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Home  Articles 98/99 Season Drillers' home games on Shaw
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Drillers' home games on Shaw |
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Written by Mike English
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Friday, 11 December 1998 |
The Edmonton Drillers will once again hit the TV airwaves. Shaw Television will broadcast seven home games live beginning tonight against the Buffalo Blizzard. Tonight's game is a fund-raiser for Aaron Moser, the young Edmonton hockey player paralyzed in a hockey accident last October in Nanaimo, B.C. As such, Shaw has agreed to forgo any production costs associated with tonight's game as its contribution.
Al Coates will call the games with former ITV morning show host Chris Durham assuming the role of host with John Hayes sitting in as the analyst. The Driller broadcasts can be seen on Shaw's Channel 10 and Channel 74 on the Videotron system. There is a possibility more Driller road games could find their way to the tube but for now only seven home dates are on the schedule.
Tonight: Buffalo at Edmonton, 7 p.m.
Dec. 20: Baltimore at Edmonton, 6 p.m.
Jan. 24: Milwaukee at Edmonton, 7 p.m.
Feb. 2: Detroit at Edmonton, 7 p.m.
Feb. 23: Buffalo at Edmonton, 7 p.m.
Mar. 21: Wichita at Edmonton, 6 p.m.
Mar. 29: St. Louis at Edmonton, 7 p.m.
* In the wee morning hours last Sunday in her London, England home, Dolores Claman turned her telly to Channel Five where she watched her first NHL game in years as the original six match-up between Montreal and Toronto was being beamed overseas. Claman is not a huge hockey fan, which is somewhat surprising given the fact you could argue her contribution to Hockey Night in Canada has had the same impact as Don Cherry's Coaches Corner, if not more.
You likely won't recall the name but you'll certainly recognize her work. A classically trained musician, Claman is the person who penned HNIC's theme song in 1968. Now, 30 years later, she is being wined and dined in Toronto this weekend by the CBC celebrating what many have called Canada's second national anthem.
It all started when she was working for McLaren Advertising in Toronto during the late 1960s. She was asked to produce two demos.
"The major sponsors involved beer, cars, and Imperial Oil," Claman recalls. "They wanted a big brassy theme song." One of the demos was chosen and it has lived on for 30 years in different variations.
Claman says today she can't believe the impact that theme song has had across the country. Having spent a good part of the last 30 years overseas is one of the reasons. As a result, it's also the reason she missed about 25 years worth of royalty payments. Five years ago she hired a financial expert to address the problem and now the cheques flow in two or three times a year. The Vancouver native won't reveal how much "but it's enough to keep me happy."
Claman will appear on HNIC with Ron MacLean on Saturday night.
* With the National Finals Rodeo in full swing in Las Vegas, once again the annual question arises.
Why doesn't somebody air it in Canada?
Every performance is being televised by ESPN 2 in the States so it's just a matter of a Canadian outlet negotiating a price to carry the signal. It would be a perfect fit for CTV Sportsnet's regional programming as a number of prairie cowboys are in Sin City looking for some NFR money. Maybe if there was a bullrider from Toronto there might be some hope for Canadian television exposure.
For anyone interested in the NFR you can catch each performance live over the Internet at www.prorodeo.com.
The Internet broadcasts have a definite Alberta flavour to them as Innisfail's Duane Daines is the rodeo analyst working alongside Oklahoma rodeo announcer Justin McKee.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 19 October 2006 )
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