2010 Terry Kielty

Terry Kielty

Baseball figured prominently early in the career of Ottawa’s Terry Kielty who died in 2010 at 86. Terry was one of the most accomplished  ‘re-creators’ of baseball games on radio of his era. When travel was too expensive (a game just too far away) Terry would ‘broadcast’ the game from the CFRA studios in Ottawa.

He did actually get to go to Tiger Stadium and Ebbetts Field to cover games, but when the Dodgers and Tigers, which CFRA covered, were on the road he got every ball and strike but few other details from the game on a ticker tape. Assisted by his control room operator they’d add crowd background which had been recorded at an earlier game and effects like the crack of the bat and excited shouts from the fans.
He’d ‘flesh out’ the basic hit, run, ball, strike information by inventing descriptive detail — like a fan scrambling for a foul ball or a majestic homer driven into the stands.
He started these ‘studio’ broadcasts by informing the audience it was a ‘re-create’ game — but then made it sound as much as possible like the real thing to make it exciting for them. This experience made him a master ‘ad-libber’ which stood him in good stead in dealing with the many delays and gaps in play of the many really live broadcasts he was assigned to do during his long career.
From 1977 to 1986, he was president of the Ottawa Rough Riders, a team he knew well, having covered it as a broadcaster. He also served as chairman of the Canadian Football League’s board of governors in 1981 and for 12 years he performed master of ceremony duties at the CFL Schenley Awards. He was later inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

Baseball figured prominently early in the career of Ottawa’s Terry Kielty who died earlier this year at 86. Terry was one of the most accomplished  ‘re-creators’ of baseball games on radio of his era. When travel was too expensive (a game just too far away) Terry would ‘broadcast’ the game from the CFRA studios in Ottawa.

He did actually get to go to Tiger Stadium and Ebbetts Field to cover games, but when the Dodgers and Tigers, which CFRA covered, were on the road he got every ball and strike but few other details from the game on a ticker tape. Assisted by his control room operator they’d add crowd background which had been recorded at an earlier game and effects like the crack of the bat and excited shouts from the fans. He’d ‘flesh out’ the basic hit, run, ball, strike information by inventing descriptive detail — like a fan scrambling for a foul ball or a majestic homer driven into the stands. He started these ‘studio’ broadcasts by informing the audience it was a ‘re-create’ game — but then made it sound as much as possible like the real thing to make it exciting for them.

This experience made him a master ‘ad-libber’ which stood him in good stead in dealing with the many delays and gaps in play of the many really live broadcasts he was assigned to do during his long career. From 1977 to 1986, he was president of the Ottawa Rough Riders, a team he knew well, having covered it as a broadcaster.

He also served as chairman of the Canadian Football League’s board of governors in 1981 and for 12 years he performed master of ceremony duties at the CFL Schenley Awards. He was later inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.