Remembering The "Lorchcast," Worst Sportscast Ever

On Dec. 19, 1995, Matt Lorch, a fill-in sportscaster for KHQA in Quincy, Illinois, endured nearly six minutes on-air with malfunctioning videos, unplanned catch-phrases, and one of the most heartbreaking sighs ever sighed. Fifteen years later, we remember Lorchcast.

Yesterday, on Lorchcast's 15-year anniversary, Don O'Brien of the Quincy Herald-Whig wrote that the night "will live in infamy" in the Quincy community. But even with a catch phrase that arguably tops "boom goes the dynamite," Lorchcast hasn't quite made the viral rounds of Brian Collins' famously humiliating report. Let's all take a moment to respectfully honor field reporter Don Jeffries' fearless insistence that "you gotta get a body on Merve!" and Lorch's indelible closing line. "Hopefully," he says, rather earnestly, "we'll have more news tomorrow... on this station."

Jeffries is a teacher in Missouri, and Lorch is — sigh, indeed — a co-anchor at WHDH, the NBC affiliate in Boston. His bio makes no mention of Lorchcast, but he told O'Brien that he remembered his time in Quincy "very fondly." Thanks to the internets, so do we.

Drive safe. Take care.

O'Brien: It's been 15 years since we 'got a body on Merve' [Quincy Herald-Whig]