Silver Screen (Nov 1938-Apr 1939)

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Bill Slater broadcasting a game from the Yale Bowl. Note the electrical indicator operated by the spotter to aid in identifying players. Below — Bill Stern and his players' chart. Ted Husing, Columbia Broadcasting's mile-a-minute spieler with a photographic mind on football plays and players, even puts on a suit and goes through a practice workout with each team, the better to get the feel of things. Lynn Brandt, an NBC midwest mike man, takes movies of the practice plays and runs them off just before he goes to the broadcasting booth so he'll have the players fresh in mind. When practice is over, the announcer circulates on the campus, fraternizing with the players to saturate himself with the background, accomplishments, and choice bits of human interest stories on each. As soon as he can, he transfers this information to index cards which he will use for ready reference when he wants to give the listeners a colorful idea of each player. He also spends considerable time with the coaches to get an outline of the plays each will use in varying circumstances and conditions of the game. This is most important because when the coach lets the announcer in on his strategy— whether it's to be an offensive or a defensive style; whether a backfield man is used primarily for blocking, running with the ball, passing or kicking, and whether he is expected to do part or all of these things, as well as the lowdown on other fancy plays— the announcer can look for and anticipate trick plays and unusual formations before the opposition fully realizes the deception. The announcer treats all of this information as confidential until they are actually used in the game, but this advance knowledge gives authority to his voice and insures a high degree of accuracy in his description. So you see why announcers cannot place too much emphasis on this preliminary work with teams. Now we re ready to step into the broadcasting booth and that's where the technique of the various announcers branches off. Of course, while the announcer has Announcers see more than most spectators and the radio listener will know more about the game than a stadium visitor. But the game is only as good as the announcer. Ted Husing talking to millions for two hours and a half. He has a very accu ra te indicator which is operated by his assistant. been busy with the teams, the engineers and technicians have set up various microphones for use in the booth, huge coneshaped parabolic mikes outside to pick up crowd noises, and other lines for direct communication with the control room back at the studio. Most of the announcers use two "spotters," one for each team and seated on each side, to help get facts straight when play is fast and furious. According to Ford Bond, "In stormy weather when visibility is bad, a good spotter is half the battle because his accuracy makes it unnecessary for the announcer to take a second guess." A spotter is a man selected by the coach for his ability to recognize the players on his team from any angle; by their features, eccentricities, posture, and number. He can do this for he is usually a former football player out of that game because of an injury, or he may even be a student athletic manager. In front of each spotter the announcer places a chart of his team on which are clipped cards placed in the team's proper lineup. On each card is the name, number, position, weight, height, year, age and home town of the player. These spotters are the announcer's auxiliary eyes and it is up to him to decide how much responsibility he wishes to give them. Their chief job is usually to keep the lineup of their respec tive teams correct at all times, changing cards on the chart as substitutions are made. Ken Carpenter instructs his spotters to watch tacklers, pass receivers and defensive play. When Fort Pearson is announcing, all he wants the spotter to do when the ball is passed from one man to another, is to point from the name of the bearer to the name of the receiver, and he knows all that is necessary to describe the play. In addition to such aid, Bill Stern has worked out a set of finger signals by which his spotters indicate the cause of all penalties: exactly how many yards the penalty is and whether it is for offside, unnecessary roughness, holding,, crawling, interference, or what. Usually the preliminary work with the teams is so thorough that the announcers have little difficulty in identifying the players themselves, in which case the spotters are really valuable only on complicated plays where the ball is lateraled several times, and in a pile-up where it is difficult to determine the tacklers. On the other hand, both Don Thompson and Ernie Smith never use spotters, relying upon themselves entirely to achieve identification of the players. They claim that, not being trained reporters, the spot [Continued on page 74] for November 1938 21