Register Begins 22nd Season With Bulldog Football On The Radio

The Marianna Bulldogs football program celebrates the beginning of their 85th season this year. And for a little over one-fourth of the program’s existence Bulldog fans have heard a familiar voice on their radio come Friday nights. Russell Register will begin his 22nd season as the play by play announcer of Bulldog Football on the radio.

In 1988 Register approach Don Moore at WJAQ about the possibility of doing some broadcasting for the Bulldogs. He had heard Sandy Westmoreland say at the close of the 1987 season that it was going to be his last year as the announcer. Westmoreland had followed in the line of former Bulldog football announcers like Moore and Dick Bowers. Moore told Register they already had a new announcer (Scott Hales) lined up for Marianna but they needed someone to help with their “Game of the Week” for Jackson County Football. Register began helping David Ferro and they ended up concentrating on the streaking Graceville Tigers. In his first season on the radio Register helped call the Tigers run to a 1988 State Championship under Phil Fowler.

Hales was not able to continue as the Bulldogs announcer in 1989 so Register was offered the spot and as they say, the rest is history. The first game of the 1989 season Register announced the Bulldog’s 17-14 win over Baker to snap a 23 game losing streak. His color man that year was Brad Clarke. The following season Register was joined by color man Tory Hussey. In 1991 he got his third color man in three years as a former school mate joined him. (See Simply Put for more on that color man).

Over the 21 previous seasons Register has seen some good times and not so good times for the Bulldogs. The best of the good times included the late 90’s when the Bulldogs reel off four straight district championships, some big playoff wins and an appearance in the 2000 Class 2A State Championship game played at Florida Field. The bad times included a few seasons with just one or two wins. Through it all Register has been there. “I graduated from Marianna in 1979 and I guess it’s safe to say that I bleed purple and gold. I’m with the Bulldogs win, lose or draw” Register said.

Register has also seen a lot of changes in the technology used to bring the fans the broadcast, especially on the away games. “We used to use a box called a “marti” and a police scanner. The marti transmitted to the police scanner and the police scanner was placed by a telephone receiver. In those days we could not hear the station engineer so we had to time our commercial breaks. Sometimes we timed them right and sometimes we didn’t,” Register recalls. Along the way the use of hard line telephone lines helped tremendously and with the proliferation of cellular phones the broadcast have become easier. Still there are some trying times. “As with any technology sometimes there seems to be gremlins working hard to make the broadcast difficult. It keeps us humble but for the most part we’ve always been able to pull off the broadcast,” said Register.

Another trademark of Register’s broadcasting career is dedication. Since he began broadcasting Bulldog football in 1989 Marianna has played a total of 227 regular season games and 22 pre-season games. That is a total of 249 games in 21 years and Register has broadcast all but two. He missed a game in 1989 season when his son was born and missed a second game in 1997 when his sister-in-law passed away. He has gone through five coaching changes and three station changes. He first started out broadcasting on WJAQ but then the games were moved to WJNF. Two years ago the broadcast were returned to WJAQ when WJNF was sold and the new owners choose not to continue the broadcast.