to all who have sent me emails regarding my dad those have been read to him and he's enjoyed them all, also to folks who've sent get well messages, thank you. they are moving him from a medical facility in North Seattle back to the Timber Ridge retirement commmunity that he and my mom moved into a year ago, where they also have a skilled nursing facility so my mom can be close to him again, his recovery from the brain surgery has been slow, he had to have a tracheotomy for the insertion of a breathing tube directly into his throat, not good if you've used your voice as you means of making a living for over 60 years, but he is now off the ventilator, he his going thru a physical therapy program to help him with walking as vertigo was one of the symptoms that lead to his fall in early Dec. that required the surgery, he is talking and responding well to visitors, friends and family and people in the sports and radio industry. so it will be a long process, emails for him can still be sent to me at la.bob@hotmail.com and i will forward to my mom, cards to 100 Timber Ridge Way
Issaquah, Wa. 98027

while still at the Dial Global Radio network in L.A. prior to my being laid off, i archived most all of dad's reel to reel tapes onto cd, i am currently listening to them all in catagories like the Portland Beavers, the OSU Football & Basketball, the seattle Supersonics, and miscellanous oddities, like the 1966 Portland Open Golf tourney and some very early Portland Buckaroo hockey, most are incomplete games, as they'd only record a quarter, or a few innings of a game for the sponsors or to use as a broadcast reel, etc. but finding a few treasures in there, that we hope to release on cd down the road, as he owned the broadcast rights to the baseball, and OSU sports,
i have Portland beaver broadcasts on KPOJ, KGW and KEX, with of course Raliegh Truitt, and also Frank Bonnema and Russ Conrad doing color commentary
games include a partial game between the Beavers and Tacoma Giants with Juan Marichal pitching, his only season in the minors before the big league, also Lou Pinella, plus an exhibition game between the Beaver and the philadelphia Phillies, i also have come across a couple of "recreated" broadcasts, and they sound surprisingly live. it really is a treasure trove of both portland and some seattle radio history that we want to make available to both the public and to the sports and radio community,
thanks again, will keep you posted on both dad and these broadcast cd's

bob blackburn "jr"

your Dad is one class guy and a top play by play talent. Some of my fondest memories was watching your Dad & Rollie from the press box window ( green wood box behind home plate & a hair to the left if I remember)......We would make noise and Rollie would yell at us! And the ultimate memory of watching your dad re-create a Beaver road game from the KEX studios. Incredible! You have allot to be proud of.

Stoner,
You remember the old baseball press box at Multnomah Stadium well. I remember Rollie Truitt chasing me away once too for being too noisy.

Jr,
Thanks for letting us know how your Dad is doing. I remember him doing both the Portland Beavers and the Oregon State Beavers, but I never got to hear him do the Buckaroos. I'm a hockey play-by-play guy and can't wait to hear some of his work covering the Bucks. Be sure to keep us posted as to when the cds will be available and be sure to pass along my wishes for a speedy recovery.

I don't remember Bob doing the Bucks...????????
when was that?

Completely out of my area but wasn't it Bill Anderson who mostly did the Bucks broadcasts?

Man I would love to hear one of those re-creates! That was truly magic radio. I used to lay on my bed and listen to entire games.

I wish Bob and family well, stay strong.

Rollie passed away didn't he? He did the night shift in addition to working with Bob for the ball games. He must have worked a long shift.

Wayne: I think so, Rollie was KXL PD in 1928!

It looks like Rollie Truitt was a stadium announcer through 1972 and that's the first year I can find for the Rollie Truitt Award so perhaps, he passed away that year. I haven't been able to find too much on him.

I had the wrong name here. Russ Conrad was the one who worked the ball games with Bob. and did nights at KEX too. Rollie was the announcer.

thanks for all of the great comments, my dad did the Portland Buckaroos hockey the first two seasons they played in Portland, 1960 & 1961 if i'm not mistaken, the year they won their first Lester Patrick Cup, i just listened to two partial games today, names like Arnie Schmautz, & his brother Cliff, Art Jones, Jack Bianda, Don Head, Gordon Fashaway and more, in fact between periods of this 1961 tape he interviewed the then new portland beavers manager, Vern Benson who was fired mid season, the only year that the St. Louis Cards were the parent team of the Beavers, Rollie retired from behind the mic in 1963 ,then was the P.A. announcer up till the 1972. Frank Bonnema also did color with my dad, i have him on a tape from7/13/62 when they were on KGW, also have an almost complete game of the Beavers vs. tacoma Cubs on KEX 8/27/67 only missing the top of the 4th inning, hard to get complete games. this has Russ Conrad not only doing the color commentary , but also two full innings of play by play, maybe the only extant tape of Russ doing play by play, i don't know, but it's here for sure.AND i do have a few innings of recreated games, and the way they were done it's very hard to tell they're recreations, the main way is that there is no P.A. announcer in the background, and you here the same ice cream vendor every 10 minutes or so going, "ice cream, chocolate coated ice cream" i was a sound designer for a play set in the '60's in Yankee stadium and i used that as a background sound effect! some of the recorded spots and live reads are priceless, the Kingston Trio for 7-UP, Chucks Refrigeration at 6927 S.E. Foster rd., The Speck restaraunt and KFC Chicken, we'll keep everyone posted on these, i need to go thru the rest of the hockey cd's ( only 3 more, not much but very cool) and then the OSU football & basketball games featuring Terry Baker, the 1967 Giant Killers Steve Preece, Lew Alcindor, the '67 UCLA team,
thanks again everyone for the kind words, i talked with him this evening and am encouraged by how he's doing

bob "jr"

All these memories need thier own website! Who can put that together?

I thought this might be interesting:


http://pdxhistory.com/html/portland_baseball.html

very very cool, great site, great history on local baseball, i remember satchel paige pitching for the beavers in the 60's and he was at least in his 60's, also the "Clown Prince of Baseball" Max Patkin, i have been listening to more cd's and one that is very interesting is a FOOTBALL recreation from 1952!?! of a pro game, the L.A. Rams at the detroit Lions from Briggs Stadium in Detroit, with Norm Van Brocklin, Tom Fears, Yale Lary, Jack Christianson, & Bobby Layne, all future Hall of famers, and believe it or not Raleigh Truitt doing the color and stats on this, it's a little over 30 minutes, classic stuff....including naval and army reserve spots for the local resefrves stationed out on Swan island, and the weird thing is it, was broadcast on KEX-FM !?! i guess they carried some NFL play by play in the early 50's.
dad went back into hospital thursday witt low drop in blood pressure, ti's stabilized and he's back at the home in issaquah, thanks again to all.
Clint Gruber got in touch with me, what a nice gentleman....

I remember when Civic stadium had pre season football in the 60's and wish it had kept going We always had a football following. I wish we had a decent stadium!