Courtesy Atlanta Journal Constitution

(January 12, 2009) He’s been the voice of Georgia State athletics for more than 25 years, most closely associated with the men’s basketball team, which is the school’s most high-profile sport. He’s survived eight coaches, seven athletics directors, hundreds of players and more than 700 games, missing only six in that span. Dave Cohen took time out to speak to the AJC’s Darryl Maxie about the path that has made him the longest-tenured voice of a Division I sports team in the state, now that Larry Munson has retired.

Q. When you began broadcasting Georgia State games as a 19-year-old, did you envision you’d still be doing it some 26 years later?

A. When I started out, all I had was the ambition of reaching certain heights. Did I think I’d still be at Georgia State 26 years later? No. But five years became 10 years, and 10 years became 15 years. I met my wife down there. … It’s been fun along the way. We haven’t won a lot of games except during Lefty Driesell’s years. That whole five-year period was a lot of fun.

Q. How do you maintain that even-keel, non-homer announcer sound, even though, by your own admission, you live and die with the fortunes of the team?

A. I’m not a “we” and “us” kind of guy. I do say “we” and “us” occasionally, I guess, because I do travel with the team. It’s not like I don’t have a connection. I’ve had people tell me that I don’t sound like a homer. I guess that’s the professional broadcaster side of me. It is a fine line, but I’m not going to go overboard [with the “we” and “us”] and make it sound like I’m the 13th guy on the bench.

Q. What’s the difference in your approach when you do a broadcast solo and when you’re working with a color commentator like Rodney Turner?

A. The play-by-play end is still the same, but you have to fill more when there’s no color commentator. When I’m solo, I’ll bring along CAA scoreboards, news and notes on the players. But basketball moves quickly enough that you don’t have to do a lot of filling. I once did a Georgia Southern baseball game at our place that lasted a little over four hours. I think if you can do a four-hour baseball game by yourself, you can do anything.

Q. What do you advise those who might want to follow in your footsteps and do what it is you do?

A. Finding a good mentor, in almost any business, is crucial. There’s a host of ways to get involved. When I first got to WGST, they didn’t throw me on the air right away. I spent one month doing this, another month doing that, whether it was on or off the air. You need to get a good working knowledge of how a broadcast is done.

Q. What is it that makes the radio announcer so closely identified with the team whose games he broadcasts, the way Larry Munson was at Georgia, or Vin Scully is with the Dodgers?

A. There’s something special about radio because you hear the same voice over and over, and you become identifiable. You could be on TV eight times in a season, and you could hear a different announcer every night. That’s what makes the [radio] job special. The players change. The coaches change. But the radio guys, in a lot of instances, are the one constant.