Today’s interesting cry for help comes from the Facebook Public Address Announcers group. Someone asked if they should always announce the score at a basketball game. The reasoning was basically, who really cares? If they want to know the score, they should look at the scoreboard. Later in the same week, another announcer stated that they were no longer going to announce substitutions on the mic because there were too many and it was becoming redundant.
Now, I’ve been a public address announcer off and on for over 15 years. I’m also pretty old. Not quite a boomer, but late Generation X. As such, a lot of questions on the internet have me asking WTF? As an announcer, your ENTIRE job is to announce what is going on in the arena or on the field! Why wouldn’t you want to do that? Sure, you can argue that some people overdue it, getting all hyped up and spouting off nonsense just to hear themselves talk. The names of the players and the score, however? That’s the most basic of things to announce.
Firstly, accessibility. There are probably people in the arena who are visually impaired. Or patrons who have low vision or may be just flat out illiterate. They deserve to know what is going on too. Secondly, pride. At the high school and college level, and I’m sure even at the pro level, the parents, aunts, uncles and friends of the player are there to cheer them on. They deserve to hear their players name! Finally I would argue that with all the technology we have at the sports venues now; when every person has their head buried in their phones, PA announcers are more important that ever! A kid may not see the basket their brother scores because they didn’t look up from their candy crush game. They will, however, hear it.
Just do your job!
Leave a Reply