How Do You Think Chantel Is Doing?

[WalkerBabe]

I'm still not quite used to her as part of the broadcast team. I liked it best when Tripp roamed, and spent part of the time in the booth with John. I didn't think we needed Bob Harwood, either although he did sound more professional. I spend a lot of the "breaks" now with the sound muted!

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[Beardy*]

I'm still not quite used to her as part of the broadcast team. I liked it best when Tripp roamed, and spent part of the time in the booth with John. I didn't think we needed Bob Harwood, although he did sound professional. I spend a lot of the "breaks" now with the sound muted!

She's trying....

She doesn't sound as awkward as she did at the beginning of the year... But then again, that's like saying your broken down junker of a car is doing better today because it can make it 100 feet out of the driveway in the mornings before breaking down instead of the 50 in weeks past.

 

[WalkerBabe]

She's trying....

She doesn't sound as awkward as she did at the beginning of the year... But then again, that's like saying your broken down junker of a car is doing better today because it can make it 100 feet out of the driveway in the mornings before breaking down instead of the 50 in weeks past.

I agree that she's doing better than the night she butchered Selanne's name but still ... I'm trying to be a fan ...

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

she's cute

 

[WalkerBabe]

My question would be about preparation. Why would you be put on air before the organization knows whether you can pronounce players' names or know how to explain stats, etc. Why would you say a game is tied, 0 to 0, instead of "no score there?" You would think the organization would really vet that kind of thing with a reporter, wouldn't you? She is very attractive, seems very nice. all that ... but I think she needed more prep, that's all.

 

[Get To Our Game]

I try to watch every game every night, around the league. This usually involves me having multiple streams open in separate windows at once, with usually only one (or none) having the sound on. So when your broadcasts are in intermission, they're always muted.

That said, I think she's doing a great job.

 

[PaulProteus]

Let me preface this with the fact that I try not to pay as little attention to the non-gameplay talking as humanly possible, not just with our broadcasts but with most sports broadcasts. I'm usually not terribly interested in them, really.

So has she improved? I guess. Who knows. She's probably full of nerves and trying to learn the organization and find her way around. IMO she's already improved over the beginning of the season.

But seriously, putting people on television in an away arena is hard work. Maybe no one has noticed this besides myself and a few posters this year, but FS-Carolina hasn't exactly been tops in the production department this season.

Misspelled words in the on-screen graphics, cameras staring aimlessly off into space, cutting to on-air people when they're not ready (or appear to have no idea they're actually on air), and so on. Tonight right off the bat I walked into the room and saw that they spelled "recalled" as "reacalled." (It might have been for Welsh, I can't even remember).

Simple flub or indicative of crazier stuff going on in the booth? I guess only they know for sure, but it's starting to go from the occasional mistake to borderline laughable from the beginning of the pregame all the way to the wrap-up.

In light of all of that, if I were in Chantel's shoes I'm not so sure my gaffes wouldn't be far, far worse.

 

[Mr Whipple]

I've got to agree with Paul.

It's easy to put the blame on Chantel, but I'm still not certain what is truly behind it. I think it is a combo of nerves (which she has greatly improved on) and bad behind the scenes production. The typos have really stood out to me this year, as well. I've caught things in the past, but this year there seems to be several glaring mistakes each game. If they can't get simple spelling errors right, then maybe they are behind some of Chantel's mistakes also? A producer could be telling her to pronounce words/names the wrong way, for instance. I wouldn't be surprised in the least that they aren't giving her the proper prep. From what people have said of the streams where you can see what is going on behind the scenes instead of the commercials has certainly seemed to point to that.

I'm willing to give her some time to prove herself. People being able to step in and do a job in broadcasting perfectly from the very beginning is few and far between. It takes awhile to move up the ladder and get that experience. We've been lucky to have John and Tripp for so long. And yet look at all the people who complain about Tripp.

We were also very spoiled to have a veteran broadcaster step in last year who left big shoes for Chantel to fill. I think she's only done some things for college before this, and so this is her first chance as a real pro. So give her some time. I have a feeling if she's around long enough we'll think much differently in the future.

 

[tarheelhockey]

People being able to step in and do a job in broadcasting perfectly from the very beginning is few and far between. It takes awhile to move up the ladder and get that experience.

It's not like she's in an entry-level job.

Honestly, it's absurd to have to defend a major-league professional broadcaster with excuses like "nerves" and "someone told her the wrong way to say that name". It's a huge part of her job NOT to have those problems. There are thousands of people out there with 4-year broadcast journalism degrees or a career as a pro athlete. What exactly qualifies her to have that job over them?

What's next, we're going to start signing Storm Squad members to player contracts and give them a couple years' leeway if they can't ice skate?

 

[Mr Whipple]

So where would an entry level job for a hockey broadcaster be?

For regular media jobs you start out in small markets and work your way up to bigger and better. What is there comparable? College? Yeah, she's done that. Minor league hockey isn't on TV. She can't learn the ropes for the Checkers. This is the next step. We're not exactly Toronto, Montreal, or NYC. This isn't ESPN we're talking about. Or TSN, CBC, etc. We ARE one of the small markets, even if we're a 'major league' team.

And guess what? If she does really improve and become first class, she's probably not going to stick around here. Because she'll be moving on to bigger and better.

Sorry, but it is the responsibility of the production team behind the scenes to make sure she is ready and well-versed in all of these things. That is part of their job. So yeah, I still put the blame on them.

Or put the blame on whoever hired her. It's easy to say we should hire someone else who has more 'skill', but look how hard it's been for the Canes to 'hire' players when they've got millions of dollars to throw at free agents. It's not like they signed her to a 10 year $90 million contract. Maybe they couldn't get anyone else because they didn't want to come here? Maybe they wanted to try something different and hire a female instead of another male? I don't know why they hired her, but I'm still willing to give her some time before I say it was a mistake.

If she continues to struggle she almost certainly won't be back next year, but it's unbelievable so many are calling for her head after only 14 games. There were many doing so after just the first game.

 

[dammit100]

fun game: tag her in a tweet with criticism and see how long it takes for her to block you.

also, this:

Honestly, it's absurd to have to defend a major-league professional broadcaster with excuses like "nerves" and "someone told her the wrong way to say that name". It's a huge part of her job NOT to have those problems. There are thousands of people out there with 4-year broadcast journalism degrees or a career as a pro athlete. What exactly qualifies her to have that job over them?

 

[normalpsychology]

she looks good out there. damn. the amount of adversity beautiful ppl face in this world, simply because they are in the upper echelon of attraction level... such a pity. Bob Harharwood didn't have to deal with this likely because no one was jealous of him. when you are an attractive person (blv me I know) people want nothing more than to knock you down

 

[What the Faulk]

fun game: tag her in a tweet with criticism and see how long it takes for her to block you.

also, this:

So, harass someone because...? That sounds mature.

 

[dammit100]

sorry, I didn't realize tagging someone in a critical comment = harassment. Must have missed that.

 

[tarheelhockey]

So where would an entry level job for a hockey broadcaster be?

For regular media jobs you start out in small markets and work your way up to bigger and better. What is there comparable? College? Yeah, she's done that.

Apparently she didn't do it long enough to develop a professional skill set. Perhaps, like everyone else in the world, she shouldn't have been promoted to a level of responsibility that she couldn't handle.

I get that everyone takes some time to adjust to a new job. There are going to be goof-ups here and there. But her job is very narrow and specific, and it's not an "on the job training" field of work. There is no, "oh, she's new, let's give her a whole year to figure out if she's able to develop enough skills to do the job". If she can't stand in front of a camera for 30 seconds and read her lines without screwing something up, she doesn't belong in the profession.

Sorry, but it is the responsibility of the production team behind the scenes to make sure she is ready and well-versed in all of these things. That is part of their job. So yeah, I still put the blame on them.

This is entirely the wrong organization to pretend that it's not the responsibility of the broadcaster to do his/her homework before the game. Kaiton and Forslund go to great pains to make sure they have their pronunciations down pat before they go to air -- they ride the same planes Chantel does, so what's she doing with the other 21 hours of her day that makes her too busy to read 22 names out loud in front of them and make sure they sound right? Are you seriously going to sit here and argue that it's someone ELSE'S job to make sure she knows how to pronounce the name of a Hall of Famer?

Or put the blame on whoever hired her.

Absolutely. It was a terrible hire and Rutherford is ultimately accountable for it.

Maybe they wanted to try something different and hire a female instead of another male?

So hire a competent woman to do the job. It's really not that hard to pull off, unless the point is to put pure eye-candy out there for the men to ogle. Which is apparently what they did, and is sexist as hell when you think about it that way.

 

[dammit100]

^well said on everything.

 

[PaulProteus]

It's not like she's in an entry-level job.

Honestly, it's absurd to have to defend a major-league professional broadcaster with excuses like "nerves" and "someone told her the wrong way to say that name".

Honestly? I think you're reading between the lines a little too much here. I don't think pointing out how absurd the FS broadcasts have been all around -- up to and including Chantel -- amounts to "defending" anyone.

The question was "How's she doing?" It's my opinion that she's better now than she was at the beginning of the season just a few short weeks ago. I also wondered aloud whether FS is as terrible behind the scenes as some of their on-screen flubs have looked.

Look, maybe it's not an entry-level job but we certainly hired entry-level talent to fill the position. Because based on what I know about Chantel's resume, she's certainly not "a major-league professional broadcaster" either by reputation or performance.

 

[DaleCooper]

I hope she continues to improve and is ultimately successful whether it be here or elsewhere, but it is a bit of a slap in the face (this goes back to my post a week or two ago about watered down hockey broadcasts in the US) to fans to hire someone who does not seem to know much about the NHL. There are millions and millions of hockey fans. Surely one of them somewhere is a reporter with a decent on-air personality who knows the game, or at the very least knows who Teemu Selanne is.

I feel bad for her because I know all the criticism she keeps getting has to be frustrating and upsetting, but ultimately it's on whoever makes the hiring decisions. If I was a woman I would imagine I might be a little bit irritated that the organization didn't find someone who fulfilled their stupid "eye-candy" requirement while also knowing hockey, as millions of female fans in this country do. Reminds me of that NY Rangers "Girl's Guide to Hockey" thing a couple weeks ago.

 

[StormCast]

Kaiton and Forslund go to great pains to make sure they have their pronunciations down pat before they go to air -- they ride the same planes Chantel does, so what's she doing with the other 21 hours of her day that makes her too busy to read 22 names out loud in front of them and make sure they sound right? Are you seriously going to sit here and argue that it's someone ELSE'S job to make sure she knows how to pronounce the name of a Hall of Famer?

This reminds me of the old ESPN Dream Job show where guys tried to win an anchor spot. If you mispronounced a name, you were toast. It's the nature of the profession. It's reporting after all and it's about the facts.

I'd rather have someone like Chris Simpson who used to work for the old Versus as the sideline reporter, rotating games with Bob Harwood. But I'm sure she (and he) cost a lot more too.

 

[Sens1Canes2]

Is it the GM's job to hire the on-air talent? I honestly don't know, I thought it would have been the TV station's responsibility.

 

[Sens1Canes2]

And honestly, I'm not watching the games to see/hear her do interviews and commentary. The key is to DVR the game and start 45 minutes late, so as to completely avoid commercials and inane commentary.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I'm with sens1cane2. Even when I don't DVR it, I rarely listen to the interviews (even when Harwood did them). I found they rarely if ever add any insight as it is usually canned responses.

 

[What the Faulk]

sorry, I didn't realize tagging someone in a critical comment = harassment. Must have missed that.

There's a difference between making a critical, constructive comment, and "tag her in a tweet with criticism and see how long it takes for her to block you." But I'm not sure that someone who names themselves "dammit100" would know the difference. I guess you must have missed it.

 

[Guy]

I never watch the pre or post game, and I usually channel surf during the intermissions, so I haven't really paid much attention to any flubs that are going on.

I do wonder why the position is necessary though. The broadcast went on for years without anybody in that role, not sure why they've felt the need to introduce a third member the past couple of years.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Is it the GM's job to hire the on-air talent? I honestly don't know, I thought it would have been the TV station's responsibility.

The broadcast teams, both TV and radio, are direct hires by the organization. I assume it was Rutherford's decision based on his role in announcing the hire, but he might not necessarily have been the one advocating for her.