Focus On The Rainbow

As I was driving home from work tonight listening to WCBS-AM in New York City, a report came on starting with “George Micheal … ” and I immediately said “oh no”.

Yes, the report went onto say George had passed away at the age of 70 from complications of chronic lymphocytic leukemia at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, DC.

For years living in Danbury, CT I listened to WABC-AM in NYC and George was my favorite evening DJ (besides Cousin Brucie who George replaced) at the “clear signal” giant which when atmospheric conditions were right at night could be heard as far West as New Mexico and Arizona.

After Howard Cosell stopped doing his weekday evening short sports report, “Speaking Of Sports”, George picked up where Cosell left off, and at the end of each report signed off with “and that’s all about the games that people play”.

Along with many others in news and sports who I listened to and watched over those years prior to getting into radio broadcasting and even through reading about and watching/listening to archival broadcasts of the likes of Edward R. Murrow, George was most definitely an inspiration for me to get into radio broadcasting, not knowing at the time it would lead to a four year stint at two of our local radio stations here in Danbury as Sports Director, producer and reporter.

As with many of my “careers”, I fell into doing sports and use to listen intently to George and Warner Wolf who at the time worked for WABC-TV in New York City. While I never tried to copy their style, I did learn the value of how to do good interviewing and delivery. John Chanin who was then the director of sports radio programming for the ABC Radio Network (who I had done “stringer” work for) was another “teacher” who told me never be afraid to express my opinion on subjects. Bascially, but not in so many words, be like Cosell and don’t give a damn what people think as long as you believe in your opinion.

As a way to show my appreciation of George Michael, I signed off the last sports report each morning with the same sign-off George used.

When he eventually moved on to Washington, DC in 1980 to WRC-TV, after “the day the music died at WABC-AM” it was a sad event for me as I thought I’d never be able to hear those fabulous “pipes” again. Then along came the syndicated “George Michael Sports Machine”, and this time instead of just hearing the “pipes”, I got to see George each Sunday night after the 11:00 news on WNBC-TV in NYC.

Although I never had the opportunity to met George Michael much to my regret, he is the reason, in my mind anyway, that during my tenure at WLAD-AM & WDAQ-FM in Danbury I was recognized for three consecutive years by the Associated Press for my sports reporting.  By listening as a “student” to his delivery and interviewing skills, he was my “professor extraordinaire” for sports broadcasting.

George leaves behind his wife Pat, daughter Michelle and many, many friends, former co-workers and one very grateful former radio sports broadcaster. George was without a doubt one of the good guys.

And that’s all about the games that people play.