‘It will never get better than this’: Voice of the Riders reflects on 20-year career

Extended: Pedersen reflects on Riders career Extended: Rod Pedersen reflects on his 20 seasons as the Voice of the Riders.

Rod Pedersen has been the voice of the Saskatchewan Roughriders for the past 20 seasons.

Pedersen began his broadcasting career in Weyburn in 1988 before moving to Prince Albert to become the youngest WHL play-by-play broadcaster.

He moved to Regina in 1995 and became took over announcing duties for the Regina Pats. In 1999, Pedersen added his most recognizable role to his résumé, becoming the Voice of the Riders.

Following the announcement that he was leaving Harvard Broadcasting on Wednesday, CTV Regina’s Claire Hanna sat down with Pedersen to look back on his career.

CTV Regina: I know you’ve announced that you’re leaving, do you want to shed any light on where you’re going?

Rod Pedersen: No. I can’t say where I’m going obviously, but there is an opportunity and I’m very excited about it. But it’s actually in the horizons, so it’s going to be a couple months. For the time being, I’m going to be relaxing.

CTV: Can you tell us if it’s going to be in Regina, in Saskatchewan? In another city?

Pedersen: Honestly, there’s a lot of opportunities right now. So I’m kind of picking which is the best one. So there’s a lot of things, I mean I’m going to be doing a lot of public speaking, a lot of corporate speaking and be travelling into the States. So there’s all the stuff I’ve been doing on the side to begin with, so you there’s a lot of exciting things coming, I just can’t say what.

CTV: Everyone in Saskatchewan really knew you as the Voice of the Riders, is the new role going to be still in play-by-play?

Pedersen: It’s kind of a moving target to be honest with you. It’s a venture that’s starting so they don’t want anything said about it at this point so I certainly respect that.

CTV: You’ve been the voice of the Riders for 20 years, you’ve also done play by play for the WHL’s Regina Pats, Prince Albert Raiders. Can you remember the first game you called?

Pedersen: I remember them all, and they happen to be pre-season games. In PA it was the Prince Albert Raiders and Saskatoon Blades, and Kendall Sidorick was starting in goal for the Raiders and Dean Whitney was his back up and that was 1993. I kind of got a mind for that stuff, that was a quarter century ago!

With the Roughriders, it was a pre-season game in 1999, Roughriders at Edmonton Eskimos, and Nealon Greene was starting at Quarterback for them and Reggie Slack for the Roughriders. It was a non-televised game, so the entire province of Saskatchewan was listening to my radio broadcast of my FIRST ever pro-football broadcast. It was a lot of pressure that day, and there remained a lot of pressure until this week when I stepped down.

It’s a pressure filled role to be the voice of the Roughriders. It’s a dream job, there’s no doubt, but there’s a lot of pressure.

CTV: What was your favourite call?

Pedersen: It was probably four or five favourite calls. I mean one that’s almost embarrassing is the Bo Levi “shut your mouth” call with Duron Carter that, not only do we keep playing over and over at CKRM, but TSN kept playing it over and over at Grey Cup. They seemed to love it too. That one was probably my favourite because it just came into my head.

When the Riders won the Grey Cup in 2007, I’d been waiting eight years for that to happen so I had this “Go crazy Saskatchewan, go crazy!” line that people still talk about. But I stole that from Jack Buck and the St. Louis Cardinals, he did it in the 60’s I believe.

But the one with Bo Levi just came to me! Right at the same time I was so stunned and so happy for Duron and everything so I don’t know if that’s the one that I should say, but that’s what comes to mind.

CTV: Did you have mentors? Who did you really look up to when you got into this industry?

Pedersen: The former voice of the Pats Kevin Gallant, people will know who he is. He was the voice from 1980 to 1988, and then Don Whitman on CBC, Bob Cole, Geoff Courier was my mentor, he was the voice of the Roughriders for 12 seasons before I was able to do it for 20. National guys, local guys, I took a little bit from everybody.

CTV: What was your reaction when you found out you were going to be the Voice of the Riders?

Pedersen: I was so beyond overwhelmed and completely terrified because I’d never played football. I certainly didn’t know football as well as I knew hockey. I had a lot of brushing up to do in a hurry. I didn’t know the difference between a linebacker and a fullback.

I appreciate the patience of everybody while I learned the game. Hockey to me is in my DNA, it’s like breathing, I never had to think before I spoke with hockey. With football, I always had to think, “I better be careful with what I say here, am I going to look like an idiot on the air.” I got over that, but it took a long time.

CTV: What’s going to be the most challenging part about stepping away from this role that you’ve had for 20 years that you’re known so well for?

Pedersen: Being in the booth for the games. That’s the reason I got into this business in the first place was to call football games. I never got into the business to be on the radio everyday hosting a talk show, that wasn’t my goal, I just wanted to call games.

The other is the personalities in the game: travelling on road trips with these players. That’s not to say that won’t ever happen again with some other team. I learned a long time ago, we were sitting around at a restaurant in Regina. Paul McCallum took me out with Buck Pierce and Dave Dickenson when they were playing for the BC Lions. I didn’t know those guys until I met them. I’m like, they’re just like our guys, they just wear different colours! Everybody’s the same you just play on a different team.

I will miss these personalities with the Roughriders but that’s not saying that I can’t keep in touch with them, and still cover them. It’s going to depend on what my role is in the future. One of the nicest things that’s happened over the past couple of days is the reaction on my phone that I’ve been getting from people that I never thought I would ever hear from again. Ever. A lot of former Roughrider employees, CFL employees just saying, “Hey, congrats on a great career.” I never thought I’d hear from them ever again.

You never know who you’re impacting, you never know who your relationships are going to be with. That’s the fun part, and I’m not saying that it’s over yet in the media, just this portion is.

CTV: You wrote a book about the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL), but you’ve also been really open about your previous battle with substance abuse. Will you continue to do that? And why was that so important for you to touch on in alongside with your play by play?

Pedersen: I never ever planned to go public with my sobriety story. But the recovery community in Saskatchewan came to me and they said would you mind speaking at our event. I was nine months sober at the time and I knew that I wasn’t going back to drinking, so I was pretty confident that wasn’t going to make me slip or anything. I went public and then the flood gates opened.

Then I started to get reaction from people across the country that I never knew would even know who I am. They’re writing me saying, “I was going to drink today, I’m a recovering alcoholic, but after hearing you, I’m not going to today.” If you know the world of recovery, it’s one day at a time. So I helped win that day for that guy that one day!

Now with the announcement that I’m leaving my role with Harvard broadcasting, a lot of the people that I work with in recovery are writing me saying, “Are you still going to work with me?” I’m like, of course I am! I laughed, so many CFL people are writing me, “Congrats on your retirement.” I’m 46 years old, I didn’t die here! Some people feel like maybe there’s a death, not me. I’m pretty happy with where I am right now. I used that platform in the media to further the road of recovery and it has helped.

CTV: Favourite coach of the Riders?

Pedersen: Ken Miller. Everybody says Ken Miller, but I like them all. I had clashes with them all but I liked them all. That’s what happens when you work in this industry.

CTV: Favourite player?

Pedersen: Scott Schultz. Still a very close friend of mine, we’ve driven thousands of miles around this province together speaking at banquets. We were friends when he played, we’ve been friends since he played. Before I was voice of the Riders, Don Narcisse and Jeff Fairholm are my favourite Riders of all time, and they both know that.

CTV: Favourite Riders moment that you’re going to remember on your death bed?

Pedersen: It will be the 2013 Grey Cup with Darian Durant lifting the cup over his head. I remember thinking that night, it will never get better than this. We knew there was going to be a new stadium, but I’m not even sure a Grey Cup in the new stadium would be as good as in the old place, and the biggest game in Rider history winning at home, and being able to broadcast it. It doesn’t get better.