We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
RALPH HUBBELL
Charley Bailey of WEBR, Jim Wells, Vice President of the Buffalo Bills' Football Team; Sig Smith of WKBW and Ralph Hubbell.
R
M
20
Ralph is the subject when the obliging Mike Mazurki, wrestler and movie actor, demonstrates an airplane spin for WBEN-TV.
BACK in the early 30's when Ralph Hubbell was breaking into Buffalo radio, he had a daily poetry program, in addition to his nightly sportscast. One day he received a glowing letter from the rugged Jimmy Slattery, of Buffalo, then the lightheavyweight champion of the world.
"Please," wrote Jimmy, "send me a copy of the verse you read on the air today. It was swell."
This letter — from an athlete who wrote not about sports but about poetry — illustrates the wide appeal of the Hubbell voice and helps to explain why the WBEN sports director makes more than 100 personal appearances annually, in addition to his 12 weekly sportscasts.
The youthful dean of Buffalo sportscasters has broadcast every sport from badminton to wrestling in his 17 years in radio. He has always loved his job and is even more enthusiastic now that WBEN-TV has added television.
"I had to learn when not to talk in television," the smiling sportscaster said, "because the fan has the picture of the action in front of him. Of course, in a wrestling match the sportscaster helps by explaining the various holds and adds facts on formations when telecasting football."
Ralph is an athlete himself — he broke 80 in golf last year — and won several varsity letters at Brooklyn's Flatbush High. When he graduated from Flatbush in 1930, it marked the 14th school he had attended in six different states.
After his mother died in 1919, the sportscaster was raised by a maiden aunt, a teacher who taught in schools from New York to Florida. She took Ralph with her wherever she went and he acquired a remarkable knowledge of the habits of peoples.
Ralph was once a director of boys' work at a settlement school in the rough-and-ready Red Hook section of Brooklyn. This practical experience served him in good stead and he is an outspoken advocate of the value of boys clubs' activities.
On his way up to his present post, Ralph has worked in various capacities on all other Buffalo stations, which is somewhat of a record in itself. He came to WBEN from WGR on February 29, 1948.
When Ralph makes any kind of prediction in sports, he is certain to have at least two faithful fans who are about to double-check him on the reasons why. They are his two sons — Peter, 11, and Philip, 8.
Hubbell broadcasts over WBEN every weekday evening at 6:15, Monday through Friday nights at 11:25 and every Sunday evening at 6:45.