Radio Broadcasts and Stadium Noise

Every so often when there is not a Mets game on and I am in the car, I will reluctantly tune into a Yankees game.  I say "reluctant" because I can barely stand those two clowns, Waldman and Moskowitz.  They can ruin a great game faster than anyone.

Anyhow, it seems like their broadcasts always have so much stadium noise that it is difficult to hear them.  And this has been going on for years, regardless of the station they are on.  Clearly it is a production decision--the Mets broadcasts have some background noise so you have a sense of being in a stadium but it it muted or filtered to allow the announcers to come across clearly.  

I heard a Sox game not too long ago and it was also clear, with the fan noise kept to a murmur in the background.

The Yankees broadcasts are sonically muddled (let alone intellectually muddled) and very hard to hear.  Anyone else notice this?  Why would their producers favor this approach?



Because ... ?

                                                                    CUT TO:
               INT. DURHAM RADIO STATION -- DAY
               TEDDY THE ANNOUNCER re-creates the game for broadcast with a 
               several second delay.
               HIS ASSISTANT (P.A. ANNOUNCER FROM THE BALLPARK) has a phone 
               to her ear, and writes down each play on a piece of paper, 
               holding it up for Teddy who enhances shamelessly in his ON 
               THE AIR "play by play".
               CLOSE ON PAPER -- His assistant writes "DOUBLE TO LEFT".
               TEDDY HITS A TINY MALLET against a jar. Thunk. The sound of 
               ball hitting bat. He punches one of several tape cassettes 
               cued up. A crowd roars. An array of special effects is at 
               his fingertips.
                                     TEDDY
                              (on the air)
                         ...double off the wall by Higgins, 
                         and once again the Durham pitchers 
                         are unable to get the first out of 
                         the inning...
               HIS ASSISTANT WRITES ANOTHER NOTE -- "ERROR MCFEE"
               Thunk -- The mallet again.
                                     TEDDY
                              (on the air)
                         Line drive to center -- a diving 
                         stab by McFee -- ohhhh!  Ball gets 
                         by his glove, another run in and the 
                         crowd loves it --
               PUNCHES A CASSETTE -- A crowd roars.

mfpark,

I share your pain, but since I rarely listen to baseball any longer, my beef is with football.  Add to that, my hearing is awful, even with hearing aids.  Sometimes, I can't make out anything other than the crowd noise, very frustrating.

The only more frustrating radio issue is when I used to listen regularly to WFAN and they played music over the updates.  Hell, if I wanted to listen to music, I'd put on a music station.



Ayup, Vermont Golfer.  My hearing aids definitely make it much harder, and the Yankees broadcasts are worse than even many college football games.  Also hated the music over playing the WFAN updates, but then again, I hate WFAN enough that I almost never ever listen to it anymore.


WINS does something similar where they play a teletype/clackety sort of noise as they are giving the headline stories. The noise plays at the same sound level as the stories and makes it very difficult to understand what is being said. I've emailed them about it, but never even gotten a response. Annoying. 




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