Joe Buck on father’s advice for young sportscasters: ‘Start smoking, kid’

Jack Buck existed in a completely different era of sports broadcasting than his son Joe. And that might be most apparent when hearing what the elder Buck’s advice was for young aspiring sportscasters.

Appearing on the Marchand Sports Media podcast with Andrew Marchand, Joe Buck shared a rather humorous piece of advice that his dad would give to young broadcasters.

Joe Buck on his dad’s advice to young, aspiring sportscasters.

Buck on the craft of sportscasting is the guest on pod tomorrow morning. pic.twitter.com/lPVsMWlVPF

— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) January 1, 2025

“Little kids would be like, ‘Mr. Buck, I want to get into broadcasting and do what-‘” Buck said before cutting himself off to begin an imitation of his father. “Start smoking, kid. Get your voice deeper.”

As Buck would describe, there was certainly a culture of smoking in sports broadcasting back in his dad’s day. When asked by Marchand whether Buck took his father’s own advice he replied, “Hell no. I didn’t need to smoke. I grew up in a booth that had the engineer smoking, my dad smoking, Mike Shannon smoking, the guy in the back, my uncle who wasn’t really my uncle was smoking. I was like in a smoker’s lounge in an airport while they were broadcasting games, and I’m a little eight-year old sucking this stuff in. It’s amazing I’m alive right now.”

Beyond the obvious health benefits of opting not to smoke, it’s not like Joe Buck needed the extra help getting his voice deeper. Even though he says he looks back at old tape and thinks his voice sounds like “Peter Brady going through puberty,” Buck is firmly in the baritone range of sports announcers. He didn’t need help from cigarettes to start developing his voice.

And for young aspiring sportscasters out there, there’s a fine line between a distinctive timbre and a distracting rasp. It’s probably best to train your voice in ways other than smoking.

[Marchand Sports Media]