Staff Writer
Bo Rabb says that in his job as WBCU sports director, he is getting paid to do something he probably would do for free.
“I like it that much,” he said.
And those who know him say his love for his job and Union County sports certainly shows - in his exuberance as he calls a good play during a broadcast and in his upbeat, positive attitude as he interviews a coach or an athlete.
Rabb's efforts haven't gone unnoticed. Saturday during the South Carolina Broadcasters Association Convention in Hilton Head, Rabb was named “Sportscaster of the Year” for small markets in South Carolina.
Rabb attended the convention with his wife, Melanie, and co-workers knowing he was a finalist for the award but never dreaming he would win.
“I have told this to everybody who has said nice things -I don't have a prototypical radio voice,” he said. “I have fun doing what I'm doing. Maybe I get too excited. Maybe that's good. People tell me when I get excited they know something good has happened.”
WBCU owner Chris Woodson said he is very proud of Rabb.
“WBCU and Union County as a whole are very fortunate to have somebody like Bo,” Woodson said.
The 51-year-old Rabb covers everything from Little League baseball to high school sports and everything in-between, Woodson said. His duties also include shows with coaches and his Saturday morning sports hour program.
“He puts in a lot of hours people never see,” Woodson said. “He doesn't complain and he goes above and beyond the call of duty to make sports available to the Union County population.”
Several of Rabb's broadcast clips were presented for the judging, including a sample from the Union County High vs. Greenville football game in 2007; a basketball game where Rabb called a Devan Booker dunk; a baseball clip of a Keiston Stevens grand slam home run against Greenville High; the final out of the 14-year-olds' World Series game in Aiken and a portion of the Sports Talk program where Union County High Basketball Coach Joe Pitt called in.
For the crowd at the convention, the clip from the football game against Greenville High was played, with Rabb calling a Marcus Whitener 80-yard run.
Pitt said Rabb and WBCU have been a huge part of the athletic program at Union County High.
“Bo gives endless hours of work behind the scenes preparing to do these games,” he said. “It's an award he very deservingly got. I'm proud of him.”
Rabb went to work for WBCU in 1997 as a statistician during football season. Midway through the season, color commentator Pat Littlejohn resigned that position to spend more time with his son, who was ill.
“Phil asked if I could do color and stats,” Rabb said. “I said I could and I did both for a few years.”
Hobbs left WBCU to become manager of a station in Georgia and Chris Carr took over the announcer's duties for a year. As then-station manager Karen Johns considered Carr's replacement, then-Union High football coach Mike Anthony told her she needed to look no further than Rabb.
“The main reason was the passion Bo has,” said Anthony, who now represents Union County in the S.C. House of Representatives. “When he would interview me, he was always so positive. He has such a passion for the job. I felt like that job needed passion as much as it needed polish.”
Anthony said many years ago, he spent his first year as a school teacher at Sims Jr. High where Rabb's mother, the late Flossie Rabb, also was a faculty member. He said Mrs. Rabb displayed the same passion for teaching that Rabb exhibits as a sportscaster.
“That is one sad part for me - she didn't get a chance to see this,” Anthony said.
Rabb is a case manager for the South Carolina Department of Corrections, where he has worked nearly 24 years. He is a 1975 graduate of Union High School.
He has been sports director at WBCU for five years. During football season he is part of a three-man team with Rick Smith on color and Brad Valentine as the “field mike.”
Rabb broadcasts a variety of other sports, including Union County High School baseball and basketball; along with Dixie Youth, girls softball and other offerings.
“We do as much as we can,” he said. “And I have a blast doing it.”
At the convention, WBCU also won second place in medium and small markets for radio production communication with its Midway Barbecue menu. They won second place in medium and small markets with its radio production promo on its new translator. The station won second place in all markets for the Richard M. Uray Public Service program of the year, its “Unite and Ignite” pep rally before the beginning of the 2007 football season. The program included interviews with Union County School District officials and school board members and editorials.
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