Hockey Night in Canada
Hockey Night in Canada is a long-running program of broadcast ice hockey play-by-play coverage in Canada. With roots in pioneering hockey coverage on private radio stations as early as 1923, it gained its current name as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation formed in 1936, and by that time had solidified its focus on the National Hockey League. Transitioning to television in 1952, the program became a Canadian Saturday night cultural fixture and was an exclusive mainstay of CBC Sports through the 2013–14 NHL season. The program continued to be broadcast on CBC Television and expanded to several other outlets in a cross-licensing arrangement following Rogers Media's acquisition of exclusive NHL television rights in Canada beginning in 2014–15; the CBC maintains ownership of the Hockey Night in Canada brand itself.
Saturday NHL broadcasts began in 1931 on the CNR Radio network, and debuted on television in 1952. Initially games were aired once a week, but doubleheader games had debuted in 1995 at 7:30 pm and 10:30 pm start times. Since 1998, the games begin at 7:00 pm and 10:00 pm. The broadcast features various segments during the intermissions and between games, as well as pre-game and post-game coverage of games that day, and player interviews. It also shows the hosts' opinions on news and issues occurring in the league.
Ahead of the 2014–15 season, Rogers Media had secured exclusive national multimedia rights to NHL games and would sub-license Saturday night and playoff games to the CBC. In addition, the HNiC brand would be licensed to Rogers for Sportsnet-produced Saturday NHL broadcasts airing on CBC Television, as well as the Rogers-owned Citytv and Sportsnet outlets. This sub-license agreement runs through the end of the Rogers deal with the NHL.
History
Radio
Hockey broadcasting originated with play-by-play radio broadcasts from Toronto's Arena Gardens, which began on February 8, 1923, on Toronto station CFCA when Norman Albert announced the third period of play of an intermediate men's Ontario Hockey Association game. Foster Hewitt took over announcing duties within a month, and after several years of sporadic coverage that began to include National Hockey League games, the broadcasts went national in 1931 as the General Motors Hockey Broadcast. The program began broadcasting Saturday-night Toronto Maple Leafs games on November 12, 1931, over the Canadian National Railway radio network, of which CFCA was an affiliate. The more-powerful CFRB replaced CFCA as the program's Toronto flagship station in 1932. The show was sponsored by General Motors Products of Canada and produced by MacLaren Advertising, which had acquired exclusive radio-broadcasting rights for Maple Leaf Gardens from Conn Smythe in 1931 and produced the TV broadcast that became Hockey Night in Canada from 1952 until 1988.The Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission broadcast Montreal Canadiens and Maroons games on its Quebec stations in 1933. Imperial Oil took over sponsorship from General Motors the following year, and the broadcast became known as the Imperial Esso Hockey Broadcast. The broadcasts began at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, around the start of the second period of play. The games began to be broadcast on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the CRBC's successor, in 1936. The program acquired what would become its permanent title—Hockey Night in Canada—around that time, which was coined by Foster Hewitt. It featured the Maple Leafs and was hosted by Gordon Calder, with play-by-play announcer Hewitt and colour commentary by Percy Lesueur, in much of Ontario and points west. Montreal Maroons broadcasts were hosted by Doug Smith and Elmer Ferguson in English, and René Lecavalier called Montreal Canadiens games in French. After the Maroons folded in 1938, Smith and Ferguson hosted Canadiens games in English. The popularity of the radio show across Canada made it an obvious choice for early Canadian network-television programming.
Although it was never carried on a U.S. radio station, HNIC became popular with listeners in the northern United States; if a U.S.-based team was playing in Toronto on a Saturday night, thousands of fans in the American city whose team faced the Leafs would listen to the CBC broadcast via skywave ; a game often attracted more listeners to HNIC than local stations did.
CBC Radio aired Saturday-night HNIC broadcasts through 1965, followed by Sunday Night NHL Hockey through 1976. Toronto's CFRB took over the broadcast from CFCA in 1932, and continued to broadcast Maple Leaf games for many years with CBC Radio's Toronto station CBL.
Television
Hockey Night in Canada began airing on Saturday nights on CBC Television in 1952. According to the CBC, instant replay made its world debut on a 1955 HNIC broadcast; CBC director George Retzlaff made a kinescope of a goal, and replayed it for the television audience seconds later.Regular-season games were not broadcast in their entirety until 1968, and only one game was televised each Saturday night until the 1990s. From 1952 to 1964, the HNIC telecast followed the lead of the radio broadcast by beginning at 9 p.m. ET; games were typically joined in progress shortly before the second period. Its start time was moved up to 8:30 p.m. ET at the beginning of the 1963–64 season, allowing games to be joined in progress late in the first period. In the fall of 1968, regular-season games were shown in their entirety and the program began at 8 p.m. Although a handful of games were broadcast in colour during the 1966–67 regular season, all HNIC games began colour broadcasting during the 1967 Stanley Cup playoffs. From 1965 through 1976, HNIC also produced and broadcast a Wednesday-night game on CTV ; the midweek games began to be broadcast by local stations during the 1976–77 NHL season.
The Vancouver Canucks joined the NHL in 1970–71, increasing the number of HNIC venues from two to three. During the 1979–80 and 1980–81 seasons, four more Canadian teams joined the NHL or relocated from the United States. The Oilers and Flames were featured frequently, since the teams were playoff contenders during the 1980s. The Nordiques, owned by Carling O'Keefe with a small Anglophone fan base, were never broadcast from Quebec City during the regular season.
The CBC announced before the preliminary round of the 1976 playoffs that they would not televise any preliminary-round games, and the rights were sold back to the individual Canadian teams. Since Montreal earned a bye into the quarterfinals, this impacted Toronto and Vancouver's television coverage. While CHCH and CITY televised all three games of the Toronto-Pittsburgh series, CHAN picked up the Vancouver-New York Islanders series. Game 1 of the Philadelphia-Toronto playoff series was televised locally to Southern Ontario by CHCH. Game 1 of the 1977 Pittsburgh-Toronto playoff series was seen regionally in southern Ontario on Hamilton's CHCH.
During the 1978 playoffs, the NHL Network began simulcasting many games with Hockey Night in Canada. Dan Kelly, the NHL Network's lead play-by-play announcer, covered play-by-play with HNIC colour commentators; in Game 7 of the quarterfinal series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Islanders on April 29, 1978, Kelly teamed up with Brian McFarlane. The 1978 Stanley Cup Finals between the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins and the 1979 Stanley Cup Finals between the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers were also simulcast.
1980s and 1990s
On April 9, 1980, the CBC carried the ACTRA Awards ceremony. Game 2 of the Hartford–Montreal playoff series was televised in French and the Edmonton-Philadelphia and Toronto-Minnesota games were shown only on local stations CITV in Edmonton and CHCH in Hamilton, respectively. The Vancouver-Buffalo game was televised by the CBC regionally in British Columbia, since the ACTRA Awards show was tape-delayed into prime time on the west coast.Except for the 1982 Stanley Cup Finals, the CBC's only other nationally televised postseason games that year were the April 23 Boston-Quebec game, the April 25 Quebec-Boston game, and the May 6 Vancouver-Chicago game. All the other games were seen regionally.
CTV had the national rights for the 1986 Calgary-St. Louis playoff series, except in the Calgary market. CTV was unable to televise Games 2 and 3 of this series due to prior commitments. The CBC was allowed to televise Games 2 and 3 to Alberta and British Columbia, but not nationally.
On April 18, 1988 at 8:08 p.m. local time, Quebec experienced a power outage. Darkness enveloped Montreal and the Forum; the Forum's reserve generators could only illuminate the rink enough to keep the game moving, and the CBC abandoned its coverage after the first period. Chris Cuthbert was assigned by the CBC to report and provide updates on Game 1 of the Washington-New Jersey playoff series. When Quebec blacked out, the CBC tasked Cuthbert with working the rest of the game. In Boston, WSBK-TV lost the picture but continued audio of the game with Fred Cusick and Derek Sanderson by telephone. Canwest/Global aired the 1988 Calgary-Edmonton playoff series nationally, except for the Edmonton and Calgary markets.
After Wayne Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988, the network began showing occasional double-headers when Canadian teams visited Los Angeles to showcase the sport's most popular player. The games were often joined in progress, since the start time for HNIC was still 8 p.m. ET, while Gretzky's Kings home games began at 7:30 p.m. Pacific. Weekly double-headers became permanent during the 1994–95 season, with games starting at 7:30 p.m. ET and 7:30 p.m. PT, respectively. The start times were moved up to 7 p.m. ET and PT in 1998, with a 30-minute pre-game show airing at 6:30 p.m. ET.
Paul Graham was the senior producer of Hockey Night in Canada from 1998 until 2009.