Jay Onrait (pictured left) is practically idolized in Canada thanks to his brilliant coverage he provided on TSN’s Sportscentre from 2003-2013. While implementing a fresh new style of comedy into the business of sports broadcasting, the 2011 Gemini award winner (Best Sportscaster in Canada) and his partner Dan O’Toole (pictured right) won the hearts of millions around the “Great White North.”
However, when a new 24-hour sports network in Los Angeles titled Fox Sports 1 sprung up last year and offered Jay and Dan to become the foundation of their daily highlight show Fox Sports Live, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.
I recently got the privilege to sit down with Jay and ask him about his latest adventures in the broadcasting world as well as the various challenges working in a US market can present.
Cristiano Simonetta: It’s been almost a year since your first show on FS1 after you moved down from TSN, what’s been one of the major differences between the two in terms of the way they run things? Jay Onrait: Yeah it’s a good question, I get it all the time and I always say it: it’s really just more money into the production and more people working on the show. Other than that, there isn’t a heck of a lot of difference between a Canadian sports television and an American sports television. That’s probably been the biggest surprise of how similar the productions are and like I said, other than the fact that we just have a little more money to work with and more people involved, so the transition has been really smooth, actually. CS: Hockey seems to have taken a backseat in terms of your main competitor in the sports broadcasting world’s coverage (we won’t say who that company is), how have you guys at Fox Sports Live utilized that fact as an advantage to attract more hockey-crazed viewers? JO: What we’ve tried to do is basically have more hockey highlights, period. We’re under no illusion that hockey is the biggest sport in America or anything, but we were really pleasantly surprised how much hockey highlights and analysis that Fox wanted to do, especially since we’re not the main rights-holder, obviously NBC is, so that’s been another pleasant surprise to be honest with you, how open those guys were to doing more hockey and that has everything to do with us doing stuff that, as you said, the other competitor that can’t be named doing stuff that they’re not doing. Hopefully, we can continue to push that and have more hockey coverage in the future. CS: The Kings just captured their second Stanley Cup in three seasons, what has the atmosphere been like in L.A.? Do you think it is slowly becoming a hockey town? JO: Well first of all, we’d like to take credit for the Kings victory because we moved down here. Another thing that I’ve been really impressed with is L.A. as a hockey town, it’s definitely a Laker town and a Dodger town and everybody else is sort of a distant third. You have to give credit to the Kings fans, they’re definitely out there filling the building every night. Not to say it’s leading off all the local sportscasts, but there’s definitely an awareness of the Kings and obviously success helps that. Like you pointed out, they’ve won a couple Cups in the last three years certainly helps that, but I’ve been impressed. Even the [Anaheim] Ducks too, you know? I’ve been impressed with both fanbases. It doesn’t just go back to the Gretzky days; I think it honestly goes back to the fact in the Kings’ case they had those amazing teams of Marcel Dionne, Charlie Simmer, and Dave Taylor. When you’re a team that has been around that long, you have cultivated a history with your team and you’re going to get different generations of Kings fans coming after one another. This new, young generation of fans will look up to the Doughtys and the Anze Kopitars and the Jonathan Quicks of the world and hopefully it continues because I really believe that L.A. is a hockey market that absolutely can support these two teams. CS: What were some of your favorite individual moments from when you covered the Sochi Olympics in February? JO: It was absolutely, for me, the crew I got to work with. I was able to go up and watch Shaun White in the snowboard half-pipe and unfortunately he didn’t win, but what a magnificent athlete that guy is. He was head and shoulders above the rest and unfortunately he just didn’t have the best runs when it counted. In the practice runs, he was sensational. I just love the Winter Olympics, obviously it’s such a cliche because I come from Canada, and that’s the Winter Olympics that Canadians do well in. But, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and it was kind of weird being there as a Canadian and then covering American teams, but I found it more seamless than I expected. I felt myself rooting for the Americans, I really wanted them to do well. I hope we get to go to the next Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang [South Korea] because I think that’s going to be a good one too. Another thing that I was really impressed with was how nice and organized the Russians were with the whole games. Everything went off kind of without a hitch; some of the accommodations were better than others, but what do you expect, we’re not staying at the Four Seasons. I just thought the people were terrific, they were very friendly and spoke great English and I think they should be proud. CS: You just wrapped up shooting a scene in the new Corner Gas movie along with “Dutchy” (Darren Dutchyshen) and Dan, can you see yourself taking on more speaking roles in films down the road, maybe some Oscars perhaps? JO: Oh God no. You have to know what you’re good at and as I approach age 40, I know what I’m good at and that’s being a sportscaster. Filming on Corner Gas which is a hugely popular Canadian sitcom, was just a dream come true for me, such nice people. It was such a thrill; but I had my one line, I delivered it, and I was happy with that. I’m just hoping it doesn’t end up on the cutting room floor. CS: You still have the same amount of Oscars as Leonardo DiCaprio does (sorry Leo), so you’re not too far off. JO: (Laughs) CS: As an Oilers fan, seeing as they are a young club gradually maturing, how do you think the free agent acquisitions of Mark Fayne and Benoit Pouliot will benefit their team? JO: I love them. I think they desperately need a second-line center, but I do love the acquisitions they made. I think Fayne is a really smart player with the puck and I think Pouliot adds a little bit of grit that the forward group needs. I also love the acquisition of Teddy Purcell, I was a huge Sam Gagner fan, but I think ultimately he just didn’t fit in the context of the team anymore, and I think Purcell fits better. So I love what Craig MacTavish [Oilers GM] has done, I was skeptical about him as a general manager, but I have to give him credit. I saw something the other day that since he’s taken over in a year, he has overhauled 75% of the team. Literally the only guys left are the core group of first round and first overall picks as well as Justin Schultz. Whether it works out, I don’t see them as a playoff team right now, but hopefully they can win a few more games because I know that fanbase is starting to get a little bit impatient. They were all over the rebuild, they were happy with it, but five years down the road here you have to start showing some results. CS: Everyone in Canada is fully aware by now that Rogers has bought future NHL broadcasting rights, wrestling the control of hockey coverage away from TSN, what were your initial thoughts when you heard the deal was finalized? I know you still have a great relationship with guys like James Duthie and Bob McKenzie. JO: Obviously we were all really upset for the TSN guys because I really believe they do hockey better than anyone in the world. It seemed a shame to me that the NHL wouldn’t at least split it up a little bit. Having said that, I’ve got friends that work at Rogers too, so give those guys credit. They’ve got a lot of good people working for them so I’m sure they will do a great job, and I think TSN will be just fine, to be honest with you. They have lots of regional hockey, including the World Juniors, I think they’ll be just fine. It’s one of those things where you play with the hand you’re dealt and do the best you can. In the end TSN, because they’re not paying out that $5.2 billion in rights fees, might end up making more money than Rogers down the road. CS: Your book Anchorboy, which discusses various stories throughout your career, was released in North America earlier this year. Do you mind pitching it for a bit to readers who haven’t had a chance to pick it up off the shelves? JO: Well it’s on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca, I hope you pick it up. It’s very reasonable, around ten bucks. The thing that I think is appealing about it is that hopefully to aspiring broadcasters, journalists, and anyone who wants to get into the sports media “biz,” is that it shows you how to embrace the journey, not just the destination. I know for a lot of people who grow up in major centers, they can’t imagine living in a small town as they gain experience in this business. I try to tell stories about my time in smaller communities and how much fun I had, how many great friends I made, and how good it was for my career in the end. I just knew that it never sense for me to start in a market like Toronto or Chicago because you don’t want to make your big mistakes in front of a big audience like that. You’re much better off to go to a smaller market where you can be allowed to do way more things too. You might get to shoot and edit, all those skills are really important so hopefully people read it and realize that. There’s some fun stories along the way about my career too so I think it’s a pretty good read. CS: Do you have any advice you could give to someone who is pursuing a career in sports broadcasting, perhaps some secrets of the business? JO: Well, I mean number one to me is that I really believe that writing is still the most important skill you can have. It doesn’t matter if you’re just reading a teleprompter or a play-by-play guy, I really believe that being able to write well is the most important skill in this business still to this day and always will be no matter if it’s TV, web, or print. The other piece of advice I give everyone relates to what I just said about Anchorboy: be willing to move anywhere for a job. Don’t limit yourself by saying you’ll only go to the east coast or west coast or “I’ll only stay in a major center.” The first opportunity you have, if you want to be on-air, the first chance you get no matter what you’re getting paid no matter where it is, take it. It’s a heck of a lot easier to get that experience when you’re young and you don’t need as much money than it is ten years down the road in your 30’s when maybe you have a girlfriend or family and suddenly you can’t make those decisions quite as easily because you have someone to support. That’s my advice, if you really believe you want to do it, it’s attainable. But you have to jump into it as young as possible and you have to take whatever job is available to you and try to soak up as much information as you can.
I’d like to thank Jay Onrait once again for taking the time out of his busy schedule to answer my questions. You can follow him on Twitter @JayOnrait and you can catch the most recent episode of The Jay and Dan Podcast on Youtube.com here.
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