Marty Glickman was the first jock-turned- broadcaster in the history of our media. He changed the landscape of sports and television. He took his first job as a broadcaster simply because of the pay, and later ended up getting hired in the Marines with a job in telecommunication because of his experience using a microphone. He learned that you could grow with your career in media as a broadcaster, and if you want to do something you can work hard and get it done.
Glickman started broadcasting professional basketball because no one had done it yet. He unknowingly changed the way Americans thought of basketball, simply through the works of radio broadcast. Some say he embedded the game into the brains of America. He invented basketball vernacular such as “swish.” Basketball was not aired on TV at the time, so he allowed radio listeners to imagine the game. He made radio the theater of the mind. He was, “television on the radio.”
A few years later, he started broadcasting the NBA. Advertisements were worked in to the broadcast. Companies, like the hot dog fast food restaurant Nedicks, hired Glickman to broadcast tie-ins. After a good play or shot, Glickman would say it was, “Good like Nedicks.” Hearing it from Glickman made people want to go and get a hot dog from Nedicks. Suddenly he and three other Jewish broadcasters were fired, because the NBA didn’t want to be seen as “too Jewish.” They justified their firing by saying that Glickman was too “New York.” The NBA turned to hire Western types, because that was supposed to be an accurate representation of America. Because Glickman’s broadcasts were only heard in the Greater New York area, people in the Midwest “missed out on hearing the worlds greatest basketball announcer.”
Marty Glickman was “typical New York.” He worked for the NY Giants and the NY Knicks, as well as Yonkers horse-racing for WMGM. While the Giants changed the world of professional football, Glickman was a big part of that. He did a radio play-by-play for the championship games. When he broadcasted, he described the weather and the aura of the game. His vocal inflections were orchestral. Everybody could understand him. When there was a TV blackout for Giants championship game, Marty played a huge role in making the game come to life. This was the football experience for New Yorkers.