Flames Play by Play Announcer UPDATE: Ball and Hrudey

[the_only_turek_fan]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Wow CBC let Steve Armitage go? That guy has given them decades of service - that sucks.

Armitage, 70, lent his booming voice to CBC sports events for some 49 years — handling play-by-play on 29 seasons of “Hockey Night in Canada,” 27 Grey Cups and 15 Olympic Games.

http://sports.nationalpost.com/2014/...c-budget-cuts/

[JBR]

A little off topic, but relating to Armitage... His call of the Barrett to Pee-Wee Smith TD in the 1991 West Final. PW in full flight with nobody near him at the 1 yard line and Steve adds in "He could GO!" Ya think?

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by heep223

This is perhaps a stupid question, but why can't CBC be profitable like I'm assuming TSN/Sportsnet is for Bell/Rogers? The government wouldn't have to fund it, and thus the budget cuts and layoffs of great sports people the article was talking about. Is it just because they insist on continuing to produce shows/broadcasts that are uneconomic? Whereas private cable networks will axe them and focus on ones that are profitable? Don't know much about this business but why can't CBC be run like just that, a business?

CBC was very profitable with hockey. Problem is their broadcasting right were up and could not compete with the money thrown around by Rogers. They ended up taking a deal with Rogers to continue to broadcast but the catch was that Rogers gets the money from advertising, which means CBC no longer gets money.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by heep223

This is perhaps a stupid question, but why can't CBC be profitable like I'm assuming TSN/Sportsnet is for Bell/Rogers? The government wouldn't have to fund it, and thus the budget cuts and layoffs of great sports people the article was talking about. Is it just because they insist on continuing to produce shows/broadcasts that are uneconomic? Whereas private cable networks will axe them and focus on ones that are profitable? Don't know much about this business but why can't CBC be run like just that, a business?

The CBC union is huge and powerful.

Many years ago, I was talking to some of the guys who did the Stampede coverage for CFCN. This was back when CBC only covered the final Sunday nationally and CFCN did the first 9 days just for local broadcast. These guys were laughing about the CBC guys rolling in with 4 or 5 guys to do what each of the CFCN guys did by themselves.

[theTrumanShow]

Had a meeting yesterday in regards to my business association with the Flames, and it came out that Kelly Hrudey is confirmed for Flames broadcasts. It was not stated if he was play by play or not. My guess is he is the sidekick, much like he was on CBC.

Not sure if this was mentioned earlier or not, but too lazy to read it all.

[drewtastic]

Originally Posted by jbr

"he could go!"

"edmonton!!!"

[Chill Cosby]

So that's Wills for radio, Hrudey for (I assume) TV color, and unknown for TV PBP.

That's a pretty exciting lineup so far I think.

[Igottago]

Lee/Hrudey would be awesome, a huge upgrade on the previous combos.

Then all Sportsnet has to do is fix the crowd volume, and make sure the play by play is actually in sync with the play, and they'll be all set.

[Table 5]

Kelly Hrudey as a color man will be a massive upgrade. As much of a nice guy he seemed to be, Charlie Simmer just added no entertainment value whatsoever. The only color he added was beige.

I'm kind of surprised SN scored that big...I was kind of thinking they would just reshuffle someone internally.

[Enoch Root]

Mark Lee can call a pretty good game. My biggest complaint with him was his pre-conceived prejudices. I think it was the opening game of the season (or opening Saturday, or whatever) 2 years ago, Calgary against Edmonton. The broadcast was full of garbage like 'the Flames lumber over the blueline' vs 'the Oilers streak over the line with blazing speed'. There were skill vs will type comments, and a complete bias towards the 'skilled' 'young' Oilers vs the 'lumbering' 'physical' (and clearly by implication, not-skilled Flames).

You can say, well it was true, but there are a some real problems with that. Namely that it isn't (wasn't) true, is insulting to the skilled players on the Flames, it's a national broadcast and is going to the audiences of both teams, and it serves no useful purpose to have prior biases.

Let things play out on their own and let the action tell the story.

I really thought Lee was unprofessional in that regard.

Having said all that, I am sure that he would quickly get over any prior biases once he was covering the Flames on a nightly basis.

[greyshep]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Mark Lee can call a pretty good game. My biggest complaint with him was his pre-conceived prejudices. I think it was the opening game of the season (or opening Saturday, or whatever) 2 years ago, Calgary against Edmonton. The broadcast was full of garbage like 'the Flames lumber over the blueline' vs 'the Oilers streak over the line with blazing speed'. There were skill vs will type comments, and a complete bias towards the 'skilled' 'young' Oilers vs the 'lumbering' 'physical' (and clearly by implication, not-skilled Flames).

You can say, well it was true, but there are a some real problems with that. Namely that it isn't (wasn't) true, is insulting to the skilled players on the Flames, it's a national broadcast and is going to the audiences of both teams, and it serves no useful purpose to have prior biases.

Let things play out on their own and let the action tell the story.

I really thought Lee was unprofessional in that regard.

Having said all that, I am sure that he would quickly get over any prior biases once he was covering the Flames on a nightly basis.

To be fair, I think he was caught up in all the hype at the time surrounding this "exciting" young team to the North. I think reality has fortunately caught up with most of the media on that silly charade now.

But I agree it was painful to listen to at the time.

[mile]

Originally Posted by Table 5

Kelly Hrudey as a color man will be a massive upgrade. As much of a nice guy he seemed to be, Charlie Simmer just added no entertainment value whatsoever. The only color he added was beige.

Simmer was worse at doing his job than Kerr - no insight whatsoever, just seemed to mindlessly blurt out sentences with no purpose for the sake of saying something. Seems like the nicest guy, but it seemed like he didn't want the job anymore.

Originally Posted by greyshep

To be fair, I think he was caught up in all the hype at the time surrounding this "exciting" young team to the North. I think reality has fortunately caught up with most of the media on that silly charade now.

But I agree it was painful to listen to at the time.

Yeah. During that time he also referred to them as "Young Turks" frequently, although he seems to have stopped that recently and now I actually enjoy his PBP.

[hurtin_albertan]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Mark Lee can call a pretty good game. My biggest complaint with him was his pre-conceived prejudices. I think it was the opening game of the season (or opening Saturday, or whatever) 2 years ago, Calgary against Edmonton. The broadcast was full of garbage like 'the Flames lumber over the blueline' vs 'the Oilers streak over the line with blazing speed'. There were skill vs will type comments, and a complete bias towards the 'skilled' 'young' Oilers vs the 'lumbering' 'physical' (and clearly by implication, not-skilled Flames).

You can say, well it was true, but there are a some real problems with that. Namely that it isn't (wasn't) true, is insulting to the skilled players on the Flames, it's a national broadcast and is going to the audiences of both teams, and it serves no useful purpose to have prior biases.

Let things play out on their own and let the action tell the story.

I really thought Lee was unprofessional in that regard.

Having said all that, I am sure that he would quickly get over any prior biases once he was covering the Flames on a nightly basis.

Yep I remember that as well, he kept referring to them as "the young turks".

[Fire]

Originally Posted by Robbob

CBC was very profitable with hockey. Problem is their broadcasting right were up and could not compete with the money thrown around by Rogers. They ended up taking a deal with Rogers to continue to broadcast but the catch was that Rogers gets the money from advertising, which means CBC no longer gets money.

Not necessarily true.

http://mediatrends-research.blogspot...ey-on-nhl.html

[mile]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Having said all that, I am sure that he would quickly get over any prior biases once he was covering the Flames on a nightly basis.

Especially once he sees that Gaudreau kid.

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by Fire

Not necessarily true.

http://mediatrends-research.blogspot...ey-on-nhl.html

Count me as one of the ones who believed them when they said:

For years CBC has claimed that HNIC is a revenue generator, not only pays for itself but makes a profit and pays for other programming and is the jewel in CBC’s crown

[Muta]

I like Mark Lee. He made the call on Sarich's meteor strike on Marleau. Count me in as a fan who had too much fun during that game and would be happy to see him aboard.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Table 5

The best Flames color guys were Doug Barkley and Mike Rogers, two guys who were never afraid to tell the truth if the team wasn't playing well, because often times they deserved it. I really hope that tradition continues.

The last thing I want is a homer or a fan.

Barkley always struck me as a big Red Wings fan.

[StrykerSteve]

I'd be ecstatic if Lee became the new Flames PBP with Hrudey as colour. That's a rock solid combo.

Crossing my fingers!!

[mikeecho]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Mark Lee can call a pretty good game. My biggest complaint with him was his pre-conceived prejudices. I think it was the opening game of the season (or opening Saturday, or whatever) 2 years ago, Calgary against Edmonton. The broadcast was full of garbage like 'the Flames lumber over the blueline' vs 'the Oilers streak over the line with blazing speed'. There were skill vs will type comments, and a complete bias towards the 'skilled' 'young' Oilers vs the 'lumbering' 'physical' (and clearly by implication, not-skilled Flames).

You can say, well it was true, but there are a some real problems with that. Namely that it isn't (wasn't) true, is insulting to the skilled players on the Flames, it's a national broadcast and is going to the audiences of both teams, and it serves no useful purpose to have prior biases.

Let things play out on their own and let the action tell the story.

I really thought Lee was unprofessional in that regard.

Having said all that, I am sure that he would quickly get over any prior biases once he was covering the Flames on a nightly basis.

I once talked to someone in the biz and was told that there is a significant amount of messaging/story lines/themes that the on air personalities are expected to play up during a game. They're given the notes in advance and I'm guessing Lee was towing the line of what the producers expected would be the biggest story line of the year (ie. this year the Oilers are gonna kill it)