For this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, Linda G. Hill has given us the word “tape.” My mind immediately went to Scotch tape, duct tape, cassette tape, tape deck, painter’s tape, video tape, and…wait. Video tape. That reminds me of Warner Wolf, a TV sportscaster back in Washington, D.C. when I was growing up. One of Warner Wolf’s catchphrases was, “Let’s go to the video tape” and then he’d play a brief video tape segment of a certain play in one of that day’s sporting events.
I suddenly remembered that back in November of 2018 I wrote a post about Warner Wolf. So I decided that I would abandon the stream of consciousness format today and would repost my Warner Wolf post. I hope you forgive me, Linda. Here it is.
Let’s Go to the Video Tape
Most TV sportscasters back in the day gave the scores in a boring, listless manner. Being a sportscaster for a local TV station seemed to be a filler job for on-air personalities awaiting their opportunity to report the “real” news. They were all pretty much singing the same, old, boring tune.
But then, in 1965, something happened that forever changed local sports reporting. The local CBS affiliate hired this young guy named Warner Wolf. He was animated, exciting, and so much fun to watch. He became known for catchphrases like “Boo of the Week,” “Change the Rules,” “Play of the Day” (and week, month, or year), “Give Me a Break,” and my personal favorite, “Let’s Go to the Video Tape.”
Wolf quickly became the top sportscaster in the DC area and I never missed his nightly sports reports. He dominated the sports reporting scene in DC until 1976, when he left for a job with ABC Sports and with the local ABC affiliate in New York City.
Wolf, now 85, is retired, but he left his imprint on sports reporting.
This, That, and the Other 
I think that was a great SoCS!
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Thanks.
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Remember when he and Bob Prince did Monday Night Baseball?
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Yep.
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I seem to recall that Warner Wolf didn’t do very well at that gig. He was much better at covering local sports than he was at baseball game broadcasts.
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I think they changed everyone out after that season. Wolf and Prince had no chemistry…
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Excellent post Fandango 💜
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Thanks so much!
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A pleasure 💜
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I thought I posted this, earlier, but apparently not: The way you describe this sportscaster — and remembering baseball “back in the day” — is very nostalgic. His famous sayings, and what he made of the posting in news, are fun to contemplate. We had our beloved baseball announcers in St. Louis too, especially in the twentieth century. As for now, it’s cool we got Benjie Molina. (By the way, although I know you’ve said before that you lived in the D.C. area early in life and love to eat blue crabs, I think of you as growing up in New Jersey. How long were you in each?)
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I was born in New Jersey, but we moved to the Maryland suburbs of DC when I was five. My wife and I moved back to New Jersey when I was 32 and we spent 8 years there before moving to California (for the first time). So I was mostly raised in the DC area.
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(Thank you.)
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