The 5-Hole: Blue Jackets News and Notes – 10/12/10
October 12, 2010Cavaliers Finding Value In Youth This Preseason
October 12, 2010
Like the rest of you, Nev Chandler will probably always be the voice of the Browns for me. Not only did Nev Chandler call the Browns teams of my youth, but he also called the best games of my lifetime. He was such a powerful voice for the Browns that when people said they turned the radio on and muted their televisions, it wasn’t just lip-service. People actually used to do this because they felt so strongly that Nev Chandler was not only a great announcer. He was our guy. He wasn’t just some vapid national announcer hired to pretend to know the team from the TV booth. As a result Chandler is beloved in Cleveland and will probably never be surpassed. It was a convergence of factors even unrelated to Chandler himself. I feel especially strongly about that sentiment today after listening to part of last Sunday’s game on the radio.
This is absolutely, unequivocally not a knock on Jim Donovan. I think Donovan has many of the same qualities that Nev Chandler had. You look at some of the teams that Jim Donovan has had to call though, and it isn’t even fair. The fact that Donovan has even one signature moment, “Run William Run!” is a testament to his abilities. So no, this isn’t a slam of Jim Donovan.
It is a slam on the environment we currently live in. The world we created is so focused on revenues and profits that we have lost sight of the fact that there is a product in the middle of all the advertising time available to be sold. When you consider a radio broadcast today, everything is for sale. Heinz bought the red zone. The injury report is brought to you buy some injury lawyers. The weather forecast for the game is brought to you by someone else. We have all grown accustomed to this stuff, but it negatively impacts the broadcast. It negatively impacts the ability of the personality to gain any kind of traction with the audience.
In addition to that, I watched the first half of the game with a friend and was listening to Jim Donovan on the way home to catch the second half. During that time this is what I heard.
The Falcons completed their long scoring touchdown to Roddy White. Extra Point commercial
Kickoff commercial
Peyton Hillis runs and injures Weatherspoon. Injury timeout commercial
Return to action, break to let stations identify themselves
Now correct me if I am wrong, but would that exchange have ever occurred when Nev Chandler was broadcasting? Would it be so harmful for a radio host to talk his way through a break providing some narrative and personality? Gasp! Maybe he could even find ways to further relate to the audience when there is no play-by-play to chirp into the microphone.
Now, I know that as the saying goes you can’t un-crack the egg, but we’ve lost sight of something here. The product used to be the radio broadcast itself with the listeners being consumers. Instead of maintaining the quality and listenability of that, the product has become the advertising time, broadcast be damned. I am technically a part of the problem as I partake in an advertising program through one of my insurance companies. So, really I am not looking to cast blame here. I just am a bit sad at the realization that Nev Chandler could never be the Nev Chandler I grew up loving on the radio as a kid if he showed up again today.
21 Comments
Nev was THE BEST. 5.4.3.2.1 Touchdown!
Seeing the Slaughter/Langhorne high five photo never gets old
The good ‘ol days. Slaughter, Langhorne, Brennan and Newsome…back when the Browns had guys who could catch the ball. Of course they had someone to throw them the ball too…oh forget it.
I miss Nev every Sunday but I still miss Herb Score too. Just wait until next year when Joe Tait is gone. Some people just can’t be replaced and Nev, Tait and Herb are three of them. That being said, I love Jim Donovan and Dieken together. They do a great job considering how many plugs and how much awful football they are subjected too. My biggest beef is the new sideline announcer who replaced Andre Knott. He’s worse than any of the injury report plugs for the lawyers.
The phoniness of it all is what makes it unbearable. Announcers have to be so impossibly careful of what they say that they cease to be interesting. That’s just the being human part of it. Then, you add the fact that they can’t be honest because they don’t want to bad talk their employer, the team, ugh…
This is why Tait will be missed.
A couple of years ago I found Donovan so unlistenable I started turning up the volume on the TV. I love his enthusiasm but there is just something that rubs me the wrong way.
The achy sepia tone for the old “non-commercial” days is a little misplaced, Craig. There were plenty of sponsor shout-outs in Nev’s era. And if you ever listen to a part of a radio broadcast from way way back, like a baseball game from the 1930s, you’ll hear constant sponsor stuff. In baseball the outfield walls were plastered with ads before they became blank, now they’re filling up again.
Maybe you’d agree with this: the din of the ads sound much better when your team is winning. When it’s a dismal day of three-and-outs with your going nowhere team, you’re mor likely to feel like throwing the radio, along with the pumped up lawn mower ad, right out the friggin window.
Craig, I don’t get your complaint. I listen to Donovan’s broadcast all the time (unless the radio and TV feeds are so out of synch as to make it impossible, like they were last Sunday. Why can’t WTAM fix that?). Anyway, Donovan is very good. And he’s far far better than most of the other announcers who I hear snippets of from time to time.
I agree with Reggie Ruckus, but will extend my distaste to ALL sideline reporters. They’re annoying and completely worthless. And the women ones make me want to hang myself.
Andre Knott was awful. He would just stand there with reams of statistics that he typed up the day before and rattle them off. Hell, why was he on the sideline? He could have done that from his couch. And he could have taped his reports the day before. Stats are boring. Give me something that you can get only from the sideline.
Overall, Cleveland has been very blessed with having absolutely top-notch announcers, going all the way back to Jimmy Dudley and Gib Shanley. Nev, Joe, Hammy . . . the best in the biz.
And agree 100% with your Donovan observation: hard to paint an inspiring picture of a … mud puddle?
Tom Hamilton would not be so adored if all the tribe teams were like this year’s version. For a dozen or so years he had lots to work with.
I understand Craig’s point, but a great radio personality can even make the ad spots somewhat interesting. I love it when Tait does DiGiorno pizza … “From your freezer to your tummy in 15 minutes!”
I’m at the age where I barely got to hear Chandler, but he was amazing. That said, I think Donovan is also one of the best in a league with a lot of really great announcers (the most disappointing change on NFL.com is that they no longer have the game highlights with the radio calls), and Dieken is pretty decent as an analyst.
Tait is the best in the business. I miss Score/Hamilton as a duo, but I don’t think that Score was at the top like Tait/Chandler.
Biggest reason I loved Chandler and now Donovan – they both did a fantastic job of in the 7 seconds or so pre-snap describing the formation and the defensive alignment if there was enough time. With then you can actually visualize what’s happening. Like I said above there are a lot of good NFL announcers on the radio (I love that the Steelers announcers are like the White Sox TV guys – overrated, annoying, and dumb), but whomever does the Colts and pulls the same off despite constant no-huddles is really impressive.
I like this article. One of the biggest problems I have with the NFL is the ridiculous amount of AD time they squeeze in. Every single break in the action; Commercial. Thank god for DVR. The annoying MOST annoying thing is though that the commercials finish about 1 second before the ball is hiked, sometimes you miss the beginning of the play!
@2: the Browns DO have a legitimate pass catcher and thrower. Their #s are 40 and 16, respectively.
CRIBBS FOR QB 2011!!!!
I can still remember specific snippets from Nev that still make me smile:
“The Browns have won the game in double overtime, and the Stadium is going berserk!” Jets double-OT playoff game after the kick was good.
“What was Clay Matthews thinking of??” over and over after the ill-advised Matthews lateral in Houston in 89.
“The Pittsburgh fans serenading their team in a chorus of boo-flat.” at halftime of the 51-0 opening day beatdown in Three Rivers in 89.
Jim Donovan’s call from the Raven’s game:
Situation: Raven’s Ball, 3rd and 3, 2:26 left in the game.
“Flacco rolls out… throws… and the ball is almost intercepted by Eric Wright.
But it was caught by T.J. Houshmanzadeh over the 30-yard line for the first down.”
Yes, Jim Donovan thought that the near interception was more important to the call than the essentially-game-ending completion. During the call I thought, great, the Browns will get the ball back. For a second. Then I remembered that the Browns have one of the worst play-by-play guys in the league.
Donovan is terrible. All an NFL play-by-play guy has to focus on is who has the ball and where are they on the field. He can’t even do that right.
Funny you read this… I was watching the MNF game last night and down the stretch it really was annoying how often they went to commercial. As you mentioned Craig, after scores they really slam you with minimal game and maximum ads.
If I only had the… power… to turn off… tv…
That’s a bunch of bull. Mr. Chandler could survive any time. The voice and enthusiasm would translate to any time line. Commercials bad football or anything else u see a an obstruction to good play by play man. Nev would of still have left us with the same feelings of our beloved browns. Thank u Mr. Chandler for all that u did for our Sundays and all that u woulda done if u where still with us today.
I agree completely. Although I got a chuckle out of having a dazzling full page pop up cover this article before I could read it. I fully support advertising but the aforementioned ad is just as distracting as extra point – commercial – kickoff – commercial in the NFL.
Nev Chandler was VERY GOOD. But the Gib Shanley/Jim Grainer team remain the best radio team in Browns history. (IMHO) Shanley’s calls actually told the listener how the teams were set up… “Ryan brings them up. Warfield split right, Collins flanked 5 yards to the left. Brown and Green split 4 yards deep in the backfield. Ryan drops back to pass…” Donovan rarely tells you anything pre-snap.To me he is just an annoying screamer(now called enthusiasm). He’s too much for these ears.
P.S. the lack of sync between radio PBP and the TV feed is caused by the satellite signal vs over the air radio.
Different people..different eras. I grew up listening to Nev Chandler and in my mind he is the best play by play announcer in Browns history. Older people in my family thought Nev sucked and that Shanley was the best.
While I never had the privilege of hearing Gib Shanley on the radio (he later did sports reports on KCBS TV in Los Angeles), the Browns PBP man I was most familiar with was Nev Chandler. I was able to hear his accounts during the Browns major playoff runs between 1985-1989. Ironically, I was a Raiders fan at the time, but I did make room for – and came to appreciate – Nev’s accounts of Browns games. He was very articulate and possessed a true affinity for the team. I ached with you Browns fans and sided with Nev’s anguish during the two playoff losses to Denver. I felt then, and unfortunately, remain right today, that winning one of those Bronco games would’ve changed the fate of the Browns franchise. I was very saddened to hear through Lee “Hacksaw” Hamilton of Nev’s passing in 1994 and it is very unfortunate for all sports fans that precious few recordings of Nev Chandler’s PBP are in existence. He was VERY GOOD and he left us too soon. And it seems as if Nev is so forgotten and so lost in the potpourri of radio voices. I am a sentimentalist by nature, so to me, (with respects to Casey Coleman and Jim Donovan) Nev Chandler remains the voice of the Cleveland Browns.
Mark Gaston,
Oxnard, CA