Names Are Everything By Matthew C Wallace Civilization’s primary identifiers…NAMES: France, Coca-Cola, Sony, Apple, Tom Cruise, Aztecs, Jupiter. Our singular memories are pegged with these unique tags for all things we happen to know in the universe. For me, names seem to land in the 80/20 model of my announcing world. As a PA announcer, I,…
Taking Care of the Voice By Matthew C Wallace Likely the most important article of your announcing life When I was younger (not going into which decade THAT might be), I played guitar professionally. I was in bands, composed songs and played in popular Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles venues. My guitars lived in a…
Mistakes By Matthew C Wallace Everyone Makes Them… I have never announced any event or game 100% perfectly. Never. Regardless, I expect 100% perfection. Always. If expect anything else, I will get even less than that. It is said that you are your #1 critic. In my case, no one scorns me harder than me. If I…
Warming Up By Matthew C Wallace …and I don’t mean heating up. I’m, also, not making chicken noodle soup. No, no. I mean warming up yourself for an event, game or match. Before a game, athletes warm up, right? They stretch. They run in place. They perform drills. They psyche themselves up. They review things…
Venturing Outside the Square By Matthew C Wallace I hate platitudes. “It’s ALL good.” “Everything happens for a reason.” “It is what it is.” “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” I wonder sometimes if folks spew these hackneyed expressions about, more as a reflex when they really don’t know how to respond to something…
Sit There and Shut Up By Matthew C Wallace PA Announcers, Broadcasters, Scorekeepers, and Spotters are the great observers of events and games. We plop in a chair with our jobs to do. We don’t pace sidelines, benches or dugouts. We don’t argue with officials. We don’t bounce off of walls on calls we disagree…
I Love Grapefruits By Matthew C Wallace …with neatly arranged red sprinkles all over them… Over the years, I have found more fun announcing Girl’s/Women’s Fast-Pitch Softball than, I think, any other sport. The athletes are absolutely as competitive as Boy’s/Men’s Baseball but, for me, they are more enjoyable to watch, primarily, because they are visibly…
Tournament Madness By Matthew C Wallace I was thinking about March Madness. The 60+ games in the dance in addition to all those conference tournaments with 7-10 games each leading up to it represent a mountain of announcing effort. Let’s not be cavalier by leaving out the NIT, the fact there are men and women’s editions,…
CAN you Read iT? By Matthew C Wallace Most all of us have stood the twenty feet away, covered an eye and been asked to read the letters off the Snellen Eye Chart. It’s as commonplace as saying, “Ahhhh”, to the doctor while their tongue depressor agitates your tonsils to a gag. Rather than just being…
What Music To Play? Ask Them. By Matthew C Wallace Music Moves the Needle If you’ve got your game day music totally dialed in, skip this entire piece. If, however, you don’t have your game day music under control, read on… At any type of event, music moves the needle, up OR down. The lack…