Transcript:
37 min read (7293 Words)
1 - 0:00:00
My dream was to be I used to watch the local sportscast in Ottawa. TSN wasn't really around back then and I said to my parents if I could be doing the local sports covering the Ottawa Roughriders. That would be like the most amazing career ever. So to be able to get to TSN and do things that I didn't even think about when I was younger, it couldn't even conceive of being a little suburban Ottawa guy. I just I've got. I've been really, really, really lucky.
2 - 0:00:22
Sometimes your dreams do come true for a young boy growing up in Ottawa. It was wanting to make a career based around his childhood obsession with sports. Putting in all the necessary work to telling his stories locally in his hometown and later in Vancouver to position himself to grab his big sports broadcasting chance when the opportunity arose. And indeed it did. Hi again and welcome to Speaking of media. The podcast where communicators and the media come together to consider the world of mass storytelling.
2 - 0:00:45
I'm Keith Marnoch, former journalist turned corporate communicator and as a communicator I invite you to join me and learn from industry experts from both sides of the media microphone about how to effectively share your stories and messages. In this episode we go behind the desk that turned into a Sports Center for James Duffy, Itsn, lead host and sports journalist. James Work has earned him multiple awards, including three Geminis, a Canadian Screen Award and the Excellence in Sports Broadcasting Award from Sports Media Canada. Coincidentally, I was working as a corporate communicator at TSN, the day that James arrived at the network back in 1998 and I was involved with promoting him as the so-called next big guy in TV Sports. And can fondly remember how well he dealt with being marketed as Canada's lead broadcaster for the upcoming generation.
2 - 0:01:35
No small challenge. I recently reconnected with James to reflect on the current state of sports television by considering the future of the Olympics. Soccer in Canada as well as sports media generally by revisiting some of the fun times from an era when Canadian all sports television was still really sorting itself out and how he has flourished over 30 years in the business and what he aspires to accomplish with still. Plenty of gas left in his sports journalist tank.
3 - 0:02:10
And so we are joined by one of Canada's most recognized sports hosts and commentators. He's written books, he's he hosts a podcast now. It's great to welcome James Duthie to Speaking of media. How you doing? James
1 - 0:02:21
Keith? Great to be with you. Good to see you again. Great
3 - 0:02:24
to reconnect. Yeah, when I think of you I always think back to that day. You arrived at TSN when I was in the building and I think it was exciting for you. But when you think back to that day at netstar before it was even see TV, what were the possibilities going around in your head and. You know, did you arrive in that building thinking that one day you take over the shoes of Brian Williams?
1 - 0:02:46
Who definitely not think it's funny. The thing I remember most about that day was John Gallagher had been hired the very same day to host a late night talk show, which is our first foray into late night, our first and I guess, last foray into doing the late night talk show. And, you know, Gallagher was this big personality and that was the more prominent hiring for sure of that day. I was the guy they brought into to host CFL, but we both arrived on the same day. Yeah, the figured strikes is funny. It is. I kept getting.
1 - 0:03:19
I kept running into John like people. Different people were taking us around the building and so I got introduced to him three different times and he never remembered me. Each time he said hey John Gallagher, Ave hosted big late night talk show here but that's why I always remember for my first day at TSN and just being overwhelmed and. I guess I wouldn't work in local TV in Ottawa. I actually came to TSN from Vancouver, but I'd spent most of my career in Ottawa and somewhere along the way, I realized that's the place I wanted to be was to be at TSN.
1 - 0:03:44
I think during probably my last five or six years working in Ottawa and then in Vancouver, I knew that that's eventually where I wanted to get to, not knowing I would actually get there, and certainly not thinking that I'd have. I've done all the things I've been fortunate enough to do over the years here.
3 - 0:04:06
What were the were the people you sort of relied on when you arrive there, who, who was going to help groom you into you, know the personality that we know today.
1 - 0:04:16
I mean, I think I took it goes all the way from the top. Keith Kelly was the guy who hired me. He's the guy who saw me in Ottawa doing a who's funny. He I don't know. I I can't remember if there if I'd sent a tape. I think he just saw me.
1 - 0:04:31
It was the night the Ottawa Senators. They're opening game and I was doing a live hit for local TV in Ottawa and I was doing a tour of the dressing room so it was kind of these. One of these walking live hits and I guess he'd seen it somehow and called me. And the first thing he said to me was that I really liked the jeans and I was like I don't even know this guy like what 'cause you were wearing jeans in your life hit. I really like that 'cause we always wear suits here.
1 - 0:04:56
I really like your jeans so I think it was a pair of Levi's that got me noticed by the head of TSN. But Keith, actually I was hired to host CFL in NBA and he got out of the, you know, executive chair and came back into the producers chair the very first night to produce our show. Which I guess he had done in years. Because it was a big deal and we were all rookies on there. So certainly he had an influence.
1 - 0:05:20
All my early producers, John Heinz, Paul MacLean with football, a bunch of different people at at Sports Center, Mark Miller and Ken Bolden. And I mean I could name 20 guys Mike Day who was still there back then. So remember I came in not. I didn't know anything so anybody who I didn't know who. Who is smart? Who was powerful?
1 - 0:05:42
I was really naive to the world so I was trying to act like a sponge and take as much as I could from anybody. And plus all the people on-air there. I can tell you when I did my audition and Jim Van Horn was the nicest. You know, he peeked his head around the corner in the middle of my audition and said, hey, liven it up a little bit and I'll never forget that right? Like a little thing, he said, 'cause maybe in local news I was a little more toned down.
1 - 0:06:04
So a lot of people were super helpful.
3 - 0:06:10
I think of guys like Dave Hodge. I was always kind of thrilled to be in the same room as him. You know, knowing his background and so on as well too. So broadcasting sports everything all the landscapes have changed so you know, as I talked to my audience, James I suppose the path has changed these days, but is there a path for people who are journalists or communicators to kind of aspire to do the kind of things you do these days?
1 - 0:06:35
Yeah, I I really, I find it super challenging when I get asked by young broadcasters or students. You know how to break into the business, because who am I to tell them that it's. Then I mean I've been doing this for 30 years now and. I don't know how it works anymore I I'm kind of a dinosaur in a way. I mean, I'm trying to keep up with technology and so on and so forth. But you know, I got really lucky to get a job right out of university in Ottawa.
1 - 0:06:58
Worked in local news for a bunch of years and then somehow got discovered 'cause I was wearing a pair of jeans and a live hit. So you know, how do I tell a 20-year-old in 2022 or a 25-year-old or whatever? You know how to get into this business? Or is it realistic? I I can, I can say this part.
1 - 0:07:18
I know that a lot of people tell people to run from broadcasting and journalism and whatever you want to be doing podcast any communicator because it's so difficult and because it's become so constrained and it's shrinking so quickly. But I'm not. I would never say that, because who am I to say that when I'm talking to whoever that person may be, whether it's a student or whatever that they're not the next Chris Cuthbert or Rod Smith or whoever that may be, right? It's still hard, but there's always going to be a place for really good communicators, right? If you're really good at it.
1 - 0:07:49
The business will find a place for you, I think, and so I mean you have to navigate your way to find the place as well. But I hate the people that are dream killers that say run from journalism or run from media because I think media is always going to have a place. It's just completely changing.
3 - 0:08:10
Well, another element or a theme that's running across you know society these days really is is diversity and trying to bring different voices to the floor. And I see that happening at TSN, and I see that coming to the Sports Center desk. I'm wondering if that's looking to be trying to if they're looking to try to expand on that, how do you see that in terms of the new people and in some cases talking about new sports and new ways that people connect with sports? It really is sort of. It really is sort of ubiquitous in terms of, you know, trying to be more diverse.
1 - 0:08:45
Yeah, well first of all, just on the, you know, playing diversity in the faces in front of the camera. I think TSN has done a really good job. If you look at our reporters and a lot of our broadcasts, we have a bunch of faces that are, I think, reflect what Canada is. Hockey has been a challenge and I think we're still working on that. And you know, part of it is simply because there's only you know, because there are fewer. You know BIPOC faces in hockey, there's only, unfortunately, a handful of you know black players that are have just recently retired.
1 - 0:09:16
We're desperately trying to find. People, but there's only so many and sometimes they don't want to do the job right. So I think it's going to improve, but it'll hockey will take a little more time than some of the other sports as far as as as having diverse faces on there. I, I think we're really, really trying hard and really pushing that way, but it's it's a little bit more of a challenge because let's face it, hockey's been a white sport and we're trying to change that at all levels. And that includes, you know, the broadcasting faces that you see on your television.
3 - 0:09:58
Right, so let's talk a little bit about hockey. I mean, it's probably where people see you most these days. Anyways, take us behind the desk a little bit there, and what's it like to orchestrate a bunch of guys who used to be players or managers or coaches and have become commentators? What does it take? What's the secret sauce that you bring to your job that makes that show hum?
1 - 0:10:21
I don't know if there's a secret sauce I know as a host. If you were to ask me, you know, as a host in general, my philosophy to doing it. I mean, there's there'd be two question, two part sides to that hosting a panel. I think my number one job is to get the heck out of the way. I I sort of take my role as to be what the fan would be if they were in my position. So try to ask the questions that you know.
1 - 0:10:41
An educated fan would be asking of these players and to try to get the best out of them. So I I think more than anything else it's my job is to just get as much personality and as much insight out of whoever is sitting next to me or whoever the other end of the camera. And that's that's pretty simple. Part of it now. There's the other part of hosting is when you're doing intros to pieces and interviews and and that's a bit of a a different cup of tea. But yeah, I I think it's simple as that.
1 - 0:11:09
I'm super curious when guys come. I want them to tell stories. I think that's the best TV and most of the guys that come have a ton of stories and so it's getting that out of them. I've had to sort of been a little bit of a TV Prof along the way because we've had so many different people that come in who've never done it before and you forget, I think because you know you've been doing it so long, you know that it's it's new for someone to look into a camera and have all these lights shining down on them. And it's it's challenging. The first couple of times if you went back and looked at my tapes from auto on my early years, I was terrible on camera and just an uncomfortable as can be, so I think I always have to remember that.
1 - 0:11:52
These guys have never necessarily they've had been done interviews before, but haven't been in the position of talking to the camera and breaking down tape or whatever the heck they're they're doing so. You know, I'm glad and I've gotten good at. I have a little speech. I usually give new guys when they come in and but I find they're all. They're all pretty. They're all pretty great.
1 - 0:12:14
'cause if you've made it to a level as a professional athlete, you probably have a level of confidence anyway, and the learning curve. Some guys come in and are incredible. I remember Marty bar on the first day he came in when he was still a goalie with the Philadelphia Flyers was like right away, boom. He just had it right. Jeff O'Neill? The hodag very similar.
1 - 0:12:31
Some guys just walk in there and they're just naturals.
3 - 0:12:37
We both worked with Schultzy on the on the CFL. Meat as well, you know. Rest in peace schultzy, but he was a big guy that really sort of he really came into his own. He had a certainly had a following and I think he was a good example of somebody who really sort of turned the corner on. That became sort of a. He was a boisterous guy but he was able to get more focused and tell better stories.
1 - 0:12:59
Some people are just made for TV and I think Schultzy was one of those guys. And you know there's other people that aren't made for TV. That could be the smartest guy you know. You could have a beer with them and say this guy is so good but in front of the camera it just doesn't. Worker, it doesn't translate and Schultz. He was the opposite where I always told I always told them smart shoulta, you're smart. Way smarter on TV than you are off, but he just had that incredible natural presence and he would.
1 - 0:13:24
He just commanded the screen and sometimes he would not make any sense. But it didn't matter because if people are at home and you command the screen and you believe everything that you are saying people are at home going. Damn yeah that guy is right. I could vote yeah, no matter if it's sentence weren't even comprehensible. So yeah, he was a treat.
1 - 0:13:47
He he was a treat, Schultz, he was, we broke it together, started together on the CFL when I was I was telling you that story about Keith Pelley. So yeah,
3 - 0:13:57
we will. We were tight. TV is full of characters that would be boring without them. So take us again into your seat when you're when you're hosting, let's say hockey and you talk about storytelling. That's a big thing for our audience. Trying to find ways of telling stories and matter what it is that you're trying to communicate. How do you tell the story of like a very specific game trying to thread?
3 - 0:14:13
Start with some premises off the pregame. Try to find connections to it. You know when your comment hitting during and after? How does that? How does that all work?
3 - 0:14:24
How do you? How do you with two other people, not just yourself? Try to pull that together? What's the mechanics of that?
1 - 0:14:33
That's a great question. I don't know if there's one answer because every game works differently somehow and and every broadcast is different, but I I think you're so right in what you say. Storytelling is everything, and in all that we do. Whether it's you know media. And that's what I've tried to focus on my entire career anytime. Whether you're doing a report for Sports Center, whether you're doing a panel for a game, whether you are setting up a game, that is what you're trying to do is tell the story.
1 - 0:15:04
So in, in my particular case. You know I have 30 seconds at the beginning of a broadcast, basically 20 to 30 seconds on camera where I try to say OK. What is what is this game about? You know what is the biggest story of this game? And sometimes it's not going to be Shakespearean right?
1 - 0:15:23
Sometimes? Sometimes it writes itself for you. Some guys making a comeback or it's a game to decide the last playoff spot. But sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's a game like tonight that I'm about to do in the in the middle of January in the middle of a season.
1 - 0:15:34
And maybe there's not a defined storyline, so I have to to dig a little deeper to find. Something you know. Maybe it's a stat that's that can tell a story out of a statistic you know Toronto's you know hasn't won in some certain city for two years, or something like that. But I I have to find something in those first 20 seconds that hopefully, will you know some people can latch on? I think most people are going to watch the game anyway, right? They're turning into watch their Leafs or the Senators or whatever it is, but I I think your job as a host is to give them another reason to to give them some story to pay attention to.
1 - 0:16:11
And that's the same with the analysts. OK, I I think they should have that same philosophy if they have 30 seconds before the game, they're gonna. There's here's here's the one guy I'm going to be focusing on tonight. And here's why. And tell that little story within 20 or 30 seconds.
1 - 0:16:29
So I think that's what you try to do. Basically every single night is just find something that you think the audience can relate to that will enhance their viewing at the telecast.
3 - 0:16:43
Yeah, and then you go to the game and the play by playing commentator there. I think you know the best of that in my lifetime really, was you know Jim Houston or Chris Cuthbert? I think they're really, really strong. I mean, people will look back to Bob Colon. It was almost more the way he told the story as it was going on. But did you ever have visions of becoming a play by play guy?
1 - 0:17:04
Yes, in fact, when you when you met me, that's what I wanted to do, but not for hockey. For football that would my if you would ask, you know, 20 year old me my dream. It would have been to do football play by play and I loved hockey. But football was also always kind of they were kind of 1 in 1/8 to me but I always gravitated more to football and that was the game. I I played more grown up.
1 - 0:17:26
And so I was tracking that way in my career. I was starting to do CFL play by play, which people probably won't remember. I only did 10 games. I think back in, you know the early turn of the century, basically. And then the hockey gig came came around in in 2002 and it's really hard to turn down when they offer you to be the host of a national hockey telecast in Canada. And so obviously I jumped at it and the play by play dreams sort of got put aside.
1 - 0:17:52
And you know, probably that's the right thing, he. You know, I I don't know that I had the the delivery of a Chris Cuthbert or the you know the lungs of a rod Smith. I I don't know the cadence of a Bob full. I don't know if I had any of those things right so maybe I would have been a complete and utter failure at play by play. I think you usually find what you're better at and probably the I'm I'm.
1 - 0:18:17
I'm better at hosting I guess than that but. I don't know, you know, some I. I've thought someday you know, we like when they get sick of seeing my face on TV, which I'm sure some people are. Do I give it one more crap before I'm done that that has ran through my head?
3 - 0:18:35
Yeah, you start. You worked for a fair amount of time on the desk with Darren. What did that do to help refine you know what you're doing now? Or you know from a journalism point of view or storytelling point of view. What was daily Sports News doing to enhance your career?
1 - 0:18:52
Well, I I think first of all and and one thing I should have mentioned earlier. Not that maybe for your audience it doesn't matter as much. I always tell. I think my years in news really helped me and I always tell young communicators broadcasters if you can get a job even if you want to do sports for your life. If you can get a job in news, it taught me to be a much better writer and I think writing is a skill again not just in broadcasting and in any sort of communications. It's it is the skill and I think it's a skill that's under undervalued or under taught.
1 - 0:19:17
Perhaps these days we get a lot of incredible guys who come in out of college. TSN, who can do incredible visual things right there, editing Wizards, but they can't, right? You know they can't ride the cheese or whatever, so I and I think if I were to look back, that probably helped me get the job at TSN and do well and and by writing. Obviously I don't mean writing blogs or whatever or columns, but writing the 22nd intros that you do on sports desk or Sports Center when you're hosting a show like that, you only have a very few minutes to put your own personality into it, right? You might get 3 intros a show three times that you're on camera for 20 seconds, and then of course you get the highlight packages that are scripted.
1 - 0:20:01
For you, but you can put your own little twists on them, and so I think that's you know that's critical to setting yourself apart from everybody else is that were or defining who you are on television is what you say in those things. I would probably lean towards in the Sports Center days. The light, you know I'd probably was trying to make jokes too often, but you know, I would take if you get that one intro and say OK. So how can I make this entertaining but also tell a bit of a story in the entertainment I would use like endless movie references or whatever, right to tie in to some to you know, whatever the game I was about to talk about. So that's what I think that was the value of those years.
1 - 0:20:42
First of all, the live just doing live shows every single night, getting scripts handed to you last second was. Was there a real great learning curve but also being able to to do that to same thing as I talked about earlier to tell little stories in those 20 seconds and put your own personality into the highlights. I think those years doing sports desk slash sports that are sort of helped carve. It's kind of who I wanted to be on television.
3 - 0:21:11
Yeah, we're speaking with TSN's James Duffy here on the Speaking of Media Podcast and James I will go to a couple of sort of quicker hits here, but can't carry on without referencing how TSN has been able to sort of package sports. So uh Friday night void became Friday Night Football. Sort of a relatively minor world Junior Championship became the World Juniors this this year. Obviously a different circumstance where the tournament actually started and I wasn't able to be completed because of the pandemic. But more broadly on the World Juniors, how amazed were you with what TSM was able to market that into and keep Canada sort of like the leader of that of that whole junior movement?
1 - 0:21:57
Yeah, I don't know that it was brilliant or just an opportunity I. I bet you if you went back to those days the you know the. Early guys who led TSN. They weren't thinking when they when they purchased the rights that this was going to be the colossus that had become. It's just like hey we got a hole in our schedule. Here's this little hockey tournament.
1 - 0:22:13
Canadians love hockey. Why don't we put it on there, right so? I think that it was part foresight, part luck. And then somewhere along the way, probably fairly early, they realized they had something really special that has become this colossus that it is right now and. I think I've come to appreciate that more in the business.
1 - 0:22:36
How much. These things are made for TV events, right? But that doesn't mean they're not. You know they're the critics of a world. Juniors would say, oh, this is just a tournament that TSN hype Doc, right? And that's fair and accurate in a way.
1 - 0:22:51
But that doesn't take away from the reality that now it has become this thing right? Everything has an origin story and but now it does matter because of the television coverage over the years because all these countries now really care about it. Kids in these countries, not just Canada, by the way, grow up wanting to play in this tournament. That's the other thing I hear sometimes. I'll only Canada cares about this tournament.
1 - 0:23:15
Maybe that was true 15 years ago or something. It is massive in Sweden, in Russia and the Czech Republic in Finland. It is almost as big as it is in Canada, so the US is the one place where still maybe it hasn't caught on the way it has elsewhere. But you know, TV creates a lot of things right? And and then they'd be they become.
1 - 0:23:36
They become a big deal somewhere along the way, so I don't think it should be a negative that, you know, television created a spot. Or something and then it grew into something else. I
3 - 0:23:49
think the passion for that's real to living in London for the last 10 years. You know that the Budweiser Gardens filled to the brim 10,000 strong on Friday nights. That is something that people take very seriously and obviously watch as those players progress into the NHL and beyond.
1 - 0:24:05
And we have the CHL. Coming back to TSN this year, which is going to be, you know. Frankly, we should probably should have had it before because of our coverage of the World Juniors. So that's gonna be fun showing some games and showing these kids that people before they just show up with the juniors. Yeah,
3 - 0:24:18
so another colossus can't let you go without talking about the Olympics and where that's at and. Again, pandemic is probably sort of hanging its head over over that coming up in the next month or so, but I don't know how much you can say about this, but you know, if I were to ask you, does the Olympics stand the test of time through our lifetimes? Is that you know? Is that something that people talk about? Do people wonder about its ability to, or its viability to carry on? How do you see that?
1 - 0:24:49
Well, first of all, I I'll admit to being a massive Olympic geek since I was a kid so I love it and I'm going to be fortunate enough here. We're actually talking on a day where I think they've just announced the roster and I'm going to get to host some of the games on CBC, TSN, and CBC. Our partners for the Olympics. So I can't wait to do that. Yeah, thank you. I I doing the Olympics in 2010 particular also in 2012 when when CTV had the rights was if you were to ask me keep the highlight of my career that would still be #1 the 2010 games because I always I loved the Olympics from the time I was ten years old and it was in Montreal and I would watch every second of it as a teenager and to be able to host in your own country.
1 - 0:25:28
You know be there for the Crosby goal and everything that else happened. In that event was was. I don't think anything will top it in my career so personally. You know, I still have that love for the games. I still watch whatever I can.
1 - 0:25:48
If it's summer or winter, but I think your question is definitely a correct one. I think the shine is a little bit off the IOC as it is for, you know, many big organizations. COVID has put a massive dent in the plans. It's not the same when the fans aren't their countries and cities have been become more reluctant to put in bids because it's, you know, it's not. I don't think it has the prestige.
1 - 0:26:13
But it did, and you're left with these billion dollar. Tax tolls afterwards, so I think the Olympics will continue to be viable, but it will become smaller in the sense I don't think you're gonna have places. Build all these stadiums anymore. You're going to go into places that have existing stadiums or do what Vancouver did and you know build the speed skating Oval, but turn it into a Community Center afterwards. That's what the future of the Olympics is is viable, viable sites that don't cost places billions of dollars in there.
1 - 0:26:40
They're left with these giant white elephants.
3 - 0:26:46
What do you foresee to be the if you put your crystal ball out there? What do you foresee? Maybe one or two of the biggest stories coming up in this Olympics.
1 - 0:26:55
Well, I first of all I think hockey is going to be a story. Everyone is disappointed that the NHS hours aren't going. And again, maybe I'm biased because I'm gonna become commentating on hockey. But people just still I I think it it almost makes for it's not a. It's not a bigger story, but it can be a better story if you get these veteran journeymen players who you know didn't really make it in the NHL or and then they get one last crack at the Olympic gold medal. I think that's still a cool story, and if Canada gets to a semifinal or gold medal game, I think the country will still be. Really, really into it, and I'd like to point out a million different athletic things, but the biggest story to me is whether they, whether they get through this.
1 - 0:27:34
I I just I, I would have preferred they put it back a year just so you can have a normal Olympics. If we're if we're if we're normal. In a year, I don't know how they're going to pull this off. My heart would break for any athlete who's going to test positive before they're, you know I'm right. Like you imagine, being an athlete right now.
1 - 0:27:52
Probably the most dangerous part is right now, before once you get to the bubble in Beijing, you're probably OK. It'll be an extremely tight bubble there, but in your last few weeks leading up to the Olympics training where you have to go to a gym or a speedskating Oval or wherever to train and risking possible exposure to not make it to the games. When you've been training for something your whole life, I can't imagine that stress. And I'm sure that's going to happen in the dozens, if not hundreds of athletes who won't make it because they'll get Omega Omicron along the way somewhere. So I I think that's going to be the story in the games is can they pull it off without major breakouts?
3 - 0:28:31
Do you think it's viable? You know the idea? They talked about, sort of like playing hockey somewhere else, not really bringing the world together, but maybe playing sports. Diffusely around the world. At the same time, is that something you think might work,
1 - 0:28:45
I think. Well, two prong answer. I would say that that's probably the way it's going to go because of the things we talked about earlier. Just that difficulty of one place holding it. I don't think it'll be quite as special because I think such a big part of it for us, and particularly for the athletes, is everybody coming together and hanging out in the athletes village with somebody from a completely different country in a completely different sport. I think that's a lot of what makes the Olympic special, but again, realistically logistically, everything else I. I think we are probably headed for that. And you know hockey in particular.
1 - 0:29:19
It would make a lot of sense. It would made sense this year if they were able to hold. Yeah, COVID is sort of put everything aside, but let's stay even COVID free if the NHL is hesitant to go to Beijing to have the tournament, the hockey tournament over here and have a real best on best Olympic Hockey tournament going on while the games are on in Beijing, I think that's something you'll probably see within a decade or or perhaps even less.
3 - 0:29:45
OK, we're winding down our time, but a sport on the way up I still believe is soccer in Canada, you know, have they made it has soccer, made it there yet? Or do they still have room to go? What? What is it about? Soccer that it just hasn't worked or could work in the future.
3 - 0:29:55
I
1 - 0:29:59
think it's I think this is it's time I, I think it's here right now and I I think there were two defining moments. One was Alphonso Davies goal against Panama in Toronto, which ended up being one of the plays of the year on TSN. And I'm sure all the other networks and then that victory in Edmonton in the snow over Mexico that really. I mean, if you saw the ratings for those events they were, they were big. The world.
1 - 0:30:22
If if they make the World Cup, which they should. I think that that's going to be the real true official arrival of soccer that everybody is going to be into it. But all those sort of people that didn't care about soccer before will be, you know, kind of like an Olympics where you don't pay any attention. Any Olympics draws, well, the World Cup is on Canada's in it, everybody is going to get gross of the growth of the sport from a TV viewing standpoint that will be huge. I I really. I really think this is soccer time followed by a World Cup that's gonna be partially in Canada in 2026 and you have this window here that I think I think. Soccer is sort of the sport to watch in Canada over the next.
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You know, whatever it is 456 years
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and from a television broadcasting POV, nothing better than scoring a big goal and going and jumping in a pile of snow.
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Like it was the perfect Canadian moment, right? You've been a scripted it any better, so you need moments. You need a little things like that, right? 'cause what what's the old thing about? Why we love our hockey players, right? Tough Canadian boys hanging out the winter.
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While these soccer players doing the exact thing I can't even imagine playing soccer. And, you know, minus 20 - 25 or whatever. So yeah, I think that was that was a really pivotal moment for the sport in Canada.
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And then just one final wrap up, James, did we talked a little bit about you may be doing play by play in the past or maybe thinking about it. Do you have anything else that you sort of haven't had a chance to do, or that you want to do using your present position as leverage for the kind of not that you're rounding out your career, but you know what is the next great thing that maybe haven't done before? Is there anything on the horizon?
1 - 0:31:58
Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, World Cup would be one of those things I'm. I'm hoping I can squeeze my way in to be part of 2022 or 2026 or somewhere along the way. I don't pretend to be. We have, you know, Luke Wildman's of the world who are awesome at at soccer and. No, it way better than I do.
1 - 0:32:15
I'm a. I'm a huge fan, but if I can be in some small way, part of TSN's coverage of that would be awesome. It's funny somebody asked me that question the other day. Keep just one of my buddies and. I've I've been fortunate there's not a lot of events you know you know I've gotten to do Masters and Super Bowls and and grey Cups and Stanley Cup Finals in Olympics and all the things if I had had a checklist when I was, you know 18 or 20 I I would have never had that many things on it, but I've been able to cover. So you know, maybe not from look.
1 - 0:32:44
This is an event I want to do, but career wise I still. I think you learn and you and you grow every single, every single time you're out doing something. So I still certainly don't think I have a lot more to. Learn still and a lot more I wanna do within the business. I just don't think there's some monumental event out there that I'm aiming at.
3 - 0:33:06
I'm sure that you would agree that your access to the things that you've loved from the sports world over the over the, over the course of your career has been something special to be a part of. So you've done a great job of providing that. I'm certainly a big fan of yours and always feel like I've got at least a little bit of an inside rooting interest in you having kind of shared that early. Those early days at TSN. With you. Yeah, absolutely it was.
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Those were good times and I'm happy and pleased to see how Zenza channel is growing, but especially happy to see how well you've done with it and really fulfilled your promise there. So I appreciate your time.
1 - 0:33:44
I really appreciate you saying that those were good days and and it's great catching up on you doing this. I've been I'm the last thing I just say is I'm I'm so incredibly fortunate to. When I was growing up in Ottawa I I, my dream, was to be. I used to watch the local sports cast in Ottawa. TSN wasn't really around back then and I said to my parents if I could be the local. You know, if I could be doing the local sports covering the Ottawa Roughriders at night, that would be like the most amazing career ever.
1 - 0:34:10
So to be able to get to TSN and do things that I didn't even think about when I was younger or couldn't even conceive of being a little suburban Ottawa guy, I just I've got. I've been really, really, really lucky. But thanks to people like you helping me along the way. And thanks for catching up.
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All Canadian, all the way. James Duffy from TSN. Thanks so much for joining us here on the Speaking of Media podcast. Thanks buddy. It would be difficult to run into a more
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down to Earth than circumspect sports broadcaster than James Duffy. I
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really appreciated him as we find with many of
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our guests emphasizing the importance of being a good, versatile writer in order to tell a good solid story. And in television, sports broadcasting, establishing matchups, amplifying rivalries, highlighting record accomplishments and. Making obvious the struggles between adversaries to ultimately win are foundational to the best stories, no matter what level of competition you're illustrating. James is also an author. He's written a number of great sports books, including they call Me Killer.
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The story of legendary Ottawa junior hockey coach Brian Kilrea, as well as the guy on the left, sports stories from the best seat in the house. I highly recommend both of those books, and that is this edition of Speaking of media. Please subscribe to our podcast through Apple or Amazon. Or wherever you download and listen to your favorite podcasts. Heck, you can even just ask Alexa and she will find the show for you.
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Hopefully you'll also like and comment on the show through our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter feeds, as well as on my LinkedIn page where you will hear about upcoming episodes and be sure to tell others about it as well. We want to build this community of communicators to put us in the best position to create relevant content. Secure great guests like James Duffy and ultimately reach a broader audience. On a weekly basis. Thanks for listening.
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I'm Keith Marnoch and I look forward to our next time together when once again we will be Speaking of media.