I have a ton of respect for good radio play-by-play announcers. The best can paint a picture in your head to the point you don't even realize you are just listening to someone talking.

Something I recently realized though is that the more action there is in a sport the voices for the announcers are different. Baseball has a lot of announcers with deep soothing voices because that voice works when talking slowly. Football is a step up from that, where the action is quicker so the voices seem to be a little higher. Basketball is where you start to get into the very nasal voices, and then Hockey gets hilarious. When there is action in front of the net the announcers almost seem to revert to prepubescent days in their life.

You should try boxing. Boxing and radio share one hell of a history. I can only imagine how people were glued to their radios back in the 30's and 40's, entire families gathering around that powerful instrument, experiencing the fight as if they were there to see it.

The 1938 "Fight of the Century" between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling is also memorable for the fact that it had the largest audience in history for a single radio broadcast.

Personally, I hardly use the radio for sports. I hardly use the radio at all ('cept for news). Tv and the net are enough to keep me updated on what's going on. But you know, if Bert Sugar or someone else I like to hear is on radio, then I'll be the first to listen

Unfortunately radio and newspapers are a dying art form because of TV and the net. It's a shame.

I used to listen to the big prizefights on the radio when I was a kid. The fights weren't televised so I'd listen to them on AM radio and tape them onto a reel-to-reel tape recorder (I guess I was a nerdy kid) by putting the mic next to the speaker of the radio.

Oddly, I keep my car radio set to an all-news station. I'm not usually in my car for any great lengths of time so it doesn't get boring, and it gives me a chance to get caught up in what is going on in the area (I have stopped buying newspapers a few years ago).

Times have changed.... I guess it's only natural that the way we gather information and entertainment would change as well.

SC, I do the exact same thing when I'm driving. I also spend less time in my car these days.

And I remember listening to the fights on radio with my Dad. H would explain what the boxers were doing when the announcers would use fight terms I wasn't familiar with.

I dont think they will ever die. It's true that radio and especially newspapers (since they're always behind) cant compete with TV and the net as prime sources for information, but they will always be there.

The keyword for radio has already been mentioned in this thread. Cars. On the road. That's where people listen to radio. Millions of people all over the world. Every single minute of the day. So you can't bury the radio just yet. As long as people are driving, radio is live and kickin.

Newspapers, like I said, are always behind. So they have another problem, cuz by the time they get to your doorstep, plenty has already happened or changed, and you may know all about it since information is just a click away these days. And if you cant fight your rival, you befriend him. So newspapers are adopting. Every small or big newspaper already has a website, an online edition, you name it.

And then there's the weekends, where many people still like to sit and relax with a big newspaper in their hands. There's something very romantic about feeling the paper in your hand, while sitting in the garden with your cup of coffee. And let's face it, who doesnt solve crosswords puzzles while sitting on the toilet? deny it all you want but EVERYONE does it.

So as long as there are cars and weekends (and toilets) in the world, I think that radio and newspapers will live on

They will live on at a price. The true art of it will die. The best radio personalities and newspaper journalists will be replaced by someone who works cheap and willing to do extra work so other employees can be released too. It's already happening. Two years ago I could still get the San Francisco Chronicle for a quarter. Now it's a dollar at the stands and is about a quarter of the size. Many of my favorite journalists are gone, and the ones still there are being forced to blog on the net in order to keep their jobs, even though they say they don't like it. The credibility of newspapers goes down because of the instant news source of the net. Instead of fact checking, people want to be the first to get it out on their blogs. So even newspapers are printing less reliable stories because the journalists can't take that extra day to investigate a story. Radio is starting to feel it too. At some point the best radio personalities will have to decide between a major paycut or moving on to another job of equal pay. I'm not sure many of them would take a huge paycut and add more responsibilities.

I have had to do some long distance driving on Saturdays and Sundys in the past month or so, and I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to college and profesional football games on the radio. Good announcers make the game larger than life, and create genuine excitement and suspense. On the other hand most television announcers are awful. Most of them alk about talk about themselves more than they talk about the game.

The best radio play-by-play announcers create the image in the mind for the viewer. We are actually blessed with two outstanding announcers in Cleveland for the radio broadcasts: Tom Hamilton for the Indians and Joe Tait for the Cavs. Both are phenominal.

No announcer can make the Browns interesting today. As they used to say on Beavis & Butthead: "you can't polish a turd." There was a great Browns radio announcer in the 1980s named Nev Chandler, who unfortunately died young. He was the best Browns announcer by far.

Many people don't like John Sterling doing the Yankee games. He's a real homer and has some corny homerun calls: "An A-Bomb from A-Rod".

When I was a youngster the NY Football Giants were only on TV for Away Games, so the home games were on radio. My dad was a big fan. He would work in the basement/shop and have the radio on. I would hang out and listen to Marty Glickman broadcast the games. He had a great voice and delivery for football. You were running alongside Frank Gifford.

Having moved to South Jersey, radio basically sucks down here. Local stations are almost non-existent; there is no news station. I have to hope that between the static I can here NY or Philly radio (and Philly sucks). So I get the Atlantic City Press delivered. I scan it in about 10 minutes. The sports section also sucks - Eagles and Phillies. I am culturally deprived.

A friend of the family used to do the radio announcing for the NY Jets. Thanks to his Midwestern twang, I often couldn't understand him in person, yet he was clear as a bell on the radio. Go figure.