Spoken Words
Televised sporting events have become the the most technically intricate productions in the world of entertainment. An NFL football game that is being broadcast or streamed has no less than 25 cameras positioned at a stadium to cover every angle, player and potential visual advantages. Outside the venue there are 3 to 4 production trucks filled with directors, producers, editors and engineers, all performing their part so we as a viewer at home can seamlessly watch our monitors at home. There are announcers in the booth giving us the play-by-play and the color and descriptions of the each series of actions by the players, coaches and referees are during the production. There are statisticians, graphic artists and a myriad of folks near computers who are recording each event on the field in regular time, in isolation of maybe certain participants who are the playmakers. A small army of these people do the same, only record it in slow motion, so each play can be scrutinized by the audience and officials and can truly effect a game because it is next to impossible to make every judgement on the field in real time, possible and correct. Yes, it’s really quite a mega-production to marshal all these assets and pull off Sundays, Monday and Thursday nights and all those other special times and occasions that allow us to casually sit back and enjoy the game while drinking our beer and eating our wings.
And to think that this is so large an undertaking, only to be awed by it’s scope and this powerful ability to capture all this visual and audible activity and provide it to the eyes of the world is taken for granted by the average viewer. Over the years I have found myself driving across an interstate going to visit a friend or sick relative. With the availability of satellite radio I found myself listening to sporting events as they were happening live. Super Bowls, college basketball and football, it ran the gamut. I found myself becoming more attuned to the on-air talent giving me a blow by blow verbal description of the event. Obviously, when you have a television screen in front of your nose you don’t need someone telling you every minute detail. But, I’ve come to enjoy the astounding talent and ability of a radio announcer to paint a picture with words and allow me to construct it like a puzzle in my mind. The avid descriptions and insights, the color of the uniforms, the demeanor of the crowd, the condition of the field, the verbal outbursts from the players and coaches, all brought forth with words. To me, it’s magical. The excitement is amped up to and constantly being interpreted to illustrate to us the flavor and texture and personality of what is conspiring on the field and in the stadium. These tremendously able wordsmiths keep this pipeline of info coming at you, fast and furious. It’s a shame really, that the best of these radio journeymen will be elevated from the ranks of radio to the crowning glory of the wonderful world of color, where they will share many pregnant pauses and withhold their observational powers, so the pixels can do most of the work.
As a child, I was a phanatical Phillie fan. I would listen to the night games from Connie Mac Stadium in Philly or some ballpark out west. My little transistor radio and my single earpiece allowed me to listen to Bill Campbell, By Saum and Richie Ashburn tell me all I needed to know to follow the game. It was a warm and fuzzy feeling and I felt that they were there for me, and me only. Tucked under the covers, with my McGregor scorebook, I would mark down each strike out, home run and relief pitcher with their Earned Run Average. Now, I’ve worked in television for a lot of years and I don’t want to diminish the wonderment of watching or attending a sporting event. There is a distinctive thrill to being able to witness a big game on the screen or to walk in to Yankee Stadium for the first time and see that brilliant green infield and smell the hot dogs etc. But, I will always go for the radio to set off the fuse of my own brain’s imagination and transport me to the spiritual box seat right behind the third base dugout.
Thank you for the breakdown of what it takes to put on one of these TV events! And then the charming image of the young boy, with transistor and earpiece, earnestly writing everything down in his notebook.
ReplyDeleteI loved this also, a wonderful description of what's behind the pleasures of watching televised (and as a little boy, listening to radio) sports. And I really know what you mean by the thrill of walking into Yankee Stadium for the first time and seeing that "brilliant green infield." It's a thrill that I, too, experienced decades ago and will never forget.
ReplyDeleteHey, I remember Richie Ashburn. He was a pretty good center fielder for the Philadelphia Phillies as I recall. But he couldn't compare with Duke Snider of the Brooklyn Bums as they were affectionately know back in the early 1950s. It was great being transported back to halcyon days of listening to baseball games on the radio and becoming enamored of the smooth, silky voices of the home team announcers.
ReplyDelete