October 12, 2012
by Gann Matsuda
FROZEN ROYALTY EXCLUSIVE: As so many who follow the Los Angeles Kings are very much aware, their award-winning, highly-acclaimed television broadcasters, Bob Miller and Jim Fox, were forced out of the broadcast booth after Game 5 of the 2012 Western Conference Quarterfinals with NBC having exclusive rights to televise NHL playoff games from the second round on. In the tenth installment of a series featuring the Kings’ long-time broadcasters, Miller and Fox talk about what it was like to watch most of the Kings’ magical run to the Stanley Cup from a perspective that was completely different from what they’re used to.
LA Kings television broadcasters Jim Fox (left)
and Bob Miller (right), shown here at Miller’s
Stanley Cup party on June 26, 2012.
Photo courtesy Bob Miller
LOS ANGELES AND EL SEGUNDO, CA — The complaints were loud and clear, and very, very frequent, especially once the
Los Angeles Kings reached the 2012 Stanley Cup Final.
Kings fans wanted to see and hear their long-time television broadcasters, Bob Miller and Jim Fox, who were unable to broadcast games after the first round of the playoffs.
Miller, the 39-season Voice of the Kings, who was the recipient of the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award in 2000, making him a media honoree in the Hockey Hall of Fame, and Fox, who has partnered with Miller for 22 seasons, were forced out of the broadcast booth because NBC’s contract with the National Hockey League gives them exclusive broadcast rights beginning with the second round of the playoffs, a fact that many fans were not aware of, or did not understand.
Miller and Fox knew, but that did not make it any easier.
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