Voices of the Q | George Matthews & Cory Arsenault (Charlottetown)

 

Hockey on the radio has been a staple for sports fans on Prince Edward Island for generations. The notion of bringing Canada’s smallest province together on a cold winter’s night to listen to their local heroes is more than cliché; it has often been reality.

And now, George Matthews and Cory Arsenault, a pair of voices known to virtually all of the hockey listening public on the island, are striving to keep that tradition alive.

Matthews has been calling games for the better part of 50 years at virtually every level of the game imaginable. Whether it’s with the Charlottetown Islanders, for whom he’s donned the headset since 2014, or the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets, where he called over 1000 contests, Matthews’ key observations remain consistent.

“Hockey is such a unique sport to broadcast because it’s so fast-moving,” he explains. “The change in play can occur in a millisecond. It’s a theatre of the mind sort of broadcast.”

Another thing that has remained consistent in Matthews’ time delivering the play-by-play while in his home province has been his broadcast partner, Cory Arsenault, who grew up just outside Summerside. The hometown Jr. A club, the Western Capitals, broadcast on local station CJRW, were part of the background noise during that time.

“I always had a passion for hockey but didn’t have the talent to go with it, so I decided to go the broadcasting route,” Arsenault recalls. “The first game I called was in East Hants, Nova Scotia. I got on the bus and sure enough, there was George Matthews on the bus, going through his book of different words and pronunciations.”

Arsenault, who works by day in the construction world, would take over as the voice of the Caps when Matthews departed for Columbus. In 2003, his airwaves address moved from Summerside to Charlottetown, when the QMJHL Montreal Rocket moved to PEI. It’s been his home ever since. But the return of his first broadcast partner eight seasons ago helped rekindle his passion.

“When George was done his NHL career, I wasn’t necessarily thinking of giving it up but still, I was doing all 68 games per year on the webcast,” Arsenault says. “Not that my interest was ending, but it was certainly fading a bit. George brings a professionalism to the broadcasts. He’s always about the listener first, making sure the broadcast is top notch. There are not too many nights when we haven’t had fun.”

Matthews’ thoughts on Arsenault are very much reciprocated.

“I’ve been fortunate in my years of broadcasting to work with a number of great personalities and Cory is right up there,” he proclaims. “Cory has a great passion for the league. He brings a great awareness to the broadcast of the league and the players who play in it. A lot of these players at the major junior level don’t get to the next level, but Cory always puts in the effort to know the players and their history. He makes the broadcast even more entertaining because of that knowledge, which both I and the listeners benefit from every night.”

Islanders’ broadcasts, which Matthews likens to an NHL-calibre production with features, interviews, and league as well as local hockey news, continue to evolve much like the ever-competitive nature of the Islanders team itself. A recent agreement with local FM station Q93 now brings the Q to the entire province with the simple turn of a dial.

“We’re not only excited about the quality of the team in recent years but also for the commitment Q93 has shown to the broadcast,” Matthews boasts. “We are fortunate for our setup here with the support of the Islanders.”

“There are more people out there listening than you really think,” Arsenault adds. “And with Q93 giving us a bigger platform to get our product out there, there’s now more casual fans who would tune in to games. It’s why we try our best to spread information. It’s always been driven into me, local first.”

Of course, putting the games back on radio for the first time in nearly two decades is one thing. Putting exciting games on the air is a completely different animal altogether. In that regard, the club makes it rather easy on its game callers.

“It’s one thing to have fun but it’s a lot easier to have fun when you’re winning,” Arsenault says. “We’ve seen the Semi-Finals three times since Jim Hulton came to town [in 2015] and now, we’re itching for more. This year’s team has an opportunity to get back there, and beyond.”

But regardless of what the team on the ice does, the awareness of what their work brings to the island’s hockey landscape is never lost on these old friends and partners.

“A good broadcast is two and a half to three hours of entertainment,” Matthews opines. “That’s what Cory and I are here for. If we aren’t entertaining, the fans won’t be happy. You need to get people from Georgetown to Tignish to listen in for a few minutes, perhaps buy into an emotional investment in this team.”

The region has embraced the Isles more than ever in recent years and the duo who brings them the action all season long have played an integral part of that.

And there aren’t enough words in George’s book to describe the importance of that.