Judd Sirott’s career fast track hit a bump in the road recently when the nonstop talker’s application for an additional inning of Cubs play-by-play was rejected because, in the hiring manager’s opinion, Sirott must be “raving mad.”
Sirott, the Blackhawks’ in-studio analyst, was hired by WGN-AM Radio 720 prior to the start of the 2009 baseball season as Cory Provus’ replacement to work only the fifth inning alongside Ron Santo while Pat Hughes was on break, and to host pregame and postgame shows while providing scores and updates throughout Cubs games.
WGN director of talent Deanna Uffer said that she listened to an audition tape Sirott submitted a month ago and concluded based on the content of the tape that no one apparently listened to Wolves games during the twelve seasons Sirott was voice of the AHL team.
“I vaguely remember 1994 to 2006,” Uffer said. “I listened to the Wolves on the radio, and to the best of my knowledge Sirott never stopped talking, but I always assumed he was making sense. But this audition tape of his is crazy. He says over and over, ‘Judd Sirott will rule the airwaves one day,’ even when the Wolves are on the power play and he should be focused.”
Uffer added that Sirott also says during a broadcast soundbite he included on the tape, “Don’t you cross my path, Keith Moreland and Doug Glanville,” following a bizarre inning last June that saw the Cubs hit consecutive doubles with no outs yet fail to score.
“I could swear I had that game on the radio because I remember the Cubs hitting those doubles,” Uffer said. “But I don‘t recall Sirott making those remarks about Moreland and Glanville. It proves that the passage of time makes us forget minor details, like last July when Sirott announced, ‘I will buy and sell this radio station within three years,’ just as Sean Marshall was retiring the final out to preserve Carlos Silva’s historic 8-0 start. Yes, that remark by Sirott is also on his audition tape.”
The rejection came as a shock to Sirott and caused him to nearly break up with his voice, with which he has been in love all of his life. “Was it something I said?” Sirott reportedly asked while standing in front of a live microphone in his home recording studio.
By Rob C. Christiansen
