Look out, Loretta!
January 20, 2008
Keith Barnes of the Tribune-Review “Focuses” on Penguins play-by-play man Mike Lange in an article for the newspaper’s Sunday magazine.
Lange has now been broadcasting hockey for 38 years — first for the Phoenix Roadrunners of the defunct Western Hockey League, then for the San Diego Gulls, and finally for the Pens since 1974. He cites the legendary Pirates’ sportscaster Bob Prince as an early influence.
The 59-year-old native of Sacramento, Calif., now lives in the city’s North Hills; in 2001, he received the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award (named for the legendary host of Hockey Night in Canada) from the Hockey Hall of Fame for outstanding work as a broadcaster.
Lange was bumped from the Pens’ TV broadcasts and now exclusively works radio broadcasts, heard on 21 stations in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland and West Virginia, including flagships “The X” WXDX-FM (105.9) and Fox Sports WBGG (970).
Barnes doesn’t mention persistent rumors that Lange might leave Pittsburgh for the chance to work on TV again, but Lange does allow that he has no plans to retire soon.
“I still enjoy what I do,” he tells Barnes, “and maybe when it stops being fun I’ll decide to take another avenue and try something different.”
