This season, Joey Zanaboni is the lead radio announcer for St. Louis City SC, the newest team in MLS. He is a voice you might be familiar with from the unique style that he has calling college and minor league baseball during his career among other sports.
Zanaboni was a guest on The Wormcast: How Sports Media Happens podcast with Jason Wormser and he admitted that he has a different voice than most broadcasters and that he does have to be an acquired taste for a lot of people.
“I really think maybe the difference is basically you just don’t really know what’s going to be said next. I kind of go week-to-week. Once that week ends, I try to have some new stuff. I’m comfortable with the fact it’s not for everybody as well. I do understand that.”
When Zanaboni was beginning his broadcast career, he mentioned he was worried that because he did not go to a big-time school for journalism. Instead, he went to Rockhurst University and part of him thought it could affect his opportunities.
“I just felt like it was going to be hard to get some doors open because especially in minor league baseball. Syracuse, Northwestern, and Missouri broadcasters are pretty much the standard. As 4-5 years went by, I realized that unique perspective of being involved in literature, creative writing, and poetry from college and beyond, that actually could be my advantage. That could help me to stand out and take a slightly different approach.”
With the MLS being on Apple TV, fans have the option to hear Zanaboni’s broadcast while watching home games via MLS Season Pass. He told Wormser that he tries to find a balance and not give too many details in his broadcast that take away from the flow of the game.
“It is a really tough balance to strike sometimes. When you watch soccer on TV watching NBC and Premier League, it’s spare, but it puts those flourishes on it. The game almost could not exist without the announcers, and yet they’re, at times, hardly saying any words. That’s just something I’ve taken a lot of from. Then, you get into a situation where it’s radio and you realize I have to be much more descriptive than them, but I don’t want to overload this for the people watching on TV and that’s one of my traps in radio announcing.”
