Radio Head

I actually like the Wheels/Harvey team. They work well together. Brian is very descriptive and gets excited like a real fan. Antonio is the 'workin' man's' analyst. He's unrefined, yet gives good insight from a player's perspective - like the guy next door.

Bill Schonely will always be the Voice of the Blazers. He was good, but to me, his defining feature WAS that voice - masculine, crisp with a pinch of a western twang.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, some of my best Blazer memories are of those fist-pumping, high-fiving, laughing/crying moments  with my boys around that old radio.

One particular radio moment forever etched in my heart was a Chicago game in '79 or '80 when the Trailblazers came back from 8 points down with like 15 seconds left to win it in regulation. It was won on an inbounds lob (from Kermit?) for an alley-oop jam to Billy Ray Bates with less than a second left. The Schonz actually squealed like a pig as his voice skipped up about three octaves. That game instilled in me the truth of a  well-worn motto: "It aint over 'til it's over".

The last two CWS runs by the OSU Beaver's baseball team were all radio for me. Mike Parker's calls of those games...well...it doesn't get any better!

In the glory days, seemingly every town in Oregon had a station carrying Trailblazer games. Now I have to pull all the way from KXL in Portland (from southern Oregon). Hopefully that will change as Blazer popularity increases. For now, I've invested in a good radio and still prefer that medium for most games.

But now, I would listen on the radio, or internet radio, even without The Schonz if I could get it here in Indiana, but KXL blacks out their internet feed for Blazer games, making me take a good long look at NBA Pass this next year.

I think my most memorable radio moment, and I can remember for sure whether it was before or after Scholney left (I think it was before, but I'm not 100% positive), was when Mike Rice got himself ejected from the game for yelling at the refs during a timeout.  I have to admit, I thought, "this will be so much better without Rice making off-the-wall comments, but to my surprise, the broadcast was missing something without him.

I've loved sports on the radio my whole life. Picking up Yankee games on the AM band in my house in rural Pennsylvania was always a neat thrill. I prefer the verbiage and word pictures to the flashy graphics of TV. There's also a strange, hard to describe drama that comes from hearing about action without seeing it. Like the thrill of being led around blindfolded. The alienation hightens the tension.

Now, a buddy and I split season tix, and when I don't go to games, I always listen to KXL. Wheels is awesome - the guy is really in demand around the league, I think he was a finalist in the L*kers broadcasting interviews two years back. He's rock and roll, man.

I really liked Rice, and was sad to see him go over to TV. (BTW - the NBA schedule has been released to the clubs, and will come to the public on Tuesday. On Courtside last night, the Mikes and Wheels implied that the Blazers will have a CHRISTMAS TV GAME this season. We will have to wait and see.) Tone has grown on me, but I really liked Annie Schatz, the few games she was on the radio.

It's old fashioned, it's glowing tubes and the like, it's slow and not real technocolour. It is NOT DSL. But it's the Blazers to me, and I really like it. When we are not going to a game, I want to be able to say to my kids, "Hey the game is on," and have them dash to the radio, rather than pick up the remote. The Blazers are family, and I feel the radio is an important part of that. It just feels like a good match for me.

(Side note:  The first TV guys I remember for the Blazers were Steve Jones and Pat Lafferty in the mid 80s.  Who was doing TV back in the 70s?)

I think if I had the choice, I would still listen to the radio, because you can pretty much still go about your business and get things done without being slave to sitting in front of the TV and wasting a good two hours of your day.

I think Wheels is a great announcer, but of course Schonley was pretty much amazing. I've only been adamantly listening for a few years, so I don't remember Rice being on the radio, and I can't imagine it was good for anything but comedic purposes, judging from what I see on TV. But Tone is pretty funny too, in a different way (read: deliberate).

Not many truly memorable moments for me... a consequence of getting really into the team right before they were the worst in the league I suppose. Here's to hoping that changes very soon!

2.  I think Wheels is very good.  I can't really compare him to Schonley, because I didn't hear Bill a lot, but Wheels is descriptive and I feel like I see the game in my head, which maybe isn't the best thing when I'm driving up the Interstate).  While I'm always sad that I can't watch the game on TV, I feel like I've missed a lot less with a Blazer game than, say, a Duck game.  That's a testament to the announcers.

But the Schonz is a legend.  Schonz had an amazingly unique voice and a fluid delivery to boot.  Even his gimmicky stuff was fantastic.  Loved it.

I do still listen to games on the radio because I don't have cable so that usually means about 10 games a year available without a trip to a friends, bar, or Rose Garden.  The broadcasts are still compelling (when the games are tight) and I have trouble pulling myself away from them.  

I listen now whenever I can't watch. I like Wheeler, but am not a huge fan of Harvey, even though he has improved quite a bit since he first came on.

Ideally, I like to have the radio play-by-play on while I watch the game on TV. Over DirecTV there is a delay which confuses me (even more than usual).

During the Schoenley's final years, I remember hearing him make more mistakes, naming the wrong players, mispronouncing names, etc. I felt bad for him. When he left, it took a while for me to enjoy Wheeler's broadcasts.

Radio without TV annoys me these days though.  I get more nervous since I can't see what is happening.  Baseball on the radio is a natural fit but hoops on the radio doesn't do it for me.  I still listen sometimes (Wheeler does a fine job and Harvey has improved immensely from awful to solid) but I prefer the medium of TV for Blazer games.  

At first I loved Wheels but during the 2005-2006 season something happened and he started turning really, really negative whenever the other team went on a run. He'd start getting this depressed tone in his voice which would make you depressed. I don't want that. I really, really like Mike Barrett. He doesn't get down, always seems upbeat, and does get excited when the team goes on a run. Because of that I'm not as big of a radio fan as before.

However, Wheels is still one of the best at describing the action as several have said and I hope he can get past his negative phase. Maybe with a winning season? :)

I still listen to the radio very often. 33% of the time it's because I'm in the car on my way home from the office. 33% of the time it's because my wife is watching the big screen. 33% of the time it's because I can't stand the TV commentators... I'm really not a huge fan of Mike and Mike, but I really liked Steve Jones. I really don't care much for most TV commentators, in fact. It seems fewer of them are really good these days than in years past.

I've listened since the 70s because there was little TV and it was rare to score tickets to the MC. Like jon, I'm one of the few that called for Schonz to leave early because he couldn't keep up and couldn't understand the public outcry. I liked his voice though, and loved to hear those Rip City! calls.

I loved Wheels and Rice, they were the best team in the league. Especially Rice's potshots at opposing players, coaches, and fans that had me cracking up.

One thing I can't stand are the catch phrases "bingo bango bongo" "lickity-brindle up the middle" and "boom chakalaka". That stuff is totally unnecessary. But I love to hear Wheels say "he jams it!" on a Blazer fastbreak.

I could even say the same for Vin Scully (he does the Dodgers games).  His delivery is flawless but it does not appeal to me.  It sounds like the war/new coverage in old movies.  

If I grew up listening to those guys, they would probably be beloved to me.  Instead they are just broadcasters that do not know when retire, and they take away from the entertainment of the game.

The Return of Rip City
http://idiotscollective.blogspot.com/2007/06/return-of-rip-city.html

Blazer radio was not the same w/o Schonley.  I am often yelling at some player "you've got to make your free throws!" in the same tone he always used.  Some of those phrases will live forever.

This past season I TiVo'd the games, but wouldn't start watching for a half hour so I could fast forward through the commercials.  I'd also fast forward through some dull or bad parts of the game.  I like Mike Barrett a lot and I've finally come to tolerate Mike Rice.  One thing I like is MB's humor regarding MR. Sort of like an indulgent Dad who smiles while rolling his eyes at something his wise-acre kid might say.

I do like listening to the games on radio now other than the inability to rewind!  I can do other things at the same time and still keep up with the action. And never do I miss a play because Rice is talking about something other than the game.  I'm often saying "who got the assist?" to the tv.  Then I'll replay to get the information the announcers didn't give me.

My radio sports listening goes back to Seattle minor league baseball.  None of the away games were live; the announcer, Leo Lassen, recreated them from play by play that came in by teletype.  I watched him at the station one night and it was amazing.  Imagine having to "call" a game from a piece of paper.  He'd cue up crowd noises and the crack of the bat was actually him tapping a wooden pencil on the microphone.

The audio coming over the video feed was the Blazer broadcasting crew.  So I was watching the game and listening to an unedited live feed of the radio team.  Because it was on satelite, there were no radio commercials, AND THE MIC WAS LEFT ON so you could hear Rice and Doucette's comments when there were timeouts, commercials, etc.  That guy who should be arrested for impersonating a ref (Steve Javie)had really blown a call and Mike Rice was ticked off by it.  During commercial, Mike Rice yelled to Javie that he blew a call.  Steve Javie came over to him and made some snotty remark back.  Mike Rice went into sailor mode and told Javie that he was a stupid jacka@@ along with a few other things I can't type here.  I couldn't believe what I was hearing.  I yelled out, "Go Mike!" Then Steve ejected him from the game.

I'll never forget that.  I was shocked, but it was cool to see Mike's true passion for this team.  He is a great character and I hope he is around for years to come.

Here is a link to a cool article about him from 2 years ago.

http://www.portlandtribune.com/sports/story.php?story_id=28801