Blue Jays Level of Excellence - Radio and Television

Radio and Television

See also: List of Toronto Blue Jays broadcasters

The Blue Jays' former radio play-by-play announcer, Tom Cheek, called every Blue Jays game from the team's inaugural contest on April 7, 1977 until June 3, 2004, when he took two games off following the death of his father — a streak of 4,306 consecutive regular season games and 41 postseason games. Cheek died in 2005 and the team commemorated him during their 2006 season by wearing a circular badge on the left sleeve of their jerseys. The badge was adorned with Cheek's initials, as well as a stylized microphone. Cheek is also honoured with a place in the Blue Jays' "Level of Excellence" in the upper level of the Rogers Centre; the number 4,306 is depicted beside his name. In 2008, Cheek received the third highest amount of votes by fans to be nominated for the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence. This is the fifth year in a row Cheek has been named a finalist.

Radio broadcasts of Blue Jays games are originated from Rogers Communications-owned station Sportsnet 590 CJCL in Toronto. Jerry Howarth is the lead play-by-play announcer, with former Blue Jays catcher Alan Ashby serving as the colour commentator and secondary play-by-play announcer. Another former catcher for the Blue Jays, Gregg Zaun, serves as the occasional colour commentator, since the 2011 season. The Toronto Blue Jays have the largest geographical home market and blackout area for television in all of baseball, encompassing all of Canada. Despite this, the number of radio stations that broadcast games is actually quite small. Only twenty radio stations across the country are airing at least some Blue Jays games during the 2011 season, which is fewer affiliates than most teams.

However, on television, most Blue Jays games are carried nationally on Sportsnet (which, like the Blue Jays, is owned by Rogers Communications), with Buck Martinez as the play-by-play announcer, and colour analysis rotating between Pat Tabler, Rance Mulliniks, Darrin Fletcher, and since the 2011 season, Gregg Zaun and Alan Ashby. Sportsnet became the team's primary carrier soon after it launched in the late 1990s, and became the team's exclusive broadcaster in 2010. As of August 2010, Sportsnet One also broadcasts Blue Jays games (often in case of scheduling conflicts with the main Sportsnet channels). Rogers was however, criticized by fans and critics due to Sportsnet One only being carried by Rogers Cable systems on launch.

TSN, which (like the Jays) was owned by Labatt from 1984 to 1995, served as the primary television outlet for the Blue Jays prior to the launch of Sportsnet. TSN (and later, its sister channel TSN2) continued to carry approximately ten Jays games through the 2009 season until May 2010; most recently, Rod Black handled play-by-play while Tabler served as colour commentator on these telecasts. CBC has carried Blue Jays games intermittently throughout the team's history, most recently in 2007 and 2008; those broadcasts featured Jim Hughson as the play-by-play announcer, and former Blue Jays Rance Mulliniks and Jesse Barfield on colour commentary.