Evening star., 1948-11-14
For Radio Listeners
By Horry Macarthur

Red Barber, his listeners and his
far-fung assistants now have come
safely through their three houl
simultaneous coverage of 20 foot
ball games over CHS a week age
yesterday. Judged as an experiment
in news coverage this must be SCI
down, however you feel about 1t
as a prodigious task, ably moni-
tored by Mr.. Barber. If you like te
spend Saturday afternoon trying tc
keep track of 20 football games, you
go right on hoping for more of the
same from CHS and Mr.. Barber
and Shrug off this still, small voice
as the echo of personal prejudice
This voice could be Influenced BY
the return to Mr.. Barber's round
up at the end of the Army Stanford
game, to be told the third-quartel
score in that contest, shortly. to be
told with some excitement that
Army had just increased its leac
by way of a touchdown gallon
that had been watched at least
20 minutes earlier. You may as
well know right now that the multi
game Barber broadcast was checked
on between the halves and after the
Army Stanford telecast. 1t un.
doubtedlv had some high moments
that were missed.
Since the day I saw what coulo
happen to young man named Rec
Grange when young man named
Britton was not running along in
front of him. have not seen the
football game to be enjoyed in
snatches or in company with e
others. 1t is all right to be told that
Stuart has just scored an Army
touchdown but this is not much
compared to watching the Army
quarterback run the sequence that
set up the play, or watching Winfield
Scott throw the key block that got
Cadet Stuart through. 1t is all right
to be told frequent scores and to
catch frequent high lights, but this
is nothing compared to the excite
ment of watching Navy spend ar
afternoon acting as if it thought il
could beat Notre Dame, all the while
1t was running up hill against an
avalanche
This all may very easily be a
matter of taste, of course. CHS and
Mr.. Barber may have the right idea
but I hope they never sell it to Bob
Stanton, WNBW, LSMFT, WMAL-
TV and Amoco, who have been CIV
ing televiewers some fine Saturday
and Sunday afternoons this fall.
1t has turned out, right at this
point in the writing, that this still
small voice is the echo of a firm
minority report. Mr.. Barber ano
CHS tried their 29-game broadcast
week ago as an experiment sano
then sat back to wait developments
The developments included lot o1
mail, more of it favoring the idea
than opposing it, so it was decided
to have the sportscaster, instead o1
sticking to the Notre Dame North
western game, do some more of the
same multiple reporting yesterday
He had plans for more play-by-play
pickups, which seems sound idea
n + \
Incidentally, while this football |.
in the air, when is George Marshal
going to let Harry Wismer call tht
Redskins plays rather than complain
about them later? There Is tht
greatest Monday morning quarter
back in radio, only he does no
wait until Monday morning. Let 6
back be smeared at the line O.
scrimmage and Mr.. Wismer know
right away that that was the wrong
play to call.
Mr.. Wismer may be unable tt
guard against this, of course, by the
very nature of his job. Science may
have given him a seat with better