Re: Red Sox on WHDH?

[KEVIN VAHEY <kvahey@dnsmain.vw.org>]

On Sat, 2 Aug 1997, Donna Halper wrote:

> And in 1948 when TV was still brand new in Boston, the Braves and the Red
> Sox signed an agreement with *both* WBZ-TV and WNAC-TV.  They agreed to let
> the games be broadcast for free (!)-- can you imagine that today-- during
> 1948, and they agreed to allow WBZ-TV to have first crack at the games
> because WNAC-TV was not yet fully operational.

  One has to remember that in 1948, both the Red Sox and Braves were in
hotly contested pennant races and NBC had a vested interest in having a
crew in Boston that knew how to televise baseball because of the World
Series (which was first on TV in 1947)....and as it turned out the Braves
made it, but the AL winner was Cleveland. It was reported in the New York
papers that the "pictures" from Boston were "fuzzy", and not the quality
that television viewers in NY were used to.

 2 years later, the Red Sox decided to broadcast EVERY game on radio and
some careers changed drastly because of it.

 Jim Britt who was the announcer for both teams made the choice to stay
with the Braves, and Tom Yawkey was forced to look for a new announcer. It
came down to 2 finalists, Vin Skully who had just started in Brooklyn, and
Curt Gowdy who was working on the Yankee games with Mel Allen. Gowdy won
the job, because in his interview with Yawkey told of his love of fishing.

 Come 1953, and the Braves moved to Milwaukee in the middle of spring
training. Britt was not invited along as there was a popular minor league
announcer there, and Britt's career was in effect over. 

 He was last seen in Boston in 1958, as the first host of Candlepin
Bowling on Channel 5, and he died some 15 years ago in Florida.

------------------------------