Say no to Buck & McCarver: Delay Radio

If you've read any of my stuff before, you know how much I appreciate good announcing. As Giants fans, we are especially spoiled by the likes of Mike Krukow & Duane Kuiper on TV with Dave Flemming and Hall of Famer Jon Miller on the KNBR 680 side.

The worst part about your team on national television is the lack of your home announcers. They guide you along throughout the season, experiencing the same highs and lows that you do. The goal in every sport is to make the playoffs, but don't you feel cheated once you get there because your guys aren't there to experience it with you?

In the 2010 playoffs, the San Francisco Giants have suffered through four games of Dick Stockton and Bob Brenly on TBS, and have now graduated to the worst of the worst: Joe Buck and Tim McCarver for the NLCS on FOX.

People can say what they will about the rambling nonsensical tangents of Joe Morgan, but Tim McCarver is simply the worst analyst in the country. How did I put it a couple posts ago? Oh yeah:

"Joe Buck and Tim McCarver: Ruining baseball since 1996".

Buck sounds like a depressed, blase, out of work actor with a trust fund and McCarver sounds like a senile old drunk. Fox is the worst. It wouldn't be so bad, but the KNBR feed is even further off live TV for Fox than it was for TBS. I'm talking 12 or 13 seconds ahead. I find myself only watching the TV for replays. It's truly unbelievable that in today's society with all this technology, we have to deal with this kind of mind-numbing and frustrating commentary. I swear to God I would do a better job sitting at home in my underwear doing play by play with my dog Rosie as the color commentator.

And whether or not you or your fellow fans care to admit it, I know that each and every one of you would jump at the chance to listen to your own guys, whether it is Philly fans following on WPHT 1210, Giants fans tuning into KNBR 680, or anything in between. Thanks to my desperate pleas on Twitter, I now have a solution to our problems. This may take $10 bucks and a half hour to get right, but this will improve your sports experience whenever your boys are on national TV.

---> FIRST OF ALL, YOU WILL NEED THIS PROGRAM <----

It's a small, free program that enables you to delay radio. This is the most important part. It is clean, and I assure you it is safe.

There are a number of scenarios in which you can do this. Here is the most simple one in steps:

Necessary Equipment:





-- PC, preferably a laptop for ease of use (Not sure about Mac program equivalent, sorry)

-- Physical radio tuner with headphone jack (this can be a handheld walkman/mp3 type, a clock radio, or large, Dolby Digital style receiver. As long as it has a headphone out jack and good reception of your favorite sports station, you're golden.

-- Simple "mp3 style" audio cable. You know? One of those that plugs into your iPod, then plugs into the headphone/auxiliary input in your car? The more technical term is 3.5mm stereo "mini-phone" cable.

If you have any doubts about whether you know what I'm talking about, go to Radio Shack, and read them the description. Anyone attempting this already has a clue. Something like this.

-- Speakers of some kind. These can be anything from your headphones, to your internal laptop speakers, external computer speakers, or TV soundbar. Any sort of audio component capable of receiving and then amplifying sound will do.

The rest is easy my friends.

What I did

I took a Windows laptop, an old Sony CD/Walkman with radio, then ran the audio cable from the Walkman to the computer's microphone jack-- just as you would connect an iPod to that AUX jack in your car.

Next, with the Delay program installed, you should begin to hear the radio through your computer's speakers.

Start to fool around with the delay so it will sync up properly with the TV. Unfortunately you can't really do this until the game starts, so here's a head start. For Game 2 of the 2010 NLCS, my DirecTV feed of FOX was approximately 15.4 seconds BEHIND the radio feed on KNBR. That is far too significant not to delay it.

If I were you, I'd start around there, and adjust it until you've got it down.


You may need to go into sound control to adjust your volume and "line in" level. Also, I recommend turning down your radio source to a moderate level. It is better to turn it up on the speakers you use.

That is basically it for the simple version. This will also work if you have the MLB "At Bat" App with audio. Here's where it gets really cool. Although I don't have the app, I've seen it in action. This is a viable option as well.

Take your Droid/iPhone, etc, and use it as the audio source instead of the radio and run the same process with the Delay program. Fiddle around until it's right on. There ya go.

Also, this works with home XM/Sirius radio receivers. As long as you've got a stereo 3.5mm cable that can reach from your source, to your computer, and some speakers connected to said computer, you're good to go.

This is where most of the information I used came from, and if you have any trouble with this, you can click here, and you can view the info I used. You can comment below with any questions and I'll give you a hand.

Also, if you have a more complicated scenario, you can visit the link mentioned in the last paragraph. I am merely a sleazy messenger, not a genius. Do not worship me, worship this Bote guy who put together this radio site. Although I do not require worship, I require reverence instead. I also require stories of how this has improved your quality of life during sporting events.

Just say no to Buck & McCarver!