I have been doing this TV/radio media thing since I was sophomore in high school. If you count it in professional years, put me down for 30-plus years of coming to work with passion.
We ask our sports stars to play with passion. I figure the least I can do is broadcast with passion.
I love the TV side. There’s nothing better than telling a great story through the use of superb video and sound.
I love the radio side. There’s nothing better than telling a great story through the theater of the mind.
And so, in light of recent events affecting me with the end of my job at WZON in Bangor, I choose to use my blog space to remind you of some of those great stories that were told. I’ll bet you remember where you were when you heard some of them…
– Picture in your mind. A beautiful rendition of the song “Amazing Grace” filling the Alfond Arena air as players, coaches and fans pay tribute to the late Shawn Walsh in a powerful memorial service.
– Picture a filled-to-capacity Bangor Auditorium lobby at tournament week. Hoops fans waiting for one session to end so they can get in to get that just-right seat. Folks begin to look around as a radio, cranked to full volume, blares play-by-play of figure skater Tonya Harding falling while attempting a triple lutz at the Olympics in France.
– Let your mind see Maine’s Ricky Craven win at Darlington Raceway, edging Kurt Busch by a historic .002 seconds.
– Can you hear Einar Gustafson, the “Jimmy” of the Jimmy Fund from New Sweden, Maine, singing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” for the first time since singing it from a hospital bed in Boston as a 12-year-old battling cancer during an appearance on the Ralph Edwards Show 50 years ago.
– Close your eyes and tell me what you see when you hear Joe Castiglione say ” for the first time in 86 years the Boston Red Sox are world champions…can you believe it!”
– It’s 10 a.m. and you heard the NCAA infractions official say UMaine committed too many violations. No playoff games for you this year.
– Just for a second of time, stop and picture a Joe Campbell tip-in at the buzzer to win a state championship.
– And while you’re at it… Cindy Blodgett dips, shoots and scores career point number 3,000.
– Picture that feeling of touching that Red Sox World Series trophy at the Bangor Civic Center.
– Can you see Adam Vinatieri holding that Lombardi trophy at Bass Park?
– How about that 5 a.m. Olympic swim race the morning Maine’s Ian Crocker won gold in Sydney, Australia.
– Can you see this? Bangor is playing Aruba for the Senior League World Series championship.
– The list is long one…the tuck play…Tiger Woods wins his first Masters…Trevor MacLean paddles the Kenduskeag faster than anyone ever has…Mark Rogers wows baseball fans statewide…get the duck boats ready B’s fans…
– The one common thread that runs through all of these events?
WZON professionals delivered all of them to you…LIVE…and with passion. We weren’t reporting just sports. We were reporting real human drama and all the emotions that come with it.
By the way, that list of pros is way too long to mention every name. They know who they are.
Our words. Your mind. A powerful team.
Close your eyes one more time and picture this… The Bangor area has lost a community treasure.
