"Radio is purely the announcer's medium. Accordingly, most of the best sports broadcasting has been done not on television, but on radio. David Halberstam writes from the knowledgeable and nuanced perspective of one who practices, respects, and understands the craft and its history." --Bob Costas NBC Sports "Some of my friends and associates do not believe there was civilization before television, but I assure them that listening to Red Barber on radio from Ebbets Field or to Marty Glickman from Madison Square Garden was better than watching television. It was magic. Sports on New York Radio brings back memories of that magic. Reading about the many gifted radio voices who covered the Dodgers, Yankees, Giants, Rangers, Jets, the fights, and so much more reinforces my early conviction that I would never be a broadcaster. How I made it to even the brink of such company still baffles me." --Dick Schaap ABC News The Sports Reporters, ESPN "I grew up with Red Barber, Mel Allen, and Marty Glickman. They were warm, friendly, great voices. Through the radio they brilliantly linked the fan with the game. David Halberstam captures the colorful history and many great memories of sports on the radio." --Robert Merrill #1-1/2 New York Yankees New York Metropolitan Opera "The next best thing to sports on radio is reading about the perfect marriage of sports and radio. Halberstam takes us there. The information is riveting, the anecdotes hilarious. Radio lives in these pages." --Vic Ziegel Columnist New York Daily News "Sports radio in New York has spawned many broadcast legends, and David Halberstam has captured them in his thoughtful book." --David W. Checketts President and CEO Madison Square Garden

Excerpt:

By Alex Rawnsley March 30, 2020 Leave a comment

Books

Book Cover: The Voice: My Story by Ray Warren

Ray 'Rabbits' Warren is the legendary voice of Australian sports commentary. People tell him he must have drunk a bottle of scotch and smoked a packet of cigarettes every day to have the voice that he has. That's not the case; at least, not any more... The son of a railway worker, Ray placed his first bet on a horse called Playboy at the age of just six, and won. A lifelong love of the track - and the punt - was born. During his remarkable broadcasting career, which has now spanned almost five decades, Ray has called three Melbourne Cups, Commonwealth and Olympic Games swimming, and countless rugby league matches alongside his mates Fatty, Sterlo and Gus. Here, for the first time, Ray reveals the man behind the microphone. He speaks of the great highs and devastating lows of his career and life in the same way he calls every sporting event: with great passion, colour and candour.

Excerpt:

By Alex Rawnsley March 30, 2020 Leave a comment

Books

Book Cover: The Art of Sportscasting: How to Build a Successful Career

Author Tom Hedrick has elicited and gathered strategic and tactical advice from the top professionals in sporstcasting. Over 76 top-notch sports broadcasting personalities share their experience and acquired wisdom, including Curt Gowdy, Ray Scott, Bob Costas, Jack Buck, Jim Nantz, Keith Jackson, Bob Starr, Joe Castiglione, Kevin Harlan, and Mitch Holthus. While their stories are enjoyable and motivating, these pros do more than reminisce. They itemize specific actions with lists of do's and don'ts and tips. Most importantly, they talk about the strong personal values and philosophies that are and have been essential to their success and to the journey for getting there.

Excerpt:

By Alex Rawnsley March 30, 2020 Leave a comment

Books

Book Cover: Call of the Game by Gary Bender

How many times have you listened to play-by-play on television and thought, I could do that job? With this book, perhaps you can. At the least, you'll learn what it takes to be a play-by-play announcer. Your teacher? A consummate professional. For more than 25 years, Gary Bender has described the action on the playing field of 29 different sports, 27 at network level.

Excerpt:

By Alex Rawnsley March 30, 2020 Leave a comment

Books

Ron MacLean has been a Saturday night tradition for twenty-five years. Known for his quick wit, arched eyebrows and encyclopedic hockey knowledge, MacLean is the skilled ringmaster of Canada’s most watched weekly program. He has interviewed the greatest players, coaches and personalities of an era. He is a master of seeking the best in substance and entertainment from his guests, as well as from his opinionated and often irascible co-host, Don Cherry, on “Coach’s Corner.”

And he has never written a book—until now. Cornered is packed with inside accounts—some inspiring, many hilarious—from his early days as a part-time radio announcer and weather forecaster in Red Deer, Alberta, to his time hosting Hockey Night in Canada and the Olympics. Perhaps no other journalist has witnessed first-hand more Canadian sports milestones in the past quarter century. From Gretzky to Catriona, Mario to Salé and Pelletier, MacLean has been there with an eye for detail and an appreciation for what makes a great story.

Excerpt:

By Alex Rawnsley March 30, 2020 Leave a comment

Books

How did the most recognizable voice in broadcasting get his start? By asking for a mop. In this humorous, poignant, and well written autobiography, Dick Enberg shares the stories behind the voice of sports in America.

A tireless worker whose boyish enthusiasm for athletics has never diminished, Enberg ?rst walked into a radio station in 1956 to apply for a janitorial position. He wound up on the air instead and a legend was created. In the half-century that Enberg has been in the sportscasting business he has called everything from the World Series to the Super Bowl. Traveling across the country and around the world, Enberg has called football games in weather so frigid that his coffee froze before he could drink it, been challenged to a ?ght by an irate baseball player, led the Notre Dame band in a rendition of “The 1812 Overture,” and been threatened with ejection at Wimbledon because he was shouting too loudly into his microphone. Those stories and hundreds more are told in Dick Enberg: Oh My! with wit and candor, as Enberg not only relives some of sports’ greatest moments, but takes readers into the booth and behind the camera. “Sportscasting is a kid’s dream come true,” he says, “which is one of the reasons that I keep doing it. I can’t let my dream go. I’m still in love with what I do.”

Excerpt:

By Alex Rawnsley March 30, 2020 Leave a comment

Books

Book Cover: Play-by-Play: Tales from a Sportscasting Insider

Both a memoir and a "how-to" for anyone who aspires to a career in broadcast journalism, particularly sports, this book calls on Mercer's vast experience and name recognition in Texas to give an insider's view of everything from play-by-play to interviewing a celebrity athlete. Mercer began his career as the voice of professional wrestling in Dallas in the 1950s, and later went on to be a play-by-play announcer for teams ranging from the Dallas Cowboys to the Chicago White Sox, in addition to a brief "hard news" stint at the time of the Kennedy assassination in Dallas in 1963.

Excerpt:

By Alex Rawnsley March 30, 2020 Leave a comment

Books

Book Cover: The Sportscaster's Notebook by Troy Kirby

This primer focuses on broadcasting basketball, providing technique on style, substance and operation of a winning sportscast. Also covered is setting up equipment for independent operation as well as the techniques for selling sponsorship. This guide eliminates the BS found in other books about sportscasting and focuses on how, why and advanced sportscasting theory.

Excerpt:

By Alex Rawnsley March 30, 2020 Leave a comment

Books

Book Cover: Lucky Bastard: My Life, My Dad, and the Things I'm Not Allowed to Say on TV

In this New York Times bestselling memoir, the announcer of the biggest sporting events in the country—including the 2017 Super Bowl and this century's most-watched, historic, Chicago Cubs–winning World Series—reveals why he is one lucky bastard.

Sports fans see Joe Buck everywhere: broadcasting one of the biggest games in the NFL every week, calling the World Series every year, announcing the Super Bowl every three years. They know his father, Jack Buck, is a broadcasting legend and that he was beloved in his adopted hometown of St. Louis.

Yet they have no idea who Joe really is. Or how he got here. They don’t know how he almost blew his career. They haven’t read his funniest and most embarrassing stories or heard about his interactions with the biggest sports stars of this era.

Excerpt:

By Alex Rawnsley March 30, 2020 Leave a comment

Books

Book Cover: You Can't Make This Up: Miracles, Memories, and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television

In this highly entertaining and insightful memoir, one of television’s most respected broadcasters interweaves the story of his life and career with lively firsthand tales of some of the most thrilling events and fascinating figures in modern sports.

No sportscaster has covered more major sporting events than Al Michaels. Over the course of his forty-plus year career, he has logged more hours on live network television than any other broadcaster in history, and is the only play-by-play commentator to have covered all four major sports championships: the Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, and the Stanley Cup Final. He has also witnessed first-hand some of the most memorable events in modern sports, and in this highly personal and revealing account, brings them vividly to life.

Michaels shares never-before-told stories from his early years and his rise to the top, covering some of the greatest moments of the past half century—from the “Miracle on Ice”—the historic 1980 Olympic hockey finals—to the earthquake that rocked the 1989 World Series. Some of the greatest names on and off the field are here—Michael Jordan, Bill Walton, Pete Rose, Bill Walsh, Peyton and Eli Manning, Brett Favre, John Madden, Howard Cosell, Cris Collinsworth, and many, many more.

Forthright and down-to-earth, Michaels tells the truth as he sees it, giving readers unique insight into the high drama, the colorful players, and the heroes and occasional villains of an industry that has become a vital part of modern culture.

Excerpt:

By Alex Rawnsley March 30, 2020 Leave a comment