By Tim Ubels (Contributor) – Email
Print Edition: October 2, 2013
Last month, the Abbotsford Heat announced a new partnership with CIVL radio that will bring the Heat back to the airwaves.
The deal hands over broadcasting rights to CIVL for the 2013-14 season, after the team was unable to find a partner for radio broadcasts during the 2012-13 season.
The Heat also announced the renewal of last year’s deal with the Team 1040; the broadcasts will be available online on its website, Teamradio.ca.
CIVL station manager Aaron Levy talked about his excitement in bringing American Hockey League sports to the campus radio station.
“I’m a sports fan, but sports is often something you don’t think of when you think of campus radio. You think of politics, music, things like that.” Levy added, “This is a unique opportunity for CIVL because there aren’t any other campus stations broadcasting professional sports on a regular basis.”
Some have been critical of the deal, claiming it contradicts CIVL’s mandate to serve as a non-profit campus and community station that primarily employs volunteers to produce and host content.
“Some people have questions whether it will be an appropriate kind of relationship, with the Heat being a for-profit business,” Levy responded. “[The Heat] operates within our community, works with the community, and it provides a lot of value for us to be able to do this.”
Levy also explained that all regular scheduled CIVL programs that conflict with Abbotsford Heat games will be pre-empted by the new Heat programming. But he assured regular CIVL listeners that he will ensure “programmers who are losing their time in those instances have opportunities to broadcast their content elsewhere in our schedule, and that will be on a case by case basis.”
The deal will provide CIVL with signage, branding, and opportunities to promote itself during Heat games this season.
Brandon Astle, who joins the Heat this year as the radio play-by-play announcer, stated, “As an organization we are thrilled to have CIVL on board as a radio partner. Having every single Heat game [broadcast] over the airwaves will create a stronger connection with fans in the Fraser Valley toward the team.”
Heat president Ryan Walter explained the Heat’s relationship with the campus station to the Abbotsford News.
“We have a very strong partnership with UFV. We’re close to each other location-wise, and we’re two organizations that want to continue to grow … I think CIVL will have some benefit from our reach and the people that listen to us, and we’ll get the benefit of having our games on the air.”
You can tune into CIVL 101.7 FM or listen online at Teamradio.ca this Friday, October 4 to hear the Heat’s season opener against the Lake Erie Monsters. The puck drops at 4:30 p.m.
