans, leaving TV voice Alex Faust without a role with the franchise. The move eventually elevated Faust’s profile, leading to a role with AppleTV’s Friday Night Baseball package.
As the 2023-2024 NHL season began, Alex Faust was named as a fill-in for the New York Rangers radio network. He said the new opportunity has allowed him to view his role from a different lens and question if he wants to be the voice of one team again.
“It’s actually a question I’ve asked myself because, in some ways what happened with the Kings, while it stung and it still stings a bit, it afforded me a luxury that you don’t get in this business very often, and that’s time,” Faust said while on the Sports Media Watch podcast. “It’s time away from full-time in a sport with a team to explore other opportunities. In this case, an opportunity to fill in a little bit with another team.
“But for now, I’m just enjoying the ride … being a national voice you get to parachute in, do the game, and go home and kind of wipe your hands clean of it. With a team, there’s an emotional component to it. There’s an emotional investment. Even though I wasn’t from Los Angeles, you get swept up when you’re working every single day, when you’re at the rink every day, when you’re building relationships with coaches and players,” continued Faust. “Never mind the crest on the front of the jersey, you are a part of that family, a part of that organization. You’re vested in their success. So it’s a very different feeling than being invested in the success of a network.”
Alex Faust was also asked about the fallout from his exit from the Los Angeles Kings, and he noted he was shocked by the move.
“I had every intent of making it a long-term proposition. I had put down roots there (and) bought a house there. And it’s a business at the end of the day, so it happens to pro athletes, it happens to white-collar workers, it happens to blue-collar workers. It is just a fact of life that sometimes businesses have to pivot when there are challenges thrown their way,” Faust said.
“I know what the realities are in the business right now, especially for regional sports networks. And, at the time, the Kings’ rights deal was up and I was just a casualty of that. They decided they wanted to go with a simulcast. This was before they inked a new rights agreement with Bally Sports.
“But, I guess, at the end of the day, I was the only one from the crew let go. Everybody else was brought back this season. It’s disappointing, and I still wonder if the economics were a little bit different or if circumstances were a little bit different, whether it would’ve just been status quo. But life moves on and you can’t spend time dwelling on the past, especially when it’s out of your control, and especially when the reasons aren’t ones that you necessarily love or agree with.”
