WWSC countdown to 75 — Don Metivier
This is the latest in an occasional series of posts leading up to the 75th anniversary of Glens Falls radio station WWSC on Dec. 18, 2021.
When Boston University defeated Navy 62–55 in the Eastern Regional semi-final game of the 1959 NCAA basketball tournament, Don Metivier, a Glens Falls native, was calling the play-by-play action.
Metivier’s announcing was broadcast over WBUR, the BU college radio station, with the broadcast heard at the university gymnasium, where thousands of students gathered to listen.
Through a special arrangement with the telephone company, the sound of the BU fans cheering on campus was transmitted to Charlotte, N.C., where the tournament was held, and the sound was broadcast over the Charlotte Coliseum sound system, bringing a home-town crowd feel to the tournament play.
Metivier, who went on to become a Glens Falls news legend, also called play-by-play for BU’s quarter final 62–55 win over Connecticut, and regional final round 86–82 loss to West Virginia.
Metivier worked his way through his junior and senior year at Boston University as sports director at WBUR, a 20,000-watt station that could be heard within a 100-mile radius of Boston.
He hosted a weekly sports show at 6:15 p.m. Saturdays, and a Friday evening “Coaches Corner” show during football season.
Metivier was play-by-play announcer for BU football, basketball, hockey and baseball games, and for Boston Bruins National Hockey League games.
In April 1960, Alpha Epsilon, the professional radio and television fraternity, honored Metivier with an award for “Outstanding Single Program” in the Boston area for his broadcast of the NCAA hockey championship.
It was the first time the award had gone to a sports announcer.
Prior to WBUR, Metivier, a 1954 St. Mary’s Academy graduate, was sports director for WWSC in Glens Falls and a correspondent for The Post-Star and Glens Falls Times.
Metivier wrote in a 1987 Post-Star column that his first time on the air was as announcer for the Santa Claus show, when he used to hang out at the WWSC studio as a teenager.
Later he was the station’s first over-night announcer when WWSC began broadcasting 24 hours.
“The cops used to listen, and when I fell asleep about 3:45 a.m. and a record kept running in the grooves, one of the patrol cars would put its siren on outside the window,” he wrote.
After graduating Boston University, Metivier was an announcer at WRSA in Saratoga Springs.
He took leave of absence from the station in October to serve six months active duty in the U.S. Army.
In December 1961 he was back working at WWSC.
In May 1962, Metivier was working two full-time jobs as a reporter for The Glens Falls Times and as afternoon announcer of WSET, later WBZA, in Glens Falls.
“Latest area news, smooth music, homely talks, weather, stock reports, features and good listening,” WSET advertised Metivier’s daily program.
Metivier was a long-time Glens Falls Times and Post-Star reporter, columnist and editor until 1981, when he became editor and publisher of “Ski Racing Magazine,” a publication he had written for since 1966.
For some years he continued writing a weekly column for The Post-Star.
Metitiver wrote four books, including “Saturday Morning,” a collection of his columns, and “Metivier On,” a volume of essays about life in Glens Falls and Saratoga.
He wrote histories of Glens Falls Lehigh Cement Co. and the Glens Falls Country Club.
Sources: The Post-Star Oct. 31, 1958; March 13, 1959; May 22, 1962; June 10, 1987; April 9, 2007; Glens Falls Times April 12, Oct. 22, 1960; Jan. 23, 1962
Click here to read the most recent previous post in the series.
