The game of hockey has always been a part of Kenny Albert’s identity.
You may know Albert as the basketball, football, and baseball broadcaster, but he’s emerged as one of the top hockey voices in the world and that’s no coincidence.
How did Albert get to this point?
Coming from a family with a couple of play-by-play sportscasters including his father Marv Albert and uncles Al Albert and Steve Albert, Kenny was brought up in a unique environment.
However, it was his love of sports that ultimately sparked his career.
“As I can remember, it's really all that I ever wanted to do,” Kenny said. “When I was really young, about five or six years old, I would set up my bedroom like a radio or TV studio, and I have my desk in the bed in the middle and the TV on the other side.
“I would announce games into the tape recorder, actual games that I was watching on television and I would also make up games. I would have the rosters of various teams in hockey, baseball, football, basketball, and I would just announce games into the tape recorder.”
To jumpstart your career, sometimes it takes a little bit of initiative and luck. For Kenny, he got his first big break when Cox Cable showed up to his High School to film a Women’s basketball game and they happened to not have a play-by-play announcer, so he volunteered to call the game.
The rest is history. After that first game, Kenny called the producer at Cox Cable and offered his services for other sporting events.
From that phone call, Kenny began broadcasting high school sporting events all over the Long Island area as he called approximately 75-100 games over a three-year span.
Kenny went on to attend New York University where the smaller journalism program allowed for him to get more opportunities.
“Right from freshman year on, myself and my five or six friends every year were able to call the basketball games,” Kenny said about his college experience. “We would rotate positions, play by play, color analyst, producer, engineer, statistician. At some of those schools you might not get the opportunity until your sophomore and junior year, so I felt it was perfect as far as that goes, just getting the opportunity a little bit earlier on.”
While Kenny has and still does broadcast a variety of different sports, his main goal was to always become a big-time name in the hockey world.
There was something about hockey that intrigued him to a level that none of the other sports did.
Through playing and watching hockey over his childhood years, Kenny grew a deep love and passion for the sport that helped build his career aspirations.
“I love the other sports too, but growing up, hockey was always a little bit above the others,” said Kenny. “As what I wanted to do for a living, hockey was always the goal. Hockey on radio, that was my goal throughout high school and college. I spent a lot of my weekends I would say from the age of six or seven through high school skating and playing hockey. It was just so much fun.”
Kenny also was a part of NYU’s inaugural hockey team and happened to score the school’s first-ever goal.
His hockey broadcasting career truly was sparked after college when Kenny landed a radio gig with the American Hockey League, which was followed up by a play-by-play role with the Washington Capitals.
It was during the 1995-96 season when Kenny began to call Ranger games on the radio for MSG Networks and he’s been doing it ever since. It’s been 29 seasons and the 57-year-old broadcaster is still going strong.
From the Wayne Gretzky years to the Henrik Lundqvist era, Kenny has seen it all when it comes to Rangers hockey over practically the past 30 years.
For someone who grew up in New York, being one of the premier Ranger voices now is something that is truly special to Kenny.
“I mean, it's an original six team,” Kenny said of how he feels to be the Rangers’ radio voice. “I grew up going to the games with my father, who was calling the games on radio for close to 30 years, and sitting in the booth doing the stats with him during my high school years.
“I attended 10 to 15 Ranger games every year as a youngster and then when I started helping out with the stats in high school for six or seven years, I was there at almost every home game… It's special every time you walk into Madison Square Garden. To be able to call Rangers games for 29 years, it’s just so special.”
Not only is Kenny the Rangers radio voice, but he’s transformed into the top play-by-play announcer for the NHL.
Kenny was the secondary play-by-play broadcaster behind Mike ‘Doc’ Emrick at NHL on NBC. Once Emrick retired in 2021, Kenny took over the lead role and has stayed at the top ever since.
Even when Turner Sports reached a seven-year contract to serve as one of the two rights holders of the NHL replacing NBC Sports, Kenny kept his role as the lead play-by-play man.
Emrick was someone who Kenny deeply admired and looked up to, so to say carrying on Emrick’s legacy is an honor for him is an understatement,
“Doc is one of the all-time great broadcasters in the history of not only hockey, but professional sports,” said Kenny. “I've been fortunate enough to know Doc for a long time. I did the stats for him when he was a fill-in on Rangers radio back in the early to mid 80s… He became a good friend and mentor. I always loved watching his games, listening to his games.”
On top of all of his hockey responsibilities, Kenny still calls football, basketball, and baseball games.
It’s still hockey that remains at the forefront of the legendary broadcaster’s heart. Kenny has been able to accomplish his dream of becoming a staple of the NHL broadcasting world and he certainly doesn't take it for granted.
“It's such a special feeling and I'm so fortunate to have been involved in the sport of hockey for this long,” Kenny said. “I'll often take a step back and remind myself how lucky I am.”