Holck celebrates 1,000th game on airwaves

By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
 BANGOR, Maine — For 17 years, Ken Holck has been the voice of basketball in southern Aroostook County.
On Saturday evening, at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, Holck broadcast his 1,000th high school basketball game. Fittingly enough, the game was the Houlton boys basketball team’s victory over Lee Academy for the Eastern Class C championship.    Holck got his start in radio when he was asked to help out with a Houlton game against Madawaska. Little did he know, what was supposed to be an accompanying gig, quickly became a full-time role.
“I called my first high school basketball game in December of 1997 for WHOU,” he recalled. “Marty Bouchard got me started broadcasting as his helper. About that time his (Bouchard’s) refereeing career took off and I took over full-time as the play-by-play announcer.
“I recall perfectly that Marty got asked to do a varsity assignment that night, so I got bumped up to play-by-play,” he continued. “I had no idea who was going to do color for me that night, but it turned out to be Terry Cummings. Terry was working in Mars Hill at the time and showed up right before the game started.”
During the his first few seasons, Holck and crew broadcast an average of 45-50 games, which has now grown to 70 games a season, including playoffs and tournament coverage.
“We have had years where I have done close to 90 games in a season,” he added.
Holck, who also serves as sales manager for the radio station, has seen many players come and go and is now on to watching their children play ball.
“It was fitting that tonight as I called my 1,000th game on WHOU, Marty’s son Kyle played a big part of Houlton’s Eastern Maine championship and my good friend Rob Moran, who has worked hundreds of games with me, was the coach,” Holck said.
So exactly how many more games are in the future for Holck, 56? Not even he knows the answer to that question.
“It gets harder every year,” he said. “When we first started, it was just plug a phone line into a wall and off you went. Nowadays, it’s a whole production. We have video now so you need more people. It’s a lot different.”
When pressed, Holck said it was impossible to pick just one game out of the 1,000 that stands out.
“It’s too hard,” he said. “There have been so many great games. I did the Houlton boys championship in 2004. I have seen a lot of Eastern Maine and State championship games, so those have to be in that list. Probably one of the more memorable games would also be the Greater Houlton Christian Academy upset over Lee Academy (in 2006).”
He also remembered making a deal with a Southern Aroostook fan one year that if the Warriors made it to the Eastern Maine championship, he would broadcast a game while wearing a New York Yankees hat.
“I am glad that I got to share the game with my regular partner, Tim Tweedie,” Holck said. “Game 1001 is coming up Saturday (at the Augusta Civic Center) so I hope you tune in!”
WHOU (100.1 FM) will broadcast all three state championship games involving Washburn girls, and the Houlton and Hodgdon boys squads starting at 1:05 p.m. Saturday.