Voices of Summer: The White Sox on Radio

BOB ELSON

     The home-team baseball broadcaster has a unique position among sports announcers. None other visits with fans every day for six months at a time, year after year after year. None other is so inseparable from our memories of specific players and games, or of lazy summer evenings from long ago. None other becomes virtually a family member for those who closely follow the team.
     The White Sox began broadcasting their games on radio in 1924, on television in 1948. Prior to 1944, the Sox did not grant exclusive rights to any radio station; as a result, multiple stations carried the games in any given year, including five in 1931 alone. Of the 11 stations that carried the games at one time or another during those years, no reliable record of the broadcasters exists today except for WMAQ and WGN.
     Below is the complete list of White Sox broadcasters on radio.

Radio Stations
Various, 1924-1943
WIND, 1944
WJJD, 1945-1951
WCFL, 1952-1966
WMAQ, 1967-1970
WTAQ, 1971-1972
WMAQ, 1973-1979
WBBM, 1980-1981
WMAQ, 1982-1995
WMVP, 1996-2005
WSCR, 2006-present

Radio Play-by-Play
Hal Totten (WMAQ), 1926-1934
Bob Elson (WGN), 1930-1942
Jack Brickhouse (WGN), 1943
Bob Elson, 1944-1970
Harry Caray, 1971-1981
Joe McConnell, 1982-1984
Lorn Brown, 1985-1988
John Rooney, 1989-2005
Ed Farmer, 2006-present

Radio Analyst
Jack Brickhouse (WGN), 1940-1942
Jack Brickhouse, 1945
Dick Bingham, 1952
Don Wells, 1953-1960
Ralph Kiner, 1961
Milo Hamilton, 1962-1965
Bob Finnegan, 1966
Red Rush, 1967-1970
Ralph Faucher, 1971-1972
Gene Osborn, 1973
Bill Mercer, 1974-1975
Lorn Brown, 1976-1979
Jimmy Piersall, 1977-1980
Mary Shane, 1977
Joe McConnell, 1980-1981
Rich King, 1980-1981
Early Wynn, 1982-1983
Lorn Brown, 1983-1984
Del Crandall, 1985-1988
Wayne Hagin, 1989-1991
Ed Farmer, 1992-2005
Chris Singleton, 2006-2007
Steve Stone, 2008
Darrin Jackson, 2009-present