December 21st, 2023
Alex Rickman
Sporting a black and white checkered button-up shirt, surrounded by photos of BC sports legends, and seated alongside co-anchor and recent BC Sports Hall of Fame inductee Don Taylor, dressed in a black suit with a blue shirt underneath, Rick Dhaliwal began the show speaking about the finally completed move that Canucks fans had been wondering about for weeks now. Donnie and Dhali begin the episode by revealing Russian winger Andrei Kuzmenko had chosen the Canucks as his new team, where he would begin his NHL career. Speaking on how he built up the network required to report on stories like this, as well as the countless others he has in his career, Dhaliwal stressed the importance of showing people that you care and paying attention to details, as well as building a strong trust with those you want to connect with. “If you show them that you care about their client, they’re gonna care about you. It’s about trust. The moment that person on the other line trusts you, you’re in. The moment you break that trust, you’re out.” Dhaliwal has learned a thing or two in his over 30 years in sports broadcasting, starting as a self-described “stats freak” at New Westminster Secondary to becoming possibly Vancouver’s most trusted NHL reporter. Trusted by Canucks fans on a level only met by reporters like Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Canucks Chronicles writer Ryan Gurevitz describes Dhaliwal as one of “The guys you go to when you need Canucks news and nothing else.”
Early in his career, Dhaliwal moved around BC several times, working for radio stations in Powell River, Fort St. John, and Squamish, among others, before landing a job in Vancouver. While bouncing around this much was a challenge for him, Dhaliwal says that this experience of moving around from one small town to another was crucial to getting him where he is today, saying “I learned so much about radio, I learned about life, I learned about the ups and downs…back then I didn’t know if I was gonna make it or not, because it was a tough, tough time.” This experience helped him learn the importance of self-improvement and the different ways he worked on honing his craft in these early days, such as sending tapes of himself out to legendary Vancouver sportscasters Dan Russell and Neil Macrae to get experienced feedback. Self-improvement, as he puts it is “about you, the guy in the mirror,” and is essential to making it in broadcasting.
When asked about how his incredible network of connections was formed, Dhaliwal was sure to stress the importance of simply picking up the phone. “Every guy that I’ve ever had as a contact started with a cold call,” Dhaliwal says. Building up his network of connections is an important part of what makes him such a trusted reporter in Vancouver, with lifelong Canucks fan Jon Burrows saying that the reason he trusts Dhaliwal’s reporting more than that of other reporters is because “He’s the local guy. He seems to have more local connections.” Ryan Gurevitz also added, “As someone who’s asked Elliotte Friedman for advice, it’s about making connections, getting work out there, and showing people in the field that you’re capable of creating content that’s important.”
Of course, while working on yourself is a necessary element of making it as a sportscaster, finding success without any help along the way is a tall order. As is true in many fields, having good mentorship is an important part of navigating. When asked to name some of those who helped him get to where he is today, Dhaliwal mentioned his first boss in Vancouver, Gary Raible. “Gary played a pivotal, pivotal role in my development. He taught me how to write when I got to Vancouver.” Dhaliwal also mentioned people such as J.P. McConnell, Rob Gray, Barry MacDonald, Neil Macrae, Dan Russell, and his current co-host on Chek’s Donnie and Dhali, Don Taylor. The importance of being a mentor to the younger generation also is not lost on him. “I always say that we gotta give back. I’ve been in it now 34 years but I gotta give back…somebody helped me, I gotta help somebody else.” This man-of-the-people attitude doesn’t go unnoticed by fans, with Jon Burrows saying that he prefers Donnie and Dhali over other programs because he “seems like this really chill guy, really approachable type of guy, an actual face, a person that you would see.”
While there have been a lot of great moments to look back on in his career, this doesn’t mean that Dhaliwal hasn’t gone through his fair share of adversity. One of these moments of adversity was the sudden shutdown of his then-employer, TSN 1040, which was Vancouver’s highest-rated sports radio station. “It was a very, very tough day because I knew the blood, sweat, and tears that went into 1040.” The sudden shutdown of Vancouver’s longest-running and most-listened sports station came as a shock to many, especially to their employees, who were given extremely little notice that their place of work would be shutting down abruptly. “A couple of weeks before we were talking about a twentieth anniversary, what are we gonna do for the twentieth anniversary, and it never did come.” Despite the station's high ratings right to the very end, the station was losing money, prompting Bell Media, owners of TSN, to pull the plug on 1040, as well as several other sports stations across the country. Handling adversity, be it from losing your job, having to move across the province, or being transitioned into roles at a station that you may not be comfortable with, is essential to surviving as a sportscaster, and Dhaliwal’s career has demonstrated just that.
Of course, possibly the most important part of doing what Dhaliwal does is simply having a passion for sports. In addition to his love for the Canucks, as well as BC’s rich junior hockey structure, Dhaliwal said that the “85 Lions were my favourite team of all time,” while discussing how big of a BC Lions fan he is. This passion for all things Vancouver sports has become an important part of what has made Dhaliwal, as well as co-host Don Taylor, so successful and popular in the Lower Mainland. This passion, as well as their chemistry as a duo, comes through very well on the show, which is really what makes theirs the program of choice for fans like Jon Burrows, and what makes people like Dhaliwal a great source of advice and inspiration for young, aspiring sports journalists like Ryan Gurevitz.
“It’s not a job to me, it’s fun. I love it, I still have a passion. This is my 34th year and I still love it.” They say that if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. While this may not be 100% true, as even those working in areas and jobs that they love will have challenging days, Rick Dhaliwal shows every day that if you can find a job doing what you love, work can still be a fun, fulfilling part of your life.