• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Pittsburgh Steeler's Myron Cope Hanging up the headphones.

R

radiogeek07

From the Pittsburgh Post Gazzette
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05172/525952.stm
It's incredibly sad, but he has been struggling the last couple of years.
I remember last year listening to a game on the way back to school and coming close to trying to find a national feed of the game.
We're gona miss you Myron.
 
> From the Pittsburgh Post Gazzette
> http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05172/525952.stm
> It's incredibly sad, but he has been struggling the last couple of years.
> I remember last year listening to a game on the way back to
> school and coming close to trying to find a national feed of the game.
> We're gona miss you Myron.

Here's another article on Cope from NFL.com:
<a target="_blank" href=http://www.nfl.com/teams/story/PIT/8583769>http://www.nfl.com/teams/story/PIT/8583769</a>

I'm not a Steeler fan and I never heard him in his prime, but when I have listened to him he was usually rather incoherent.

The game vs the Eagles last year, where he was taken to the hospital at halftime, was probably the saddest broadcast I've heard anyone do. He wasn't commenting on anything resembling the game on the field and even the other broadcasters were getting on him. I'm sure they didn't realize how bad a shape he was in at the time. I'm surprised he came back at all after that.

Myron Cope was a great color man at one time, so long-time Steeler fans tell me, but he's become another Harry Caray-post-1987 (when he had his stroke). He needs to take care of his heath first but I'm sure he'll be missed by Steeler fans. I certainly wish him well.
 
But the fact of the matter is-

Myron Cope IS a Harry Caray type figure. And to do that as a radio announcer in football is even MORE impressive since we tend to watch the games on TV and not listen to them on the radio as we do in baseball.

But in Pittsburgh, certainly I and so many other fans turned down the sound to listen to his wit and wisdom.

Also, if I could compare Caray with Cope, remember Caray wore out his welcome at three different locales- St. Louis, Oakland, and the White Sox. Cope was a journalist first and while you certainly knew he was rooting for the Steelers- this is also the guy who could get away with singing "Twas a Season the Steelers Should Have Spent in Prison" on TV- and get away with it.

Steelers broadcasts will never be the same. Luckily, we can all await the book he hinted he would be writing in his retirement.
 
Re: But the fact of the matter is-

I never had a chance to hear Myron before his skills apparently diminished, since I've only lived in Pennsylvania for a couple years. I can see, however, how he would be worshipped. He was distinctly Pittsburgh, with his accent, his verbage, his commentary. Came off as a blue-collar Pittsburgh guy that pulled himself up from the bootstraps, someone you might wanna share a Yuengling or an Iron City with.

His voice initially startled me (in a bad way), but now I hope I still get to hear it somewhere. Maybe he'll be able to continue Cope's Cabana.
 
Re: Cope & Caray

> Myron Cope IS a Harry Caray type figure. And to do that as a
> radio announcer in football is even MORE impressive since we
> tend to watch the games on TV and not listen to them on the
> radio as we do in baseball.

That's what everyone I know from Pittsburgh tells me - he was to football what Caray was to baseball, when both men were in their primes. But the 3 years I've listened to him, he was just awful. So was Harry the last 5 years of his life.

> But in Pittsburgh, certainly I and so many other fans turned
> down the sound to listen to his wit and wisdom.
>
> Also, if I could compare Caray with Cope, remember Caray
> wore out his welcome at three different locales- St. Louis,
> Oakland, and the White Sox. Cope was a journalist first and
> while you certainly knew he was rooting for the Steelers-
> this is also the guy who could get away with singing "Twas a
> Season the Steelers Should Have Spent in Prison" on TV- and
> get away with it.
>
> Steelers broadcasts will never be the same. Luckily, we can
> all await the book he hinted he would be writing in his
> retirement.

The difference between Harry & Myron is that Cope is a trained writer & journalist. He got into broadcasting almost by accident.

Caray was strictly a broadcaster. He had no journalistic training at all, but it wasn't required for his job since he was never a writer. His main jobs as a baseball play-by-play man were to (1) sell beer, (2) get people into the ballpark, (3) describe the game accurately, and (4) sell beer. Since teams sold their broadcast rights to breweries rather than stations in the '40s, this was expected.

And as far as Harry "wearing out his welcome," he was fired in St. Louis, allegedly for an affair with one of the Busch wives (something he didn't confirm or deny). He was in Oakland for only one year, after which he was "traded" to the White Sox for Bob Elson and Red Rush. Caray was fired in '75 by Sox owner John Allyn but was rehired by Bill Veeck when he bought the team after that season.

He could have stayed with the Sox after '81 but decided to not sign a new contract when they went to pay-TV (he wasn't fired but his contract was up). It was only then that he took the Cubs job.

Harry Caray never wore out his welcome with his fans. Myron Cope never did either.
 
Re: But the fact of the matter is-

> I never had a chance to hear Myron before his skills
> apparently diminished, since I've only lived in Pennsylvania
> for a couple years. I can see, however, how he would be
> worshipped. He was distinctly Pittsburgh, with his accent,
> his verbage, his commentary. Came off as a blue-collar
> Pittsburgh guy that pulled himself up from the bootstraps,
> someone you might wanna share a Yuengling or an Iron City
> with.
>
> His voice initially startled me (in a bad way), but now I
> hope I still get to hear it somewhere. Maybe he'll be able
> to continue Cope's Cabana.


Being a longtime Browns fan, I couldnt stand Cope when he was on..Thought he was a bad Cosell Imitation..Though I respect what he has meant to Steeler fans and I hope he gets well.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.
Back
Top Bottom