A few weeks back, I mentioned Jim Adelson in my column. I think most people over fifty will remember Adelson on KXJB television where he covered sports. I recently found Adelson’s book, “Two Rolls... No Coffee” online and picked it up for a few dollars. The book was even signed by the author.
Years ago, Fargo media people were celebrities, at least to a 1970s farm kid. Jim Adelson’s star shined brightest as he was very outgoing, willing to share his opinion and was a prolific sports announcer and personality. He was also a partner in a restaurant and organized the KX Amateur golf tournament.
The book brought back some memories of my own experience as a sports play by play announcer. Adelson spoke about the technical difficulty in early television broadcasts. In one case, a station employee had to drive 30 miles to sit in a vehicle and wait to switch a microwave dish before a broadcast. The person fell asleep which required that a second employee travel to the site to perform the same act. I faced technical challenges as well.
We always tried to keep sports broadcast costs low. Sometimes, this meant that I would carry a few hundred feet of audio cord which I would then spool out at the gymnasium to the nearest telephone, usually the athletic director’s office. I would then clip the wires to the receiver portion of the phone. The biggest challenge this involved was that I sometimes couldn’t hear the engineer play commercials during time outs.
I would instead keep time on my watch and then start talking again after the appropriate time. I think you have to be a religious person to broadcast this way as you must believe you are on the air without any feedback and that takes faith, Adelson also spoke about the memories accumulated over 38 years, especially tournament games. I remember the Thief River Falls vs Cold Spring-Rocori region championship game in the late 80s. It was such a good game and our broadcast team had felt so involved in the season. It was a crusher when that team lost a tough match. Another good memory was the 1987 Marshall County Central girls’ basketball team’s trip to the state tournament. That was such a good team, and they enjoyed the full support of their fans. I remember how many familiar faces we saw during the days of the tournament at the hotel, the restaurants and especially the games. It was like we were all part of the team.
Most readers will probably remember Jim Adelson’s career as a sport play by play announcer and broadcaster. You probably didn’t know about mine until you read this column. Still, reading his book was good energy to spark my own memories. It reminded me that sports play by play requires concentration and a lot of work. Hard work creates durable memories which last long enough to gain shine as they are polished by the passage of time. I’m glad I had enough time behind the microphone to have a few good memories of my own.
