EP117: My Mount Rushmore of Radio: Four greats radio stars
Ken introduces you to four of his all-time favorite radio performers. These are the voices that inspired him and made him laugh. Vin Scully, Dan Ingram, The Real Don Steele, and Gary Burbank.
After listening to Vin Scully, I had to go look up the game on Baseball Reference to see who won- the game was from June 30th. And Don Zimmer was involved! My God, was he involved in everything?
You attended Dodger games at the Coliseum. How weird an experience was that? Or were you too young to care? I once went to a Pilots game at Sicks Stadium- I wonder which one was the least appropriate Major League venue.
I always liked Dan Ingram- that clam commercial is brilliant. He was the original voice for Nick at Nite's TV Land when it was something to watch.
I lived on Top 40 radio- but its like the Saturday Morning cartoons - a museum piece thanks to modern technology.
Chicago kid who grew up in the golden era of Top 40 radio....
My Mt. Rushmore would be WLS's Larry Lujack. WLS's Fred Winston. (Not Top 40, though I hear he was good at that, too) WGN's Bob Collins, and either John Records Landecker or Jonathon Brandmeier for the fourth spot, with plenty of honorable mentions.
And on my second mountain...best male pipes I've ever heard:
Don LaFontaine, Charlie Van Dyke, Fred Winston and Gary Gears. Honorable mention: Beaver Cleaver, from LA.
Jeff should have followed through: Baseball Reference shows the Giants won 2-0, and it appears Willie hit another HR that day. And even though you're correct Ken that it was always a pleasure to listen to Vin, ten minutes of that type of argument was unbearable. I can't believe no one knew the ground rules. Even the umpires! It's the FAIR pole, unless the Coliseum had some bizarre rules. (And shouldn't VIN had known the rules?)
Wow! Thank you for sharing that Scully clip. I've never heard that before. What an amazing performance. I can't imagine extemporizing such perfect prose.
What, and deprive people of the thrill of looking it up themselves? Yes, the L.A. Coliseum had some very bizarre ground rules- thanks to a 250 ft. left field fence, a 40 foot screen to prevent cheap homers, and the wires and poles to support the screen, some of which were in foul territory. It did seat 90,000+, though.
When I first followed baseball in 1969 - Dodger Stadium (Chavez Ravine) was relatively brand new (compared to Comiskey, Tiger Stadium, Municipal (in Cleveland), Yankee Stadium, Shea, and so on.)
Hard to imagine that Dodger Stadium is now the third oldest in MLB (after Wrigley and Fenway).
Maybe he's not playing the same radio game, but omitting Howard Stern from a radio Rushmore is like omitting Secretariat from a 1973 Belmont Stakes Mt. Rushmore.
The great thing about the Internet is stuff that other people have recorded and kept for decades is available for everyone. In this case, here's Dan Ingram sounding like Dan Ingram -- except that instead of doing it for WABC or CBS-FM in New York, he's doing it for KBOX in Dallas in the late 1950s (which also includes the full Dan Ingram jingle, which he couldn't use at WABC, because it was originally done for his morning show in Dallas).
YouTube also has a full Vin Scully Dodgers-Cubs broadcast. Only it's the Brooklyn Dodgers versus the Cubs, from their final season in New York. As with Ingram, Vin sounds like Vin, even if he's 3,000 miles away from the city he'd eventually be associated with:
Gary Burbank used to work at WHAS Radio in Louisville before moving on to Cincinnati. I can sort of say I worked with him, because I was working at WHAS-TV in the news department at the same time. But we were on opposite ends of the building and didn't cross paths too much. He sure wouldn't remember me. But I definitely remember Ranger Bob and the Snowshark and a lot of his other great bits.
17 comments :
After listening to Vin Scully, I had to go look up the game on Baseball Reference to see who won- the game was from June 30th. And Don Zimmer was involved! My God, was he involved in everything?
You attended Dodger games at the Coliseum. How weird an experience was that? Or were you too young to care? I once went to a Pilots game at Sicks Stadium- I wonder which one was the least appropriate Major League venue.
I always liked Dan Ingram- that clam commercial is brilliant. He was the original voice for Nick at Nite's TV Land when it was something to watch.
I lived on Top 40 radio- but its like the Saturday Morning cartoons - a museum piece thanks to modern technology.
Chicago kid who grew up in the golden era of Top 40 radio....
My Mt. Rushmore would be WLS's Larry Lujack. WLS's Fred Winston. (Not Top 40, though I hear he was good at that, too) WGN's Bob Collins, and either John Records Landecker or Jonathon Brandmeier for the fourth spot, with plenty of honorable mentions.
And on my second mountain...best male pipes I've ever heard:
Don LaFontaine, Charlie Van Dyke, Fred Winston and Gary Gears. Honorable mention: Beaver Cleaver, from LA.
Jeff should have followed through: Baseball Reference shows the Giants won 2-0, and it appears Willie hit another HR that day. And even though you're correct Ken that it was always a pleasure to listen to Vin, ten minutes of that type of argument was unbearable. I can't believe no one knew the ground rules. Even the umpires! It's the FAIR pole, unless the Coliseum had some bizarre rules. (And shouldn't VIN had known the rules?)
Wow! Thank you for sharing that Scully clip. I've never heard that before. What an amazing performance. I can't imagine extemporizing such perfect prose.
What, and deprive people of the thrill of looking it up themselves? Yes, the L.A. Coliseum had some very bizarre ground rules- thanks to a 250 ft. left field fence, a 40 foot screen to prevent cheap homers, and the wires and poles to support the screen, some of which were in foul territory. It did seat 90,000+, though.
For tomorrow's question:
Could you please give your opinion on James Gunn being re-hired by Disney.
And also how is the situation in Hollywood regarding the WGA-ATA tussle?
P.S. : This is my first Friday question.
Can writers survive without agents? Possible....
A very well written article analyzing what will happen next week.
https://deadline.com/2019/04/how-the-wga-ata-tug-of-war-flipping-the-script-hollywood-whats-next-analysis-1202586248/
Nice piece by SABR - with an aerial shot of the stadium:
"A Home Like No Other: The Dodgers in L.A. Memorial Coliseum"
https://sabr.org/research/home-no-other-dodgers-la-memorial-coliseum
"Games at the Coliseum could contain 250-foot home runs to left, 440-foot flyouts to right"
Diagam with dimensions:
http://www.andrewclem.com/Baseball/MemorialColiseum.html
When I first followed baseball in 1969 - Dodger Stadium (Chavez Ravine) was relatively brand new (compared to Comiskey, Tiger Stadium, Municipal (in Cleveland), Yankee Stadium, Shea, and so on.)
Hard to imagine that Dodger Stadium is now the third oldest in MLB (after Wrigley and Fenway).
It's interesting that you brought up Vin being descriptive, because I was always struck by your descriptive style when you did the Mariner's games.
By the way, I looked up Real Don, he did work in Yakima and the Tri-Cities in Eastern Washington. Many greats did that including Larry Lujack.
Maybe he's not playing the same radio game, but omitting Howard Stern from a radio Rushmore is like omitting Secretariat from a 1973 Belmont Stakes Mt. Rushmore.
So cool to hear Vin call Don Drysdale... that's one of the guys from before my time that I wish I could have seen play.
And of course, loved the Big Dan (kemo sabe!) and TRDS!
The great thing about the Internet is stuff that other people have recorded and kept for decades is available for everyone. In this case, here's Dan Ingram sounding like Dan Ingram -- except that instead of doing it for WABC or CBS-FM in New York, he's doing it for KBOX in Dallas in the late 1950s (which also includes the full Dan Ingram jingle, which he couldn't use at WABC, because it was originally done for his morning show in Dallas).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjQ1pEuCLdU&t=104s
YouTube also has a full Vin Scully Dodgers-Cubs broadcast. Only it's the Brooklyn Dodgers versus the Cubs, from their final season in New York. As with Ingram, Vin sounds like Vin, even if he's 3,000 miles away from the city he'd eventually be associated with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w7Kt1vo-3Y
A recent episode of John Oliver had a short video of Vin Scully talking about other things than baseball, at a baseball game. It is pretty funny.
A little late to comment on Thursday's podcast, but...
I'm amazed you were even aware of Gary Burbank. Definitely a treasure on WLW which is now pretty much another right-wing AM station now.
I wish I had a compilation of his Gilbert Narley stuff and his Earl Pitts American. Really made my trips up and down I75 a lot more enjoyable.
Thanks for including him Ken.
My GOD that Captcha is becoming hard to do!
Gary Burbank used to work at WHAS Radio in Louisville before moving on to Cincinnati. I can sort of say I worked with him, because I was working at WHAS-TV in the news department at the same time. But we were on opposite ends of the building and didn't cross paths too much. He sure wouldn't remember me. But I definitely remember Ranger Bob and the Snowshark and a lot of his other great bits.
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