Postponed NHL season means grad is out of more than just money
Cory Whippler, a 2017 graduate of the television broadcasting program, works for the Ottawa Senators filming hockey games at the Canadian Tire Centre.
When he found out the NHL season would be postponed, he knew he would be out of more than just an income.
“I need to find a way to make up for the income and extra camera work I was going to be missing out on,” he says about his first thoughts after finding out there would be no work for the remainder of the hockey season.
The National Hockey League announced the 2019-2020 season would be paused starting March 12 in a statement from Gary Bettman. The decision came after the news of an NBA player testing positive for COVID-19. Since the leagues share facilities the chance of a NHL community member testing positive was likely.
“From the time I started the program at Algonquin, I knew I wanted to work in live broadcasting and sports,” said Whippler. “As a kid, playing sports, hockey was my favourite.”
Whippler has worked as a part of the in house camera crew for the Ottawa Senators for four years. This involves everything from videoing the hockey game to the fans in the crowd.
“Getting to see kids so excited by being on the big screen, seeing how they react and light up, is a really satisfying part of the job,” said Whippler.
Since the season being postponed happened in March, there were still home games scheduled Whippler would have been working.
“I lost working those games and money. But aside from the financial aspect of it, I’m losing work experience not getting those games,” said Whippler. “Experience is so important in broadcasting and media, the more practice the better.”
Broadcasting employers look for experience when hiring for jobs. Having more experience helps when trying to find a more permanent broadcasting job.
“With not working the games, I can’t get the experience that other jobs are looking for,” said Whippler. “It’s not only impacting my current state of life, but could also be making life harder down the road.”
Whippler is hoping to be working with a national broadcast crew for sports in the future.
“That’s not to say I don’t enjoy my job now but I would much rather have it on a big scale,” he said. “I feel it has more of an impact, more people would see my work.” he said.
“Being in the moment and live, you never know what’s going to happen,” said Whipper. “You have to follow the puck and if something goes wrong you have to fix it on the fly or your program is messed up. The extra pressure is what draws me back to it.”
