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Sportsnet and TSN spent five years keeping Joe Bowen in a Toronto studio while the Maple Leafs played road games, and on Monday, Bowen said it was one of the reasons he\u2019s walking away.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the last 5 years we\u2019ve had to (broadcast) road games off TV monitors,\u201d Bowen said. \u201cThat\u2019s not what I signed up for.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nMaple Leafs broadcaster Joe Bowen (@Bonsie1951<\/a>) says another reason he\u2019s retiring is the landscape of radio has changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the last 5 years we\u2019ve had to (broadcast) road games off TV monitors. That\u2019s not what I signed up for.\u201d pic.twitter.com\/3TeHUdlqPf<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 Simon Dingley Media (@SimonDingleyTV) April 6, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The remote broadcast policy at Sportsnet and TSN isn\u2019t new, and it isn\u2019t exclusive to the Leafs, but it\u2019s been a particularly sore subject in Toronto for years. The practice started during COVID and never fully reversed \u2014 both outlets kept their radio crews home for road games \u2014 long after restrictions lifted, with cost savings as the justification. Their\u00a0former programming director said at the time that the savings weren\u2019t worth it,\u00a0estimating in a conversation with The Athletic<\/a> that the cost of sending Bowen and longtime partner Jim Ralph on the road for a seven-game playoff series was<\/span> just $10,000 Canadian. The Leafs and their broadcast partners decided it wasn\u2019t worth it anyway.<\/p>\n
In 2023, when the Maple Leafs won their first playoff series in 19 years, Bowen was sitting in a studio in Toronto watching a television feed when the series-winning overtime goal went in. The TV shot didn\u2019t show the celebration clearly enough to identify the scorer, so Bowen called it for Morgan Rielly. It was John Tavares. He corrected himself quickly and, afterward, was characteristically gracious about it, but the damage was done.\u00a0The most important call of the Leafs\u2019 postseason in nearly two decades had been botched<\/a> because the broadcaster wasn\u2019t in the building.<\/p>\n
With the help of some well-earned public shaming,\u00a0Bowen and Ralph were sent on the road for the second-round series against Florida<\/a>. Still, once\u00a0the playoffs ended, the regular-season policy reverted to its previous state.<\/p>\n
Bowen had been pointing in this direction for a while. Back in December, ahead of his tribute night at Scotiabank Arena \u2014 the one where his son David called the entire game alongside Ralph while Bowen watched from a private box with his family \u2014 he sat down with NHL.com<\/a> and tried to articulate why he was ready to walk away<\/a> after 44 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe job has changed,\u201d he said then. \u201cThe whole mosaic of what we do has changed dramatically. It\u2019s not what I signed up for.\u201d<\/p>\n
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