Radio Days: Having lunch with Tom Hamilton & Joe Tait – Terry Pluto

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Several years ago, I was talking with Tom Hamilton. The subject of Joe Tait came up.

“Do you think Joe would want to go to lunch with me?” asked Hamilton.

“He’d love it,” I said.

Then I realized the Guardians radio voice was a bit in awe of Tait, the long-time radio voice of the Cavs who had recently retired.

“Tom,” I said. “Joe loves your work. He really does. I’ll set it up.”

I called Tait with the news.

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“Great,” he said. “When do we go?”

Tait already was in the

Basketball Hall of Fame

, winning the Curt Gowdy Award in 2010. Hamilton didn’t know it at the time, but he would be headed

to the Baseball Hall of Fame

. He will be honored in Cooperstown this upcoming weekend.

Tait died in 2021

at the age of 83, but he knew Hamilton’s day of the Hall of Fame would come.

“He is a true radio man,” Tait told me more than once. “Hammy paints the picture of the game. He remembers to recap and give the score. He feels the moment. He’s one of the best I’ve ever heard.”

Growing up on a farm

Tait was raised on a farm near Amboy, Illinois.

“One of my jobs was to take the ‘honey buckets’ from the barn and dump them to the two-holer in the back,” Tait told me.

Tait was talking about cow manure.

Hamilton knows all about that. He grew up on a 150-acre farm with 50 cows in rural Wisconsin. Like Tait, he didn’t see a lot of people. Like Tait, he grew up weary of what comes out of the rear end of cows.

And like Tait, Hamilton listened to the radio … and dreamed.

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“I’d hear the Milwaukee Braves games with Earl Gillispie,” Hamilton said.

Milwaukee was about an hour away, but it seemed more like light years.

Tait listened to the Chicago Cubs games with broadcasters Jack Brickhouse, Lou Boudreau and Vince Lloyd.

“I listened to them, too,” said Hamilton.

Two kids on the farm. Two kids, sometimes lonely. Two kids listening to the radio and dreaming.

Small-town radio guys

Tait respected Hamilton because they had so much in common.

Hamilton worked in small Wisconsin radio stations – Shell Lake and Appleton.

Hamilton and Tait began telling stories about spinning records … yes, it was that long ago … as the morning disc jockey. They talked about doing the news.

“I was the Morning Mayor in Rockford (Ill.) and Frankfort (Ill.) and Terre Haute (Ind.),” said Tait. “I was ‘Jolly Joe Tait’ at WDZ in Decatur (Ill,).

Hamilton was laughing. They told stories of doing commercials for farm implements and feed and seed stores. They talked about reading the funeral notices in the morning.

I can’t remember who told what story because they run together in my mind. But the common theme was what Tait often said, “That’s what it’s like to be a real radio guy.”

Listening to Joe Tait

Hamilton landed a job at WBNS in Columbus in 1986. He had been fired from a station in Milwaukee, which went on a cost-cutting spree.

Tait always smiled when he heard of a fellow radio person being fired.

“They used to say it didn’t even count until you were fired at least twice,” said Tait. “I even got fired on Christmas Eve. I lost track of how many times I was fired in those early years.”

In 1970, Tait landed in Cleveland. He had a long-time friendship with Bill Fitch, the new coach of the expansion Cavaliers. It was his big break.

While Hamilton was doing the morning sports along with some pregame, halftime and postgame Ohio State reports – he was still listening to the radio.

“I remember hearing Joe and Nev (Chandler doing the Cleveland Browns),” said Hamilton. “I couldn’t believe how great they were at play-by-play. Then when I came to Cleveland and met them, they were such great guys …even better people than broadcasters.”

Hamilton also was doing two innings each home game of the Class AAA Columbus Clippers, giving play-by-play man Terry Smith a break. He was working about 80 hours a week at the station (especially during football season), and still dreaming of doing major league sports somewhere.

The big breaks

Tait secured his job doing the Cavs by sending Fitch a note, reminding the new coach of his old radio buddy from the Midwest. He didn’t believe it would lead to anything … But why not try it?

Fitch convinced Cavs owner Nick Mileti to bring in Tait for an interview.

“I saw an item in the Terre Haute paper about Fitch getting the Cavs job,” said Tait. “I figured, why not contact him. I’d been fired and turned down enough over the years to know I had nothing else to lose.”

Tait got the job.

“I’d work cheap,” said Tait. “Fitch knew I’d be enthusiastic and work hard. They paid $100 a game. I also did the ‘Swap & Shop’ radio show and filled in doing the news and sports.”

Hamilton’s wife Wendy spotted a story about how Paul Olden was leaving the Tribe’s radio booth after the 1989 season. He urged her husband to apply for it. Tom was convinced it was too late, he’d never get the job.

Why not at least try? That was Wendy’s thought.

They went to the Columbus radio station on Christmas Day, 1989. They spent 10 hours going through his Class AAA baseball broadcasts.

They put together an audition tape. It’s a complicated story after that, but Hamilton ended up with the job as Herb Score’s radio partner in 1990.

They loved Herb Score

Tait did radio with Score on the Tribe games from 1973-79. He then moved to the TV side for the baseball season.

Both men talked about Score’s ability to know what was happening on the field seemingly before anyone else. Both men said Score told them how you never knew what each game would bring, and to remember people are listening. The games are important to them.

Both men knew Score could have made their radio life easy or hard. Not every established broadcaster is thrilled when a new guy joins him in the booth.

But what impressed Tait and Hamilton was how Score was so receptive to them, how he made them feel welcome. They were the new guys in town. They had never done Major League baseball before.

“Herb was so great to me,” said Hamilton.

At that lunch, Tait quickly agreed.

A comforting voice in the night

So much has changed in sports broadcasting over the years.

But radio … it’s much the same.

It’s a voice in the night, calling a game from somewhere. It is a broadcaster being the eyes of someone who can’t see the game. It’s a voice to someone who might be feeling alone and considers the broadcasters close friends whom they’ve never met in person.

Or the games may be in the background, a soothing chorus while someone is doing chores around the house or the yard.

Or perhaps, it’s hearing a game and the broadcasters serving as company as someone is driving across the country. Games can now be heard almost anywhere on satellite radio.

Hamilton is like Tait. Hamilton talks about the ballparks where the game is played. He describes the uniforms. He knows how to make a big play sound … well … HUGE … but then be quiet and let the roar of the crowd serve as the exclamation point.

I can’t remember if it was Tait or Hamilton who first said, “I love radio” when they were together.

I just know it’s true for both of them.