Founded prior to the 1999-2000 season, HSSN, who works through a partnership with Western Kentucky University, the WKU Athletic Department, and university-operated PBS member station WKYU-TV, has helped the Hilltoppers make over 150 appearances since 2010. While WKYU-TV serves as the flagship station, Louisville-based independent stationWBNA serves as an affiliate to make WKU Basketball games available in the Louisville metropolitan area. While a member of the Sun Belt Conference previously, some WKU Basketball games aired on WKYU-TV were syndicated by Creative Sports during the 1990s and 2000s. Sometimes, the HSSN package competed with Jefferson Pilot/Lincoln Financial Media broadcasts of Southeastern Conference sporting events and ESPN Plus-operated SEC TV on ABC affiliate WBKO from the 1990s until 2014.
Game broadcasts
The HSSN's basketball broadcasts are mainly an audio simulcast of game broadcasts of the Hilltopper IMG Sports Network, with the live video being simulcasted from Fox College Sports, who broadcasts most of WKU's games regionally, or in some cases, nationally via satellite and/or cable television, some of which most major cable and satellite providers offered as part of an out-of-market sports package. WKYU-TV programs HSSN broadcasts of WKU basketball from early December to early March. Historically, the HSSN broadcast package mostly WKU Hilltoppers men's basketball games, but its season package often included some women's basketball games as well. In 2015, the HSSN purchased a $2 million fully-high definition mobile production facility, making the game broadcasts available in full high definition. Since 2014, WKYU-TV also broadcast WKU-involved matches broadcast by the American Sports Network, an ad hoc syndication service owned and operated by Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which owns two Nashville-based stations, Fox affiliate WZTV and MyNetworkTV affiliate WUXP-TV, that can be received over-the-air in Bowling Green.
Affiliates
Current
Former
Funding and Sponsorship
Because HSSN flagship WKYU-TV is a viewer-supported television station, the HSSN was mainly funded by local merchants who are supporters of the sports teams of WKU, as well as some WKU Hilltopper fans that view the games via television, especially those who live within the Bowling Green media market.
