Generals hire Puska for radio duties

The Flint Generals will have a new radio voice this season.

The Generals announced the hiring of Denis J. Puska as the new Director of Media Relations/Broadcasting and Account Executive. Puska begins working in the Generals front office next Monday.

Puska brings more than 20 years of broadcasting and media relations experience to the position along with six years in professional hockey. He was the 2004 Central Hockey League’s Broadcaster of the Year while with the Amarillo Gorillas, a team he spent four seasons with. That same season he was named as a member of the broadcast team for the CHL All-Star Game in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

“I am thrilled to be joining a first-class organization in the Generals,” said Puska, a native of Kapuskasing, Ontario. “I’ve heard nothing but great things about the new ownership group and can’t wait to get started getting to know the great Generals’ hockey fans and becoming a part of the community.”

Puska spent the 2006-2007 season with the Pensacola Ice Pilots of the ECHL and prior to that was the first radio voice of the Huntsville Havoc of the Southern Professional Hockey League.

Broadcasting hockey has been in Puska’s blood from an early age. He began practicing calling games in his parent’s basement in Canada at the age of 11 and got his first job at the local radio station calling minor hockey tournaments at 14. He is a graduate of the Broadcast Journalism program at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario. Puska has spent many years working in the media industry as a reporter for newspapers and radio stations.

He had an article on San Jose Sharks’ forward Jonathan Cheechoo published in The Hockey News in 1999.

The Generals and also hired Andy Howell as Director of Game-Day Operations. He comes to the Generals from the Saginaw Spirit of the OHL. Howell graduted from Flushing High School and has a degree from Northwood University in Sports Entertainment and Sports Promotions and Management.