Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
Not everyone gets to achieve their dream job and if they do, it can certainly take a while.
For Doug Karsch, that dream job came true very quickly after graduating from Michigan State University.
And then it happened again.
And again.
“My first full-time job out of college was at AM 1050 in Ann Arbor WTKA and I was basically hosting a show that I grew up listening to in high school,” said Karsch, who now handles play-by-play for Michigan football and is the co-host of Karsch & Anderson middays on 97.1 The Ticket in Detroit.
“I felt like that was it…I peaked and reached the top possible career goal with my first full-time job in broadcasting. It seemed liked a dream come true.”
Karsch moved on to WXYT in 2000 and then in 2006, another dream job was achieved when he was hired to do pre-game and sidelines for University of Michigan football broadcasts.
That was dream job number two for the life-long resident of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
“For the second time, I was like wow I peaked,” said Karsch. “I don’t think there’s anything more exciting to do than pre-game shows. I absolutely love doing pre-game shows. There’s an excitement. There’s a buzz in the air. You get to shape it however you want. The pre-game show was like an open tapestry.”
Karsch handled those duties for 16 years including 8 years with former Michigan football player Jon Jansen. Three years ago, play-by-play announcer Jim Brandstatter and color analyst Dan Dierdorf retired at the same time opening up both positions. It was a foregone conclusion that Jansen was going to replace Dierdorf and as it turns out, Learfield Sports decided to stay in-house for both openings.
“I was a little short on experience, but I know Jon went to bat for me,” said Karsch. “We were able to do some mock games, and we got to do the Quick Lane Bowl a couple of times and the people in charge liked what they heard enough that they gave us a shot.”
Make that dream job number three!
And what a way for Karsch and Jansen to begin their run as the Michigan broadcast team as the Wolverines went 28-1 in their first two years in the booth including a National Championship last season.
When he took over as the radio voice of Michigan football, it did come with a price as Karsch had to step away from hosting the pre-game show. “I miss that, but the games are exciting and fun,” said Karsch. “Each week is different and there’s different stories to tell and I just love it.”
The role of play-by-play announcer isn’t necessarily a cookie-cutter position. You could line up ten people who call games and find ten different ways of doing it. Karsch has his way of doing things and that includes a lot of preparation and storytelling.
“I don’t have big booming pipes, so I don’t have that traditional play-by-play voice, and it seems like more and more play-by-play roles are being carved out for guys like me but I damn well better be interesting and I damn well better be prepared,” said Karsch.
For each broadcast, Karsch has his own mission statement of telling the listeners who the players are, what makes them tick and what their backgrounds are. He has talked about the play-by-play role with Detroit Lions voice Dan Miller and veteran NBC announcer Mike Tirico and out of those conversations came a blueprint for success.
“You’re going to go into the booth with this giant bucket of information and if you’re doing it right, you’re going to walk out of the booth with that bucket 95% still filled,” said Karsch. “I try to have something new on all of Michigan’s guys that are going to be handling a football every week and they’re not made available to the media every week so it’s tough.”
When he’s not calling Michigan games and following college football on the weekends, Karsch, for the most part, turns into “Pro-Doug” weekdays on The Ticket doing his midday show with Scott ‘The Gator’ Anderson. Given the rise of the Detroit Lions over the last few seasons, the majority of the content during week centers around the leaders of the NFC North.
“It’s really different because right now the biggest ratings getter in Detroit is Detroit Lions talk,” said Karsch. “We do talk some college football, but the data tells us that we almost can’t talk about the Lions enough because Detroit has never had anything like this. And then along came the Tigers out of nowhere this year and they’re a massive ratings getter.”
Over the last 18 years during the midday show, Karsch and Anderson have built up a very successful partnership. A self-proclaimed “control freak”, Karsch admits that he can be “difficult to work with” at times but he drives the show and let’s Anderson do his things when the show tends to “spin out of control.”
To steal a line from Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Karsch and Anderson know their roles and shut their mouths when they have to.
“I’m very fortunate,” said Karsch. “He’s very flexible in that regard and he is so much better at improvising and rolling with the punches and reacting to crazy calls that we get. I’m just the air-traffic controller and keeping the train on the tracks. It’s a sacrifice by him and I do appreciate it and I think it’s a willing sacrifice.”
With a heavy emphasis on pro sports on his show during the week while calling Michigan football on Saturdays, life is good for Doug Karsch. In fact, there’s no place on earth that he’d rather be than where he is right now. So, forgive him for channeling his inner Bebe Rexha.
“I’m good,” said Karsch. “I’m really good. I’m not looking to leave. I’m not looking to do anything else. When you grow up in an area, it gives you an inherent advantage over anybody. Leaving the market isn’t really particularly something I want to do. I’m good.”
Who said dreams don’t come true?
Peter Schwartz writes weekly sports radio features for Barrett Media. He has been involved in New York sports media for over three decades, and has worked for notable brands such as WFAN, CBS Sports Radio, WCBS 880, ESPN New York, and FOX News Radio. Peter has also served as play by play announcer for the New Yok Riptide, New York Dragons, New York Hitmen, Varsity Media and the Long Island Sports Network. You can find him on Twitter @SchwartzSports or email him at DragonsRadio@aol.com.
