“You’ve got to learn how to eat and sleep on the bus, how to maintain your voice and when not to take advantage of the ridiculously cheap and plentiful Montana drinks,” recalls Peterson.

The fuel that bulwarks the soul of an aspiring broadcaster begins with the simple passions of childhood. Peterson grew up in Issaquah, Washington, a middle-class suburb at the time, 25 minutes east of Seattle. 

In 1983, at the age of 8, Dan began a love-hate relationship with the nearby Seattle Mariners, the glory of baseball wafting from the vocal chords of Dave Niehaus, Rick Rizzs, and Ken Levine on the radio.

“The Mariners were absolutely brutal at the time.  I think growing up following a terrible team instills a certain humility in you,” the laid-back Peterson remarks.

Ironically, following the Mariners probably also prepared him for the debut of his career in Rookie ball, where the level of the game is often as rustic as the worn buildings in which they play it. 

Dan broke into radio at college stations at Linfield College in Oregon, and Santa Clara University in California.

Usually at that class of the game, broadcasters are a solo act. Peterson was paired with Phil Elson, now with the Class AA Arkansas Travelers, in his first season in Helena.

“We had the distinction of calling the worst team, winning percentage-wise, in affiliated baseball [21-55], and they capped it off by losing 20 of the final 21 games.  Brutal team, but good experience – if you can call a bad team, you can call any.”

Dan ended up returning to Helena in 1999 for a second season. The Brewers players got off to a rocky start too, opening (3-10) to start the ’99 season, but took off after the early struggle, steamrolling toward a successful season.  “It was a welcome change to call a winning team.”

After another off-season of applying for full-season jobs, Peterson was again denied the chance to move up levels.  He decided, without other broadcasting options, to return to Helena for a third year, in 2000.

“We lost 22-4 on opening night, and that included a healthy 2.5 hour rain delay.  We got crushed the next day too.  That was the first time I really considered quitting.  I just wasn’t having any fun.  Having left my friends in Seattle, following a poor team, and making the same loop for the third time…it was really difficult.”

Yet Peterson’s passion kept him going long enough to make it to his fourth season, where the winds of change finally filled the sails of his career. He landed a job with the Boise Hawks, a Chicago Cubs affiliate in the Northwest League. The Hawks’ general manager, Jeff Walker, was a former play-by-play broadcaster himself with Lansing and Sacramento, and an on-air sportscaster at KJR when Peterson interned at the station four years earlier.

“Despite still being short-season, it was definitely a better league and better ballparks, a better market to be on the air in, and the much needed change of scenery,” recalls Peterson.

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