{"id":150327,"date":"2015-08-16T18:00:02","date_gmt":"2015-08-17T01:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=150327"},"modified":"2015-08-16T16:23:57","modified_gmt":"2015-08-16T23:23:57","slug":"the-art-of-the-swimming-pa-announcer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/the-art-of-the-swimming-pa-announcer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of the Swimming PA Announcer"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Andrew Ross, Swimming World College Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

The public address announcer can be the most important person at a swim meet. He or she is in charge and controls the pace of the meet and\u00a0is the one who can make a swim meet exciting or boring. But after watching and attending many swim meets in my time, I have noticed that a lot of PA Announcers fall on the boring side.<\/p>\n

Too many times I hear people say swimming is \u201ca boring sport,\u201d that \u201cnobody cares\u201d and \u201cit\u2019s not exciting to watch.\u201d I am an aspiring PA announcer myself and over the last few years, part of my motivation as an announcer is to show people that swimming can be exciting. PA announcing is an art and it can be hard to master it, but there are people who have mastered that art. Below are some of my favorite announcers.<\/p>\n

Brian Gordon<\/strong><\/h3>\n

He doesn\u2019t call a lot of meets outside of the SEC Championships anymore but Brian was the voice of the NCAA meets for a long time and he was one of the main announcers when I decided to get in the business\u00a0about ten years ago. He has a very professional demeanor when he is talking and he is easy to understand. He also is very knowledgeable about the sport, which is a key factor in being a good announcer.<\/p>\n

Brian does one of my favorite things when introducing swimmers– he always says, \u201cLane four is a senior from (hometown).\u201d It is always so interesting to me to listen to all the places that people are from, especially in college swimming.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/tv.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/events\/2009-ncaa-division-i-mens-championships\/races\/436<\/a><\/p>\n

The overall feel of the NCAA meet was different when Brian was in charge. He was in charge when I first started watching NCAAs, so maybe I am being nostalgic. But the way the crowd reacts to him is a lot different than it is today.<\/p>\n

Michael Poropat<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Michael is similar to Brian as they both have a very professional demeanor. Michael is very articulate and enunciates better than almost any announcer out there. He has been a mainstay among the swimming announcing core the last few years as he was one of the voices of the recent summer nationals in San Antonio.<\/p>\n