Primetime for Gregor

TEAM 1260 hasn’t wasted time deciding who’ll take over the coveted 3pm to 6 pm slot that went up for grabs when Bob Stauffer turned in his critics card to take a job with the Edmonton Oilers August 15th.

Expect an announcement Monday that Jason Gregor and his Just A Game show will be moving into the prime drive-time vacancy as of September 1st after five years doing nights from 9 p.m. to midnight.

With Stauffer joining 630 CHED as the color man with Rod Phillips on Oiler broadcasts after consistently pulling in the best numbers at the TEAM with his insights and volleys of verbosity on Total Sports, 1260 wasn’t going to parachute a lightweight into that spot.

Gregor, who’s spent his share of time around the Oilers and Eskimos as well as doing play-by-play for the Edmonton Rush and Edmonton Huskies since graduating from NAIT in 2001, was the obvious choice—unless management was going to look outside its current talent roster.

Readers of Oilersnation were representative of that, giving Gregor the nod in a poll with 123 of 283 votes cast, or 44 per cent.

That was well ahead of yours truly, who somehow managed 52 votes, or 18 per cent, and ringer Wanye Gretz, who made his immediate family and everybody associated with Oilersnation stuff the ballot box to the tune of 51 votes. I’m guessing TEAM management resisted the urge to give either one of us—speaking of lightweights—a look. The last thing Marty Forbes needs as he rides off into the sunset of Arizona on his Harley is the stench of that kind of managerial bowel spasm staining his rep.

So, Gregor it is. All told, that’s a good thing—if you look past the designer glasses and his penchant for posing with hot chicks on his Just A Game website. He’ll bring some edge to the slot and he’s well-connected to the Oilers and Eskimos with players, coaches and management.

My understanding is Gregor will be bringing producer and occasional on-air fill-in Wil Fraser with him. They play off each other well on-air and there’s plenty of chemistry there, so that’s a positive.

I’m also told Gregor is looking to keep most or all of the so-called “Dream Team” assembled by Stauffer—Mark Spector of the National Post, Ryan Rishaug of TSN, Ken Reid of CTV and myself — in the fold as rotating co-hosts against his better judgment.

There’ll be a change or two from the way Stauffer did things, and that’s fine, but I’m hoping Gregor welcomes the opportunity to bring the same critical approach to primetime. This market needs the balance Stauffer provided, and there’s plenty of guys throwing underhand already.

The question I have is who’ll assume Gregor’s old time slot and how TEAM 1260 can come up with something to compete with 630 CHED’s Dan Tencer and Inside Sports, which draws big, big numbers.