YourTV Brings jr A Hockey to Your Television

Brings junior A hockey to your television

By: Jeff Gard Total Sports Media

LindseyHarren* - YourTV Quinte host Lindsey Harren interviews an Oakville Blades player during the first intermission on April 18, 2019 at Wellington and District Community Centre. (Photo by Amy Deroche/OJHL Images)

Local fans of junior A hockey, who are Cogeco television subscribers, can experience great broadcast coverage of not only the Wellington Dukes and Trenton Golden Hawks, but on occasion teams from other Ontario Junior Hockey League markets as well. Out-of-market games won’t necessarily be shown every week, but when there is an opening in the local schedule, YourTV Quinte has access to games from their partners in the Burlington area, which produce broadcasts for the Burlington Cougars, Georgetown Raiders, Milton Menace and Oakville Blades.

“YourTV Quinte has committed to in the season 10 home games in Wellington and 10 home games in Trenton and then playoff games as available, but because we’re part of the YourTV group across Ontario, our partners in Burlington area produce games so those games are ones we can show locally as we have an opening,” says producer Ian Acton. “For our viewers, the schedule on our website (yourtv.tv) gives them an opportunity to see what other games are available.” As a community television provider, YourTV is dependent on the efforts of volunteers in the various communities, Acton noted. “We’ve been very fortunate to have a great base in the Quinte area with not only adults who come out because they enjoy the sport and the activity of television production, we also have opportunities for high school students.”

YourTV Quinte also has a great partnership with Loyalist College’s broadcasting program with students having the opportunity to volunteer their time to gain hand-on experience. On occasion, instructors will also include YourTV in the curriculum as a remote production opportunity, Acton said. “In fact, one of the games in December will be crewed by the Loyalist students from the program,” he remarked, referring to a Dec. 10 matchup in Trenton when the Golden Hawks host the Cobourg Cougars at the Duncan McDonald Memorial Gardens.

While the Dukes and Golden Hawks have great attendance at their home games, the broadcasts provide an opportunity to watch for those who either can’t attend in person or perhaps aren’t familiar with the OJHL teams. “Both the Dukes and Golden Hawks organizations do a great job of bringing hockey to our community. We are there as support for that because the fan base can grow by people tuning in,” Acton said. “People can view that and think ‘this is pretty good quality hockey, I might take the family out to that.’ We’re helping to build awareness around the brand of the OJHL hockey. This is what our sister stations in the Burlington area have found as well. “The viewers will learn more about the product and the game and the players because we also do interviews with the players. We fill our intermissions with feature interviews and background interviews so we’re informing and entertaining the viewers as well as bringing them the hockey game. It’s good for our viewers because they can gain an appreciation and identify with these players as they’re developing their hockey career.” Check your Cogeco television listings for upcoming OJHL broadcasts on the YourTV channel. You can also follow YourTV Quinte on Facebook and Twitter (@yourtvquinte). Anyone interested in volunteering for YourTV Quinte can get in touch at: yourtv.tv/contact-us/become-a-volunteer.

The following Local Games will be broadcast live on YourTV Cogeco Channels 4 and 700

Sunday Nov 19th Cobourg @ Trenton 7:30 PM (Hasty P’s Cup) Sunday Nov 28th Lindsay @ Trenton 7:30 PM Sunday Dec 5th Lindsay @ Wellington 2:30 PM Friday Dec 10th Cobourg @ Trenton 7:30 PM Sunday Dec 12th Wellington @ Trenton 7:30 PM (Hasty P’s Cup) Friday Dec 17th Haliburton @ Wellington 7:30 PM Sunday Dec 19th Lindsay @ Trenton 7:30 PM Sunday Jan 9th Lindsay @ Wellington 2:30 PM Friday Jan 28th Cobourg @ Wellington 7:30 PM Sunday Jan 30th Trenton @ Wellington 2:30 PM (Hasty P’s Cup) Friday Feb 4th Cobourg @ Trenton 7:30 PM Sunday Feb 20th Wellington @ Trenton 7:30 PM (Hasty P’s Cup) Friday Feb 25th Trenton @ Wellington 7:30 PM (Hasty P’s Cup) Sunday Feb 27th Cobourg @ Wellington 2:30 PM