Recently, a co-worker of mine who listens to WGN-AM 720 each morning complained how he hates when sportscaster Dave Eanet plays highlights from the previous night’s Blackhawks game. A Hawks highlight usually consists of play-by-play man John Wiedeman screaming “he shoots, he scores!” to be immediately followed by the jarring horn. This co-worker insists the loud voice and horn is not the most pleasant sound to hear shortly after waking up.
While sports highlights are essential for television, they often don’t work on the radio. Unless the highlight is of something monumental or the actual context of the broadcast is noteworthy, such highlights during a radio sportscast are not necessary.
I sense such highlights are often used just for the sake of having a sound bite and/or to take up content space in the given update.
When listening to Fox Sports Radio, update anchor Tomm Looney (who by design is obnoxious and outlandish) is one of the worst offenders. While the updates are only a minute long, Looney is notorious for wasting 15 to 20 seconds by playing a meaningless highlight. Not only do they sound sound horrible over the air (especially Knick games at Madison Square Garden where the organ blasts at full strength), they also waste valuable seconds in an update that may already be too short (for evenings on a sports radio network, I’m thinking a minute and a half or two minutes is more appropriate).
I’m not going out of my way to specifically criticize Eanet or Looney. The playing of such highlights is a bad practice used by radio veterans throughout the country. Improve the overall sportscast by elimination of the poor sound bite and fill that space up with an added tidbit or other content more useful. A few seconds can go a long way.