We've long criticsed the "shouters, screamers, and homers trying their hardedst to get on SportsCenter" that are prevalent when we watch or listen a sporting event. I was driving home from church Sunday night when the sports radio station (one of the few stations we can catch, an Eastover station 50 miles away) plays highlights of radio calls, which results in hearing the worst cheerleading during major scores. Some of the worst calls I remember in my youth were Georgia Bulldog broadcaster Larry Munson's homer calls but there are other worse ones on the market today that it makes listening to national calls better when the lead man is not cheering for one team, and one prevalent trend came with the Mexican soccer broadcaster style that seem to be everywhere now (best known for the crazy goal screaming).
In observing Senna (I arrived late thanks to a commitment that ran late) Saturday in Charlotte and the inside story of Ayrton's life (noted the interviews with numerous faces), SBT, which has F1 broadcast rights in Brasil, made the top shelf complaint list we have on the worst types of broadcasters, with homers and screamers look lame. During the film, numerous times they ran the broadcasts of various F1 broadcasts at the time (BBC, SBT, TF1, ESPN) and you could hear the difference between Murray Walker and the Brasilian television broadcasts. When Ayrton won (I later learned it was for any Brasilian driver winning), play-by-play man Galvaão Bueno would turn into those haywire homers and scream, while special music plays and the cheering continued on the winner while the action behind that could play crucial points of the race were ignored in favour of unprofessional behaviour.
That's an extreme homer. Imagine listening to a college sporting match, and after a big score, the engineer cues the winning fight song and the rest of the game discussion is ignored. That is the effect of a Brasilian F1 win would be on SBT, and as I learned later, it was not just for Ayrton -- Rubens and Felipe were treated that way, and if Vivienne's boy Bruno Lalli (who uses the grandmother's maiden name for similar reasons!) wins, SBT would do the same too. Maybe we've seen the worst with Brasilian television. ◙
Thursday, September 8, 2011
