By Jake Chapman
After signing off the week one radio broadcast of Minden’s football game at Mansfield, something monumental had occurred. Not the commencement of Minden’s 115th football season. Not even the double overtime thriller that earned the Tide their first season opening win since 2016. This accomplishment came and went with no fanfare or huzzahs from anyone. I suppose that’s fitting considering the guy that did the thing would want none of that. To him, it was just another Friday night. At the conclusion of that broadcast, Mark Chreene completed his 250th consecutive broadcast of Minden High School football.
KAPK switched on in Minden in the spring of 1952. In 1958, the station changed it’s call letters to KASO but kept the same 1240 “kilocycles” on the AM side of the dial. We believe KASO began broadcasting Minden football games somewhere during this time. In those days the game was recorded and played on Saturday mornings. Back then, legend has it that either Boe Cook or Digger O’Dell recorded a game from high in a pine tree behind the grandstands after having a brief tiff with the school about broadcasting the games. Seems now everything is streaming online, but Mark Chreene is keeping the art of the classic radio broadcast alive in Minden.
In 1999, just a few years after graduating from Minden High School, Mark began working at KASO as a “board op” at the station during the weekly coaches’ show at the Golden Corral in Minden. Back then KASO covered three schools in the Minden area alternating between Sibley (now, Lakeside) on Thursday nights and Minden and Glenbrook on Fridays. Later that season, Mark began honing his craft on the airwaves. In the summer of 2001, KASO expanded to include an FM station, KBEF 104.5. From 1999 to 2001 Mark tagged along with long time Minden broadcaster, Jesse Lowe, doing color commentary and filling in on play by play. Mark finally got the tap towards the end of the 2001 season and began broadcasting games solo. In 2002, KBEF began broadcasting Minden games exclusively and alternated between Glenbrook and Lakeside on KASO. That is when Mark’s run to 250 began.
As a Gen X’er he’s seen several changes in radio broadcast technology. He recalls the early days of lugging around all the broadcast equipment, including hooking up the Marti (radio frequency transmitter) to a party phone line in the coaches’ office and hard wiring it to the phone’s handset. If anyone happened to notice the handset off the hook during the game and hung up the phone, the broadcast would be killed. God forbid if someone felt the need to imitate Lionel Ritchie during a broadcast. Mark recalls getting a “Hello?” from the handset in the coaches’ office a few times live on the air. In late 2002, there was this new technology using a “cellular phone in a bag” to transmit the broadcast back to the station. Nowadays, all that Mark needs to call a game is a laptop with internet, or cell signal depending on the location of the game, a mixer and a couple headsets.
Mark broadcasts both home and away games for Minden. Sometimes on the road the press box isn’t big enough to facilitate a 3-man radio crew. Sometimes the press box is used as a VIP suite for the school principal’s family and friends, as was the case in 2001 at Baker High School in Baton Rouge. Mark is then forced to call a game from the stands using nothing more than a folding table, or the occasional wooden TV tray, for his equipment and run an extension cord from the press box. He just hoped that he remembered to bring trash bags to cover his equipment if there was a chance of rain. In the early season, he’s also learned to keep a can of wasp spray handy to do battle with swarms of wasps, sometimes during the live broadcast.
Not much can keep Mark from calling a ballgame. In 2002, the streak was threatened in his first full season broadcasting. He recalls the first-round playoff game versus Neville where he called the game with full blown strep throat. “After I’d downed my fourth bottle of water just trying to keep my throat hydrated, I told my wife (Sara), ‘I don’t think I can finish this game. If I can’t make it, you’re going to have to finish it for me.’” Somehow, he managed to push through. Then in 2020, he managed to muscle through another one with Covid. “We had just had the overtime victory at Leesville. You (Jake Chapman) were very sick with Covid a few days later, so you missed the Quarterfinal game versus Neville the following week. I had to call that game by myself. Before the game began, I started feeling bad. I tested positive for Covid the next day.” Thankfully (?) Minden lost that game against Neville, or the streak may have ended there.
Not even the birth of his son, Connor, could keep him from missing a broadcast. Mark and Sara were in the midst of the adoption process, so “it was very tense because Connor was due any day.” Connor was born on a Thursday, and Mark was in the booth Friday to call the game. After having some complications after birth, Connor was placed in the NICU and then transferred to New Orleans. Mark would spend Sunday through Thursday mornings in New Orleans, and then drive back to Minden in time to conduct his weekly pre-game interviews with coaches on Thursday afternoons. Friday nights in the booth was where he felt some semblance of peace during that stressful time. Saturday mornings he would load up and make the drive back to New Orleans. Connor was eventually allowed to go home during that season. But Mark let out a big, laughing sigh when he found out Minden’s first round playoff matchup that year would take them back to the Big Easy.
Over Mark’s twenty-four years in the booth, he’s called several memorable games featuring many names you now hear on national TV in the NFL. He’s now calling a second generation of players featuring the kids of the “kids” he first started calling in 1999. He’s endured (?) three color commentators over those years. Jeremy Chreene, his brother, supported Mark from 2002 to 2004. Then in a flippant invite at the Pineland Jamboree broadcast in 2005, Dean Fields took up the offer to don the extra headset until 2009. I came on board with Mark in 2010 and haven’t looked back. We’ve been tag-team partners for fifteen years now. Mark’s dad, Rick, has been with him the longest keeping stats since 2004.
Inevitably, he’ll receive a call or text message at the beginning of EVERY season from Minden fans, “Are y’all calling the games on the radio?” He politely responds, “yes ma’am, we’ve been on the air over 60 years and don’t plan on stopping.” It’s also inevitable that he’ll be interrupted in mid-broadcast by the local TV stations wanting team rosters. As frustrating as that is, Mark is glad they are there to cover the Crimson Tide and cooly obliges without letting on that anything had just occurred on air.
Mark is the consummate pro. He gets his inspiration from two of the greats: Jim Hawthorne (former LSU broadcaster) and Brad Sham (Dallas Cowboys). Mark comes from an era where it was a treat to watch LSU on TV as they were nationally televised only a couple times per year. The same goes for his beloved Cowboys if they got bumped for Saints coverage. “Back then, that was the only way to “watch” every game, was on the radio. I grew up listening to the best.” The ultimate feather in Mark’s cap was in 2021 when Minden played at Leesville, and one of the press box hostesses said, “He sounds a lot like my uncle Jim.” You could’ve knocked Mark over with a feather. Her “Uncle Jim” is the great Jim Hawthorne.
Mark and Sara became the proud owners of the radio stations in October of 2013. Mark is proud that radio still plays a big part of sports in Minden. He’s especially grateful for the financial support Minden has given the stations over the years. Broadcasting games isn’t a ministry, but Mark treats it as such. He feels it’s a part of Americana having a local radio station broadcasting local high school football. As far as he knows, only Charlie Cavell (Byrd High School) has been calling ballgames longer locally. Charlie just began his 27th season calling play by play for the Yellow Jackets. Mark thinks Tony Taglavore has been broadcasting for Captain Shreve since about the mid-2000s. Then there’s Kyle Roberts in Ruston that has been broadcasting for the Bearkats since 2011. The few that have been broadcasting locally have been doing it a long time. Mark looks at his contemporaries as a sort of brotherhood.
When folks ask how long he plans on calling ballgames, he doesn’t really have a timeline in place. It’s quite possible he could broadcast for another 25 years if the Lord allows. “The things I do, I enjoy doing them. It’s not a strain on me. My calming time is those three hours in the box on Friday nights calling a game. I might not be enjoying what I’m seeing on the field at the time. But just being there calling the game is just fun to me.”
Mark, Minden is proud of you. Here’s to another 250.
