Dynamic Play-By-Play Announcer Honored

GREGSON PROMOTES PRAIRIE GROVE ATHLETICS

PRAIRIE GROVE — Lynn Gregson maintains a certain amount of objectivity, yet promoted Prairie Grove Tiger sports at every opportunity while announcing games aired live on PG Telco.

Gregson’s enthusiam and tireless devotion endeared him unto the community, which ushered him as a community inductee into the Prairie Grove Hall of Pride Nov. 27 along with three former Prairie Grove High School athletes. Gregson hailed each achievement with lavish praise as the play-by-play announcer injecting exuberance into game videos.

“He goes out of his way to make that a quality product,” said Steve Halbert, who operated a hand-held camera when the adventure began. “He travels to all of the out-of-town games.”

Webcast History

The endeavor got underway beginning with the 2010 fall football season. In the fledgling days of Prairie Grove High School athletic webcasts aired over the Internet via PG Telco the booster club did everything from call the games to man the equipment. In addition to Halbert, Kendall Layman and Dennis Gill volunteered as the broadcast crew. As the sports season shifted to basketball Gregson and Gill worked with Derek Dougan for the 2010-2011 hoops season.

“It was all booster club then,” Gregson recalls.

Halbert was the primary camera operator early on. He sat in the stands or wherever he was permitted to station with a hand-held camera. The quality was poor and viewers couldn’t see the snap of the football so Halbert zoomed in on the ball before the start of each play. Sometimes he was positioned to where he couldn’t cover the entire field, recalling a large speaker which obstructed the camera’s view to one side during a game hosted by a nearby rival.

Technical Upgrades

Not long into the endeavor the booster club realized the need for better equipment and began to petition the school to invest in the webcasts.

Halbert says with the addition of Gregson the webcasts really came on.

“He’s got the golden tongue,” Halbert said. “Lynn captured that vision as well and he was able to get the administration and high school principal on board,” Halbert said. “The equipment is so much better than when I was doing it.”

Gregson credits Allen Williams, Prairie Grove superintendent of schools; Ron Bond, high school principal, Heath Whitley; and Miles Eubanks, systems administrator, with implementing technical upgrades that led to quality production. He acknowledged each of these men along with all of his various broadcast partners after accepting induction into the Prairie Grove Hall of Pride.

According to Halbert, the difference is striking.

“They’ve really made such a big improvement on the overall quality of that,” Halbert said. “It’s gotten better and better over time.”

Volunteer Voice

Gregson waves a hat to the local internet service provider, PG Telco, which donates broadband and video storage to archive and make current webcasts possible.

“We couldn’t have done it without PG Telco,” Gregson said. “They were a huge part of that.”

The webcast is seen in all 50 states, and in more than 50 countries around the world by Tiger fans who cannot attend the events. Gregson continued to volunteer countless hours even after his fourth child graduated from PGHS.

Halbert told Gregson, “If you hadn’t put so much of your time in that, then Prairie Grove wouldn’t get to enjoy watching their kids.”

Student Involvement

During the 2012-2013 school year Prairie Grove High School students became involved in the video production through the school’s EAST (environmental and spatial technology) program taught by Whitley.

Gregson no longer has to set up and dismantle the equipment. As Halbert puts it, “Heath (Whitley) and his students, they do all of the mule work. They pack up all of the equipment. They do it all for him.”

“We used to set that all up, now EAST is doing it,” Halbert said. “It’s part of the curriculum. I think it’s just an invaluable experience for students to get to do that.”

For all of the athletic highlight he’s been privileged to announce, including Prairie Grove finishing as State Runner-up in football (2015) and State Runner-up in girls basketball twice (2010 and 2013), Gregson draws a high degree of satisfaction in handing the baton off to students who get “hands-on” experience in potential career fields.

“That’s been my biggest thrill seeing these kids involved in the broadcasts, seeing them grow,” Gregson said.

Trademark Legacy

Halbert pays heed to Gregson’s vocalization. In addition to utterances such as “Give him six” for each Prairie Grove touchdown or “Bottom” for a successful 3-pointer in basketball, there’s one more.

“He also has one that may not be so well-known, but I’ve noticed,” Halbert said. “Lynn will say, ‘And now…,’ and he won’t follow up with anything. He baits you.”

Psychologists call that using “the salt principle,” building up the interest of listeners to keep them hanging on every word. Gregson has done a masterful job stimulating the video image with proclamations of Prairie Grove athletic prowess. His trademark manner of calling each Tiger touchdown is unique.

“‘Give him six,’” Halbert said. “That’s Lynn Gregson and nobody else.”

FILE PHOTO Lynn Gregson (left) was honored Nov. 27 as a community inductee into the Prairie Grove Hall of Pride. Prairie Grove athletic director Joey Sorters presented Gregson a plaque recognizing his contributions to Tiger athletics as “the Voice of the Tigers”...