Re: (Sumo) The Announcers

[jz8d-smmn@asahi-net.or.jp (Doreen Simmons)]

At 17:49 99.2.8 -0800, Diana wrote:
>This reminds me.  I was reading some back issues of Eye-Ai magazine last
>night.  The October 1992 issue has an article on NHK and one of the photos
>shows three fellows with the caption, "Broadcasters for a bilingual sumo
>program."  Does anyone remember this and can tell me who they are ?  
 
The bilingual broadcast started in July 1992, so the original three
play-by-play men were Dave Wiggins (also writes a sports column for the
Mainichi Daily News, among other things), Tom Quinn (who also reads NHK
bilingual news as well as being a teacher), and Glenn van Zutphen, a
professional broadcaster who quit NHK after two years and recently turned
up reporting for ---oh, CNN I think. Glenn was replaced by Ross Mihara, an
American of Japanese descent, and the team was augmented by a professional
Australian broadcaster, Murray Johnson. In the early days the play-by-play
men knew precious little about sumo -  but they are very knowledgeable now,
as the NHK producer takes them round the various heya and introduces them. 
The 'guests' - actually regular color people -  are still left to learn for
themselves - which is why we were brought onto the show in the first place.

Doreen in sumoland

  In sumoland, we sing
            Beethoven's Ninth In February
                    Seid unschlungen, Millionen....