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He'll root, root, root for the home team

Paul Porter, whose booming baritone is the voice for many Tampa Bay area sports teams, is also a big fan.

As the familiar voice who exhorts you to cheer for the Tampa Bay Lightning, Tampa Bay Storm and University of South Florida Bulls, Paul Porter realizes you either love him or hate him.

You can chat with him on the radio about your favorite local teams. You also can comment about his work as he sits unassumingly at the next table at a restaurant.

Porter, the public address announcer at sporting venues all over Tampa Bay, likes it that way. He's a celebrity, of sorts, with the autonomy to come and go without being noticed.

"I get that all the time," Porter said, smiling. "Where people say "Oh, you're Paul Porter.' People will say, "You don't look at all like what you sound like on the radio.' And I'll joke with them and say, "You don't look like what I pictured my listener to be.'

"But it's fun, because unlike TV people or movie stars or actors, they can't go out of the house. Where I can be sitting right next to somebody, and they'll say, "Boy, I was listening to that Paul Porter on the radio, that announcer at the game. He is so wild, I can't believe how obnoxious that guy is.' "

Love him or hate him, Porter's job is to get you involved. He knows he can be over the top with homerism. Visiting teams and players don't like it. But the teams that employ him and their partisans in the stands enjoy his boisterous style.

"I'm rooting for the same team they're rooting for," said Porter, also the PA voice for the Orlando Magic. "I'm excited when they're excited, and I feed off their energy."

Sometimes his booming baritone gets him in hot water, like during the 1995 NBA finals when the Magic's Nick Anderson was at the foul line at a crucial juncture in the first game against Houston.

"It's real quiet because everyone wants him to concentrate, and he misses it," Porter said. "Even though I didn't have the mike on I was courtside and I said, "For crying out loud, Nick, would you make a free throw,' and my voice carried. He turns around and looks right at me.

"It's where the emotion enters into it. You live and die with these teams, so you can get yourself caught up that way. He came over later and said, "Sorry I let you down.' They know I'm their biggest fan."

This version of the sporting life suits Porter, who realized in college he would not make it as a professional baseball player.

A former play-by-play and public address announcer in his native Cleveland for the Cleveland Cavaliers from 1980-84, Porter settled in Tampa in 1985 after being hired by the Tampa Bay Thrillers of the Continental Basketball League.

One of the area's busiest announcers, Porter also works a morning drive time news and sports shift every weekday at WKES-FM 91.1 in Seminole. That's on top of a two-hour sports talk show called The Home Team he's done the past nine years each Saturday morning. That program runs on WWBA-AM 1040. Many weeks during the winter he'll work five games bouncing between Orlando and Tampa.

Sometimes after the games he'll put on his media hat and go in the locker room as a correspondent for WFAN in New York, the country's first all-sports radio station, and for Associated Press Radio Network.

The 49-year-old Porter tries to grab a nap each afternoon before heading to a game.

"I still love it," he said, relaxing in the quaint library area he and his wife, Jan, designed in their Pebble Creek home. "But it definitely is a grind, and there are nights when I really feel like I'd love to just curl up here with a good book and turn the music on. But you have to be there."

It works well that Jan, whom Porter met at a radio station in Cleveland in the late 1970s, attends most events with him. She assists the Magic and Lightning public relations departments on game nights.

Despite the hectic schedule, his employers laud his enthusiasm, realizing Porter is part of the entertainment package for the evening.

"His work ethic is unparalleled, working on radio and doing the PA for games at night," said Bill Wickett, senior vice president for communications for the Lightning and the St. Pete Times Forum. "We (Palace Sports Entertainment) saw the energy Paul brought to the building for the Magic games and told him a couple years ago to bring some of that energy to the Lightning games. He's done more of that the past few seasons.

"Some traditionalists might not like that. They just want who scored the goal and what time. The PA position has evolved into a much bigger role the past 20 years because of the desire for fan interaction and sponsorship needs and promotional desires."

Porter's downtime with Jan is in the summer, when basketball, hockey and arena football are finished. At that point he'll mainly be a reporter on the radio, with time to reflect on what he likes best. "Play-by-play you're more of a reporter," Porter said after concluding a radio interview. "You're there for the person that's not at the game. With PA announcing there's a lot more freedom to be yourself and do what you want and let loose.

"It's a lot more fun to do. Unfortunately, it doesn't pay enough to make it a full-time position, so you have to do the radio along with it."

Porter said the best part about doing PA is the immediate feedback from the crowd.

"It's nice when you can hear those tens of thousands of people either cheering or booing."

Age: 49

Family: Wife, Jan, 49, owns a public relations and advertising agency, Creative Ideas. Son, Alan, 21,lives in Ohio. Stepdaughter, Stephanie Kovault, passed away at 27 in 2001 from complications with diabetes.

Hobbies: Going to the beach, reading, listening to Christian contemporary music.

Favorite movie: Airplane. "I like to laugh."

Favorite food: Steak, meatloaf. "I'm a meat and potatoes guy."

Favorite restaurant: Circles

Book by your bed: The Purpose Driven Life and the Bible.

I get irked when people . . . "stab me in the back."

Tampa Bay fans . . . "love a winner, but don't have the time of day for a loser."

One wish for Tampa Bay teams: "I'd like to see the Lightning win the Stanley Cup, because it would put hockey over the top in this market."