"Stay Tuned" is on the air at IMS HOF Museum
- 6 days ago
- 1 min read
There's an exciting new exhibit at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum, and it’s all about broadcast media and their important part in the story of the Indianapolis 500. The IMS Radio Network helped bring huge crowds to the race back in the 1950s. Until June, you can check out interactive displays, try your hand at calling the race, and listen to commentary from years past. There's vintage vacuum tube equipment from the 1920s and 1950s on show, plus tributes to legendary announcers who’ve covered the event. Don’t miss the display honoring Sally Larvick—the first woman to report the 500 on radio—which even includes her old fire suit from when reporters wore them in the pits.
You’ll get to see Sid Collins’s carefully edited scripts and the charts announcers used for facts and driver details. The exhibit covers both radio and TV, showing off cool tech advances, clever engineers, and the memorable voices behind the scenes. You can check out miniature onboard cameras, the famous “ant” cam in turn one, early computer scoring systems, and special microphones crafted for the roar of the track. Pit mics went from being wired to today’s sophisticated wireless tech that can handle all the noise. Early pit video cameras needed teams to wrangle long cables, but now they’re wireless and super easy to use.
The IMS Hall of Fame Museum does a great job bringing alive the stories of human creativity and mechanical brilliance, all woven together at this incredible racing event.
Other articles about the IMS Museum.
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