Broadcasters of Hearn’s Stature Mean More Than Words Can Describe

To the fan with an ear to a radio, Chick Hearn was the broadcaster who talked about players “yo-yoing” up and down the court or being faked “into the popcorn machine.”

But to the Los Angeles Lakers, he was an asset of incalculable value, one that team owner Jerry Buss called “as responsible for this success as any of the great players who have worn a Laker uniform.”

Replacing Hearn will be challenge enough--after all, many say he and his “Chickisms” are simply irreplaceable. But finding a successor for Hearn, who died Monday at 85, will be all the more difficult at a time when sports proliferates on television and radio, often moderated by scores of seemingly interchangeable announcers.

“A lot of broadcasters now sound alike,” bemoans broadcaster Joe Buck, son of the revered Jack Buck, who died this year after broadcasting St. Louis Cardinals games since 1954. “Guys change blazers and put on a different patch on their chest. The guy at CBS is now at NBC, and the guy at NBC is now at Fox.”

The era of the venerable announcer who shuns retirement and is joined at the hip with a single franchise--people such as Hearn, Jack Buck, the L.A. Dodgers’ Vin Scully or Ernie Harwell of the Detroit Tigers--is quickly ending.

There’s no blueprint to replace a legend, which is why teams wary of fan wrath tread carefully.

When beloved Chicago Cubs announcer Harry Caray died in 1998 at 77, the broadcasting torch was passed to another generation when his grandson Chip was named the team’s TV announcer. Joe Buck, a national broadcaster for the Fox network, filled in while his father was ill; Jack Buck died in June at 77.

The Tigers learned how hard it is to replace a venerable play-by-play man when the team fired Harwell in 1991, causing citywide backlash and T-shirts reading “Bring Back Ernie” sold across Michigan.

When Mike Ilitch, who built the Little Caesar’s pizza chain, bought the team the next year, he made rehiring Harwell his first priority.

“Guys like us, we’re like an old shoe. When someone else comes in to replace us, it doesn’t quite fit,” said Harwell, 84, who is retiring at the end of this season after 42 years with the Tigers.

Harwell, who began his career in 1948, says today’s broadcasters are as good as their predecessors but that “it’s harder now to make an impact.”

“When I started, there were eight teams in each league and one guy announcing,” he said. “Now there are 30 teams and six announcers per team and guys on ESPN.”

Sports marketing and radio consultant Walter Sabo doubts that anyone has ever put a dollar value on these announcers, and he says he has never seen a study on it. But in market research, he says, play-by-play announcers always score among the highest in popularity among listeners.

“It’s true of all enduring talk radio hosts or announcers,” Sabo said. “As soon as there’s a shift, a change, and someone leaves, it’s always a disaster. It’s because of the way that people bond with the radio. That speaks to the power and intimacy of the medium.”

Smith College sports economist Andrew Zimbalist says the broadcaster’s obvious appeal is to help boost radio and television ratings.

“But sportscasters have a value beyond just the ratings points,” he said, “because they also perform public relations functions like going into schools around a city and getting kids interested in the sport. Their value goes above and beyond what can be measured in ratings.”

In Los Angeles, fans have long treated Hearn, Scully and 29-year Kings hockey broadcaster Bob Miller with reverence.

This year, fans were asked to name their favorite all-time Dodger on the team’s Web site in conjunction with Dodger Stadium’s 40th anniversary.

Prevailing over players such as Sandy Koufax, Fernando Valenzuela and Steve Garvey and Manager Tom Lasorda was Scully, 74, who never played a game but whose golden throat has been the “voice of the Dodgers” all 44 years the team has been in Los Angeles.

But today’s announcers are likely to seek a national stage.

It’s hard to find a better example of past and future than the late Jack Buck and his 33-year-old son Joe. The younger broadcaster has a higher profile on the national stage than his father did. Joe Buck broadcasts nationally televised baseball games for Fox and is scheduled to start working National Football League games in the fall for the network.

“The money is such that a lot of people in my generation of broadcasting now don’t want to stick it out for 40 years,” Buck said. “My father sat in the booth when Stan Musial hit five home runs in a double header, and he was there when Mark McGwire hit his 62nd home run.”

Paul Sunderland, who filled in for Hearn after his heart surgery and broken hip last season, is considered a front-runner for the Lakers’ TV play-by-play position.

Joel Meyers, who lives in Southern California and has been announcing for the San Antonio Spurs in recent years, also has been mentioned as a candidate for one of the play-by-play positions.

Hearn, who broadcast 3,338 consecutive games in a streak from 1965 until last December, did play-by-play on both television and radio. With Hearn gone, the team plans to split those duties.

With competition so intense, doing good play-by-play also often leads to quickly being courted for national sports jobs providing more money, recognition and opportunities ranging from movie cameos to talk show host.

But that’s not what fans of broadcasters like Hearn and Buck are looking for.

Last month, radio station KMOX, which carries the Cardinal games, placed a tall order: a want ad on its Web site advertising for “a sports ambassador” post once held by Buck.

It read: “You are big in your community. People come to hear you speak. You are recognized by people on the street. You love to make people laugh and you can move them with your stories. You have friends in prominent positions in the sports community and the community in general. They socialize with you and you can talk with them and have fun with them on the air.

“You don’t consider yourself a sports journalist, but a broadcaster, toastmaster and celebrity. You are respected by owners, players and management. You are happy where you are. But this is the opportunity of a lifetime.”

Times staff writer Larry Stewart and library researcher John Jackson contributed to this report.