Minnesota North Stars - Broadcasting

Broadcasting

WTCN-TV Channel 11 (now KARE) carried North Stars games from 1967 to 1979. Usually, 27 road games and three home games were televised each season. Frank Buetel was the play-by-play announcer from 1967 to 1970. Hal Kelly took over for the next few years. followed by Joe Boyle in the mid-1970s. Boyle was joined by color commentator Roger Buxton. After the station gained NBC affiliation in 1979, telecasts moved to KMSP-TV, with most called by Bob Kurtz and retired North Stars defenseman Tom Reid. (Incidentally, Kurtz and Reid are the Minnesota Wild's current radio announce team.) In the mid-1980s, KITN (now WFTC) televised North Stars games with Frank Mazzocco on play-by-play with color commentator Wally Shaver. For a brief period during the late 1980s, North Stars games were telecast over Saint Cloud-based UHF station KXLI (with Doug McLeod on play-by-play and former Islander goalie Glenn "Chico" Resch on color), but given the station's distant transmitter location near Big Lake, Minnesota, reception in the Twin Cities ranged from mediocre to non-existent. Telecasts returned to KMSP by 1990, although few home games were televised—during the Stars' 1991 Stanley Cup Finals run, home games were available only on pay-per-view and not available to most hockey fans in Minnesota. Dave Hodge handled TV play-by-play in the 1990-91 season.

North Stars radio broadcasts originated from WCCO Radio from 1967 to 1978, then moved to another Twin Cities-based clear-channel station, KSTP, where radio broadcasts stayed until the team moved to Dallas in 1993, save a few seasons on a 5,000-watt radio station, WAYL. Al Shaver was the play-by-play radio announcer throughout the Stars' stay in Minnesota. During the WCCO era, Shaver was joined for many home games by WCCO's Larry Jagoe in the early seasons, followed by WCCO personality Steve Cannon. Shaver's partners on KSTP were Russ Small, Ted Robinson, and (during the last three seasons) current Dallas Stars announcer Ralph Strangis. During the Stars' final season (1992–93), Shaver and Strangis called games on KMSP, while the Stars' cable TV game announcer, Doug McLeod, called games over KSTP and the Stars' radio network.

Shaver is a ten-time Minnesota Sportscaster of the Year and, as the 1993 Foster Hewitt Memorial Award-winner, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Following the team's departure to Dallas, he called University of Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey games until his retirement in 1996.

It was on the night of the Stars' final game at Joe Louis Arena versus the Detroit Red Wings that Shaver first shared the broadcast booth with his son, Wally, who is the current Gopher hockey radio announcer. The elder Shaver's call of the closing moments of the last-ever North Stars game went thus:

"It's Ludwig, giving it to Dahlen ... 4,3,2,1 ... and it's all over. The Stars lose it here, 5-3, and now it's pack-'em up time and on to Dallas. We wish them good luck. And to all the North Stars over the past 26 years, we say thank you, all of you, for so much fine entertainment. It's been a pleasure knowing you, Minnesota's loss is definitely a gain for Dallas - and a big one. We thank you, though, from the bottoms of our hearts, for all the wonderful nights at Met Center, when you've given us so much entertainment and you've been such a credit to the community in which you played. We will still remember you as the Minnesota North Stars. Good night, everybody. And goodbye."