Double Yoi: We Miss You Myron Cope

Most importantly, what Myron did for the Steelers, and the City of Pittsburgh, was get the fans involved on a whole new level. Cope provided the edge in much needed games. It was almost like he was actually playing for the Steelers. For a man who never put the black and gold pads on, he sure had a hell of a lot of influence over the team. Myron was able to solidify himself as an icon in the profession due to his enthusiasm, ingenuity, and love for the game.

All this reflection on Myron had me thinking about an ever present challenge I see in broadcasting today. Because of television domination over radio, will we ever be able to create iconic announcers again? With radio we were able to visualize everything in our minds, and now most of the time you're probably watching the game muted so that you can ask Alexa to make you a grocery list for tomorrow.

With no disrespect to the terrific Steve Mears (a recent podcast guest!), and the Pirates Greg Brown, the only current broadcast icons still left in the Burgh are Mike Lange and Bill Hillgrove. Both have a heavy radio presence, and are of course a bit longer in the tooth. Lange's clock is ticking as the best to ever do it in the Penguins booth. We are already seeing what it will be like without him, and the game has lost a bit of flavor.

This city has had the pleasure of having some amazing personalities, man. Bob Prince was iconic for the Pirates, Cope for the Steelers, and the last bastion for the Penguins will be Lange. I often wonder if there will be anyone that will be able to fill such shoes of these past and current luminaries?

When I watch sports these days I don't think I pay as much attention to the actual announcing. I mean you can't really blame the Pirates announcers, it's not like they have much baseball to talk about. Instead they make some great background banter if you want to take a nap listening to quips about the six fans doing something funny in the stands, or what prospect the Pirates are trying to groom to trade next season.

Football is a crap shoot. Depending on the time, channel, or if it's prime time, who knows who you'll get to listen to? Hillgrove, Tunch Ilkin, and Craig Wolfley are tremendous on WDVE, but unless you feel like spending time syncing your radio to your TV, or you're out and about on a Steelers Sunday (WHICH IS SACRILEGE), I don't think many are tuning in via satellite.

You could argue that Joe Buck, Al Michaels, and Doc Emrick are all icons in their respective fields, but that's on a national level.

Local broadcasters are where you really get into the beloved category. I'm not sure if there would be many, if anyone in the city of Pittsburgh that didn't admire Cope, Lange, or Prince. I think it's truly just a sign of the times. Maybe with our 70 inch screens and our cellphones to distract us until something actually happens, we aren't really interested in listening to what the announcers have to say these days. And that's unfortunate.

It's hard to strike gold like these franchises did with three iconic broadcasters in three different sports that made an impact on people since their childhood. Pittsburgh was lucky to have each one of these talented individuals, and I will be using their catchphrases for generations to come. I hope one day we'll see another bright star in the broadcasting field, one that can help revitalize a fan-base, maybe even to help people care about the Pirates again.

Never mind.

I'm not even sure a Triple Yoi would accomplish that.