The End of Play by Play on Radio?

I do color analysis for small college football. Two decades ago, every team in the league had a commercial, terrestrial radio affiliate. Now, I think there are three of us left.

 

Munson was hired along with Milo Hamilton, who was going to be the number one announcer. Evidently Hamilton did not like Munson because they had different approaches to the job and Munson quickly started to job hunt.

 

There is a long list of people Milo Hamilton didn’t get along with. Larry was in good company. And the better announcer.

 

Hit Morgantown before you head home. With some lighter fluid.

 

I never listened to Larry Munson call a football game so I don't know if he was better than Hamilton. I thought Hamilton was really good on the Cubs in the early 80's. But I think the biggest tribute to Hamilton as an announcer is that he kept getting jobs. Given the fact that he seemed to be so difficult to deal with it is a tribute to his talent that he worked for seven teams.

 

I would guess Triple AAA franchises still have terrestrial radio contracts but don't know. Do minor league teams at lower levels still terrestrial radio coverage?

 

I don't think our local minor league team has had radio in more than a dozen years. It's internet only.

 

I would think the higher level teams would be less likely to have terrestrial radio, or at least anyone who cares. In AAA and several AA cities, especially with newish stadiums, the team is essentially the theme to a nicely-done outdoor bar. Many of these places have top-level teams in other sports or at least major college athletics. Who is getting emotionally invested in the Charlotte Knights or Sacramento River Cats?

 

The River Cats were on radio in 2019 and even had about a dozen games on the local CW affiliate. Not sure what the Fresno Grizzlies will be doing this year with the drop in affiliation, since they ended up on a religious-formatted station last time they played. If they're not on the air, someone please get Doug Greenwald a baseball gig! (Every now and then, Comcast would air a Grizzlies game and would team Doug with his dad, Hank Greenwald.)

The San Jose Giants I think had some weekend games on radio and the rest online. They had a great arrangement years ago with KSJS, the student station at San Jose State, to carry games. The team got the exposure, the station had some sports content when school was out and a lot of student announcers got a lot of experience.

 

In Winnipeg the radio broadcasts of the NHL Jets moved this season from the local TSN Sports radio station to CJOB that had the broadcsts for many years before TSN. OB also broadcasts the professional Blue Bombers football games. Last week TSN announced in the middle of the day that Sports Radio was history and the station was switching to comedy. About ten on-air talent lost their jobs on the spot. The broadcasts of our independent league pro baseball team , the Goldeyes, are on a nostalgia station that has little reach outside the city.

 

Read about the the format switch last week. I used to listen to the morning show, a former Blue Bombers kicker was a part of the group. Been a while, though.

 

It’s going to be interesting to see what happens to the Montreal and Ottawa stations when the rights come up. If Bell keeps them, I could see them sliding to news/talk stations and flipping the switch on the TSN stations.

Strange that Edmonton was spared. Maybe it has something to do with TSN trying to get the Oilers’ regional TV rights down the road?