Here goes my rant about this
Matt has been lurking around the No. Cal circuit for a while now, guest announcing some races, tv etc. and yes it was
clearly the cheap road they went down for this hire.
It is shameful how some of these guys get hired (and they are only fair to begin with calling wise) based on "who they know" b/c that is what happened at EMD. Matt knows Larry Collmus and the rest is history.
There are plenty of guys who have
better race calling skills and experience, yet, they will get passed up every time b/c of the going rate they demand and for the people they
do not know. RIL hired a terrible announcer, Mike James, this past season all based on Pete Aiello telling the RIL GM Mike Weiss he was a fit for the track.
https://www.facebook.com/mikey.james...on=friends_tab ARE YOU KIDDING ME PETE? But Pete doesn't care b/c he got in thanks to Larry at GP.
Race callers are getting $150-$400 per day and a prime example is the Penn National guy, who is roughly getting $40k a year after working there for over three decades to announce year round! I can see why he hasn't been hired to go to any other track BTW
Math wise, it comes out to $200 a day, which is company standard for that poor excuse of a race track operator & employer.
Living in the Bay Area, at let's say $1,500 a week to call races, sure isn't much, given the price of living and tax rate in CA, even with a roommate. Hell the washed up Craig Braddick was living in the stable area when calling at ARP! Funny what some of these guys do just to call a race in a sport that has seen dates reduced by 1,447 race days from 2005 to 2015
Whether you liked her or not, its a F-ing shame what happened to Angela. Gets hired, leaves CBY for la la land, gets the boot from the creeps at the Stronach group and now is nowhere on the horse racing map, while Frank M. who has quite the unsavory past, is getting ridiculous chances to call races. Did he not quit GG b/c SA didn't hire him, only to go crawling back?! Pathetic!
Most announcers aren't good anymore and it's an instant mute when watching via the RTN network at home. Matt, Larry, Aiello, Frank, Stone, Fox, Grunder, Jimmy McNerney and countless others are on wearing out my mute button!
