With Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Major League Soccer now in their off-season, one of the main sources for news on the club and MLS bring their 2011 production to a close on Friday afternoon, as TEAM 1410 radio show ‘Whitecaps FC Daily’ will go on a winter break before returning in the New Year.
From their maiden broadcast on March 14, ‘Whitecaps FC Daily’ has established new standards for soccer coverage in North America during the past eight months. As the only daily soccer radio show to exist in any MLS market, host Peter Schaad and producer/contributor Tyler Green have worked tirelessly to inform soccer fans in the Lower Mainland…and beyond…about the Blue and White and MLS.
The well-known play-by-play voice of the ‘Caps on TEAM 1410, Schaad revealed that the challenge of doing a daily soccer show was initially daunting. “When I was told that part of my job as Whitecaps play-by-play included hosting a daily show, I was terrified because I wondered where we would get an hour’s worth of soccer content from every day. But I soon realized that it became more about what we had to leave out of the show,” he told whitecapsfc.com. “The soccer media fraternity in North America is a really generous one, as they are always willing to come on the show and talk about the game, which is wonderful. We’ve made some great friends through some of our guests this year. MLS clubs also did a really good job to provide us guests, as it wasn’t hard for us to get big name people on our show. They all realize they are still in the selling stage of the game here in North America.”
The co-host of ‘Full-Time: Vancouver’s Soccer Show’ each Sunday night on TEAM 1040 radio, Green admits their efforts on ‘Whitecaps FC Daily’ are starting to have a positive effect. “We’ve had nothing but positive feedback from people that have been listening to the program and from people who follow soccer on a daily basis,” he said. “From other people that work within Major League Soccer or work within soccer across North America, they’re excited that there is a daily show here in Vancouver. Many are using our show as a model to push for daily soccer shows in other MLS markets. Just like the Whitecaps want to be a model for being the best in a variety of different aspects in the soccer world, we want to be a model for other radio stations with our soccer coverage and help the game grow in that aspect.”
Of the many guests on ‘Whitecaps FC Daily’ this year, Schaad singled out two Englishmen in Gol TV Canada analyst Ray Hudson and ESPN sportscaster Ian Darke. “Ray is such a colourful individual,” said Schaad. “We spent 20 minutes talking with him, which meant that we had to spread the interview out over two segments. There was so much to talk about from the NASL days, and he had a lot of thoughts about Major League Soccer. Our chat with Ian Darke was also a really interesting discussion. Ian talked to us from a pub in England after doing play-by-play on a Manchester United game.”
Looking ahead to 2012 with ‘Whitecaps FC Daily’, Schaad hopes the show can build itself into being a top news source on the club and MLS. “What I would like for next year is more regular guests that you can count on for certain days, and that there is more than enough of them,” he revealed. “Also, we’ll be looking to generate more exclusive content - be it news or features - so that people can depend on us as the first source for soccer in North America. We want to be the place to go to find out about MLS news, when it happens.”
‘Whitecaps FC Daily’ will return to the TEAM 1410 airwaves on Monday, January 23, 2012.
