Altitude Sports will open the 2026-27 Nuggets season without Chris Marlowe on play-by-play and without Scott Hastings beside him in the color role. Marlowe had called every Nuggets game on the regional network since its launch in 2004. Hastings had worked Nuggets broadcasts in Denver since 1993, the year he retired from an 11-year NBA career that included two seasons with the team. Reporter and studio analyst Chris Dempsey is also out. Katy Winge and Vic Lombardi remain in their roles.

Marlowe’s 22-year run on Altitude TV stands as the longest continuous tenure for any play-by-play voice in the franchise’s modern era. Hastings logged more than three decades as a local analyst across television and radio. The pair worked together through the Carmelo Anthony years, the post-Malone rebuild, and the 2023 title run. Their departures end a broadcast pairing that spanned multiple ownership regimes and two different regional sports networks.

The change reflects Kroenke Sports and Entertainment’s decision to refresh a product that had grown familiar rather than fresh. Marlowe brought an Olympic volleyball background and precise, energetic calls that suited fast-paced Nuggets offenses. Hastings offered the perspective of a former big man who understood post play and defensive rotations from the inside. Together they rarely challenged the on-court product or highlighted scheme flaws in real time, which suited a market that largely wanted affirmation after years of losing.

This move fits a pattern at Altitude of tightening costs and retooling talent amid cord-cutting pressure on regional sports networks. The Nuggets enter a new phase with Nikola Jokic still in his prime and the roster built around spacing and switchable defense. A broadcast team that can break down those nuances without nostalgia for the 2023 roster could help fans understand the adjustments required to stay competitive in the West. Retaining Winge and Lombardi provides continuity on the sideline and in studio while the network searches for new voices.

The 2026-27 schedule will feature the first Nuggets telecasts without Marlowe or Hastings in more than two decades. Replacement candidates will need to mesh with the existing studio elements and handle a national audience that now expects detailed analysis alongside the play-by-play. Hastings will continue his radio duties on Altitude’s 92.5 FM station.

The broadcast booth change will not alter the Nuggets’ on-court identity, yet it removes the last audible link to the franchise’s pre-Jokic identity for many longtime viewers.