Dave Barnett quietly settled in his familiar spot on a warm fall day in 2012.
The exact locale has varied through the years, moving from stadium to stadium, but the setup is essentially the same — a chair, a microphone and a game.
Barnett called the University of North Texas football team’s game against Texas Southern University at Apogee Stadium that September night, describing the action in the smooth baritone voice that has carried him through a decorated career.
Barnett, 57, had called hundreds of games just like it before, but this was different. The game was a rebirth of sorts for one of the familiar faces and voices in Texas sports broadcasting.
Barnett has been to the top of the mountain in sports radio and television since graduating from UNT’s school of broadcast journalism in 1979. When the Rangers played in back-to-back World Series in 2010 and 2011, Barnett helped deliver the story. He called the World Series games on radio in 2010 before moving to the television side the following year.
He has won two Emmys, served as the radio and television voice for the Mavericks, broadcast San Antonio Spurs games on television and spent 13 years with ESPN.
For Barnett, broadcasting is a labor of love — and an opportunity he credits to his alma mater.
“My whole career is one long debt of gratitude to the school,” Barnett said. “Everything I have done is a direct result of having gone to school here.”
Those ties are a big reason Barnett will take over as the Mean Green’s radio voice this fall, the next step in rebuilding his career after a tough and highly publicized departure from his job as the television voice of the Rangers. Barnett will call both the UNT football and men’s basketball games.
There isn’t a person with a better perspective on Barnett and the situation he will step into this fall than George Dunham, the longtime friend he is replacing in UNT’s radio booth.
“I have always said Dave is the best announcer for North Texas,” Dunham said. “He is smooth as molasses and is so good on the air.”
That talent and that history are what make the fact Barnett will be sitting in the radio booth at Ford Stadium on Saturday, when the Mean Green open their season at Southern Methodist University, a turn of events no one saw coming.
To read the rest of this story visit the Denton Record Chronicle where it was originally published
Jason Barrett is the President and Founder of Barrett Media since the company was created in September 2015. Prior to its arrival, JB served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He also spent time programming SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY. Jason also worked on-air and behind the scenes in local radio at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years on the national stage, producing radio shows for ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT. Among them included the Dan Patrick Show, and GameNight.
You can find JB on Twitter @SportsRadioPD. He’s also reachable by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
