Otsego resident Jim Erickson knew that sports broadcasting would be his career path when he was 10 years old.
Like Minnesotans in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Erickson idolized Minnesota Twins radio play-by-play man Herb Carneal, Minnesota North Stars TV voice Al Shaver and Bob Kurtz, who was the TV play-by-play voice of the Twins and eventually became the radio play-by-play voice of the Minnesota Wild.
“I always loved listening to the Twins and the Vikings and what not on radio,” Erickson said. “It was pretty early in my life that I wanted to get into it.”
As a student at Braham High School, Erickson would do play-by-play of games on VHS tapes and submit them to the local cable access station. He would also be a public address announcer for other games.
After graduating from Braham High School in 1988, he attended Brown Institute of Broadcasting in Mendota Heights, which then became known as Brown College until it closed in 2014. In 1989, Erickson began working for WCMP 100.9 AM in Pine City. He was the sports director of the station for 10 years. His responsibilities included setting the sports schedule for each week and broadcasting the games. He covered Pine City High School, Mora High School, Cambridge-Isanti High School, North Branch High School, Milaca High School, and his alma mater, Braham High School. He also hosted the morning show in addition to doing sports at night. He would often take naps in the afternoon to save energy and prepare to cover high school athletics at night.
“I had a goal of broadcasting sports at a higher level,” he said. “The only way to get better doing that stuff …you are going to learn from doing. I set out to do as many games as I possibly could. There were some years I did well over 100 games in just the winter season. We’d broadcast [on] Wednesday, Thursday, Friday [and] Saturday, so that’s four games a week and sometimes more with doubleheaders and things like that. There [were] always opportunities to do games when you have a lot of schools to cover.
“It was a lot of fun. You get to know the players, the coaches and the fans. I didn’t make a lot of money. My first year in 1990, I may have made $13,000. That’s full-time employment. There wasn’t a whole lot of money in local radio at that time, and I don’t even know if there is to this day.”
After 10 years at WCMP, Erickson moved on to KLCI BOB FM, a Twin Cities-based country music station in Princeton, where he covered Princeton and Milaca High School athletics.
In the fall of 2004, Erickson decided he wanted to be a voice of a team. He had been trying several years to get on the radar of minor league baseball teams. Since baseball broadcasting is so competitive, he decided to switch gears to hockey. He had enjoyed covering high school hockey ever since his first job in Pine City and also covered the Minnesota Golden Gophers women’s hockey team.
Erickson applied for a “stealth” play-by-play job online. He didn’t know where the team was located until he figured out that the phone area code traced back to Mississippi.
He then moved out of state to Memphis, Mississippi, now Walls, Mississippi, where he became the radio play-by-play announcer and director of media relations for the Mississippi RiverKings of the Central Hockey League. He spent three seasons as the voice of the RiverKings. Erickson was voted as “Best Broadcaster” and “Broadcaster of the Year” following the 2006-07 CHL season. He then moved closer to home to Des Moines, Iowa, and served as the radio play-by-play announcer and the director of media relations for the AHL’s Iowa Stars. The Stars were the top affiliate of the NHL’s Dallas Stars, whom Erickson listened to as a child when the team was still known as the North Stars.
After one season with the Stars, the team changed affiliations to Texas and changed staff. Erickson was laid off, and like many Americans in 2008, he was out of a job.
In 2009, he returned to BOB FM, which is now located in Ramsey. He currently is the co-host of the BOB Morning Show and The All Request Lunch Hour. He also is in charge of covering high school sports. But it wasn’t without challenges and odd jobs.
Erickson worked at several radio stations doing games and even sold vaccums for a few months. He also worked for Wells Fargo in its collections department telling people to pay off their credit card bills.
Neil Freeman is the man responsible for bringing Erickson back to BOB FM and giving him another chance. Freeman and Erickson co-host the station’s morning show. Freeman said the station needed another sports announcer and first met him when both were working at WCMP in Pine City.
“I knew he was solid,” Freeman said. “His play-by-play skills were great. He’s been fantastic here ever since we brought him back. He’s got a sharp wit. He brings his own unique style of humor. Like a lot of play-by-play guys, he’s got a great memory and remembers all kinds of things that play into being on the morning show. He’s consistent. It’s not easy to bring it every day, but he’s been consistent and has been a leader on the morning show for a long time.”
In 2010, Erickson began calling the MSHSL high school football Prep Bowl on KSTC 45. Clay Matvick, a Princeton High School and St. Cloud State University graduate, had been calling the state hockey tournaments for KSTC 45. However, Matvick also covered various games on ESPN on a freelance basis, including SEC football. When Matvick’s schedule became too busy to do both MSHSL high school tournaments and work for ESPN, KSTC 45 needed someone to take his spots broadcasting the state football tournaments and the Prep Bowl. Matvick recommended Erickson to the Channel 45 staff. Erickson said he was nervous when he interviewed for the Prep Bowl position. During the 2010 season, he called one game.
The next season, Matvick said he couldn’t do all the state tournament hockey games. He wanted to do only Class 2A and not Class A. Erickson started covering the Class A boys hockey tournament in 2012 and the next two seasons. In 2015, he became the exclusive play-by-play voice on KSTC 45 for both the Class A and Class 2A boys hockey tournaments. On Saturday, March 9, Erickson called his 20th state tournament championship game when Edina defeated Chanhassen 2-1 at Xcel Energy Center. He also was the play-by-play voice for the state girls hockey tournament from 2014 to 2016.
Erickson’s broadcast partner during the boys high school hockey tournament was former Minnesota North Stars player and general manager Lou Nanne. Nanne began covering the MSHSL boys high school hockey tournament in 1964, three years before the North Stars played their first game in 1967. Nanne, who is now 82 years old, retired from covering the state tournament after 60 years of coverage. The Class 2A state championship game on Saturday, March 9, was the final time he and Erickson shared the TV booth inside the Al Shaver Press Box at Xcel Energy Center.
“I knew him as the general manager of the North Stars,” Erickson said. “I don’t remember him as a player, but I remember him as a broadcaster of the state hockey tournament. He analyzes the game so well. He knows so much about hockey and he does a fine job of putting things into terms that people understand. It’s important to keep it simple for them. I’ve always told people that whenever I do a game with Lou, I always learn something from him.”
In 2016, Erickson had the privilege of calling Elk River’s first state football title in program history. His final words before the clock hit zero were, “And after 125 years of football, the Elk River Elks are state champions!” Unfortunately, he couldn’t call the team’s second championship victory in 2022 because he had to call a St. Cloud State men’s hockey game. Erickson is also the radio play-by-play voice of the Huskies men’s hockey team and does play-by-play for QC TV, which covers Anoka, Andover and Champlin Park High School. That year, he had to drive to St. Cloud to call the Huskies’ game against North Dakota, but he did cover two state football semifinals before heading north.
Erickson said he was disappointed to not call the 2022 championship game because he knows Elks head coach Steve Hamilton well.
“I remember it [2016] well,” he said. “I remember the fact that I had seen the Power-T offense prior to that for a lot of games covering it on radio. It helped me follow the ball. Steve’s done color commentary with me, too, because when I was doing games on the radio, if they had been eliminated or they weren’t playing, he would come during the playoffs and help me do color. That was always fun. I was thrilled to see Steve win a championship.”
While he was working for the Missisippi RiverKings, he met a woman from Mississippi named Chrissy. They met in 2006 through an online dating website. Eventually, the couple fell in love and are now married.
Chrissy Erickson said she didn’t know a thing about hockey when she met Jim.
“I was in SEC world and we’re all [about] football and basketball,” Chrissy said. “Hockey was probably more impressive than him being from Minnesota. He’s calm and rational most of the time. He loves what he does. He could do play-by-play for anything. He is good at it [and] has a knack for it. He could live and breathe it.”
Jim Erickson said for high school students and college students considering a career in sports broadcasting or sports media, the only thing that will help them improve their skills is by attending games and calling them or writing about them. Students should also be warned that play-by-play announcing isn’t always a glamorous job.
“Go out there and get reps,” he said. “Go to college for it and study, but also, on your own, go out and do games. They don’t even have to be on the internet. You can do them into a recorder or do them for practice. When I started, I wanted to do as many games as I could. Plus, it was fun doing the games and providing the coverage to the teams. People start hearing you and they start telling you, ‘Hey, you do a nice job.’ You get all these accolades. That’s special. It helps boost your career. Start small because all of that confidence helps you to move on. Listen to yourself.”
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