Washington’s WTOP radio had no idea whom they had hired when Frank Herzog came aboard in 1968.
Initially a copy boy making a mere $2 an hour, then a production assistant editing audio for the WTOP radio newscasts, Frank desired to do some actual reporting.
This is the second installment in our Commanders Wire feature on Washington broadcast legend Frank Herzog. Here is part one.
Working the weekends at WTOP, doing some radio reporting he suddenly found himself making his first TV appearance reporting at the penitentiary in Jessup, Maryland in what Frank believes was 1971 or ’72.
WTOP TV9 was broadcasting a 15-minute Redskins highlights segment on Sunday nights and a producer approached Frank one of his weekends at WTOP radio, asking Frank if he would like to voice over the highlights. Herzog hesitated because he was in radio, not television. “Don’t worry about it; I will cue you for each play,” was the reply to Herzog. “He put together the highlight package, wrote the script, sat out of view of the camera, and would signal me each new play to read the script, and that’s how I started in sports.”
“The ratings went crazy, through the charts,” expressed Herzog. Warner Wolf the weekday WTOP 9 sports anchor hearing of this, then wanted the segment himself.” Herzog quickly learned the big guns would receive the first choice in what work they performed.
Herzog was being noticed as doing a good job in news reporting when he was approached in December 1972 by a WTOP producer, Fred Farrar. A fellow reporter had called in sick. WTOP needed a reporter and fast!
Farrar was “asking” Herzog to go to RFK to report the playoff game against the Packers. Herzog insisted, “Freddy, I know some football, but not that well, to cover an NFL playoff game.”
“Frank, just do your news reporting, who, what, when, where and why. I will lead you through it to the press box and then you do some interviews and you will be fine.”
#Packers – #Redskins Today
1972 NFC Divisional Rematch#NFL pic.twitter.com/G9PK5BQSfg— Kevin Gallagher (@KevG163) January 10, 2016
It was Herzog’s first NFL work. It went so well for Herzog that he was assigned to the game the next Sunday as well. Keep in mind, this was not the preseason or regular season. The defending Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys were coming to RFK to face the Redskins in the 1972 NFC Championship game, for a ticket to Super Bowl VII.
Again it went well and Herzog’s work as a reporter did not go unnoticed. Monday he sat in on a WTOP meeting. “I was sitting there thinking, ‘I have reported two NFL games. Are you kidding me? Are they talking about sending me to the Super Bowl?’ ”
“Freddy and I were sent to LA for a week, covering all the hoopla for Super Bowl VII. But of course Washington lost to Miami. But that is when I began as a sports reporter. I had been in the right place at the right time.”
A year later when the play-by-play announcer did not want to do a Bullets broadcast (on what Herzog thinks was Christmas Eve), he approached Herzog inquiring if he might like to do the Bullets game himself. Herzog agreed to, and it was his first time at play-by-play announcing an NBA game.
In 1975 he was approached by the WTOP director, informing Herzog, “We think you should go into play-by-play announcing.”
“You get me a team, and I’ll do it, replied Herzog.”
“Ok, we already got the Bullets PBP job for you.”
“I felt awful. Tony Roberts was the Bullets PBP announcer. So I responded, ‘But what about Tony?’ ”
It was explained to Herzog they were moving in a different direction. They thought with Herzog’s news and sports reporting experience he could handle it. But if he didn’t want the job, they would find someone else.
“So, I got the job.”
Frank Herzog had gone from copy boy to production assistant, to radio news reader, to news reporter, to sports reporter, a sports reporter covering Super Bowl VII, to PBP announcer for the NBA’s Washington Bullets in only seven years.
Next time: Frank Herzog the voice of Washington Champions
