Announcers saying MPH
 

Is it just me, or does this bother other racers. Why do they have to keep saying MPH! After the first 30 or 40 times you have said MPH, we have caught on! We realize after you say the elasped time, you are refering to the MPH! They say it so often, I will hit my mute button after they say the elasped time. One more thing, Mike Dunn quit saying WOW!

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It's "announcer speak"...listen to a football telecast, golf tournament coverage etc. They always refer to the projectile by it's full name, not simply as "the ball". I'm convinced that it's deemed necessary in case a rogue ball from another sport should infiltrate the playing field.

Thankfully in ice hockey, the biscuit is called the "puck" and cannot be misconstrued as anything else!

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So the term "pucker up" is when a hockey player is about to slap the biscuit? Jim

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You are remarkably insightful Mr Wahl!!

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If this is all you have to WHINE about, then you have it pretty nice......:-)

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If you don't like it, don't watch it.

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I have no problem with MPH. It does bug me a bit when they say "mile per hour" instead of "miles per hour". The only time it should be "mile per hour" is if they are talking about 1.

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Don't forget "miles an hour" because all speedometers are calibrated to MAH. LMAO!

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It's just you, but at least you can hit the mute button! Somethings in life doesn't come with a mute button. Like the mouth on the ex-wife. lol
Ernie

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Ah maybe he just thinks the Staples commercials are spot on.

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Having done a fair bit of radio, and lots of voices for training material, I hardly ever fault non pro announcers for their idiosyncrasies. Mostly they are trying to be as clear as possible, even when clarity is not an issue.

When I am listening to racing, at the track or on the radio, I am always more intensely interested in the numbers themselves, and can mentally sort out their application; ET, or mph. So I don't even hear that part.

But what the heck we all have issues that tweak our beaks... so even if it is you, that's OK, it isn't fatal.

David
The New Hemi Guy

Re: Announcers saying MPH
 

After reading this thread,I've got to admit its got me going back and thinking since I spent 11 hours on the mike last Saturday at our local track. I usually don't use the term MPH. I might occasionaly say Miles Per Hour,, but more often Miles An Hour, when I mention anything beyond the actual number. Sometimes I'll catch myself saying something like "Joe ran a 9.88 at a hundred and forty and change." or something like that. If somebody dumps alot of speed on a particular run I'll mention it, but the fans can see the scoreboards too so if they're paying attention they already know it.
For the most part from the burnout box to the stage lights is when I've got to give each driver their "15 seconds" of fame and I try to do that. If I can point something out about a particular type of car or bring out a historical reference I will, for instance one of our bracket guys has the former Yuill Bros. Pro Stock Monza and I'll bring that up among other tidbits. Its all about entertaining the crowd and you try not to get too repititious, but every announcer has their style,,some you like and some you don't.
If I mispronounce someone's name,,I hear about it or get someones name completely wrong, there they go again, even if the wrong name appears on my screen, courteousy of the spotter who types in the info.
I enjoy doing it, but sometimes its no bed of roses, especially if there is "issues" with the staff in the tower. I've only been doing this about 5 seasons,,not nearly as much as the pros and others out there.
My 2 cents........................Danny Durham

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I agree,Danny.
When I was at Edgewater, I used to announced the Friday night T&T sometimes.
Most of the time , I would just say " left lane gets there first with a 12.91 @ 103" no matter what the tenths are or "right at 104 miles an hour".
I figured anybody who really cares what the tenths were could see it on the boards or the time slip, if they really had to know. Otherwise, all those number are boring to most folks in the stands.

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Dead on.

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"To Miles Per Hour or not, that is the question........"

Announcing a race demands many variables be accounted for. Bracket race, divisional, or national and to an extent what day it is...... yes really.

At a bracket race or division race that has a light spectator turnout, your audience is the racers themselves, there you can roll through the numbers and call out "10.56 @ 124 for Joe Bob to get the win in the right lane." simple and quick right?, but you have to identify the driver, not just left or right lane.... because the majority of your audience is seeing the race through your eyes while they're working on their car or helping a buddy back in the pits. they are spectating via the words the announcer says, not sitting in a bleacher watching.
At a national event (or any race with a high spectator count, i.e. Norwalk's divisional a few weeks back) your parameters change. Now you are not only announcing to the racers themselves, now you have to account for John Q Public that 'may not' be as aware of what the numbers mean as a racers does. Now saying miles an hour becomes a little more critical in trying to provide the paying spectator with knowledge and understanding of what they are actually seeing.
What day it is????? A national event crowd on Friday is in many ways different from the crowd that shows up on Sunday. Friday;s crowd will be more attuned to the sport, the hard core fans if you will, while the Sunday audience consists of the casual fans drawn in by the TV or Radio ad or maybe they won or were given some tickets..... and as an announcer your job is to recognize that difference and be able to entertain both the casual as well as the hard core fan.
Being able to please both at the same time is hard, as evidenced by the conversations on this thread. Frey and Alan do it well, Leo & Lewis can handle it to, I like to think that I was included in that group when I was part of the tour.
It's TOUGH to please everyone all the time and as a racer we tend to be hard critics when we are back in the pits trying to get ready for the next round yet wanting to hear how the guy pitted next to us just did in his car..... you get the idea. I've been on both sides of the coin.... announcing just about every type of race there is, but I've also been the racer back in the pits, trying to keep up with what's happening via the announcer.
If you stop and think about it, an announcer has to describe the same thing hundreds of times in a weekend race, in as many different & entertaining ways as possible.

Miles per hour or not, just give me an announcer that can paint the picture with his words so that we can "see" the race by what he says, whether we're watching or not, that's an announcer that's doing his or her job.

But hey, that's just my .02,

Unk

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Seems like a strange thing to be obsessed about.

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Unk --Shouldn't you be getting on a plane or something instead of being on here typing ............see you soon .

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Not racing...damn it....don't have to be there until Friday morning. Get in tomorrow night. See ya Friday.

Unk

shouldn't you be out taking picture of everyone in the rain or sumthin? :-)

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Wow

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Dead-on, Unk!

While we are all interested in the on-track data, it's not *just* about the numbers, but the people, personalities, and tidbits that people may not know. It's great to hear comments like, "You made Super Comp interesting. That's the first time I've ever really paid attention to them!"

I like to keep in mind those folks listening over the PA or the radio broadcast that can't see the scoreboards. Just like broadcasting a baseball game over the radio, listeners should be able to get a clear picture of what's going on without having to see it.

One of the toughest things about being in the booth is trying not to repeat a given phrase too many times. When you're describing hundreds of runs, it's inevitable that you'll fall back on some phrase. It probably annoys the announcer himself before it does the listeners. ;)

I love announcing. Just love driving more. But, since I can't compete at the bracket finals this year, I've already got one event penciled in to be the announcer. Can't wait!

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Don't know where to start with this one. Unk and Mike Beard have this right. My announcing started way back before scoreboards and timing systems gave you nothing but e.t. and mph. Now there is plenty of info to work with starting with your own knowledge of the class, the drivers and the cars plus what is on the announcers screen, incrementals, reaction times, margin of victory, last qualifying run e.t.etc. Though the fans can see the scoreboard numbers, many are in the pits and can't see them so you need to paint a picture of the run. There is so much stuff there it should never be boring for the occasional or hard core fans or racers and crewmembers. You want to stay out of a rut and switch around how you tell the story of all the runs during the day. The one thing I think is most important to do when you have the mike in your hand is to describe how close so many of these runs are. Many are .01 margin of victory or less and often both drivers have very good packages, I like to give credit to the winner but also let everyone know the loser drove well also. When someone is late, I'm not going to announce how late it was, everyone can see it, brake lights on near the finish etc. About the miles per hour thing, usually I call it like this, Bill dialed 6.70 and ran 6.71 at 101 with an .017 light and takes the win, Jim was dead on the dial, he went 5.90 at 115 with an .030, another close drag race. Always want to be as complimentary as possible with racers, I've done enough racing to know how hard it is to win. Rambling on here a bit, we don't have scoreborads at our track yet.... maybe soon.... you do have to work harder when annoucing without them! And yes I agree with most everyone else here. Lewis Bloom is a real pro, worked with many times, Bob Frey and Alan Rhinehart are excellent as well.

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Spot on, Mr. Neal!! That's funny AND true!!

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Announcing at big money bracket racing has gone over the top, everything is so tight that much of the information is understood by the racers, so we get shorthand like, "He's 6, taking 2, dead-on for the win."

Some lines I've heard over the years that have stuck with me....

- First ever $20K Footbrake, at Huntsville, very first pair of cars in eliminations, with a deadpan delivery: "They're .501 and .503, both drivers dead-on... WELCOME to Alabama."

- At the brutal $30K Shootout at the World Footbrake Challenge last year, Jared Pennington: "Both drivers are dead late, they're .015 and .017!"

- I'm announcing at the IHRA Div. 2 Bracket Finals at Steele, Ala in 2000, "Here's Larry Ericksmoen, dialed in at a 5.03 for the 5th consecutive round" (and race director Kurt Kummer slams his pen down on the desk, turns around and sez, "How do you KNOW this?!"

That race was a *blast*, as Hub City's Ralph Abraham brought a remote headset mic. I was out on the guardwall about 300', taking pictures and announcing at the same time, whoever I could remember off the top of my head, and Ralph was back in the tower picking up anything I'd miss off the computer. It was great, because you could hear guys pedaling at the stripe, turn around and point to the stands where the team of that round winner was sitting, and everybody would stand up, yell, and go nuts!

I've posted it before, but Mike Bassin was a favorite growing up, as he helped ignite the interest in Stock eliminator for me, hearing him provide an ongoing history lesson as Stockers ran at the Numidia LODRS when I was a kid.

I like Unk's delivery (and probably picked up some of it from him by accident, when I did the inaugural World Footbrake Challenge).

In the end, it's all about making heroes out of the little guys.

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Announcers, they are all the same j/k lol.

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Actually, drag cars only go 0.125mph, 0.189mph or 0.250mph.

/ Unless they're being hot-lapped.