Favorite announcers....

I was entertained by Dick Enberg and Don Drysdale who used to broadcast for the Angels.
Ditto for La Kings broadcasters Bob Miller and Nick Nickson before they were separated.

 

Dick Enberg still does Padres games on a regular basis. I think he's on the Vin Scully schedule, where he primarily works home and West Coast games.

 

As a young writer covering the Angels, the best thing about Enberg and Drysdale, and Scully is they were always friendly and helpful. Despite the stage they were on, they always had time for a young journalist, and treated them with respect. Just as good away from the mike as in front of it.

 

Drysdale was surprisingly good as the Rams color man as well.

I was never crazy about him as a solo radio pbp guy. It seemed he never gave the score.

 

The Enberg-Drysdale team may have been the best single-team duo which I can recall. And they had some real dogs with the 70s Angels. Do the names Dave Chalk and Joe Lahoud ring a bell for anyone?

 

Drysdale's play-by-play work for the Dodgers, after he left as color man for the Angels, was uneven. Yet he had a folksy honesty which contrasted to the smooth, corporate, Disneyfied, Farmer John pork pitchman, Vin Scully. (ducks the wrath of God)

 

Doc Emrick is great but will never be as good as Bob Cole, the legendary CBC HNIC announcer. Bob is getting a little old and sometimes forgets players' names but no one beats him. Ever.

 

Love all the guys you just mentioned. I grew up listening to Buddy D and Henderson call Saints games, and they were a great team. Hokie stepped in nicely, and you nailed it about him bringing a distinctly coonass feel to the broadcast booth, which I think helps his local audience embrace him even more.

A national guy I'm a sucker for is Ian Darke. He hits the spectacular moments in international football with authority. He's had some wonderful calls, particularly in the past two World Cups for the USA (men's and women's).

 

I think that making a ex-jock a pbp guy on radio is the Peter Principal in practice and Drysdale is an example. So much of what a good radio PBP guy does is dependent on the quality of his voice and his sense of timing. Few ex-jocks have the ability and the experience to be really good at radio PBP. But on television where voice is not as important jocks can be much more effective on pbp. Ed Farmer of the White Sox is a current example of someone who does not have the talent to by a pbp guy though he was an excellent color guy.

And if you grew up in Colorado in the 60's and early 70's, Bob Martin, the long-time Broncos bpb, was the Voice of God. And a good guy. He spent an hour being interviewed by me for my ninth grade paper.

 

Yeah, I always loved his items on "Dan Dierdork."

 

As a kid growing up in St. Louis and listening to the Blues on the radio, it started and stopped with the late Dan Kelly for me.

And though I hated the Blackhawks all my life, I remember Pat Foley and Dale Tallon working as announcers on both the team's TV and radio feeds at the same time - and making them both sound good. I don't know if that was commonplace at the time, but I always was impressed with how they pulled it off.