Trio celebrates 25 years in broadcast booth

The voices of RIT hockey, from left to right, Chris Lerch, Randy Bloechl and Ed Trefzger. John Narewski | photographer

When someone thinks of RIT men’s hockey, a winning tradition is often the first thing brought up in conversation. Two national championships, nine ECAC titles and 13 trips to the NCAA Championship Tournaments in the last 25 seasons are evidence of the Tigers’ success.

For most of this run, Tiger fans have been able to share in the action through the familiar sounds of three men. Randy Bloechl, Chris Lerch and Ed Trefzger have been behind the microphones, describing all of the action over the airwaves of WITR-FM (89.7) during the last quarter century.

All three men are 1984 graduates of RIT. Bloechl earned his bachelor’s degree in business, Lerch in applied software science and Trefzger in mechanical engineering.

Each took different paths to the broadcast booth. Trefzger was the station manager at WITR for his final two years as an undergraduate, and he hired Bloechl to try his hand at broadcasting in the fall of 1982. For the first 15 seasons, Trefzger worked more on the technical side, producing the broadcasts, before joining the booth full time as the host of the pre-game show and as a color analyst in the mid 1990s.

Lerch was brought into the booth during the 1995-1996 season, originally as an interview between periods to discuss his weekly column as the Division III columnist for United States College Hockey Online (www.uscho.com). A year later, Lerch joined Trefzger as the main color analyst. The crew has thrived since, and the three men, who did not know each other while undergraduates, have become best friends. Their friendship has allowed for good chemistry—turning the broadcasts into a cohesive, informative and often times humorous production.

“We do this because we love RIT. It’s our way of giving back and we like hockey,” says Bloechl.

This season, with RIT making the jump to Division I, the schedule has increased to 35 games. The trio admits the time commitment is challenging to their families, especially when they do not get paid for their work on the airwaves and have to take vacation time to travel on certain road trips. In their day jobs, Lerch is the head of technical services at RIT’s Wallace Library. Bloechl is an accountant for Spoleta Construction in Rochester. Trefzger owns his own database programming and Internet development business and produces an Internet-only trade publication called Jazz Week.

RIT men’s hockey Head Coach Wayne Wilson is appreciative of what the men bring to the program.
“They are a part of RIT’s history,” says Wilson. “They’ve been around and seen almost every game during this time. Not many people would have been as loyal, spending time away from their families to travel with us, and do it for no pay. We are very fortunate to have them.”

Not one of them has plans to hang up the microphone soon.

“I’m with my three best friends and we have fun doing this,” says Bloechl. “Until it stops being fun, I plan on doing this for as long as I can.”

“We take pride in the fact that we could provide a top-notch, quality broadcast, while injecting some personalities, adding humor and having fun,” says Trefzger. “Plus, I don’t think any one of us wants to be the first one to stop.”