Beasley Media Group and the Boston Bruins recently announced Ryan Johnston as the team’s new radio play-by-play voice which airs on 98.5 The Sports Hub. Johnston is a familiar voice to hockey fans in the northeast as he has called games for one pro team or another for the last 24 years. He has also called baseball games and filled in many times on the station’s morning show. When it was announced in early August that Judd Sirott would move out of the radio booth and into the television booth for the Bruins after the retirement of longtime team announcer Jack Edwards, Fred Toucher and Rob ‘Hardy’ Poole of Toucher and Hardy immediately began campaigning for Johnston to be named the new radio voice.
Toucher talked about the role Johnston has played on the morning show and being a stable fill-in host as health and contract issues arose. He then said Johnston was a person who, “came up in the industry and the far reaches he worked in, these crap jobs and crap places. With the ultimate goal of at one point achieving a certain job.
“…Why does this person deserve the radio job? Well, like I just said, [he has called games for the] Providence Bruins. They’ve done minor league baseball in parts of the country…has there ever been anyone more deserving for a job? Anyone who’s craved a job? And to all of you out there who have a dream, a dream job, I’m not being sarcastic. This is a great, great story. Because a lot of people would have given up. A lot of people would have said, ‘I can’t do it, I’ve got to get something more stable.’ But this guy didn’t. It was a perseverance. And it’s a really, really great story for everyone to hear. Because if you have a dream, just don’t quit it. You can get it…What better thing do you have to do than going after your dream? So, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce to you right now the new voice of your Boston Bruins on the radio, Mr. Ryan Johnston.”
Johnston was very thankful for what Toucher had said as well as the support the show and the fans had given him over the last several weeks as we waited through the process. Toucher asked Johnston to run through all of the various stops he has had in his play-by-play career. From starting in North Dakota to getting back to the northeast, it has been 24 years of waiting for his chance.
“So, 24 years Ryan has been waiting for this opportunity, he has been just showing his talent over and over again,” Toucher said. “And now the announcement has been made, this is the dream job, right?”
Johnston replied, “This is the dream job.”
He then explained, “When I started out 24 years ago, it was ‘let’s get to the NHL.’ By the time I stopped in the AHL and started working here, it was ‘I don’t want to go to L.A. I don’t want to go to insert team here. I want to be in Boston.’ I want to be with this franchise. So, I’ve applied for jobs elsewhere, haven’t gotten one, but this was the one that I always wanted.”
Johnston said it was tough to wait out the process, but he understood the reason for it.
“This is one of maybe five dozen jobs of this caliber in the world,” he said. “So, there should be a process. It shouldn’t just be handed down like a hand-me-down pair of pants or something like that.”
Poole added, “But that all speaks to how deserving and how qualified and how true it is that you were meant to do this job. And out of all the people out there, because I’m guessing hundreds of applicants, and some of them really qualified people…It’s doing radio in a market where the radio call absolutely 100% matters. It doesn’t in every market, but it matters here. It’s an original six team, and it is something that so many people wanted and probably could make a really strong case for. But the fact is you came out on top because you were the best guy for the job. So, congratulations, Ryan. I don’t know that anyone other than the people who wanted the job are not going to be happy for you. And just say across the board, excellent decision, right choice, it’s going to be awesome.”
“A lot of people here have been very supportive of me,” Johnston said. “And a lot of the listeners have been very supportive of me over the course of the last few months. And I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that because this probably doesn’t happen without a lot of people pushing for me.”
