Silver Screen (Nov 1938-Apr 1939)

The Broadcasting Of A Big Game Is A Job For Experts And Usually You Hear Details Of A Play While The Ball Is Still In Motion. By Ruth Arell EVEN without a calendar you can tell. For, when the first faint strains of the siren song of the soaring pigskin comes to the ears of eager fans, and raises their blood-pressure as well as their hopes for their favorite teams, you know it's autumn by the advent of the football season. Between twenty and fifty million persons "attend" the weekly meetings of the various teams, although the stadiums where the games are held seldom seat more than fifty thousand. Of course you'd rather be in the grandstand yourself, unless it's rainy or very cold. But if you can't be there, simply twist your dial and out of your loudspeaker comes a play-by-play description of what's going on, vhile you take your ease at home. For by me magic of radio you and millions of other pigskin enthusiasts are able to "see" what happens and "observe" the prowess of the players. Your "eyes" are a corps of announcers, every one a former football player himself, who are now experienced and seasoned veterans of radio sports reporting and guarantee to deliver color, accuracy and technical understanding of the game in all its phases. There you sit in a comfortable chair and the chances are a thousand to one that you never think of the man describing the game unless it's to grumble when he gets mixed up on the player who just ran sixty yards. You forget that even when you attend the game in person you can't always tell who is carrying the ball or who is making the tackle, no matter how well you know the team. I know I didn't give it much thought before I set out to do this article. But having learned something of what goes on behind the scenes, I don't promise I won't be annoyed the next time the announcer takes too long to identify the player who intercepted a pass, but at least I'll understand why he was tardy and maybe I won't stay mad for long. After you read this see if you don't agree that Ted Husing, Bill Stern, Paul Douglas, Tom Manning, Don Wilson, Ken Carpenter, Lynn Brandt, Don Thompson, Ford Bond, Hal Totten, Ernie Smith, Norman L. Sper and Fort Pearson— the men who will broadcast this year's games from all sections of the country— certainly have an uncanny ability to "shoot from the hip" at the microphone and get across the eyefilling word picture they project at each game. To begin with, each announcer starts preparing for the broadcast just as soon as he knows which games he is going to air. He reads every newspaper and magazine article he can get hold of and corresponds extensively with coaches and athletic officials, all for the sole purpose of learning everything he possibly can about the players. These men who man the mikes at major games realize that football broadcasting differs from other sports reporting in that an announcer must know in a split second not only the names and positions of 22 players but also the names and positions of innumerable substitutes, and in one memorable game Notre Dame ran in 87 subs. Before each game the announcers will actually spend several days with each team to familiarize themselves with the players. Bill Stern, who heads the National Broadcasting Company's football mikemen, likes to spend three to five days at the training camps of outstanding college elevens. He literally I eats, sleeps and works with them, haunting the playing fields during The rid broadcasting booth with the parabolic mike on top with which to catch the roar of the crowd. 1 o practice in order to absorb every idiosyncracy of .the players. After watching them in action from the sidelines, he retreats to a far-off vantage point so that he will get to recognize them from a distance, as he will actually see them at the game. He notes that one end is short, stocky, and has a way of standing with his weight on his right leg when relaxed, and that a tackle has an inclination to gallop when he runs and uses a slightly bulgier padding over his left knee. Mentally Stern tabulates all the peculiarities of posture and dress of each player. The men at the mike are a long distance from the plays, but still the listeners show no mercy. Ted Husing makes a study of each team days before the game. 20 Silver Screen