S

Front Office

Publicity,
promotions and
marketing for
the Wings and
the Drive are
full-time jobs.

STEVE STEIN

SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

f the Red Wings
advance as far
in the Stanley
Cup playoffs as
the experts are
predicting, it's
going to be a
busy couple of
months for
Howard Berlin.
Berlin, the
Wings' public
relations coordi-
nator since
March 1988,
will help take
care of the
media crush as
the Wings move
up the playoff

ladder.
The 32-year-old Farm-
ington Hills resident coor-
dinates the press' re-
quests for interviews and
he organizes and assigns
the seating in the press
box for games.
On a typical night dur-
ing the regular season,
about 100 members of the

media will cover a Wings
game at Joe Louis Arena.
Berlin says that number
swells to about 150 for
the first rounds of the
playoffs and will jump
again to around 200 for
the conference finals. It
could double for the
Stanley Cup series.
There's no doubt inter-
view requests will in-
crease proportionally.
"I know our guys so
well, I usually can give a
reporter an answer before
he or she is done making
an interview request,"
said Berlin, who also is
getting ready for his fifth
season as the media rela-
tions director for the
Detroit Drive of the
Arena Football League.
"In general, our players
and coaches are very
accommodating," Berlin
said. "But there are those
who won't do interviews
between periods, and
guys who won't do live TV

C/3
03

.0
0

0

Howard Berlin types the game summary.

interviews right before
the game. The arena and
the locker room are part
of the players' place of
business, and they have
the right to control what
goes on there.
"I usually can antici-
pate requests from the
electronic media. If
there's a big story in the
newspaper, the electronic
guys will want to do a fol-
low-up that day."
During Wings games at
Joe Louis, Berlin can be
found next to Public
Relations Director Bill
Jamieson. The two man
the club's command post.
One of Berlin' tasks is to
type the game summary
which is distributed to
the media.
During the regular sea-
son, Berlin occasionally
will accompany the
Wings on road trips. He
was in western Canada
with the club in late
January when they made
the trade which sent
Jimmy Carson to the Los
Angeles Kings for Paul
Coffey, making for a cou-
ple of busy days.
Jamieson, who is
acknowledged as one of
the best PR directors in
the NHL, travels with the
club during the playoffs.
Berlin regularly
encounters some good-
natured kidding from
local media. When his
engagement to Ellen
Schlussel was announced
earlier this year (they'll
be married Aug. 1), one
media pundit joked that
Howard's "Berlin Wall" of
bachelorhood had tum-
bled.
When he took a mean
tumble on the ski slopes
during the western
Canada trip and broke his
glasses, that also found
its way into print.
Berlin, a Southfield
High School graduate
who saw his first Wings

game at Olympia Stadium
in 1969, fully intended to
be an accountant after he
earned a bachelor's
degree in business admin-
istration and finance from
Walsh College in Troy.
But he was infected by
the sports bug during his
two years at the Uni-
versity of Michigan. He
served as the color com-
mentator on Michigan
football games for the stu-
dent radio station, and he
was hooked.
He went on to earn a
master's degree in sports
administration from St.
Thomas University of
Tulsa in 1985-86.
Berlin was the assis-
tant director of operations
for the Nashville Sounds,
at the time a farm club of
the Detroit Tigers, in
1986. He was director of
operations for another
minor league team, the
Wichita Pilots, champions
of the Texas League, in
1987.
After going back to
Florida to work in the
sports department of the
Palm Beach Post, Berlin
headed home. Just six
weeks into the newspaper
job, Berlin left to take his
current posts with the
Wings and the Drive.
The two local teams are
owned by Mike Ilitch,
who also owns the Tigers
and Olympia Arenas, Inc.
(OAI), the management
company for Joe Louis,
Cobo Arena, the Fox
Theatre, Meadowbrook
Music Festival and the
Glens Falls (N.Y.) Civic
Center, home of the
Wings' top minor league
club. Ilitch also is the
owner of the Adirondack
Red Wings.
cn
Jules Goldman, director (NI
of merchandising for OAI
and the Tigers, and Jeff cf._
Cogen, director of market- <
ing for OAI and the

FRONT OFFICE page-48

41