[Magdalen] Cossell Brick

[Jim Guthrie]

Howard Cosell was an interesting guy -- a lawyer turned broadcaster.

I especially appreciated his "Speaking of Everything" on ABC radio -- weekly 
interviews with authors of books he found interesting.

He recognized pro sports as being in the business of entertainment -- not as a 
"sport" in the classic sense, which annoyed the heck out of foaming football 
fans, especially. He annoyed more people by being respectful of Cassius Clay 
when he found religion and became Muhammad Ali. People hated respect for a 
person of color and especially one who adopted a name that signified "the 
other."

Add to that  an overt cynicism about the business that was reflected in his 
commentary, there were lots of people out there with "Cosell Bricks" <g>.

OTOH, he became persona non-grata at WSTC Stamford (where he originated is 
morning sports show on radio) after he made an error on the network and being 
angry with himself, threw a pair of headphones toward the window to the control 
room with such force that he broke the window,

After that, ABC built him a studio in his home in North Salem, NY, to send his 
8:25 AM ET sports show to the network; and due to union rules, sent a broadcast 
engineer there every morning in a limo, that also fetched Cosell with the 
engineer to the studios in NY. The limo earlier (around 4:30 AM) to Lou Boda's 
townhouse on the upper east side for his show at 7:10 AM.

When ABC radio relocated t to the "Studebaker Garage" the newsroom was a large 
open areas, and a dozen studios/control rooms in glass enclosures surrounding 
the newsroom.

But at one end there were two rooms with closed (and usually locked doors. One 
had a sign saying "Mr. Cosell" and the other said "Mr. Harvey -- representing 
the two most popular personalities on the network.

(BTW, you might have noted the absence of the long-time ABC tagline, "More 
people get their News from ABC than any other source." -- because they always 
counted Paul Harvey to reach that lofty number, and when Harvey died, it was no 
longer accurate.

Cheers,
Jim





-----Original Message----- 
From: P. Dan Brittain
Sent: Sunday, January 03, 2016 10:54 PM
To: magdalen at herberthouse.org
Subject: [Magdalen] Cossell Brick

Does anyone recognize the term?

Several (understatement) years ago, whenever Howard would appear on the
small screen, his pronouncements would make us want to shove a brick
through the tv screen.

We got around the adverse effects  by getting a piece of foam, cutting it
the size of a brick, and throwing that at the screen.

Tonight, I wondered what had happened to the one made many years ago.
Was trying to print some things off at the Army retired pay center - Took 5
tries to log in, including having to change a password. Later, my wife
wondered about a figure, so I tried to go back on again - same problems
again; but I can't change the pw again in that short a time; so must call
sometime tomorrow.

I'm not totally useless around tech, can do a lot of it fairly well. This
has to be one of the worst sites I've seen.

-- 
P. Dan Brittain
Harrison, Arkansas

http//:pdanbrittain.com
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