Kick Off 1st Game 2014..... |
I actually prefer to listen to the games on radio - Internet that is. There are 2-3 dozen Michigan stations that carry the pre-game (2 1/2 hrs until kickoff) and they are fun. A couple of them are in the Upper Peninsula - that is Michigander for snow - and they are the most fun.
I was a media director for a bunch of years and that job means that you learn all about a market area, the outlets (radio, TV, print etc.) and figure out how to reach the folks the sponsor wants to reach. The Upper Peninsula is - how do I say it - sparsely populated, so the stations are super local with "Hank bought a wrench at the hardware store today...ya'betacha" news. But in listening in, there is something unbelievably poignant and touching about listening to them. My Spartan "Pre-Game" is from there tonight.
The local announcers are - well let's just say - local. The news cut-aways make one cringe. The overall effect leads one to tears of nostalgia. I wouldn't miss this on a bet.
Here are folks, living comparatively simple, moment to moment lives, tuned in locally on their AM radio as a lot of the Upper Peninsula isn't wired...lights dim as it is already sunset, stove with a good dinner, table set...it is crisp outside; early fall. Tempted to build a small fire but would rather sit on the porch and drink in the late summer air, root my Spartans on, remember a 1/2 century ago, and shed a couple tears.