By Regan Bartel

A memorable encounter with Dev Dley

The night the head of the WHL took me off the air

Jan 19, 2023 | 6:00 AM

Ron Robison is not the first commissioner of the Western Hockey League.

That prestigious title was first bestowed upon Dev Dley, who at the time was a Kamloops lawyer.

Dley held the position from 1996 until 2000, before Robison, his successor, took over and still holds that title to this very day before riding off into the sunset at the end of this season.

I first met Dley in Red Deer, as a wet-behind-the-ears broadcaster of the Swift Current Broncos in the winter of 1997.

It was early in Dley’s tenure, yet I too was very inexperienced at conducting live interviews, with beads of sweat forming on my forehead at the very notion of conducting an intermission radio interview with the most powerful man in the WHL.

Rockets face road test in games 3 and 4

Goaltending, discipline and depth driving 2-0 series lead over Blazers

Mar 30, 2026

Rockets DOA. Dominate. Overcome. Achieve

Things that make me go hmm....

Feb 02, 2026

Too good to ignore, too hated to care

Kelowna Rockets: The team the Internet loves to hate

Jan 13, 2026

Throwing caution to the wind after hearing word Dley was in Red Deer for that night’s game against the Rebels, I followed league protocol by contacting the WHL head office in Calgary, requesting an interview with him in the second intermission.

My heart began to race as the second period time clock wound down, realizing I was ill-prepared to ask Dley what would be considered intelligent questions.

Had I bit off more than I could chew?

Could I back out?

Gulp.

Sitting alone in my chair in the broadcast booth at the Red Deer Centrium [Known now as the Peavy Mart Centrium], I waited for the broadcast door to open, leading to Dley’s arrival.

On a commercial break, I heard the door squeak as it slowly opened.

In walked an East Indian man with a slender build, with a pronounced dark, full mustache, holding out his hand and introducing himself as Dev Dley.

Dressed in a three-piece suit, with an intimidating job title, and very much looking like a man with authority or power, shockingly, after speaking to him for a period of time during the interview, I found him personable, gentle, captivating and intelligent.

Noticing that time was quickly passing, upon the conclusion of another insightful answer, I thanked him for the interview and shook his hand, while still on air, in gratitude.

As Dley slipped off his headset gently and proceeded to exit the broadcast location, I gazed ahead at the ice surface with pride on how smoothly the interview went.

What a great night in my broadcast career, I told myself, oozing with renewed confidence.

As I reviewed the score in the game one last time for those listening back in Swift Current before going to a commercial break, I felt my broadcast equipment in front of me, jerk abruptly towards my body.

In a split second, the broadcast board, situated on the counter, crashed to the floor, and I could hear a dial tone in my headset, which was now just dangling from my skull, with one ear-piece situated between my two eyes and the other behind my head.

I was off the air!

Quickly looking behind me and assessing what had happened, Dley, when exiting the broadcast booth, tripped over my telephone cord, which was attached to my broadcast equipment, pulling the phone cord out of the wall socket nearby.

With no concern for Dley, my focus was making sure my broadcast board was operational, and that the telephone cord, which at the time was my only means of contacting the radio station, could be restored.

To this day, I am unable to recall if Dley stumbled to one knee, or if he indeed dropped to all fours, before quickly getting up from the floor in embarrassment when he tripped, taking me off the air.

Yes, he apologized, and I played it off like nothing went wrong, before agonizingly reconnecting to the radio station and continuing the broadcast.

That is the story of my first interview with the commissioner of the Western Hockey League, which went so smoothly, yet literally ended with a broadcasters worst nightmare – dead air!