[Husker] announcers

[weldoc at juno.com]

Skylar: "Lyell did games in the 80's  One thing a discussion about
announcers is always going to bring disagreement because everyone is
looking for something different in an announcer.  Some like the Harry
Caray "rah rah be a fan" stuff and some like the Vin Scully "never raise
your voice, just provide commentary" style.  So much of liking and
disliking of an announcer has nothing to do with the announcers
competency.  It is mostly about style and if you like that style."

GREAT comment ! You nailed it !
  
Skylar: "Pavelka was pretty good technically.  I just never felt his
enthusiasm was totally genuine. <snip>   I found I was asking myself when
is he genuinely excited and when is it a put on?"

Pavelka evolved over time...you might have preferred him when he was
"color" to Lyell Bremser, before 1984 when Kent moved to PBP. I think I
preferred him more as the Color guy.

The same kind of thing happened to Cardinal baseball announcers. Just
like my top combo was Lyell-Kent, my top combo Cards-wise was Caray-Buck.
When Jack became PBP after Harry was let go, things changed. Buck was
more restrained overall, but you might have similarly questioned also
whether 100% of his excitement was not a little bit juiced. His home-run
calls were a notch down from Caray but still a notch up from when he did
color. Reagrdless of style preferences, Buck became a St. Louis
institution, was a classy guy all the way around, and is sorely missed.
Their crew these days is a mess IMHO.

(BTW, both Chip Caray and Joe Buck had shots at replacing their
namesakes, but for various reasons, didn't.)
_______________

Thanks for including the URL for the Pavelka interview
http://www.huskerpedia.com/huskerdan/20060202dan.html
His confession that he was a little over the top for the 96 Fiesta Bowl
left me assured he knew exactly what he was doing all along. I think he
may have felt he HAD to turn things up when replacing Lyell.

 I like Jim Rose but really haven't listened to him enough to make a good
comparison. Like Bob Beach, I agree he's a little better-suited to
baseball announcing.
_______________

Bob Beach:"I have always believed Swain took way too much criticism.  He
was not that bad.  As a matter of fact I think he was technically pretty
good.  I think two things went against Swain in public opinion.  One is
he wasn't perceived as a "Nebraska" guy.  The other is he followed the
pretty popular Pavelka.  And, it was a little like the Solich thing. 
Pavelka didn't leave on his own terms.  It was kind of like following a
popular coach that was fired.  It is going to be a lose/lose proposition
no matter what.  Pavelka was okay in my opinion."

I agree with this assessment except that Swain WAS that bad. [This is
what I posted to this list back on 5-17-99, for those who have poor
memories: "Warren Swain reminds me of Ted Knight, the "professional"
"voice" (with an empty head behind it) on the old Mary Tyler Moore show.
(Nowadays you can get a great "voice"--male or female-- out of a COMPUTER
CHIP !!!!)  He may have "midwestern roots" but they can't be very deep:
according to the media guide, over a glittering 30-year career, he's
jumped from Drake to Oregon to ISU to Hastings College to Virginia, all
before coming "home" ? 

There were a lot of back-alley politics and ego-clashes behind the
transfer from the KFAB network to the KKAR network. (Pinnacle honcho Paul
Aaron, a former KFAB employee, reportedly did not like Kent at all.) IIRC
the Pinnacle people had to spend so darn much to out-bid KFAB that they
didn't apparently have much left for a quality announcer, so we all ended
up journeyman Swain. 

Along with Swain we were all forced to accept a bunch of other "new
network" changes that overall I simply did not like. I think the thing I
disliked most about Swain was the glibness in his voice that said to me,
"I wasn't here last year, I wasn't any PART of this past Nebraska
greatness, but I'm going to pretend I was." And we were also hit with
color analyst Adrian Fiala, who had an irritating habit of always
preceeding ANY comment with the word "Again." But he did a great job of
propping up Swain.
____________________________

Skylar:"Pavelka's GREAT at doing basketball, he's got a very quick tongue
and basketball's very hard to do, IMO.  Of my generation (1980's on), I'd
have to say I like Pavelka the best and maybe Rosey the least."

I remember Kent doing roundball PBP in the off-season from his gig with
Lyell, baxck in the Cip and Moe days. I agree with your assessment---but
have not heard Rose do any basketball.

Thanks for the thread. I enjoy it every time it comes around,

Bill Laughlin
Wichita, KS