Lager Heads understands that the St. Louis Blues hockey team will take radio production functions in-house as Bud Productions, the broadcast production unit of Anheuser-Busch, pulls out of the Blues Radio Network and shuts down on Jan. 1.

The Blues network is comprised of flagship KMOX (1120 AM) in St. Louis and 13 affiliates: one in Arkansas, four in Illinois and eight in Missouri.

Anheuser-Busch told Lager Heads that it is focusing on its core business of making and selling beer. Ancillary operations are starting to drop off, it appears, as A-B is integrated into InBev of Belgium. 

“After careful review, we have decided to discontinue the production services available through our Bud Productions unit,” Anheuser-Busch said in a statement. ”This was a difficult decision, but is supportive of our goals to remain focused on brewing and marketing beer.”

Jack Donovan, general manager and senior vice president of Fox Sports Midwest, said Bud Productions (also known as Bud Sports) helped Fox broadcast Cardinals games on TV, as well as produce the Blues games on the radio.

Donovan told Lager Heads that “Bud Sports has been a great partner of ours for several years. Like all Anheuser-Busch divisons, Bud Sports was very professional and had some very capable individuals working in the department. We really had a great partnership.”

Donovan said “we don’t expect the fans to see any difference” in the quality of the telecasts. Scheduled broadcasts, he said, will go on as planned.  Fox Sports is in hiring discussions with several folks from Bud Productions, he said. 

A-B said in June 2004 that Bud Sports Productions was an in-house unit working under the direction of acclaimed marketer Tony Ponturo. Bud Sports was described as a ”fully integrated broadcast production group annually producing more than 800 sports and entertainment broadcasts and telecasts,” including play-by-play broadcasts of professional baseball, hockey and football.