In part 2, Bob talks about some memorable speaker’s from the SCSB luncheons…some tech innovations over the years…taped vs. live broadcasts…things he used to worry about and why he never developed any shtick?
JF: I know it’s always tough to pick just one, but are there any memorable speeches from the luncheons or an awards banquet?
Bob Miller: Yeah let’s see, we’ve had some really good speakers, Jim Harrick, the former basketball coach at UCLA is always good, he’s upbeat, he would come and talk about the basketball tournament in March, we’d call it March Madness, let’s see who else do we have as a really good speaker you know one of the luncheons we honored Louis Zamperini, the book Unbroken was about him–he was a track athlete at USC and an Olympic athlete and then was stranded at sea during World War II, survived 47 days at sea in a rubber raft and then in a Japanese prison camp and he came back and he was a speaker at the luncheon at 94 years of age and he was just outstanding so you know we get some really good people to come and tell of their experiences and talk about what they’ve done in sports and usually pretty good speakers all the time.
JF: You’ve been involved in sports for over 50 years as a broadcaster—can you talk about the technical innovations that make your job easier or maybe more difficult–technology that stands out over the last 50 years?
Bob Miller: I’ll tell you when I started out, we didn’t have any videotape, we were shooting film and so you had to shoot film and go back to the station and develop the film and then edit the film, splice it together–looking back at it now it’s kind of primitive but that’s what we had to work with until portable video tape was available so that’s been a big change. Probably the biggest change has been the fact that you have remote trucks now, where the station sends the remote truck out to the venue, they put up the antenna and they can do live shots all night long from out there–that has really made a huge difference, especially for the guys doing nightly sports shows where you can have them reporting right from the scene of the game either before a game starts or after a game, interviewing players right away without having to get back to the station. Years ago when they were doing film, they’d have a helicopter, a guy would run out and give the film to the helicopter pilot and he’d fly it back to channel four or channel two and somebody would start editing the film so that’s been a major difference and of course now with the social media and the immediacy of sports and things that happen, you almost have to change the way you approach results in a game because it’s instantaneous where people know what went on, as far as what I think, a magazine that does a tremendous job of writing a story that’s interesting to you, even a week after an event happens is Sports Illustrated. Those writers can take, when you know what happened in a game and write an article that you still want to read and you learn things that you didn’t know before–four or five days after the fact.
I think from a preparation standpoint–for me it’s almost harder to and takes longer to prepare for our telecast now then it ever did 35 or 40 years ago and I think the difference is the volume of material that is out there and available either on computers or Twitter or Facebook or whatever, whereas when I started with the Kings, we got stats from the league once a week on Monday and if you had other games, you had to update those stats by yourself and you got vey limited notes, you didn’t see any other newspaper articles around the league and now, you’ve got all those available to you on the computer and I think it’s always in the back of my mind that a lot of that material is also available to fans and they are super fans in that they read and digest everything that’s out there and I think sometimes it’s hard to say–I hope I’m keeping up to date as much as the fans are on what we’re talking about and I think that has been a tremendously major difference between now and when I started 40 years ago with the Kings.
JF: I think many people don’t think a lot about it–I’ve started to think about it since I’ve become a broadcaster–can you talk about some of the differences between doing a studio taped broadcast interview versus live?
Bob Miller: Well I think live is so much better because, first of all, in the announcer’s mind you realize, ok we’re live, that we’re not on tape and say ‘I didn’t like that’ or somebody says lets stop the tape and do it again, it’s always much better in your mind to say ‘okay we’re live, we’re going to do this’–I think you’re more keyed up and you’re sharper when you’re doing it live than if you’re doing it on tape and I always said to people, even after all these years, I still get excited about doing live television because sports and news are just about the only live telecasts now anywhere and it’s a thrill for me to realize that we’re going to go on live T, for two-and-a-half maybe three hours and hope we can do a good job with a minimum of mistakes and see how it turns out. The other thing is also to have a half hour interview is so much easier than two-and-a-half minutes because with the half hour you just explore things that might come up and not worry about the time. When you got two-and-a-half minutes, you really got to put in, prioritize the important questions you want at the top of the interview just in case you run out of time.
JF: When you started, what were some of the things that you used to worry about a lot and now they don’t even bother you because maybe you’ve been through it so many times before?
Bob Miller: Well when I started I used to worry if every word out of my mouth would satisfy Jack Kent Cooke, who owned of the team and that it was hampering me a little bit in doing this game and I remember about a month or two into my first year with the Kings, I thought I’m going to do the games tonight the way I know best and if that’s not good enough for Mr. Cooke, he can fire me and get someone else and it worked out all right but yeah I still think you worry about identification of players, which I know you spend and I spend a lot of time on memorizing names and numbers so that you won’t have to look down at charts and you can just look at the game and describe it that way. Sometimes years ago, if things would go wrong technically–I used to let it bother me, soon I just decided I’m not in the technical end of this broadcast or telecast and I know nothing about this so I’ll just sit here and wait until they tell me everything’s been fixed and we’re on the air but it used to bother me if we had trouble getting on the air and things like that and finally I just decided that we do so many games, not every night is going to be perfect, you just kind of go with the flow and do the best you can and usually it works out.
JF: This next one is tough because when asking it I realize there’s been some people who’ve been very successful with shtick or have a style or something like that–a catchphrase. I know I’ve talked about it before, you’ve heard me talk about it before, how I think it’s amazing that you just do the game. Did you ever think about developing shtick, catchphrase, something like tha?
Bob Miller: If I think about it, it’s the fact that I never really came up with anything good…you know what I mean. I think some people still like that ‘he shoots, he scores,’ but that was Foster Hewitt and that was not original. You know a lot of guys use that to describe goals which I think the reason a lot of us use it is it really is about the best way to describe it and gets fans excited, you know you’ve got other guys like Mike Lange in Pittsburgh, he’s got all of his sayings and they’re good…
…but I think I judged the audience out here that they were satisfied without having what you call a shtick and going over board in your description of the game and the more I did that, the more I thought well that’s the way people want it because I was getting positive feedback. I didn’t try to come up with things–I tried to rack my mind and try to telecast interesting and if you can put some humor once in a while you can do that but I tried that once when Mr. Cooke owned the team and that day he said to me, ‘dear boy do you know who my next door neighbor is?’ and I said ‘no, I don’t Mr. Cooke.’ He said, ‘Well it’s Jerry Lewis. He’s got fourteen writers, you don’t have any, don’t’ try to be funny.’…
…So that kind of shot me down right there, trying to do much humor but you and I on the air we can try some things some nights without going overboard with crazy sayings that people are trying to figure out what the heck is he saying. I think most of the other announcers you know Chick Hearn did come up with some great sayings for basketball but then Vin on baseball–plays it pretty straight, as I’ve learned, usually do it that way too–so I just went along with what I thought was successful.
Love Bob, love Jim, love Chick, love Vin,
love hockey!!!!!
Hate lockouts!!!!!!!
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DesertKing Reply:
December 15th, 2012 at 5:04 pm
@vegasking,
So negative!
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outstanding post Foxy!
yes, we love our announcers here in SoCal, but Bob Miller is the BEST!
Thanx for the ongoing articles….
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Hey Jim thank you for taking the time to take a picture with my son tonight. He got his acceptance notice from.college, the Reign won and he got to meet you. He was very excited when he got home. You helped him have a great night.
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I read this article out loud to a freind I met tonight, and she fell asleep on me. Women suck!
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DesertKing Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 11:55 am
@Dominick,
DD’s a woman? Holllleeeeeee crud!
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puck73 Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 1:31 pm
@DesertKing, LMAO !
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Lake Forest Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 12:12 pm
@Dominick, friend zone
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Bob is THE BEST hockey play by play man there is.
It has been an extreme pleasure being a Kings Fan for the past thirty years. Bob plays a hugs role in that as does Nick, Jimmy and Darryl and the rest of the king’s fan empire.
Bob makes introducing a new fan to the kings easy because of the way he calls a game.
Bob, you are the best.
Ive been all around the country watching and listening to other teams..watching the Kings play in other bulidings. We are very fortunate to have such a talented and knoweldgable broadcast crew.
Let’s get this lockout settled so we can enjoy defending the Stanley Cup!!!
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Not wanting to hijack the thread, but …
It seems to me that Gary Bettman, as Commissioner of the NHL, should first and foremost feel responsible for the GAME. The Players (NHLPA) and the Owners clearly are looking out for their own interests, and are rightly negotiating hard from their own points of view.
But, who speaks for the Game? Who speaks for the Fans? Who speaks for the Traditions of hockey? Sadly, no one. This whole, sad situation continues because there are only two of three legs supporting the Game of Hockey and negotiating its future. In his present role, Bettman is the mere shill for billionaire Owners, not functioning as a protector of Hockey. Commissioner (noun): a person appointed to regulate a particular sport.
That’s exactly why the NHL and NHLPA are going to Court to resolve their differences. There is no tie breaker built into the NHL system.The Owners refuse to accept the fact that they have not installed a Commissioner to look after the game of Hockey, and thus, really, their own best (investment) interests. They have hired a mouthpiece just as obnoxious as Donald Fehr to be the public face of their demands.
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Lake Forest Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 12:12 pm
@IceGuy, Let me start off by saying I dislike him and fehr because of my emotional investment to the game as they have teken that away from me…..BUT
I would totally disagree with you. With the combination of what you are saying and what has happened, this mouth peice has grown the game from $300M or $400M to $3.3B. How would you like to own a company in which your man in charge does such job???
And while this guy has done that to my company, he takes and is the subject of any backlash over my company. Hell I’d give him a raise!
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CB14 Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 3:22 pm
@Lake Forest, Gary Bettman has done squat to grow the game. The game has grown because of the players and the game of hockey itself, not some midget who knows nothing about the game of hockey. He has done nothing but hurt the game, and it’s owners (see my response to @duncanz below about the owners). The NHL has expanded to record revenues just like every other professional sports league, the NHL is no different than any of them.
It’s my opinion that Gary Bettman has done more to hurt the NHL than he has to help it.
Example #1 – Cancelled an entire season in order to get a CBA that would make it possible for every team to make money, only to possibly do it again 7 years later because the previous CBA ( in which the NHL got everything they wanted) wasn’t good enough for them.
Example #2 – Oversaw the dead puck era in which hockey was nearly unwatchable.
Example #3 – Came back after the season long lockout with exciting new players, Crosby and Ovechkin, and an exciting style of hockey without all the clutching and grabbing, and proceded to show the games on a national tv channel that 40% of the country didn’t recieve, and the rest of the country never visited.
Those are just a few that immediately come to mind. I would think of more but I’ve got to go somewhere.
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HockeyNerd Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 3:27 pm
@CB14, Your post which beat mine by 30 seconds(!) makes my case better than I did.
Lake Forest Reply:
December 17th, 2012 at 9:06 am
@CB14, Simplistic answers I know:
#1 – NHL got everything they wanted. You act like the players were victims. hindsight is 20/20 I know, BUT did any player LOSE on the last CBA? No, in fact when the “NHL got everything it wanted” the players, NOW, would LOVE to play under that agreement. No one is perfect neither are the CBA’s, the players had 57% of HRR, we all know that would change sooner or later. Baby steps, in 7 or 10 years we will have the same argument I think.
#2 – You can blame him for the dead puck era. That’s fine, but it’s no longer the case so it’s water under the bridge.
#3 – Baby steps my friend. Now everyone can watch. Do you think he did not want to get a national TV channel to carry the sport? I think the sport had to grow some more before he could leverage/negotiate with a national tv company.
Disclaimer – I know nothing.
CB14 Reply:
December 17th, 2012 at 5:09 pm
@Lake Forest,
#1 – I’m not saying the players were victims, as you said it turned out just fine for them, just that in the last negotiations Gary Bettman got everything that he and the owners wanted, and it was so bad that we’re probably going to lose another season because of it. To me that’s what is so messed up about this whole thing. We just lost an entire season so that the owners could get a system that worked for them, and it turns out that it didn’t work out for them at all. With that history, whose to say that this deal will work out for them? We could be in this same situation 8 years from now.
#3 – ESPN offered to air the games in a profit sharing system like the NHL had with NBC, but Gary Bettman chose 60 million in guaranteed money from Versus instead. Personally I think the added publicity from being on ESPN outweighs the guaranteed money they got from Versus. 60 million a year sounds like alot, but it’s only 2 million per team, and 1.1 of that 2 million went to the players share.
HockeyNerd Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 3:23 pm
@Lake Forest, If you’re going to argue that, then you have to tell us where those increased revenues came from and what action and / or decision BETTMAN made led to that.
Otherwise I would argue that the sport of Hockey grew IN SPITE OF what Bettman did, not because of it.
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CB14 Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 3:32 pm
@HockeyNerd, like minds
luc20rules Reply:
December 17th, 2012 at 8:06 pm
@HockeyNerd, As much as I dislike Bettman’s personality. It was the rule changes that opened up the game and let skilled players shine after the lost lockout. That has grown the sport, but I will contend at least half the growth of the NHL in revenue dollars is just inflation not marketing, players, *Luck, or Bettman. *Luck is that OLN/Outdoor Network was bought by NBC with its vast # of affiliate stations making the NHL National again and allows every playoff game to be broadcast over the national TV contract.
By this admission then, my uncle Gary is doing precisely what he has been “commissioned” to do. That’s why he’s a Commissioner and not say a President, as the position was termed up until his appointment in 1993.
The primary motives in the “game of hockey” are drastically contrasting ones to the various entities involved in it.
To the players it is their salary and security as much as anything. To the fans, entertainment and the thrill of victory, specifically. For the owners it is all about the profit motive. Winning is secondary but important because it then leads to greater individual profit.
As far as the fans and the traditions, only the sport itself can speak for those.
The labor negotiations are not concerned with fan wishes because the assumption is that the sport has developed to a point of popularity/profitability where it is considered somewhat immune to labor disputes and lockouts. The traditions and fans exist independently and don’t have any skin in this game whatsoever. They are completely outside of the parameters of the CBA because it is an economic issue not an emotive one.
My uncle Gary’s perceived obnoxiousness is not an objective issue in this case. His is not to cater to the fans, nor to the players per se, but to the barons of “the game”. He is the sherrif, the prosecutor, the tax collector, and that is all. Nothing less, nothing more.
“The game” is not the legal property of the fans, nor its traditions, nor the players, nor my uncle Gary for that matter, but that of those who have purchased one of 30 pieces of it, the mineral men, the Philip Anschutz’s of this capitalistic world. Those principals appoint the Board of Governors who in turn hire the Commissioner.
In a way the poor chap is a pawn in these proceedings, just as you and I and the rest of the great unwashed – albeit an $$8 million pawn, admittedly.
For all that logical longwindedacity ….. for the storied tradition, and for us fans of the game of hockey, this really sucks !!!
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puck73 Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 1:38 pm
@Duncanz, Very well written. you have stated how it really is, even though it maybe unpopular to some who browse here.
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CB14 Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 2:40 pm
@Duncanz, If your uncle Gary’s sole job is to make his owners profits, then he’s done a horrible job at it. Under his watch the NHL expanded by 6 teams, of the 5 still in their current location, all of them lost money last year. Those 5 teams lost a combined 50 million dollars. Now that wouldn’t be that big of a deal except for the fact that those 5 teams took in 80 million dollars that could’ve gone to other teams. Each team recieved 3 million in national tv revenue, and they got a share of the leagues revenue sharing pie that was 160 million last year. What do the other owners get out of having those teams in the league? The national tv deal is such a minimal amount of money compared to what teams take in in total revenue that having more teams in crappy tv locations hardly makes a difference in the tv deal. Are the Blue Jackets, Panthers, Quacks, Predators, and Wild in large tv markets? Let me answer that for you, NO.
Not to mention his refusal to sell the Coyotes to someone who will move them to a better location. The Coyotes lost 20 million dollars last year, and that money came directly out of the leagues 29 owners because the NHL owns the team. Combine the 20 million with 3 million in the national tv deal, and 15 million from the revenue sharing pie, and the Coyotes cost the other 29 owners 38 million dollars last year. Should I even bring up the fact that Gary Bettman allowed the Coyotes to move from Winnipeg? Probably not. Oh, and BTW, Winnipeg made 13 million dollars in profit last year while taking in no money from the leagues revenue sharing pie.
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Duncanz Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 3:15 pm
@BC14, If the NHL is supposedly losing all these $$$ then where’s it all going and why has my uncle G lasted going on 20 long and successful years (sans a neglible 2 1/2 seasons of “corrective” lockout time) ?
All these free pucks signed by himself, William L Daly lll and my other favorite executives, and the neverending complimentary tickets to award ceremonies where uncle Gary is receiving yet another well earned service recognition can’t be wrong!
Also, let’s say the Kings were losing money at any stage … should they consequently be moved to Canada too?
Should we just cash in the chips and go back to the Original 6?
This is obviously all the fault of the fans for not responding satisfactorily to the brilliant marketing of the top class and ever-improving network of all-purpose arenas around the National Hockey League and the grateful availability of comprehensively televised games in the modern era of the NHL.
PSA on behalf? You bett!
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CB14 Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 3:31 pm
@Duncanz, feel free to google ‘forbes nhl franchise values’ to see the financial specs.
The NHL owners think GB has done a good job because of the leagues record revenues, but those record revenues are not because of GB or any of his decisions in his 20 years as commisioner.
The Kings bring something to the NHL, a team in the 2nd largest tv market in the US. They also don’t recieve any revenue sharing, thus they don’t hurt the NHL, and therefore should not be relocated.
Duncanz Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 3:50 pm
@BC14, The very fact that he has marshalled the League through 2 difficult recessions while keeping the owners’ offshore financial consultants happy is testament to uncle G’s widely admired efficacy.
What more could one ask?
luc20rules Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 3:01 pm
@Duncanz, While I agree, that your Uncle Gary is just doing what he is directed to do. I have to question if the owners have requested he behave like a jerk. He has no tact or people skills. It would seem to me that being polite and sociable should be part of a job description of someone making 8 mil/yr in salary. You can say no to someone without making them feel there input means nothing.
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Duncanz Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 3:33 pm
@luc20rules, … or you can do it in his own particular proven effective manner.
If he is the face of NHL ownership then it’s more of a comment on the NHL owners, really.
Besides, whenever I’m complimentary of his excellent choice of ties or his Christmas gifts of signed 8 x 10 photos of himself I always get a wrinkled half smile of implied appreciation in return so he seems ok to me.
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DesertKing Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 5:55 pm
@Duncanz,
The only time the Vancouver fans were ever right about anything was when they booed Bettman when he came.onto their ice in 2011 to give Boston the Stanley Cup.
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Duncanz Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 10:35 pm
@DessertKing, I was so offended by that part I cut it out of my video tape of the game.
I also cut out the whole game due to the disappointing nature of the result.
This left me with only the pregame warmups where Ryan Kesler and Alexandre Burrows, before yet another fabulous full house are skating in to shoot on Lu’ with their hair radiant under the Rogers Arena lights.
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DesertKing Reply:
December 17th, 2012 at 7:34 am
@Duncanz,
Were they wearing their diving speedos?
Lake Forest Reply:
December 17th, 2012 at 8:40 am
@Duncanz, Did burrows have a chew toy during warm ups?
Thanks Jim, as always very interesting
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Thanks, Jim great article. Thanks Bob for all the great years and hoping there are many more to come. I just don’t really know if Kings Hockey would have the same feel without your voice, it sure felt a bit weird during the playoffs without it.
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…I just wish the Kings were as good as the Ducks.
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DesertKing Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 8:27 pm
@SDGolfer,
When I heard that the Ducks were the best team at bashing Gary Bettman….
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There once was a troll named Gary
He was so very hairy
But then he cut his hair
So it was barely there
Became self-absorbed
Acting like he was bored
Got a great job
Was even supported by Bob
But he then reverted
And became preverted
As a troll
With a goal
To destroy the one thing we love
The sound of the puck hitting the glove
In order to make
An even larger stake
For a bunch owners
Who wouldn’t qualify to be organ donors
But then came a bear
He was named Fehr
Who fought the troll
And has now become so droll
So no one gives a %%&@
If we ever drop the puck
Because we are all watching football!
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Off topic. Just a reminder, this wednesday is pizza night at Nicks Ristorante. Address, 2300 Harbor Blvd in Costa Mesa. Cross streets, Harbor and Wilson in The Home Depot shopping center. We will be there from 5:30 to 9:30 PM.
So far, here is a list of people that are comfirmed….@OnTheFly, @ShotOnGoal, @luc20rules, @Dominick, @Jeff_R, @puck73, and @vplaza. Their are still other last minute arrivals coming as well.
I will be posting this message the next 2 days as well. See you out there on wednesday, and happy holidays everyone.
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I have to give the NHL owners and players some recognition for being perhaps the best magic act of all time. Together, they have taken my love for hockey and made it all disappear. The fact that they could accomplish such a remarkable feat within a short 6 months after watching Dustin Brown lift the Stanley Cup is all the more incredible. My hat is off to them – they are truly one of a kind!!!
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R.I.P – THE NHL and LA Kings Insider – No need to check in here anymore. Nothing new to learn about hockey.
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DesertKing Reply:
December 17th, 2012 at 1:12 pm
@Pasadena Hockey,
And the Kings will never win the Cup – 06/11/12 forever!
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Pasadena Hockey Reply:
December 17th, 2012 at 3:11 pm
@DesertKing, They can never take that away from us.
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NHL’s so-called southern strategy failed. That’s when this problem started and affected the CBA negotiations. But it’s actually the on-going problem Bettman has to deal with.
According to @EricOnSportsLaw …
Ultimate goal of NHL is to be media driven league in terms of revenue and not gate driven – latter to precarious
NHL deal with NBC is $6.67M/team per year; NFL in 2014 will be $240M per team; in part this is why NHL likes Phoenix – good TV potential
Phoenix is 11th largest metropolitan area in US – has potential to be reasonably strong TV market in decade if keep growing NHL.
Contrast: NHL deal with NBC worth $200 million/year for 100+ games; UFC deal with Fox worth $90 million/year for about 40 events
Benefit for NHL on NBC TV deal is exposure and sampling; all playoffs gms on TV;findability on great network key factor in creating new fans
Yes. Bettman’s plan is failing but he can’t withdraw now.
Keep in mind that the national television deal is the biggest income source for NFL.
Perhaps, this is the too big boat NHL is riding but players must not forget that they are riding the same boat.
If the boat sinks, they will be all drown.
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CB14 Reply:
December 17th, 2012 at 5:44 pm
@goldielocks, The Dodgers will soon be making more money in one year from their Regional tv contract then the ENTIRE NHL makes from their National tv contract. Keep up the good work Gary Bettman!
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goldielocks Reply:
December 17th, 2012 at 7:02 pm
@CB14,
Here’s the latest valuation of NHL teams.
http://www.forbes.com/nhl-valuations/
Don’t you think If Mapleleafs reach 1 billion, NHL can be the big market as NFL?
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This lawyers says NHLPA’s DOI will fail.
http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl-lockout/2012/12/17/nhl_nhlpa_disclaimer_of_interest_antitrust_law/
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goldielocks Reply:
December 17th, 2012 at 7:08 pm
@goldielocks,
I meant lawyer.
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luc20rules Reply:
December 17th, 2012 at 10:08 pm
@goldielocks, I am not a lawyer, but it sounds like the players could just give the NHL what they want end the lockout. Then in a year or what ever time just decertify or do a disclaimer of interest. Then it would be successful, so really what is the problem with the length of the new CBA for the NHLPA, or contract length or salary variance? The Appeals Courts NFL ruling was made because negotiations were in progress.
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