Barry Horn

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When the puck drops tonight at American Airlines Center, Ralph Strangis and Daryl Reaugh begin their 14th season together in the Stars broadcast booth. No local broadcast team has been together longer.

More than any other play-by-play and analyst team, they are ambassadors for their sport. Back when the Stars were looking for a new analyst in 1996, Strangis was among those who recommended Reaugh. They are not particularly close away from the ice but exhibit rare chemistry in the booth.

On the eve of another season, Hot Air, in separate interviews, posed 10 probing questions to each:

1. What is your partner's biggest broadcasting strength?

Reaugh: "His memory. He has the ability to recall things and retain stuff. Things would be events, stuff would be stats."

Strangis: "He has almost unparalleled knowledge of the game and all NHL players."

2. When was the last time you had a meal with your partner on the road?

Reaugh: "Once late every season, the public relations department takes 'non-essentials' out. I believe the last time was two seasons ago in Detroit during the Western Conference Finals."

Strangis: "Was it in Columbus a couple of years ago? It was probably a team dinner. Yeah, it might have been in Columbus."

3. When and where was the first time you two met?

Reaugh: "He picked me up at the airport when I came to interview for the job in the summer of 1996. He was driving a black something and it smelled like smoke."

Strangis: "It was when he came in for an interview, but I really can't remember what kind of car I had."

4. What is your partner's biggest broadcasting weakness?

Reaugh: "Staying with the game when the Stars are obviously going to lose. He can tell listeners the game is over with his voice."

Strangis: "His road shirts and ties aren't nearly as good as his home shirts and ties."

5. If you could work with a different partner who would you choose?

Reaugh: "Danny Gallivan. He was my idol. He was the voice of Hockey Night in Canada when I was growing up. He had the most eloquent, intelligent call of the rises and falls in a game."

Strangis: "Howard Cosell. "He broke a lot of conventions and gave people a different view of what sports broadcasting can be."

6. Finish the sentence: The Stars this season will be ...

Reaugh: "... better than people think, because not much is expected of them."

Strangis: "... interesting, because there is much to prove and so much room to grow."

7. You're having dinner the night before the Stars play in the Stanley Cup Final opener. Which three people do you invite? Whom do you think your partner asks?

Reaugh: "I take John Forslund, the TV play-by-play broadcaster of the Carolina Hurricanes who I worked with in Hartford, Chuck Kaiton, the Hurricanes' Hall of Fame radio broadcaster, and Stephen Walkom, the former supervisor of NHL officiating. He takes Bob Gainey, Al Shaver (whom Strangis worked with in Minnesota) and Al Michaels.

Strangis: "I take Cormac McCarthy, Dennis Miller and Chuck Barris. He takes a super model, a rock star and a hockey legend."

8. What was the last 'I can't believe he said that' moment you had in the booth?

Reaugh: The other night he told listeners we were on "Newstalk 820, WBAP." We were on The Ticket."

Strangis: "That's tough. I can tell you that every night he says something that surprises me or catches me off guard."

9. You have a night off and can watch one game in any sport. Who do you hope is calling the game?

Reaugh: "John Madden no matter who he is working with."

Strangis: "Jon Miller and Joe Morgan."

10. What is the one question you have been dying to ask your partner but never have asked?

Reaugh: "Just how many pairs of glasses do you own?"

(Strangis' reply: "I just gave 14 away to charity. I'm down to 20.")

Strangis: "I wonder where he keeps his Emmys?"

(Reaugh's reply: "In the boxes they came in.")

The Cowboys' appearance against the Carolina Panthers on ESPN's Monday Night Football attracted 15.7 million viewers, the largest cable audience of 2009. That after the Cowboys-Giants the previous week attracted 24.8 million viewers, the biggest audience for an NBC Sunday Night Football game in the three-plus season history of the package.

Sunday's Cowboys-Broncos game will be called by Fox's Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, who will be making their regular-season debut on the Cowboys. It's not quite a national broadcast. The game will be broadcast to 89 percent of the country.

By the way: Fox's average NFL audience is up 27 percent to 18.4 million viewers from 14.5 million last season.

Former Rangers manager Bobby Valentine is retiring from managing in Japan for studio work at ESPN. He starts with the League Championship Series. How long he stays with ESPN this time depends on offers to again manage in the major leagues. Valentine was at ESPN in 2003 after he parted ways with the New York Mets and before he was off to manage the Chiba Lotte Marines.

ESPN says it likes the idea that Valentine still aspires to manage.

That allows the network "to have people who are connected to the game, who are relevant, to better serve the fans," said ESPN executive Norby Williamson.

Don't forget that TBS owns the rights to baseball's four Division Series as well as the NLCS. The broadcast teams are: Chip Caray and Ron Darling; Don Orsillo and Buck Martinez; Dick Stockton and Bob Brenly; Brian Anderson and Joe Simpson. Ernie Johnson will captain the studio show with Dennis Eckersley, Cal Ripken and David Wells along for the ride. Caray, Darling and Martinez will work the NLCS.

Fox Sports Southwest has added a second channel, Fox Sports Plus, to help with scheduling conflicts. Tonight, for example, while the Stars host Nashville in their NHL season opener on FSSW, the Kent State-Baylor game will be cablecast by Fox Sports Plus. FSP is not yet a 24-hour channel, but that's the goal. It is available locally on Time Warner (Ch. 960), DIRECTV (Ch. 678), Dish Network (Ch. 449) and AT&T U-Verse (Ch. 755). ... Ticket-ex Curt Menefee, who has thrived as Fox Sports' NFL studio host, adds boxing duties tonight. He is the fill-in announcer for Showtime boxing while Nick Charles battles cancer. ... Mark Jones and former Aggie assistant coach Bob Davie call the A&M-Arkansas game from Cowboys Stadium at 6:30 tonight on ESPN2.