Before TV and Cell Phones, Mark Provided This for the Montana Masses

If you're going to go into radio, you are going to need to pick up a little extra work. One of the things that I did was play by play for basketball. Basketball is a very big deal in most small Montana towns. And just about everybody who could be at those home games, was there.

And for the parents and fans that couldn't be, there were guys like me describing the action. And radio was the only option back in the mid-1980s. You couldn't video part of a game on your cell phone and send it to people. And of course, there was no television coverage of high school sports at that time.

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And the equipment was archaic. And bulky. I had to pack a Marti unit which was about 30 pounds. They attach that to a telescoping antenna tower. About 50 feet of cable. Which all fit nicely into my '82 Camaro.

The games paid fifteen bucks per event. And I had to give five of them to my color commentator, Bob. He wasn't very good on the air, but he was the best basketball player I knew. So he got hired.

The other guy sitting behind me kept stats. And that was amazing because he was legally blind. But the amount of basketball knowledge he had was astonishing. My halftime stats from him would rival ESPN.

Individual games were OK. But I loved the tournaments. We have a bunch of teams show up and only a couple of you are going to the next tournament. And every so often because a couple of teams never got a chance to play each other during the tournament, we would get a "challenge game".

And there are a few events like challenge games. The energy coming from the crowd is amazing.

Those were fun days. But I don't miss driving home trying to dodge critters on icy roads. And I have more than fifteen dollars these days.