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Hot Rod

We must have grown up in the same house. Listening to Hot Rod's play-by-plays on...was it AM 570? Bad reception and no visuals, you were hanging on Hot Rod's every word as he called the game. He was a master. God I'm sweating with anxiety remembering those times now.
Early on, the games were broadcast on 1160 AM. If BYU was playing a game on the same night, then the Jazz game was tape delayed. I think they moved to 1320 or 1280 after they dumped 1160.
 
I really miss Dave Blackwell, who did the radio pre-game show. That guy had more class than any broadcaster before or since.
 
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I still listen to his play calls from time to time on YouTube. Is nostalgic af and brings me back to some of the best times in life.

Hot Rod had the pipes and the lines (they weren't over thought or tried too hard.)

Mailman with the hammer dunk.


Yeah, you gotta love it, baby. (This should be the Jazz's line over **** like take note.)
I remember as a kid when games were televised on K-Jazz. Back in those days not every game was aired, but I never missed. Hot’s made even just listening on radio enjoyable. Had Boler been on the radio in those days, listening on radio would’ve sucked.
 
Love this thread!! Hot Rod's voice will be with me until the day that I die! He announced the way he did because he knew that he was the voice for both television and radio and I remember him saying in a program (back in the day) that he wanted everyone who tuned in to know exactly what was going on. He wanted everyone engaged in the way that he was. Listening to him commentate a game was like listening to an artist go to work, if there is such a thing. (At the time, we didn't know it) I remember meeting him in the early 90's (maybe 1991) and I got his autograph. To me it was a big deal being a kid and getting Hot Rod's autograph. I remember when Bolerjack took over, Hot Rod was still doing radio, so we would turn the TV volume off and play the radio while we watched. I think the timing was slightly off, but it was well worth it. There will never be another Hot Rod Hundley
 
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Great thread. I became a die hard Jazz fan back in the mid to late 80s. When the game wasn’t on TV I’d lie on the living room floor with the radio, listening with my dad. Then I’d write about every game in my journal. I still have a precious few ticket stubs in there. I had a poster of Stockton and (printed) autographs of every guy on the roster taped to the wall around Stock. My dad went back to Hot Rod’s restaurant again and again to collect those autographed photos for me. He couldn’t get the hand signed ones, but he kept going back there until he had all the photos, and to me it was special. Hot Rod and the Jazz will always be inseparable in my mind. Such great memories of when I became a fan.
 
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Great thread. I became a die hard Jazz fan back in the mid to late 80s. When the game wasn’t on TV I’d lie on the living room floor with the radio, listening with my dad. Then I’d write about every game in my journal. I still have a precious few ticket stubs in there. I had a poster of Stockton and (printed) autographs of every guy on the roster taped to the wall around Stock. My dad went back to Hot Rod’s restaurant again and again to collect those autographed photos for me. He couldn’t get the hand signed ones, but he kept going back there until he had all the photos, and to me it was special. Hot Rod and the Jazz will always be inseparable in my mind. Such great memories of when I became a fan.
Was that his restaurant at Vine Street and Highland? I think it’s a gym now...
 
Some people have kind of hit on the thing that made the old days with Hot Rod's "simulcast" so great, but I don't think anyone has said it in directly in how I felt it was so great.

I watched a lot of "simulcast" games on T.V.. I listened to a lot of "simulcast" games on the radio.

Because I did that, when I would listen to the games I had a direct visual reference for what Hot Rod was talking about. I could see that ****ing game as I listened. It was hardly a downgrade to listen to the game.

This was a few years into my Jazz obsession, it was '93 as best I can remember, I was working at the Shopko in Sandy in the electronics department. Nice perk of working in the electronics department was that when I had to work during a Jazz game I could tune all the "stereo systems" (using the term loosely) to the Jazz game and listen to the game during my shift. My Jazz fandom and my relationship with my father are very closely linked. We watched every game together that we could, even after I moved out. If there was any chance I would go to my parents house and watch games with my dad. But when I was working at Shopko as a 16 year old, listening to the game on the display radios, after really big plays in big games I would use the electronics department phone and call my dad and we'd talk about the game for a few seconds until I felt like I might get in trouble and had to get back to work. Hot Rod made that experience special and something I'll never forget.

I joke and say that when I can't watch the game and have to listen to it now that David Locke is the radio guy it's okay, I just listen to the game with the sound off.
 
Some people have kind of hit on the thing that made the old days with Hot Rod's "simulcast" so great, but I don't think anyone has said it in directly in how I felt it was so great.

I watched a lot of "simulcast" games on T.V.. I listened to a lot of "simulcast" games on the radio.

Because I did that, when I would listen to the games I had a direct visual reference for what Hot Rod was talking about. I could see that ****ing game as I listened. It was hardly a downgrade to listen to the game.

This was a few years into my Jazz obsession, it was '93 as best I can remember, I was working at the Shopko in Sandy in the electronics department. Nice perk of working in the electronics department was that when I had to work during a Jazz game I could tune all the "stereo systems" (using the term loosely) to the Jazz game and listen to the game during my shift. My Jazz fandom and my relationship with my father are very closely linked. We watched every game together that we could, even after I moved out. If there was any chance I would go to my parents house and watch games with my dad. But when I was working at Shopko as a 16 year old, listening to the game on the display radios, after really big plays in big games I would use the electronics department phone and call my dad and we'd talk about the game for a few seconds until I felt like I might get in trouble and had to get back to work. Hot Rod made that experience special and something I'll never forget.

I joke and say that when I can't watch the game and have to listen to it now that David Locke is the radio guy it's okay, I just listen to the game with the sound off.
Are we talking Shopko on 9400? My old stomping grounds, baby!

There’s no topping Hot Rod these days. HD with mute on, that’s how i roll...
 
Are we talking Shopko on 9400? My old stomping grounds, baby!

There’s no topping Hot Rod these days. HD with mute on, that’s how i roll...
That's the one. I rocked that electronics department!
 
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Are we talking Shopko on 9400? My old stomping grounds, baby!

There’s no topping Hot Rod these days. HD with mute on, that’s how i roll...

That's the one. I rocked that electronics department!

Sandy Shopko FTW! Growing up as a kid that was “THE store.” Kids growing up now go to Walmart or Target, but back then and there it was Shopko. I’m sure I must have seen you there (though I was always in the toy aisle).

Also Sandy 7-11 FTW!
 
Sandy Shopko FTW! Growing up as a kid that was “THE store.” Kids growing up now go to Walmart or Target, but back then and there it was Shopko. I’m sure I must have seen you there (though I was always in the toy aisle).

Also Sandy 7-11 FTW!
Alright, here’s the real test. Do you remember when that Sandy 7-11 had arcade games in the front corner? I think it was the Simpsons game and a weird but cool Alien shooter game. Slurpees and arcades, now that’s how you spend a Saturday after soccer.
 
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Alright, here’s the real test. Do you remember when that Sandy 7-11 had arcade games in the front corner? I think it was the Simpsons game and a weird but cool Alien shooter game. Slurpees and arcades, now that’s how you spend a Saturday after soccer.

Mortal Kombat in the 7-11 where I grew up. I was(and have always been) a button masher. Nachos and slurpees.
 
Alright, here’s the real test. Do you remember when that Sandy 7-11 had arcade games in the front corner? I think it was the Simpsons game and a weird but cool Alien shooter game. Slurpees and arcades, now that’s how you spend a Saturday after soccer.
Yes, to the right as you walked in, though I don’t remember those games. They rotated games. Do you remember when they tore it down and rebuilt it a bit farther east?

Where’d you grow up?

Also, do you remember the clerk who had the naked lady tattoo on his forearm?
 
Sandy Shopko FTW! Growing up as a kid that was “THE store.” Kids growing up now go to Walmart or Target, but back then and there it was Shopko. I’m sure I must have seen you there (though I was always in the toy aisle).

Also Sandy 7-11 FTW!

My old stomping grounds too. Not way back then but more recently before we moved to St George about a year ago. Sad that Shopko is closed now. I used to frequent the one in Sugar House. They went way downhill the last few years.
 
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Yes, to the right as you walked in, though I don’t remember those games. They rotated games. Do you remember when they tore it down and rebuilt it a bit farther east?

Where’d you grow up?

Also, do you remember the clerk who had the naked lady tattoo on his forearm?
I grew up right up the street, went to Albion Middle School. I think i remember the naked lady tat. I should have remember those droopy ink bewbs.
 
Hot Rod is one of the major reasons I'm a lifelong (almost) Jazz fan...when I was a kid growing up in Ohio in the 70s, I used to tune in to New Orleans Jazz games on my transistor radio (in Ohio!)...this was before Al Gore and I invented the internet and there were only 3 or 4 channels of **** on the TV to choose from (Pink Floyd didn't know how good they had it) so pulling in out-of-region games on the radio was its own form of entertainment...I became a regular listener to the Jazz games back then because of the way Hot Rod described the action, especially his colorful, dramatic quips that brought colorful Pistol Pete into my mind's eye...he made the game fun to listen to and I'm glad he's still recognized as a major part of Jazz lore...good thread...
 
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Really cool backstory, man. Thanks for your contribution :)
Hot Rod is one of the major reasons I'm a lifelong (almost) Jazz fan...when I was a kid growing up in Ohio in the 70s, I used to tune in to New Orleans Jazz games on my transistor radio (in Ohio!)...this was before Al Gore and I invented the internet and there were only 3 or 4 channels of **** on the TV to choose from (Pink Floyd didn't know how good they had it) so pulling in out-of-region games on the radio was its own form of entertainment...I became a regular listener to the Jazz games back then because of the way Hot Rod described the action, especially his colorful, dramatic quips that brought colorful Pistol Pete into my mind's eye...he made the game fun to listen to and I'm glad he's still recognized as a major part of Jazz lore...good thread...
 
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