Best (and Worst) Announcers?

[Beetle]

I'm not sure if this thread has been started before. Moderators, feel free to close this if it has already been discussed.

I've always had a thing for laughing at announcers and pointing out their weaknesses. Who are the best or worst announcers and why? I'll start out by giving my favorites and least favorites.

Favorites:
1. Steve Matchett: an awesomely geeky techie who will give you the scoop on anything as specific or as vague as you want. A true perfectionist at announcing and excels at it.
2. Calvin Fish: a good all around announcer who is not afraid to give his opinions on things.
3. Murray Walker: probably the worst announcer practically, but extremely lovable. The most funny announcer of all time without even trying.
4. Ben Edwards: he yelled a lot, but was very entertaining and informative.
5. Darrell Waltrip: I used to think he was terrible, but he grew on me. I like something about his personality which I still haven't put a finger on.
6. John Watson: really fun to listen to and is definitely not afraid to speak his mind. A good kind of "rough around the edges".
7. Tim Harvey: exciting and great to hear because of his numerous races in BTCC
8. David Hobbs: funny and memorable... enough said
9. John Hindhaugh: the best announcer of all time... energetic and, to me, the voice of motorsports.
10. Jeremy Shaw: JH's sidekick and almost as good. Really knowledgeable and smooth in speech.
11. Justin Bell: HILARIOUSNESS IN 2 MINUTES! That just about sums it up at Le Mans.

Least Favorites:
1. Leigh Diffey: he bullies his way to the top step of announcing, is not afraid to blow the speakers out when he shouts at the top of his lungs, and forces his enthusiasm. He acts like he feels he needs to literally shout everyone down.
2. Harry Vaulkhard: the laughing stock of announcing. He's the WTCC co-announcer, if you didn't know before. He hardly speaks a word and when he does you can't understand it because it's quiet as a mouse and jumbled up because of constant mumbling.
3. Dorsey Schroeder: kind of lovable, but really terrible at announcing. He's the king of mumbling and slurring speech, and frequently trails off into incomprehensible slurred mumbo-jumbo where only a couple of words are audible.
4. Bob Varsha: a smooth announcer but extremely overzealous in his vocabulary and speech. He often looks foolish using outlandish terms, phrases, and vocabulary. My favorite quote: "he's on Hamilton like a duck on a junebug!" No, just no...
5. Johnny O'Connell: sounds uncannily like Porky Pig. A fun guy, but he's quite obnoxious at moments.
6. Greg Creamer: forced enthusiasm and not much knowledge about racing
7. Bill Adam: worst announcer of all time. So negative and bitter about racing. Seems not to promote the sport but try to crush it with sheer negativity.
8. Toby Moody: extremely forced enthusiasm and not much technical knowledge. He makes me mad for some reason, probably because he unwittingly sounds very patronizing.



So, what do you all think?

[medius]

Harry Vaulkhard is a current driver, he is hired to fill in as co-commentator when Matt Neal isn't available. As he has current (well, 2-3 seasons past) WTCC experience, thats where his skills are. To say he's laughing stock is pretty thoughtless, seeing as he wasn't trained nor intended to make a career out of commentating, just helping out Eurosport when asked. Very much like Tim Harvey was when he first got behind the Mic 10 years ago, except Tim has had time to get used to the speaking role, Harry hasn't yet.

And on that subject, seeing as you're a WTCC Eurosport viewer, why isn't Martin Haven on the top list? He's brilliant, enthusiastic, colourful and insightful on everything he commentates on, from WTCC to Le Mans, to Bobsleigh!

[Beetle]

Originally Posted by medius

Harry Vaulkhard is a current driver, he is hired to fill in as co-commentator when Matt Neal isn't available. As he has current (well, 2-3 seasons past) WTCC experience, thats where his skills are. To say he's laughing stock is pretty thoughtless, seeing as he wasn't trained nor intended to make a career out of commentating, just helping out Eurosport when asked. Very much like Tim Harvey was when he first got behind the Mic 10 years ago, except Tim has had time to get used to the speaking role, Harry hasn't yet.

And on that subject, seeing as you're a WTCC Eurosport viewer, why isn't Martin Haven on the top list? He's brilliant, enthusiastic, colourful and insightful on everything he commentates on, from WTCC to Le Mans, to Bobsleigh!

Funny you mention Martin. I can't edit the OP now, but I agree, he is an enthusiastic announcer.

[Paradise City]

Jeremy Shaw is my favourite commentator by a country mile. He's meticulously informed, enthusiastic but never ridiculous and has a rare insight on racing incidents.

Least favourite is a certain Eurosport commentator. He commentates like he's smoking pot in the box. He giggles at peculiar intervals for mysterious reasons and merrily gets the entrants mispronounced and mixed up.

My honourable mention goes to long time NASCAR commentator Mike Joy.

Harry Vaulkhard reminds me, does anyone remember when Jody Scheckter took the mike replacing Brundle at ITV for one race? Disastrous commentary but with a certain charm. Poor Jody even apologised at the end but it was a heroic effort.

[Beetle]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

Jeremy Shaw is my favourite commentator by a country mile. He's meticulously informed, enthusiastic but never ridiculous and has a rare insight on racing incidents.

Least favourite is a certain Eurosport commentator. He commentates like he's smoking pot in the box. He giggles at peculiar intervals for mysterious reasons and merrily gets the entrants mispronounced and mixed up.

My honourable mention goes to long time NASCAR commentator Mike Joy.

Harry Vaulkhard reminds me, does anyone remember when Jody Scheckter took the mike replacing Brundle at ITV for one race? Disastrous commentary but with a certain charm. Poor Jody even apologised at the end but it was a heroic effort.

Absolutely agreed on the comparison between Harry and Jody! Uncanny!

God, Bill Adam was the worst. Remember his ALMS announcements in 2011?

You know, I take back what I said about O'Connell. Listening to his announcing in a different light, he is actually very educated about the sport and quite interesting at times. So I take back what I said about that. He's a great guy and I enjoy listening to him except when he yells!

[Deleted]

Martin Haven and Hindy are somewhere on the top of my list. Haven can make some silly errors from time to time and express some weird opinions 'cause he's talking faster than the speed of light, but he is just so enthuastic and cool guy with a voice that just fits motorsport. HÃ*ndy on the other hand can get extremely annoying and I often find myself strongly disagreeing with him, but you've got to respect that man. He's like the definition of sportscar racing commentary, people will remember him for a long time. Some character indeed...

Calvin Fish is my favourite American (co-)commentator... good humour as well as great knowledge (even about the series he shouln't be that familar with, like GP2). I like other Speed faces ie Schraider, Diffey and Brian Till too, they all have their strenghts and weaknesses but they act as a good and fun team that can work together easily.

Jamie Howe, she's easily my favourite pit lane reporter of all time. Knows her stuff and does it well, seems very enthuastic and clear voice & pretty looks. Add Justin Bell to that as the official comic relief and you have a neat pit team

Other names worth mentioning: Jeremy Shaw, Graham Tyler & Richard Nichols (from old FIA GT). Also if we wanna talk about roundy-roundy racing, Rick Allan is my choice for the job

If we wanna talk about the worst, I guess I could name about all of the Finnish presenters commentating motorsports on any given channel. Tero Karhu, Erkki Vanhanen, Timo Pulkkinen etc, all those guys... I'd rather watch Ukranian football for 30 hours straight than listen to those idiots who cannot even form proper words, let alone distinguish a racing car from a helicopter... Eurosport and Motors TV often have very low quality english commentators as well. So I guess I'll just answer Carlton Kirby to that, he's so terrible it's not even funny. Honourable mentions to Chris Parsons and Jerome D'Ambrosio who are not really commentators as per say but when they get into the booth they both really sound like the most boring thing on earth

[DS"]

I really envy the British and American motorsport viewers, as they can pick of a good bunch of competent commentators. In Germany we have perhaps only a handful of decent commentators and most of them work for Eurosport. The only exception is Jacques Schulz who commentates F1 on Sky. Although he is notorious for his "emotions" (He even reached meme status with "Scream collections" on YT, until they were taken down. Wouldn't make me if Schulz himself let them be taken down, because he seemed to dislike them.), he is still more competent than his counterpart from RTL (Who shockingly was actually a bit more decent in the 90's!).

And as I said, the rest works at Eurosport. They have some bits that are a bit annoying, (Uwe Winter (Who commentates WTCC) tends to bash, or rather ignore the DTM quite a lot, Norbert Ockenga (Who commentates the rest) rather shamefully plugs his own magazine!) but they are very competent, and that's what matters the most to me.

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Originally Posted by Beetle

So, what do you all think?

Best for me:

1. Jeremy Shaw-Knowledgeable, smooth but also can get excited and passionate. Is a lot more honest than JH and will admit if somebody has made an error on track or in the stewards room.

2. Ben Edwards-"TRACY HAS LOST IT!!!! WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT???!!! HE'S THROWN IT AWAY DOWN AT TURN #3! HE WAS LEADING MONTOYA, HE FINDS HIS WORTH, AND GET'S IT GOING AGAIN!!" His call of the Chinese GP this year was awesome.

3. Mike Joy-Brilliant at everything he covers. Knowledgeable about every form of motorsport and sticks out like a Harvard Scholar in a clown show while doing NASCAR on FOX.

4. Martin Haven-A god of announcing races, has the full package of skills required to be a decent commentator.

5. Calvin Fish-For the reasons everybody else has stated.

6. David Hobbs-Opinionated, Funny, Knowledgable, and an all around great match with Varsha and Matchett

7. John Hindhaugh-Don't agree with a lot of what this guy says, but passionate about the sport and an overall robust commentator who like Ben Edwards gets extremely excited in the booth without making a fool of himself.

8. Bob Varsha-I think the chemistry works well and he makes a great lead announcer for the American/Carribean F1 coverage. Had a chat with him once at Road Atlanta and he's a very smart man.

9. Steve Matchett-A nerd, and an awesome one at that.

10. David Addison-Suprised nobody has mentioned him, this guy is a great commentator who keeps up with the race minute-by-minute. He deserves a gold medal for his solo coverage of the Blancpain Endurance Series.

Worst for me:

1. Robbie Nock-Not a commentator, but anybody who watched Eurosport LM coverage knows what I'm talking about. Sad that millions are unemployed while this guy gets a job talking to some stoned French female reporters and asking questions that have the relevance of a steam engine.

2. Johnny O'Connell-I don't care about his experience, he comes across as a stuttering porky pig with an epilepsy. Horrible, and very bias when it comes to the GT field for obvious reasons.

3. Dorsey Schroeder-Scott Pruett's secret lover, he must be as he spends about 80% of the race talking about him and Ganassi during GA coverage. Horrible at announcing but respect his racing career.

4. Scott Pruett-"Hi to my family at home" "The Mussalon Straight" and his constant mentions of 'Grand Am', 'Ganassi' and 'Daytona' during LM24 coverage make you facepalm throughout his stints.

5. Greg Creamer- When will this guy retire? He seems to always show up somewhere. He ruins MotoGP coverage and was one of the worst commentators the ALMS ever had.

6. Johnathon Legard-Radio annoucing on television: Recipe for epic failure

7. Michael Waltrip-Loves Toyota, Kyle Busch and Cup drivers dominating Truck Series. Can't speak english and plugs sponsors every two seconds.

8. Darrell Waltrip-Challenging the English language, Meterology, and the Attention span of millions of Americans every week.

9. Bill Adam- Some Zombie resurrected in 2011, thankfully he is gone again.

10. Scott Goodyear-Should be higher on the list, just boring, simply boring, but I think him along with Marty and Eddie did a great job covering the Las Vegas Indycar tragedy considering the circumstances.

[Peat]

Will Buxton - Dreadful.

[Beetle]

Originally Posted by Peat

Will Buxton - Dreadful.

Yeah I always find myself shouting "shut the f^!k up Buxton!" during F1 races.

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by FordCosworthPanoz

9. Bill Adam- Some Zombie resurrected in 2011, thankfully he is gone again

I don't think he was BAD... just totally useless. Whatever happened to him, did he retire or something? You kinda sensed his thoughts last year: "what a hell am I doing here?"


--
Legard was terrible of course but at least not as Hamilton-loving as his predecessor mr Allen. I still remember how much I wanted to throw the TV out of the window whenever he started his usual 20 minute Lewis praising sessions in 2007/2008

One 'legendary' figure in Finnish F1 broadcasts is Erkki Mustakari. The guy has probably attended every Grand Prix held since the invention of wheel, but he's still about as knowledgeable about the sport as your next door neighbour's old, stupid dog that is not only blind but also mentally retarded

[Beetle]

Originally Posted by Chiana

I don't think he was BAD... just totally useless. Whatever happened to him, did he retire or something? You kinda sensed his thoughts last year: "what a hell am I doing here?"


--
Legard was terrible of course but at least not as Hamilton-loving as his predecessor mr Allen. I still remember how much I wanted to throw the TV out of the window whenever he started his usual 20 minute Lewis praising sessions in 2007/2008

One 'legendary' figure in Finnish F1 broadcasts is Erkki Mustakari. The guy has probably attended every Grand Prix held since the invention of wheel, but he's still about as knowledgeable about the sport as your next door neighbour's old, stupid dog that is not only blind but also mentally retarded

Woah, that's a rant.

Bill Adam sucked, OK?

At Mid-Ohio... "oh come on... cold tires... your own... TEAMMATE!!!" Lol, he was a grumpy old man alright who couldn't put sentences together.

[Paradise City]

The kind of visceral hatred directed towards James Allen is a mysterious thing to me. Legard, yes. A football autocue reader with three or four wooden catchphrases on a two-hour feedback loop but Allen wasn't that bad a commentator, IMO. What irritated me about him was a slightly annoying voice and for reasons that are harder to justify his habit of asking Brundle 'Who was his driver of the race was' which used to get up my nose. All relatively small stuff, some of it down to my own bizarre tastes. I've read in a few places that Allen was encouraged to take things in a jingoistic direction, by ITV higher ups but I was never put off by that myself, although that maybe down to the fact I had Irish commentators available as an option if Allen ever got too wild.

Jeremy Shaw and David Addison would be the commentary team in which you would want for nothing. Hindhaugh is in the upper-band of top-gun commentators although he can occasionally get into the habit of lavishing compliments too aggressively upon entrants during racing commentary which incidentally is a striking antidote to his occasional acidic views on his radio shows. He also falls into the easy trap of telling us how entertaining the race is which leaves the impression that he's insecure about criticisms from those who don't understand the endurance-racing philosophy. There's none of that with Addison, he rarely compliments so when he does, you know the manoeuvre is special and is at completely ease with allowing the spectators themselves to decide how entertaining a given race is.

[The Fat Clerk]

My favourite by a mile is John (the boy) Hindaugh, his enthusiasm is infectious.
My least favourite is Brian Jones, I can remember marshalling at Brands 20 or so years ago, when his son was racing in F3, he was struggling to keep up at the back, whilst at the front there was a 4 car battle going on. All Brian could talk about was his wretched brat for the whole race, in the end we disconnected the tannoy!

[Beetle]

Originally Posted by The Fat Clerk

My favourite by a mile is John (the boy) Hindaugh, his enthusiasm is infectious.
My least favourite is Brian Jones, I can remember marshalling at Brands 20 or so years ago, when his son was racing in F3, he was struggling to keep up at the back, whilst at the front there was a 4 car battle going on. All Brian could talk about was his wretched brat for the whole race, in the end we disconnected the tannoy!

Agreed. Here is a spoof on the Rolex announcers and their look a-likes.

Leigh Diffey: Gopher from Caddyshack
Calvin Fish: Snow Miser from A Year Without Santa Claus
Dorsey Schroeder: a shoe-billed stork





No, I wasn't drinking when I was Photoshopping!

[FordCosworthPanoz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGSJ3...layer_embedded

Alfredo Nin.


CHYIP CHYIP CHIYP CHIYP CHIYP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Beetle]

Originally Posted by FordCosworthPanoz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGSJ3...layer_embedded

Alfredo Nin.


CHYIP CHYIP CHIYP CHIYP CHIYP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a goober!

[kurski]

Originally Posted by Chiana

If we wanna talk about the worst, I guess I could name about all of the Finnish presenters commentating motorsports on any given channel. Tero Karhu, Erkki Vanhanen, Timo Pulkkinen etc, all those guys... I'd rather watch Ukranian football for 30 hours straight than listen to those idiots who cannot even form proper words, let alone distinguish a racing car from a helicopter.

In my opinion, Erkki Vanhanen was relatively good, though his eloquence was bad. Many consider Eurosport WTCC and Le Mans 24h commentator Risto Virtanen, Finnish best commentator. Virtanen explained a few years back in the Canal+ channel F3 and DTM races well, he is a former driver and very knowledgeable guy.

Virtanen partner Eero Simojoki is perhaps the worst Finnish motor racing commentator. I remember when Simojoki explained the 2009 LMS (Paul Ricard) race, he enthused too much commentary booth and Memory Simojoki finally mention that the series is really a viable option for many drivers in over there Formula One when you can hold only a limited several of drivers.

Originally Posted by Chiana

One 'legendary' figure in Finnish F1 broadcasts is Erkki Mustakari. The guy has probably attended every Grand Prix held since the invention of wheel, but he's still about as knowledgeable about the sport as your next door neighbour's old, stupid dog that is not only blind but also mentally retarded

Erkki Mustakari was the 1989 Portuguese Grand Prix since each time with the F1 race weekend of racing for over 22 years. 381 race pipe was broken in Bahrain GP 2012, when he traveled there does not. Several of fans are Finnish has been said that by Erkki has recently been surprisingly good, some of his fans want to he replace Timo Pulkkinen.

Finland MTV3 F1 commentator Mika Salo has already been hired to bring more expertise, and he knows how well-managed GridWalk share. Just like Salon man has hoped broadcasts years of JJ's (Lehto) "of course, of course," and Mustakari 'Oh well' yawn instead.

[Beetle]

Originally Posted by kurski

In my opinion, Erkki Vanhanen was relatively good, though his eloquence was bad. Many consider Eurosport WTCC and Le Mans 24h commentator Risto Virtanen, Finnish best commentator. Virtanen explained a few years back in the Canal+ channel F3 and DTM races well, he is a former driver and very knowledgeable guy.

Virtanen partner Eero Simojoki is perhaps the worst Finnish motor racing commentator. I remember when Simojoki explained the 2009 LMS (Paul Ricard) race, he enthused too much commentary booth and Memory Simojoki finally mention that the series is really a viable option for many drivers in over there Formula One when you can hold only a limited several of drivers.Erkki Mustakari was the 1989 Portuguese Grand Prix since each time with the F1 race weekend of racing for over 22 years. 381 race pipe was broken in Bahrain GP 2012, when he traveled there does not. Several of fans are Finnish has been said that by Erkki has recently been surprisingly good, some of his fans want to he replace Timo Pulkkinen.

Finland MTV3 F1 commentator Mika Salo has already been hired to bring more expertise, and he knows how well-managed GridWalk share. Just like Salon man has hoped broadcasts years of JJ's (Lehto) "of course, of course," and Mustakari 'Oh well' yawn instead.

I'm not Finnish but I imagine JJ Lehto wouldn't be the greatest.

[Paradise City]

The "Snow Miser" looks alot like David Hobbs actually.. Who I have always found to be a amiable commentator btw.

[kurski]

Originally Posted by Beetle

I'm not Finnish but I imagine JJ Lehto wouldn't be the greatest.

JJ Lehto was MTV3 F1 commentator from 2001-2010. He was a good commentator and was aware of as manythe cases as to Salo.

[Beetle]

Originally Posted by kurski

JJ Lehto was MTV3 F1 commentator from 2001-2010. He was a good commentator and was aware of as manythe cases as to Salo.

Really? What happened to Salo in racing, anyway?

[strider]

Originally Posted by Beetle

Really? What happened to Salo in racing, anyway?

Still racing Ferraris in GTs. He sacrificed the 1999 German GP to Irvine for them and in return they've kept him gainfully employed ever since.

[Beetle]

Originally Posted by strider

Still racing Ferraris in GTs. He sacrificed the 1999 German GP to Irvine for them and in return they've kept him gainfully employed ever since.

Wow... kind of stupid of me to ask this question since I have Google!

Thanks for the information, anyway. Now this one cannot really be looked up because it requires personal opinion. Why was everyone saying "good riddance" to Salo after he left? Was he really reckless or something?

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by strider

Still racing Ferraris in GTs. He sacrificed the 1999 German GP to Irvine for them and in return they've kept him gainfully employed ever since.

Still racing GTs? Where? IIRC the last race he did was Sebring 2011 for Risi