AUGUST 2012
Big North
Classifieds and Careers
B9-B10
B Section
FREE PRESS
■ TSN ANCHORS
Call them the Double-O-Fun guys ALISTAIR MCINNIS
“Maybe in a lot of people’s cases, it’s just a matter of getting used to our silliness.”
sports@pgfreepress.com
For TSN personalities Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole, humour is a regular part of their highlight pack. Sports viewers across Canada have come to expect those prepared comedic skits every time they watch the weekday evening edition of SportsCentre. But it isn’t all practice, as spontaneous comments result in some of the pair’s finest seconds on air. “The same things make us laugh so that’s one of the keys and the other thing is we both try not to lose it on the show,” O’Toole says. “When one of us does lose it, that’s what makes it our favourite moments, at least mine because I can’t control myself because I’m laughing too much.” O’Toole says that sometimes they don’t even discuss the highlights until they run them on SportsCentre. He compares those interactions with what viewers would talk about at the same time. “We have conversations that you’d have with your buddies, on the couch, having a beer, watching the show. But we’re sitting at a desk having that conversation, minus the beer.” Onrait and O’Toole take a goofy, slapstick brand of humour into their programs. The style has made them successful, but also targets for a small pool of people who find their comedy crude and offensive. Criticism comes with the territory of being a celebrity. “You can get your highlights on the Internet now, there are a million places you can get your sports information,” Onrait says. “It’s not like we’re leaving you high and dry, you can go elsewhere.” But the duo has grown on people. Onrait has heard of supporters of their program who didn’t enjoy it at first.
PRINCE GEORGE VISIT The two sportscasters will be in Prince George as special guests of the third annual Y Champions Hockey Weekend on Sept. 7 and 8. Dave Bidini will also attend the Family YMCA of Prince George event. Bidini is a hockey fan, hockey player and award-winning writer and filmmaker. In addition to the hockey tournament, the weekend includes a keynote banquet, the Canadian Tire Hockey School and Bidini Band concert at Shooters Pub downtown. Bidini will emcee the banquet, with comedic entertainment provided by Onrait and O’Toole. “I think I get to coach one of the Ph o to s ub mitte d teams,” O’Toole says. “Just so you TSN SportsCentre hosts Jay Onrait, left, and Dan O’Toole will be guests for the third annual Y know, if you get me as a coach, Champions Hockey Weekend on Sept. 7 and 8. I’m all offence, no defence. I only want one defenceman back. You by JC Hoover Holdings, is online ing during the 2010 Winter Olym- Net and the Score, they all make saw the style of play in the Stanley at www.pgymca.com. pics in Vancouver. He’s also going sure that you put in your time,” Cup final. I want the opposite of to host SportsCentre from Lon- he says. “I always compare it to CAREER that.” don, England during the upcom- being an airline pilot, you’ve got Dedicated to building healthy to fly the Cessna before you can With TSN for about 10 years, ing Olympic Summer Games. individuals and families, the Onrait and O’Toole have worked Onrait holds a bachelor’s degree fly the 747 and that’s what they YMCA is rooted in more than 1,000 together full-time for the past six in radio and television from Ryer- look for.” communities across the country. years. son University in Toronto, while Onrait says writers at TSN have For O’Toole, partnering with the Y Although they took different O’Toole carries a broadcasting approached them about getting means working with an organiza- career paths, each route involved diploma from Algonquin College opportunities on air. tion he’s supported since he was broadcasting gigs in Western Can- in Ottawa. They agree that cut“But a lot of them aren’t willing a child. He can recall exercising at ada. A native of Athabasca, Alta., ting your teeth in a smaller mar- to make the move out of Toronto the old YMCA in his hometown of Onrait spent time in Saskatoon ket is important in gaining the or Vancouver, or whatever big city Peterborough, Ont. as the sports director of a TV experience necessary to succeed in they’ve grown up in and go to the “I still remember the smell of station and hosted Big Breakfast broadcast journalism. smaller towns and get that experithe gym at the Y,” he says. “It on A-Channel. O’Toole lived in O’Toole says the map he ence,” he says. “It just seems like smelt like history and if you have Vancouver for three years, with once held didn’t even have Fort if you’re willing to be mobile, you ever seen my basketball skills, jobs as a radio traffic reporter and McMurray on it, instead just an have a 90 per cent better chance of wow, you would be in for a treat helping launch CityTV. He also arrow pointing in the direction of eventually succeeding in your goal if you saw that.” spent time in Alberta, working the northern Alberta city. He took of being on air and the other thing Banquet, concert ticket sales, in radio in Fort McMurray and at the job because he knew he had to is, it’s fun. It’s not a bad thing. I and hockey registration opened CTV Edmonton. gain more experience. loved my time starting out, so I June 25 at the YMCA on Massey “You’ve got to learn how to do wouldn’t trade it for anything, so Onrait’s experience includes Drive. More information on the Y working alongside Beverly Thom- every single job at the station and I think it’s great and I think it’s a Champions Weekend, presented son as co-host of Olympic Morn- the bosses at our work, at Sports- fun country to work in too.”
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