Veteran Sportscaster Dave Rubenstein
Match Points at Aegon International




                                                                           Marion Bartoli of France

          
           Dave Rubenstein
         Puget Sound Radio
   Tuesday August the 7th, 2012

Dave started his media career at CFBV/CFLD, Smithers and Burns Lake in June 1969. He'd taken radio and tv training in San Franciso. Not realizing Canadians could not work in the United States because we're exempt from taking the FCC test, it took Dave six months after graduation to get his very first job, as Traffic Manager at CFBV.

He ran a Sunday night disc jockey shift, then started doing sports announcing and eventually his first 'play by play' hockey games featuring the Smithers Totems in a Senior Mens league, which included Kitimat, Terrace and Houston. He recalls there were some very wild games between those rivals.

One of the games was by the boards in Kitimat, with no press box. Thinking everything was okay, with the broadcast as he was into the 2nd period when one of the attendants asked him , "Are you the guy broadcasting the game back to Smithers?" responding in the affirmative, the attendent then said, "you haven't been on the air for over an hour!" Shame, thought Dave, because it was a darn good period, and half of the broadcast!

From Smithers to Powell River, he met news director, Al Pervin. Al's dad trained a Canadian middleweight by the name of Donato Paduano. Al's dad knew Angelo Dundee the manager of Muhammed Ali and through that link, Dave interviewed Ali by phone in 1972 when he fought Canadian champ George Chuvalo in Vancouver. Ali was staying at the Georgia Hotel. The interview ran on CHQB Radio at 8.10am and was rebroadcast that evening. That was certainly, one of the biggest moments of Dave's career.

Dave had broadcast two NHL Vancouver Canucks exhibition games out of the Cowichan Arena, when the Canucks trained in Duncan in the early 1980's. Color man was the funny Neil McRae. Dave says McRae was fantastic to work with. Those two games were against the Winnipeg Jets and the LA Kings.

Over the years, Dave has covered over 500 junior hockey broadcasts through until the early part of this decade. However, his main job for many years has been as an account executive for both radio and newspaper, primarily at the Citizen Newspaper in Duncan where he's worked for over 27 years. He was editor of the paper in it's second year 1986.

Dave started to really follow tennis about 10 years ago, when he saw a very raw Russian player that caught his eye in Toronto, Vera Zvonereva. She was so determined to win and so angry at herself when she made errors. Dave always sensed one day she may become a great player. From that time, he began to follow her career, and of course she reached number 2 in the world two years ago. She is very intelligent, taking courses from an Academy in Moscow, in international relations. No dummy for sure.

Dave also started to follow Maria Kirilenko, another Russian lady, really cute he said, then added, but now starting to excel in her game, she is ranked in the top 15 as of July 16th. She is exceptional in doubles.

Dave has also had some slight contact with Canadian Rebecca Marino out of Vancouver, but sadly she is out of competitive tennis at the moment, reassessing her future. She was as high as 38th a couple of years ago. Dave also enjoyed watching Roger Federer and now Canadian Milos Raonic, he is on the rise and will be a big threat to the top echelon players very soon.

So why did Dave want to cover the Aegon International Tennis tournament in Eastbourne this June. As a member of the IAPP, International Association of Press Photographers, he thought he could combine a holiday seeing relatives in the UK and perhaps report on the event.

Also, it was the 125th anniversary of his local lawn tennis club, the South Cowichan Lawn Tennis Club, the same week as the Aegon International. He talked with the people at the club and they said he could take over the anniversary brochure if he got accredited to cover the event.

Well, it took him three months to get accredited, a letter from his editor stating that he had covered International events. He'd reported on the 100th Anniversary FA Cup match back in 1979, did a feature on comparing British football with the then North American Soccer League in the 1980's and reported on the fateful bombings in London.

Vincent Thorne of the LTA finally notified him about 2 weeks before his departure to the UK that he had been granted accreditation to the Aegon International tournament. All the hard work paid off.

His first day at Eastbourne, June 18th Dave presented five copies of the local club's anniversary brochure to Vincent, which he certainly appreciated and then got himself oriented around the Devonshire club's layout.


                    Alexsandra Wozniak such a sweet lady and fine tennis player from Montreal
        
Dave wanted to interview Alexsandra Wozniak the top Canadian player. He was able to do that two days later, and it was one of the most enjoyable interviews he'd ever had in his 43 year career in the media. Her dad is her coach and is from Poland, and Dave stated, "my grandfather on my mother's side was from Poland too." She smiled and said,  "no wonder we are getting along so well!" I was speechless for a couple of seconds!

We chatted for another five minutes and Alexsandra said, "Dave I hope we meet again!" Truly the highlight of my five days at Eastbourne.


                                Stephanie Dubois of Canada —
                  at Aegon International Tennis Tournament Eastboune.

He also interviewed Stephanie Dubois of Montreal, she was more matter of fact, but still a pleasure to chat with.

Now number two in the world Agnieszka Radwanska, had a press conference he attended after losing to Bulgarian , Tsvetana Pironkova. In a group of 20 other journalists and reporters he asked the first two questions about her match, saying she looked really uncomfortable on the court today.  She replied in her cute broken English, well, yes I think it wasn't my day today. That's for sure.

Dave watched many other great matches including Andy Roddick's semi-final, and the eventual winner, semi-final Tamira Paszek of Austria.

He says he was treated really well by the press officer and staff at the Devonshire Club and was called the "Canadian Reporter." Those five days at Eastbourne will remain one of the biggest highlights of my career. I do hope I  will have another opportunity to return there in a couple of years. I filed my stories from London, it's an 80 minute train ride from Eastbourne.
        
As they say. "nothing ventured nothing gained.