Your favorite voices on tv and radio who brought/bring you the game!

[SealsFan]

Before Sam Rosen and John Davidson were the Rangers announcers, there was Jim Gordon and Bill (the "Big Whistle") Chadwick. Jim had a great voice and was a wonderful straight man for Chadwick (who mispronounced so many names, it was too funny). Can anyone post a few videos of these guys at their best?

Yup, this was the pair I was going to post. Chadwick did indeed butcher many a name, especially on the more recent expansion teams because he just didn't know the players (Walt McKechnie became McKenzie). Gordon also had this bizarre opening to games: "Puck dropped... 19:57 left in the period..."

Then you had the classic voice of Marv Albert doing the radio broadcasts.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Yup, this was the pair I was going to post. Chadwick did indeed butcher many a name, especially on the more recent expansion teams because he just didn't know the players (Walt McKechnie became McKenzie). Gordon also had this bizarre opening to games: "Puck dropped... 19:57 left in the period..."

Then you had the classic voice of Marv Albert doing the radio broadcasts.

As a kid, the radio was pretty much it for following hockey for me. Marv Albert from NY and Bob Wilson from Boston. Didn't realize my good fortune.

 

[brachyrynchos]

Yup, this was the pair I was going to post. Chadwick did indeed butcher many a name, especially on the more recent expansion teams because he just didn't know the players (Walt McKechnie became McKenzie). Gordon also had this bizarre opening to games: "Puck dropped... 19:57 left in the period..."

Then you had the classic voice of Marv Albert doing the radio broadcasts.

Marv was great, I remember he also did the local (NBC ?) sports. His son Kenny has been just as good, if not better. Must be the genes.

 

[Killion]

A guy who I loved but was on the peripheries of hockey in Canada & the US, but a well known face & figure to CFL & Olympic coverage (most notably figure skating) was CTV's Johnny Esaw. He did cover hockey internationally, mostly color but some play x play and was really quite excellent. Actually recruited by Foster Hewitt who owned part of CFTO TV in Toronto, a CTV affiliate. Johnny doing radio in Winnipeg during the 50's.. started covering CFL games in 1951 for radio & TV.

Moving to Toronto in 1960 upon Foster Hewitts insistence who knew talent when he saw it, heading up & covering sports for CTV, Esaw produced & covered the 1964 Olympic Hockey Tournament; in 67 from Vienna Austria, WHC, the first major intl hockey to ever be broadcast in full color, CTV in fact covering the annual World Championships for many years; as well as buying the rights for CTV to the 72 Summit Series, producing & covering that. Many may recall Johnny's interviewing of Phil Esposito on the ice after the game in Vancouver & Phil's sweat soaked diatribe, railing against the fans who were booing Team Canada....

Because Esaw spent his career with CTV, NHL broadcast rights owned by CBC, he never had the opportunity to become the Giant that I'm sure he wouldve' become in hockey circles had he the opportunity however, huge contributor to the growth of figure skating & alpine sports in general, international hockey, the voice of the CFL during its Golden Era, voice of the Canadian version of Wide World of Sports, a Saturday afternoon staple for many years in Canada (and the US). Esaw receiving the Order of Canada for his work; member of quite a number of Sports & Broadcast Hall's of Fame. One of the greatest sports broadcasters of any & all sports. Even if you didnt like the sport, if Johnny was doing color, play x play, he knew his stuff, entertained his audience. Never boring. Always enthusiastic, genuine. Died I believe in 2013.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Marv was great, I remember he also did the local (NBC ?) sports. His son Kenny has been just as good, if not better. Must be the genes.

Not to mention his two brothers, Steve & Al, both successful broadcasters.

 

[Jim MacDonald]

Lloyd was the best. Listening to the radio under the covers hearing Lloyd paint the picture. He later married the heir to the Bradley fortune and brought pro hockey to Milwaukee.

Thanks for sharing! Definitely enjoying/appreciating the knowledge learning about the NHL's past!

 

[ShelbyZ]

Growing up a Red Wings fan during the late 90's, it's Ken Kal/Paul Woods on the radio and Ken Daniels/Mickey Redmond on TV (I do still kind of miss Larry Murphy too...) for the local stuff. Crazy to think all 4 have been at it since 1997... I'll be especially sad though when Redmond no longer calls games.

For the national stuff, in my eyes no one can ever replace the ESPN/ABC duo of Gary Thorne and Bill Clement. NO ONE. Just hearing some Thorne calls in my head from the Red Wings Cup runs and rivalry with the Avalanche can give me goose bumps. Even if hearing Clement call Lidstrom "Nicky" got a bit weird at times, they were still the best.

On the contrary, I can't think of any memorable calls from the downright embarrassing OLN/Versus/NBC clown show during the Red Wings post deadline runs, other than that little old man constantly screeching and yelling "DRIVE" and nonsense like "Waffleboard". I'd PAY to replace Doc and Edzo with Thorne and Clement.

Lastly, I'm not a Devils fan, but I always liked what I heard from Chico Resch in videos and YouTube clips, especially when you watch the Brodeur-Avery stuff or his "Chico Eats" bits. That and the incident where Cam Janssen blindsides Tomas Kaberle about 4 centuries after he got rid of the puck and Chico is trying so hard to paint Cam Janssen as innocent because he just doesn't want to ever have to say a bad thing about anyone .

 

[Andy6]

It is always the one you knew first that sets the standard. Sort of like for Canadian kids of my generation, all baseball broadcasters seem like needless departures from the voice of Dave Van Horne. With the Winnipeg Jets, it was Ken Nicolson, the "Friar", who was always described as "irascible", a word whose meaning I could kind of guess even though I was just 9 or 10. He had a particular vendetta against a referee in the WHA called Wally Harris. Today the clubs wouldn't let a broadcaster be that frank on air. But then his diabetes got the worse of him and after a season or two after the switch to the NHL he changed places with colour commentator to Curt Kielback, who had a superb voice but wasn’t quite as memorable a personality. Ken modelled himself on Danny Gallivan and was somewhat similar in style. Radio broadcasters of that generation had to learn how to paint the whole picture of a fast-moving event. You can see that skill being lost as TV guys come up with no experience of that kind.

Another one that a few might remember was Fred Sgambati, who broadcast the Sunday evening game on CBC Radio for a number of years until it was finally cancelled. One of the ubiquitous Canadian national sports voices, like Johnny Esaw, Steve Armitage and Ernie Afaganis.