It's a Dream...a pipe dream at Best

Ask any Western Hockey League broadcasters what his future aspirations are, and the likely answer will be - the N.H.L.

Yet for the majority of us (all 21 of us), it's a pipe dream at best.

The longer you are in this business, the sooner you find out that talent alone won't get you to where you want to be.

It's name recognition South of the border, and in Canada it's all about who you know - not how good you are that gets you up the broadcast ladder.

Yes Peter Loubardias (former Regina Pats announcer) gets a handful of games when he replaces Kevin Quinn on Sportsnet.
Roger Million's, a former Saskatoon Blades radio guy calls TV games for the Flames, but those are the exception not the rule.

I'm not saying that the play-by-play guys in the N.H.L aren't good, but are there better announcers at the A.H.L, E.C.H.L and W.H.L. levels?

I'm betting there are.

I know three of them right now who could jump into the National Hockey League and wouldn't miss a beat.

Rod Pedersen, who calls the play-by-play for the Regina Pats, Kirk Fraser of the Kamloops Blazers and Brad Curle who calls the games for the Calgary Hitmen are three of the best at the junior level, but will they ever get the chance they richly deserve?

Look what happened this off-season in the N.H.L when the Nashville Predators hired a guy by the name of Eli Gold.

Who is Eli Gold you ask?

Well he is a huge Nascar announcer in the states, and in the deep South of Nashville Gold is a well know broadcaster. He's also the play-by-play radio guy for the University of Alabama football team, which may not sound like a big deal here, but down in Nashville it's huge, as he's known by thousands.

Look at Columbus Blue Jackets play-by-play man George Matthews.
He was a school buddy of Jackets G.M Doug McLean in Summerside P.E.I. Matthews had experience in hockey play-by play in both the American Hockey League while calling games at the Royal Bank Cup and C.I.A.U championships.

Knowing the boss didn't hurt him.

Vancouver Canucks radio man John Shorthouse was chummy-chummy with someone in Orca Bay when he got the gig from more qualified candidates. Shorthouse hadn't even called a hockey game before he got the job, yet was a familiar face to many in the Vancouver area thanks to local television.

Even Curt Keilback in Phoenix wasn't a shoe-in to get the radio job when the Jets relocated from Winnipeg to Phoenix.
From what I understand Keilback had to literally fly down to Arizona on his own dime, meet with Coyotes executives and persuade them that he was the right man for the job.
Down in Phoenix they had no clue who Keilback was.

I was driving down to Vancouver last weekend when I tuned into an N.B.A game on radio between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the L.A Lakers.

For the record I have no clue about the game of basketball and frankly don't like the game. Yet when I heard the announcer call the game, I was impressed.
I loved his voice, the speed in which he called the game, his vocabulary was amazing and his knowledge of who was on the court was astonishing.

It got me thinking.

I have no clue who this announcer is, yet he calls an outstanding game. I hate basketball, yet wanted to listen to this dude because he was that good. I am sure he has a ton of experience, simply because you don't sound that good without doing numerous games.
Yet I didn't know who he was or how long his resume was, all I knew was this 'guy' could call a killer game.

My point is as a sports fan I don't have to be familiar with who he is, or where he is from to enjoy his 'call of the game'.
Yet radio executives at the pro level appear to have that mindset.

Would I like to make the step to the National Hockey League someday?

Darn right I would.

Am I good enough to be calling games at the elite level?

Not yet!

Yet it's discouraging to see quality broadcasters like Pedersen, Fraser and Curle passed over for other broadcasters that may not be as good, but are familiar in the region in which they serve or have a connection that gets them to where they want to be.

Call it sour grapes?

Maybe?

But the way I see it, all W.H.L radio broadcasters can do is enjoy what we are doing at this level.

You can dream all you want about calling games at the National Hockey League level, but for a junior hockey broadcaster, that's as close as your going to get to the real thing.

My wish is that one of the 21 broadcasters in our league eventually proves me wrong!