Hockey Announcers Silenced in This Dispute

Their voices have been muted during the NHL lockout.

Steve Carroll, who normally does radio play-by-play for the Mighty Ducks, anguishes while the owners and players fight over how to divide up league revenues. His per-game deal has left him without a steady paycheck during the 130-day lockout.

“If it wasn’t for my wife working, we’d be in serious trouble,” Carroll said.

Bob Miller, the Kings’ veteran TV announcer, has discovered he is not ready to hang up the old vocal cords. After 31 years on the airwaves, he has no desire to start calling bingo.

“One thing I’ve learned is that I’m not ready for retirement,” Miller said.

Players in the union, even those who are playing in Europe, receive monthly checks from the National Hockey Players’ Assn., either for $5,000 or $10,000.

Owners, some of whom have boasted about losing less money with the NHL on the shelf, have a $300-million lockout fund that still hasn’t been tapped, according to a league source.

But the announcers who sell hockey over the airways were left out in the cold when the lockout began on Sept. 15. Like arena workers and team employees who have been laid off, many have been put in financial limbo.

For Carroll, no games means no money. “My last pay check [from the Ducks] was in April,” he said. “I do a little freelance here and there and I’m able to pay a couple smaller bills. It doesn’t pay the mortgage.”

Carroll has continued to contribute on the team’s website, for which he receives some monthly pay. He also found piecemeal work doing Angel pregame shows for a second-tier sports television company.

Carroll could explore other full-time opportunities, but he would have to give up a job with a major league team and go back to calling minor league sports, which he did for 18 years before catching on with the Ducks five years ago.

“I would be able to survive if I could pick up one more thing,” Carroll said. “But how can I take something, because I don’t know if a season will be played? If they cancel the season, then you can inquire about other opportunities. I can’t give a full-time commitment. I have worked 30 years to get this position. I have to wait it out.”

Miller has had little work as well, although, with a contract, he is in a calmer financial situation. He was involved in the FSN re-broadcasts of memorable King games during the fall but has spent most of his time sitting and waiting for the labor dispute to be worked out.

“I was very optimistic, even before Christmas, that they’d get something done,” Miller said. “Especially when it was noted that 10 years ago [during the last lockout] they didn’t have a deal until Jan. 11 and they [then] played 48 games. I was more and more pessimistic as that date passed.”

The meetings involving NHL and NHLPA executives Wednesday and Thursday raised Miller’s hopes some.

“My feeling is, ‘Fine, play something like 36 games and the playoffs, but don’t cancel the whole season,’ ” he said. “I still have my hopes up a little, because they are talking.”

The talking stopped Thursday, at least for now. So Miller and Carroll will not be talking, at least on the air.