GDT: Hurricanes at Oilers

Chrispy

Salakuljettaja's Blues
Feb 25, 2009
8,316
26,752
Cary, NC
giphy.gif
 

Derailed75

Registered User
Jan 5, 2021
4,737
11,401
Danville
The radio broadcast was hemorrhaging money and while I miss the Pro that John is on the air he wanted his cake and wanted to eat it too. I dont really miss him that much. While he was a huge Caniac when here the second Dundon told him no way in hell he was going to pay him a premium and let him go off and do national games he decided that wasnt good enough for him.
 

Borsig

PoKechetkov
Nov 3, 2007
4,624
8,980
Low country coast
The radio broadcast was hemorrhaging money and while I miss the Pro that John is on the air he wanted his cake and wanted to eat it too. I dont really miss him that much. While he was a huge Caniac when here the second Dundon told him no way in hell he was going to pay him a premium and let him go off and do national games he decided that wasnt good enough for him.
To me they could have kept Kaiton to do the PBP on both
 
  • Like
Reactions: Stickpucker

The Faulker 27

Registered User
Nov 15, 2011
12,936
47,730
Sauna-Aho
Did Dundon really have a choice to keep Forslund? I don't know all the details as much as some I'm sure. The org was not in a position financially to give him the contract he deserved so I totally understand why they didn't. Surely John understood that, and it didn't end as badly as some are saying, but maybe so.
 

Lempo

Recovering Future Considerations Truther
Sponsor
Feb 23, 2014
26,884
83,820
Did Dundon really have a choice to keep Forslund? I don't know all the details as much as some I'm sure. The org was not in a position financially to give him the contract he deserved so I totally understand why they didn't. Surely John understood that, and it didn't end as badly as some are saying, but maybe so.
As I understood it they changed the contracts for all ~30 broadcast personnel for a way worse setup during the corona lockdown, and John was the only one who didn't agree to that in the end. It's my own conjecture, but I assume it was kind of an impasse because if they gave John a preferential treatment then the whole crew would have had a case to have their contract setup overturned in the future and the organization obviously wouldn't want that when they just had gotten most everyone on a cheaper contract. I may be completely wrong here though.
 

Stickpucker

Playmaka
Jan 18, 2014
15,388
37,162
As I understood it they changed the contracts for all ~30 broadcast personnel for a way worse setup during the corona lockdown, and John was the only one who didn't agree to that in the end. It's my own conjecture, but I assume it was kind of an impasse because if they gave John a preferential treatment then the whole crew would have had a case to have their contract setup overturned in the future and the organization obviously wouldn't want that when they just had gotten most everyone on a cheaper contract. I may be completely wrong here though.

This is 'merica. Land of the divas. Ain't no union for broadcasters to compare fair wages....is there?
 

cptjeff

Reprehensible User
Sep 18, 2008
20,699
35,261
Washington, DC.
John's definitely cheering for the Oilers...

That whole thing still stings. My least favorite part of the Dundon era no ifs ands or buts. Not just that he's gone but the fact that it didn't really go down amicably. Horrible and I hate it.
I've watched the Seattle broadcasts any time we play them, he definitely still has a soft spot for the Canes. I think he understands the business angle even if he was initially bitter, but you spend that much time around everybody there and it's hard to hold a grudge against all of them.

Still, I agree with others, squeezing Forslund out is easily the worst thing in the Dundon era. John was an icon of this franchise.

Kaiton, yeah, I get the feelings for the guy personally, but sports radio broadcasts are an all but dead medium. I listened to Chuck a lot in college when video streaming was a lot less reliable than streaming audio, and he did the job better than any other, but in an era where you can get HD video of the game pretty much anywhere on the surface of the planet, it was time to move on.
 

The Faulker 27

Registered User
Nov 15, 2011
12,936
47,730
Sauna-Aho
Reports of Dundon cutting costs have really slowed in recent years. Perhaps that was all just a new owner wanting to put their stamp on a business just because. Melnyk 2.0 he turned out not to be.

I think it was a new owner looking at the books and probably saying to himself "WTF". He corrected some things and now less cost cutting is required. I've been through management change. That's pretty much how they all go.
 

cptjeff

Reprehensible User
Sep 18, 2008
20,699
35,261
Washington, DC.
As I understood it they changed the contracts for all ~30 broadcast personnel for a way worse setup during the corona lockdown, and John was the only one who didn't agree to that in the end. It's my own conjecture, but I assume it was kind of an impasse because if they gave John a preferential treatment then the whole crew would have had a case to have their contract setup overturned in the future and the organization obviously wouldn't want that when they just had gotten most everyone on a cheaper contract. I may be completely wrong here though.
Correct. Basically, the contracts were setup so that pay would be scaled to team revenue game by game. More money coming into the team, you get paid more. Not what anyone associated with pro sports is used to doing, but during a global pandemic where you're trying to play a season with near zero money coming in, you can see why the team would insist on something like that. Ownership took a ton of pain having to pay fixed costs with no revenue, players are *still* taking reduced wages because their pay also took a hit scaled to revenues, but they were able to negotiate spreading out the impact, team staff had wages reduced or were just furloughed entirely.

In that environment, they felt the media staff had to share in the pain as well. John is the only one who didn't go along. He's a big name and felt he had the leverage, but ultimately, Dundon didn't think he could give in without pissing off everyone else in the media and team staff. The only people who didn't have to take pay cuts were coaches and the like on fixed multi year contracts that weren't subject to the CBA.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Clueless and Lempo

Chrispy

Salakuljettaja's Blues
Feb 25, 2009
8,316
26,752
Cary, NC
Kaiton, yeah, I get the feelings for the guy personally, but sports radio broadcasts are an all but dead medium. I listened to Chuck a lot in college when video streaming was a lot less reliable than streaming audio, and he did the job better than any other, but in an era where you can get HD video of the game pretty much anywhere on the surface of the planet, it was time to move on.
And as I said at the time, having Forslund made Kaiton more of a luxury. Forslund was the rare talent who could give you a decent radio simulcast while doing TV.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have Tripp leading the TV/radio call this week.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AD Skinner

Big Daddy Cane

HFBoards Sponsor
Sponsor
Feb 8, 2010
13,359
31,951
Western PA
I think it was a new owner looking at the books and probably saying to himself "WTF". He corrected some things and now less cost cutting is required. I've been through management change. That's pretty much how they all go.

Logical. I just think back to how unusual things were early on. Brind’Amour made jokes about how low his pay was, IIRC. Waddell met with Minnesota, while on the job. Both are still here years later.
 

Boom Boom Apathy

I am the Professor. Deal with it!
Sep 6, 2006
48,368
97,954
To me they could have kept Kaiton to do the PBP on both

Kaiton was fine for the radio, but his style was to tell you every single thing that was happening on the ice, so it was a bit like listening to an auctioneer. He spoke rapidly, fast and when he got excited, even faster. That's the wrong style for TV PBP, where your job isn't to tell everyone every single thing that's happening on the ice, since we can all see it as well.
 

bleedgreen

Registered User
Dec 8, 2003
23,960
39,047
colorado
Visit site
Kaiton was fine for the radio, but his style was to tell you every single thing that was happening on the ice, so it was a bit like listening to an auctioneer. He spoke rapidly, fast and when he got excited, even faster. That's the wrong style for TV PBP, where your job isn't to tell everyone every single thing that's happening on the ice, since we can all see it as well.
I was surprisingly fine with Chuck coming to an end, but that was more along the lines of he was getting older and the medium was dead. If the whole league was moving towards just broadcasting the tv feed over the radio (a truly sad modern “improvement”) then I didn’t expect at us to hold onto the old ways - especially when TD could save money.

For me the Forslund thing felt like they were using the pandemic to allow themselves to do things the way they believe in. TD’s whole thing was that there’s always someone cheaper and hungrier that can do the same quality work. I don’t buy for a second that we truly needed a new model for the pandemic. That new model follows that same team philosophy. It was perfect timing to put the squeeze on people the way they wanted to anyways. I think that’s why Forslund wouldn’t relent. I don’t think it was ego. He was being forced to reduce pay when he likely wasn’t overpaid to begin with, and he likely saw the team putting the screws to him as not a true pandemic related emergency.

He was like a lot of players getting his shot at ufa, and appropriately put his family/future as the priority. While we love the winning I don’t think anyone would love all the things the team has done behind the scenes, I’m not so sure John loved the TD regime aside from having more money for the players equaling more team success. I’m sure he felt comfortable moving forward with RF as he’s been dealing with him for a long time. New cozy home with a fun new team, an old boss he trusts with I’m sure a big raise.

That’s an easy choice.
 

Navin R Slavin

Fifth line center
Jan 1, 2011
16,215
63,663
Durrm NC
Reports of Dundon cutting costs have really slowed in recent years. Perhaps that was all just a new owner wanting to put their stamp on a business just because. Melnyk 2.0 he turned out not to be.
It's because he cut everything he saw as not contributing to wins.

Forslund was incredible and I miss him. But at the time, every single decision was about getting all the money on the ice, and building goodwill by winning instead of paying an expensive ambassador.

One thing about Dundon is that you can believe what he says. He's about winning, not about feelings. Period.
 

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad