by Jay Onrait
I had stupidly forgotten to ask TSN to put me up in a hotel for a few months while I found a place to live, but I had already contacted my friend Rob McDerment, a former writer with me at Sportsdesk who was now producing The Reporters with Dave Hodge. Rob graciously agreed to let me stay in an extra room in his great little house at Mount Pleasant and Davisville in midtown Toronto for about $300 a month. Rob is married now to a lovely girl named Hannah, and they had just started dating at the time. Hannah loves to tell me her very first memory of me was seeing that room, with an air mattress squeezed into it and an old floor lamp where I hung my suits, and most importantly, two large bags of Tostitos sitting on that air mattress because I had no other place to store them and they were the only food I had in the house. Welcome to the glamorous world of Canadian broadcasting.
CHAPTER 17
Park It
JUST AS WITH The Big Breakfast, I was clearly a last-minute desperation hire by TSN for NHL on the Fly. TSN was essentially running the NHL Network, and they had stepped in and reassigned many young writers and producers to work on the new show with just two weeks to spare. I was the only host hired at the beginning of the network’s run, but because I was working such long on-air hours, the plan was for me to work four days on, four days off. I didn’t bother to ask them if they had a plan in place for someone else to host on the days I wasn’t working, because I was too busy getting ready to host the show myself. I worked with several analysts in the beginning, including former Hockey News editor-in-chief Steve Dryden, who had just started full-time work at TSN; former NHL forward Dave Reid, who had just retired that summer after winning a Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche; Canadian women’s hockey star Cassie Campbell; and perhaps most intimidating, former NHL head coach Iron Mike Keenan, who was once again in between jobs and had made his way back to broadcasting.
If you’ve followed hockey at all over the past twenty years you know that Mike Keenan has a pretty tough reputation. There are plenty of players, Brett Hull being the most obvious example, who couldn’t stand playing for him. He was supposedly mean, tough, and abrasive. As usual when reputations precede people in this business, things aren’t always as they seem, and off camera I found Mike to be a friendly and warm guy with a wicked sense of humour. We had a great clip of the “truck feed” from one of the games in the 2000 Stanley Cup Final. The “truck feed” is the clean version of the broadcast, directly from the broadcast truck parked outside the arena, without commercials. The talent is often still mic’d up during commercial breaks, and those of us who have access to the truck feed can hear everything they say.
The clip in question featured CBC play-by-play broadcasters Bob Cole and Harry Neale waiting for someone to bring them first-period statistics of the game they were calling so they could refer to them on the broadcast. Apparently, whoever was supposed to bring the stats to Bob and Harry had gotten lost, and Harry was not happy about it. Finally out of the blue the “runner” arrives at Bob and Harry’s broadcast location, and Harry says, “Finally! The whole game we’ve been waiting! You fucking blockhead!”
I swear to God, over the course of the first four months of the NHL Network’s existence, we played that clip on the studio monitors a hundred times, and each and every time Mike Keenan let out a big belly laugh when he heard Harry say “fucking blockhead.” We even put it on a loop for him. “Fucking blockhead. Fucking blockhead. Fucking blockhead.” He just loved watching Harry lose it over not having his stats sheet; he would cackle loudly each time.
There was also, as you might expect, a softer side to Mike. Like most guys who seem to have a tough exterior, their true nature comes out when their family needs them. At the same time I was hosting The Big Breakfast when the planes hit the World Trade Center, Mike was frantically trying to get in touch with his daughter, who was attending Columbia University in Manhattan at the time. As for many people that day, trying to get in touch with family and friends living in New York City proved to be difficult, and after unsuccessfully trying to contact his daughter for a period of time, Mike made the decision to hop in his car and drive several hours from his cottage outside of Toronto to New York City to make sure his daughter was okay. He got as far as Niagara Falls when his daughter finally got through to him on his cell phone and assured him she was all right. I wondered what it must have been like for a father to feel that terrible sense of uncertainty behind the wheel.
As usual, I was a bundle of nerves behind the scenes, making my return to sports broadcasting on a national stage. I was nervous about my on-air performance and constantly worried that I hadn’t been following hockey closely enough for this job. Looking back, I realize I was being completely irrational, but at the time I was wound up pretty tightly. One night during rehearsals for NHL on the Fly, I messed up a set of highlights by wrongly identifying one of the players on the scoring play. These days, I would just include such a mistake in our popular “Ya Blew It!” segment at the end of SportsCentre, but back then when I made a mistake like that I felt the eyes of our entire crew on me, even though our entire crew likely couldn’t have cared less. I didn’t yell or scream or anything, but I was clearly dejected during the commercial break, seething in angry silence. Without hesitation, Mike glanced ever so slightly over toward me and said, “Park it.”
Park it. That’s all he said. Suddenly I sat up straight, blood flow resumed normally, and I was ready to continue. Thanks, Coach. I guess he really did know how to motivate people.
NHL on the Fly premiered in the first week of the NHL season in the fall of 2001. After hosting five shows in which I was on television for six hours per show, I was in need of a physical and mental break. One small problem: No one had bothered to hire another host for the show. The NHL Network was doing a six-hour show on Friday night and there was no one to host it. At the time there was no TSN2, so we had even fewer on-air personalities at the network. I was asked to host one extra show to kick things off, but I had already booked a flight back to Winnipeg to visit Darcy, whom I hadn’t seen in weeks. Dave Randorf was supposed to be the backup host, but he was already committed to hosting something else. I paid it no attention as it was out of my hands anyway. I flew back to Winnipeg, and Darcy and I enjoyed a night out on the town.
Once we returned home I flipped on the NHL Network to see which poor soul had been sucked in to filling in that night. To my horror, staring back at me behind the studio desk, was Dave Hodge. Yes, the Dave Hodge, the guy who once hosted Hockey Night in Canada and was now working for TSN as host of The Reporters as well as hosting a segment on the NHL on TSN. Calling Dave would have been their absolute last resort, so they clearly must have been desperate. I mean no offense to anyone working with me on that NHL Network venture, but it was clearly beneath Dave to have to fill in like this on a Friday night. But there he was, looking none too pleased about the matter, hosting a show for six hours. When he got the call at home, he apparently had a salmon in the oven and had just cracked open a bottle of white wine. I can’t even imagine what that phone call must have been like.
Later, when I returned, Dave Reid, who had just started in broadcasting and was still learning the ropes, told me that Dave Hodge was obviously upset and not thrilled about being there. Reid said he was even more nervous than usual having to work with a guy he grew up watching on Hockey Night in Canada. Oh, and by the way, Dave Reid had just finished playing in the Stanley Cup Final!
After about a month of Dave Randorf filling in here and there, and several auditions for other hosts that didn’t work out, we finally hired a veteran auto racing reporter named Todd Lewis to be the other host of the show. Todd was an affable guy who just seemed happy to have the work, and I was thrilled that I could continue to make my somewhat ridiculous trek back to Winnipeg to see Darcy. TSN was still paying for my flights home as part of my contract, but it was becoming exhausting working four six-hour on-air shifts, then trekking out to the Hamilton airport (where WestJet flew out of at that time), flying to the ’Peg, and t
hen returning home a day later. It was, not surprisingly, starting to take a toll on our relationship. I could see the signs that things were beginning to fray, but I was determined to make it work and even asked Darcy to marry me when she and I visited her parents for Christmas 2001. As it turned out, that wasn’t really the beginning of our life together—it was the beginning of the end.
CHAPTER 18
Called Up to the Big Leagues
BACK IN TORONTO, I WAS thriving career-wise. I was appearing on TSN every night. The NHL even flew a crew out to the All-Star Game in Los Angeles to cover the festivities. I had a chance to interview NHL commissioner Gary Bettman back when he wasn’t despised by everyone in hockey except the owners. It was amazing to be a part of a start-up network with so many young writers and producers. It was like a dream. But after the NHL season was over, I had very little work to do. We packaged together several “fill” shows for the network to run that summer that I had to host, so I couldn’t just take off for July and August or anything. I was bored out of my mind most “work” days, rambling around downtown Toronto, having lunch with friends, and occasionally wandering over to the gym to half-heartedly work out. I realized I wasn’t quite ready for early retirement, so I called up my old friend Mark Milliere—the same Mark Milliere who had ignored me while I stood right next to his computer years before as a writer in the newsroom. Since then Mark had ascended in the ranks of the network and was now in charge of all news and information production at TSN. He was also responsible for choosing the hosts for SportsCentre.
I mentioned to Mark that I was bored and that if he needed someone to fill in on SportsCentre while other hosts took their summer vacations, I would be more than happy to do so. I also pointed out that the network was already paying me, so I was happy to come in for work whenever he needed. I just wanted to get my face out there in front of a few more eyeballs and have something to do. Mark took note of my suggestion and I figured he might forget about it, but just two days later he called me at home and asked me to fill in the next week. Suddenly, I was filling in on several editions of the show throughout the summer and enjoying it thoroughly. I even hosted my first show with Darren Dutchyshen, a truly surreal experience to host the show I had always wanted with the broadcaster I had always admired. It was a fun summer, but I knew I was set to return to the NHL Network in the fall.
That fall, TSN was set to begin rebroadcasting national NHL games on their network for the first time since Sportsnet outbid them for the hockey cable package back in 1998. Sportsnet was essentially able to launch their network based on landing that cable package, and while it hadn’t been devastating for TSN, there was much joy at the network when TSN won the rights back. I was among many employees at the network who participated in focus groups led by then TSN president Keith Pelley. Keith wanted to find out if there was another, better way of presenting the hockey broadcast during intermissions. CBC had a rock-solid formula with Ron and Don and the Hot Stove. Keith wanted to do something completely different from that. Problem is, hockey fans don’t want something different from that. They are hockey fans. During the commercial breaks they want guys to talk about hockey.
But Keith was determined to find a better way, so months before hockey returned to the airwaves, he would corral eight to ten of us at a time into a boardroom. Keith would throw out ideas: “How about bands? What if a band played during intermission? How about a comedian? Maybe a few comedians?” It all sounded like a bad idea to me. I didn’t think hockey audiences would go for it. Pretty much everyone in the focus groups I attended made it very clear that we all felt the same way. Everyone strongly suggested that TSN simply try to hire the best hockey people they could find, have them talk about hockey, and leave it at that.
The powers that be listened to our suggestion, ignored it, and then promptly brought in the puppets. Actual puppets operated by actual puppeteers that they planned to use to entertain viewers between periods. The puppets apparently cost a fortune to commission, and they consisted of two puppet buddies sitting in their basement watching the NHL on TSN and commenting on the game and the broadcast. In hindsight it was amazing how ballsy TSN was being with their choices. They were trying stuff. Most of it wasn’t going to work, but they didn’t want to do the same old thing.
And then there was Linda Freeman. Had Linda not been hired, and then subsequently fired, as TSN’s new hockey host, I would never have been given the opportunity to host SportsCentre full time. I owe my career to her as much as anyone.
TSN wanted to hire the first female hockey host in the country’s history. I thought it was a great idea. The country was absolutely ready for a female host of a major hockey broadcast, and there were definitely several worthy candidates whom TSN could have hired at the time. The network decided to go in a completely different direction and hire Linda, who had last worked as a host on CTV Vancouver’s morning show and had gained most of her on-air experience at The Weather Network. She was a completely capable broadcaster, very attractive, and seemed like a good fit. She was not a hockey expert, which TSN was quick to point out, but that wasn’t what TSN wanted for this job anyway. TSN needed a ringleader for their new forward-thinking intermission show. A more general host who could throw it over to the hockey experts for hockey talk but also introduce the bands and comedians and, yes, the puppets.
TSN put a ton of money behind Linda throughout the summer. Billboards all over the country featured Linda with her flowing red hair and gorgeous smile. Radio ads across the country touted her as a groundbreaker who was going to hit the airwaves that fall. TSN had invested a lot in the Linda Freeman brand. But after several weeks of rehearsals and just four days before the network’s first regular-season broadcast, TSN decided it just wasn’t working. Linda would continue to be involved in the broadcast as a roving reporter, and James Duthie would move from hosting the 10:00 Eastern Standard Time (EST) edition of SportsCentre to serve as the new host of the NHL on TSN. Blake Price would move from co-hosting the 11:00 Pacific Time (PT) edition of SportsCentre to the 10:00 EST edition. Those series of moves left Jennifer Hedger without a co-host. So many capable people were already waiting for that co-host spot in-house: David Amber, Dan Pollard, Cory Woron, all of them excellent broadcasters who really should have been given the gig. Instead, based on my two months of hosting during the summer, Mark immediately placed me next to Jennifer in the 11:00 PT slot Monday to Friday. Amazingly the other anchors did not shun me, and they took the news with grace and class, something that could not be said about me when I didn’t get the Olympic Morning hosting gig on CTV during the London Games. You’d think I would’ve learned from them.
Now I was hosting with Jennifer every day and loving it. She and I were about the same age, we got along great, and we had the same sense of humour. I knew, however, that Jen was just starting to make a huge splash on the Canadian sports broadcasting scene and that if I was to work with her for several years, I was destined to be the “guy next to the beautiful blonde on SportsCentre.” It was time to let my personality come out and do the show the way I had always wanted: with a mix of absurd humour and spontaneity, the same attributes I had admired in David Letterman all those years ago. I was going to change sportscasting, not necessarily for the better, and not overnight, but I was going to leave my mark.
CHAPTER 19
The Death of the Medium
TWO YEARS LATER, BLAKE PRICE returned to the west coast to raise his family in his hometown, Jennifer Hedger moved up to the 10:00 show with Dutchy, and I was paired with Dan O’Toole on the 11:00 p.m. PT edition of SportsCentre in a moment that many sports media critics refer to as the death of the medium in our country.
The chemistry was there right away, but the show as you know it now did not happen overnight.
Just as I had hosted my first edition of SportsCentre with Dutchy, Dan hosted his first edition of SportsCentre with me. It was not long after I started to work with Jennifer, approximately December of 2002. Dan had just joined th
e network after a stint in Vancouver as a sports anchor at Citytv.
Dan arrived in Toronto like every Vancouverite: lamenting the lack of scenery and ocean at their front door. I remember for the first couple of weeks I’d pass Dan at a desk in the newsroom and he’d be looking at a live camera shot of Grouse Mountain on The Weather Network website. It was pretty pathetic, actually. But I was absolutely blown away by Dan’s talent during our first show together. He didn’t seem nervous in the least, and his performance during that first show had me convinced he would go places at TSN. As it turns out the poor guy was going places all right: He was going to have to work with me every day.
When we were first paired together, we didn’t start turning SportsCentre into “the Ha Ha Hut” right away. That’s what Mark Milliere liked to call our show when he thought it was getting too far into the comedy realm and didn’t have enough sports content for his liking. The truth is we just really like the same stuff when it comes to comedy, so when one of us came up with an idea for the show that involved Dan getting attacked by a bat drawn on cardboard attached to a string on the end of a hockey stick, we both thought that idea was hilarious and worked to convince the crew to “go with it.” Up until that point, our crew (director, camera operators, technical director, and so on) was used to producing a very conventional newscast-style show: single-camera shots of the anchor reading off a teleprompter, reading highlights. You know, sportscasting.