Jason Botchford to Leave the Scotty and Company Morning Show
10 years ago
On Monday morning it became public knowledge that the Vancouver Province’s Canucks beat writer and TSN hockey analyst Jason Botchford will leave the Team 1040’s Scotty and Company morning show later this month. The last Botchford co-hosted show will air on June 14th.
Jason Botchford took up co-hosting duties alongside Scott Rintoul in the 8am-to-10am PST drive time slot shortly after Dave Pratt’s departure from the local sports talk radio juggernaut last fall necessitated some lineup juggling. The morning show had become "appointment listening" for a wide swath of Canucks fans – a rare bit of sports media that stats milts and shappers could see eye-to-eye on.
More analysis after the jump.
To learn more about the reasons behind Jason’s departure from the cushy drive-time morning slot – and whether or not we should anticipate a replacement radio project to emerge from the hopper in short order – we reached out to the man himself:
"I loved the job. The job did not always love me. It requires an unrelenting pace and commitment. Over time, I realized I wasn’t comfortable with that, given other responsibilities I have.I did have this slight fantasy I’d walk in there to quit, and they’d say: ‘We can’t lose you. We are doubling your salary. We are changing the name to Botchford and Company.’ (No offence meant to Scotty!) But, alas, no.I’m working to get some irons in the fire, so those who aren’t celebrating this news could maybe stick with me."
I’d wager that the station will find it difficult to replace Botchford’s piquant radio stylings and his ability to harness excitement on social media. We’ll be very curious to see who they tap in his stead.
From Botchford’s occassionally testy sparring matches with Ray Ferraro, to Littlest Hobo trivia, to exhaustive evaluations of the martial skills of wild animals, the colour and chemistry that the Jason Botchford, Paul Debron, Scott Rintoul team brought to morning sports talk radio will be sorely missed.
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