Some things are just better on the radio

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When I was a kid, I watched nearly every UNC basketball game with my mom in our living room.

There were times when I didn’t pay all that much attention to the game because I was busy playing with action figures or otherwise lost in my own imagination — ya know, kid stuff.

Then, as I got older, there were times when I probably paid too much attention to the game, letting emotions get the best of me as I screamed at the officials and players through our TV.

But no matter my age, attention span or love for the sport, there was one thing that was a constant in our household: the voice of Woody Durham.

Durham — or, as most people call him, just “Woody” — was the Voice of the Tar Heels for 40 years, from 1971 to 2011, doing play-by-play of each and every Carolina game on the radio.

When the Tar Heels were playing, our TV was muted.

And our stereo — the one that could hold a whopping six CDs at once — was cranked up to max volume so that, for a few hours, Woody’s voice could flood our apartment.

Of course, the radio and TV weren’t synced up, so Woody would often tell us the results of a play before we saw it with our own eyes, but he had a way of painting pictures so vivid that we truly didn’t mind.

Woody played a major part of my love for not only the Tar Heels, but sports in general.

His passion oozed off of every word, and it was undoubtedly infectious.

There’s just something about listening to sports on the radio that just feels … right.

Whether it’s Woody for the Tar Heels, Vin Scully for the Los Angeles Dodgers or Harry Caray for multiple midwestern MLB teams, some of the most iconic and recognizable voices in sports spent years painting those same vivid pictures for fans over the radio.

Don’t get me wrong, watching a jaw-dropping dunk or electrifying home run on TV — and getting to see it as it happens — is great, but it doesn’t feel quite as special as hearing those same calls on the radio. Especially when the sportscasters themselves are akin to mythical figures in their own right, as was the case with Durham, Scully and Caray, among plenty of others.

This year, after rarely turning on the radio during a game for close to a decade — once Woody retired in 2011, our stereo didn’t get much use — I’ve rekindled my love for sports radio.

I can attribute that rekindling to SiriusXM, or satellite radio, which has made it easier than ever for me to listen to games from around the country.

During the first night of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, I was stuck in the car.

But rather than spend my time listening to music or podcasts or the sound of the highway, I decided to turn on SiriusXM.

And I couldn’t have made a better decision.

I got to listen to the second half of No. 12 New Mexico State’s upset of No. 5 UConn, a game that never seemed particularly close.

I got to hear No. 16 Georgia State keep it close with No. 1 Gonzaga … and heard the ‘Zags blow the Panthers out of the water in the final 10 minutes to win by 21 points in what I thought was a bummer.

But most importantly, I got to hear the second half of the best game of March Madness this season (well, second best, next to the UNC’s Final Four upset of Duke): No. 15 St. Peter’s downing No. 2 Kentucky in overtime.

Over the radio, I heard the exhilaration of the non-Kentucky fans in Indianapolis, the excitement of every Peacocks bucket and tension as the game went into an extra period.

I was on the edge of my (car) seat, patiently listening for the next play and stressing myself out as if I was an alum from either school.

Then, in the end, when St. Peter’s completed the upset that’s happened just 10 times in tournament history, I felt nothing but elation — a feeling I simply couldn’t have gotten had I just checked the score afterwards or followed along on Twitter.

Just last week, during MLB Opening Day (or, rather, the day after official Opening Day), I realized I wouldn’t be able to watch my Baltimore Orioles take on the Tampa Bay Rays to open the season since I don’t live in Maryland and don’t have DIRECTV, the only provider that broadcasts O’s games.

But I didn’t mind.

Instead, I just opened up the SiriusXM app, turned it to the Orioles’ station and listened to all 3 hours, 14 minutes of the O’s 2-1 loss to the Rays.

For a few hours of my Friday afternoon, the clock turned back as my ears were flooded with the sound of stories in between pitches, elation during big plays and the simple sounds of the sport.

It felt just as it did when Woody was with us all those years ago.

Some things are simply better on the radio.

Sports are at the top of that list.