TheNational Hockey League (NHL), a professionalice hockey league active in theUnited States andCanada, is broadcast over the radio mainly in its participating countries.
Hockey Night in Canada has its origins in theGeneral Motors Hockey Broadcast which transmitted Saturday night hockey games of theToronto Maple Leafs beginning in November1931 over theCanadian National Railway radio network. In1933, the CNR's successor, theCanadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, commenced broadcasts ofMontreal Canadiens andMontreal Maroons games on itsQuebec stations.[1] In1934,Imperial Oil of Canada took over the sponsorship fromGeneral Motors Products of Canada and the broadcast became known as theImperial Esso Hockey Broadcast.[2][3] Transmission began at 9 p.m.Eastern Time (the beginning of the second period of play). Starting in1936, the games were broadcast on CRBC's successor, theCanadian Broadcasting Corporation (with the series acquiring its present title around the same time). In much of Ontario and points west the show featured the Maple Leafs and were hosted byGordon Calder with play-by-play announcerFoster Hewitt and colour man wasPercy Lesueur.[1] Montreal broadcasts were hosted byDoug Smith andElmer Ferguson broadcast forMontreal Maroons games in English andRené Lecavalier broadcastMontreal Canadiens games in French. After the Maroons folded in1938, Smith and Ferguson provided English broadcasts of Canadiens games. The great popularity of the radio show (and its announcer Foster Hewitt) across Canada made it an obvious choice for early Canadian network television programming.
CBC Radio aired Saturday nightHNIC broadcasts through1965, switching toSunday Night NHL Hockey from1965–76, after which the games moved exclusively to television coverage. In Toronto,CFRB (originally a CNR Radio affiliate) continued to simulcast Maple Leaf games for many years alongside CBC Radio's Toronto stationCBL.[1]
During the 1930s, thanks to the powerful 50,000-watt transmitters ofCBC Radio, the CBC'sHockey Night In Canada radio broadcasts became quite popular in much of the northern United States, especially inBoston,Chicago,Detroit, andNew York City, the four U.S. cities that had NHL teams after 1924, but also in cities with minor-league or major collegiate hockey teams. Since most local radio coverage of U.S.-based NHL clubs was restricted to home games in those days, whenever Toronto hosted a U.S.-based team, many listeners in the home city of the visiting U.S.-based team would tune in. It has been claimed that during the late 1930s,Hockey Night In Canada was the most popular Saturday-night radio show during the fall and winter months in much of the northern United States.
National radio coverage of the NHL in the United States has been considerably spotty and/or sparse. Perhaps, the first example of national radio network coverage of the National Hockey League in the United States was in1935–36, whenMutual broadcast someChicago Black Hawks games. Mutual would follow this up by broadcasting Wednesday nightNew York Rangers home games in early1956. Only some stations broadcast these games.
Network coverage would finally resume in1981, whenEnterprise Radio broadcast theStanley Cup Finals.[4] However, Enterprise Radio folded up shop shortly thereafter.
In 1989,[5] the NHL signed a two-year contract (lasting through the1990–91 season) withABC Radio for the broadcast rights to the All-Star Game and Stanley Cup Finals.[6][7] ABC Radio namedDon Chevrier[8][9][10][11] andPhil Esposito[12] as their main commentating crew.
In1992, national coverage of theAll-Star Game andStanley Cup Playoffs were broadcast onStar Broadcasting.[13][14] Oneyear later, theGlobal Sports Network obtained[15][16] the national radio broadcasting rights to theAll-Star Game andStanley Cup Finals.Howie Rose[17] andMike Keenan[18] were the commentators for Global's coverage.
Starting with1993–94 NHL season,Westwood One'sNHL Radio package debuted (covering the All-Star Game, Stanley Cup Finals,[19][20] selected early round playoff action, and eventually, theWinter Classic).
XM Satellite Radio is the official satellite radio broadcaster of the NHL, as of July 1, 2007.[21] Between September 2005 and June 2007, the NHL's broadcasting rights were shared with both XM andSirius Satellite Radio and were broadcast on just Sirius before the NHL lockout. XM used to broadcast more than 80% of NHL games, including all the playoffs and finals. Starting with the 2007–08 season, XM broadcasts every game.
On December 22, 2015, the NHL announced thatTuneIn would gain radio rights to the NHL. TuneIn would create an individual station for every NHL team to simulcast their home market broadcasts on. Additionally, TuneIn would create a replay channel for each team so fans could listen to the games archived. They would also create a 24/7 NHL Channel, and the NHL would imbed TuneIn's player onto the NHL.com website. All TuneIn NHL items would be made available to the entire public free. The first broadcasts for TuneIn began New Years Day, 2016.[22]
On Tuesday, May 3, 2016,NBC Sports Radio was granted rights to broadcast[23] and syndicate the 2016 Stanley Cup Finals.Kenny Albert provided the play-by-play whileJoe Micheletti served as color commentator.[24] This would be the first neutral national broadcast since the2008 NHL Radio broadcast.
TheSports USA Radio Network took over rights to the NHL in February 2021 and broadcast the two outdoor games held in the2020–21 NHL season and playoff games.[25] It would later renew its rights until the 2024-25 season.[26]