fos Smith, ¢ a former goalie for a. ' Scarborough, Ont. team, took over as announcer this season. aod reytanes iy 7 COLIN SMITH, the River Kings home game announcer, awaits the Start of, the final regular season home: game at. the Terrace Arena ‘Jan. 29. : | MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO: The voice from above....keeping River Kings’ fans i in touch with their on-ice heroes By MARGARET SPEIRS .WHILE RIVER Kings fans watch their favourite . players skate to victory, they may not pay much attention to the voice that keeps them apprised of what’s happening on the ice. : His is the voice who speaks the words that start every home game: “Ladies and gentlemen, wel- _ come your Terrace River Kings.” ' “That’s my favourite part,” says Colin Smith, the man whose words boom through the arena ' from the sound room above the stands. : _ The young broadcaster took over the announc- “er’s booth at the start of this hockey season after moving here from Kitchener, Ont. last June to _ take a full-time job with Standard Radio as the af- ‘ternoon DJ and take advantage of the opportunity to come to B.C. Smith is joined in the booth by Jabin Perry; who programs the tunes to keep the fans and team raring to go throughout the games. “What's a hockey game without AC/DC?” : Perry says, flipping the switch to blast music into the arena for the Kings’ warmup. Perry notes that he cranks the music when the ° River Kings score, but leaves the airwaves silent JABIN PERRY, left plays the turies 5 and | runs ‘the. sound equipment in the « announcer’s booth. ‘Here he. and Colin Smith share a laugh during .when the opposing squad finds the net. “It’s not worth celebrating,” he says. Smith, a self-professed hockey fan who previ- ously played in goal for the Scarborough Western Mustangs, jumped at the chance to take his radio experience and love of the sport to another level -when he heard team owner Burny Carlsen was looking for'a new announcer after Andy J ackson decided not to return this season. . “ Smith joined Perry: inthe booth and the two" hititoff. |. Smith really gets into the game from his bird's. eye view. “T feel like I’m part of it,” he says. -The job keeps him busy despite the lack of but- tons to push or music to mix like his radio job.. “Tt keeps | me on my toes because I never know | - what’s going to happen,” he says.. “All of'a sudden there can bea fight and I’m announcing like 10 names or there could bea ‘pe- Tiod . with no whistles and then I’m doing noth- . ing,” Having an audience he can see'is.a change — from the. radio where it can ‘feel like he’s talking to himself. “Hey, if I mess up, 1,000 people are going to hear it,” he says. The scorekeeper keeps Smith on top of who scored, assisted, received a penalty and anything else he needs to know via radio. Smith arrives before each hockey game, flips a couple of knobs to turn on the microphone and he’s ready to go. He keeps a copy. of the River Kings roster in: : front of him and checks the. visiting team’s Web site or the. game program for its roster. The River Kings fans are awesome, he says. ° “They respond pretty well,” he says. “When Terrace plays Kitimat, don’ t tell me it Ss “not exciting.” Smith attended Conestoga ‘college in Kitch- ener where he graduated froma three-year broad- casting program that consisted of one year each of television and radio and the final year where he chose to specialize i in radio. : . Smith plans on sticking around here for a long a time. - ; “Man, this place is so beautiful. It’s surround- ed by mountains. Why would I want to leave?” _ he.says.. a break in the River Kings final regular season home game. MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - A5 | ee The Mail Bag Massacre must stop Dear Sir: When a police officer gets killed in the line of duty the whole country mourns and hundreds of officers in their finest parade uniforms come from near and far to honour ‘a fallen comrade and that is the way it should be. set do we pay attention: -It-is immensely, more. dangerous to be a worker than a 4 peace officer, but 43 loggers a year must die for us to pay. attention. Are their lives worth less than an RCMP officer? a _of the fact that fewer people are. working in. the bush? I believe that the reason is that the whole culture of logging has changed. bers guided by collective agreements ‘spelling out the num- who made sure that safety meetings took place regularly and unsafe situations were redressed. ‘ _ : What is happening today is that the corporations hold- ing the tree farm licences are contracting out the work to _ sponsibility and’that whoever will do the work must work he would not have. . “vironment where little or no attention is paid to anything: “but the bottom line, i Lé.: raw capitalism at its worst. — - changed its'name to ‘Worksafe’ ' ‘still have.to fight for months or years for their. rights. - families: who lost their provider and loved one. My con-. ' place must stop.” _ ote “John Jensen, Terrace, B.C. rh re 1 Happy about transplant -Dear Sir: Lorne Fisher, Terrace, B.C, Your money is' ‘wasted. : | ear sir: ne _payer-supplied finds are.opened to:scrutiny of that office, _ then the perception that the following examples of waste tion will continue. _One: Joe Volpe, the former immigration minister, was: ‘in travel and hospitality. expenses between March 2 and June 1' of last year.. The expenses included bills for the evening, of March 21 of lasts year in which the minister night. « Two: Former Royal. Canadian Mint president David ships,. etc., etc... - did on behalf of .a phatmaceutical firm that was trying. for $241,000 per-year, with an “escalation, Clause based Currently the rent is $6 million a year. pires in 2045, with no foreseeable return. . Penditures, land except to waste taxpayers money at a rate that makes - elations of their massive squandering appear miniscule by comparison. ot excesses from being repeated. Abe Bourdon, Terrace, B. Cc. - Welcome home, boys _ Dear Sir: ' Their family and friends must have gone through some were a distant second during this crisis. ~ Tam very proud to be: Canadian. I love my. flag and. country beyond description.” Welcome home, boys. . , |: Roy Atrill, Thornhill, B. Cc. ; “About the Mail Bag. The Terrace Standard welcomes letters. ‘address is 3210 Clinton St., Terrace, B.C. V8G S5R2. You can fax us at 250-638-8432 or e-mail us at newsroom@ terracestandard.com. No attachments, please.. Name, address andphone number required [for verification. When a logger or construction workers gets killed on’ the job society barely stops long enough to bury him. In. fact, only when records of the number getting killed are . Why is it that the number of fatalities i is so high in spite In times gone by fallers and truckers were union mem- ; ber of hours that were safe to work, and by shop stewards. - the lowest bidder, thereby assuring that they have no re- - - faster and longer to support their families, and force the’: truck: drivers to make that one more load, when Perhaps 3 In short what you now have i isa ahighly competitive en- 5 : . Meanwhile, the, Workers’ Compensation Board has. : Does this mean less.’ » ‘ compensation? They. are still ‘understaffed: and workers — The word “Worksafe” has a hollow ring to it for the c ~ dolences and thoughts goes to the family. To the rest of . society I say this: the massacre taking place i in the work- * . Lam so happy to hear that Baby | Jenna: Parkes has TOs es, _ ¢eived ‘a new heart.: I wish the. family all the best in this -. Christmas season.’ Our prayers ; are with Jan and Nancy, Ses “and their children. oa OE ES es SE Until .the federal. government widens: the mandate of core - the Auditor General ‘so: that. all federal spending of tax-- and extravagance are indeed the norm and not the excep- | dined in two separate Ottawa restaurants. His. staff ex-- plained Volpe did in fact attend two dinner meetings that | Dingwall, a Chretien-era cabinet minister who Was ap- .__ - pointed head of the mint ini 2003 but then resigned under ‘* a cloud of suspicion after it was revealed. he racked up-~ * $748,000 in expenses for travel, hospitality, golf member- _ He is also accused of i improper lobbying’ for work he: A ~ to’ secure money from Ottawa’ s Technology Partnership: wy "Program. ae _ - Three: In 1974 the ‘federal. government: eased - Jand oa from the Squamish First Nation. The lease. was originally," upon: the highest rent that the property: could: generate. os The'federal government has yet to do” anything with the land in question except to continue to pay. the renit. At’. the current rate of escalation, not taking into consideration ._ the increased value of property this’ close to the Olympic: : site, over one billion dollars of taxpayers money willhave:. : been Spent by the federal government before the lease ex-- The first two go. beyond the outrage: of being simply vO examples of excessive government expenditures. To add . insult to injury, what is more galling is the fact that when public outcry called for accountability, the - spending me of these two federal officials (Volpe and Dingwall) was ©. >): _ deemed to. be “within the guidelines” of acceptable, ex- cn ' The third item is is hopefully a singular example of gov- : 4 ‘emment waste. To date, nothing has been done with the .~ the Volpe, Dingwall and even the Adscam - Gomery rev- .iClearly these instances go beyond | a call for? an’ éxpla- , . | “nation, or some glib form of accountability. Legislated Ae guidelines are required that will prevent these and other, a Our three soldiers. who | were are seriously injured i in : 7 ” Afghanistan are-finally back-on Canadian soil. I lost sleep. - " and shed many tears’ during the initial ‘news reports. very tough times. They continue to do so. The elections; — When our soldiers get, hurt doing a difficult job 1 I know ' exactly where the pride comes from. — Our :