Gene Honda

The major markets should have those guys.

That's why Gene Honda does the Final Four.

And you always hear, you say, wait a second, I know that voice.

And Tim Sinclair is at the top of the PA game.

Chris is the PA announcer at Allstate Arena for the Chicago Wolves and also is a secondary PA announcer for the Chicago Steel of the USHL.

and in recent seasons has also filled in for the legendary Gene Honda at the United Center for some Blackhawks games.

Today, I was really fortunate to have on Michael Gruber, better known as Grubs.

Groob's got his start in media with the Ticket radio station in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Are there any hidden phrases you have that are callbacks to any of those guys? Because for me, with PA...

I have a couple of calls that are directly, I can tie them directly to Gene Honda,

who's the

White Sox and Blackhawks PA, and Ray Clay, who was the Bulls PA when I was growing up, and you had the Jordan Bulls, and it's like when you hear me say the college of each player coming out of the tunnel, it's because seared in my brain is Ray Clay saying from North Carolina, Michael Jordan, and how he did

He is the primary PA announcer for the Chicago Wolves at Allstate Arena.

and also is a Phil and PA announcer for the Chicago Steel of the USHL, and in recent seasons has covered for the legendary Gene Honda at the United Center for some Blackhawks games.

Also, back on September 17th, I had a really fun chat with Brady Holismiller.

Brady is currently a sophomore at Springfield College in Massachusetts, and is one of two in-game DJs for the Hartford Wolfpack of the AHL.

Yeah

... him from Gene Honda's crow's nest and zip him down to the, uh, to the [laughs] mound-

I think-

... and tether him-

Munetaka-

Can you do this in Gene Honda voice since we're gonna hear it?

Yeah.

Frank Thomas is batting third.

You know, Paul Konerko.

I'm sorry, I'm, I'm stuck in time on those guys when it comes to Gene Honda.

Those are the best Gene Honda names I've ever ...

Jermaine Dye.

Chris is a public address announcer and sports broadcaster based in the Chicago area, and And since 2017, he has been the public address announcer at Allstate Arena for the Chicago Wolves.

He also is one of the PA announcers for the Chicago Steel of the USHL, of course, playing at the new Blackhawks Ice Center, and in recent seasons has also filled in for the legendary Gene Honda at the United Center for some Blackhawks games.

So we had a really fun conversation just going over some career highlights and just about the local hockey ecosystem as well, what it's like working for different teams and sort of how he broke into the industry and his rise throughout sports.

Chris got his start back in 2016 in PA announcing with the Joliet Slammers baseball team.

But for you specifically, how did that niche of sports and broadcasting and more specifically PA announcing begin to form? Because it's not something that you can go to school for per se.

You can obviously... take public speaking classes or broadcasting.

But, you know, was there a specific moment or a time when it just sort of clicked for you? Like, hey, you know, I want to be Gene Honda or Harvey Woodenberg or, you know, Ray Clay, Tommy Edwards and do PA announcing.

I think there's like a series of little moments throughout life where that's kind of pushed me in one way or one direction or the other.