Major League Baseball on the radio

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Major League Baseball on the radio has been a tradition for almost 80 years, and still exists today. Baseball was one of the first sports to be broadcast in the United States. Every team in Major League Baseball has a flagship station, and baseball is also broadcast on national radio.

Contents

[edit] Early period

[edit] 1920s[1]

The first baseball game ever broadcast on the radio was on August 5, 1921. The game was broadcast by KDKA of Pittsburgh, and the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-5. It was broadcast by Harold Arlin, KDKA's announcer.[2][3][4][5][6][1] That year, KDKA and WJZ of Newark broadcast the first World Series on the radio, with Grantland Rice and Tommy Cowan calling the games for KDKA and WJZ, respectively.[3][4][5] However, the broadcasters were not actually present at the game, but simply gave reports from a telegraph wire.[3] The next year, WJZ broadcast the entire series, with Rice doing play-by-play.[4][5] For the 1923 World Series, Rice was joined on Westinghouse for the first time by Graham McNamee.[3][7]

During the 1923 World Series, Rice was the main broadcaster, but during the fourth inning of Game 3, he turned the microphone over to McNamee.[5][7] This was the start of McNamee's career, and McNamee became the first color commentator.[8] Although frequently criticized for his lack of expertise, McNamee helped popularize baseball.[3][7][9][10]

[edit] 1930s[11]

Though radio grew quickly as a medium for baseball, many teams were still apprehensive about it, fearing negative effects on attendance. Nevertheless, each team was allowed to reach its own policy by 1932[5], and the Chicago Cubs broadcast all of their games on WMAQ in 1935.[3][12][13] The last holdouts were the New York teams—the Giants, Dodgers, and Yankees combined to block radio broadcasts of their games until 1938.[3][5]

By the end of this period, radio had become increasingly commercialized. Wheaties started its long relationship with baseball in 1933[14], and in 1934, sponsorship rights to the World Series were first sold.[15][16]

[edit] Golden age

Red Barber at the microphone.
Red Barber at the microphone.

During the Golden Age of Radio, television sports broadcasting was in its infancy, and radio was still the main form of broadcasting baseball.[13] Many notable broadcasters, such as Red Barber, Mel Allen, Vin Scully, Russ Hodges, and Ernie Harwell, started in this period.

However, broadcasting still did not look like the way it does today—recreations of games based on telegrams, the original means of broadcasting, were still widely used.[17] The Liberty Broadcasting System operated solely through recreations of games, because live games were too expensive.[18] Gordon McLendon broadcast games throughout the South from 1948 until 1952, when new blackout regulations forced him to stop.[19][15][20] Mutual Broadcasting System also broadcast a Game of the Day during the 1950s.[15][21]

[edit] Modern period

However, as the Golden Era wound down, radio was gradually eclipsed by television.[13] The World Series continued to be broadcast on the radio, with NBC Radio covering the Series from 1960–1975, and CBS Radio from 1976–1997.[22] However, there would not be regular-season baseball broadcast nationally on the radio until 1985, when CBS Radio started a Game of the Week.[23] In 1998, national radio broadcasts moved to ESPN Radio.[23] ESPN Radio currently broadcasts games on most weekends.[24] Its World Series broadcasters are Jon Miller and Joe Morgan.[25]

Starting with the 2005 season, MLB Home Plate was launched on XM Satellite Radio.[26] XM also carries every major league game.[27] Games are also carried on MLB Gameday Audio. [8]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^  Detroit's WWJ also claimed to have broadcast the first baseball game, as well as the 1920 World Series.[28]

[edit] References

  1. ^ The first major league game to be broadcast via radio was on August 5, 1921, in Pittsburgh, home of the Westinghouse Corporation, by the new Westinghouse station, KDKA. Harold Arlin, a Westinghouse foreman, announced the Pirates- Phillies contest from Forbes Field. Westinghouse was eager to make a name for itself in the new industry, so the next day Arlin broadcast the U.S. Open tennis tournament, also near Pittsburgh. Two months later he made the first football broadcast. That same year the first World Series broadcast was aired to a handful of fans on the East Coast. By 1922, the Series was being heard live by an estimated 5 million people. Re-creations were heard by fans on three continents. Many of the early baseball broadcasts (and almost all away- game airings) were re-created in a hometown radio studio, with announcers reading pitch-by-pitch accounts from ticker tapes and using sound effects and canned crowd noises to simulate live action. In 1950 the Red Sox provided the first live coverage of all their away games. Within five years major league re-creations were outmoded, as the teams were broadcasting all their games live. At the minor league level, re-creation continued for away games into the 1960s. The first owner to see radio's potential to boost fan interest was Cubs boss William Wrigley. In 1925 he invited all the Chicago radio stations to carry all the Cubs games free of charge. Cardinals owner Sam Breadon soon followed suit in a second attempt to develop a regional following. Between 1926 and 1927 the first great national radio networks, NBC and CBS, began operation. This was the beginning of radio's golden era. Sales of radio equipment, a $60 million industry in 1922, grew to nearly a billion dollars in 1929.
  2. ^ KDKA Firsts
  3. ^ a b c d e f g On the Air
  4. ^ a b c TSB Heritage
  5. ^ a b c d e f Radio and its Impact on the Sports World
  6. ^ First Radio Broadcast of a Baseball Game
  7. ^ a b c RW Special Report
  8. ^ a b Frick winner to be announced
  9. ^ Book Review
  10. ^ Voices—TIME, October 3, 1927
  11. ^ Many owners were still wary. By the 1930s the two-team cities of Boston, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Chicago had reached an agreement not to broadcast away games. In other words, if the Braves were at home, listeners could hear that game on the radio, but could not listen to the Red Sox away game. The owners' argument-"they won't come to the park if you give the game away"-was invalidated under this arrangement. The New York owners went one step further: in 1932 they agreed to ban all radio broadcasting-even of visitors' re-creations-from their parks. THE REDS, THE RADIO, AND RED BARBER Larry MacPhail took over the Reds in 1933 and sold a controlling interest in the club to Powel Crosley, owner of two Cincinnati radio stations. It was a match made in economic heaven: MacPhail knew that broadcasting games would promote the team and Crosley could now boost his radio ratings. Their symbiosis is reminiscent of St. Louis beer-garden magnate Chris Von der Ahe's takeover of the St. Louis team in order to sell more beer. When MacPhail moved to Brooklyn in 1938 he brought Reds announcer Red Barber with him and broke the New York radio ban. The next year was the first year that all the major league teams broadcast their games. Prophetically, it was also the year of the first televised baseball game. In 1935, Baseball Commissioner Judge Landis orchestrated a radio deal that covered the World Series. All three networks were involved, and baseball made $400,000. Landis, as ever, was imperious; he dismissed Ted Husing as games announcer despite the fact that, with five World Series under his belt, Husing was second only to the ubiquitous Graham McNamee in Series-announcing experience. The amount of money involved in baseball broadcasting was growing. Gillette, the razor blade manufacturer and one of the first companies to realize the power of sports as an advertising vehicle, tried to flex its muscles by offering Red Barber a substantial amount to walk out on his Dodger contract and join Gillette on a new Yankees/ Giants network. Barber refused. It's no wonder Gillette felt powerful; in 1946 the company was rich enough to sign a 10-year, $14-million deal for exclusive radio sponsorship of the World Series and All-Star Games.
  12. ^ A look back at the Q.
  13. ^ a b c Baseball, Radio, and Jackie Robinson
  14. ^ General Mills: History of Innovation
  15. ^ a b c Diz by Robert Gregory ISBN 0670821411
  16. ^ Summer 1997: 75 Years of National Baseball Broadcasts
  17. ^ Radio Baseball That Never Was...
  18. ^ Gordon McLendon
  19. ^ The Liberty Broadcasting System
  20. ^ End of Liberty—TIME, June 9, 1952
  21. ^ Flashing Back...
  22. ^ Voices of the World Series: Television and Radio
  23. ^ a b Major League Baseball CBS Radio History
  24. ^ MLB on ESPN Radio
  25. ^ Jon Miller wows Hall of Fame Audience
  26. ^ JOSE CANSECO CLAIMS SAMMY SOSA AND MARK McGWIRE TOOK STEROIDS DURING 1998 HOME RUN CHASE ON XM SATELLITE RADIO'S MLB HOME PLATE CHANNEL; PETE ROSE TELLS XM HE SUSPECTS CANSECO MOTIVATED BY MONEY
  27. ^ MLB Home Plate FAQs
  28. ^ Pioneer—TIME, September 3, 1945