Issue date: 2/13/03 Section: The Verge

Media Credit: Ben Turner

Everyone who follows sports knows the voices of the game that have become celebrities because of their broadcasting careers. John Madden, Harry Caray, Howard Cossell and Marv Albert are household names. Fans who follow one particular pro or college team also become accustomed to the squad's commentators.

The voices of Eastern basketball are more than just commentators, they are also Eastern professors. Mike Bradd and Jack Ashmore are faculty members in the speech communication department. They've been broadcasting Eastern basketball games on local radio stations since the mid '80s.

Ashmore is an Eastern graduate (class of '76) and is originally from Oakland, Ill. He started announcing Charleston High School games at 19 and still does all the home and away games on WEIC. Because of his busy schedule, he can only do color commentary for Eastern home games.

Bradd graduated from Bradley University in 1980 after growing up in Cooksville, just west of Bloomington. His first job after college came at WLBH in Mattoon as news director. Bradd started doing Eastern games during the '84-'85 season, although at the time he was asked to do color as now retired play-by-play man Marc Stuart was wrapping up his career.

Bradd took over play-by-play in the fall of 1988 and Ashmore has provided color for the majority of the home games since. For road games, Bradd will either work by himself or Dave Kidwell or Pat Osterman from the sports information office will fill-in. Kidwell said Bradd is always 100 percent prepared and his presence on road games is just to give Bradd periodic short breaks.

A few different stations have carried the telecasts during their careers. Starting out on WLBH, Eastern games have also been carried on WCBH (before it became The Party and was a classic rocker out of Casey), one year games were split between WEIU and WEIC, WACF from Paris, and this is the third season WHQQ has carried the games.

Bradd said Double Q is the ideal station for the games because it is located in Coles County and the Cromwell group can cross promote the games on their three other local stations. Kidwell agreed saying the Cromwell group stations can advertise the games to the most diverse demographics.

"Ideally, we'd love for everyone of all ages to listen, but the ratings show WHQQ's demographics are similar to those who would listen to the games on the radio," Kidwell said.

Continued...

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