Bill Dyer
WCAU Radio
1936

Here's Bill Dyer on WCAU Radio in 1936. Bill was a sportscaster and also did play-by-play on both the Phillies and A's baseball games.

On the Phils broadcasts, he was teamed up with Dolly Stark in 1936 and Taylor Grant in 1937. He had a strange habit of walking around his chair before broadcasting a game. He told people that it was for Good Luck!

In the forties, Dyer managed the Baltimore Bullets basketball team. At that time, he was also doing Orioles games on WITH Radio. He's was what fans might call a "homer." That is, he rooted for the Orioles (a Triple A team at the time) with phrases like, "We could really use a home run now." CBS Newsman Charles Osgood that as a nine year old child, he would walk down the street and all the houses had their windows open. Many houses had the Orioles game on and you could walk from place to place and continue to listen to the game. At that time, Osgood said that broadcasting is what he wanted to do with his life.

Robert Himmer, a visitor to our website e-mailed:

I recently went through some letters sent to my father (a sailor in the Pacific) during the Second World War. One sent in late October 1944 by one of my aunts (who happened to work at WITH radio in Baltimore) said, "We sure had an exciting time here last week. They [the triple A Orioles] carried huge crowds and must say a lot of credit is due Bill Dyer, the announcer for he sure built that club up with his enthusiasm." I don't have any personal memories of Bill Dyer. By the time I was old enough to follow the Orioles (still the Triple A version) on the radio, he was gone, and the Chuck Thompson-Bailey Goss era had begun.

Joe D'Adamo, a visitor to our website e-mailed:

I worked with Bill Dyer as statistician on Orioles games from 1942-1946 and later refereed preliminary basketball games prior to the Bullet games. I was in high school when I worked on the baseball games. I have often wondered what happened to Bill after he left Baltimore. I know he went to California and that's the last I heard of him. I'm 77, so he must be in his 90's if he's still alive.

The bio on Bill says he was manager of the Bullets. Actually, he was general manager. He signed Paul Hoffman, who was an All-American from Purdue. On day, I visited W-I-T-H during the off-season and Dyer was interviewing Hoffman for his afternoon sports broadcast, He told me that he and Hoffman were going to Atlantic City for a Bullet exhibition game against the Philadelphia Warriors and asked if I would like to go along.

Before the game, he introduced me to a tall young man. "Joe, shake hands with Chuck Thompson," he said, "He's going to come to Baltimore next year to do the Oriole games." Dyer was a real "homer." He rooted on the air, walking around the red chair, etc. I think he was responsible for Baltimore getting back into the big-leagues. He was responsible for 50,000 fans going to Memorial Stadium for a Little World Series game when that same day, the Cards and Browns played before 30,000 on the "big" World Series. The website says something about Bill working in Philly before coming to Baltimore. I always thought he worked with Byrum Saum in Philly.... He was responsible for my getting into the sports business. I worked for The Baltimore
Evening Sun for 42 years and was Baltimore Correspondent for Sports Illustrated for 25 years.

According to the Philadelphia Phillies, Bill Dyer and By Saam did do play-by-play on the Phils baseball broadcasts. Only thing, it wasn't at the same time. Bill Dyer did the 1936 and 1937 years. By didn't start until 1939.

Doug Stark, a visitor to our website e-mailed:

I am working on a project about the Philadelphia SPHAS (South Philadelphia Hebrew Association), which was a Jewish basketball team from 1918 through 1959.  The heyday for the team was in the 1930s and the team played its home games at the Broadwood Hotel.  I discovered that the games were broadcast on WCAU radio and Bill Dyer was the radio announcer.  ...The team used to have dances after the games and Kitty Kallen won a contest on "The Children's Hour" and then sang at the dances.

Stanley Slome, a visitor to our website e-mailed:

I can tell you exactly what Bill Dyer was doing circa 1962-63. Here's the story: I was on unemployment in Los Angeles, having been laid off in PR by Dan Lundberg, the oil marketing survey guru who had decided to stick wholly to that instead of other projects. I answered a help wanted ad in the LA Times for someone who could write job resumes. The interviewer identified himself as Bill Dyer. Although I hadn't heard that voice in more than 20 years, I recognized it instantly. I asked him politely if he wasn't the Bill Dyer who used to broadcast the Phillies and A's games on the first base side at Shibe Park, opposite Byrum Saam on the third base side, for Mobil Oil and describe a double play as "Mobil Gas to Mobil Oil to Bugaboo" and a home run as a "Flying Red Horse?" He was startled, that's certain, saying in effect, " How in the world can you remember that?" ...Mobil, I remember, in 1940 used to provide baseball scorecards with Bill Dyer's face on the cover.

From the official archives of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia
Photo originally donated by Broadcast Pioneers historian Gerry Wilkinson
© 2000, Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia
All Rights Reserved

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