THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 21, 1996 TAG: 9607210049
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: 70 lines
Thanks, but no thanks.
That's what Bob Fitchett told College of William and Mary officials at Walter J. Zable Stadium on Saturday morning. His rejection put an unexpected crimp in the school's unusual search for a new voice to announce Tribe home football and basketball games.
Although Fitchett, a 46-year-old morning radio disc jockey in Gloucester, was offered the job from a field of 18 hopefuls after several rounds of tryouts, he decided to turn it down.
The honor went to Chuck Wolf, a 31-year-old financial analyst from Richmond.
Fitchett had survived the initial trials, welcoming imaginary fans to the stadium and making test announcements over the public address system.
As his wife waited in the stands, Fitchett went head-to-head with Wolf and a third finalist, Jonathan N. Manning, a 31-year-old actor.
The trio took turns calling a series of plays shown in the announcer's booth on a television with the sound off.
Then Robert L. Goodman, William and Mary's director of marketing, announced the judges' near-unanimous choice of Fitchett.
He was congratulated by the runners-up and had his photo taken by a pair of news photographers. But then the winner climbed down the stands and sheepishly approached the judges.
He'd been looking for a Saturday job that paid more, he explained to a shocked panel. For each home football game, the announcer gets lunch and $50. During hoops season, the announcer gets $25 per game, plus dinner. Fitchett had not known the sum was so paltry when he arrived at the stadium.
He learned the pay rate when he read the competition instructions before the auditions, but had chosen to compete anyway.
Fitchett apologized, then explained, ``I was hoping it would be more pay.''
Mike Blacker, the 49-year-old announcer for the Richmond Braves minor league baseball club, was one of the judges.
``What a revolting development,'' he declared soon after Fitchett left the stadium.
Goodman set out after Wolf, the No. 2 choice. He was heading across the parking lot with his wife and daughter when Goodman caught up with them and delivered the news.
So ended a day of competition so tight that every stumble echoed like a rifle shot through the quaint, brick-walled stadium, and every mispronounced word glared like the sun on a clear day.
Goodman, a personable man with tight-cropped blond hair, couldn't help but shake his head at Fitchett's exit, which made him feel ``like I'd been kicked in the gut.''
He took heart in the fact that Wolf was capable of doing the job, and ready to learn.
Goodman, who played baseball at the University of Virginia, said, ``You can't do it for the money.''
Wolf agreed. He said he auditioned because it seemed like fun. Friends had told him his voice seemed like one that would succeed on radio. He came to put those pipes to the test.
And Wolf, clad in a Baltimore Orioles shirt, said he likes sports. He liked the thought of getting paid to watch a game.
It was an odd finish, Wolf said. But at least William and Mary has its new voice, whose taut tones will swell above the cheers of 15,000 green-clad Tribe faithful in September.
``In six months,'' he noted with a grin, ``nobody will remember that I was No. 2.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
``In six months, nobody will remember that I was No. 2,'' Chuck Wolf
said Saturday. Bob Fitchett, his fellow finalist for the William and
Mary home sports announcer's job, auditioned, was chosen, then
declined, saying he'd hoped for higher pay. by CNB