Neville 'Ray' Williams

Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter

From growing up in Mile Gully, Manchester, with just a radio and no television, Neville 'Ray' Williams is now pioneering the webcasting of amateur Canadian sports.

Mr. Williams' Toronto-based website, www.broadcastsports.ca, is a long way from the 47-year-old's radio-only childhood. However, his love for the medium saw him join the school radio club after emigrating to Canada as a teenager; and as a sports fan he combined the two whenhe began covering amateur events as a sideline to his 15-year career as an accountant.

In the 1990s he also ran his own talk show, 'The Cutting Edge', on CHRY 105.5 FM, which he believes to be one of the first radio talk shows for black people in Canada. His guests included Jamaican radio personality Barbara Gloudon.

Laid off

The idea for broadcastsport.ca came about in 2004 when the National Hockey League was shut down for a season, and he was laid off, among other staff, by his then full-time employers CFRB 1010 AM. Unemployment gave him the time and space to reconsider his career.

"I thought, why not cover something else, because in Toronto there are a lot of professional teams and there is no room for the amateurs," he said. "I love it because of the passion they have when not doing it for money and broadcasting the games; when you speak to the parents, the kids and the coaches, it gives them a lift because they can see themselves."

Launched last November, he said he is currently undergoing a marketing drive to attract more events to be covered. Now working full-time on the site, its only revenue comes from charging the associations to make the broadcasts and from prospective advertising.

Currently, he does not know of similar sites in Canada there is the charged-for broadcasting of amateur sports in the United States, namely, big money college sports. He said broadcasting of high school and amateur sports is taking off in the U.S.

Webcasting might be possible in Jamaica with its high level of participation and following of amateur sports, he believes.

"Broadcast sports could also carry games anywhere in the world, which could also include Jamaica, because if television and radio are not carrying it then we can," he said.

ross.sheil@gleaner.com