Courtesy the Albany Times Union

(October 1, 2010) Josh Heller was relieved to hear that his new home, the Capital Region, does have a legion of Red Sox fans. "I don't want people to hate me before they even get to know me," he said with a laugh.

A native of Sharon, Mass., about a half hour's drive from Boston, Heller, 25, will begin his new role as voice of the new Albany Devils next week, when they open the American Hockey League regular season at home against the Adirondack Phantoms. He has spent the past three seasons in Charleston, S.C., and Toledo, Ohio, calling games in the ECHL, which annoited him "Broadcaster of the Year" in 2009.

We caught up with him earlier this week to try to learn a little more about him:

How excited ar you to be able to call a higher level of hockey?

"I think of myself sort of as a player, where we all have the same ultimate goal to make it up to the show. This is a huge steppingstone along the way, no question about it. I did three years in the ECHL, and making the jump to the AHL is very exciting."

You've been hired solely to broadcast. Will you be trying to find other work while you're here?

"At this time I'm not sure how that's going to go. When I was in Toledo, it was the same thing -- I was just doing the games -- and I was able to pick up some other sports stuff, local TV stations, things like that. I may take a look and see what's around, but at this point I have no idea."

You'll have to do some homework as far as the Devils. Were you able to see the (ECHL) Trenton Devils last year?

"In Toledo they played them maybe a half dozen times, and in South Carolina we saw them every once in awhile, because we were down in the Southern Division. I've seen them, and certainly I plan to study up on them as much as I can, on the prospects and try to keep abreast as much as I can."

Before you started calling pro hockey, you were in the Red Sox radio booth doing stats for the 2006 season?

"I did. At Northeastern, one of my professors for sports broadcasting class was Joe Castiglione, who's done Red Sox games for 27 years. It wasn't advertised. I heard it through the grapevine that he had an internship every year to be the statistician for the Red Sox home games.

"I approached him about it, and the person he had had just graduated. I got to do that for a little over a season, sitting between the guys for every single game, going down to the field after the game to get postgame sound.

"The guy who did it before me was there in 2004 and 2005, so he got to be there for the 2004 World Series, and they let him travel for the World Series and the ALCS. The kid that I trained, who took for me in 2007 as I was getting ready to move down to Pensacola, he was there for the 2007 World Series. In 2006, we didn't make the playoffs -- we finished third, behind New York and Toronto."

The following year you did do some baseball broadcasting in Pensacola?

"I had done some at school, and the next summer did an internship down in Pensacola, Fla., with an independent baseball team. I was there about four months. The guy I was interning under, his name is Jay Burnham, is the Trenton Thunder broadcaster."

Do you find baseball broadcasting and hockey broadcasting to be different worlds?

"I do. I love baseball, and when I was thinking about being a broadcaster, for the long run I always thought about baseball. Personally, the way I've grown up, my personality type, I'm a very tightly wound person. I'm a very hyper person at times. Hockey fits my personality a little better than baseball. I still love baseball, and I like broadcasting it, but hockey fit me a little better and suits me a little more, and I enjoy it more than baseball."

Did anything come up in the interview that might have helped get you the Devils job?

"I have a fair amount of experience. I have 280 games as the primary play-by-play broadcaster over three seasons in the pros and three seasons in college. Also, a couple of years ago, being able to broadcast the (ECHL) all-star game as well as being named the Broadcaster of the Year certainly comes with a little bit of credibility.

"A couple of years ago, I got to broadcast the (Kelly Cup) championship, and I have that on my demo. I was able to show that no matter the situation, I was able to rise to the occasion if need be, and hopefully there will be a need for that this season with this team."

What do you think the biggest challenge is of this job?

"It's going to be getting used to so much player movement that happens in the AHL. It really hasn't sunk in that the NHL is one step up. If a guy gets called up, he's going all the way there, to the New Jersey Devils. Once I wrap my head around that, I'll realize that these are guys that are going to get called up all the time.

"There's going to be expectantly a lot of turnover. That's something you have to get used to. Any time you come to a new team, a new area, you're trying to acclimate yourself with what goes on, what the fans are looking for. I always look for feed back so I can give them what they are looking for."

One of the benefits of being here is you're closer to home. Do you still have family in the Boston area?

"Absolutely. It's about three hours away. It's where my parents live, and my grandparents as well. That will be nice. I've lived in Toledo last year, in Charlestown the two years before that, so I've been quite a distance away. I've missed a lot of birthdays, a lot of holidays. This way it will be easy to get home for a weekend to see the family, which will be nice."

You'll have some games there, too. There are a number of AHL teams in New England.

"It will be strange. At the end of October, we have a game in Providence, and I've been to Providence Bruins games as a kid. My dad took me there. It will be interesting heading to the Dunkin Donuts Center as a broadcaster rather than as a Providence Bruins fan. They'll get to go those games, which will be nice."

As far as the broadcasts, are you pretty free to structure things in terms of what you do between periods and pregame or postgame?

"I only sat with them quickly in the interview, as far as what they had in mind. It's going to be something, when we sit down prior to the season starting, we'll hammer that out specifically. My guess is that I'm going to have a pretty good amount of free reign to do setup. That's what I did last year, I was told what I needed to get in, but other than that it was loose. We'll have to discuss that a little more to see what they'll be looking for as far as interviews and segments I need to get in."

Are there broadcasters you've grown up listening to and wanting to emulate?

"There were two broadcasters when I was growing up that I listened to more than most. One was Gil Santos, who has been the broadcaster for the New England Patriots for quite some time. And the other is Sean McDonough, who, when I was younger, was broadcasting for the Red Sox on TV.

"Listening to and watching those guys, they always seemed like they were having so much fun with what they were doing. They'd always make that comment, 'It's hard to believe we're getting paid for this.' It seemed like they enjoyed what they were doing so much, and still do. That's what clicked for me. I hope some day I can sit back and say that. That's the one thing I hope people get when they listen to my broadcasts, that I'm enjoying what I'm doing more than anything else."

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