Posted by chicagomedia.org on April 12, 2009 at 16:43:09:
'It begins and ends here in Chicago'
Bulls radio voice Swirsky back in swing after 15-year absence
April 12, 2009
BY JIM O'DONNELL
Chuck Swirsky was once a determined pioneer in a promising new age of Chicago sportscasting. He is now a memorable influence back and thriving.
Almost 15 years here, almost 15 years gone -- to Detroit (1994-98) and Toronto (1998-2008). If the career symmetry fits, explain it.
''I learned that Chicago is indeed the best sports city in the world,'' said Swirsky, nearing the end of his first season as radio play-by-play man for the Bulls. ''I never took the city or landscape for granted while I worked in Chicago. But being away just made me appreciate Chicago that much more.''
The media playscape he returned to seems so arid now. The beckoning promise of double-bore radio sports talk essentially has been diced and devoured by poltroons and pull-my-finger intellects with precious few pockets of redemptive quality.
Swirsky never would consider himself a broadcast-sports giant. Given his unflappable core decency and overwhelming respect for the vagaries of the human condition, he likely would deflect any such suggestion quicker than a Ben Gordon jumper.
But with the same talent, balance and reason that has imagineered his sportscasting career, Swirsky accomplished the essentially undoable last summer: He returned to the local fray after that 15-year hiatus basically on his own terms.
As anyone who can tell John Salmons from Chico Salmon can attest, Swirsky is back -- maybe not bigger than ever, but certainly pointed that way. Alongside analyst Bill Wennington, he is bringing all sorts of new energy and Bulls-shaka-laka to gamecasts on WMVP-AM (1000).
Real-timers ask: Who is this guy?
Old-dimers ask: Where has he been?
''The Swirsk'' himself is asked: What drives you?
''I am driven because I am living a dream that began as a 5-year-old child,'' Swirsky, 54, said. ''I take nothing for granted. Nothing. I am driven because I am calling play-by-play for the Chicago Bulls. I am driven because I want to thank people for believing in me. I am driven because I want to encourage and assist others in the business, and the best way of doing so is to excel in your given profession and do it in the right way, without ego or self-absorbed adulation. I am driven because I love what I do and I fight hard every day to be better than I was the previous day.''
'And that's the bottom line'
Swirsky's previous days in Chicago were most notable for the undeniable voiceprint he left on the possibilities of local sports talk. From his inauspicious 1979 debut on the dying WCFL-AM -- a once-proud rocker by then reduced to transmitter, electricity and a dwindling cadre of on-air talent -- to his dancing days as managing editor of radio sports at WGN (1983-94), Swirsky and his biff-bam style suggested that opinionated host, information and listeners could interface with engaging texture and retain mutual dignity.
''He plunged headlong into Chicago sports mania,'' wrote Gary Deeb, then en route to mega-legend status as radio-TV critic at the Sun-Times. ''Quite a few local sportswriters who ordinarily react to broadcasters with disdain expressed their respect for Swirsky's reportorial talents. He also established his own popular, albeit corny, trademark -- a tough opinion, delivered with unbending authority, followed by the phrase: 'And that's the bottom line.''
Such audio theatrics led to quick parody, the masterful Bruce Wolf's ''Chet Chitchat'' being the enduring Exhibit CCC. But it also led to a quick ascent for Swirsky. He left WCFL in the winter of 1980-81 for a stint at WLUP-FM, primarily alongside white-hot radio visionary Steve Dahl and his forever-Ringo sidekick Garry Meier. Then, less than two years later, with the vastly successful WGN-AM trying to shed its image as ''the gray old lady'' of Chicago radio, Swirsky was summoned to its hallowed studios.
For 11 years, Swirsky soared. Then in the late summer of 1994, the kid from Seattle by way of Ohio University shocked the local broadcast telegraph with the announcement that he was leaving for a gig as sports director at WJR-AM in Detroit and play-by-play voice of University of Michigan basketball. Four years after that, it was on to Toronto with the NBA's Raptors. Chicago, it seemed, had seen the last of the onetime boy bottom-liner, especially as he achieved remarkable popularity in Canada's largest city.
Asked to recount Swirsky's impact north of Niagara Falls, Toronto Star sports-media columnist Chris Zelkovich said: ''Few had neutral opinions on Chuck. In my opinion, casual fans -- the majority around the Raptors -- loved him because he brought an energy level that few in this market could match. He made the games entertaining, which wasn't always easy. He also developed a near-cult following. But hard-core basketball fans tended to find him a bit overbearing, a homer and a bit too gimmicky. I could see their point, but I sided with the casual fans.''
He dubbed then-young Raptors cloud-climber Vince Carter ''Air Canada.'' The team gave away more than 18,000 Chuck Swirsky bobblehead dolls at two home games. T-shirts appeared in abundance around Raptors events with the slogan ''Salami and cheese.'' That was a slice of Swirsky that came about when a listener wrote in and asked if Swirsky could develop a nightly ''in'' phrase to announce that a Raptors victory had been cinched so that the man could leave the broadcast to go and make a sandwich.
In the end, Swirsky even became a Canadian citizen. By last spring, though, a southwesterly broadcast breeze was blowing through his Ontario household.
Energy, enthusiasm, e-mails
Through team keyholes, it long has been rumored that chairman Jerry Reinsdorf was a keen fan of Swirsky from his days with morning giants Wally Phillips and Bob Collins at WGN. Said Bulls vice president Steve Schanwald: ''He's one of the top play-by-play men in the NBA. He also cares deeply and passionately about the Bulls and the city of Chicago. And his style of calling a game is so enthusiastic that it is almost contagious, and it enhances the entertainment value of our radio broadcasts.''
Swirsky confirmed that he took a ''sizable'' pay cut to return to Chicago, but he adds: ''My family comes first, and my wife and I felt this was the right time and place to leave Toronto, a wonderful, beautiful city. But we are so happy to be back and reconnected. We are even basically in the same neighborhood we used to live in out in the western suburbs.''
On air, Swirsky's voice, energy and nonstop knowledge remain his calling cards. Off air, he attempts to answer every e-mail, text message and phone call he receives, some e-mails and texts even during games. Wennington, himself a native Canadian, marvels at the atomic info-mator seated next to him, noting: ''Night after night, I don't know how Chuck does it.''
How Chuck does it, according to Detroit Tigers broadcast great Ernie Harwell -- a friend and mentor since a chance meeting at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore in 1962 -- is based on resolute attention to classic core principles.
''I think Chuck's greatest strength, No. 1, is that he has a great grasp of the sport he covers,'' said Harwell, 90, the fifth play-by-play man inducted into the broadcast wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame (1981). ''He has great presence on the microphone. He connects with his audience because he's honest and forthright. And he's going to say what he thinks in a cordial, entertaining way.''
Swirsky's cordiality has been a constant since his first night back at the moribund WCFL. His entertaining way has received bottom-lining recent loft -- and listenership -- because of the Bulls' sudden burst toward the 2009 NBA playoffs.
Beyond the red brick inroad at 1901 W. Madison St., Swirsky insists he seeks no further fortune or chair.
''It begins and ends here in Chicago,'' the tireless voice said. ''I honestly hope I am able to call Bulls games until they wheel me out. I will not seek or accept another job. The Bulls are headed in the right direction. For me, I sometimes think this was my destiny's professional destination.''
(Chicago Sun-Times)