‘Thanks for having me on, Dan’: Brian Burke as Sportstalk’s greatest visitor ever

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In Nice Good Night — A Memoir: My 30 Wild and Turbulent Years of Sportstalk, host Dan Russell recounts the highs and lows of internet hosting a call-in radio sports activities program in Vancouver for 3 a long time. Right here is an excerpt:

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Present me any profitable enterprise and I’ll discover you a turning level.

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Sportstalk isn’t any exception.

Ours occurred on June 3, 1987, the day Vancouver Canucks common supervisor Pat Quinn employed Brian Burke to be his director of hockey operations. That evening we despatched the Sportstalk limo to the Burnaby Villa to ship us the person who would develop into our biggest visitor.

I’m not kidding in regards to the limo. For just a few years we had a “contra deal” with a limo firm to fetch our friends and transport them to and from our studio. That’s till a B.C. Lions participant — whom I received’t title — gathered a few his buddies and took our limo for an extra-long post-show joyride by means of Stanley Park, ran up an enormous long-distance cellphone invoice, and neither paid nor tipped the motive force. Sadly, that was the tip of our nice limo deal.

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Burke might have appreciated his good experience, however he was blown away by the discussion board we provided and the cellphone response. Earlier than sending him again within the limo, I mentioned one thing alongside the strains of, “It’d certain be cool if you happen to might come on commonly.”

“I’ll come on each week,” he rapidly mentioned.

“Actually?” I mentioned, not but figuring out how a lot Burke was going to adore media consideration.

I wasn’t satisfied he meant each week. However he did. And it was ground-breaking. Each week of the yr, irrespective of the place he was, he wouldn’t miss. He could possibly be on a Hawaiian trip along with his spouse, a ski journey along with his youngsters, fishing along with his friends or wherever his hockey enterprise took him. He by no means missed. Wednesday nights meant the “Weekly Canucks Replace with Brian Burke,” and it wasn’t lengthy earlier than that grew to become appointment radio. In response to Burke, it was the primary time any govt from a serious sports activities group had finished a weekly call-in radio present. Good, outspoken, humorous, fast, passionate and dependable. As a number you search for a few these traits in a possible visitor. Burke checked all six containers.

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“Thanks for having me on, Dan” was the comforting means he started and ended each present.

Occasionally, when Burke was someplace in Europe, we’d need to wake him due to the time distinction. Whereas he was on the air, producer Scott Woodgate would name again the lodge and order breakfast to his room. It was at all times amusing to listen to Burke cease speaking on air in mid-thought to inform us somebody was knocking on the door.

“If that is breakfast once more, I’m going to ring Woodgate’s neck,” he’d say with pretend anger.

It was good radio enjoyable to listen to Burke put down the cellphone, prompting me to do a play-by-play of him opening the door, predicting he’d stiff the room service waiter of a tip, listening to him mumble as he introduced his breakfast tray again to the cellphone, after which asking him to explain to our listeners what Woodgate had ordered. Burke at all times performed alongside so properly. He was a pure for our medium, and it completely endeared him to our rising variety of listeners. He beloved these sorts of moments as a lot as we did. Additionally, he by no means requested us to pay the room service cost.

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“What began off as knowledgeable relationship turned in a short time into a really shut private relationship,” Burke recalled years later. “I believe he’s an incredible radio persona, and I think about Dan to be certainly one of my closest and greatest associates.”

Too shut as it might end up. However not but.

Burke didn’t invent our present, irrespective of what number of occasions I reminded him of that. Nonetheless, he significantly accelerated our progress. I used to be in my mid-twenties and starting to get pleasure from what Sportstalk was turning into. Burke provided great entry, together with permitting me to hang around at his workplace and overhear a few of his hockey calls. He additionally helped safe friends from across the NHL and was at all times suggesting methods to additional increase the present’s affect.

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Unquestionably the primary section of our relationship was a win-win, regardless that I used to be sometimes uncomfortable when he would overstep his bounds, not a lot by visitor ideas, however when he tried to change my opinions. Our relationship being what it was, I’d often inform him one thing alongside the strains of, “Why don’t you concern your self together with your last-place hockey membership and let me fear in regards to the content material of my first-place present.” Burke’s ordinary response could be one thing like “F— you.”

Make no mistake — Burke beloved Sportstalk’s bully pulpit the place he was capable of unfold the phrase in response to the Canucks or himself (most frequently that phrase was the identical), however there have been occasions when Quinn would get offended over one thing Burke had mentioned. For instance, there was the time when Burke created this nationwide headline: “Burke threatens to combat personal defenceman Doug Lidster.” Properly, that’s the way it was reported. However to place it in correct context, Burke was pissed off with Lidster’s contract negotiations and the way Lidster talked about his choices within the media. That’s when Burke mentioned, “If I’m his teammate, we most likely have a combat the following day in follow.”

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Despite the fact that the media selected to omit “If I’m his teammate” and “most likely,” I used to be OK with this because it once more raised Sportstalk’s profile by a few notches.

Learn extra excerpts from Nice Good Night — A Memoir: My 30 Wild and Turbulent Years of Sportstalk:

• Excerpt 1: ‘Sportstalk, go forward’: Beginning a Vancouver radio speak present juggernaut
• Excerpt: 2: ‘Thanks for having me on, Dan’: Brian Burke as Sportstalk’s greatest visitor ever
• Excerpt 3: With ‘McKeachie-isms … you by no means know’: A pricey, maddening buddy to Sportstalk
• Excerpt 4: ‘Critique so stinging, so biting, so good’: ‘The Pauser’ known as some photographs on air, and off, at Sportstalk
• Excerpt 5: ‘We linked’: Recalling Sportstalk’s evening in ’94 riven by Rangers and riots

For extra info, go to danrussellsportstalk.com.

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