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CBC Canes Fans: A Wild New Breed
Wear Red, White & Black Wednesday for Caniacs Day at CBC

CBC’s Caniacs Day Wed, June 14th Wear red, white & black to work!

No one in Raleigh wanted the Canes to lose a Stanley Cup finals game in Edmonton, but many CBC Caniacs are excited that their favorite hockey team will be returning to the Triangle to play Game 5 of the Stanley Cup championship in front of the home crowd.

Capitol Broadcasting Company (CBC) is going to celebrate by dubbing Wednesday, June 14, 2006, as CBC’s official “Caniacs Day.” All employees are encouraged to wear red, white & black on Wednesday as a show of support for our local team. So let’s all have fun showing our team spirit (within departmental dress codes).

A Caniacs Dream:
The big CBC benefit of tickets to the Canes
CBC President & CEO Jim Goodmon is all about supporting the local community and the Carolina Hurricanes have been no exception. Goodmon signed on at the beginning with booster club organization “Friends of the Canes” and helped spur ticket sales and attract the NHL draft to make sure the Canes were a success in the Triangle. And as is also his M.O., Goodmon has allowed CBC to pass on the benefits to his employees through mini-plan discount plans, individual game ticket giveaway drawings and several employee nights at the Canes each season. How cool is it to actually get a chance to win free tickets to something as big as the Stanley Cup finals?!

Corp’s Angela Francioni (l to r) and WRAL-TV’s Patrice Jobes & her husband, Cy, have become big time Canes fans. Here they enjoy a CBC Employee Night at the Canes and get a crash course in Hockey 101 with Ref Ron.

It’s a family thing. MCC’s Jay Chapman & his family show the ultimate Canes spirit in this Christmas photo. Chapman with sons (middle, l to r) Colin & Ben (back row) Noah & Chapman’s wife, Diane.

WRAL-FM’s Brandon Alexander (center) started off as a casual Canes fan in 1997, going to Greensboro now & then for a game. Now he’s a self-proclaimed HUGE fan.

For this reason, several CBC’ers have become raging Hurricanes fans, and those who were already dedicated to the Canes squad have become even more diehard. Capcom interviewed a number of these self-proclaimed Caniacs for an inside look at the folks who will be leading the way in our red, white & black day at CBC.

Corp’s Mary Eaton (here at a Canes game with her husband, Larry) attended a CBC Employee Night and got hooked on the Canes!

Speaking of mini-plans, NMG Research & Marketing Specialist Dawn Jernigan had already purchased her annual Canes tickets before coming on board at CBC about 8 weeks ago, but she asks, “Why do you think I came to work here???” with a big Caniac smile on her face.

FOX 50 Administrative Assistant Sheila Chast said, “I did purchase tickets through CBC, which my entire family is thankful for! You know you’ve gone to a lot of games when you know most of the people in your section, and you recognize many people on the concourse!”

Another CBC mini-plan purchaser Microspace Satellite Uplink Operator Jay Chapman and his family got hooked during the Canes last trip to the final dance.

When Corporate HR Administrator Mary Eaton joined CBC in August 2005, she learned that one of her duties would be to attend all “Employee Night at the Canes” games to ensure that everything runs smoothly for CBC employees. “I was hooked after the first game!”

Microspace Senior Systems Engineer Dave Scoggins attended his first Canes game this season and was a “raving Caniac by the start of the third period.” He won CBC tickets and said he was “caught up in the speed and action of the game.” So he ended up purchasing a playoff strip for Rounds 1 and 2 of the play-offs through CBC.

WRAL-TV’s Patrice Jobes hangs out with her pal Stormy.

“One funny story I tell people is during a game, the Canes got a penalty that the crowd felt was undeserving,” said WRAL-TV’s Patrice Jobes. “When all the fans around me stood up to boo, I did too. My husband asked me, ‘What happened?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know!’ Figured when in Rome…! You don’t have to KNOW the game of hockey to have a great time at a game!”

Angela Francioni cuddles up to the Stanley Cup when it came through the Triangle several years ago.

So, exactly how big of a fan are these CBC’ers?
Jernigan eats hockey pucks for breakfast with her diet Pepsi. She went to a game in 2000 and fell in love. And this woman doesn’t even like sports!

“I hate sports, have despised sports for years (probably because my husband watches SO many sporting events on TV, including golf and fishing),” she said. “I was not that into hockey until the first time I went to a game – my favorite part of hockey…when the fighting starts!!! I love the feisty, take no crap attitude! GO CANES!!”

A Little Bit Superstitious… “During the playoffs Diane had to wear her Canes sweater, I have to wear my pair of Canes shorts, and Collin, my oldest son, wears his Canes shirt….So far with that exact combo, we are 7-1.” – MCC’s Jay Chapman Corp’s Mary Eaton has a Canes Shrine on her desk in HR. She has tried to add something new to that Canes shrine everyday since they won Game 7 in Round 3. “If I add anything else to our Stormy doll, he won’t be able to stand up anymore!” “I’ve only recently become superstitious. Towards the end of the regular season and continuing with the playoffs, every game I’ve been to, I’ve worn my Canes jersey. If I didn’t make it to the game but knew someone who was going, I’d send it with them and so far the jersey is undefeated. This week, I was designing a ‘Congrats’ graphic for our website and it was suggested to have ‘Stanley Cup Champions’ graphic ready to go if they win. However, once I started, I realized what I was doing would probably jinx the team, so although I was nearing completion, I immediately stopped and deleted the project.” – WRAL-FM’s Brandon Alexander WRAL-TV’s Patrice Jobes says she’s not really superstitions, but qualified that by saying, “[During] the second round playoff series with New Jersey, the Canes had won the first three games, and seemed on their way to sweep the series. However, they played terribly in game four, and we lost the game 5 -1. As we were leaving home that evening, my husband pointed out to me how he had managed to get two small car flags that had been giveaway items earlier in the season to fit on the back window of his CRV. I asked him when he had put them there, and he replied either the night before or that day. I asked him to take them off, and the next day the Canes clinched the series. They’ve been in the garage ever since!” “I am simply not superstitious. However, I do wear my Hockey Sweater to the games I attend in person. My children now have matching sweaters. My wife refuses to wear a hockey sweater. She does not know that she will be getting one for her birthday.” – WCMC-FM’s Jeff Ferrell I wouldn’t say I’m superstitious, but just in case, I do wear the same ‘outfit’ to each game (red Hurricanes shirt with black jeans). I DO wash them in between games, though!” – FOX 50’s Sheila Chast

Childhood loyalties and old favorites are even set aside for the Canes. Microspace Senior Systems Engineer Chris Collins has played hockey since he was a kid in upstate New York. He grew up a Rangers and Edmonton Oiler fan, but says he has to go with the home team.

But sometimes college loyalties do play a role in turning a person into a Caniac. WCMC Account Executive Jeff Ferrell has been a Canes fan since 1997 and even went to a couple of games in Greensboro.

“I was not a hockey fan and did not understand anything about the game, “he said. “I think because I am such a diehard NC State fan it was easy to adopt the ‘Canes, too. Plus their colors are red just like the ‘Pack.”

And some show their true dedication by cheering for the Canes despite their colors.

“Being a Carolina Tarheel fan, I consider myself a big enough Canes fan to wear red – after all, they are the ‘Carolina’ Hurricanes!” said Corporate Administrative Assistant Angela Francioni, another CBC mini-plan holder. “I would call myself addicted!”

Chast learned all the rules of hockey watching her husband coach her stepsons, who both play the game.

“Hockey is pretty much the biggest thing in our house. We went to as many of the Ice Caps games at Dorton Arena that we could go to. Once the Canes came to North Carolina, we headed out to Greensboro to watch them and by the time they got to Raleigh, I was a die-hard, loyal fan.”

So how diehard are these CBC Caniacs?
Chapman listens to the games on the radio when he isn’t there in person. He confessed, “In fact, the last little league game my youngest son, Ben, was in, I had an earpiece in while coaching him.”

CBC mini-plan holders, WRAL-TV Engineering Secretary Patrice Jobes and her husband, Cy, always catch the Canes games, whether in person, or radio, TV or online. And their dedication doesn’t end at home:

“How’s this for diehard?” she said. “I am from Biloxi, MS, and we try to go home every year at Thanksgiving. One year when we were home, there was a Canes game that we really wanted to see. My husband called a sports bar at one of the casinos, and asked if they had access to the game. The person said they did, so we had dinner there and while everyone else was watching football, we watched the Canes game. They won!”

Eaton can’t stand to listen to the Canes on radio or watch them on TV, except for the finals.

“If I’m at the game, I’m fine,” she said, “but I don’t do well just listening to the game. I get too nervous!”

One of WRAL-FM’s Brandon Alexander‘s favorite Canes experiences was ”seeing my co-worker Paige [Ellis] on the zamboni. [pictured left] Then hearing her tell everyone ‘…how fast it goes and that is was so fast she thought she was going to fall off,’ when we all saw that it really wasn’t going THAT fast.”

Corp’s Angela Francioni [pictured left] got to ride the zamboni at one CBC Employee Night at the Canes, too: “I lived in Richmond, VA, for 17 years and my husband couldn’t get me to go to a Richmond Renegades game – I didn’t want to see ‘all that fighting’ – but when he got those first tickets to the suite years ago and I went for the first time, I was immediately hooked.  It’s so exciting to see some fighting and banging going on – nothing too vicious as in what happened to Eric Cole.  You just have to be there in the midst of the excitement to understand.”

So, we ask, how will these Caniacs celebrate if the Canes win the Stanley Cup?
“IF? There is no if, but only when!!!” said Chapman.

Jernigan echoed Chapman’s incredulity at the question. “What do you mean ‘if’ ?” she said.

Jobes is taking the opposite approach. “I haven’t even thought about that yet,” she said. “I’m not counting my chickens …”

Scoggins keeps it simple. What will he do if the Canes take it all? “Scream myself hoarse.”

POSTED: June 13, 2006