Yesterday was National Radio Day......and so I went back and uncovered the first photo ever taken of me doing any type of "broadcasting". It was taken by my friend Jeff Guilmette, and he took it with my first 35mm camera - a Mamiya Sekor. Don't' ask me how I remember that, but I do.
I'm pretty sure it was 1979 - but it could have been 78 -and I was a Jr at Somersworth High. I was doing play by play of our high school football team, and it would air on local cable tv (it was the earliest version of cable access). It was rudimentary at best, but it was still pretty cool for the time.
Look at that hot mess....haha...
I had Greg Brady hair that bordered on an afro. And we had the shittiest mic and headphones ever invented. The headphones were made from the stiffest plastic ever made, and on cold days- they could actually cut your ears! Haha- And I'm pretty sure the mic your kid has on his singalong toy is better than what we were using, but it didn't matter. I was - at least temporarily- the voice of Somersworth High School.
How was I at doing play by play? Well - on a scale of 1-10, I'd give myself.........a -4. Haha! At one point I actually called a play and said "Donnie Poitras carries the ball across to the 51 yard line!"
The "51" yard line....
<sigh>
And once that video aired, and re-aired in the school library....I never lived it down!!
But everybody's gotta start someplace, and this was where it happened for me. In a three story announcers booth made of plywood and two by fours on a crisp fall day in Somersworth - 40 years ago next month.
Holy shit I'm old... hahha-
And it doesn't bother me one bit -
My hat is off to all of my fellow broadcasters...
g