Podcast: Voices of Hockey - Ron Weber

This Journeys into Hockey guest is Ron Weber, the former longtime play-by-play voice of the Capitals, who last Fall received the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award at the Hockey Hall of Fame for outstanding contributions as a hockey broadcaster. We speak with him about the honor and of his career.
Weber broadcasted the first Capitals game and every one after that until his retirement on April 13, 1997 — a total of 1,939 games.

When the Washington Capitals joined the NHL as an expansion team in 1974, Baltimore Clippers play-by-play announcer Ron Weber was hired to be the voice of the NHL’s newest franchise. The Lock Haven, Pennsylvania native called every one of the team’s record-breaking 67 defeats that year. Over the next 23 years Weber never missed a regular season or playoff broadcast, talking Capitals fans through 1,936 consecutive games.

At: http://conversationsontheroad.podbus.com/?p=555

Podcast - Brian McFarlane on Peter Puck

Brian McFarlane is best to known hockey fans as a commentator on Hockey Night in Canada for 25 years. He made similar broadcasts on NHL games for the major American networks CBS and NBC and has written more than 50 books on hockey. McFarlane is an expert on hockey history and has compiled several volumes of NHL lore titled “It Happened in Hockey,” as well as a 1999 series detailing the colorful history of the ”Original Six” NHL teams.


Mr. McFarlane is also closely associated with “Peter Puck”. He was in the booth when the cartoon puck appeared on both NBC’S Game of the Week and and CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada during the 1970s. After NBC stopped carrying NHL hockey (it’s back at it again decades later), McFarlane purchased the rights to Peter Puck from NBC’s production partner, Hanna-Barbera.

Since that time Brian McFarlane has been a partner with a spokesperson for Peter Puck.

In this Journey into Hockey we speak with Brian McFarlane about his career, that of Peter Puck and their most recent collaboration, Peter Puck’s Big Book of Hockey: Fascinating Facts for Hockey Fans of All Ages (Fenn, 2010).

At: http://conversationsontheroad.podbus.com/?p=535

Podcast - Canada’s Game

Hockey is more than just Canada’s National sport – it is the most recognizable symbol of what it is to be Canadian, an intrinsic part of the nation’s culture, economy and politics.

In this Journey into Hockey we speak with Andrew Holman, professor of history and Canadian Studies at Massachusetts’s Bridgewater State College about his book “Canada’s Game – History and Identity”, a compendium that addresses a range of themes in hockey – past and present

http://conversationsontheroad.podbus.com/?p=515

Podcast - Gordie

Long before Gretsky, Messier, and Crosby, there was a big, raw-boned kid from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, who was the most celebrated hockey player of his era. Amazingly, his era began in 1946 with the Detroit Red Wings and ended 34 years and 32 seasons later with the Hartford Whalers. When Gordie Howe retired, he was 52 and still an effective National Hockey League player. In between, he led the league in goals scored five times and in points six times, was a 12-time all-star, and claimed six Most Valuable Player awards.

In this Journey into Hockey we speak with Roy MacSkimming about Goride Howe – the convetional story as wellas what he found that culminated in his unauthorized 2003 biography, “Gordie: A Hockey Legend”.

At: http://conversationsontheroad.podbus.com/?p=513