The last day of summer was a first for Canadian sports fans. On Saturday, the television station The Score hosted a street party and invited the entire city to the corner of King and Peter to celebrate its brand new street front, high-definition studio. The Score personnel, athletes, and fans co-mingled on the street as Kardinal Offishall and the Trews provided a live soundtrack. This street party marked the first time in history that any Canadian sports network offered fans an up-close and personal studio experience. Even after the music stopped, the road barricades came down, and the party died, The Score promised to remain open to fans with a bevy of new interactive programming.
“The most interesting part with the new studio is going to be [that] we have so many different areas where we can shoot our different shows, before we did everything from the same set. Now, we have so many different elements we can work in,” said Greg Sansone, The Score’s veteran anchor and vice president of production. “We’ve got a show called Court Surfing, that airs every Tuesday night during the NBA season and that will involve a studio audience. We’ll have people actually in [the studio], interacting with our hosts, live throughout the show. Literally, we’re bringing people into the studio to be part of the show.”
Steve Kouleas echoed this sentiment. His current show The Spin will revamp its format into the interaction-heavy Hardcore Hockey Talk. “We’ll take more callers, have more interaction because now we have an outdoor street studio…If you want to ask a question, well now you know what, doggone it, [you] can go sit outside the show and camp outside. [You] will get on the show,” he said.
Despite the changes in format, Kouleas promises that fans will love his new program. Hardcore Hockey Talk will include all of the same features that made The Spin a success with the added bonus of fan interaction. “It’s better from the point that you can have a bigger say. It’s not a show that you watch [like] you watch ER; it’s your show, you’re a part of [it],” he said.
Cabral “Cabbie” Richards, the host of The Score’s street party, is no stranger to interacting with fans and athletes alike. His hit segment “Cabbie on the Street” showcases Richards’ affable yet unorthodox approach to sports broadcasting as he surprises sports stars with informal questions. Richards, a self-proclaimed “fat dude” who got into sports to try and impress girls, explains that he got his start by literally hitting the streets and “asking random people sports questions” on a wide array of topics.
“We shot [a segment] about the Canadian national anthem being played before sporting events. At the end of that piece, I was singing the national anthem and I made a baby cry and I think on the strength of that, the boss was like, okay, we can air this stuff,” said Richards of his humble beginnings.
While Richards has moved on to making famous athletes laugh—including Kobe Bryant and David Ortiz—he has not let his success go to his head. Acting more like a fan than the star he has become, Richards admits that he still gets star-struck during interviews. “It’s pretty crazy, because you hold these [athletes] in a certain light and you just hope that they’re what you imagine them to be, and when they fulfill it, you’re like, ‘oh, this guy was so awesome.’ ”
The street party provided sports fans with their own opportunity to get star-struck with appearances by Toronto Raptors Jermaine O’Neal and Anthony Parker, hockey legend Wendel Clark, Olympic gold medalist Donovan Bailey, WWE stars CM Punk and Natalya and legend The Iron Sheik, and UFC fighter Heath Herring. Yet despite these big-name celebs, The Score remained loyal to local Canadian sports with performances by the Queen’s marching band along with representatives from Western.
The Score is dedicated to covering the CIS with broadcasts of university football and basketball games. Sansone, a U of T alum, reveals that he still follows the Varsity Blues, particularly the football team.
“What a relief, to finally win that game,” Sansone said of the Blues’ dramatic losing streak-ending season opener. “We all knew [the win] was coming eventually. The problem is, when it’s prolonged as it was, you really start to get the sense that [the losing streak] is never going to end.”
Kouleas is optimistic about the Blues’ future. “After they won their first game I predicted that they would be in the playoffs this year,” he said. “If you guys are [reading this], you better be in the postseason!”
This positive outlook dominated the street party. By opening up its studio to fans, The Score made it seem like anything, including the Blues making the playoffs, was possible. While each personality had their own unique approach to broadcasting, they all shared one piece of advice to fans and aspiring sports broadcasters: dream big and work hard.
Kouleas explained, “if you want to get into television […] you don’t just practice when you’re on [TV], just like you don’t say, ‘I’ll practice being a good lover just when I’m actually making love’ […] You’re a student of how to become a better lover, you’re a student of how to become a better broadcaster.”
There was one clear message that came out of the street party: it takes a lot of dedication and desire before learning how to score.
