Written for Hometown Headlines, a website focusing on news and business in Northwest Georgia.
by Mickey Seward
On Christmas Day, JB Smith was watching a television show on the NHL Network about great hockey announcers when he was inspired to look into the Rome Braves’ broadcasting situation.
Smith had experience calling games but found out that he might be lacking one thing necessary to get a shot at the job that became available when former play-by-play voice Josh Caray left Rome to join the television broadcast team of the Class AAA Gwinnett Braves.
Unable to find out if Rome needed a radio announcer through his own research – “I would never want to undermine someone who already had the job,” Smith says – he finally telephoned the office of WLAQ 1410 AM/The Ridge 95.7 FM, the Rome Braves’ flagship stations.
He reached general manager Jim Bojo, who confirmed they indeed were looking for a new announcer and asked Smith to send in a resume and demo tape.
There was one problem.
“When he told me to send a demo, I told Jim he might hang up on me after he heard what I was about to say,” Smith says. “I told him I could get him a resume, no problem. But I stepped out of the station and into a patrol car 25 years ago.”
Intrigued, Bojo and the station’s owner and operator, Randy Davis, the original Rome Braves’ play-by-play voice, invited Smith to Rome to simulate a pre-game show and an inning of baseball in a production studio.
“After that and four stressful interviews later, they hired me,” Smith says.
Davis: Smith has 'a hometown feel'
It may not have been the textbook way of finding a play-by-play job but Davis says Smith’s introduction to the station was the beginning of what he feels will be a perfect match.
“We’d been taking some applications (for the broadcasting position) and had talked to several people,” Davis says. “Then JB’s call came out of the blue. When we listened to him, we were impressed.
“We felt like he would be a really good fit. We’ve been broadcasting local sports for a long time, several decades, and we wanted someone who does things the way we do things. We’re a hometown station. JB’s not just a stats guy. He’s a story teller, someone who can really tell our audience about who the players really are. He’s got a real hometown feel, and he has a very pleasing voice. It’s not too aggressive and it’s not monotone.
“But he definitely knows the game. When you have a conversation with him, JB’s knowledge of the game is obvious.”
Davis doesn’t believe there will be much rust for Smith to shake off, even though he hasn’t been on the air full-time since well before most of the Rome Braves’ players were born. During that time, he’s been around the game as a fan but most of his days and nights were spent apprehending crooks doing much more than stealing bases.
From police beat to Braves' beat
After graduating from Boston University with a broadcast journalism degree, Smith was drafted into the military and sent to North Carolina. While there, he broadcast high school and college baseball, football and basketball.
Later, he moved to Atlanta and worked in the music radio business. And while his career was in radio, Smith always had an interest in law enforcement.
While interviewing Roswell’s chief of police, and working without benefits at one of the radio stations, Smith was told by the chief that he should consider becoming a police officer.
“I told him, ‘Get me an application and we might have a deal.’ I went to the police academy and I spent the next 22 years working with the Roswell Police Department,” Smith says.
For awhile, Smith continued to broadcast high school sports while working full-time as a police officer but he soon decided to concentrate on his public service career and left the press box. He retired in 2004.
Now, he returns to the microphone as the voice of the Rome Braves, calling all 140 home and away games. Smith says he doesn’t really pattern his style after any particular announcers but said he loved listening to Curt Gowdy broadcast Red Sox games when he was growing up in his native New Hampshire.
“Of course, down here, we all loved listening to Pete (Van Wieren), Skip (Caray) and Ernie (Johnson),” Smith says. “That was one of the best broadcast teams of all time, maybe the best.”
Smith gets to join that legacy as a broadcaster in the Braves organization. The question is, will Smith use his unique background in law enforcement to enhance his profile with his new team?
“I can definitely help keep the players in line on the road,” he says with a laugh. “No, not really. I’ll leave that up to (manager) Randy Ingle and his staff. But, if anybody tries to steal our bus, I’ll take charge.”
