The headline is part of a lyric from one of my favorite songs and one of my favorite artists – Elvis Costello’s “Radio, Radio.” While attending the National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago, I had the chance to meet with many MFM members in the radio business and listen in on several educational sessions focusing on the changing dynamics and complex future of this incredibly important medium.
It brought back a flood of memories of the impact that radio has had on me personally. I’ve shared with you the moment my 17-year-old self from a tiny farm town in Northern California wired his first FM antenna and tuned in KSAN 94.7, opening the door to a new world of music beyond Kasey Kasem’s Top 40 – Elvis Costello and the Attractions being one of those newly discovered bands. And I’ve also shared how we rural kids would park our cars in a circle in a cattle pasture, open the doors, and tune into KFRC for our legendary “road parties.”
But my discussions with folks at NAB triggered even older memories of listening to San Francisco Giants and (then) San Francisco Warriors games on KNBR sometime between 1966 and 1971 – during my grammar school years when the players on those teams were my heroes and the outcomes of their games really mattered!
And as much as how well Willie McCovey, Willie Mays, Juan Marichal, Nate Thurmond, Rudy LaRusso, and many others played, it was the relationship with the broadcasters, and their incredible ability to paint vivid pictures of what was happening on the field with their words – and sometimes their silence – that affected me even more.
I came of age listening to legendary Giants play-by-play man Russ Hodges. His most famous call of Bobby Thompson’s “Shot Heard Round the World” – “THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT; THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!” – happened before I made my entrance into the world. . But his signature home run call of “Bye Bye Baby” still echoes in my ears.
Hodges was succeeded by the great Hank Greenwald – dry, sardonic, and absolutely hysterical. “Three more saves and he’ll tie John the Baptist.”
When it came to calling NBA basketball there was no one better than Bill King. Long before headsets and miniscule microphones were invented, King jury-rigged a contraption that looked like a backpack worn on his chest with a platform holding a large mic that seemingly sprouted from his chest. When he described a missed shot – like “LaRusso pulls up for a 19-footer…goes 18” – you could almost literally see what was happening on the court.
I stayed up late with my athletic heroes and the announcers who described their feats and failures. And as you can see, it made an indelible impression on me, and no doubt millions of others. With almost every game now broadcast on TV, fewer fans listen to games on a regular basis. But I still love to tune into a game when I’m on a long drive – the magic of Sirius Satellite radio still allows me to listen to my beloved Giants though I now live in the Midwest – and visualize what’s taking place at the ballpark based on the “word pictures” of skilled radio announcer.
I’m with Elvis Costello: You better listen to the radio. It’s a medium that still instills magic.
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