Broadcasters killed in bus crash mourned by Manitoba-based radio network

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This article was published 08/04/2018 (2763 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Altona-based Golden West Broadcasting is moving extra staff and grief counsellors to its CHBO radio station in Humboldt after two employees were killed in the tragic bus crash involving the Humboldt Broncos Friday.

“You just pull out all the stops you can to help. There’s no handbook on this,” said CEO Elmer Hildebrand.

Tyler Bieber, 24, play-by-play man for Bronco broadcasts, and aspiring radio assistant, Brody Hinz, 18, who acted as statistician and colour commentator, died in the crash.

“At this point, our aim is to support our employees through this process. We’ve not had this kind of tragedy in our company before,” said Hildebrand.

Golden West, which began with a single radio station in Altona in 1957, has 44 radio stations and more than 400 employees across the Prairies today. Golden West also owns the classical music station, 107.1 FM.

Hildebrand said it has at least 10 teams of announcers that follow junior hockey teams in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, broadcasting home and away games.

“We’ve got involvement with hockey teams everywhere. The teams are an integral part of the community,” Hildebrand said.

In Saskatchewan, Golden West broadcasts junior hockey games for teams in Estevan, Weyburn, Moose Jaw, Swift Current, Kindersley, Rosetown, and Humboldt; and Steinbach, Winkler and Portage la Prairie in Manitoba.

The broadcasters frequently accompany teams on the bus.

“We’re involved with all of these hockey teams intimately,” including often riding on team buses. “They’re always on the bus,” he said.

“I was at the Winnipeg Jets game last night, and pretty well every one of those players, whether a Jet or a Hawk, they’ve spent years on the bus. They all came up through that kind of a process. Until you make it to the NHL, you’re on the bus.”

It’s the same with budding broadcasters, Hildebrand said.

Golden West president Lyndon Friesen said in a prepared statement that Tyler, who had worked with Golden West for five years, travelled with the team frequently as the play-by-play announcer. “Having been with Golden West since the launch of Bolt FM in news and on-air, Tyler was a shining example of what it means to serve a community,” Friesen said.

Brody was his understudy. “Brody had recently joined our Golden West family, mentored by Tyler and the Bolt FM team,” Friesen said.

Both Tyler and Brody were from Humboldt.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of all the young men we lost, and our own colleagues, whose lives have been cut short by this tragic event.”

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca