\u201cThat is epic,\u201d analyst Kevin Frandsen said as the drone floated over the home plate entrance to the ballpark, fans dotting the stands before the Nationals\u2019 series opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers like confetti. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat was, as we say in the business, the absolute money shot for me,\u201d said Wendy Bailey, the Nationals\u2019 executive director of content and broadcasting. \u201cIt was so beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
After an offseason split from the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network<\/a>, which is controlled by the Baltimore Orioles, Nationals broadcasts sound and look different this season. Kolko has taken over as the full-time play-by-play voice, partnering with Frandsen in the booth. Alexa Datt is the new pre- and postgame host and in-game reporter. <\/p>\n Backing them is a new level of support and technology from MLB Local Media, the arm of Major League Baseball that now produces and distributes regional television broadcasts for 14 of MLB\u2019s 30 teams. Nationals broadcasters and officials say the partnership has helped lift Nationals.TV in its inaugural season to levels that were out of reach under MASN. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all access, it\u2019s all new,\u201d Frandsen said, \u201cand it\u2019s all so great.\u201d<\/p>\n The most obvious changes are in front of the camera. Kolko, a Montgomery County native who\u2019d worked on Nationals broadcasts for over a decade on MASN, \u200b\u200bwas named the team\u2019s new full-time play-by-play voice in January<\/a>. He replaced longtime announcer Bob Carpenter, who retired after last season<\/a>. Kolko had stepped in for Carpenter as he scaled down his appearances on MASN over his final years in the booth.<\/p>\n Datt, also a Montgomery County native and Maryland graduate, was hired after covering the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Blues as a host for FanDuel Sports Network Midwest. She was also the first woman to handle play-by-play duties<\/a> for a Cardinals spring training game. <\/p>\n Their partnership with Frandsen, a former Nationals utility player who joined MASN\u2019s broadcast team in 2022<\/a>, has injected a different energy into the broadcast. Datt said they have a shared pop-culture language. (Crucially, they all quote lines from \u201cBilly Madison\u201d and \u201cOld School.\u201d) Their hope, she added, is to evoke the hangout vibes of \u201cInside the NBA,\u201d the popular halftime and postgame studio show for \u201cNBA on ESPN\u201d and, formerly, \u201cNBA on TNT\u201d broadcasts. <\/p>\n \u201cThat model is trying so hard to be replicated across all sports in every broadcast,\u201d Datt said. \u201cAnd baseball is probably the ultimate, because there are so many games. You want to feel like that every single time you have the opportunity to invite somebody in to hang out with you to watch baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n They have more help than previous broadcasts under MASN did. Chip Winfield, a longtime coordinating producer, has rejoined the crew for road games. Bailey said his presence has helped streamline behind-the-scenes work, from devising potential stories to developing on-air rapport to creating graphics. And during broadcasts, Datt and Bailey said, the broadcast now has enough manpower to provide updated stats for in-game reports and produce in-game interviews.<\/p>\n MLB Local Media itself offers another \u201carmy\u201d of editors, Bailey said, who expedite the production timeline for tasks that would\u2019ve kept MASN staffers up for most of the night in recent years. When the Nationals visited Pittsburgh this week for a series against the Pirates, Nationals.TV prepared a package highlighting former first baseman Adam LaRoche\u2019s ties to both franchises \u201con the fly,\u201d Bailey said.<\/p>\n \u201cJust those little things that you can kind of put together \u2026 and have in your arsenal as a producer for lulls in the broadcast, times that you want to just kind of bring up the momentum in the broadcast to keep people engaged, is really important,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Access has improved as well. Bailey, now in her ninth year with the organization, said MLB encourages collaboration between teams\u2019 public relations, communications and broadcast arms in hopes of creating more engaging on-air content. \u201cAnd I think there\u2019s a real appetite for that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n On Monday, during an eventual loss to the Pirates<\/a>, hitting coach Matt Borgschulte was interviewed midgame, a level of access Nationals broadcasters say they were rarely afforded under MASN. Two days earlier, only an inning after starting pitcher Foster Griffin wrapped up a scoreless, one-hit performance in an eventual win over the Milwaukee Brewers<\/a>, he had a headset on outside the clubhouse, taking questions from the Nationals\u2019 booth. <\/p>\n \u201cI felt like we got the most genuine version of a player,\u201d Frandsen said, \u201cand I love that.\u201d<\/p>\n Bailey said the Nationals wanted their broadcasts to better measure up against the sport\u2019s \u201cgold standard,\u201d pointing to national broadcasts of postseason games. \u201cPeople expect to see more,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n So the Nationals and MLB have given them more angles to see. There was the drone footage in the team\u2019s home opener, which Nationals officials hope they can clear for a midsummer return. (As it turns out, flying drones in the nation\u2019s capital invites plenty of red tape.) The team could also incorporate a \u201cdirt cam\u201d<\/a> and an umpire-mounted camera, both of which MLB makes available for broadcasts.<\/p>\n But Frandsen\u2019s favorite new toy is the \u201cWire Cam,\u201d which Bailey said has universal implementation across MLB Local Media productions. Overlooking the infield, it glides from third base to home plate, offering an almost cinematic perspective as players round the bases and the ball\u2019s relayed home. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not doing the old broadcast,\u201d Frandsen said. \u201cSo get used to the new broadcast. Because it\u2019s going to be fun. … It\u2019s going to give you a new perspective on what really is the new MLB umbrella.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAn embarrassment of riches,\u201d Datt said of the team\u2019s new technologies.<\/p>\n And a breath of fresh air. Frandsen said he was treated well when he worked for MASN, whose Orioles broadcasts provide most, if not all, of the on-air features now touted on Nationals.TV.<\/p>\n But he acknowledged that \u201cit wasn\u2019t the best of relationships\u201d between the Nationals and MASN. Last year, the Orioles and Nationals ended a lengthy legal fight over television rights fees associated with the network<\/a>, with the Nationals receiving an unspecified settlement.<\/p>\n Now, Frandsen said, he feels he has more of a voice in shaping responsive game coverage.<\/p>\n \u201cYou actually don\u2019t feel like you\u2019re silent in the whole thing,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, someone actually heard it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Bailey said getting Nationals.TV off the ground was \u201cprobably the easiest\u201d programming launch in her three decades of broadcasting, though some fans were unable to access<\/a> the team\u2019s new broadcast channel during the Nationals\u2019 season-opening series. <\/p>\n The on-field product hasn\u2019t been bad to watch, either; Washington (9-10), widely projected to be one of the worst teams in baseball, is tied for second in the competitive National League East three weeks into the season. Shortstop CJ Abrams and right fielder James Wood rank among the league leaders in home runs and RBIs, powering one of baseball\u2019s most explosive offenses.<\/p>\n![\"Dan](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/KIAHTGAQNND6LMHL4XM2S2T7PY.jpg\")
From left, Nationals.TV broadcasters Dan Kolko, Alexa Datt and Kevin Frandsen pose for a photo during spring training. (Amanda Bowen\/Amanda Bowen)<\/p>\n