The Setup (or How I Spent My Halloween)

 

Whammy! Maybe this should be my costume

It's Halloween and, well, I've got nothing.

OK, not nothing, but really not Halloweenesque.

Sadly, my life doesn't lend itself to going out for Halloween. So it goes. 

I'm watching the World Series instead.

That's not exactly scintillating tonight.

But while going through my memories this morning on Timehop, I came across the picture at the top of the post.

It was taken on Oct 31, 2011 at Cardinal Stadium.

The details are memorable. Halloween that year was a Monday and why would the Cardinals be playing on a Monday?

I'm glad you asked. The game was originally supposed to be played on Saturday. In fact, it was homecoming as Greenwich was scheduled to host Westhill.

However, Mother Nature reared her head, preparing to bless us with a nor'easter.

But, as of that Saturday morning, the game was still on as scheduled. I think the powers-that-be thought there was a window to get the game in.

Sean -- then just nine -- drove with me to the game. Knowing what we were driving into, I packed sleeping bags, air mattresses, and anything I could think of. You know me: always prepared.

There was actually a soccer game at the stadium that day so we set up and watched as they played.

In the snow. Because it began to dump and accumulate.

With game time getting closer, Greenwich Athletics' master of everything, Brian Kennedy, caught my eye at the bottom of the bleachers. He then pulled his finger across his throat.

No game today. He would eventually explain that it was -- you guessed it -- rescheduled for Monday. I called Bob Small at WGCH, who put me on the air via cell phone and I explained the situation to the audience. 

Chris Kaelin, there to work the sideline for us, offered to let us come crash at his place. That's probably what I should have done.  

I even gave a semi-thought to just staying in the press box since there was a heater but I knew that wasn't realistic. Lastly, I thought we would just go to the station. After all, I had spent the night there before and I would do it again.

But, leaving Cardinal Stadium, the roads seemed OK. I decided to make a run for it to see if we could get home. It would probably take us a little longer than our usual 45 minutes.

Oh, we got home. 

Three hours later.

We nearly crashed on the Taconic State Parkway near Millwood and then got stuck just north of Jefferson Valley. A stranger appeared out of nowhere and pushed us out after an hour and asked for nothing. He disappeared just as quickly as he showed up.

We then slid down Secor Road and, with an even bigger hill in front of us, I pulled into an empty lot and walked the final stretch home.

We dug it all out the next day, I worked on Monday morning and went back to Cardinal Stadium. Needless to say, Sean wasn't with me. Nor were Sean Kilkelly, Chris Erway, or Ryan Demaria. Chris Kaelin and I called the game with Paul Silverfarb. Greenwich won 41-7.

But what really inspired me to write this post was the booth setup. Let's go back to that Halloween broadcast in 2011.

There's so much going on there, besides my pack of Bachman pretzel rods (still my favorite). There are three headsets, featuring two Telex monsters that date back to at least the early 90s (and likely earlier). I got them when WREF closed in 1996.

I can see the wireless microphone and its receiver. I also see the Behringer mixer that we used and would eventually replace (twice).

A desk lamp I bought from Target for $7 is there along with a small clock/thermometer from LL Bean.

Also, I spy my small digital radio in the window to the right. For the record, that's how we got the audio return from WGCH. Yes, that's correct. We listened to the radio. In this setup, with an antenna on the roof of the press box, and a MARTI unit behind me, we had no direct contact with the studio other than cellphone.

Besides the electronics are notebooks and my trusty binder, along with rosters.

There's not a lot of room to spread out, is there? So guess how and why I learned to be self-sufficient in terms of preparation.

This would eventually change drastically. That Telex headset on the right had a broken mic arm on it that was held together by tape. Sometimes, I'd have to hold it by hand. Eventually, I was able to afford a real headset. Not one I inherited from a radio station. I bought my first Audio-Technica headset not long after this picture was taken.

Let's move forward to opening day, 2023. Obviously, the booth has changed. More specifically, it was rebuilt and we have a ton of room.

Now there's a computer and a different, more sophisticated mixer (Zoom PodTrak P8) for the space at Cardinal Stadium. A separate headphone amplifier isn't necessary (I forgot to note that in the 2011 picture) and we go via the internet to have direct contact with the station.

I run a cable to and from the public address booth to give them our audio for their video broadcast on Hudl and to get audio from public address announcer Nick Fesko.

What took me an hour to set up back then is done within 20 minutes now.

Let me post a picture that I put on here from St. Joseph last Saturday to show you our smallest footprint.

Now, the mixer is replaced by my Zoom PodTrak P4, which I could hold in the palm of my hand. My headset goes into that, as does the crowd mic that is sticking out the window. A USB cable connects to my MacBook. I use a cellphone -- either mine or WGCH's -- for data to have contact with the station.

This same setup will be back with us on Saturday at Westhill High School, except I'll need a second headset for Chris Erway. However, no connection with the public address announcer will be necessary.

But, again, this setup is done within 20 minutes.

I thought this might give everyone an idea of just what goes into putting our broadcasts on the air -- whether it's on WGCH, the Brunswick setup on LocalLive, or the plain Robcasting audio-only setup. The pieces change a little but, overall, we've refined things so much.

Perhaps this gives you insight into why we do things the way we do. We work in very limited spaces so we're thrilled to have backed way down on the amount of equipment and setup time. Thus, while we've thought about bringing a wireless microphone back into our kit, we have a hint of hesitancy. It's just another thing to lug and I've gotten good at carrying things myself.

So, happy Halloween, all. Clearly, I'm trying to be a radio sports director this year.

Boo.