I flipped on 88.5 just a few minutes ago, and WHIN has come to WVCP...bad news is, Bill Bunton is out out his league doing Vol State basketball play-by-play. It's like listening to a shell of a man...Sure he has "that booming, professional voice" and a decent one-liner every now and then, but that's all he's got. His play-by-play consists of we got the ball, we do this, we do that, now they got the ball, they do this, they do that, and rarely mentions player names whether it's the Pioneers or the opponent (in this case Walters State).
Maybe I was to blame for this nonsense because I graduated. I was a student at Vol State from 2002 to 2007 (I had to take 6 to 9 hours each semester cause of my budget so it took me longer) and I was on WVCP from 2003 til the tornado, then after the tornado until graduating. During that time, I did play-by-play of baseball and basketball (both men's & women's) and I was well respected when I was there, whether it was my fellow WVCP broadcasters, my classmates, other friends I made on campus, the athletes themselves (some I still have contact with) and the higher-ups in the Pioneer athletic department. I was even featured in The Settler, the school's newspaper at one point because of my work on the air.
Ever since then, WVCP has had a hard time of filling my role. Some years they'll be students to call games, sometimes not, but every person that has taken up a microphone after I graduated that has called a Vol State sporting event (including Bunton; how he got there is a mystery) has failed at some point. I've since done play-by-play of youth sporting events in my hometown and "aired" them on first Chirbit, then Pod-o-Matic and now Soundcloud since 2011, as well as weekly studio sports talk shows. If I had the time to come back down to Gallatin and help mold the next generation of student sportscasters I would, but I've got my own projects to take care of.
I hope Vol State gets a fresh crop of communication students soon, that way WVCP might have a good chance at finding the next "voice of the Pioneers".
Maybe I was to blame for this nonsense because I graduated. I was a student at Vol State from 2002 to 2007 (I had to take 6 to 9 hours each semester cause of my budget so it took me longer) and I was on WVCP from 2003 til the tornado, then after the tornado until graduating. During that time, I did play-by-play of baseball and basketball (both men's & women's) and I was well respected when I was there, whether it was my fellow WVCP broadcasters, my classmates, other friends I made on campus, the athletes themselves (some I still have contact with) and the higher-ups in the Pioneer athletic department. I was even featured in The Settler, the school's newspaper at one point because of my work on the air.
Ever since then, WVCP has had a hard time of filling my role. Some years they'll be students to call games, sometimes not, but every person that has taken up a microphone after I graduated that has called a Vol State sporting event (including Bunton; how he got there is a mystery) has failed at some point. I've since done play-by-play of youth sporting events in my hometown and "aired" them on first Chirbit, then Pod-o-Matic and now Soundcloud since 2011, as well as weekly studio sports talk shows. If I had the time to come back down to Gallatin and help mold the next generation of student sportscasters I would, but I've got my own projects to take care of.
I hope Vol State gets a fresh crop of communication students soon, that way WVCP might have a good chance at finding the next "voice of the Pioneers".
