Goucher taking act to Vegas
Tolman grad ready for TV duties with new NHL team
Editor’s note: On occasion, sports writer Brendan McGair will examine the sports media scene – locally, regionally, and nationally. Today marks the inaugural edition of “McGair’s Media Blitz.”
• A few years back, Dave Goucher was assigned a package of college hockey games that aired on NBC Sports Network. The foray was enough to get the Pawtucket native and Tolman High School graduate thinking.
What about making a permanent switch from radio to television? Mind you Goucher was not going to take any play-by-play job for the sake of fulfilling what had suddenly become an ambition. The fit had to be there.
“It was also going to take someone having faith in me. Plus at this stage in my career and my life, it was going to have to take a unique opportunity for me to change jobs and move,” Goucher said when reached recently. “I wasn’t going to pursue any old television job. Far from it.”
The chance of a lifetime was realized when Goucher, a veteran of 24 seasons of calling hockey games on the radio with the last 17 coming with the Boston Bruins, was announced last month as the first TV play-by-by announcer for the NHL’s newest entry, the Vegas Golden Knights. He’s officially on the ground floor of a grandiose social experiment with the arrival of the firstever pro sports franchise in Las Vegas.
To move on from an Original Six franchise that’s been playing NHL contests for the past 93 years is more than a career rejuvenator. In Goucher’s eyes, it’s the broadcasting version of evolution.
“I want to continue to grow and develop as a broadcaster. For me, I think television will serve as that opportunity,” Goucher said. “When this came about, I looked at all angles. I really did. It was too good to pass up.”
The seeds were planted for the move out west when Eric Tosi, Vice President of Communications for the Golden Knights, reached out to Goucher in early July. Tosi worked in the Bruins’ media relations department for a decade, thus he was quite familiar with Goucher’s smooth delivery behind the radio mike.
From what Goucher understood, Vegas attracted 200 applicants of varying broadcasting backgrounds. That told him the TV play-by-play gig was coveted and very much in-demand. The idea of flying in the finalists for some face-to-face time with Vegas management was scrapped. Thanks to a few phone conversations, the interview committee warmed up to Goucher representing the best candidate. He was truly “golden” in every conceivable aspect.
“I’m just flattered with the way it worked out. To be the person they put all this faith in is beyond belief for me,” Goucher said. “It was a difficult and an emotional decision, but I kept coming back that it was the right one for me.”
Saying goodbye to a locale where Goucher’s broadcasting career was shaped – his radio call of the final seconds of the 2011 Stanley Cup season will live forever in Bruins’ lore – was orchestrated with class and dignity. The Golden Knights reached out to Goucher’s bosses at 98.5 The Sports Hub and asked for permission to discuss the potential of moving to television.
“(The Sports Hub) gave me a chance to explore and let this breathe a little bit. They were incredibly supportive,” Goucher said. “It’s not an easy conversation to have, but that’s why you continue to strive to get better and expand what you do. I saw this as an opportunity to do that.”
In sports radio broadcasting, the main objective is to paint the picture to an audience that can’t see what’s going on. The words you chose are crucial. In Goucher’s new discipline, you’re going off what the camera crew is feeding the monitor and writing the caption underneath the picture. Not nearly as much talking is required in television.
“I look forward to that learning process, which I’m sure will take place rather quickly,” said Goucher, who signed a multi-year deal with the Golden Knights.
It’s rewarding, exciting, and a bit relieving when it comes to Goucher realizing that for foreseeable future, he won’t have to tackle a brutal New England winter. Change is good, and this particular one seems to fully agree with the former Tolman hockey and tennis contributor.
“To be the first ever television voice of a pro sports franchise in that market is just beyond belief,” Goucher said. “It’ll be a fresh, new experience.”
• With Goucher heading out west, the distinction as the longest radio tag team in New England pro sports belongs to the Boston Celtics’ Sean Grande and Cedric Maxwell. Grande and Maxwell started to broadcast games together in 2001, one year after Goucher partnered up with Bob Beers.
“It depends on the guy, but (the chemistry) didn’t take long to develop between myself and Sean,” said Maxwell during a recent appearance in Bellingham. “Just as you learn who you are as a player, the same belief applies in broadcasting.”
By the way, last season marked 22 years for Maxwell as the Celtics’ radio analyst.
• Let’s officially welcome several recent additions to the Rhode Island television sports scene.
At ABC 6, Ian Steele takes the anchor/reporter position that was previously held by Nick Coit, who stepped into the sports director shoes that were vacated when Ken Bell retired over the summer. Steele is a native of Marshfield, Mass., an Emerson College graduate, and comes to Channel 6 from Corpus Christi, Texas where he worked for three years after college.
“We're excited to add Ian to our sports team,” Coit said. “His dedication to sportscasting, his work ethic, and his positive attitude will be a great asset to our department.”
Also at ABC 6, Kainani Stevens will also lend a helping hand to Coit and Steele in addition to also serving as a news reporter, a role she’s held over the past two years at the station.
“As a team, we look forward to working together and carrying on the great tradition of following local sports that Ken Bell established,” Coit said.
At WPRI 12, the sports team is now four-strong with Ruthie Polinsky onboard. A St. Louis native and a 2015 graduate of the University of Michigan, Polinsky has already been here, there, and everywhere since digging into the reporting trenches along with sports director Yianni Kourakis and reporters Mark Dondero and J.P. Smollins. Polinsky is also part of Channel 12’s pre- and post-game Patriots’ coverage.
“So far I’m enjoying it very much,” Polinsky said at McCoy Stadium last month after Carlton Fisk was inducted into the PawSox Hall of Fame. “Everyone has been very helpful.”