Yes, I DO Have A Hobby.

(had to use this for my title…you’ll see why…)

Less than a week in and already the pot is being stirred off the ice. It all started last night when the Times Union’s hockey blog Hockey Spoken Here posted an entry about the team’s flagship station, 104.5 WTMM. Like last year, the station will be broadcasting part of the schedule, mostly road games and a few select home games. Unlike last year, there has been a change in station programming, virtually eliminating most local sports coverage and mostly concentrating on national stories, along with broadcasting Yankees and Jets games locally. One of the TU bloggers, Don Ferlazzo (also known on Twitter as @HellOnSkates; check him out, he has done a very good job as a guest contributor) emailed the station’s program director, Brian Noe (who has his own show on the station weekday afternoons) to see if the station would do any additional coverage of the team, like mentioning games, interviewing the coach, etc. Here’s the link that shows what happened next.

Get a hobby? Um, really, Brian?

It’s already a struggle to get people to come to the Devils games as it is, but when the own team’s radio station won’t promote it? Yeah, that’s a problem. If you agree to a contract to broadcast the games, at least give the team some promotion. It’s already one thing that anything local takes a back seat to national (i.e. if there was a Yankee playoff game the same night the Devils were scheduled, Yankees get the air time), but not even giving additional airtime? What kind of LOCAL station are you?

The post garnered so much attention locally that a friend of mine emailed Yahoo’s Puck Daddy (a known New Jersey fan) about it…and earlier this afternoon, it went national. And by all accounts (since I did not listen to The Noe Show this afternoon…appropriate title isn’t it?), Mr. Noe wasn’t exactly sorry for what was said on Twitter. But, the team and the post took up a good portion of the program. Looks like our work here is done!

Now that I got that out of the way…here’s a few other links to pass on:

-On Monday, the overcrowded defense corps was reduced from 10 to 8 as both Harry Young and Joe Sova (who didn’t appear in either weekend game) were assigned to Kalamazoo. The K-Wings start their season Saturday night at home against Cincinnati.

-Another story from Puck Daddy. Let’s just say Friday night may have just become a lot more interesting. And the picture is CLASSIC.

-And finally, an excellent post from the Backhand Shelf about the female hockey fan and its…um…advantages?