[h=2]That Was a Thing: Sports Phone, the 1980s Way to Get Real-Time Scores[/h] Sports Phone
Sports Media
<small class="byline"> <time pubdate="" datetime="2015-02-24T10:43:35+00:00">February 24, 2015</time> </small> by Joe DeLessio
That Was a Thing is a series in which a Grantland writer goes in the way-back machine and dials up a pop-cultural moment from the past, examining it with the benefit of hindsight.
Think back to a time before iPhones and out-of-town cable packages, before the NBA Game Time app, before you could know everything that was happening in every baseball, football, basketball, and hockey game across the country, in more or less real time. Let’s say 1980. Following sports in a comprehensive way could be a complicated, often impossible task back then. For a generation of fans who wanted to try, a service called Sports Phone was essential. The concept couldn’t be simpler: You call a number and hear a minute-long message with the latest scores and sports news. A half hour later, if you want another update, you call again — and pay another dime.
It sounds as antiquated as a leather football helmet now, but in its heyday, Sports Phone was all the rage — a cultural phenomenon and crucial tool for gamblers — and its number is surely still burned into the memory of its regular callers.
In 1964, the Macy’s department store in New York introduced a Dial Santa line, and it was a huge hit, attracting two million calls in just a few weeks. But all of those calls to the same number put a strain on New York Telephone’s network and disrupted service. The ordeal prompted the phone company to develop a way for large numbers of callers to reach a single number simultaneously. Eight years and $10 million later, it finally perfected the technology, which could handle 198,000 calls per hour.
Jack Goodfellow, a longtime New York Telephone employee then working as a consultant, had tried to launch a permanent number for sports scores as far back as 1968, but at the time it overwhelmed the system. By 1972, however, technology had advanced enough for him to finally see his idea through.
In October of that year, Sports Phone began running test messages. On November 1, it officially launched. For a dime, New York area callers would hear roughly 46 seconds of scores, plus a pair of seven-second commercials. Those commercials were necessary, because according to the phone company’s policy at the time, Sports Phone didn’t receive any money per call. In fact, not only did the entire 10-cent fee go to New York Telephone, but Sports Phone also had to pay the phone company a small amount for every call it connected. Goodfellow had trouble turning a profit with the business, and within a year, Sports Phone was bought by the media company Air Time Inc. Fred Weiner, an Air Time executive, lobbied New York Telephone to permit operators of call-in information lines to receive a portion of the per-call charge. Weiner’s proposals were met with resistance at first, but New York Telephone eventually agreed and changed its policy.
And with that, Sports Phone was ready for a rebirth.
Robert Riger/Getty Images
Guy LeBow, a veteran radio personality who’d worked as a TV sports anchor, was hired to serve as a host, to oversee Sports Phone’s editorial operations, and to lend the service some local star power. In addition to LeBow, Phone Programs looked to hire young, unproven talent looking to break into the industry. Walczewski — now the Knicks public address announcer — got a job as LeBow’s producer. A Queens College student — Howie Rose, now a play-by-play announcer for the Mets and Islanders — was hired as the weekend night announcer on the recommendation of Marv Albert, who knew Rose as the onetime president of his fan club.
The eight men hired to staff the relaunched Sports Phone worked in teams of two (an announcer and a producer). Operating out of a 57-story skyscraper in midtown Manhattan, the announcer would go into a small booth, lift a phone receiver, wait for a beep, and record a 57-second message. The announcers could cram up to 30 scores into less than a minute. After 57 seconds, their recording was cut off, whether or not they’d read all the scores.
Rose recalls that the early iteration of Sports Phone was “rushed and sloppy” and not personality-driven. “What I was told on my interview was that they really wanted to make it a one-minute professional sportscast, with commentary and scores,” he says.[SUP]1[/SUP]
With LeBow encouraging the staff to do original reporting, the announcers would call around to locker rooms after noteworthy performances, hoping to snag an interview that could be cut into sound bites. The announcers would use those clips during the one-minute report, but they were also allowed to sell them to wire services and pocket the money. And so when Darryl Sittler set an NHL record with six goals in a game in February 1976, Sports Phone callers listened to him talk about it that same night.
<small class="byline"> <time pubdate="" datetime="2015-02-24T10:43:35+00:00">February 24, 2015</time> </small> by Joe DeLessio
That Was a Thing is a series in which a Grantland writer goes in the way-back machine and dials up a pop-cultural moment from the past, examining it with the benefit of hindsight.
Think back to a time before iPhones and out-of-town cable packages, before the NBA Game Time app, before you could know everything that was happening in every baseball, football, basketball, and hockey game across the country, in more or less real time. Let’s say 1980. Following sports in a comprehensive way could be a complicated, often impossible task back then. For a generation of fans who wanted to try, a service called Sports Phone was essential. The concept couldn’t be simpler: You call a number and hear a minute-long message with the latest scores and sports news. A half hour later, if you want another update, you call again — and pay another dime.
It sounds as antiquated as a leather football helmet now, but in its heyday, Sports Phone was all the rage — a cultural phenomenon and crucial tool for gamblers — and its number is surely still burned into the memory of its regular callers.
♦♦♦
In a way, Sports Phone came to be because of Santa Claus.In 1964, the Macy’s department store in New York introduced a Dial Santa line, and it was a huge hit, attracting two million calls in just a few weeks. But all of those calls to the same number put a strain on New York Telephone’s network and disrupted service. The ordeal prompted the phone company to develop a way for large numbers of callers to reach a single number simultaneously. Eight years and $10 million later, it finally perfected the technology, which could handle 198,000 calls per hour.
Jack Goodfellow, a longtime New York Telephone employee then working as a consultant, had tried to launch a permanent number for sports scores as far back as 1968, but at the time it overwhelmed the system. By 1972, however, technology had advanced enough for him to finally see his idea through.
In October of that year, Sports Phone began running test messages. On November 1, it officially launched. For a dime, New York area callers would hear roughly 46 seconds of scores, plus a pair of seven-second commercials. Those commercials were necessary, because according to the phone company’s policy at the time, Sports Phone didn’t receive any money per call. In fact, not only did the entire 10-cent fee go to New York Telephone, but Sports Phone also had to pay the phone company a small amount for every call it connected. Goodfellow had trouble turning a profit with the business, and within a year, Sports Phone was bought by the media company Air Time Inc. Fred Weiner, an Air Time executive, lobbied New York Telephone to permit operators of call-in information lines to receive a portion of the per-call charge. Weiner’s proposals were met with resistance at first, but New York Telephone eventually agreed and changed its policy.
And with that, Sports Phone was ready for a rebirth.
♦♦♦
In the spring of 1975, Mike Walczewski, a Fordham University student who worked for the school’s WFUV radio station, came to the office and saw a 3×5 index card announcing that Sports Phone was hiring. Phone Programs, an Air Time subsidiary established to operate Sports Phone, was staffing up to legitimize its operation.Guy LeBow, a veteran radio personality who’d worked as a TV sports anchor, was hired to serve as a host, to oversee Sports Phone’s editorial operations, and to lend the service some local star power. In addition to LeBow, Phone Programs looked to hire young, unproven talent looking to break into the industry. Walczewski — now the Knicks public address announcer — got a job as LeBow’s producer. A Queens College student — Howie Rose, now a play-by-play announcer for the Mets and Islanders — was hired as the weekend night announcer on the recommendation of Marv Albert, who knew Rose as the onetime president of his fan club.
The eight men hired to staff the relaunched Sports Phone worked in teams of two (an announcer and a producer). Operating out of a 57-story skyscraper in midtown Manhattan, the announcer would go into a small booth, lift a phone receiver, wait for a beep, and record a 57-second message. The announcers could cram up to 30 scores into less than a minute. After 57 seconds, their recording was cut off, whether or not they’d read all the scores.
Rose recalls that the early iteration of Sports Phone was “rushed and sloppy” and not personality-driven. “What I was told on my interview was that they really wanted to make it a one-minute professional sportscast, with commentary and scores,” he says.[SUP]1[/SUP]
With LeBow encouraging the staff to do original reporting, the announcers would call around to locker rooms after noteworthy performances, hoping to snag an interview that could be cut into sound bites. The announcers would use those clips during the one-minute report, but they were also allowed to sell them to wire services and pocket the money. And so when Darryl Sittler set an NHL record with six goals in a game in February 1976, Sports Phone callers listened to him talk about it that same night.
