I am SO tired of the pun-filled happy talk from the CBS crew on early coverage

golfortennis · May 31, 2021

On 2/22/2021 at 1:53 PM, avguy said:

Need to drop in on the broadcasters'-bashing thread in regards to the recent CBS telecast of the Genesis Invite.

This is an industry I have worked in and still have ties.....the job is not actually that easy, but whatever, I absolutely enjoyed some of the Saturday/Sunday subtle pokes many of the named announcers on this thread made and wondered if anybody else caught them???

Obviously, it is a Tour stop sponsored by the Korean Car Co. But there were a multitude of slide-ins that referenced one of my top 5 favorite Prog. Rock bands - Genesis! Specifically, w/o recalling who said it....I heard "You're Taking It all too Hard", Max "Home By the Sea", and others a few beers made me forget....😛

p.s....Baseball telecasts.....harder to talk thru than golf as there is even more waiting for action without the luxury of cutting away to another hole/shot. There is PGA Tour Radio for those whom have subscripts which I was listening to on the finish while chipping practice yesterday here in 70 degrees AZ sun!

So you've worked in the industry. Can you answer a few questions then:

Are announcers "coached/instructed" to speak in a certain way? I'm thinking of McKay/Pepper in particular with how they are always making definitive statements. (ie., When mentioned was made of Matsuyama's 61 for his last win, Pepper "I promise you I watched every one of them." McKay "He absolutely has a nasty lie."
What is the freedom announcers have-referring to comment earlier about on course being limited, anchor having free reign, etc.

I know we're ripping on announcers here, and I don't necessarily disagree, but I often wonder how much of the vitriol should be directed more towards producers/directors.

BenSeattle · June 2, 2021

On 5/31/2021 at 12:00 PM, golfortennis said:

So you've worked in the industry. Can you answer a few questions then:

Are announcers "coached/instructed" to speak in a certain way? I'm thinking of McKay/Pepper in particular with how they are always making definitive statements. (ie., When mentioned was made of Matsuyama's 61 for his last win, Pepper "I promise you I watched every one of them." McKay "He absolutely has a nasty lie."

What is the freedom announcers have-referring to comment earlier about on course being limited, anchor having free reign, etc.

I know we're ripping on announcers here, and I don't necessarily disagree, but I often wonder how much of the vitriol should be directed more towards producers/directors.

Versatile announcer Sean McDonaugh was on the "Subpar Golf" podcast and he related one very insightful bit of instruction he received from the great Frank Chirkinian. The CBS producer told him, "If you ever start to tell a story, make sure you can finish it in the next sentence because you never know when we'll have to quickly cut away from you." In other words, McDonaugh could say, "Greg Norman is using a new putter this week." (Pause.) "He saw in the bag of Tom Watson who said, "If you like it, use it." (Pause.) "Norman is leading the field in putting so far this week."

Think about it: CBS could have switched away from ANY of those sentences and the viewer would still be informed. I wish the announcers would stop telling me what I can already see and/or don't care about. I'd rather they throw in personal info about a player such as "Peter Nevertops says he doesn't eat breakfast if he has a morning tee time" or "Sammy Skyhigh tells me he starts every tournament in a brand-new pair of shoes." Tell me stuff I don't know about already!