Joe Tait's Wham With One Of Our "Write" Hands
A Conversation with Legendary Voice of the Cleveland Cavaliers

"I'm anything but cool" says Cleveland sports icon and "The Voice of the Cavaliers" Joe Tait. Referring to himself as "no-tech" and "not interested," he claims to remain firmly entrenched "in the Eisenhower administration" ...no cell phone, no fax machine. Asked if the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers have enough firepower to win a championship this season, he quips, "If they stay healthy." And when its suggested how he might feel being referred to as a legendary sports broadcaster, he wryly replies, "That means I'm old." (Cue the chirping crickets).

Yep, Tait's a tough cookie -- whamming many questions with a right hand all his own, perhaps because he's seen and heard it all. One thing's certain: life on the North Coast during basketball season wouldn't be the same without Tait's exceptional game calling for Cavs broadcasts and helping residents through those tough winter months. With the extremely hot Cavs entrenched as the league's top seed in the NBA playoffs and sporting the heir apparent to the league's MVP award (the now-iconic local hero LeBron James), Cool Cleveland Managing Editor Peter Chakerian talked to him about his career and what we might see out of a team the whole country is buzzing about.

Cool Cleveland: I’m very familiar with your background and how you sort of fell into broadcasting as a profession. How does it feel to be broadcasting now? Do you still get excited about your job and how hard is it to be on the road?

Joe Tait: Well, I enjoy it and I still enjoy the games… there’s not a lot of the other stuff that comes along with the games that I enjoy. I quit enjoying travel a long time ago, but you can’t play them all at home, so you gotta go out and do the road games as well.

I read an interview where you suggested broadcasters – especially those in radio – need “good eye to mouth coordination” Did the experience of having [former Cavaliers owner] Gordon Gund listening have an impact on how you approached broadcasts?

Yeah. He, of course being blind, told me going in when I came back to the Cavaliers that I was going to be his eyes, to put it very graphically. And I responded to that in those 24 years with Gordon, keeping in mind that he wanted to see through what I said.

In your opinion, how has sports broadcasting changed since you started out? What, if anything, have you had to do to adjust to the times in terms of your approach?

Well, things have changed a lot in terms of the extraneous stuff they throw into a broadcast, which I tend to deflect whenever possible. You’ve got more commentary less play-by-play, less descriptive [announcing] because the young guys coming in today seem to be working on their next or first television job.

There’s a lot of TV play-by-play being done on the radio right now—which doesn’t do much for radio listeners. But that’s the way it’s done.

Last I heard, you’re still a no-tech, no computer, no cell phone – and use a fax machine only to copy documents – kinda guy. Has that changed?

Nope.

Has there been any pull to want to go that way?

Absolutely not.

Don’t want to be tethered to that kind of stuff, I’m assuming?

I’m in the [President Dwight D.] Eisenhower administration and I’m not coming out.

I would imagine you’re asked a lot about your broadcasting experience from up-and-comers looking for advice. What do you tell them? Is it weird to see so much cool new-media – streaming, podcasting, vodcasting – happening?

I don’t see it, so I don’t have any idea what’s going on with [you] guys online. I think the one thing you can tell budding young broadcasters is to learn to more than one thing well. That’s the basic thing. Get more than one skill, because that may be the one thing that gets you a job when somebody else is just a one-trick pony.

Talk about how today’s NBA compares with the league you first started covering?

One word: money. Back in the old days, the guys played and if they didn’t win the championship, they had to work in the summertime. And now, of course, the pay scale in the NBA is beyond anyone’s dreams, and much bigger than when I first came into the league. That’s been the big change, the big situation-maker, it’s the money.

What did you focus on and adjust when you made the switch to television during the 1980s, during the time you spent with the Cleveland Indians?

When I’ve been on… well, with Indians baseball it was so much different because there was so much down time. Of course, most of the time, the teams were not exactly top of the line. As result, you had to figure out new and interesting ways to keep people interested in what was happening on the air, which required some rather sad humor and storytelling and so on and so forth. It worked out, but you had to incorporate a lot more, because in television play-by-play, the camera does all the heavy work. In radio play-by-play, you should be the camera.

Ten-cent Beer Night at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. One of the darker moments in Cleveland sports. You were there in the thick of it. Talk about your experience.

Well, it virtually made me sick to my stomach to see what was going on out there. The management of the team was unhappy with me referring to it as a riot, but by the same token, if I had not done that, the police listening to the broadcast would not have come down and finally restore some order, because things had gotten totally out of hand.

Has there been anything more heartbreaking, in your mind, than “The Shot” for the Cavaliers?

I don’t know. [Center-forward] Jim Chones breaking his foot in the Miracle [of Richfield] year was difficult, because it kept us from winning an NBA title. “The Shot” obviously was something that hurt a great deal. That’s about it, really. Those are the two heartbreaks, if you will, which I guess tells you something about how the Cavaliers haven’t really been involved in the upper echelon very often.

There’s a lot of paranoia about the summer of 2010 and LeBron James possibly leaving Cleveland for another team. Your thoughts?

Aw, that’s silly. Why think about something that hasn’t happened yet and over which we have no control? I would personally be amazed if he left… that’s not to say he won’t leave, but I don’t think he will.

Based on what you’ve seen, does this year’s Cavaliers team have enough to firepower to go all the way?

If they stay healthy. Good health is the key to how far this particular team is going to go… but if they’re all healthy, they could do it all this year. Not saying they will, but they could.

You celebrated your 3000th game broadcasting for the Cavaliers last year. Can you offer a handful of reflections from those games that you feel are the most memorable?

Oh, I don’t know. Naw, not really. I’m getting to the point in my career now where I’m more worried about continuing to do an acceptable job for the foreseeable future.

When I’m done, you can come out to the county home and find me rocking away in a rocking chair out there, and then I’ll be able to reminisce and probably be able to drive you crazy with all the [memories]… We’ll have hot toddies and I’ll tell you stories until the cows come home… but right now, I’m more concerned with getting ready for tonight’s ball game and doing a good job, rather than anything else.

When people use the word legendary to describe you, what’s your initial reaction?

It means I’m old…

Is that really how you look at it?

Yep. You gotta be old to be a legend. And so I’m old. And most of the time, I feel like a legend... At age 71, I guarantee you I’m not cool…(laughs)

I think there’s a little bit of a difference between being old and being a legend. Are you glad to be referred to as a legend?

I would just say this: that I’m not at all displeased.

Anything you want to say to Clevelanders before we go?

I guess if I had to say one thing it would be, “Lighten up.” Enjoy the games, win or lose, have a good time and just keep in mind you don’t know as much as you think you know about professional sports.

Hear Tait broadcast all of the Cleveland Cavaliers playoff games on WTAM-AM 1100. http://www.wtam.com. Visit the Cleveland Cavaliers online at http://www.cavs.com.

From Cool Cleveland Managing Editor Peter Chakerian peterATcoolcleveland.com (:divend:)