Juha Lindgren got bored and started a hobby in a completely different field

With Juha Lindgren was a little puzzle in the fall of 1985.

He had found the study schedule of the tax officer degree line he had started at the University of Tampere to be quite loose.

The solution was not offered by Yo-talo, but by the new local radio law.

At the beginning of the year, the Government had granted the first trial licenses to local radio operators in different parts of Finland. One of those who received permission was the Tampere University Student Union, which founded Radio 957 and started broadcasting on August 15, 1985.

Lindgren had not set his sights on journalistic positions, let alone a journalistic career – but when there was a shortage of work, he ended up sending in an application The whole five for delivery.

– I remember that I got a little excited about the idea, Lindgren said.

– However, it was more of a spur of the moment in that drug.

When there was no invitation to the interview, Lindgren marched to the editor – and soon he was already at his first talk gig at the Mies 2000 event.

– They showed me how the tape recorder works, and then they already told me to go. It wasn’t the top hit in radio history, but the ice was broken.

I talked as a couple

Lindgren had a strong hockey background. He had played in Jokerien and Tappara’s juniors and got to know his brother Jarintwo-time Finnish champion (1979 and 1982), to the top hockey players from Tampere.

– As a defender, I played what I played, Lindgren says.

– I think I got to play a few games Timo Jutilan roll.

The whole five the bosses suddenly sent Lindgren to interview athletes, but very soon, on October 13, he was already sitting on Nordenskiöldinkatu with headphones on. The task was to broadcast the meeting between HIFK and Tappara live.

– Even though everything happened quickly, it was still a pretty easy place to start, Lindgren thinks.

– I have read a lot, and producing text has always been relatively natural. In addition, the sport and the players were extremely familiar.

When there were 40 seconds on the Game Clock, Pekka Laksola took Tappara to the lead. Lindgren got to try annealing for the first time.

– From the very early stage, there is an impression that the narration took the man away. I completely immersed myself in doing it.

“So damn mobile”

Radio 957 served its listeners every match between Ilves and Tappara. After a successful debut, Lindgren was wanted in the narrow circle of commentators.

– There was a shortage of authors. Pollar’s Kalev they wanted another alongside, and no Nodding to Ismoka could tear everywhere.

The local radio stations were fresh and lively on their side. The well-known equality principle did not have to be followed – except, of course, in local matches.

– We were the harbingers of a new era, Lindgren describes.

– It was easy to get excited. It was easy to do.

Lindgren specialized in Tappara. His first three commentating seasons ended with a championship.

– Back then, it was enough to pass on the feeling and the situation, and in the initial rush I didn’t understand that it could be otherwise. It was just stated that Tappara will take care of it.

When Tappara took care of HIFK in the spring 1986 final series, Lindgren descended from the commentary loft to convey the championship buzz in the locker room.

– I had a big Mobira, a ten-kilogram lump, he laughs.

– It describes well the technical change in the industry. I was so damn mobile when I was working there in Hakametsä’s booth.

“The eye of the listener”

Lindgren quickly became a core part of Tampere puck culture. At the end of the second commentary season, in March 1987, Aamulehti published an article in which the pseudonym Max Liuska tried to compare Lindgren Raimo Häyrinento the legendary Yle voice.

Max Liuska notes, after listening to Tappara and Kärppie’s final series, that “the former monopoly has gained solid competitors”, and raises Lindgren as a “good contender”.

– Häyrinen tells about the closed ponds, the flus of the dribbler fifty times and the ice hockey of the 1950s with particular precision. He’s making a show, Max Liuska cooks.

– Lindgren tells about the events, describes the course of the field. The word rarely escapes into extra pirouettes. He explains the puck match.

Max Liuska does not name the winner, but seems to be leaning towards the young contender.

– Lindgren is the listener’s eye. You know what’s happening on the field by the radio.

“When there is a continuum”

Lindgren has been the “eye of the listener” for over 35 years. There are around 2,000 regular season matches, 300 playoff matches.

– I don’t admit that I am a prisoner of my manners, but it is true that the basic elements of the narration are unchanged, he assesses.

– When I notice that someone is doing something well, I try to relate it to my own work – but of course not by copying.

Lindgren is just jumping Mika Saukkonen to the saying that fell out of the mouth “it goes like a hammer from a tin roof”.

– It is always possible to learn, he says.

– Back in the day, on the television side, I saw how the North Americans created tension even before the game. I have applied that lesson in this radio commentary as well.

One of the strengths has been specializing in Tappara.

– It has always helped that I have been able to play all the games. When there is continuity, the narrative can be connected to the past and mirrored to the future.

The early stages of his career include eight ice hockey World Cups and six seasons of Pirkanmaa football, as well as three NHL seasons on the television side.

– At the very beginning, I explained boxing and ping-pong as well. It was a time of enthusiasm, Lindgren recalls.

– When the main job became more responsible and demanding, the reporting had to be limited to one club and one league. In local radio, I have been able to be the master of my own schedule.

Tax professor

Although radio came and sucked, Lindgren did not leave his studies. He didn’t settle for a lower university degree, not even a master’s degree, but earned a doctorate in economics in the field of tax law.

Lindgren works as a professor at the University of Vaasa and is one of Finland’s leading tax law experts.

– Civilian jobs are very demanding for me, he states.

– I teach and research in Vaasa and give statements to, for example, the parliament, the Ministry of Finance and the Tax Administration. I also worked as editor-in-chief of Verotus magazine.

How the hell is time and gunpowder enough? Narration work is not actually done remotely, but a weekday afternoon often means leaving for Lappeenranta, Oulu or Rauma.

Lindgren is happy that half a million narrated kilometers are getting close.

– Trips are your own time, and I have never found them to be burdensome.

Lindgren, 59, admits that sometimes it feels numb in the final stages of the regular season, but the enthusiasm is always found again. There are no plans to stop, so the people of Tappara and other people from Tampere, maybe even Max Liuska, will continue to enjoy the familiar and safe commentary.

– I’m sure this will eventually come to an end, but I have no intention of stopping yet, at least voluntarily.

“Near and dear”

Tappara is obviously an important asset and at least partly the secret to a long career.

– Tappara is a close and dear, really reliable partner, Lindgren nods.

– However, the role of commentator is not the type where I would put on sweatpants or a championship cap.

Lindgren has seen up close the decades of Tappara’s greatness, the 1980s and 2010s, as well as the trough that fell between them, which culminated in the relegation qualifying series against Kärppi in the spring of 1992 and a long sigh.

– Korven Rane time was continuous Numnisen Kallu for a great job, but then there was a fermentation phase, Lindgren sums up.

– When things started again at the turn of the millennium, lessons had been learned from the difficulties. Since then, the work has been determined.

“It’s not like a game”

Is Lindgren an expository professor or a professorial expositor? At least the combination is interesting and quite exceptional, perhaps quite unique.

– I don’t lecture when I explain, and I don’t explain when I lecture – but the tasks support each other, he sees.

– Narrating turns into a hobby in my own thinking. I focus my biggest goals and objectives on my main job.

Narrating provides a very important counterweight to the main work, as a hobby should.

– When I explain, I forget everything else, summarizes Lindgren.

– It’s not like a game and a broadcast.