Habs Game Day Radio

I must begin by telling you I really enjoy listening to hockey on the radio. When I was a kid I would have by transistor radio tucked under my pillow so I could listen to the games as my beloved Habs would skate left to right on my radio dial.

The announcers are more important on radio than on television where the words augment the pictures on the television or computer screen. For example Mr. Bob Cole could not get away with everything is happening everywhere or oh he scored. Although I have heard that one on previous radio broadcasts.

Growing up listening to Dick Irvin as the english voice of the Habs somewhat spoiled me - although his french counterpart, Rene Lecavalier was certainly one of the best as well.  When I moved to Edmonton in the mid-eighties, I could listen on Radio-Canada to all the Habs games on FM and could only watch maybe a handful of Habs games in English the CBC played on Saturday nights. They had decided that everyone liked the Leafs and only the Leafs at that point. But the weekly games on Radio Canada (french CBC) became my life-line to Habs fandom where I could watch les boys play.

When I came to southwestern Ontario at the beginning of the nineties, I continued to watch Radio Canada on Saturdays and there were times those were not shown - they would play bad movies or documentaries in place of the games. There were no broadcasts of the games on Radio Canada so following the Habs became more of a challenge. As the Leafs got better (Sunbeam etc) the information regarding the Habs decreased significantly.

I enjoy watching the games now on the internet but still prefer to listen, close my eyes and watch the team skate left to right on my radio dial in my minds eye. The past few years the English radio broadcasts have been not great to say the least, and last year were so bad I stopped listening altogether. I was elated when John Bartlett got the play by play duties as I have heard him call the occasional Marlies games. Not so pleased about the retention of Sergio Momesso. Last night's radio season opener was music to my ears. I awaited eagerly for the puck drop and was not disappointed in the least. Momesso however seemed like he had to be prodded to add commentary during play stoppages and did not seem in sync with the play. Hopefully that gets better (though not counting on it).

The pre-game show did not start off promising, I must tell you. There was some Markov talk and when guests said that Markov will make the power play better than last season - they were interupted saying that as per Marinaro, not happening any time soon. Thankfully this was stopped rather abruptly as I was about to turn to check out the French broadcast.  I am not a fan of Marinaro to say the least. I have been blocked on twitter not for being rude or anything - but for having the audacity of gasp - disagreeing. Heavens to mergatroid - I disagreed with some comment or another.  Anyway I digress.

One area that needs to be worked on is the time lag on the internet feed. It was almost two minutes behind. It was mentioned on the post game show that there was a two second delay but on the net it was closer to 2 minutes. My twitter feed erupted a long time before I heard the call.  I understand that there will always be a delay but this seems excessive.

I did listen to the post game with great trepidation as it was hosted by Marinaro - but although it does need work, it was okay. And telling us to tweet our comments to be read on the air does not help at all - how many people are blocked and  not allowed to have a differing opinion? That is a rhetorical question.

Please share your opinions.