The skill of the broadcast announcers is remarkable. They paint the scene with audio-only in an amazing way.
My father (and my grandfather before him) takes a little battery-powered AM radio with him to games (football, baseball, etc) and listen to it while watching the game live. They've even muted the TV and used TV picture with radio sound to get a better experience. That makes it easy to take naps and close your eyes without missing key parts of the game.
Hank Azaria (played the title character on Brockman) joked a few times that baseball announcers could say whatever they wanted as long as it ended in a pitch count.
I think that adds to the effect of "being at the game" with the announcer; go to a ballgame with a friend you haven't seen in a few weeks and you'll end up talking about random stuff too.
Love it! Had he not been so wildly talented at voice-work, he could have been a damn good announcer himself (as evidenced by his work as announcers in the Simpson's), so that's extra great
Recently the Vikings posted this clip of their PxP announcer Paul Allen doing his thing. Even though I don’t care one lick about American football, I still found this clip to be great fun to watch. The skill, passion, and joy he has is infectious.
One thing that makes a radio-TV combination work less well nowadays is latency in the TV feed. Running 15 to 20 seconds or even more behind the radio is not uncommon with all the processing and distribution layers that go on with a modern video feed. I've heard of setups where someone plugs a radio receiver into a computer with software to buffer and apply the same delay.
Also, the mandated delays in USA for TV and radio to allow censoring (and thereby reduce the risk that Something Untoward is enacted on a live broadcast) . IIRC, radio has a 10 second delay, while TV has a 30 second delay. This allowed a Lt. Col. I knew to hear the conclusion of any play before the television image was even close to definitive. Even with "pure broadcast" TV and radio (no digitising, no cable, no satellite…). Processing delays, such as for DVR or streaming, only add to the overall delay.
I grew up listening to baseball on AM radio. Can't stand to watch the game on TV. Too boring. But on radio? I can go into the garage or the shop and work on something and listen to the game.
I listen to football games in a pinch. Sometimes I have errands to run while a game is on and so I listen in on radio. It's amazing how they call a game. That's a talent that's going to be sad to see die.
My father (and my grandfather before him) takes a little battery-powered AM radio with him to games (football, baseball, etc) and listen to it while watching the game live. They've even muted the TV and used TV picture with radio sound to get a better experience. That makes it easy to take naps and close your eyes without missing key parts of the game.