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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

HNIC's Hughson one of many affected by lockout

By: Monte Stewart

Posted: 09/27/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

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Jim Hughson (POSTMEDIA POSTMEDIA NEWS)

JIM HUGHSON didn't have any trouble filling the time during the previous two NHL lockouts.

But the current one poses a greater challenge for the Hockey Night in Canada play-by-play announcer.

He kept busy by taking his children to various sporting activities during 1994-95 work stoppage and served as a coach for his son's minor hockey team in 2004-05 when the entire season was cancelled due to a lockout.

But Hughson's kids are older and more independent now -- his son is in university and his daughter is in her last year of high school -- and he expects he'll be "terribly bored" if the current lockout extends into the regular season.

"But we've been through this a couple times. I was through this in '94 and I was through this in (2004-05) and, I guess, apparently, we're going through it again," he said in an interview. "So you find other things to do."

The other things include a weekly radio gig on a Vancouver all-sports station (which he would do anyway), possibly taking a course on boating, running, cycling and doing countless things around the house.

The 30-year NHL broadcast veteran is one of hundreds of television industry personnel, both staff and freelance, who will be affected by a lockout if it stretches into the regular season.

Hughson, who will not be paid by CBC during the lockout, lends a high profile to anonymous behind-the-scenes photographers, producers and technicians, as well as announcers, who face a sharp drop in income. Staffers can work on other broadcasts for their networks, but freelancers face an uncertain future.

Networks stand to lose broadcasts that attract millions of viewers and generate millions of dollars in advertising revenue. CBC president Hubert Lacroix acknowledged this week that a delayed or cancelled season would be "a cash flow challenge for us."

While Lacroix said CBC has "replacement programming," it's still not fully clear how networks will fill the void created by a lockout. Hughson is not anticipating any exceptional replacements.

"In Canada, if you want to start a conversation, you either talk about hockey or the weather -- and now we're reduced to the weather," he said. "There isn't any hockey at the National Hockey League level to talk about, and I just don't think that the networks have found adequate replacements for that."

In previous lockouts, the networks aired more major junior and AHL games.

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 27, 2012 C2

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