Call Of The Mild: Wayne Norman, Joe D’Ambrosio On Same Wavelength
By DOM AMORE
The Hartford Courant
November 6, 2013
Wayne Norman at Gampel Pavilion — John Woike photo, courtesy of Hartford Courant
WILLIMANTIC — Wayne Norman’s days begin, unless UConn has taken him to some faraway place, at 5 a.m. By 6, he is on the air.
It is not touchdown passes or three-point shots he is describing at that hour. It’s school cancellations, weather, issues of import in the small northeast Connecticut city where he is sometimes called The Mayor and just might be seen strutting at the head of a parade wearing a turkey suit.
“I’m the big fish in the small pond,” Norman said. “Everybody knows you, which is good, unless you cut somebody off at a red light. So we try not to do that.”
Norman is known to the state for providing radio analysis for UConn sporting events since 1979, working with Joe D’Ambrosio as far back as 1983. But for more than 40 years this has been his “day job” at WILI-AM 1400 in Romantic Willimantic.
“Never been married,” said Norman, 65, who is now engaged to a former college classmate, Jacquie Greenfield, “but I’ve had some near misses. Pun intended, near missus.”
That’s a one-liner that might just work on the air. The format, he said, is called “full-service adult contemporary,” the kind of morning show that still exists for listeners who’ve never cottoned to raunchy radio. He convinces guests to come into the studio for “long form” interviews, he spins records, he does the news, the sports. When it’s over, he assumes the role of program director, the administrative work.
Then, during the fall and winter, it’s off to wherever UConn might be playing. In the spring, he calls Eastern baseball. If he gets to sleep by, say 2 a.m., that’s early enough for him to work the next morning.
“Wayn-o is the consummate professional,” said D’Ambrosio, 60, who once had a similar job at WLIS in Old Saybrook. “He’s always prepared. Like every good broadcaster, he is overprepared.”
Norman, believe it or not, grew up in Hollywood, listening to Vin Scully paint word portraits of Dodgers games. His family relocated to Connecticut, and he spent his senior year at Trumbull High, then it was on to UConn, where he fell in love with radio and got to know Barry Berman of the Connecticut Radio Network. The first event of the more than 1,400 he has called was a UConn football game at Navy in 1979.
Eventually, Norman found himself working UConn games with the legendary Marty Glickman. One night, when Norman started to interject some of the stats he loves, Glickman bellowed on the air, “Who cares?” He and his current partner still laugh about that.
On Dec. 8, 1983, Glickman, who commuted from New York, got into an auto accident on the way to Storrs, and D’Ambrosio, who was at the Field House, was asked to fill in. “I had no time to prepare,” D’Ambrosio recalls, “no time for my knees to knock.”
And they worked together for the first time. Since 1992, they have been a permanent duo. “We’re like a well-oiled machine,” Norman said.
Joe D, who hosts “SportsTalk” on WTIC-AM 1080 and also does TV sports on NBC Connecticut, is a Yankees fan, very active on Twitter. Wayn-o loves the Red Sox, scored World Series tickets in 1975 and 2013, “and there ain’t no hashtag Wayn-o,” he said.
They do share a love of oldies.
“Joe likes stuff from the ’70s,” Norman said. “I’m more ’50s and ’60s. On trips to St. John’s, I’ll put in an Earth, Wind & Fire CD and we’ll boogie all the way down to New York.”
The also share a common disdain for using “we” or “us” on the air, list the 1999 NCAA final, UConn’s first championship in men’s basketball, as No.1 on their list of favorite broadcasts and pride themselves in never talking over each another on the air.
“I know when I need to cut out,” Norman said, “and Joe knows when I want to say something. In a good way, Joe makes my job harder. My job doesn’t require me to follow the ball, so I watch away from the ball. One thing Joe has really taught me to do, when I give a stat, explain why it’s important. That’s color commentary.”
READ A STORY ABOUT BOB JOYCE, WHO CALLS UCONN WOMEN’S BASKETBALL GAMES ON WILI–CLICK HERE.
