Tuesday Odds and Ends.

Welcome to the dog-days of summer.

Don't get me wrong. I love golfing, camping, playing ball and lounging in the summer sun. But at the same time, it excites me to know that September is not THAT far away and soon there will a LOT more to talk and write about.

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I really enjoyed last night's Sports Fix.

It's always great having Dana Johnson (North Battleford Golf and Country Club) on the program. Together we talked about the Sportsman's Dinner taking place on August 15th. Boston Bruin's fans will love the fact that Wayne Cashman and Gerry Cheevers will be on hand to sign autographs on Sunday the 14th, and will participate in a breakfast, fun scramble and supper on the 15th. Anybody interested in participating needs to act fast. Call 937-5659 for details.

I also spoke with Sean Campbell from the Team 990 in Montreal. The struggles of the Saskatchewan Roughriders have been well documented through three-weeks, and it's only going to get tougher in Week 4 when they head to Montreal Sunday. Campbell hosts the Al's This Week on 990 and also does the sideline reporting for the Allouette's broadcasts. His insight is always appreciated.

My final guest was Minnesota Wild forward Kyle Brodziak. I met Brodziak a week or so ago at the Battlefords United Way Golf Tournament. Brodziak was a first-timer on the program and spoke very well. Naturally he's excited about the upcoming season, and about the possibility of playing alongside either Dany Heatley or Devin Setoguchi. Brodziak set career high's last year with goals (16) and points (37) and could be poised for an even better year if all goes well.

The thing that caught my eye about Brodziak when looking at his stats: His health! In four full seasons in the NHL, Brodziak has only missed seven games total.

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The Battlefords North Star's broadcasting schedule is basically complete. Once the I's are dotted and the T's are crossed, I will post it onto the blog, and I'm sure it will be posted onto the website as well. This season we will once again be carrying 40 regular season games a long with a pre-season warm-up. Every playoff game will also be on the radio.

I keep jokingly) trying to persuade the 'powers that be' to give me more games, and I continue to get (playfully) shot-down. In a perfect world, every single game would be on the radio, but it's simply not a reality at this stage. I feel that 40-games is more than fair, and hopefully there will be web-casting options available this season as well.

As for the broadcasting schedule itself. Every single road-game will (tentatively) be on the radio. Last season we couldn't do three road games because of neutral site games in Kyle, Stanley Mission, and I had to miss one because of my surgery. So far I'm not aware of any neutral-site games involving the Battlefords North Stars. Neutral-site games are fantastic for the league, but quite often they can be a broadcaster's nightmare. It's never fun worrying for an entire bus-ride and wondering whether your equipment will work in an unfamiliar rink.

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Check out Blaine Weyland's blog to the right of this piece. He's posted some new pictures of Spectra Place in Estevan. I know I've beaten this horse to death before, but golly am I excited to see and experience the new rink in Estevan. I've made it no secret both on and off the air that I dreaded calling games in Estevan for the sheer difficulty involved in trying to conduct a broadcast without the services of a score-clock.

What made matters worse is that the Stars and Bruins have played some great games in Estevan (except for 2007-2008) that I wasn't able to truly enjoy.

All of that changes this season!

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That's all I have for you today. Thanks for checking in during the 'slow time' of the summer. Your readership is always appreciated, and I look forward to chatting with you again soon.