Broadcasting Sports

Making New Fans.

Television brought sports to millions of new fans in the 1950s. Since 1921, when the first baseball game was broadcast on radio, avid sports fans had become accustomed to following the fortunes of their teams as play-by-play announcers vividly described the action. Baseball lent itself particularly well to radio reporting, and fans became as attached to their team's announcer as to the team itself. The announcer was the voice of the team, the narrator of the sports drama: as the decade began. Curt Gowdy announced for the Boston Red Sox, By Samm for the Philadelphia Phillies, Bob Prince for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Waite Hoyt for the Cincinnati Reds, Harry Caray for the Saint Louis Cardinals, Russ Hodges for the Giants, Mel Allen for the New York Yankees, and Red Barber for the Brooklyn Dodgers. They were celebrities and they were paid well. Red Barber earned $50,000 per year from the New York Yankees in 1954 after...

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