AUDIO - Jim Britt and Mel Allen call Game 1 of the 1948 World Series - Braves Field

[Fenway1912]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgWhoXQwZtg

Jim Britt used to do home radio for the Braves and Red Sox and when Tom Yawkey decided to broadcast road games, Britt elected to stay with the Braves and Yawkey then hired Curt Gowdy.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Actually, around 1950, the Braves went with WNAC-1260 (both they and the Red Sox had been on WHDH-850), which allowed both teams to broadcast their entire schedules.

I believe Sox owner Tom Yawkey only decided to do the full Sox schedule once the Braves left 'HDH.

Prior to that, only home games of the two teams were broadcast, and I believe the Narragansett Brewery actually held the rights to both clubs. I think that after 1950, Narragansett still had the Sox, but WNAC held the Braves; rights.

Until the middle 1970's, it had been tradition that the regular-season play-by-play announcer for the home team would be part of the national radio and/or TV network broadcasts of the World Series, sometimes (as was the case with 1948 and on NBC-TV starting in 1966) with a network announcer or sometimes (prior to 1966), the regular-season announcer from the visiting team.

BTW, the 1948 Series was the first to be shown on TV in Boston, but as the East-to-Midwest network lines wouldn't be completed until January, Boston-area viewers (and those on the "East Coast Network") probably only saw the games in Boston, while the games in Cleveland were likely televised only on the "Midwest network".

Westinghouse had developed a system called "Stratovision", which was a special airplane that could pick-up a TV signal from one station and rebroadcast it, allowing another TV station some 200 or so miles from the plane to rebroadcast it. With the Stratovision place over upstate New York, it would have been possible in theory to relay telecasts between the East Coast and Midwest networks.

I suspect Westinghouse wanted to use it for the 1948 Series to allow games in Boston to be seen in the Midwest and games in Cleveland to be seen on the East Coast, but I don't know if Westinghouse actually pulled it off, and if so, how many games were broadcast that way.

 

[Fenway1912]

Stratovision attempted to relay Game 6 of the 1948 series to the midwest but it failed.

http://books.google.com/books?id=6k...page&q=stratovision 1948 world series&f=false


What I find fascinating is that WBEN-TV in Buffalo was getting NBC from Chicago and not NYC as for whatever reason AT&T did not extend long lines west of Schenectady over flat terrain in 1948. WBEN-TV would switch to CBS in 1949 when the NY link was completed.
(WBEN-AM was on the NBC Blue network.)

Scott it appears AT&T delayed building long lines upstate until stations in Syracuse and Rochester were ready.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

I thought that WBEN-4 Buffalo (now WIVB) was that city's only TV station until 1953, so it was likely affiliated with all the networks, although it probably began taking more CBS shows than NBC shows in 1949.

 

[Fenway1912]

I thought that WBEN-4 Buffalo (now WIVB) was that city's only TV station until 1953, so it was likely affiliated with all the networks, although it probably began taking more CBS shows than NBC shows in 1949.

Once WBEN-TV was connected to New York they became a primary CBS affiliate and did cherry pick the other networks.

CBS had no midwest hub in Chicago like NBC did in 1948 and in fact CBS did not have a full-time affiliate in Chicago until 1953 when they bought channel 4 and moved it to 2. ( CBS had been using both WBKB-TV and WGN-TV)

 

[thirdendorsed]

Great tape of Britt, a brilliant man who flamed out (but who was one of Boston's first TV anchors and host of the first "magazine" style news show, WHDH's Dateline: Boston)

The tradition of having home team announcers join the No. 1 network team on TV and the visitors join the backup team on radio began an 18-year unbroken streak with White Sox (Brickhouse) vs. Dodgers (Scully) in 1959 and continuing through the Yanks (Scooter) and Reds (Marty Brennaman) in 76. Prior to 59, sometimes they did use the competing teams announcers on TV and sometimes they did not. Mel Allen did the games in 58 with Curt Gowdy, who was the Sox voice, In 57 Yanks-Braves series, it was the Dodgers Al Hefler and Allen . In the Yankee-Dodgers series of 55 and 56, it was Allen and the Dodgers Scully. In the 54 Giants-Indians Series, New York's Russ Hodges did the games but with Chicago's Brickhouse. Allen and Scully did 53 Yanks-dodgers and Allen and Chicago voice Jack Brickhouse did the same teams in 52, also NYY vs BKN.

Prior to 52, four networks (including Dumont) had a piece of the series.

On radio, the use of the two cities announcers (along with the network's No. 2 guy) ended after the 78 Dodgers-Yankees series with the Yank's Bill White and KABC's Ross Porter the last participating city tandem, concluding a streak that had run continuously from '66 when Scully and Baltimore's Chuck Thompson called Dodgers-O's. The 65 Twins-Dodgers series had By Saam of the Phils and Joe Garagiola of Yankee flagship WPIX-TV. Prior to that it was sponsor's favorite (which sometimes matched a team that was in the Series) with occasional exceptions such as Waite Hoyt with the 61 Reds (Hoyt, a stickler for accuracy, broadcast in past tense -- "he threw the ball to first," "he chased the ball and caught it"), and Earl Gillespie with the Braves in 57 and 58 as well as the Indians Jimmy Dudley in 54, ("over this, the Mutual Broadcasting System") Beginning in 79, CBS's 4th year with the radio rights, it was Scully, then Jack Buck until Buck moved to TV and then Scully again until the end of the CBS contract as Entertainment Sports Programming Network took over and used its house announcers to the present day.

Sponsors had considerable impact on the announcers in the 40s and 50s as they wrote the checks and often held the rights fees, especially Gillette nationally and beer companies regionally.