This past weekend marked a broadcast first for hockey in Washington: the execution of virtual real-time audio swaps between Federal News Radio 1500, the local radio carrier of the Caps, and John Walton’s calls of the Hershey Bears, which Washington hockey fans can hear on SportsJuice.com. On Friday night, while the Bears were beating Norfolk 5-3 at Giant Center, Federal News sent up to JW Steve Kolbe’s call of Mathieu Perreault’s deft dish to Brian Pothier for the game-winning tally in the final frame. Walton ran the clip during the Bears’ game about 15 minutes after the score occurred, and Bears fans riding home from Giant Center heard it again during Walton’s post-game wrapup. Walton meanwhile packaged together some Hershey highlights and sent them down to D.C., which Kolbe in turn queued up during his broadcast.
The parent club and its AHL affiliate often play concurrent to one another on weekends, making it difficult at times for fans to follow both games, so the shared audio highlights arrangement is a natural fit for two fanbases that are increasingly interconnected. We saw scores of Bears’ jerseys at the Capitals’ first-ever fan convention in September, and on weekends when the Bears are playing on the road, more and more Bears’ faithful make their way down to Verizon Center for Caps’ games, and vice versa. A lot of credit for this very fan friendly initiative has to be given to Federal News’ Ben Raby, in his first year in D.C. managing the Caps’ programming for the station.
“John Walton has always been more than generous with his time giving us updates on the Bears the past two years,” noted Jonathon Warner, Federal News’ in-studio Caps’ reporter. ”This is just a further extension of that, and a natural one since we’re seeing so many players going both ways between DC and Hershey. There’s been a lot more interest on the progress of these players both here and in Hershey. I hope the Hershey fans enjoy hearing Steve Kolbe’s calls as much as we enjoy having John Walton’s during the Capitals broadcasts.”
Hockey fans here and in Hershey can expect this radio synergy between the Caps and Bears to continue and even expand all season long. It’s a terrific initiative, and most becoming of two hockey towns.
2 Comments
As a Bears STH and loyal Caps fan, it’s quite refreshing to see our two organizations working together, media wise. I’m not sure what the relationship is like between other NHL teams and their AHL affiliates, but the constant referencing of each other on blogs and in radio broadcasts really makes this organization seem like a family. (Okay, I’m done with the warm-fuzzies.) Nice work, all around! The coverage of both the Bears and Capitals is phenomenal. (Okay, I mean it.. I’m really done.)
I’ve heard the Caps audio highlights on the Bears broadcast, but I haven’t caught the Bears highlights on the Caps broadcast yet? Were they played in the post-game? I listened to the WSH/NJ game on Sirius/XM on my way home from Western PA Friday night.
I love the media swap. I think adding out of town highlights to a broadcast (time permitting) is a cool feature for the fans and just adds to the professionalism of the broadcast.
I know Walton has some friends that get him clips for use on post-game shows (Kolbe, Grady Wittenberg from Binghamton, etc.). I’d like to see more teams make highlights available. It’s definitely a cool thing to have.
About as cool as the fact that Sirius/XM simulcasts NHL on the Fly on XM204 overnight
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