Jack Michaels

Jack Michaels (born January 23, 1974) is an American ice hockey announcer who is currently the play-by-play announcer for Edmonton Oilers broadcasts on 630 CHED and Sportsnet television.

Jack Michaels was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania on January 23, 1974.

He is the son of Mary and Lloyd Michaels, who is an English professor at Allegheny College.

His father Lloyd was also a sports fan and read him the sports section of the newspaper at a young age, hoping it would nurture his interest in other literature.

Instead, Michaels became interested in sports, though he described hockey as a "late-developing interest" growing up in Western Pennsylvania, where football was the primary sport.

He credits the Pittsburgh Penguins' drafting of Mario Lemieux in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft for his interest in hockey and sportscasting, as it was "when the Penguins got good and I started to pay attention to the announcing."

He was inspired by the fast-paced commentary of Penguins broadcaster Mike Lange, who he compared to announcer Dave Johnson in horse racing, another sport he grew up watching.

Although Michaels became interested in hockey, he never learned how to skate.

Michaels graduated from Meadville Area Senior High School in 1991, and attended Ithaca College to pursue broadcasting.

In his first week of school, he successfully auditioned to be a newsreader and sports announcer for the Sunday morning sportscast on WICB, the college's larger radio station.

As an announcer, Michaels started with lacrosse and soccer, before getting the opportunity to call his first hockey game, which was for the Ithaca club hockey team.

He also co-hosted a sports program on Ithaca College Television.

In the summer of 1994, Michaels interned for HBO Sports in New York City.

After graduating in 1995, Michaels returned to Meadville and worked as a sports announcer for WMGW-AM.

After graduating from college in 1995, rejection from major sports networks led Michaels back to Meadville, where he became a morning news reporter and sports announcer for WMGW-AM.

One of his first assignments at the station was to call an ostrich race at the Crawford County Fair; the race involved his colleague who was strapped to an ostrich, causing it to fall over as the race began.

According to Michaels, he was then paid 75 dollars a game to do play-by-play commentary for the high school Meadville Bulldogs ice hockey team, along with the college football, basketball, and baseball teams at Allegheny College.

He replaced Fred Rannard, who was the team's broadcaster since the 1996–97 season.

Flying to Alaska on September 11, Michaels began calling games for the Aces a month later, on KFQD 750 AM.

In addition to his duties as the Aces' play-by-play announcer, Michaels also handled the team's public relations and coordinated team travel and scheduling.

He also sold sponsorships and advertisements, and managed the team's website.

He was previously the announcer for the Colorado Gold Kings of the West Coast Hockey League (WCHL) from 1999 to 2002, and the Alaska Aces of the ECHL from 2002 to 2010.

Born in Meadville, Pennsylvania, Michaels attended Ithaca College in New York, where he did his first work in sports broadcasting.

In 1999, he decided to focus on hockey full-time and joined the WCHL's Colorado Gold Kings in Colorado Springs as a play-by-play announcer.

In the spring of 1999, Michaels announced the Penguins Cup final between the Meadville Bulldogs and the Central Catholic Vikings, which he has described as a turning point in his career.

The afternoon game took place in the Civic Arena, which was to host the Pittsburgh Penguins in the evening.

Penguins commentators Mike Lange and Matt McConnell were in the building and heard Michaels' calling the game; after the game ended in double-overtime, they approached him and encouraged him to focus on announcing hockey games full-time.

Michaels subsequently sent out recordings of his hockey broadcasts to pro teams across the country, and was hired by the Colorado Gold Kings of the West Coast Hockey League (WCHL) in Colorado Springs later that year.

Michaels started in Colorado Springs as the Gold Kings' director of broadcasting in August 1999, calling the team's games on KKCS (1460 AM).

He was named the WCHL's Broadcaster of the Year for the 2000–01 season, and became the Gold Kings' assistant director of marketing in 2001.

After the team folded three seasons later in 2002, Michaels moved to Anchorage, Alaska, where he became the play-by-play announcer and media relations director for the WCHL's Anchorage Aces, which later joined the ECHL as the Alaska Aces.

The Gold Kings folded on August 1, 2002, ending Michaels' three-season tenure with the team.

According to Michaels, he was desperate at the time, as job opportunities would be filled with training camp starting in a month, and believed he was "not well established enough to take a year off".

His job search left him with the option to go to Greenville, South Carolina or to join the WCHL's Anchorage Aces in Anchorage, Alaska.

Michaels was hesitant to join the Aces at the time, as the team was poorly managed to the point that the owners tried to sell the team on eBay.

Nonetheless, of the two options, Michaels believed the Aces had more potential with its devoted fan base, and accepted the offer to work in Anchorage.

The Anchorage Aces announced Michaels' hiring as the team's new broadcaster and director of media relations on August 25, 2002.

Between 2004 and 2010, Michaels also served as the play-by-play announcer for four ECHL All-Star Games.

After broadcasting 919 professional hockey games, Michaels became a National Hockey League (NHL) broadcaster in 2010, relocating to the Canadian city of Edmonton to join the Edmonton Oilers as their radio play-by-play announcer.

In 2021, he became the team's television play-by-play announcer on Sportsnet.