How our AHL Team Chose their New Broadcaster 🎙️ | All the Kings Men | LA Kings

How our AHL Team Chose their New Broadcaster 🎙️ | All the Kings Men | LA Kings

Welcome back to All the Kings Men. Joining with me today, the brand new voice of the Ontario reign, Cam Maguire. Cam, are you a Cameron or a Cam? Well, officially a Cameron, but I won’t be offended. But I officially Officially as in like that’s your government name. Yeah, like on my like social like security, my driver’s license Cameron. But I I prefer Cam, but if someone calls me Cameron, I won’t be offended. I think I’ve been introduced to you as Cam. You’re in my phone as Cam. When I refer to you, you’re Cam. And yet somehow now that I’m talking to you, I’m like, “No, his name’s Cameron.” Well, I feel like Yeah, I feel like Cameron’s more of like a girl’s name. Is that accurate? Cuz there are there are both boys and girls. Like growing up, like I knew a couple girls that were Cam or Cameron, but I don’t know. There’s something about it. Like wasn’t uh DJ Tanner the actress Cameron? Maybe potentially blank on the name, but yeah, call me whatever you want. Either or won’t offend me. So you take over for Jared Chaffron and Josh Schaefer. uh calling Ontario Rain Games this season. Um you come from the Idaho Steel Heads. That’s where you previously worked, but let’s go back even further. How did you get into hockey to begin with? Well, I always played hockey throughout my entire life. It was something that I was very passionate about. It was kind of the only thing that I really knew. Um and I went to a small division 3 school outside Chicago called Lake Forest College. And oddly enough, went there to play hockey. didn’t make our team. And then I’m like, “Oh crap.” Okay, what do I do with my life now? Right? Because like I just said, all I ever knew was hockey. And uh at the time, my brother was playing at the University of Wisconsin. Um so my freshman year at Lake Forest was his junior year in Madison. Um so like I said, I kind of had that oh crap moment like what do I do now? I was never really knew what I wanted to do beyond college. It was something that like every kid, right, you don’t really necessarily think about it. Um, so kind of how it happened was spent my freshman year, I pretty much went to every one of uh my brother’s games at Wisconsin and there was one instance where he was like, “Hey, like you should sit up in the press box like in the booth and I sat with their radio person, Brian Posick, and I had the headset on and just sat there and listened and watched and I was like, “Wow, this is pretty cool.” I’m like, “This is your job?” And he’s like, “Yeah, this is what like” Like I’m like, “Oh, this is this is awesome.” I’m like, maybe I could do this. And I I kind of went back to to Lake Forest and I did a couple games my freshman and sophomore year. I was roommates with all the guys on the team. And um for me, it was just a way to stay involved in the game. And to be honest, I just kind of took it more of something to do and something to still be around my first two years. And then, uh once my junior year came around, I started to kind of quote unquote take it maybe a little bit more serious. And uh I feel like that was the time where it was like, “Okay, this is something that I’m actually going to try to make a make a profession of.” What was your major? My major was communications with a business minor. Okay. Do you use more of what in in in your professional life? Have you used more that you learned experientially through the story you just told or more from the classes you took for your From the classes that I took? I maybe use 2% of what I learned. So, I’m just I’m going to make this all about me now. I have long thought that college athletes should not be allowed to take communications or sports management or any of those other courses that they sort of make up, but they should be taught sports broadcasting, right? You know, equipment managing cuz there are tons of jobs in this industry that you never know about and people wind up in them because someone has to do them. But there’s hundreds if not thousands. I mean, there are thousands of college athletes who have passion, experience, and knowledge about these games, yourself included. Yeah. I mean, looking back on it, what I pro if I had to go back and do it, I probably would have just made what I did in terms of broadcasting in college, I probably could have just made my own major. Um, cuz there were there were students at our school and it’s not like an it’s a little bit uncommon, but it’s not like it’s never happened before. It was just something I never thought of. So I, you know, I took all the communications classes just to cross the box and and get my degree. But to be honest, like I spent all my time focusing on broadcasting and doing different things in terms of the sports media world and the the sports department um that we had at our school. It was a really small school, 1500 kids. So there wasn’t like wasn’t a formalized um like broadcasting major or broadcasting program. I was the only one that was doing it. And oddly enough though, with that being said, no formal broadcast program, so on and so forth. But there are two people in the NHL that went to Lake Forest. Ryan Ray, who graduated in 2005, is now the uh TV host for the Dallas Stars, and he was in the AHL with Texas before um being go being promoted to Dallas. And then Doug Pleggin, who graduated in 2007, and he’s the radio voice for the Florida Panthers. Um so I was able to connect with those two uh very early on in college and still guys that I keep in touch with today. and they were they still are great mentors to me and they kind of taught me the ropes when I was just uh starting to get going a little bit. So then after college uh straight to Worcester or straight to Worcester? Yeah, I graduated from Lake Forest in May of 2019 and I don’t know, let’s just call it May 10th to throw a number out there. And I think I uh I think I started in Worcester maybe a week or two after that. The rest is history. How long did it take you to pronounce Worcester correctly? Honestly, not too bad because I I technically grew up in on the in the East Coast in Connecticut. Um, so not technically, yeah, it’s a long story. Like some people are like, “Oh, where are you from?” If if we want to get into it, we can. But, uh, so I was like familiar with Worcester growing up on the East Coast and playing hockey all around New England. So, for me, it wasn’t necessarily a struggle to say, but uh almost everyone that I come across that either isn’t from the east coast or has heard of Worcester before, they I’ve heard probably 12 different pronunciations of Worcester and maybe 13 different spellings of how you could spell it. So, you have a measure of success at Worcester given the size of the market and the size of the team. Is it because of that success that you were able to then move to Idaho? Yeah, I I was um it’s one of those things and I I tell kids nowadays too, like if you want to get into the minor league hockey circuit or the junior hockey circuit in terms of uh a media role, specifically playbyplay, obviously a playby-play announcer in the minor leagues and in the junior levels has a lot more responsibilities than just calling the game. Um, but it’s hard coming right out of college, right? Because you graduate more times than not. Most people graduate in May. And for most teams and most leagues, there might be some teams that are still in playoffs, but realistically, in the months of June and July, teams aren’t looking to hire a play-by-play announcer because the summers for that role are not as busy as they are during the season. Um, so I it it’s kind of it’s one of those things where it’s unknown, which can be scary, right? Like there you graduate college and maybe you don’t have a job, which is kind of like, oh crap, like I need to get a job. Like I’m I’m in the real world now. Um, so I had made a decision that I think it was like January or February, the year I graduated, to go back and do baseball um in Wisconsin, which I had done the summer before. in a collegiate summer league. Um it was an internship going into my senior year and I was just like, “Okay, like I will do this this summer and then while I do that, it’ll allow me time to look for jobs in hockey that’ll more than likely not open up sometime down the road in the summer. But the I didn’t want to graduate in May and then just be sitting around doing nothing and trying to figure out like just sitting around waiting for an opportunity to open up.” Um, so the position in Worcester opened maybe two or three weeks before I graduated and I just saw it online and it was listed as a social media and public relations coordinator and read I read the description a little bit and was like, “Okay, maybe this is something, right?” Like this is better than nothing, right? Um, so I threw my name in and got an email back and had an interview with a guy named Eric Linquist, who was the main play-by-play person in Worcester. He had been there for an eternity. He was with the Worcester Sharks before they moved to San Jose and became the Barracuda. And he actually spent one year with the Barracuda before deciding to go back to Worcester cuz that when Worcester moved their AHL team similar to how Manchester moved to Ontario, they had a off year where they didn’t have hockey in Worcester. Um so Eric moved out with the team to San Jose in the same role and decided after one year that he wanted to go back and then the ECHL team was starting. So, he was heavily involved in that. Um, and he started with the Sharks in their first year in I don’t know, I think it was like 2005, give or take. Um, so at this point in 2019, he had been in this circuit for 15 plus years. And he was the one that I interviewed with and I kind of he kind of asked like what what I was looking for, so on and so forth. And I was honest being like, “Hey, I’m actually like my main goal is I want to be a play-by-play announcer, but I understand that like you might not get that role right out of college, but I’ve looked at this and it’s a seems like a great opportunity.” And he was like, “Well, I’ve been in this 15 plus years now, whatever. I’m actually trying to like somewhat transition out of it and go into more of a management role in terms of um just more of like hockey op side and and kind of not to demise a radio position, but he wanted to kind of like wanted a little something bigger. Um so my first year in Worcester, I actually I called So we had we had agreed upon. It was something that he was like, I’ll I’ll let you do playbyplay for 50% of the games. You can do all the home games and I’ll do color on the road games and then we’ll switch on the road with the intention that when you’re on the road, there’s a lot of emphasis put on capturing content and getting more behind the scenes material. So, by Eric doing playbyplay and me being on the road with him and doing color, I was able to kind of be like a rover, right, where I could, if I wanted to step away from the booth for 10 minutes and go down to the ice and shoot video or take pictures or get the guys walking in and out of somewhere, just I was able to kind of be in a bunch of different places. So, that was his reasoning for um splitting it up that way. Um but yeah, so that was my first year in Worcester there and then uh so March of 2020 as everyone knows co and so I did that pretty it was pretty much a full season. I think we played 60 of the 72 games. So let’s just cut it down the middle. I had 30 games of playbyplay at the ECHL level and then we did not play the following year because of COVID. Um, so I actually spent the 2020 2022 year um, kind of just filling in doing some minor broadcasting work wherever that would be. I was still in Worcester. I was actually spent a majority of my time coaching hockey at a academy in New Hampshire um, with 15 and 16 year olds. And then I actually would call some of their games too, oddly enough. Um, so it was pretty funny. And then my brother’s a a high school coach in Wisconsin, so I was back there for about a month and I helped call some of their games. Um, and then going into the following year, 2021 22, uh, Eric had shifted out of Playbyplay, so it was my show, per se. Um, and he was still around working for Cliff Rucker, the owner of the team, uh, in Worcester and kind of different departments, but he still was still was involved with the team, but not as much. Um, so everything that I had seen him do, uh, I learned a whole lot my first year and I’ll be like forever grateful for that because if I didn’t have that first year with him, I probably would have drowned because I didn’t know all it’s all the other stuff, right? It’s like booking the hotels, booking the buses, uh giving out pdeium, immigration work, all the media notes, knowing this goes there, that goes there. At the end of the day, calling the game as everyone knows in this position is 5% of your job. And you need to make sure that the other 95% which at the end of the day is probably not to take away anything from the broadcast because the broadcast is what we want to do and it’s certainly important. But guess what? if if uh you know if you don’t have a a nugget on a player for a broadcast or you forget to send in your players tickets for the game, which one’s going to have more leverage? Um so that was something that I was taught early on and it’s something that has always stuck with me and something that I still uh kind of kind of wear on my sleeve. I want to back up a little bit because you talked about wanting to be a play-by-play announcer and Josh Schaefer, you know, is somebody I’ve known for for years and he has a reverence and a respect for the position of play-by-play announcer that I just don’t relate to. Like my attitude is I I like a good playby-play announcer. I don’t like a bad playby-play announcer, but I’m not entirely sure what differentiates one from the other. I want to watch the broadcasting crew, oh man, this grew up playing, do you have that kind of like awe and reverence for the playbyplay? No, I’m not at all to be honest. I’m more like you. Like this profession for me was something that I never even thought of and it was something more that I just kind of walked into. And for whatever reason for for me like like I school for me for example like I was a fine student like be B be B be B be B be B be B be B be B be B be B bees you know that’s good but I struggled in school and I I uh like everything came just a little bit harder but for whatever reason like growing up um I was always able to remember players names and numbers and just weird stats and if I see a team once I can and you ask me what shot is this guy? What number is he? Like I like that. And for whatever reason, I guess that was God’s gift to me. Um trying to pass a statistics class was not. Uh but no, I never like growing up I I was I was somewhat like fixated on that stuff. Like I always like followed um different players, but I never like if you ask me like who my favorite broadcaster is, I don’t have one because I never I like you said I never watched a game. I watch the game for the game or for specific teams that I maybe am a fan of or follow, but um looking back on it like I if say I was watching on the East Coast like watching a Devils Penguins game, I couldn’t even like I mean now I know it was Doc Emer, but like back then I’m like I and I honestly I think it took me maybe I’ve been f this is my sixth year of professional hockey. I honestly think I did not know that Doc Emer was the New Jersey Devils announcer probably until six or seven years ago. So then if you’re on the road and I’m sorry, Ed was his name. What’s that? The playbyplay. Eric, sorry, Eric. So Eric’s calling the game. You’re doing color, but you’re free to roam and and get content and everything. What’s driving your decision-making process? You know, at what point are you like, you know what would be really great right now is if I ran down and took a picture of the goalie, you know, in his net when the puck’s on the other side of the ice or I’m going to go interview some fans out in front of like what what was the thought where did that thought process come from inside your head? I think a lot of it wasn’t necessarily my idea. It was something was it wasn’t my idea. It was something I never really had thought of. and Eric who had been around the that level for so long, he kind of knew and especially at the ECHL level versus what I’ve noticed at the AHL like obviously the fans play a huge impact. That doesn’t matter whether you’re NHL, AHL, ECHL, like the fans at the end of the day like that’s what drives the team, right? Um, but there is a little bit more uh trying like there is a little bit more of like the entertainment level and like trying to to draw in a fan base um at the ECHL level. I think it’s different at this at the AHL level cuz you’re dealing with high-end prospects and younger players where the ECHL level, yeah, you might still be doing that a little bit, but it’s not to any degree that you are at the AHL level. Um, I think a lot of what I had done in the ECHL and what I was taught mostly on was personalities, right? Like how can we bring out personalities in our players and that our fans can relate with? So, how can we bring the fan base in closer to the team? Um, so a lot of the stuff that we did on the road, it was it was dumb and silly, but and it was some of it was funny, some of it was probably cringeworthy. Um, I’m sure we’ll get into some stuff that I have done throughout the years, but Eric was the one that kind of taught me that and it was something that I never really thought. And I remember when he brought me in that first year right out of college, he’s like he’s I’ve listened to all your stuff like you know what you’re doing. Like you have you have a good call, but I I can vividly remember he’s like, but we’re going to get you to loosen up a little bit. And I think it that’s it’s such a fine line, right? because it’s such a fine line of being not being too stiff, but also not being too loose and not making it look like you’re just a clown, right? Um, so this is a perfect way to get into what I the only thing I want to talk to you about, no offense. Um, so when you left Worcester, you went to Idaho. You worked for the Idaho Steel Heads. And for those who don’t know, a steel head is a fish. Fish. And uh, you did a bit called Predict the Fish. I’m going to ask our producers now to show an image while we’re talking of Cam dressed like a fish for Predict the Fish. And the phrase that popped into my head when I was talking to somebody, I don’t remember who, apologies if I’m quoting this conversation, but the conversation I I stumbled on was was the reason that I like Cam already initially without really getting to know you very well. Well, I mean, we bumped into each other at Ralph’s once, but um was that the the the predict the fish bit to me means that you take the job seriously, but you don’t take yourself seriously. Yeah. And that to me is like the sweet spot of everything because other people are relying on you to do the job, right? So you have responsibilities and you’re part of a team and you know like if you have to be at a certain place at a certain time you know there’s call times there’s meetings like do it but don’t be afraid to be like to dress like a fish. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. I mean it’s it some people think that suit is actually like a dragon. So everyone that just saw that up there it’s it’s it’s weird looking for the title of the segment is predict the fish. Predict the fish. But I’m like, someone thought it was a dragon once. I’m like, it’s a fish. Like, we’re the steel heads. But you also were like moving like a fish in some of the clips I saw. That’s great. But I mean, I guess I could start with how it all came about because or I guess to start like Well, whose idea was it? Mine. Yeah. Bravo. Yeah. But for for me, it’s it’s never been and it never kind of will be. It’s never been about me, right? Like I’m the one I’ve been in positions and I’ve been in places where it maybe looks that like like if you went on the steelhead social media page from the 3 years that I was there, my face lived everywhere, whether it was in a suit or in a fish costume, but I never did that for my ego or did that for myself. I did that for the fans and the people that followed and watched because those are the ones, like I said a little bit earlier on that kind of drive the bus and and they’re so supportive. So, for me, I always look at it in the lens, what can I do to to draw fans in? Um, and I I like even growing up, I was never like an outgoing. I was always kind of a little on the shy side of things. Um, so even like public speaking, like I’m I I’ve gotten better over the years, but there’s still times where I am like a little timid that you’re going to be broadcasting plus games a year. And uh but no, like a lot of people I grew up with, they can’t believe what I do because of how I like as I was as a kid and for like a segment like that, they’re like, “What is going on?” But I like like I keep going back to, I never envisioned something like that or what I’ve done to promote myself. It’s always to promote the team, whether that’s the fans, the players, the coaches, so on and so forth. Um, but when I was in Worcester, I had a couple different segments that we did. Um, so when I got the job in Idaho and was driving out there, I’m like, “Okay, I need to figure out like what is my shtick going to be in Boise? I need something. And I was driving middle Montana and I’m like, okay, steel heads like something. And I wanted to make something that was consistent because I think there’s something to be said if you build something consistently. Um, then you garnish the fans and the fans know, hey, every Tuesday I’m going to be looking out for this because, oh, it’s Tuesday, like this is going to take place. Oh, it’s a game day. I know this is going to happen. So my first kind of thought was what can I do that is something pretty much on a consistent basis. So every home game we did it. Um and with that being said, something that is quick, easy, and can be filmed, edited, and posted in, let’s call it, 10 minutes. And I was like, h I was like, what about like a first goal challenge? And I was like, “Okay.” I’m like starting to think of something. I’m like, “What about like fish? How could I incorporate I’m like predict the fish?” I growing up, I loved uh ESPN College Game Day, like college football. All right. And I didn’t think about this until maybe like two years ago. So, this is like a year into the segment. And Lee Corso with the headgear. And I think maybe that’s kind of where I in my brain where the predict the fish kind of like originated. I was like, “Oh, wait. I could get in this costume, grab a player, and we can predict who’s going to score the first goal tonight. And then if Jesse predicts the first goal score, then I’ll have to do something dumb. Well, I’m already in the fish costume, so I already am embarrassing myself, so it’s fine. But it’s going to be more embarrassing for you if you have to get in it. So, we would come up with a little bet here and there. Um, there was players that had to wear it for a hot lap after morning skate or had to wear it had to wear it in the team video session. And you know, from all this, I’m like, “Okay, now how can I incorporate the fans in this?” Right? It’s great that I have this idea. I’m like, “Okay, we can make this kind of like a social media contest. If we post this video and we tell people to comment who they think’s going to score first and say say Dan and Boisey predicted that Jesse Cohen’s going to score first and Jesse scores first, we’ll go through kind of the entries and we’ll pick one of those correct entries and they’ll get a signed puck from that player. Um, we started to kind of evolve it a little bit more. Um unfortunately when I left now like going if I was still in Boisey we probably would have continued to maximize it and pro like towards the end of last season we started bringing in one of our sponsors that sponsored the segment um Anony’s Seafood Restaurant. So it went hand in hand. So there was a lot of different Not a paid plug by the way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There was a lot of different avenues that we could go down. Um, unfortunately now that’s I don’t know maybe Justin the new guy maybe he’ll come up with something there. So now that you’re in Ontario which is you know the AHL affiliate of the Kings like you said you have much more direct interaction with highprofile prospects and I think in Ontario this year this year should be a younger team than previous years. You’ve got Cohen Zemer and Kenny Connors and Wright and I’m blanking on all the names Angus Booth and all the guys. So, have you did you have I know you were coming from Boise the same time the Kings were going to Boise for that preseason game. It was a weird coincidence. Have you begun thinking of any and now the AHL and the ECHL are very different leagues, very different fan bases, but are you in that mindset? I I think when I went to Boise, it was like, okay, I need something immediately. And I also had like way more time before the season. And I got here before, and not making excuses, but I got here uh end of September, middle of training camp. Yeah, I got here mid, let’s just call it middle of training camp. I got here on a Monday night, and our first preseason game was uh Thursday and Sunday. Yeah, I met you like day one and then day two after meeting you. I was ate asking you about postgame. So, honestly, to be honest, I haven’t really thought about it. I think that there’s some other things that I’m kind of still making sure are kind of cross the tees and dot the eyes, but yeah, there’s definitely some things that I kind of want to do and and uh there’s nothing right now particularly that stands out to me. I think something will come, but yeah, I mean, like I said, part of the job is play by play and that’s what I want to do and that’s everyone in our role. But I think at the same time I love uh interacting with the players, getting them their personally personalities out there to the fans and I just love doing different content pieces. And I love doing it on the road, too. I think I think the road is a big one because um a lot of the fans are at the home games, right? And I think when you’re on the road, that’s where your audience is probably bigger because all your season ticket holders are probably watching and listening. they’re going to be following a little bit more closely to the social media because at a home game they’re going to be at the game. Um, so I love going out in different cities and you know whether it’s a standup video in the rink which I’ll do but I’m like let’s make it a little creative like let’s go downtown and film the standup video. Let’s go to a restaurant. Let’s go. If there’s u a lake around or if there’s an ocean around, like let’s make it fun and like let’s have some fun with it and show off a little personality. Two things. First of all, I’m going to give you I’m going to plant a seed. Feel free to ignore it if you want, but for years I have had it in my head. There’s a song, it’s probably God, it’s probably 30 years old now, but there’s a song called Two Princes by the Spin Doctors. And I always thought like, oh well, the rain are, you know, there’s the kings and then two princes. Okay. So, I was just planting a seed. There’s always I always wanted to do something with that idea, but I don’t work for the market. Anyway, um the other thing is Ontario, the relationship between Ontario and LA is not just the teams, but the markets is odd because looking at a map, Ontario is not that far away. But you I hope I’m not spilling any secrets. You live in the same apartment complex as I do and driving to Ontario can be a bit of a nightmare. Yeah, I I mean I’ve experienced it a little bit as we’re chatting now. We’ve had four games, so I’ve done the drive a little bit. Uh Friday and Sunday series, so I’ve noticed that uh Sun Sunday honestly isn’t bad. Sunday’s great, especially at 3 p.m. Yeah. And honestly, the way home on Fridays is pretty good, too. But you can you are going to be kind of grinding your teeth a little bit on. Took me two and a half hours to get to the rink the last Friday. Yeah. And you know, talking with with Sha when I was taking the job and just kind of asking him how he went about everything in in that realm. And you know, you find a routine and you find a rhythm and you know, there’s going to be days where it’s going to take you an hour and a half to get down there. Might even take you close to two. But but how do you connect to that fan base given that the fan base like the seed and take members for Ontario don’t live in the South Bank? They live in Ontario. Yeah, I think well for me too, right? I’m I’m one of very select few that lives down here out of the rain front office. Most of them live down then that way. So yeah, it’s something that still trying to navigate, but I think getting out because realistically I’m there for games and maybe on other circumstances at events and different community appearances. So I think when you have the opportunities in terms of events and different community appearances, making sure that you’re going around and and making face with the fans. Uh, but I think a lot of it too is just driving that content and getting that word out there on social media because we’re in such a a day and age now, whether it’s for good or for bad, but a lot of the communication that we do is either on the phone or in front of a screen. I don’t necessarily enjoy it like that if I I’m more of old school whereas I like the face to face interactions, but there are some uh limits as to how much of that you can do. And like you mentioned, there is a little bit with that um the distance and all that being said, but I think just just being being present, right, and and just trying to have your face out there as much as possible. Now, in Ontario, you’ve got Paige Capistran on the broadcast with you. I know that in Boise, you had uh I’m blanking on his name, the gentleman that dressed up like a fisherman when you dressed up. Yeah, we had Well, we had a huge we had a lot of different people and we we had someone that was always in between the benches, Mark Bros., Shout out Broie. Um he was an older guy and he’s been around Boisey for ever and he’s just like a local celebrity. He was in the radio business for a long time. So he’s mainly always downstairs in between the benches. And then our color person Jefferson Doll who was a former captain, Cory Scorin who won a Kelly Cup in Boise. Um, we had a probably had a crew of like four or five players that retired and now have families and reside in Boise. So, we kind of had a rotating cast. Uh, Broie was the main stay and Dollar and Scory were as well. And then we had a couple other people kind of fill in when the when the void was needed. So, then you’re used to being part of a broadcasting team, not cuz some broadcasters in that league and lower leagues have to shoulder everything themselves. Yeah. No, honestly, like now that you’ve said that, I guess looking back at my this being year six working in this, every year that I’ve been in it, I’ve at some point during that season, I’ve called games with other people. Um, in Boise for the last three years, like I just said, we had three people for every home game. On the road, I was solo. So I think it’s very beneficial to kind of have a little bit of both because you never know like wherever you go it might be a place where it’s just you right or you might go a place where it’s another person or you might go somewhere else where it is two people so having those different experiences because it does kind of change how you call the game and how you kind of portray it a little bit more like the way that I call a road game versus the way I call a home game is totally different now that you’re in LA. Um, I’m going to plant another seed which you can feel free to ignore. I think that do people tend to ignore you? Is that why you’re saying that? Sometimes. Um, I find that there’s a couple things I think everybody should do in life. Working retail is one of them. Um, and doing improv is another, particularly in broadcast. Um, some people have an innate ability to know when it’s their turn to step in when somebody else stops talking, but a lot of people don’t. And one thing I’ve noticed about broadcast teams in particular is that it is a team sport and if you have a puck hog on the team, it’s no good. So, do you find that your playing experience helps you integrate other parts of the broadcast? I think so, for sure. Yeah, it’s definitely it’s different. you’re not on the team, but like you just kind of said, it is it is a team. And I think for me, kind of just what I was alluding to a couple minutes ago was having those different experiences um have kind of opened my eyes on how to handle different situations, when to kind of toss it to someone else. And I think there I think a lot of times too, it like it comes over time like if you’re it it all depends who you’re working with. It might be someone that you don’t really know. it might be your best friend. Like it’s in a it takes time to kind of build that that chemistry. And cuz there’s nothing worse, I think, than like say you have a playby-play person and a color person. Say you’re the color commentator and I’m the play-by-play person. Every time you talk, it’s just like me going, “Oh, yeah. What do you think there, Jesse?” Like there’s nothing worse because then it just it just makes it sound so unnatural. Um, so it is it is kind of like like in hockey, it’s a read and react situation. Um, but I think for me personally, like having the three years in Boisee where we are so in tune and indepth with having three different people uh on the broadcast, it’s kind of like opened my eyes to different situations and how to handle uh different parts of the game. So, you’re not the only new face in Ontario. Paige is in year two, I think, of your time on Ontario. Andrew Lord, the new head coach of the Ontario reign is in year one. there’s a lot of uh rookies or secondyear players on the Rain roster. Plus, the AHL is just constantly in a state of flux. I actually feel I feel too bad. I don’t want to like lump a ton of sympathy on people that don’t need it, but it must be frustrating in the AHL because you’re at the direct whim of the parent club. You know, if the parent club needs a player, you lose that player. The parent needs the mascot performer to fill in because the mascot performer has the flu. You don’t have a mascot that night. Broadcaster, PA announcer, arena host. Everything is up for grabs. But have you begun to do you feel like there’s a new team being built with all these new people and personalities and faces? Yeah, I think so. I mean, it’s still very early and um but I think at any any level, you’re always going to be at the hands of your affiliate, right? like and it it it increases maybe a little bit more once you get to the AHL and the NHL. Um and then obviously proximity plays a big impact with it as well. There’s not many teams that have their AHL team and their NHL team practicing in the same facility. I actually don’t even know. Are there any? There might be. Did San Jose build barracuda? Yeah, they might they might be the only one, right? Maybe Toronto. Yeah, if there are, you can count on one one hand probably. Um, so there’s definitely an element of that, but even at the ECHL level, you’re still at the hands of your AHL team. Um, it’s just kind of the trickle down effect, right? It’s someone gets hurt in the NHL. Okay, then they’re pulling someone up from the AHL. Well, guess what? Someone the NHL team just pulled someone up from the AHL team. So, now the AHL team needs a player. Where are they looking? their ECHL team where they have an AHL contracted player, an NHL contracted player. So, I’ve seen it at all different levels. We’ve been fortunate early on and knock on wood that we haven’t had much. But, I think it’s one of those things, it’s a double-edged sword because especially in the AHL, it’s a development league. And you know, even speaking with with Lordo um about his time in the ECL, like he never wanted to like hold a player back from a call up just for like their own well-being, right? Like it’s all about the players at the end of the day. Like you want to win, you need to win, but and I experienced it in Boise, too. Like we had a lot of different players my second year. It was crazy. We had a couple come to Ontario. Texas was the main affiliate, so went to te I think we had like players go to seven or eight different AHL teams and a lot of them were on tryyouts and you know, say it was the GM and so City in the AHL calling our head coach being like, “Hey, can we grab so and so for the next two weeks? Like we’re short-handed.” like our coach Everchen was never going to say no because he didn’t want to like he wanted to make sure that that player got the opportunity because who knows, right? Um so you see it at all different levels, but it’s just it’s different here in LA because of the proximity of of the two teams. But I think at the end of the day, it’s a a great thing to have. And you know, everything that I’ve seen in three weeks, like keeping everything in house, the cohesiveness and the way that the Kings and the Rain kind of work together, it almost feels like one big team, if that makes sense. I I mean, I witnessed it for years. Um, let’s talk a little bit about your call because we talked, we were talking very briefly before the camera started recording about something that I used to do that now you’ve witnessed Jared Chaffron doing that he obviously learned from me. So, where did you develop your play sty call? Did you do it on your own or are you borrowing from announcers that you watched when you were growing up from the people that you met in college? Where does that come from? Well, I didn’t borrow anything from any announcer growing up because I couldn’t even name one. But, uh, no, I think early on like I I think early on, especially in college, I would I listened a lot. Um, once I once I kind of started to realize that this was a profession that I wanted to to go into, I I started to do quote unquote some homework, uh, I did not do my communications 158 class homework pro or I did it just to get it done, but I spent my time listening to to games and kind of seeing how different announcers reacted to situations. And I think to a when I was in college a lot, it’s it’s it was great to listen to the minor league levels, right? Um I listened a lot to different announcers, whether it was in the AHL or the ECHL. Um I had a lot of opportunities in college to kind of go shadow some AHL announcers being in the Chicago area and not far from places like Rockford, Chicago, Milwaukee where there are AHL teams. Um, and then obviously Brian Ray, who I mentioned earlier in the show, and Doug Pleans were uh huge for me in college. I would send them stuff to listen to all the time. They would send me back, here’s my suggestions, here’s my thoughts. Um, so it was a lot of just kind of listening. I’m I’m a visual learner and I think that’s obviously looking at it’s I think it goes the same with hearing things and writing things down and watching different things. Um, so for me it was a lot of I think shadowing and like being around people in the business is very important and connecting with those people but at the same time I think too like the only way you learn is by doing it and I was very fortunate in college that I was the only one doing it. So, I had every opportunity that I wanted. And I I think it’s different. A lot of these bigger schools with big-time broadcasting programs like Northwestern and Arizona State who have produced awesome broadcasters. Um, but a lot of those people probably, and I could be speaking totally wrong, but a lot of those people, they might not be able to do playbyplay until their junior or senior year because it’s such a more formalized program and there’s so many more kids involved in it. Um, and the experiences that they get at those schools are amazing, don’t get me wrong, but I think for me it was it was a perfect situation that I was able to kind of do everything, do it early and then kind of learn. Um, so by the time I graduated, let’s say a division three hockey team, if I plays 25 games a year, if I did every game for four years, I would have graduated calling a 100 games. and say you go to a bigger school where you might not get the opportunity, you might graduate with 10 games. Um, so I think college for me was really and even my first couple years in the ECHL it was to kind of find your own style, to find your own craft. But I think back to what I was saying, I think in college I probably pulled a little bit more bits and pieces from this guy, this guy, and this guy. But um I think if you try to like copy someone or emulate exactly what they’re doing, like you got to be yourself, right? And you got to you got to find what works for you. And I think the only not the only way, but a main factor in that is just by doing it. Um and over time, you’re just going to evolve. And there’s probably some things that I do during a game now that I didn’t do four years ago. And there’s probably things I did four years ago that I don’t even think about doing now. I mean, you got to evolve, right? That’s that’s how you get better at the job. Yeah, exactly. Cameron McGuire, thank you so much for joining me. Uh, as always, I’m going to push people to go to Rain Games. I feel like I’ve been saying this for years. It’s an incredible building. There’s not a bad seat in the house, and this year, you have way more Kings prospects on the roster than in the last few years. Uh, Cam McGuire, thanks very much, and I’ll I’ll see you at Ralphs. Awesome. Sounds good. Thanks for having me.

Introducing the NEW voice of the @OntarioReign , Cam McGuire! He joined Jesse Cohen on All the Kings Men to discuss who he is, how he got here, and what he has in store for the future of the Ontario Reign broadcast!

Find Us 👇
Instagram: http://instagram.com/lakings
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lakings
Facebook: http://facebook.com/lakings
Web: http://lakings.com

#LAKings #NHL #GoKingsGo