Father-son broadcast team announces Ashland High sporting events for WACA-TV
ASHLAND – At midcourt, father and son. On either side of the bleachers, father and daughter.
And on the bench, the man whose son inspired his foray into the announcing biz.
The crew at Tuesday night’s girls basketball game share surnames and a passion for putting together a live broadcast for WACA-TV, Ashland’s community access channel.
The announcing team fell into a rapport developed not only as broadcast partners for seven years but from living under the same roof. Ashland High senior Chase Abrams handled play-by-play and his father, Josh, seated to his left, served as color commentator when the Clockers hosted Hopkinton in a Tri-Valley League girls basketball game.
Their banter, broadcast live on WACA’s YouTube channel, flowed easily from starting lineups to final whistle. Neither appeared nervous, a contrast from Chase’s first game as a sixth-grader when he announced a boys basketball game against Medfield with dad by his side.
“I just remember putting on the headset and I was freaking out,” he said before Tuesday's game.
He cringes at the thought of his debut, when Josh wrote out a script for him to follow.
“It’s tough to watch. The voice has changed a little bit,” Chase said. “I felt like I was stuttering every single sentence. It’s cool to see because I feel like I’ve come a long way since then but at the same time, it’s like ‘ooh, people were watching this.’”
Josh, who studied broadcast journalism at Syracuse, remembers trying to keep his son at ease.
“I tried,” he said, “to take some of the pressure off: ‘Listen, I will carry the load, and when you’re comfortable, just jump in. We’re just having a conversation; we’re just watching the game.’ He was a little apprehensive and nervous there in the first quarter, but he warmed up.”
Their roles have changed - along with Chase’s voice.
“I’ve really seen the development over the last year or two,” Josh Abrams said. “In sixth grade, seventh grade, I was the lead and he would jump in when he was comfortable. Tonight, and for the last year or so, he’s the lead announcer and I’ll supplement.”
Father, daughter work behind the scenes at WACA
While the Abramses announced along the sideline with their backs to the crowd, crew chief Jeff Hall, also wearing a headset, sat at a table out of view, behind the end of the bleachers. He was “the man behind the curtain,” but instead of twisting dials – Oz-like – Hall tapped away at a keyboard and faced a monitor displaying the action.
The video appearing in front of him – and appearing on screens all over town – was courtesy of his daughter, Alicia, who ran the camera at the opposite end of the bleachers.
“I enjoy working with the kids, helping train the kids and giving them experience,” Jeff Hall said. “It’s obviously a bonus working with my daughter. It’s good constructive time. That’s been my favorite part of it.”
“It’s great experience; we have fun,” said Alicia, a junior at Tri-County Regional Vocational High School. “It’s a great crew.”
Rob Silver continues announcing in honor of late son
The crew rotates between the many sports broadcasts that WACA produces, including soccer, lacrosse, baseball, football, hockey, volleyball and even a swim meet held during the COVID-19 pandemic. “That was a big learning process, completely on the fly,” said Chase Abrams, who aspires to study broadcast journalism in college. “We had no idea what we were doing going into it. There was a lot of dead air.”
Chase and Josh aren’t always paired together. Students Andrew Klay and Andrew Vetstein also announce games along with Rob Silver, a WACA veteran.
Rob’s late son, Jake, an Ashland High grad, started announcing games in 2015. Barbara Chisholm, WACA’s executive director, recalled how Rob became involved.
“Jake said, ‘my father would love to do it,’” Chisholm said. “I said, ‘he can fill in for a game or two.” Rob Silver is currently in his 10th year with WACA.
“He wanted to go on the same path that Chase is going,” Rob Silver said of Jake, who died at age 18 in 2019 after battling osteosarcoma, but not before receiving a voice mail from then Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. “I enjoy it. I’ve stuck with the station in honor of Jake. Chase is picking up where Jake had to leave off.”
Rob was joined by his daughter, Halle, in announcing an Ashland girls basketball game recently when she was on winter break from the University of Florida.
But on Tuesday night, the broadcast team included father and son. Both Josh and Chase Abrams mentioned Al Michaels as a role model. Chase said he met former popular Boston Red Sox play-by-play man Don Orsillo and also admires Philadelphia Phillies announcer Tom McCarthy (Josh Abrams is from Philly).
Josh, who works in marketing for Dell Technologies, has learned to simplify his time on the air, especially for basketball. He once attempted to describe every pass but found it to be an impossible task. He currently pays close attention to professional announcers and has reached a humble conclusion:
“It’s harder than it looks.”
Tim Dumas is a multimedia journalist for the Daily News. He can be reached at tdumas@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @TimDumas.
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Fathers, sons, daughters part of Ashland's WACA-TV broadcast team
