Sports were an important part of WJMA's programming. WJMA carried Orange County High School football for 50 years from 1953 to 2003. Madison High School football was also part of the schedule for many of Madison's playoff games. The Paul Sizemore Show ran for many years on Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 7. In the fall of 1974 when Madison County High School under Coach Eddie Dean was having a great deal of succes, WJMA added the Eddie Dean Show on Wednesdy evenings. Chet Burgess was the first host. Chet recalls some caution on adding a new show...would there be enought advetising revenue to support it? The program sold out in 24 hours. When programs for Louisa (Thursday) and Greene (Friday) became part of the schedule, the program names were changed to SportsTalk: Tuesday, SportsTalk: Wednesday, etc.
In addition to high school sports, WJMA carried the Washington Redskins, Baltimore Orioles, University of Virginia (football and basketball) and Virginia Tech (football) schedules. During the brief existence of the United States Football League, WJMA carried the Washington Federals. For a couple of seasons, WJMA also carried the Virginia Squires of the American Basketball Association. By the late 1990s all sports had been dropped except for Orange County High School football. High school football was dropped after the 2003 season. One weekday morning sportscast remains on the schedule.
Tom Graves held the position of WJMA Sports Director for a number of years in the late 70s and early 80s. During this time, WJMA would at times cover four football games on a Friday evening. The Orange High game was the feature, with frequent live cut ins from the Madison, Louisa and Greene games.
HS FOOTBALL-- (play-by-play/color
1953--1956 Tubby Walthal
1956--1959 Red Shipley
1960--1970 Bill Little/Don Little & Red Shipley
1971--1977 Ted Carroll/Bill Little
1978--1985 Bill Little/Clint Estes
1982--1983 Clint Estes/Tom Graves, George Fletcher on the sidelines...Tom Graves (Madison games)/Clint Estes
1984--1985 Clint Estes/Phil Goodwin
1985--1987 Clint Estes/Ken Pratt
1987--1996 Clint Estes/Eric St James, Will Gregg on the sidelines
1996--2003 Clint Estes/Mike Howes, Red Shipley
HS BASKETBALL--
late 1960s--early 1970s: John Cregg / Andy Lax stats and half time
David Taylor/Phil Goodwin
1985-1988 Clint Estes/Ken Pratt/Sue Jarrett
HS BASEBALL--
David Taylor
Here's a Sports Station Identification from the mid 1970s. David Taylor is the announcer.
Here's the conclusion of the 1976 sports year in review. What could be better than an UVA ACC basketball championship, Paul Sizemore on a winning season, Madison County winning the State Group A football championship and Frank Sinatra? This runs 2:53 and is a 2.7 meg file.
Tom Graves has a wrap up of the year in sports from 1982. This sample is shortend for presentation here. It runs 1:53 and is a 1.7 meg file.
Pat Watson was WJMA's bookkeeper, traffic manager, receptionist and number one sports fan. After hearing Pat's constant opinions on sports, we gave asked her to do her own show, Pat's Picks, which aired three times on Friday during football season. Pat and the four area high school coaches picked the same games each week. Pat often had the best picking record at the end of the season. In all her years of picking games, Pat never picked against Madison and rarely picked against the Dallas Cowboys. Ross Hunter is the announcer.
In 1998 Clint Estes got together with announcer and musican Mike Hays to record a customized version of the "Are You Ready for Some Football?" music used by ABC for Monday Night Football. Clint wrote the lyrics, Mike did the performing on the Hornet Football theme. This runs 2:21. It was used only for the 1998 season.
