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George Prescott

George (Ogburn) came to Cypress Gardens’ WGTO from Tampa’s WDAE as program director in 1966. Prior to relocating to Florida he was a staffer at WLEE in Richmond, Virginia from 1957 to 1960 and in 1962. In between, he was a field rep for the state’s Easter Seals organization.

While at WGTO, George came up with the idea for two of the station’s most popular and enduring promotions – the WGTO Fish-A-Thon and the WGTO Open Golf Tournament. He left fulltime radio in 1971 to become public relations director for Cypress Gardens, and then Polk Community College. However, he continued to keep his foot in the radio business by doing high school football and basketball play-by-play for Winter Haven’s WZNG and WTWB in Auburndale.

George was also the PA announcer at Tampa Stadium during the Bucs’ first year, announcing, as he says, more losing games in one year than any other announcer in NFL history. He also did the PA for Winter Haven High School football for a few years, Boston Red Sox spring training games for 26 years, the Kansas City Royals pre-seasoners for 10 years, announced ski shows at Cypress Gardens, and became “the voice” of the Gardens up to the early 1980’s. George’s voice was the one heard on all of the attraction’s commercials back in those days – and today (2006) he still does on-camera commercials and voice-overs for cable systems including Bright House Networks and, before that, Time-Warner.

When asked why he changed from his real name “Ogburn” to “Prescott” and then back to “Ogburn,” he gave this explanation. “It all began at WLEE in Richmond. Nobody could say Ogburn. It came out Osborne, Assburn, Ogden, etc. My boss named me after Norm Prescott, a top deejay at WBZ in Boston, a clear channel station that was heard in Richmond. The kids in Richmond thought they were listening to the “real” Prescott. The rest is history. It followed me until the early 1980’s. Then with four kids named Ogburn and half of Winter Haven wondering why I didn’t have the same name, I went back to college and finally got my BS degree. It said “Ogburn” and I made the switch back.”

George was one of Polk County’s first members of the Screen Actor’s Guild and lives in Haines City with his wife, Elaine (Powell), whom he met when both worked at WGTO back in the 1960’s.

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