RIP Sports Machine George Micheal

[rapking]

 George Micheal ( The Host of the former syndication TV show, George Micheals Sports machine ) has died of cancer today ( 12.24.09 ) at the age 70.

[JayR]

Legendary D.C. Sportscaster George Michael Dies at 70

[Robnoxious]

George Michael's Sports Machine was my Sunday night staple during football season. Before RedZone Channels and DirectTV and SportsCenter the only way to get highlights was through the sports broadcast on the local news. However, it was short and sweet and lacked any depth.

But right after late Sunday local news George Michael fired up The Sports Machine! and broke down the best of Sunday's NFL games in easy to digest morsels. It was SportsCenter before SportsCenter. The last week of each month ended with a "Best of" clip package that ran the entire gambit of sport. George Michael was a big fan of Pro Bull Riding and fringe sport like World Wrestling, motorboat and drag racing. As long as it was entertaining, funny, explosiony and/or awe inspiring it tended to make the clip package.

Unfortunately, the Sports Machine acted as if they were the only game in town and made too much of a conscious effort to erase any trace of the original broadcast's graphics in the use of their clips. For quite a while the Sports Machine was able to just zoom in under the scoring bugs and use that as a clip. Fox gave The Sports Machine a hassle with it's revolutionary Fox Box that was placed on either the left or right hand side of the screen depending on possession leaving the Sports Machine to have to superimpose it's own bug all over the place in the course of a clip. After a while, it became silly but The Sports Machine continued this practice for as long as I could remember.

I still loved every minute of it. RIP George Michael and just a quick sec to have everyone here at KNBC-4 Los Angeles thank you for letting us be a part of your weekend sports clip show. You will be be missed.

[Bob1370]

People in New York and Philadelphia have different memories of George Michael---before he was a sportscaster (a fulfillment of a lifelong dream) based in Washington, he was the top nighttime top 40 music personality in Philadelphia (on WFIL/560) and then in New York (on WABC/770) during the 1960s and 1970s. Go to the WABC tribute site, musicradio77.com, and you'll hear airchecks of his work as a top 40 jock--he was one of the best.

He parted company with WABC in 1979 because he wanted to get time off to join the NHL New York Islanders play by play announcing team, and WABC didn't want to let him take off up to 80 nights a year plus playoffs. He was also offered a place in the Baltimore Orioles booth, but opted to become sports director for NBC's Washington O&O WRC-TV, where he worked the rest of his days.