George Blaha is currently finishing his 49th season calling the Detroit Pistons, serving as the voice of their local TV broadcasts on FanDuel Sports Detroit (extended during the playoffs for non-ABC games). He’s been their radio and TV play-by-play voice since the 1976-77 season.
But, as Blaha recently told Shawn Windsor of The Detroit Free Press, a key part of the reason he wound up in broadcasting was thanks to some crucial advice from legendary Detroit Tigers’ announcer Ernie Harwell.
And that came in response to a letter Blaha sent with no previous connection to Harwell:
Toward the end of his studies at U-M, Blaha wrote a letter to Harwell asking him for advice on how to break into the business. He didn’t know Harwell. Had never worked at a radio station. Had never called a game. Had no tape.
…Harwell, not surprisingly, wrote Blaha back. He suggested he enroll in the Institute of Broadcast Arts, a night school run out of WEXL Radio in Royal Oak.
The school offered a 10-week class specializing in enunciation, timing and, most importantly, the chance to make a tape. If nothing else, Harwell had written to him, he’d need a tape to send out so stations could hear what he sounded like.
As Windsor writes, Blaha did indeed take that class (but at nights, after spending days unloading grocery store trucks). That led to him sending his tape to WMIC in Sandusky, MI, and getting a gig there calling Friday night high school games for Saturday-morning tape-delayed broadcasts. He then worked at WAJB in Adrian, MI, and then got the Pistons’ job after recording a test demo where he called a Michigan Wolverines’ men’s basketball scrimmage.
It’s fascinating to read about how Harwell’s kind response to someone he had no connection to led to Blaha becoming one of the NBA’s longest-tenured broadcasters. But another part of this piece is Blaha (who’s bounced back nicely from heart surgery in 2022) telling Windsor how he doesn’t currently plan to retire, despite turning 80 last month. He said he certainly wants to work his 50th season next year, but is uncertain beyond that.
However, he also said the Pistons’ run to a surprising 44-38 mark this year may make it harder to leave.
“I would not miss my 50th season, that’s for sure. But Father Time is unbeaten, (and) you’d like to spend a little time maybe traveling with your wife—I told her we’re going to Italy.”
At some point in the not-too-distant future, Blaha will start taking a few more games off.
“And once you do that, maybe it’s easier to walk away,” he said. But then “this year makes it tough. Why would you want to stop working?”
We’ll see how long Blaha (who was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame this year) decides to remain in this role. But it’s certainly interesting to read about how he got here, and why he’s stayed.