Wamer moves play-by-play career to television

8/20/2014

No longer the play-by-play announcer for high school football games on WLQR-FM 106.5, Norm Wamer will remain in the football mix on television.

Wamer was hired by Mike Jameson, owner of Toledo Sports Network, to do play-by-play of local Friday high school games.

The games will be broadcast on tape-delay this season.

TSNW will tape two local games each Friday, which will be aired back-to-back from either 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., or 8 p.m. to midnight, on Saturdays.

On opening weekend (Aug. 29-30), the games will be shown on TV 13.2 (Buckeye CableSystem channel 614, and Time Warner channel 996), according to Jameson.

After Sept. 1, the TSNW games will be shown on Buckeye CableSystem (channels 5 and 605), and on Time Warner 996.

Wamer and Mik Gonzales will do play-by-play, and color commentary will be provided by Mike Bauman and Steve Taylor.

“I guess it’s truly a case of one door closing and another opening up,” Wamer said.

“Mike Jameson and his crew do great work. I'll miss working with Paul Michalak, but I'm excited to do more TV and stay in the high school scene.”

Michalak, Wamer’s longtime color partner on WLQR, will not be making the transition.

He opted instead to retire from broadcasting games after a 27-year run on the local airways.

Michalak, 70, did color for the late Don King from 1987-2000, and worked with Wamer from 2001-2013. That was after his 21-year career as a high school football coach (Otsego 1966-1970, Bedford 1971-1986).

“I decided to stop for a lot of reasons,” Michalak said. “Friday nights [in football season] have taken me away since 1966. I missed a lot of my kids’ athletics and other activities.

“Lately, my wife and I have become real groupies with our grandkids, including two here in town. We find ourselves on Fridays and Saturdays, and Sundays following them around in their sports.

“This was an opportune time, and I just decided to stop. I’m going to miss it terribly, but it’s a good time to go in a different direction and move on to something else for whatever time is left.”

Contact Steve Junga at: sjunga@theblade.com, or 419-724-6461 or on Twitter@JungaBlade.