The Greatest Radio and TV Broadcasters of the Twentieth Century

If you ask a radio man who has been in broadcasting a long time who had the best “voice for radio” many would say Orson Welles. Welles was not keenly known as a “radio announcer” but as an actor that liked radio drama as a medium. If you aren’t familiar with Orson Welles, he was the original voice of “The Shadow” radio program in the 1930’s. He is most famous for his radio broadcast of “The War of The Worlds” in 1938 which reportedly panicked a nation into believing there was an actual invasion of the Earth by Martians or for his landmark film “Citizen Kane.” He did a lot of work for radio for many years on many broadcasts. His acting career never really took hold but his voice on radio was powerful and dramatic.

During the war years of World War II, CBS Radio led the way in war reporting with a London correspondent named Edward R. Murrow. His daily descriptions of the war from London were remembered by a generation. At this time in history it was a novel concept to have live broadcasts of world changing events and Murrow was a consummate broadcaster that made his way into the majority of American homes. His best known phrase from these broadcasts was “This is LondonâÂ?¦” Murrow went on to television in the 1950’s producing Emmy winning news telecasts such as “See it Now” and “Person to Person.” He is generally considered to be the “patron saint of American broadcasting.” He hired such notables at CBS News as Eric Sevaried, Charles Collingwood and Howard K. Smith.

On December 3rd, 1950 a national broadcast debuted on the ABC radio network called “News and Comment.” The announcer was Paul Harvey. Amazingly this show is still carried today on over 1200 radio stations with Paul Harvey at the microphone. Paul is also known for his famous “Rest of the Story” broadcasts which started nationally in 1976 and continue today. At 87 years old, Paul Harvey is still at it. He is quoted as saying “Retiring is just practicing up to be dead. That doesn’t take any practice.”

Sports broadcasting has had its share of notable announcers. Known as the “voice of college football,” Keith Jackson started his career as a college football announcer in 1967 broadcasting the USC – UCLA contest for the then Pacific 8 (now the Pac 10) conference. UCLA won 21 to 20. Keith refers to this game as he does many others “The Game of the Century.” For three and a half decades he entertained college football fans with folksy expressions like “Whoa Nellie!” and “Fuuum-ble.” For many in my generation college football will not be the same without Keith Jackson now that he has officially retired from the booth.

In Baseball there are legends tied to many teams. For 40 years, the Yankees had Phil Rizzuto calling their games. Phil was famous for exclamations such as “holy cow!” and “did you see that?” or “unbelievable!” to describe plays.

For nearly 50 years the St. Louis Cardinals had a colorful and controversial character calling their games on radio. Jack Buck was an institution in the town. His voice could be heard in the middle third of the nation at night on the powerful KMOX. Jack did Monday night Football on radio for CBS as well from 1978 to 1996. Early in his Cardinals announcing days he was number two man beside baseball legend announcer Harry Caray. After being fired from St. Louis in 1969 Harry called a season for the Oakland A’s in 1970 and then moved over to the White Sox and later the Cubs TV broadcasts.

Harry Caray was a baseball legend in his own right. From 1971 to 1981 he did the White Sox broadcasts and then on to the Cubs for WGN-TV until 1997. He was extremely popular in Chicago. His skill declined in 1987 after a stroke but his popularity carried him on. Harry was famous for his own version of “Holy Cow” that he was using before Phil Rizzuto and other expressions such as “It might beâÂ?¦ it could beâÂ?¦ it is.” During the seventh inning stretch Harry would sing “Take Me Out to The Ballgame” which became a tradition after Harry was caught on mic during one game singing it in the booth.

In the 1960’s when radio reinvented itself to be a music medium in order to compete with television taking over comedy and drama, Top 40 radio was born. These large stations in major cities had a plethora of great talents who rose to the occasion. My favorite was Dan Ingram who did afternoons on WABC for 20 years. If you grew up during this time, who you liked was largely a function of where you lived. There is a great web site where you can relive those memories. A site dedicated to the hey day of top 40 radio is www.reelradio.com. You can even find “unscoped” recordings from the era from all the major DJ’s of the time that are complete recordings featuring all the music and commercials. You can listen to an hour broadcast from the giants like KHJ Los Angeles, WLS Chicago, WABC New York, WLS Chicago and many more. This site is run by people compassionate about this era in radio. If you grew up in the New York area, check out www.musicradio77.com for a complete tribute to that great radio station including all kinds of recordings you can listen to from Harry Harrison, Ron Lundy, Dan Ingram and Cousin Brucie among others.

Announcers as we think of them has fallen out of favor and are being replaced with “characters” or the “regular guy” sound. Being “relatable” is now the fashion. The day of the classic announcer are fading. Voice talent has been replaced with the term “voice actor.”

We must not forget the great talent of these people who shaped my interest in broadcasting.

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