Washington Post Feature On Nationals' Announcers Charlie Slowes And Dave Jageler.

I wrote about the joys of listening to Washington Nationals' radio announcers Charlie Slowes and Dave Jageler recently in an article that was published over at the SB Nation's D.C. hub, DC.SBNation.com, explaining why it is that I and so many other Nats fans tune in to the duo's broadcasts each night to follow the game over the airwaves. Apparently all of us at Federal Baseball who listen and enjoy C&D are not alone.

Washington Post writer Dan Steinberg looked at the numbers for Charlie and Dave's broadcasts on 106.7 the FAN IN D.C. recently, and now Mr. Steinberg's colleague at the post, WaPost magazine contributor Tom Shroder, has a feature on C&D entitled, "For Washington Nationals radio team Dave Jageler and Charlie Slowes, baseball’s in the air", in which he goes behind the scenes with the nation's capital's favorite announce team to talk to them about the job they do each night covering the Nationals:

"Fifteen minutes before the first pitch, as Slowes and Jageler settle into their chairs, the Jack of All Things slides the huge panels of glass fronting the broadcast booth aside, creating a sudden, stunning vertigo. The constant shuffle and buzz from the growing crowd of nearly 26,000 is so loud that, without the earphones feeding in the sound of Slowes’s and Jageler’s voices, they’d have to shout to be heard just two feet away. But the crowd they care about is invisible, silent, and of size unknown to them. Jageler and Slowes pointedly ignore their ratings numbers, which in 2008 hit a low of about 26,000 a week or roughly 5,000 per average game in the doldrums of a bottom-feeding year, but have rebounded astoundingly. According to a radio industry source, in May the broadcasts attracted an average of just over 70,000 listeners a week — a 23.5 percent increase over last May. Whoever is out there listening tonight, the only thing that matters to Slowes and Jageler right now is that it’s time for the first pitch."

• There's also a video accompanying the article, which is a must-see for fans of the Nats' radio team: