"Just leave it on...we'll control it from the truck"
 

Had a televised game on Saturday, and when the R was given the mic by the TV crew he was told to not worry about turning it on and off, leaving it in the on position all game and letting the guys in the truck worry about it.

Now I have heard from others that you should never wear a mic if you don't control when it's on or off.

So...in this situation what would you have done...
Flicked the on/off switch on the mic yourself?
Left it on the whole game?
Refused to wear the mic?

My choice would've been to control the mic myself using the switch on the mic...but I wasn't the R so I didn't get to make the choice...he just left it on for the whole game.

The local TV station in our area that carries a weekly game of the week controls the ref's mike from the truck.

I've been on several times and never had a problem until the last game. They left my mike on the entire game - I guess they had a new audio guy in the truck. I found out about it the next day when I watched the tape of the broadcast.

Luckily, there was nothing broadcast that was bad. I did contact the station and they apologized. The mike set they use does not have an on/off switch. We'll be on again this year and I will use the mike. As a former play-by-play guy, I trust them - maybe a little too much. But remember, refusing the wear the mike will make you seem like a jerk to the broadcast team, and they have the last word about your performance.

Don't do it
 

Never leave control of your mike to anyone else. Turn it off when you don't need it, unless you want the whole audience to hear a private remark like "Now, what the ..."
It happens often enough when the mike is controlled by the R, it's not necessary to add further probability for mishaps :)
If switching the mike off produces unwanted static noise or something like that, then leave the mike in the dressing room.

KB - that is the smart thing to do. In fact, because of this conversation, I may contact the station and suggest they get a mike with an on/off switch. We'll probably be on again once or twice this year - I had no problem our second televised game on that station last year, but I was uncomfortable.

You want control of the on/off on the field. I learned a secret from Red Cashion about mics. There are times where using the mic you can really do a good job explaining to the crowd to calm them down, but there are also times where you don't want them to hear what happened as it will make the crowd worse. The trick is for all of a sudden the mic "malfunctions". Simply tap the switch and the crowd assumes a malfunction and all you do is move your lips and signal.

Here in Missouri we were told by the state not to use a mike if we do not have control of it. The state said they would back us all the way if we refused to use it for that reason.

Here in Missouri we were told by the state not to use a mike if we do not have control of it. The state said they would back us all the way if we refused to use it for that reason.

You can answer this with a rather simple question. Can you trust the media? Since when have they ever been on the officials' side? What if you have a problem discussing something among the crew or a disagreement with the coach? They could have a field day if they wanted to.

Absolutely NOTHING GOOD can come of letting one of Joe Theisman's buddies control your mic. 'Nuf said.

Had a TV'd game a few weeks ago. They said the same thing to me. I was shocked because I was trying to determine if they were actually serious.

Never do that - allow them full control from the truck. Ever. I mean, do you see the pros doing it that way?

I learded after watching the broadcast replay that when I turned the mic on, there is a small delay before any audio is actually transmitted to the truck, and audible to the viewers. I surmised that there is some handshaking taking place between my mic and the receiver. So, next time: turn the mic on about 3 seconds before I intend to speak.

I have always controlled the mic myself, as not a D1 or NFL official but one thing I always do after I turn it off is tap it a couple of times to make sure it is off. That way I do not have to worry about the RFP whistle or anything else getting on the loudspeaker.

My opinion is that you must have control of the mike. First, you don't want the media randomly listening in on your conversations. If they (or the viewers) only hear a part of it, they are likely to get the wrong idea about your conversation.

Also, if the mike is on all the time, it may not catch the officials saying something bad, but it may catch a player of coach in the middle of a tirade filled with F-bombs and whatnot. While the media might say "we can control that," what about the situation above where the new sound guy leaves the R's mike's volume on for the audience the entire game?

If you can't manually control the audio with an on/off switch, then don't wear it. TV nor the stadium management can't dictate that you do.

I'd control it myself or not wear it at all.