Plagiarizing A Broadcast?

[gtharalson]

RC, you're story is amazing. I seriously cannot believe anyone would do that.

The fun part of play-by-play is developing your own style and personality. I, too, would do copious amounts of preparation for each game, develop extensive game notes...most of which I would never get to or look up during the game. By putting it to paper, I was able to commit the key points to memory.

I have always enjoyed weaving everything together and being creative on my own. Yes, I have borrowed phrases from other announcers but would not even think of copying another announcer word for word for the entire game.

When I was doing play-by-play in Redding, CA, I would see fans seated in the stands watching the game with headphones on. Using logical deduction, I figured these people were listening to the broadcast. You loose an extensive amount of credibility if your call is seven to ten seconds behind the action. Plus, seven seconds of crowd noise with no talking is an eternity in radio broadcasting.

If this announcer is waiting to hear what you say, I am sure his microphones picked you up, in which case his cover is blown to those listening closely.

This person needs to adapt his own style or look for a new line of work. His approach won't get him far.

[tlcoverdale]

"Every Saturday, while I was on the field recording my pre-game coaches interview, the meatball from the other regional station that also did the games would walk over to my broadcasting position in the press box and start copying my notes."

OK, Jon, given that we travelled the same circles in Kansas...I've GOT to know who the meatball was! Just PM me...I could use the laugh.

Of course, I had run-ins with a so-called competitor when I was doing HS games in northeast Kansas. I would arrive on scene for a game 90 minutes before air, be set up and ready to go when the competitor (wearing the boots he had on in the pasture earlier in the day) would show up and want to go over my spotting charts. I was polite, but...I just took pride in knowing my broadcast would be better and kept my mouth shut about the rest.

[JimRiley]

At a high school football game about 15 years ago a competing station asked to copy our lineup chart. He finishes and says "Hey, you only have ten guys on defense." Our guy then told him to make his own depth chart.

How about having your broadcast pilfered by a newspaper reporter? Happened to me on a road trip. Local scribe wrote his game story as he listened to me. Was fun to read my prep stuff in the story and also see the names of the players spelled phonetically. Jaime Roseboro showed up in the box score as Hymie Roseburrow

[Bill Czaja]

Two quick stories on this topic:
- This comes from someone who has been in both media and media-relations over the last 20 years or so. A very well-known color guy, legendary perhaps, calls a regional hoops publication prior to the start of major-conference play. My source is the one that answers the phone. He is pumped for information on everybody on the roster of a couple of schools, mostly bullet-point stuff. Come the broadcast a week or two later, the color guy is parrotting verbatim what he was told by the source. Awesome prep.
- This comes from Ernie Harwell's 1985 classic "Tuned to Baseball." Can't remember the announcers, but it was in Chicago. This was in the days when two stations in the same market might broadcast the same game and syndicate it out. There was just a thin wall between the two booths, and the fellow next door had a bad habit of stealing tidbits off the other broadcast and passing them along as his own. The first broadcaster (I think it may have been Brickhouse) came up with a response. This was in the immediate aftermath of Landis' death and the owners were doing their conclave to determine the next commissioner. He shuts off his microphone, and in a voice loud enough to be clearly heard through the wall, "announces" that Leslie O'Connor, Landis' longtime assistant, will be the new commissioner. Sure enough, the guy next door passes along the false information to his listeners.