I was 21 when I returned to Pembroke, my home town, after spending five years on the road getting my broadcasting career started. I was hired to be the morning news anchor on CHRO Radio, and because of my interest in sports, I also attended the Pembroke Lumber Kings games on Sunday evenings, calling in reports to the evening announcer to update the listeners on how the Kings were doing. That was the fall of 1988, the first year the local radio station had decided not to carry play-by-play of the Kings games. McLean Hunter, the cable television provider in Pembroke at the time, was broadcasting the games with Dennis Stewart doing the play-by-play and Romeo Levasseur providing colour commentary. The games were taped and then broadcast the following night on the Cable community channel.
After hanging around the PMC for a year in the press box, Dennis asked me in the 1989-90 season if I could cover for him on some Sundays because he was heavily involved in the Silver Stick Regional Minor Hockey Tournament. I had done some play-by-play work while in college, covering high school hockey, and Canadore College hockey and basketball games. And that’s how I got started, calling 3 or 4 games for the first few years, until Dennis decided to step aside from the play-by-play duties, giving me a chance to call games on a regular basis. Jamie Bramburger