It seems like my postings about Gameday audio have led to some changes for the better. I’m glad MLB was paying attention to this blog. The sound quality of many of the feeds has markedly improved since opening day. WRKO (Red Sox), KTRN (Athletics), WPGB (Pirates), KABC (Dodgers) and others now posses a sound quality equivalent to FM radio.

Doing some event sound myself, I have to send an audio feed to webcasts all the time. It is simply a matter of properly patching an auxiliary to the casting device. At this time, many of the stations sound like they receive a patch from someone’s cheap AM radio headphone output. The patch should be directly from the mixer in the booth, and the level should be maximized. Doing this requires no incredible skill or technique, just some basic audio fundamentals.

I’ll have to give the award for best feed to KLAA (Angels). Although still not the loudest, or ‘FM-style’ yet, I appreciate the running of ballpark crowd noise, as opposed to local commercials or silence between innings. It was a pleasure to hear the Angels own the Yankees this past week on KLAA. To the Angels credit they even play cool music like Dr. Dre and The Red Hot Chili Peppers on their ballpark sound system, while the fogeys on the east coast are still bumping Sweet Caroline and other crusty hits.

WGN (Cubs) also lets crowd noise run between innings, and I think their play by play guys (Pat Hughes and Ron Santo) are great. Santo has got to be the most partial broadcaster in the game. It’s hilarious to hear him groan in discontent when the Cubs get scored on and cheer when they hit. They totally get a pass considering the long Championship drought of the poor Cubbies. Get well soon Ron. Good luck with those Cardinals.

WTAM (Indians) and WTMJ (Brewers) get low marks for switching to complete silence between innings. When I run mixers for webcasting, it is a must that you keep some music or something running just to let mission control know that the feed remains ‘live’ during breaks. Going completely silent makes you wonder if you’ve totally lost the feed or what. If either of these stations would like to fly me out to correct this issue, I would offer a very reasonable consultant/tech rate.

WRKO (Red Sox) and KABC (Dodgers) are incredibly louder than all the other feeds, perhaps this is a premonition of a coming Boston/L.A. World Series? WCBS (Yankees) has the lowest volume- maybe they spent too much on the new ballpark and free agents so they can’t afford a decent sound person. Most of the stations have an average volume, and run local commercials. This isn’t so bad. It even makes ad campaigns like Bank Of America’s MLB courtesy checks and cards seem very silly, since it is the exact same commercial just re-done with different big market teams inserted for their respective locales. Yeah- I really take pride in sending a Red Sox adorned check to the oil company or the IRS.

If MLB would like to send a little token of appreciation (World Series tickets) to me for my helpful tips just email me at Handcancel @ Gmail .com and I’ll send you my address. I’d also consider working for MLB in this department for the right offer. Let me know who to send a resume to.

And of course don’t forget to get my new compilation album Handcancel Presents Sampeloco still available directly from my website Handcancel.com

Have a nice All Star break!