From left: Chantal Desjardins, Pete Marier and PJ Stock, the morning crew at CHOM
There are a lot of people on the Internet who don’t like PJ Stock. The former NHL player (who had twice as many penalty minutes as games played) has jumped into media in his retirement, as an analyst with Hockey Night in Canada and until recently a show host at the Team 990. He has been criticized for everything from being clueless about hockey to having a tenuous grasp of the rules of English grammar (not that I agree with these criticisms).
On Wednesday, two days after his contract expired at the Team 990, Stock officially joined the morning team at CHOM-FM, effectively replacing the departing Ted Bird.
It’s odd that PJ is considered a full member of the team because he’s only present half the time. The deal is he comes in from 7 to 9 Mondays to Thursdays (Desjardins and Marier do the full show from 5:30 to 9 Mondays to Fridays). And even when he’s present, it’s mostly Marier doing the talking. Desjardins reads the news and Stock reads sports (Abe Hefter is still reading sports news while Stock isn’t present).
Aside from the peanut-gallery comments that are common throughout the show, Stock’s actual talk time is about 10 minutes a day. This includes “Stock Options” (the latest bad pun on his name), a sports commentary segment at 7:20am. (Day 1, Stock criticized the Canadiens for being overhyped – hardly a unique idea. On Day 2, he criticized the media for not being more hostile to Tiger Woods’s wife for allegedly attacking him with a golf club – something even Marier wasn’t comfortable endorsing.)
Rather than try to summarize it all, I’ll let you listen to compilations of his sports reports and banter from his first two days:
- PJ Stock Day 1 (MP3, 8:59)
- PJ Stock Day 2 (MP3, 6:30)
Day 2 includes his first major blooper, when he couldn’t figure out how to turn on his microphone.
Stock the jock
It’s clear from his first days on CHOM that Stock is the sports guy. If you don’t like sports, and you don’t like how much time is spent on the radio talking about sports and the Canadiens in particular (there are people who listen to CHOM who don’t like sports, believe it or not), then you’re not going to like PJ Stock.
Hell, even if you’re a die-hard Canadiens fan, you might not like Stock. He calls it “Pete Marier’s favourite team” and doesn’t seem to share his city’s blind support for the bleu-blanc-rouge.
Otherwise, Stock is comfortable on the radio. He’s not awkward, he doesn’t slur his speech or say “umm” a lot. He’s not a radio professional by any means but he fits in well.
I don’t know how long this weird schedule can last though. It’s understandable that Stock wouldn’t want to get up at 4am the morning after a Habs game, and that travel to and from Toronto might make him unavailable on Fridays, but this just highlights the fact that to Stock, Hockey Night in Canada comes first and his job at CHOM comes second.
I have a feeling that, eventually, he’s going to have to choose between the two.
Was very surprised that PJ took the CHOM/Astral gig. They must have thrown a shit load of money his way to fill the gap when Bird left out of the blue. Mind you I’m sure he is not getting anywhere the pay that Ted commanded. That said, I agree he will eventually be forced to make a choice between HNIC and local radio. May have left a bad taste in the mouths of his compatriots at CHUM Radio/CTV-GlobeMedia also. Especially Melnick, who acted as a mentor when he first began his media/life after hockey career. The industry is so tight, it is never a good idea to burn bridges behind you. Never know which corporation/conglomerate will buyout your employer !
The irony of him complaining about a guy getting clubbed is delicious.
From the previous post about PJ Stock.
“Franc says:
January 21, 2010 at 8:57 am
Are we gonna have another bad pun for his segment? Stock Talk, Stock Exchange, how many more pun can you do with his name?”
Looks like I got my answer: Stock Options!
A lot of Habs fans don’t like him because he’s a big Bruins fan and makes no secret of it, although he’s probably not as vocal about it as he once was.
I just don’t like him cus his voice gets on my nerves.
He does not have an ‘FM’ voice, I’ll tell you that!!!
:o)
Honestly, I cringe everytime I hear his voice. I think his comments are out of place most of the time. He’s overdoing it. He needs to tone it down.
I find him very different from his private life. One of his kids played soccer on the same team as mine last summer and he was always a very low key guy. I really don’t like that on air personna…….
Worst radio host ever.
Every single word out of his mouth is an insult to intelligence everywhere.
Please find yourself another job, preferably one with a muzzle.
I cant stand P.J Stock and if it weren’t for the type of music chom plays id tune out completely I can take or leave Pete and Chantal is a non issue but Pj is the worst I’m not even a hockey fan but even I’m insulted by his constant bad mouthing the Canadians I would prefer that they just let a competent announcer lime Abe just read the sports and dump this moron