For generations, Hawkeye fans like myself, who couldn’t make it to the games in Iowa City had really only one other option – flip on a radio and tune in to our favorite broadcaster for Hawkeye sporting events. Here in Iowa, unless for some miraculous reason a Hawkeye game was on network television, there were, basically, three choices for listening.
In Des Moines and central Iowa, it was WHO-1040 with Jim Zabel (above left) and his eccentric and unabashed passion, and over here in eastern Iowa, our allegiance was split between KCRG-1600‘s Bob Brooks (above center) and WMT-600‘s Ron Gonder (above right) – both of whom originated from Cedar Rapids.
Collectively, from the 1940’s into the 1990’s, these three sports personalities were as quintessential Hawkeye as their voices.
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Today, your post brought back memories from my days in broadcasting. I started in 1946, at the age of 15, working as an “engineer “ (technician) at WSUI, where I worked with Bob Brooks, who graduated in ‘48 I think. Spank Broders and Milo Hamilton followed Bob. Spank went on to work at KXIC, and Milo had a long career as a baseball broadcaster, finally becoming the voice of the Astros. He is in the baseball broadcasters hall of fame in Cooperstown. In the summer of 1958, before going to grad school, I worked WMT-TV as a vacation replacement. Tait Cummings was the long-time sportscaster for both radio and TV; never heard of Gonder.
Hey David – so glad this article stirred some GREAT memories! My first memories of Iowa football via radio was listening to Tait Cummings on WMT! Can still remember his unique voice & broadcast style! :0)