Do you know how much work goes into being a Public Address Announcer for a professional sports team? No? Don’t worry, because Blittner’s Blue Line has you covered. 

One of the things we like to do with this column is to educate fans on all aspects of hockey and sports that go beyond just the players playing the game. So, today, we are diving into the world of Public Address announcing. 

You might ask, why? We’ll tell you why. Because there is an evolution of sorts going on in the area that is leading to more fan engagement and thus, more PA announcers becoming beloved by the fans of the team they announce for. 

Adam Hamway is the voice of Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, which means that New Jersey Devils fans get a unique person to listen to 41 times per year (not counting pre-season and playoffs). And Hamway doesn’t just do Devils games. Pretty much any game played at The Rock is his domain. But, for now, let’s stick with The NHL team that calls the arena home. 

If you haven’t been to The Rock for a Devils game, or you haven’t had the pleasure to hear or see Hamway ply his trade, you’re missing out. And if you’re wondering why, in such a short amount of time, he has become beloved in New Jersey, here’s what Hamway had to say.

“I think it’s really important you feel more a part of a team if you know who I am, rather than just being a voice. It’s a connection. You wanna be able to connect with the fans. I think that’s important. We’re all in this together, you know? So, it’s better if they know who I am, because then I think we kind of feed off of each other and their excitement. 

“The reason that happens is because I’m on social media and posting these videos and they can see all of that. I think people love seeing behind-the-scenes stuff. You wouldn’t typically know who it is, but the reason you don’t know who it is because it’s just a voice. 

“But, to me, it’s like I’ve opened up the door to seeing what it looks like as a PA Announcer by presenting those videos on social media. So that’s why that happens. Fans seem to really enjoy it. I mean, originally, when I first started posting, I was doing the starting lineup, posting it every time.

“It seems redundant, but also, I was looking at it and I’m like, ‘this is historic in a way.’ You can look back and say, ‘Who are the starters for this game? Who’s the starters for that game?’ It’s fun to be able to go back and look at that (stuff). They (fans) enjoy seeing that every single game. And they expect it after every game. 

“The next morning, the starters come out, the evening of a win, we’ve got three stars. They expect to see the three stars of the game ’cause they like to see it and they share it. They’re excited about the win or whatever. It’s just fun to interact with them and it enhances the experience for the fan, which I love.”

Social Media! It’s the key! Can you imagine how much more beloved the late, great Bob Sheppard would have been if he had been able to do what Hamway currently is? And speaking of Sheppard, how many Public Address Announcers can you name off the top of your head who were as synonymous with their team and their Stadium/Arena as he was with the Yankees? Probably not many. 

Hamway has a long way to go before he’s anywhere close to Sheppard’s tenure, but he’s already inspiring other PA announcers to follow his lead. 

“I’ve been told by a few NHL PA announcers that they wanna do what I’m doing,” Hamway explained. “And so they try to almost replicate (it) in their own way. They’re being more social, like they’re trying on social media. They’re posting more goal calls or starting lineups or what have you regularly. 

“There’s a couple of them that do that. They look at mine to see it as like a guide and it’s like, I’m not mad about it. I think it’s great that everybody does it. I wish more had done it because, like I said before, it’s a way to connect with the fans. It’s just awesome. Plus, you’re there. You’re already announcing these things rather than it being a one-and-done. If you were in the arena, now you can open those people up that might be fans of a team that can’t ever get to the arena and you’re kind of almost egging them on. (It’s) like, ‘get to the arena, this is the experience you’ll have.’ 

“It’s great for sports. I think it’s awesome to have that behind-the-scenes look at what the iconic voice that you hear in the arena and have this channel or a video of them. This feed of seeing what they’re doing in action ’cause people love that. So, yes, there are other PA Announcers that have taken, I guess, my model and tried to up their game on social media because I’ve inspired them to do so, because of the success that I’ve had with fans watching my videos.”

So, now that we know that other Public Address Announcers are being inspired by Hamway, the logical question is, who inspired him?

“Growing up, I was a big fan of Michael Jordan and I was a big fan of the Chicago Bulls,” said Hamway. “My brother was a big (New York) Knicks fan, so it was like, I was basically a Chicago Bulls fan just because I wanted to have that rivalry with my brother. It was Knicks-Bulls, always in the playoffs. 

“So, when you’re watching The NBA Finals, they would, on television, air the starting lineup for the Chicago Bulls and the guy’s name was Ray Clay. I really loved the way he did the starting lineup and I would do impressions in the house growing up. 

“Then, when I was in high school, I loved starting lineups and announcing so much that I did it for my own high school and I did it in my own way. I was kind of doing an impression, but I made it my own as well. But he was the one who inspired me to do what I’m doing today. Now, he doesn’t know that. I’ve never met the man. But he’s just doing his thing.”

“Like I’m saying again, you go back to it, right? This behind-the-scenes thing. I’m not going to Chicago to see the starting lineup, but the fact that TV aired it in The Finals, the starting lineup, inspired me to then want to become a Public Address Announcer. So I think it’s cool and I get a lot of that when fans actually wanna be Public Address Announcers and they wanna learn from me. 

“People are inspired by it and want to pursue it themselves because now I’ve opened up the world of Public Address Announcing for people and they can see it, enjoy it and kind of be inspired by it.”

Hey, Ray Clay, if you happen to be reading this column, drop Adam Hamway a line. Maybe you two can collaborate. 

And now that we know why Hamway has become so popular, as well as why he got into this business, it’s time for the real behind-the-scenes information. It’s time to learn about Hamway’s game day preparation. But first, one more quick detour. We need to know his career arc, you know, how he went from high schooler to Devils PA Announcer? 

After high school, Hamway first attended Quinnipiac for College. It was there that he had the opportunity to be the PA Announcer for the school’s volleyball, softball, baseball and field hockey games. He also wanted to do it for basketball, but wasn’t able to. And he did all this while studying Broadcast Journalism. After a while, Hamway transferred to Hofstra University, as the school gave him more opportunities to chase his dream. 

Upon his graduation, Hamway held several gigs, including being a PA Announcer for indoor percussion shows and color guard competitions. Eventually, he got a job with SiriusXM before getting the opportunity to be the backup PA at MSG for Rangers games. After four-and-a-half seasons and a handful of games, somebody at the Devils contacted him to audition for the Devils’ PA job, which he did and he hasn’t looked back since. And now, it’s finally time to learn about his preparation. 

“Once I find out who they’re playing, what I’ll do is, I always go to the away roster and just double-check the name pronunciations and everything,” Hamway explained. “Just to make sure I have that all locked in, especially season-to-season. If it’s the first time that we’re playing a team, I wanna make sure that (I) even (know) the rookies’ names and how to pronounce them. 

“The way I do that is I’ll go to YouTube and try to find the home play-by-play announcer for that team, because they’re the ones that know how to pronounce the rookie’s name or anybody’s name. So I usually take that and use that, along with the NHL Pronunciation Guide and just kind of compare notes and try to figure it out. Usually, it’s not even just one time that the play-by-play announcer says it.

“Sometimes, they can make a mistake. So I make sure that I hear it twice, from two different clips, just to be sure. But yeah, that’s how I do that. From there, I go over how many goals each player from both teams has had on the season, especially if the Devils were on the road (in their last game). I wanna update my system, ’cause I have a little system that I input data into that I use for the game. 

“So I update that, make sure it’s a hundred percent accurate before a game and then I go over a script. I get a script for the game, which gives me all of the reads for different promotions that are happening in the arena or games that we’re playing during the TV timeouts and intermissions.

“So I go over all of those scripts. I also go over pronunciations of Hero of the Game and make sure that I have that accurate. Also, Junior Captain of the Game. Sometimes, we have guest anthem singers. Make sure that I have that pronunciation down, especially if there’s anything tricky that I want to go over. And I go over it with my boss to make sure that we’re all on the same page and everything’s done the way that they want it. 

“Sometimes, I even go over tone, if there’s a special moment, like a moment of silence for something that happened. I wanna make sure that the tone is right for that and other types of reads, ’cause I think that’s extremely important to do that in (the proper) tone.

“When I read stuff, I don’t necessarily like to read things a hundred percent the same all of the time in terms of one read to the next. Every read has a special tone to me. So, also to differentiate, which actually makes it pop in somebody’s head. It’s like, if I read New Jersey Lottery versus the Devils Youth Foundation, I try to make them a little bit different. That way, when you go from one read to the next, it sounds different and it kind of stands out, like, now, we’re moving on to something different, a separate piece, a new new thing. That’s usually kind of baked in for me, in my head. I don’t need to rehearse that, but if there’s something new, then I go over it from there.

“I always get to the arena around 4:30pm for a 7:08pm puck drop. I go over everything. We go over a rehearsal for everything. All the videos that air in the arena, all the promotions and everything like that. I’m not reading, but I’m following along with my script with everything that’s gonna happen throughout a game. If there’s still a name that we don’t know the pronunciation of, I mark it. There’s certain things that I do every single game. And I usually have these little codes that I’ll put next to paragraphs, which signal to me that I need that information coming up.

“From there, I go have dinner, which I have like an hour after rehearsal. Then, the doors open and I go back up and get ready. Part of what I do, too, is my setup. I like to set up things in advance, ’cause I record a lot of the things that I do. I record every home goal, the starters as well and the Three Stars of the Game. I record all of that so that I can edit the video and be able to post it. Something that I’m trying to do now is post the goals to my (Instagram) stories. So when I make an announcement for a goal, I’ll post it on social media and stories so that fans can hear that. 

“I like to collect them all because, usually in the off-season, I like to post different goals or kind of memorable goals that the players had at home that I announced, which is kind of cool. It’s exciting for me to go back and relive some of those key moments. Then I’m in the game. It’s a lot of fun.”

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the in-depth, fully behind-the-scenes scoop on how a professional Public Address Announcer gets ready to do their job. Currently, there’s none better than Adam Hamway, who, while still relatively new on the scene (he started with the Devils in 2022-23), is already inspiring his fellow PAs to bring fans into their world in a way they’ve never done before. And the fans, especially those in New Jersey, are showing their gratitude in spades.