Courtesy Cincinnati Enquirer

(April 8, 2010) Reds fans who took their radios to the Opening Day game, or listened to the the radio while watching the game on TV, got quite a surprise Monday — a very annoying 20-second delay in the broadcast. I first noticed it when the last out was made in the top of the first inning, and Aaron Harang was already to the dugout as Marty Brennaman finally was announcing that the Cardinals had made the third out. When Joey Votto homered in the third inning, he had completely circled the bases by the time Jeff Brantley told listeners that Votto had hit the ball. I clocked the delay at 20 seconds. The radio broadcast also was far behind the action on the Fox Sports Ohio telecasts, fans have told me by email.

Now the good news: The Reds and WLW-AM say the irritating delay will be cut in half soon, probably by the weekend series with the Cubs. Dave Armbruster, WLW sports operations director, says new equipment will be installed to cut the delay to 10 seconds, which is the normal delay for all Clear Channel stations here to prevent any profanity going out over the airwaves. Reds fans heard a 10-second delay last year, he says. Armbruster says that the processing and compressing the signal for digital high-definition broadcast caused the longer than usual delay this year. Says Armbruster, the long-time Reds radio broadcast producer: “We’re well aware of it, and hopefully by the weekend we’ll get it down to a reasonable 10 seconds or so.”

This delay is not related to the Reds short-lived experiment in 2008, when the WLW-AM broadcast was delayed in an attempt to sync with TV games. “This has nothing to do with TV,” says Karen Forgus, Reds senior vice president for business operations. She says she was not aware the radio delay was so obnoxious — her word, not mine — until she got my email asking about the delay last night. She says the Reds wants fans to enjoy the entire experience at the ball park, including those who like listening to Marty and Jeff on the radio during the game. In fact, the Reds play the radio audio with the closed-circuit TV coverage at concession stands around the park, and even pipe the Reds radio audio into the restrooms. (And those like me with a radio on Monday heard Marty’s postgame wrap-up in both real time on the speakers, and on delay on the radio.)

Glad to hear the problem will be fixed soon. Did you notice the 20-second delay, either at GABP or at home?

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