August 21 Radio History

➦In 1900... Announcer Ken Carpenter born (Died – October 16, 1984). He was best known for being the announcer for singer and actor Bing Crosby for 27 years.

Ken Carpenter

Carpenter moved to Hollywood in 1929, one year after resolving to move there after listening to radio legend Graham McNamee call the Rose Bowl. In 1930, he was a newspaper copywriter. Not long afterward, he became a staff announcer for KFI radio. As part of that job, Carpenter announced USC and UCLA football games for the Pacific Coast and the NBC radio networks from 1932 until 1935.  In 1935, Carpenter announced the Rose Bowl for NBC radio. Carpenter became the color man for Bill Stern for all NBC-originated radio programming from Los Angeles from 1938 until 1942, which included the Rose Bowl.

In 1936, Carpenter became Crosby's announcer after Crosby began hosting the Kraft Music Hall radio variety program. Carpenter continued to announce for Crosby on various programs for the next 27 years. Crosby famously once called Carpenter "the man with the golden voice." Carpenter also announced for Al Jolson and Edgar Bergen as well.  By virtue of his extensive announcing career, he wound up with uncredited roles in well-known movies, including Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Susan Slept Here. He was also the narrator for producer Jerry Fairbanks' theatrical short-subject series Unusual Occupations, released by Paramount Pictures from 1938 through 1948.

From 1949 until 1952, Carpenter was the announcer for the NBC Radio sitcom The Halls of Ivy. He was also the announcer for Lux Radio Theater from 1952 through the end of the series in 1955; from 1955 until 1957, Carpenter hosted NBC's Lux Video Theatre program during its summer seasons. Other programs for which Carpenter was an announcer on radio included The Great Gildersleeve, The Chase and Sanborn Program (featuring Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy) and a stint on The Life of Riley from 1947 through 1949.

He died following a brief illness Oct. 16 1984 at age 84.

➦In 1923...Sportscaster Chris Schenkel born (Died at age 82 – September 11, 2005).  Over the course of five decades he called play-by-play for numerous sports on television and radio, becoming known for his smooth delivery and baritone voice.

Chris Schenkel - 1964

He began his broadcasting career at radio station WBAA while studying for a premedical degree at Purdue University where he was a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. He worked in radio for a time at WLBC in Muncie, IN and then moved to television, in Providence, RI, and in 1947 began announcing Harvard football games. For six years he did local radio and called the Thoroughbred horse races at Narragansett Park.

In 1952, Schenkel was hired by the DuMont Television Network, for which he broadcast New York Giants football and hosted DuMont's Boxing From Eastern Parkway (1953-1954) and Boxing From St. Nicholas Arena (1954-56), replacing Dennis James as the network's primary boxing announcer.

Schenkel was at the microphone for DuMont's last broadcast and its only color telecast, a high school football championship game held on Thanksgiving in 1957.

He then moved to CBS Sports, where he continued to call Giants games, along with boxing, Triple Crown horse racing and The Masters golf tournament, among other events. Along with Chuck Thompson, Schenkel called the 1958 NFL Championship Game for NBC. He was the voiceover talent for the first NFL Films production ever made, the 1962 NFL Championship Game between the Green Bay Packers and the New York Giants.

ABC Sports hired Schenkel in 1965, and there he broadcast college football, Major League Baseball, NBA basketball, golf and tennis tournaments, boxing, auto racing, and the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. He became widely known for covering professional bowling, mainly for the Professional Bowlers Association (with the program becoming known as the Professional Bowlers Tour). He covered bowling from the early 1960s until 1997


➥In 1924...Sportscaster Jack Buck was born (Died from lung cancer at age 77 – June 18, 2002).  He was best known for his work announcing Major League Baseball games of the St. Louis Cardinals. His play-by-play work earned him recognition from numerous Halls of Fame, such as the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and the National Radio Hall of Fame. He has also been inducted as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum.

Jack Buck

After completion of his military service in 1946, Buck enrolled at (and graduated from) Ohio State University. His early sportscasting career included work for the minor league affiliates of the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1954, he was promoted to radio play-by-play of Cardinal games on KMOX, a position that he maintained for nearly all of the next 47 years. He was known in St. Louis for his trademark phrase "That's a winner!", which was said after every game that the Cardinals had won.

In addition to his work with the Cardinals, Buck also earned assignments on many national sportscasts, including radio coverage of 18 Super Bowls and 11 World Series. Some of his famous play-by-play calls include the dramatic walk-off home runs hit by Ozzie Smith in Game 5 of the 1985 National League Championship Series, by Kirk Gibson in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, and by Kirby Puckett in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series.

The later part of his career found him working side-by-side in the Cardinals booth with his son Joe Buck, who also has risen to national sportscasting prominence.

In addition to Joe, Buck has three daughters who worked in broadcasting. Two are from his first marriage - Bonnie Buck, who currently works in television in Los Angeles, and Christine Buck, who started her career at KPLR-TV in St. Louis. From his second marriage is Julie Buck most recently on KTRS 550 AM 550, St. Louis. In addition, Buck's late younger brother, Bob Buck was a sportscaster and sports director at KMOX/KMOV-TV in St. Louis.

➦In 2003...Longtime voice of the Boston Red Sox Ken Coleman died of bacterial meningitis at age 78 (Born - April 22, 1925).

Coleman broke into broadcasting in Rutland, Vermont in 1947, working for station WSYB. He called the play-by-play of the minor league Rutland Royals baseball team. He also was a newscaster and a deejay on the station. He then was hired at hometown team WJDA in Quincy MA, where he worked as a sports reporter until 1951; he then worked for a year at WNEB in Worcester.

Ken Coleman

During this time, he was broadcasting Boston University football. He received critical praise for his college football play-by-play, which led to his big break: in 1952, he got the opportunity to broadcast for the NFL Cleveland Browns (1952–1965), calling play-by-play of every touchdown that Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown ever scored. He also began his MLB broadcasting career in Cleveland, calling Cleveland Indians games on television for ten seasons (1954–1963). In his first year with the Indians, Coleman called their record-setting 111-win season and their World Series loss to the New York Giants.

In 1966, Coleman was chosen to become a play-by-play announcer for the Boston Red Sox, replacing Curt Gowdy, who resigned after fifteen years of calling Red Sox games, to become a play-by-play announcer for NBC. Coleman joined a broadcast team that also included Ned Martin and Mel Parnell. Coleman broadcast the 1967 World Series (which the Red Sox lost to the St. Louis Cardinals) for NBC television and radio. From 1975 to 1978 Coleman worked with the Cincinnati Reds' television crew.

Coleman returned to Boston in 1979. He broadcast the Red Sox' 1986 World Series loss to the New York Mets and two Red Sox ALCS (1986 and 1988). Coleman remained in the Red Sox radio booth until his retirement in 1989.

He was the father of the late Cleveland sports and newscaster Casey Coleman, who died in 2006 from pancreatic cancer.