As was expected by people familiar with the situation, but to the dismay of fans of Mike Lange, Paul Steigerwald has signed a multiyear contact with FSN Pittsburgh to remain the play-by-play announcer for the Penguins.

Amid flourishing ratings and total satisfaction with Steigerwald, it was only a matter of time before the two sides came to an agreement.

FSN general manager Ted Black said: "Paul is very, very good at what he does. There was no reason to make a change."

Steigerwald had been working under a two-year contract after replacing Lange, who was fired in June 2006. Steve Tello, the former general manager of FSN, made the decision to replace Lange with Steigerwald, who had been the team's radio voice. When Tello left earlier this year for a similar position in Houston, it was thought by some it might mean the return of Lange, who had built up a legion of supporters in more than 30 years as broadcaster for the team.

But it never came close to that.

Ratings have skyrocketed during Steigerwald's two-year run and he enjoys the complete support of the FSN hierarchy.

Steigerwald, 53, again will team with Bob Errey, who is in the midst of a multiyear contract with FSN. The station will televise 71 games next season, including both of the Penguins' season-opening games in Sweden against the Ottawa Senators. The team's remaining games will be televised on a national level.

When Steigerwald took over the television play-by-play role, the Penguins were coming off a season in which their ratings were 2.54. And that was an improvement over the two previous seasons when they were 1.28 and 1.87.

In his first season, the ratings jumped to 4.72 and last year they were 6.16. In the first two rounds of the playoffs, the only postseason games carried on FSN had ratings that were 15.50.

Steigerwald takes none of the credit. "The ratings are due to Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and a great team. I have no delusions about being a big star and a folk hero. I'm part of a team. It takes a team effort to put on a good broadcast. My concern is improvement in the team, not in being the star."

Steigerwald learned the Penguins and the broadcasting business starting at the bottom.

He went to work for the Penguins in 1980 in the marketing department. He did sales, promotion and advertising. Soon he began to dabble in broadcasting, doing interviews for the radio broadcasts.

By 1983 he was doing some color commentary. By the next season he was full-time working beside Lange on broadcasts that were heard simultaneously on radio and television. He stayed pretty much in that role until 1999, when he became the radio play-by-play announcer.

In between, he spent 10 years working as a reporter/anchor at KDKA-TV. But he has been with the Penguins in some capacity since 1980.

Lange, who accepted the radio play-by-play role after being fired from the television side, has been working, at his choice, on one-year contracts with the Penguins, who own their own radio rights and hire and pay the broadcasters. He has yet to sign a contract for the 2008-09 season but is expected to do so.