Barrett Media produces over 20 stories per day on the music, news, and sports media industries. Stay updated on the latest happenings by signing up to receive our newsletters straight to your inbox.
Matt Neverett literally grew up in broadcast booths. He and his two brothers, Kyle and Drew, could often be found roaming around where their dad was working. Their dad is Tim Neverett who has been a Los Angeles Dodgers announcer since 2019 and before that called games for the Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates. Tim came up doing minor league baseball and has called many games in baseball, basketball, football and more over the years, including a stint as the play-by-play announcer at UNLV.
Today, Matt Neverett is the current radio voice for UNLV. He was named the voice of the football team on radio in July and calls games with former UNLV quarterback Caleb Herring. Just recently, it was also announced Matt would be the voice of the UNLV men’s basketball team as well as he takes over for Jon Sandler who had been in the role the last 20 years.
Neverett has been involved with UNLV’s broadcasts the last few seasons, calling football and baseball along with men’s and women’s basketball games for the Silver States Sports & Entertainment Network. Neverett would be on the television call when there wasn’t otherwise a national broadcast. He has also been calling games for the Las Vegas Aviators, the Triple-A affiliate of the Oakland A’s.
Matt is the oldest of Tim Neverett’s three sons, and said he sees a picture in his dad’s living room of him as a youngster sitting on his dad’s lap while he is getting ready to call a basketball game at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center. Young Matt has a headset on and a mouthful of popcorn and pretty much since that time, his focus has been on following in dad’s footsteps calling games. His brothers are both in the sports industry as well with the youngest recently dabbling in broadcasting, but Matt leaned into broadcasting from the get-go and hasn’t looked back.
The family moved away from Las Vegas when Tim Neverett joined the Pittsburgh Pirates broadcast team in 2004. Matt Neverett said it just so happened the high school he would later attend in Pittsburgh had broadcasting opportunities for students. “When we moved to Pittsburgh when dad got hired by the Pirates…the high school had a local cable TV station, so I got started doing women’s basketball as a sophomore in high school. That experience at that age was really cool.”
Neverett said it was definitely a big help to have the opportunity to just be around his dad and the people he would be working with from the other broadcasters to all of the staff helping with the broadcasts. “It helped to have the exposure to a lot of the behind-the-scenes areas of broadcasting which you may not be exposed to as much if you are not around it,” Matt said.
Matt played baseball in college at Bethany College in West Virginia and then went on to graduate from Appalachian State. In 2020, he moved back to Las Vegas – a much different Las Vegas than he had left as two professional franchises have made their way to the city since that time, with the possibility of more on the way. “It started with the Golden Knights in 2017 and just has exploded from there, and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down anytime soon.”
From A-level minor league baseball to Big West Conference men’s and women’s basketball, to UNLV and Triple-A level baseball, radio and television, Matt Neverett has done it all. As for what his future may hold, Neverett keeps his eyes on the prize and that prize is eventually doing what dad does, he would love to call Major League Baseball games on television someday. Neverett said ideally, he would end up with a career similar to that of Dave O’Brien, the Boston Red Sox announcer he got to know when his dad was part of the Red Sox broadcasting team. O’Brien not only does the Red Sox games, but also college football and basketball games in the offseason.
As for how often he and his dad talk about his broadcasting, Matt said, “As much as you can imagine, and then some…Nowadays we talk before, sometimes during and always after every game that I call. He is my biggest supporter, he listens to every game that he can, and he offers as much advice and/or criticism as you can imagine. I really do appreciate it. There’s only one way to get better and that is taking other people’s opinions, especially those in the industry…I am super fortunate for that, and I definitely don’t take it for granted.”
Neverett, 30, said having his dad critiquing his games is an even bigger help now as he is aware of what those that hire for major broadcasting positions are looking for. “I’m at the stage of my career where I’m working on little things that make a big difference as you get up to the higher levels and some of the things that hiring managers and Directors of Broadcasting are listening for,” Matt said. “Those are the little things that set one announcer apart from another. That’s what he is listening for, and it’s not all criticism, sometimes it’s him telling me I did something better than I had done before, something he thought I should work on. But he is always encouraging me.”
“Matt has been working hard and continues to develop his skills,” Tim Neverett said. “I am very proud of what he has been able to accomplish so far in his career and see him doing well on his current path.”
In Las Vegas there are no sure things, but wagering on Matt Neverett’s career continuing to succeed, seems like as good a bet as any.
Dave Greene is the Chief Media Officer for Barrett Media. His background includes over 25 years in media and content creation. A former sports talk host and play-by-play broadcaster, Dave transitioned to station and sales management, co-founded and created a monthly sports publication and led an ownership group as the operating partner. He has managed stations and sales teams for Townsquare Media, Cumulus Media and Audacy. Upon leaving broadcast media he co-founded Podcast Heat, a sports and entertainment podcasting network specializing in pro wrestling nostalgia. To interact, find him on Twitter @mr_podcasting. You can also reach him by email at Dave@BarrettMedia.com.
