‘The gold standard’: CKNW’s iconic Canucks play-by-play voices reflect on anniversary

For more than three decades, CKNW radio served as the voice of the Vancouver Canucks.

The station aired every game the team played from 1970 to 2006 and served as a launchpad for some of Canada’s most recognizable play-by-play broadcasters.

To celebrate the station’s 75th anniversary, three of those legendary broadcasters joined host Jon McComb on Thursday to reflect on their time calling Canucks games for CKNW.

Perhaps the biggest name to call those games was Jim Robson, who held the role for decades.

But Robson said his connection with CKNW started long before that, when as a child he was a member of the “12:30 Club” in 1944.

“I was hoping to hear my name called so I’d get a box of chocolates. And I visited CKNW in 1951 when I was 16 and I talked to Bill Hughes about getting into broadcasting,” he said.

LISTEN: Legendary Canucks broadcasters reflect on time at CKNW

He followed through, and in 1952 circulated an audition tape he described as “poor” around the province, eventually landing a job at CJAV in Port Alberni.

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Then the stars aligned.

“When the NHL came in 1970, Bill Hughes, who was the president of western broadcast, came and said, ‘Would you change stations to do NHL hockey?’ and I said, ‘Of course I would.'”

Robson would go on to pair up with Tom Larscheid in 1977 for a broadcast team that would cover Stanley Cup runs in 1982 and 1994.

Jim Hughson, himself a veteran voice of the Canucks, told McComb that Robson set the standard for play-by-play — and served a key mentor.

He said when he first arrived at the station in the late ’70s as a naive 20-year-old who thought he knew everything, Robson set the example.

“He was always willing to share, he showed me how he prepared, and then I just watched and listened,” Hughson said.

“When I dug into what Jim was doing it was some of the stuff I still do now, in terms of the way I prepare for a game — and my notes and that kind of thing would look exactly like Jim’s because I copied everything he did.”

For play-by-play broadcaster John Shorthouse, another CKNW alumni, those powerful voices were one of the things that made being a Canucks fan as a youth worth it.

For nearly a decade-and-a-half starting in the mid-1970s, the team finished season after season below .500 and voices like Robson’s kept fans engaged.

“I contend to this day that the best part of the team was the broadcast,” he said.

“Jim was, in my mind, the gold standard. There were players that you loved and fan favourites, but they never won. But the broadcast was just excellent. We were blessed growing up in this market to have that be the standard that we’ve all tried to carry on since.”

CKNW is broadcasting live from New Westminster’s Anvil Centre until 6 p.m. on Aug. 15 to celebrate its 75th anniversary.