John Forslund named North Carolina Sportscaster of the Year

Carolina Hurricanes fans have long known that they have been fortunate to have nothing but longtime broadcast professionals calling their games since the team’s move to North Carolina. On Monday, their opinion of John Forslund was validated with a well-deserved honor.

Forslund, the television voice of the Hurricanes franchise since 1994, was named the North Carolina Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sports Media Association, the NSMA announced as part of its annual award announcements. It’s the first such award for Forslund in his NHL career, and the second for the Hurricanes; former radio play-by-play man Chuck Kaiton was the 2015 winner of the same award.

However, Forslund is no stranger to awards and recognition for his work. He was named the 1989 Ken McKenzie Award winner for the top publicist/announcer in the American Hockey League. His work has been recognized with increasing visibility on national broadcasts of NHL games on NBC and NBCSN, and he is widely considered one of the top candidates as the eventual replacement for Mike Emrick, who was named to the NSMA Hall of Fame today, as the lead broadcaster for the NHL on NBC.

For more on the meticulous preparation process that Forslund undertakes before broadcasting a game, see Canes Country’s 2015 profile of Forslund. Unsurprisingly for the rarely-idle broadcaster, Forslund will celebrate his award by calling four games in four days from four cities: yesterday in Raleigh, tonight in Boston, tomorrow in Manhattan, and Wednesday in Philadelphia.

The Hurricanes release is below.

FORSLUND NAMED N.C. SPORTSCASTER OF THE YEAR
National Sports Media Association tabs ‘Canes play-by-play man as state’s best

The National Sports Media Association announced today that Carolina Hurricanes play-by-play announcer John Forslund has been selected as the North Carolina Sportscaster of the Year.

Forslund is in his 24th season as the television play-by-play voice with the Hurricanes franchise and his 28th year overall with the club. He first joined the Hartford Whalers in 1991 as public relations director and took over television play-by-play duties in the 1994-95 season. Prior to joining the organization, Forslund spent seven seasons handling broadcast duties for the American Hockey League’s Springfield Indians from 1984-91. In 1989, he was named the winner of the Ken McKenzie Award, given annually to the top publicist/announcer in the AHL. In addition to calling Hurricanes games on FOX Sports Carolinas, Forslund also serves as a play-by-play announcer for nationally-televised games on the NBC family of networks.