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. . . although we're talking generations apart.
My aunt, having only recently found out about my moonlighting as a T&F announcer, just mailed me a photocopy of an old newspaper article. My great-grandfather, George McClelland, was Vice President of NBC in its very infancy (~1926-193X) . . . a fact I only semi-recently learned (in the past couple years). Apparently for a while he actually worked on the infamous Amos 'n' Andy show.
In the article, it detailed my great-grandfather's first foray into sports broadcasting (a venue he'd only temporarily involve himself in). Since I don't own a scanner, I've typed the article out below, just in case anyone is interested. It's from an unidentified national newspaper, the date of June 12, 1930:
I don't necessarily expect a ton of people to find this exceptionally interesting, but it was something pretty interesting/special to learn. And maybe some of our more . . . mature posters will appreciate the nostalgia. It seems his [would-be] beginnings as a sports announcer were as serendipitous as my own.
My aunt, having only recently found out about my moonlighting as a T&F announcer, just mailed me a photocopy of an old newspaper article. My great-grandfather, George McClelland, was Vice President of NBC in its very infancy (~1926-193X) . . . a fact I only semi-recently learned (in the past couple years). Apparently for a while he actually worked on the infamous Amos 'n' Andy show.
In the article, it detailed my great-grandfather's first foray into sports broadcasting (a venue he'd only temporarily involve himself in). Since I don't own a scanner, I've typed the article out below, just in case anyone is interested. It's from an unidentified national newspaper, the date of June 12, 1930:
Code:
Amos 'n Andy Boss There Ensconced in a working press pew at the fight tonight will be the bespectacled George McClelland, vice-president of the National Broadcasting Company. It was just by the merest twist of fate that the N.B.C. vice-prexy did not develop instead into a nationally known sports announcer, and perhaps that thought will be running through his mind tonight as he watches Sharkey and Schmelling throw punches. Some years ago, Mr. McClelland was at the ringside of the Willard-Firpo fight at Boyle's Thirty Acres. It was in the early stages of broadcasting. The announcer at the microphone was botching up the job. Headquarters notified McClelland to make a hurried substitution. From the experts at the ringside, McClelland slected [sic] another to handle the microphone. He, too, was less than successful. Headquarters notified McClelland to dig up an alternate broadcaster. "Nobody here who can handle it," he flashed back. Back came the answer: "Take the microphone yourself." So George McClelland, now vice-president of N.B.C., broadcast the Willard-Firpo fight. He described it, not to an invisible radio audience, but rather to the members of his family, who were grouped about the radio in his home, and that intimate feeling was an antidote for any nervousness he might have experienced. So many wires and letters of congratulations reached the station the following day that McClelland almost was compelled to specialize in fight broadcasting, but he refused to leave the executive arena of radio, luckily for himself and N.B.C. He is still a keen fight fan, and perhaps in the near future, he will arrange a welterweight championship fight between the stars of his own stable, the redoubtable Amos 'n' Andy. This is one fight the whole country would tune in on, with or without a championship setting.
I don't necessarily expect a ton of people to find this exceptionally interesting, but it was something pretty interesting/special to learn. And maybe some of our more . . . mature posters will appreciate the nostalgia. It seems his [would-be] beginnings as a sports announcer were as serendipitous as my own.
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