After 17 years as the radio voice of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Bob McElligott will no longer be in the booth in a cost-cutting move by the organization.<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets announced plans on Wednesday to simulcast their TV broadcasts, with play-by-play voice Steve Mears and color analyst Jody Shelley, across their radio network and affiliates.<\/p>\n
As a result, McElligott\u2019s contract was not renewed, the club said in a release.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to thank the McConnell family (ownership), the Blue Jackets and (vice president of broadcasting) Marc Gregory for the opportunity to broadcast these games for the past 17 years,\u201d McElligott told The Athletic.<\/p>\n
McElligott is one of only two radio play-by-play voices over the franchise\u2019s 25-plus years. George Matthews was the club\u2019s original voice before McElligott joined the organization in 2009, working beside him for five seasons before taking the microphone full-time.<\/p>\n
\u201cBob McElligott has made significant contributions to the Blue Jackets\u2019 organization on the air and in the community over the past 17 years,\u201d said Gregory in a statement released by the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cBob\u2019s voice was at the heart of many of our club\u2019s unforgettable moments and helped shape memories that will live on for years to come. We sincerely thank him and wish him nothing but success moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dylan Tyrer, who has served as the Blue Jackets\u2019 radio host for the past seven seasons \u2014 handling intermission reports, interviews, scoreboard updates, etc. \u2014 will continue in that role during radio broadcasts.<\/p>\n
McElligott, who learned the news on Wednesday, would like to remain in broadcasting, but is unsure of his next steps. The timing of this is difficult, too, with most clubs settled with their broadcasting crews in advance of the coming seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI especially want to thank the fans,\u201d McElligott said. \u201cI always had them in mind during every broadcast. I always tried to tell them what was happening on the ice, along with any insights I might have. The fans were always there for me, and I wanted to be always there for them. Their passion and caring really drove me for 17 years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 17 years as the radio voice of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Bob McElligott will no longer be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,3936,575,85,3276],"class_list":["post-832285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-sports-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}