The Oklahoman Praises OU Club Football Radio Broadcast

Berry Tramel, sports columnist at The Oklahoman, recently wrote a column about past University of Oklahoma football play-by-play announcers, listing them in chronological order from 1937 when Walter Cronkite called Sooner plays. When OU Club of Houston member (and past president) Brad Wagner read the article, he noted several discrepancies in the list. So Brad fired off an email to Berry and advised him of the errors. (If you know Brad, he is the undisputed human database and encyclopedia of ANYTHING related to OU football).

Berry took notice of Brad's email, and the conversation ensued. Brad also mentioned the long-standing OU Club of Houston's football radio broadcast in Houston. To Brad's surprise, Berry Tramel wrote the following article.

OU football: Houston alums make radio happen

by Berry Tramel
Published: August 5, 2011

Sports columnist at The Oklahoman and NewsOK.com

Brad Wagner, a member of the OU Club of Houston, emailed me after my earlier post about the Sooner radio voices. He told me a little about the Houston club’s long-standing efforts to make sure OU football is on the radio in Greater Houston, and I thought it was interesting. Years ago, I learned OU was on the radio in markets like Dallas and Houston, and I just checked it off as more of the Sooners’ amazing lure. But I’ve dabbled in the radio business the last decade, and now I know that getting an out-of-market sports team’s games on the radio is very difficult.

I thought I would share some of Brad’s insights into how the Sooners are broadcast into one of their recruiting hubs.

“I’m in the middle of working on material for the OU Club of Houston’s annual radio broadcast project in which we sponsor the broadcasts for the Houston area. The club has undertaken this enormous task for 44 years. We start by securing a station (usually we’ll sign a multi-year contract) with which we buy blocks of time for the broadcasts. Next, we raise the funds through corporate and personal sponsorships. We then write the commercial spots; read them and help produce them at the station; help mix the music beds; number and code the spots; and, when all that is complete and the season gets underway, we fill out the logs for not only the games, but also the two weekly coaches call-in shows.

“Being down here in enemy territory, you’re not going to find stations that want to engage in all the particulars, so they basically let us do almost everything ourselves. The station’s primary responsibility (other than the aforementioned assistance with commercial production) is to run the board during broadcasts of the games and coaches shows.

“We keep in constant contact with the station and frequent contact with Learfield Sports, the latter to check for any changes in schedules as well as to download logs and other broadcast-related material.

“We start in June/July and go through December. It’s a labor of love but can, no doubt, be a grind and the administrative work is immense. I have 13 seasons of game and call-in show logs, not to mention tons of tapes and CDs, stacked on shelves here at home.

“I have mentioned only part of our whole project, albeit a large part. The flexibility we enjoy working on the radio broadcast project each year is what makes all the difference. It allows for a lot of creativity and helps keep us fresh from year to year. We keep the system pretty much the same from year to year, while making the necessary improvements and tweaks when needed.

“It’s only been over the past 15 to 20 years that OU Club members (radio broadcast committee members) have been involved to the extent I’ve described. In the early years, club/committee members assisted in securing advertisers, but to my knowledge, that was generally the extent of their involvement. The station employees did everything else in producing the local broadcasts. We’ve found that the evolution of our increased involvement arose as it became more difficult not only to find stations willing to broadcast OU games, but also to do all the legwork.

“I’m not aware of any other local alumni club, OU or otherwise, that undertakes this type of project. There very well may be, we simply do not know of any others, but sure would like to know to compare how they do things.”

So there you have it. Very impressive. From what I know of the radio business in the 21st century, I think it’s unlikely Sooner football could get on a Houston station any other way. Brad Wagner and his fellow committee members are an example of one of the myriad number of people who help make an organization like Sooner football prosper.