Preds broadcast team one of the best in the league

The players on the ice during the Niagara Predators games aren’t the only ones who are hoping their experience in the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League leads them to a future in the sport. 

Across the entire league announcers such as Nathan Whale, who does play-by-play for all Preds home games, are also honing their skills with their sights often set on moving to the professional ranks. 

Whale, a third-year student in Niagara College’s Broadcasting – Radio, Television and Film program, took over the role from Niagara-on-the-Lake native Michael Frena at the start of the 2023-2024 season. 

Frena, a graduate of the same Niagara College program whose 21-year-old brother Josh is playing for the team this year, called the Predators games their first two seasons playing in Virgil. But a new opportunity with a Niagara Falls automotive dealership came up that made him unavailable to continue with the team. 

So Predators’ president Robert Turnbull reached out to Niagara’s program coordinator Bruce Gilbert, who recommended Whale for the job. 

“I jumped at the opportunity,” Whale tells The Local. “Rob invited me out to a pre-season practice and introduced me to the team. I had a chance to talk to him and the coaches and to get comfortable with being around the players.”

The Burlington, Ontario native then enlisted fellow third-year student Andrea Pilon to take on the camera operator’s role.

Whale had only done play-by-play once before, and that was for a soccer game. Immediately he found the pace of play a bit different for his September 15 debut when the Predators hosted Tottenham at the Meridian Credit Union Arena to open their season. 

“The Predators didn’t have their names on their jerseys yet,” recalls the 20-year-old. “It was nerve-wracking. I kept looking down at my team sheets, matching the name to the number, but as soon as I would look up again that player no longer had the puck. I sounded like I was one step behind.”

By the third game he was getting to know the players by their numbers and feeling more confident. It helped that he and Pilon were working from the crow’s nest above the scorer’s table at centre ice, in contrast to the press box located in the corner at the spectator level of the arena, from where Frena worked the previous two seasons.

“We had a playoff game last year where we had to use the other rink,” Turnbull explains. “The only place to go was above the penalty box. Even with the old camera, the broadcast was way better. So I asked the town if they would be kind enough to move the ethernet (network) cable to the crow’s nest for this year.”

The move has provided a better vantage point from which Whale and Pilon can more effectively follow the action. And they’re closer to the ice surface and not separated by glass, which brings ambient noise to the audio feed and an authentic in-game feel to the broadcasts. 

Also by the third game, Pilon was becoming frustrated with the consumer grade over-the-counter camcorder provided by the team. She reached out to Turnbull with her challenges and he was happy to acquire a broadcast quality Sony camera for her to use. 

The camera and a clip-on lavalier microphone are both connected to a laptop running OBS Studio, an open-source software program that allows them to stream live directly over the Predators’ YouTube channel. Through a connection with a friend who interned with the OHL’s Peterborough Petes, Whale was able to learn how to add a scoreboard graphic and live time clock to the screen as well. 

The result is a professional looking and sounding broadcast that brings viewers into the action, delivering the excitement and tension of the game right onto viewers’ televisions or other devices. The pair arrive over an hour before game time and their hard work shows in the final product. 

For Whale, the opportunity to work with the Predators is a dream come true. The Toronto Maple Leafs fan grew up loving both hockey and soccer, but it’s those moments at home watching Hockey Night in Canada that got him hooked on a career in sports broadcasting. 

“I miss Don Cherry, intermissions just aren’t as entertaining any more,” says Whale. “I’ve always looked up to (TSN’s) Bob McKenzie, but I am also a big fan of (late Buffalo Sabres play-by-play announcer) Rick Jeanneret. His ‘May Day’ call is my favourite call of all time.”

He’s actually always seen himself in a role more like McKenzie’s, as an analyst who sits on a panel with other hockey experts breaking down the minutiae of the game, rather than as an announcer calling the plays as they happen.

Last fall Whale had a chance, at the invitation of that friend who interned with the Petes, to do colour commentary for a preseason OHL game. He could envision that role being a future career trajectory. 

“But I’ve really grown to like play-by-play since starting with the Predators,” says Whale. “If I could keep doing this in the future that would be great. My ultimate goal would be to be part of a TSN panel of hockey analysts. But I’d be just as happy working on the radio talking about sports.”

Pilon, meanwhile, says she loves the challenge that the fast action on the ice brings to her camera work. She would love to eventually find a full time job doing just that. She recently shot her last game for the Predators for a while, though. She’s off to Toronto to intern as a production assistant on Big Brother Canada for her final semester at the college. 

Turnbull is sorry to see her go, and holds the door open for her to come back any time. He’s also duly impressed that before she left, Pilon suggested a classmate, NathanBeaulieu, who will be able to step into her spot beside Whale come January when the second half of the season resumes. 

And the long-time hockey executive and coach is also duly impressed with the work that both Whale and Pilon have been doing with their broadcasts. 

“We’ve had a lot of feedback from the league and from parents of our players from other teams,” says Turnbull. “Our play-by-play is recognized as one of the tops in the league. He does an extraordinary job, we’re very fortunate to have both of them.”