FYP. Its not hard, I know of two former MLS pbp announcers who contacted the Rapids about doing pbp for the Rapids this year alone. That experience means they can rightfully demand a higher salary for the job though, something KSE is unwilling to pay.
Last night at the bulldog i met someone who works with altitude. He didn't find it very amusing that I told him they should hire people to run the cameras that actually know wtf is going on in the sport they are shooting.
My issue isn't so much the person running the camera's, it's the one who tells them where to point them and then decides which camera feed is broadcast and for how long.
Watching the Nuggets, and the game clock is conspicuously absent from the scoreboard. Even Stan's baby isn't safe from Altitude's laughable excuse of a production.
If you have a pet peeve post it here -- it seems like they may be reading this thread for feedback and improvement? There has been some improvement and some of the more glaring gaffes mentioned here seem to be fixed. Having said that, he still can't pronounce Pablo's last name, they mess up on some pretty specific and simple facts i.e. saying Casey's injury happened on turf when in reality it was on saturated 'pillow-top' natural grass over turf. And maybe worst of all it seemed they were trying to ruin Matt 'MotM' Picken's clean sheet record setting match by talking about it out loud.
I left the KC game early because I had the flu, and I ended up listening to the radio broadcast of the game on the way home. KSE obviously does the cheapest thing possible and just uses the audio from the TV feed. This actually demonstrates the biggest fundamental problem they have in the booth. They don't say enough about what is actually happening on the field. There is a lot of dead air time. I'm not talking about analysis or Madden-esque filler bullshit (since he was mentioned before). I'm talking about describing the actual run of play. There isn't enough of that. You really can't get a concept of what is actually happening based solely on the commentary. Here is an example how it should be: "X plays a square ball to Y." "Y plays a through-ball to find Z in space." "Z shoots, but it's wide of the target." Here is how it is typically: "X has the ball." *beat* "Z shoots. He misses."
Hmmmmm, I kind of disagree with you unless you are saying that is how radio guys should announce. Radio folks need to describe what is happening. To use a TV broadcast as your radio broadcast is poor because they should be calling it differently than on the radio. On TV, I can see what is happening you don't need to tell me everything I can see for myself. The best is actually when they alert you to something that is happening off the screen because you can't see it. Also, it is ok to have some dead air on TV for soccer because in soccer it is filled with crowd noise (hopefully). I love watching european games where the announcer will just say the name of the player when he passes the ball and otherwise stay out of the way, letting you hear the atmosphere of the stadium. This is the problem with American productions of sports. They bring the radio mentality to TV and feel like every second must include somebody talking. Now, are Romero and Balboa quality? No, but don't fault them for being bad at radio when they aren't supposed to be doing radio.
I think the best part of reserve games is being close and hearing the players communicate on the field. If I had my way, it would be the same for MLS games. Adding noise, whether it's announcers, chanting or singing, just lessons my enjoyment of the beauty of the sport.
I think the dead air on Altitude broadcasts is more a symptom of the commentators having nothing to say, as opposed to the assertion that they're letting the viewer "take in the atmosphere". I wouldn't give them that much credit. Romero just doesn't know the game. Period. So that pretty much explains why he doesn't say more and is usually quite vague in describing play. Balboa, believe it or not, can only ramble on so much about the same few things. He'd probably be more interesting/interested if he had a more knowledgeable person to work off of.
I always watch the Altitude broadcasts with the audio muted. Until I saw this thread, I almost forgot they had announcers.
Believe me I wasn't trying to say they were good. In fact I ended with: I agree with your assessments about them as TV broadcasters. I was just trying to say that you can't fault them for being bad radio broadcasters when that isn't what they are trying to do. They are just bad TV announcers.
They need to simply identify when the ball is in play and when it is not and then do all their inane chit chatting when the ball is not in play. And of course when the ball is in play call the damn game.
It's pretty hard to call the game when you don't understand what is going on. Safer to just sit in silence except saying what is obvious.
you know what i watched the replay after i got home... romero seems like he is actively trying to get better... there were some moments that he seemed competent as a soccer broadcaster its certainly a long road ahead but for the first time i saw improvement
Keeping your expectations low is one way to avoid disappointment. When it comes to analysis, 'Celo is a clown, but he's *our* clown; I've actually come to look upon his ridiculous comments with some degree of fondness. He occasionally comes up with a decent insight here and there; the guy did after all play in the World Cup. I also have to give credit to Romero, he does seem like he's genuinely trying to get better at his job and learn more about the sport. Keep in mind that he likely had zero exposure to soccer before 3 months ago; it'd be like if I picked up a mike and tried to call cricket matches today. Frankly if I could make it through an entire match, I'd consider it a win. I actually hope Romero sticks around for more than one season. I'd say lousy announcing is part of our team tradition, we might as well embrace it cause with KSE's budgetary priorities it ain't getting better any time soon. Besides, I'd still rather have our Dynamic Duo than Captain Nasal Accent (Arlo White) or, even worse, The Fauxhawk Muppet (Brian Dunseth).
All I have to go off of typically is the highlights and it does sound like Romero is getting better. I am going to rename Celo, "Look at this. Look at this," Balboa though. This last weeks highlights are filled with him constantly going "Look at this, look at this" or "Look at this ball, look at this ball right there, look at this." *facepalm* I'M WATCHING TV! OF COURSE I AM LOOKING AT IT! If it was occasional and to point out something that isn't obvious, fine, but it is ALL THE TIME! In the highlights from this last week I just counted him saying some form of this TWENTY-FIVE times! 25! Most come during analysis of the goals and they rarely come as a single utterance, but two or three in rapid succession. I wonder if he goes back and listens to himself? It wouldn't take long before he learned he says that or his other favorite "you're talking..." Just watch him call a line up. "You're talking Casey at forward. You're talking Cascio at LF..." I'm not talking about that...stop saying talking!!! Occasionally he also couples it with another pet peeve that is permeating around all of sports media now. Apparently professional athletes aren't real people but they are A version of themselves. "The Rapids really need A Conor Casey back." Did they start cloning him? Are there multiple models of him now? In the hands of "Look at this" Babloa this becomes "You're talking about A Tony Cascio on the left" or "You're talking about at A Brian Mullan on the right." LISTEN TO ONE OF YOUR OWN BROADCASTS PLEASE!!!!!!!! Hrmph....."Look at this, look at this...".....pitiful.....I've been wanting to get this rant off of my chest for a while. Thank goodness for the internet.
you know...its nights like tonight... when i realize how much worse we could have it in this category... these guys sucked hahaha I missed todd romero tonight hahahaha
Guess Balboa is on Mexico- S. Korea Men's Olympic broadcast and several people are wishing for his immediate banning.
With Balboa out playing at the Olympic's they got a new guy to step in. The chemistry may not have been there last night but I must say that I actually enjoyed the new guy. He actually had comments that I thought was valuable and it made me want to listen to him. The other guy is getting better each game (still has a ways to go) but I liked the knowledge that the new guy brought in. Thoughts?
If you're talking about "yea, no ..." Pablo, I like him. Crookham is recycled so he is not starting from zero but he will grow on you ... but probably not in a good way. Balboa was an awesome player but the broadcast team was almost a lock to get better w/o him.
I found Hinchey re-tweeting this from Chris Bianchi kind of funny: Because having a current player (Mastroeni), a youth development director (Crookham), or a team ambassador (Balboa) do color commentary for their team is completely objective...
