Voices from the past: 1 boomer, 1 jumper

Ken Broo was the golden boy of local TV sportscasters in the early 80s. His loose, witty, and often opinionated segments on WTSP-Ch. 10 were a breath of fresh air on local airwaves and drew big ratings. His specialty was punctuating videotaped sports footage with well-timed onomatopoeia. For home run hits, he always exclaimed, "Boom! Deep to left! You can kiss it goodbye!" He became known as "The Boomer."

Broo left in 1987 after six years and a host of awards, including an Emmy. The bay area didn't have enough big-time sports for him in those days. "We had the Bucs, we had (University of South Florida), and that was about it," said, Broo, now 49. He landed at WLWT in Cincinnati and served as sports director and anchor, winning another Emmy. In 1990 he switched to Cincy competitor WKRC. After six years, he moved to WUSA in Washington D.C., were he was sports director and anchor for four years. While there he won three more Emmys.

In February 2000 Broo returned to Cincinnati's WLWT. The town feels like home to him, but so did Tampa. Broo says he'd consider working here again. "Oh, absolutely," Broo said. "I love Tampa. Our kids were born down there." Broo visits here a few times a year. He has family in Temple Terrace, and remains close friends with former colleague and veteran WTSP news anchor John Wilson.

Broo and his family often vacation in New York City to catch Broadway shows. They recently saw John Wilson's Tony-nominated son Patrick in the Full Monty. Broo is planning to see the rising Broadway star again soon in Oklahoma! with his wife Jackie, and his 16-year-old daughter Caitlin. The Broos also have a son, Matt, a 20-year-old junior at Tulane Univeristy.

Does Broo still say "Boom!"? "Yeah," Broo says with a laugh. "I still do. But not as much."

Recognize the voice when you get put on hold while phoning Malios? Or Ristorante Francesco? Or Centex Corp.?

It's the same voice that told you when to avoid the Howard Frankland throughout the '80s on WRBQ-FM Q-105. Former sky traffic reporter and diehard sky diver Arch Deal still puts his smoothly modulated broadcaster's voice to work.

He operates the Voice of Business from his Odessa home studio, recording custom narrations and phone hold messages for local restaurants such as Pappas, the Colonnade, Iavarone's Steakhouse, and also local liquor distributor J.J. Taylor.

Deal also leads a promotional sky diving team for Miller Brewing Co., and heads his own freelance team he calls the American Fall Guys. He says he's jumped into every professional sporting stadium in the country, and onto a variety of other special events, including those arranged by the Cayman Islands Tourist Commission and Norwegian Cruise Lines.

He's 70 years old.

And lucky to be 70, too. In 1975, during a show jump at Cypress Gardens, both his parachutes failed to open. He hit the ground at 120 mph. He broke six ribs, crushed two lumbar vertebrae, separated his pelvis, broke both legs, and broke his neck "one millimeter from a hangman's break," as Deal put it.

Within three months, he was back on the job, which happened to be anchoring the news for WFLA-Ch. 8, where he had worked since 1957. In 1977, he moved to WLCY-Ch. 10 for a two year stint as anchor and news director.

After that he quit television to work for Miller Brewing, organizing the Sixpack in the Sky skydiving team. Not long after he was also hired by Q-105 to give traffic reports from his Cessna 152, which he did until 1992.

Now he's happy e-mailing custom voice work to his clients via his Apple MacIntosh, and jumping out of a plane for any company who will pay him. "I'm sort of the corporate fall guy," Deal quipped.

- Michael Canning can be reached at 226-3408 or canning@sptimes.com.

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