The "Golden Voice" of Drum and          Bugle Corps

Wes Hobby

 2010 DCHOF INDUCTEE

(President’s Lifetime Achievement Award Winner)

                                                                                                                   

 

The odds are that anyone who has attended a major drum corps contest or listened to the introductions on classic Fleetwood Records contest recordings has heard the voice of Wes Hobby. He is also the narrator on the Fleetwood “Reflections” series of recordings. For more than 40 years, he served as the stadium announcer at major junior and senior contests across New England and beyond. He graduated in 1948 after two years of study at Boston’s School of Radio, Television and Theatre and worked as a staff member and sports announcer at a number of radio stations in New England. During his morning radio show on station WADS in Ansonia, Connecticut he began playing a drum corps selection on the air each day. There were no drum corps recordings available to the public yet: his selections were tapes borrowed from Frank Ogle of the Connecticut Hurricanes. The Hurricanes invited him to announce their contest in 1958, the first of a steady stream of engagements over the next four decades. He has been the announcer for such notable events as Drum Corps Associates (DCA) championships, the Barnum Festival, the World Open championships, Mission Drums, the U.S. Open championships, Blue Grass Nationals, Parade of Champions, the Grand Prix contest, An Evening With The Corps in Carnegie Hall, the Connecticut American Legion state championships, the Super Bowl of Music and Drum Corps International (DCI) East championships. His voice has been heard by audiences in such well known venues as Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall, Meadowlands Stadium, Newark Symphony Hall, University of Kentucky and many other local stadiums and concert locations. Many drum and bugle corps fans refer to him as “the voice of drum corps.”

 

The United Alumni of St. Joseph Patron Cadets and St. Rita’s Brassmen wish to express our profound esteem to a “gentleman” who at one time was  “The Golden Voice” of Drum and Bugle Corps during  “The Golden Age “of Drum Corps.

His professionalism in announcing drum corps shows, either on the field of competition or at an indoor exhibition was extemporary.

To Wes Hobby it didn’t matter which corps you were in. When he announced your corps’ name and read all of the particulars about your corps, he expressed an attitude that was reflected in his voice that made you feel that your corps was “something special.”

Wes had that “hometown” voice

that conveyed a sense of his corps was Your Corps.

 

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                                               Wes Hobby…

                                 We salute you for a job well done!