Maple Leafs broadcasting legend Joe Bowen announces retirement plan
The 74-year-old will leave the broadcasting booth following the 2025-26 season
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Holy Mackinaw! Joe Bowen, a Toronto sports broadcasting legend and one of the most distinctive play-by-play personalities in the country has announced his plans to turn off the mic.
Bowen, the long-time voice of the Toronto Maple Leafs, has announced that he will leave the broadcasting booth following the 2025-26 season. And when that booming, animated voice goes silent from the airwaves, it will end a 44-season run calling games of Toronto’s most popular sports franchise.
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With the rapidly changing world of sports broadcasting in this country, you have to wonder if we’ll ever hear a voice of such prominence, personality and longevity call Maple Leafs games again. With that in mind, Bowen’s exit could truly mark the end of an era.
“I have been totally blessed to be able to do my dream job for this long, eclipsing the career of my idol Foster Hewitt,” Bowen wrote Friday morning on X. “Thanks so much to all those who have made this wonderful career possible.”
In his post, Bowen said that he will reach 3,800 career games during his final season, a remarkable accomplishment for the 74-year-old Sudbury legend and voice of generations of Leafs fans.
During his time calling Leafs games, Bowen’s voice could be heard on a variety of stations that had the rights, his talent standing the test of time and surviving the widely changing sports broadcasting landscape in this country. Throughout his terrific career, Bowen has unabashedly been a Leafs supporter but has mixed that passion for the team and its fan base with knowledge and a fair approach to his play-by-play.
“It’s definitely the end of an era,” a broadcast insider told the Toronto Sun on Bowen’s departure. “Joe is a throwback. A real vibrant personality who fans would gravitate to and feel like he was one of their own. He had his own style, which is part of it. But he also found a way to attract listeners from generation to generation.”
On television where he was the voice of the Leafs as well, he worded alongside analyst Harry Neale for 12 years but Bowen’s most constant partner has been Jim Ralph, who has been alongside him in the radio booth for 28 seasons. The pair were a constant source of information and entertainment to Leafs fans for nearly three decades.
“I have worked with the absolute best at my side in the booth,” Bowen wrote. “Harry Neale for 12 years, but none better than my partner of 28 years, Jim Ralph. Most of all, thank-you to the loyal group known as Leafs Nation for allowing me to invade your vehicle, family room and hearts over these wonderful years. You are the most loyal and demonstrative fans on the face of the earth!”
In recent years, Bowen has been frustrated by not being able to travel with the team, but has maintained his professionalism as he and Ralph adapt to the challenges of broadcasting changes.
As mentioned, Bowen’s pending departure certainly raises question about the future of the radio broadcast as pro sports teams move away from spending money on the format. Also factoring into the situation beyond next season are the major ownership changes at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment with Rogers Communications buying out the share of fellow telecommunications/broadcast giant Bell Media.
In the 2024-25 season, Bowen had the thrill of calling a game with his son David, a budding broadcaster with the Sudbury Wolves, as a part of the Leafs Next Generation Day.
“You listen and he’s very good,” Bowen said of his son to the Sun‘s Lance Hornby. “People have to realize calling a game on radio is much different than TV. You have to be more graphic in your description for people to visualize.”
Of course it’s far too early to speculate on who might replace Bowen, a voice that for so many Leafs fans feels irreplaceable anyway. And with one more season, the popular broadcaster hopes he has a chance to call the action for a championship team for the first time.
“I sincerely hope that this will be the ‘One Before I am Done’ season for the Leafs as they chase that elusive Cup,” said Bowen, who was overwhelmed with the response he received from fans and listeners throughout the day on Friday.
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