Cortland
Sports
Longtime play-by-play announcer calls it a career
The typical 92-year-old has been long retired, but Sam Simmermaker isn’t your typical anything. After 64 years with White River Broadcasting in Columbus, Indiana, the longtime local play-by-play voice who soundtracked multiple generations of athletes has decided to retire. Despite his retirement, Simmermaker isn’t interested in a big send-off at WCSI 1010 AM this Friday. That’s just his style – he’s always preferred the spotlight to be on the young athletes whose games he’s called with such passion, not himself. “He wanted every broadcast to be about the young men and women who were playing the game,” White River Broadcasting GM Bob Morrison...
'Thanks for being my friend': Columbus radio icon Sam Simmermaker signs off after 64 years
COLUMBUS, Ind. – When Sam Simmermaker was a kid growing up in Star City in northwest Indiana, he could pick up St. Louis Cardinals’ games on the radio on WDZ out of Tuscola, Ill. The afternoon games. This was the late 1940s, before 50,000-watt powerhouse KMOX blasted Cardinals’ games to 44 states on a clear night.
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