Taylor Shire, Regina Leader-Post
There’s a new voice of the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ radio broadcasts.
Longtime broadcaster Dave Thomas has been named the Roughriders’ play-by-play voice for their Canadian Football League games on 620 CKRM.
Thomas — who has worked in radio in Saskatoon for the past 20 years — replaces Michael Ball, who was taken off the gameday broadcast team earlier this year. Ball, who replaced Derek Taylor in 2022, has since left Harvard Media.
For Thomas — a Weyburn product — working towards this job in the CFL has been years in the making.
“I’m basically a guy who started out in the minors if you compare it to hockey,” Thomas said after the official announcement was made on Wednesday afternoon. “I started out doing junior hockey and then I was able to go ahead and make a move over to football.
“I actually got to commentate high school football, junior football, made my way to the Canada West and now I’m here with the Roughriders which is really cool.”
Along with his radio gig with the Saskatoon Media Group — which included “everything from morning shows to program director” — Thomas has called games in the Western Hockey League, the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, the National Lacrosse League, U Sports and the Prairie Football Conference.
He has also covered a World Junior Hockey Championship and a Memorial Cup. Previously, Thomas also served as the visiting sideline reporter for CFL broadcasts on CKRM for three seasons, including in 2013 when the Roughriders won the Grey Cup.
Analyst Luc Mullinder will remain on the broadcast team for his seventh season, while Justin Dunk, who runs the CFL website 3DownNation, joins the broadcast crew as the pre- and post-game host.
