By GIUSPPE UNGARO Managing Editor When NBC-40 went dark at the end of 2014, a void was created for followers of Cape-Atlantic League sports, particularly high school football fans. There were no more daily highlights of local high school athletes appearing on television. Also disappearing was Friday Night Blitz, an extended highlight show, featuring the top plays from that night’s high school football slate, hosted by Pete Thompson and Mike Frankel, the station’s sports anchors, who brought local sports into viewers’ living rooms. Frankel and Thompson still live in the area, and even 11 months after NBC-40 News aired its final broadcast, the sports anchors are stopped daily by former viewers, saying they wish the duo were still on the air. Actually, they are on the air, and they are still focusing on high school sports, but their coverage area is much bigger. Frankel is now the Sports Director for SNJ Today, based out of Millville, which airs locally at 7 and 11 p.m. as part of Comcast on channels 4 and 26 in Atlantic and Cape May counties, and Channel 22 in Cumberland County. Thompson joins Frankel to help host “The Locker Room,” a 30-minute highlight show covering high school games from throughout South Jersey, including Atlantic and Cape May counties, at 7 p.m. on Saturdays. “It’s a situation I’ve never been in before, trying to build a TV station from the ground up,” said the 32-year-old Frankel, an Ocean City native. “What we get a lot of is, ‘I miss TV-40. I wish you guys were still on the air.’ I tell them it’s not the same thing, obviously. Some of the faces are the same and some of the faces are different, but it’s a very similar product. It is covering South Jersey news, just on a wider scale.” “I knew when we were closing last December, people were going to miss it,” said the 44-year-old Thompson, who is also a producer at Comcast SportsNet in Philadelphia. “That’s why this last year has been so tough. They feel like you went away somewhere. If I’m out somewhere, be it at a grocery store or a restaurant, people want to stop and talk. There is not a day that goes by that someone doesn’t say, ‘boy, I really miss TV-40′, or ‘I can’t believe it was turned off.’ I miss it, too.” 
Mike Frankel, left, and Pete Thompson were mainstays of high school sports coverage for years while at NBC-40. Now that there is no more NBC-40, the duo has continued to provide weekly high school football highlights on SNJ Today’s “The Locker Room” on Saturday evenings. (Photo provided) With his involvement in “The Locker Room,” Thompson keeps a foot in the local high school sports scene, something he has been a part of since 2004. Frankel was an athlete at Ocean City High School and returned to cover the CAL when he was hired by Thompson at TV-40 in 2007, turning down a news anchor offer in a bigger market in Indiana. “It’s awesome. I had a chance to pursue some other opportunities over the years, even when I was at TV-40 and toward the end there and before I started at SNJ Today, but at the end of the day, I just love South Jersey,” Frankel said. “I grew up here, my wife is from here, we bought a house here and we started a family here. So I love covering sports here and I love interacting with some of the coaches I either played for or against, and developing relationships on a professional level, and spotlighting the kids. “Where else can people see their son, Johnny, play a local sport other than local news? The Philadelphia station is not going to come down and cover that. So we are trying to get all these local athletes a platform, and it’s so much more than that. When I can tell a feature story, something deeper, the story behind a good run a team is having or the story of why a kid is excelling, that is rewarding as well.” Anyone who has been to a local football game the past decade has most likely seen Thompson or Frankel on the sidelines with a camera perched on their shoulder — although not for long, as they scramble to get in multiple games each night. The duo is still doing the same along with two free-lance cameramen, but on a grander scale. SNJ Today covers teams from seven counties, trying to give a balanced show each week, with as many schools included in the Saturday broadcasts. In a recent episode, Frankel and Thompson showed highlights from 12 playoff games, making stops as far as Salem, Cherokee, Egg Harbor City and eight other stops between for a 30-minute show that also includes commercials. Games that aren’t videotaped are included in a graphic and on the scroll at the bottom of the screen. It is a hectic two days on high school football weekends, but Frankel and Thompson say it is all worth it to bring viewers highlights they can’t get anywhere else, and also to work together once again. “It’s just great. It’s funny because I was Mike’s boss at TV-40 and now he is my boss. I kid him about it, but we never really had that structure where we tell each other what to do,” said Thompson. “We have such respect for what each other does. In the studio it’s a hell a lot of fun. We really have fun and we have that chemistry that you get when you work with somebody for so long.” “Bringing him on to SNJ Today for football has been awesome,” said Frankel. “No. 1, we get to hang out for almost 48 straight hours, which is great. No. 2, there is no one I trust more to help carry the load, especially with a 30-minute show. He has been through the battles, if you will; he has been through the scrambles on Friday night trying to turn the product around and put a good show on the air. He has been a great help and it has been fun being together again.” It may not be the TV-40 so many locals were accustomed to, but with Frankel and Thompson back on the screen, the sports coverage, at least, feels like some old friends have returned. Contact Giuseppe Ungaro: gungaro@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDgisepu [adsense]
NBC-40 is no more, but Frankel, Thompson continue to provide great local sports coverage at SNJ Today
