Sunday, May 06, 2001
Sports on TV-Radio
Marty, Joe ride the waves
By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Marty Brennaman and Joe Nuxhall broadcast Reds games on one of the most powerful stations in the country. WLW-AM's clear channel signal reaches 38 states. More than 50 other stations are part of the Reds Radio Network. But some times — particularly on weeknight games from the West Coast — they wonder if anyone's listening.
“Periodically, we'll talk about it,” Brennaman said. “When it gets so late back home, you've got to wonder how many people are listening.”
Last week during a broadcast in San Francisco, Brennaman decided to find out. He encouraged anyone listening to e-mail or drop a card in the mail.
It was 12:45 a.m. in Cincinnati when Brennaman made the request.
Within six hours, 250 people had responded by e-mail. By Wednesday night, 462 people had responded.
“That's a boat load,” Brennaman said. “Shows the power of radio.”
Brennaman got the idea from Jon Miller, the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball play-by-play man who also is the San Francisco Giants' radio guy.
“He said he did it when he was doing Boston Red Sox games years ago,” Brennaman said. “They were in Seattle. He asked people to send cards. That was before e-mail. No give-away or anything, just to see how many people were listening. He got 95 and thought that was great.
“I told him we'd beat the hell out of that.”
Brennaman surmises, correctly, that if 462 people responded, a whole lot more were listening.
Darryl Parks, director of AM operations for Clear Channel here, said after midnight WLW pulls about 6,000 listeners. From 7 p.m. to midnight, the draw is 22,100.
That's inside the Tristate area. Where the responses came from after Brennaman's request showed the scope of a major-league broadcast in the Internet age.
Two came from prisoners — one in Chillicothe, one from Raleigh, N.C.
“Another came from a lawyer on Wacker Avenue in Chicago,” Brennaman said. “He was working late and listening in his office.”
Since they joined the cyber age, Marty and Joe have gotten e-mail from probably 40 countries. So, someone is listening.
SHOT AT BIG TIME: Dan Hoard makes no secret that his career goal is to do play-by-play for a big-league baseball team. The chance he got to do four Mets games last week may prove to be the break he needed.
Hoard, the Channel 19 weekend anchor and UC radio play-by-play man, was called in for emergency duty when Ed Coleman, one the Mets' radio guys, fell ill.
Hoard did one game of the Reds-Mets series here.
“Gary Cohen, the No. 1 guy, called me about an hour before the game,” Hoard said. “It was probably good, because I didn't have time to get nervous.”
Hoard did well enough that he was asked to do the Mets-Brewers three-game series from Milwaukee. This time, he had a chance to get nervous.
“It's as nervous as I've been in a long time,” he said.
The Mets games air on WFAN, probably the best-known sports station in the country.
“I got quite a bit of response,” he said. “Two ways: From friends in New York who knew me from Syracuse and recognized the voice.
“And another friend told me about a Web site that people comment about New York radio on. There was a "Dan Hoard' thread. The comments were very positive.”
Coleman is back on the job after undergoing angioplasty.
Hoard is hopeful his brief stint could lead to something.
“There's no openings in New York,” he said. “But I think WFAN people would help me if something opened up elsewhere.”
E-mail: jfay@enquirer.com.
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Marty, Joe ride the waves
