Recently I attended two Revolution football games in the Greensboro Coliseum. The following week I attended a Grasshoppers baseball game.
For several years, every event I attended at the Greensboro Coliseum I could barely hear or understand the public address announcer - ECHL Hockey, af2 Football. I had always thought that it was the coliseum's fault. This week, I realized that I was wrong.
The Revolution has hired a public address announcer that is clear spoken and apparently knows how to use the sound system, which includes the proper way to speak into a microphone. Unfortunately, I do not know who this might be - it does not appear to be any of the standard radio people that have dominated the public address positions for the past few years.
The Grasshoppers and previous coliseum sporting events use Jim Scott. Jim is an outstanding radio production person, with a great personality and sports background. However, it is now apparent that his radio skills are not applicable to the public address field. Jim is a great asset to any organization because he gives 110% and that might just be the problem.
As a public address announcer - Jim's voice is over-modulated and often distorted. It sounds as if he has the microphone attached to his mouth, much like an auctioneer. Only about 25% of everything he says is understandable - possibly due to his style of drawing words out - those words we are eventually able to understand.
If you ever hated going to the coliseum because of the sound, you need to give it another shot - at least attend a Revolution game. They atleast employ someone with the skill to utilize the equipment there.
|