New voice on Riders broadcast team

“It was great, just knowing how valuable and important the position is to think I am the person who the right people have deemed qualified to have that job,” he said.

Taylor decided to apply for the position after hearing Pedersen had resigned from the post. He also spoke with his wife, who currently lives and works out of Saskatoon, who supported him applying.

“I put in my name to them, fortunately I think they knew who I was from my work at TSN,” he said.

After putting his name in, Taylor went through the hiring process which lasted for a total of eight weeks. The process started with submitting a demo of him working on radio, he then spoke with management at Harvard Broadcasting before taking part in a formal interview process. The final part of the hiring process involved candidates doing some take home assignments to assess their skills further.

“A couple of stress induced, stomach churning couple of weeks waiting, and then they finally said hey, we would love for you to take this job,” said Taylor.

While Taylor has most recently been working for TSN anchoring SportCentre he does have a background doing play by play on radio, as from 2006 to 2014 he called games for the University of Manitoba Bisons. During this time, Taylor got the opportunity to be with the team through a range of seasons.

“[I] covered a national championship that they won in 2007, couple of undefeated seasons and then some dryer times as well,” he said.

Looking forward to his new position, Taylor feels he brings a strong enthusiasm to his work, which the audience will notice.

“I think the first one that’ll come across to folks is, I am just very excited to be there, I am very excited when I get around sports,” he said.

Along with his enthusiasm, Taylor added in his work for TSN he takes dives into the CFL by looking at the statistics. This is an attribute which he believes gives him an advantage over some other people in similar positions.

“There are all sorts of things that, that opens up about how the game works and how the Rider’s defence works and how the offence, the quarterback Zach Collaros works,” he said.

The Riders play by play position is one which Taylor hopes he will be able to stay in for a long period of time.

“It’s a job I would expect to have until I am done working,” he said.

Joining Taylor in the broadcast booth will be former Roughrider Luc Mullinder, who will be working as the color commentator. Mullinder said he is looking forward to the upcoming season with his new broadcast partner.

“I am really excited, I think that Derek’s going to be great for the role,” he said.

Mullinder explained he has had brief conversations with Taylor and he was impressed with his knowledge and appreciation for the league. Mullinder entered his current position in a similar situation to Taylor as, he took over from Carm Carteri, who was a long time presence on Rider broadcasts.

“The one thing I knew when I took over for Carm is that I was never going to be Carm Carteri, that was important and right away, I wasn’t going to be as good as I know that people viewed him,” he said.

Mullinder added he vowed to be the most prepared person in the league and felt other things would fall into place from there.

In terms of the work, Mullinder said Pedersen was good at painting the picture for listeners by doing things like making sure the audience knew the formation before the play.

“Just little things like that I can suggest to him, but I am confident Derek will be fine,” he said.

Overall, Mullinder said working on the broadcast team for Rider games is a great job given the passion of the fan base, while at the same time knowing the radio audience is depending on the broadcast team to relay all the game information.

“Right now he’s (Taylor) probably got the best job in the Canadian Football League,” said Mullinder.

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MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn

by Michael Joel-Hansen

New voice on Riders broadcast team

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