Michael Barkann is one of Philadelphia’s best known sports media personalities as well as the Master of Ceremonies for the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremonies. Since 1997, this veteran sportscaster has been a host of myriad shows for Comcast SportsNet. He has been honored as Pennsylvania’s Sportscaster of the Year seven times besides winning numerous Emmy Awards including: Outstanding Individual Achievement for a Sports Reporter; Outstanding Sports Feature; Outstanding Individual Achievement Host/Talk Program; and Outstanding Talk Program.

In high school, Barkann, a native of East Brunswick, NJ, was active in basketball, baseball, hockey and track. In college he ran cross country and earned a degree in broadcast journalism from Syracuse University’s prestigious Newhouse School of Communications which has produced such sports media luminaries as Bob Costas, Dick Stockton, Len Berman and Mike Tirico among many others.

His on-air career began with New Jersey Network (he started as NJN’s weatherman) and soon took him to KYW-TV in Philadelphia. In 1991 he joined the USA Network where he covered U.S. Open Tennis, World League Football and a boxing series Tuesday Night Fights. He gained major television exposure working for CBS Sports at the Winter Olympics. In 1992 in Albertville, France, 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway and 1998 in Nagano, Japan Barkann covered speed skating for CBS.

In 1992 Barkann became sports director at WLVI-TV in Boston. He spent five years in Boston and also hosted sports radio programs on WEEI-AM.

Barkann joined Comcast SportsNet for its maiden season in 1997 and took the network on-the-air in October as the first person to appear live on the fledgling network. He soon became known for his offbeat interview style. He has served as the host for “Daily News Live,” CSN’s daily roundtable and CSN’s Post Game Live programs. Among his favorite assignments were the Phillies World Series Championship and Dan Jansen’s dramatic speed-skating gold medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics.
Barkann’s charitable work includes the ALS Association of Greater Philadelphia, Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education and Bringing the Outside World Inside Foundation.

Off camera, his favorite pursuits are photography, films and travel. He lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife Ellen and two children.