Friends of Joe Schiavo - or Joey, as everyone seems to call him - like to tell the same story about the journeyman technical director.
He was working at YES Network a few years ago, producing Mike Francesa's radio show on location at a golf tournament in Westchester, NY. One of the guests slated for that day's show was Frank Gifford, the former voice of Monday Night Football on ABC.
Upon seeing Schiavo, Gifford reportedly leaned over to Francesa. Do you know who that is? he exclaimed. That's Joey Schiavo! He's a legend at ABC Sports. A legend!
Of course, those who know Schiavo best know that he would never tell such a story about himself or tout his own legend. For all his accomplishments as technical director at ABC Sports and continued successes as senior technical manager at YES Network, Schiavo is still the kid from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, the youngest of four brothers and the class clown, who grew up playing CYO baseball and dreamed of one day working in television.
Getting His Start
After three years of night classes at the RCA Institute in New York, Schiavo was hired by ABC in 1968. Despite his lifelong love for the Brooklyn Dodgers and then the New York Mets, he didn't actively pursue a career in sports. The kid who used to play with 8mm cameras would be a camera operator for Eyewitness News and find his way into sports later.
When I went to work in television, I wasn't thinking about sports. I was just thinking about getting into TV, says Schiavo. The first thing I did was Eyewitness News, which everyone did. [ABC] sized you up, and, if you're a city kid, they sent you out into the field because they figured you could work in rain or snow and it wouldn't bother you. I think that was their logic in the beginning, so when they found out about me, they sent me out into the field, and that's how I got into sports.
Schiavo, like all new ABC hires at the time, joined the company as a vacation-relief employee and did not expect to become a permanent employee right away. However, he had a leg up on the competition: a commercial driver license.
I drove a school bus when I was a kid, and they knew that, [so] they sent me out to drive one of the TV mobile units, he explains. The money was good with the overtime, and [the bosses] said, well, if you're willing to drive, you have a job here. I said I'll do whatever you want. And that's how I got the job.
Schiavo would stay with ABC for 34 years.
A Monday Night Football Stalwart
In 1979, following a successful stint as camera operator, Schiavo was asked to be a technical director. Actually, they didn't ask me, he laughs. They told me.
Once again, he began his tenure as a vacation-relief employee, returning to Eyewitness News before traveling for several sports productions, including a boxing match and college football game. Then he was called up to the big leagues.
[ABC Sports director and fellow Hall of Famer] Chet Forte put me on Monday Night Football, says Schiavo. I was one of Chet's camera people on Monday Night Football. They told me I was only going to do four or five games because the TD that was doing Monday Night Football was also doing baseball and it was a World Series year, so they needed someone to cover him. After the fifth game, Chet walks in the truck and goes, Oh, by the way, the other guy is never coming back.' I was in a state of shock.
For 22 years, Schiavo served as technical director of Monday Night Football. He also covered Triple Crown horseracing, countless Wide World of Sports telecasts, and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, among other events.
Joey had the hand-eye coordination, the dexterity, and the ability to listen and translate that was absolutely flawless, says Jack Kestenbaum, a close friend who mixed audio alongside Schiavo at ABC and is now director, technical operations, for YES Network. He was the best. He never made a mistake. As a technical director, he never made a mistake.
On Jan. 20, 1985, ABC broadcast its first Super Bowl - Miami Dolphins vs. San Francisco 49ers - with Gifford, Don Meredith, and Joe Theismann on the call and Schiavo on the switcher. He would do four more Super Bowls for the network.
Joey is a legend at ABC Sports, says Ed Delaney, who worked with him at ABC Sports and YES Network before joining Fox Sports as EVP, operations, this year. Just a delightful guy to be around, brilliant at what he does, and a true leader. Back then in the network days, the technical directors really were the crew leaders, and Joey was such an exceptional leader. Joey got everything done and was beloved by everybody.
After Forte left ABC, Schiavo remained as technical director on Monday Night Football for director Craig Janoff and producer Ken Wolfe. In 2002, however, Schiavo felt it was time to move on.
It was time to go, and you know what? I don't have any regrets, he says. It was a wonderful, wonderful era to work at ABC; it was a wonderful time that will never come around again, and we were a part of it.
Continuing a Hall of Fame Career
Schiavo's time in sports television was hardly finished. In 2002, he joined the YES Network and several former ABC colleagues, including Kestenbaum and Delaney.
I was fortunate enough, when I took the position at YES Network, to bring Joey over in a management position, Delaney explains. It worked out so well because I had a bunch of young junior professionals who were fresh out of school and Joey did such a great job of mentoring these folks, just like he mentored me years ago.
As technical manager of YES Network, Schiavo finally has the opportunity to cover his favorite sport. He travels for all New York Yankees road telecasts, including spring training in Florida, and roots for the team except when they play the Mets. To be involve
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Friends of Joe Schiavo - or Joey, as everyone seems to call him - like to tell the same story about the journeyman technical director.
