Courtesy the Charleston Post and Courier

(January 3, 2011) Iowa native Jeff McCarragher jumped at the opportunity to become the radio voice of College of Charleston athletics when the position came open last summer. A graduate of the University of Kansas

McCarragher talked about his childhood dream of becoming a meteorologist and his brief career in a rock band when he went One-on-One with The Post and Courier's Tommy Braswell.

Did you grow up wanting to be a radio play-by-play announcer?

"I grew up wanting to be a meteorologist. The University of Kansas had a meteorology program and I fell in love with the campus. I was a pretty good student in high school, but when I got into taking advanced calculus courses, linear algebraic equations, stuff like that, it was a whole different level."

So what takes someone from meteorology to journalism?

"My grades weren't very good. I went and talked to the dean of the journalism school. He told me I had to get my grades up and he wanted me to take these classes and see what happens. I got a 4.0 that semester and he got me into the journalism school. Two years later I graduated with a journalism degree."

Jeff McCarragher works with fellow radio commentator Everett German broadcasting College of Charleston basketball games.

Did you do radio work while you were in school?

"I was doing play by play for the student radio station and also working on the weekends at this small mom and pop AM station doing sportscasts. I'd give a couple of minutes of scores from the day before. They gave me a show in the morning. It was a ‘tradio' show where people would call in and want to sell their merchandise. Everything from poultry to fruits and vegetables to leopard-skin couches. It was crazy, but I had a blast doing it. That really got me into the spirit of radio."

How does "tradio" translate to play by play?

"During the weekend I was running the commercials during Kansas City Royals games. The guy who was the

main sportscaster was also a journalism professor at the University of Kansas. He heard me do a couple of broadcasts, liked my voice and asked if I had thought of doing play by play. I bought a tape recorder and went out to the state championship game at Memorial Stadium. I grabbed my roommate and we sat as high as we could because I didn't want anyone to hear. I had all my charts and boards and broadcast the game into the tape recorder. The next week I took it to my professor who said ‘You might have a future in this.' "

Where did you get the radio voice?

"There's actually another side to the story. After two years at Kansas, I met a guy by the name of Jeff Smith. He had a tremendous singing voice. I was a pretty good musician (drums) back in high school. We started playing around in a garage, writing songs and started getting booked by fraternities and sororities. We actually both dropped out of Kansas after our sophomore year and traveled around. Jeff and Jeff."

What type of music?

"We were ahead of our time. In the early- to mid-90s, that was the big grunge scene. Our music was really only popular to fraternity and sorority kids or the 30-something crowd. After we broke up, the music scene shifted to Hootie and the Blowfish and Matchbox 20. People still tell us we were ahead of our time."

What was your first full-time play-by-play job?

"I graduated in December of 1997 and got my first job in March of 1998. I had thrown my tape out there. A buddy was doing play-by-play for the Kinston (N.C.) Indians. He said there was a job opening in Greensboro (N.C.). I went out there and interviewed and got the job."

Didn't you also have some brushes with major league baseball?

"My senior year, the Kansas City Royals called my professor and said they were looking for a third man in the radio booth. They wanted someone with some energy, no play-by-play, but doing updates during the game and doing pre- and post-game shows for the Royals. The media relations director would let me sneak into a booth that was unoccupied and I would do some play-by-play into a tape recorder. That was actually the tape I sent to Greensboro."

What are some other broadcast highlights?

"In 2004 I was runner-up for the Cincinnati Reds job. I flew into Cincinnati, but they wanted somebody with more experience. I worked in Erie, Pa., Norfolk, Va. I decided after nine years of being in the minor leagues I wanted to do TV. I went back to Kansas and got the sports anchor position with the ABC affiliate in Topeka. I co-hosted the morning show in Kansas City with Roger Twibell. After a year and a half, I got laid off. I really missed doing play-by-play and my wife (whose family lives in Greensboro) really missed being near her parents. This job came open."

You don't just do play-by-play for basketball and baseball, though, do you?

"I'm actually employed by Kirkman Broadcasting with the approval of the College of Charleston. I do sales and marketing for ESPN, Fox Sports, the Charleston Sports Radio Network. I'm out trying to find advertisers and supporters for broadcasts for the College of Charleston."

Do you have any good Bobby Cremins stories?

"What was a really neat moment was when we went to Holy Cross, which is where Bob Cousy played. Bob Cousy was Bobby Cremins' childhood hero. There was a statue of Bob Cousy outside the arena. Bobby walks up, touches it and tells his team ‘This is the greatest player who ever played the game.' We walked in and I looked over and saw Bobby staring up at the rafters. He's staring at Bob Cousy's jersey. It gave me goose bumps."

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