Ian Eagle will be making his debut as the lead play-by-play announcer for CBS during this year’s NCAA Tournament. Before the games got underway, he had the chance to visit with the Bernstein & Holmes Show on 670 The Score in Chicago.
They conversation went right to the heart of the matter when Eagle was asked, “What does this mean to you that you’re the guy now?”
“I don’t know if I’ve actually gone their mentally,” Eagle said. “I am treating it like I would treat every tournament in terms of preparation, in terms of trying to study and trying to jam this information into your head. Probably the week of the Final Four itself, the flight to Phoenix, walking into the arena that night. It’s probably going to hit me more.”
Eagle is no stranger to calling tournament games, he has been doing that for over 25 years. He was asked about the preparation with the quick turnaround of the NCAA Tournament. “It feels like an information avalanche in many ways,” Eagle responded. “The fact that I’ve done it for so long would make you think, ‘oh, he’s got it down, he has the system, he found the secret sauce.’ No, it feels the same way every year.”
Eagle says during other times of the year when he is juggling multiple sports, both locally and nationally, he can work ahead. For the NCAA Tournament he said, “There is no way to do that. There’s no idea of who you are going to have in the opening round…until you get the phone call or the text or the email Sunday night after the selection show. So, a lot of it is just managing the stress levels…the two or three days leading up to the tournament, I must admit, are probably the most angst-riddled of the year because it’s a little bit out of your control.”
Asked about his relationship with his partners Bill Raftery and Grant Hill, Eagle said he has worked over 600 games with Raftery, many of those when the two were the broadcast team for the then New Jersey Nets. He also told the show about his history with Grant Hill which includes Hill’s first game as a broadcaster when they worked a Notre Dame-Duke basketball game together.
Speaking on the chemistry with his crew, Eagle said, “That part of it has not been hard or arduous, it has been really easy, it’s been really comfortable…There’s a real excellent, built-in trust already in the fact that we did three games this past weekend for the Big 10 championship and a game the previous week, Tennessee and Kentucky, it just feels like we’ve hit the ground running already.”
Don Lemon welcomed Kara Swisher to the second episode of his digital video show, and the longtime journalist and podcast host shared where Lemon’s interview with Elon Musk went wrong.
During the debut episode of The Don Lemon Show, Lemon sat down with the billionaire owner of the X platform. The interview turned contentious at times, with Musk going as far as to suggest Lemon should “choose his questions carefully”.
On the second episode of the program, Lemon asked Kara Swisher for her thoughts on the interaction, and she had two main takeaways about where things got off the rails.
“I thought it was an excellent interview. I thought it was very fair. I think two things happened. One, he is so surrounded by people who kiss his ass all the time or lick him up and down all day, that he’s not used to any pushback whatsoever anymore. He used to be, by the way,” said Swisher. “This is not a new, fresh thing for him to be pushed back on. But he doesn’t like it at all. So that’s one.
“Two, he’s easily bored. I know it sounds crazy, I don’t think you were boring, I don’t think your questions were boring, but he was bored, and so he got irritated. He got irritated that he had to ask questions or play word games with you. He did a lot of those, by the way. And then he got irritated that he had to pay you,” Swisher posited. “He doesn’t like media. So he thought ‘Why am I paying this guy for this bulls—?’
“He didn’t like your questions. They weren’t sycophantic and he likes a little bit of a fight, and you were being very fair. Unusually fair. He doesn’t deserve the fairness you gave him in a lot of ways.”
Later in the interview, Swisher lamented that things went wrong between Elon Musk and Lemon. She claimed Musk is “such a brilliant guy”, but added that he’s “just another egomaniac tech guy” suggesting “he’s just like everyone else” in the space. She added that she admires his ability to “handle big ideas.”
NBC News has tabbed Hallie Jackson to step into the anchor chair voided by the departure of Kate Snow on the Sunday edition of NBC Nightly News.
Jackson has worked at NBC News since 2014, rising through the ranks of the network after beginning as an embedded reporter with the presidential campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). She eventually ascended to hosting programs on MSNBC and became NBC News’ chief White House correspondent. She has occasionally filled in for Lester Holt when he has been on assignment for NBC Nightly News.
“Hallie is an exceptional journalist and an extraordinary broadcaster, representing the very best of NBC News. She is a natural fit to anchor our flagship newscast on Sundays,” said NBC News Executive Vice President of Programming Janelle Rodriguez.
In addition to her new role hosting the network news program on Sunday, she will continue to host her two-hour nightly streaming show Hallie Jackson Now on NBC News Now.
Jackson steps into the chair that was vacated by Kate Snow last month. Her final episode leading the program was February 25th, with NBC News using a rotating cast of anchors before settling on Jackson as the permanent replacement.
Jackson’s first show leading the new program will be Sunday, April 7th. The news of her appointment was first reported by Variety.
Look across the country and you will find no shortage of listeners that have become an integral part of their favorite sports radio station. More than any other format, ours thrives on interaction with the community. As a result, the people that call in and make time to show up to events have a way of becoming our friends. That’s what happened for Mark Baker with the staff of WFNZ.
“Mark from Gastonia” as he is known to Charlotte sports fans is currently battling serious illness and his favorite radio station was never going to let him do that alone. Morning co-host Travis “T-Bone” Hancock has made it his personal mission to make sure Mark knows that he has the love and support of people in the Charlotte metro area and beyond.
It’s not an obligation for T-Bone. He sees it as returning the favor, because in his lowest moments, a depression he slipped into before the pandemic, it was Mark that always had time for him.
“I could call Mark and say, ‘you want to do lunch?’. Keep in mind, he also was often in between jobs, so, he was always around,” he jokes. “But if I wanted to go to lunch, Mark was there. Want to go to dinner? Mark was there. There’s no judgment with Mark. There’s no, like, peppering you about what’s wrong. He’s just a kindhearted soul that just was glad to be there. It just became like he was there for me at my lowest point, and he’s a big reason why I was able to sort of overcome that.”
So, what is T-Bone doing for his friend? He has been organizing an effort to get people from across the country to record a message of encouragement that he can share with Mark.
Some of those messages have gone straight to Mark. Others have been shared with Mark on air for listeners, who are rooting hard for him, to be able to hear.
“I have known Bone for almost 2 decades and in that time, he has proven to be a great radio partner and an awesome friend. But what I have seen from him the last couple weeks, has been next level,” says Chris McClain, T-Bone’s partner on Mac & Bone.
Sports fans across North Carolina would see a veritable who’s who list if they looked over the names that T-Bone has connected with Mark via short video and audio messages.
The man loves his Braves, Hornets, Panthers and Tar Heels. His parents are both Florida State graduates, so he also has a soft spot for the Seminoles. Legends from all of those teams have reached out.
John Smoltz, Larry Johnson, Luke Kuechley, and Roy Williams, who joked that Mark has been carrying WFNZ “for a long time,” have all made time to make videos for the star caller. That is just a sample. It seems anyone that has ever picked up a ball or a microphone and has passed through North Carolina has taken time to offer words of encouragement.
“He has been relentless in setting up videos from sports figures to offer words of encouragement for Mark,” McClain says of T-Bone’s efforts. “He was in constant communication with Mark’s family when he was in the hospital so all of our listeners could have the latest information. He has been tireless about getting the word out about the GoFundMe for Mark’s family. You see how much Mark means to him and it has been amazing to watch.”
Bone says the joy Mark gets from every new video is genuine. It’s not just joy, but appreciation. It’s not lost on Mark that he needs all of the support he can get right now.
It’s something Bone says he thought about the first time he felt like he was hitting a wall.
“I had a media friend tell me ‘Think about how Mark feels right now, because right now, if you stop, what if he stops?’ And that’s when that next run here of Kuechley and Larry Johnson and Mugsy [Bogues] and Roy came. I said, ‘You know what? That’s a powerful pep talk for me because I was starting to get a little worn down. Right? I’m starting to run out of resources here.’ And that was like, ‘okay, you’re right, I can’t stop and we’re not gonna stop fighting for him. So yeah, if I text somebody and they don’t answer it is what it is.”
Compared to Bone, McClain and Mark, program director Jeff Rickard is a relative newcomer to Charlotte. This will be his second year at WFNZ and he says that no one that knows Mac & Bone the way he does would be shocked to see what the morning show is doing for Mark.
“Radio loves a person who unapologetically moves to their own beat and when you combine that with the obvious love he displays for his teams and the station – the boys instantly recognized that he had a part to play in our sports community. They’ve grown to love and laugh with Mark and so from their perspective it was a no brainer to do whatever they could to make his journey a little easier.”
The effort hasn’t just affirmed his beliefs about his morning show. Rickard says that it has been a good reminder of the power passion for teams and players can have in a community.
“Whether it’s a team or an athlete, once they are repping the city or university with their jerseys and their commitment, we are reminded that sports can unite an otherwise divided community like nothing else. It’s cliché but you have an arena, or a stadium packed with people who are brought together for one cause. Mark is one of them and they’ve gotten to know him as an individual over the years so as he’s progressing through his journey – Charlotte, North Carolina Fans have easily become ‘Mark from Gastonia’ fans simply because he’s one of them.”
Other broadcasters have recognized it too. Name a network. Someone from there has sent Mark a video.
From ESPN, it’s been Paul Finebaum, Rece Davis, and Marty Smith among others. From Fox, it’s been Greg Olsen and Tim Brando. Charles Davis from CBS has reached out. If you ever doubted that this business cares about the audience, it should make you smile.
What makes McClain smile is that listeners have joined celebrities in their investment. Mark’s progress and comfort matter to the people that tune in every day.
“From the well wishes on social media to the GoFundMe for the family, you can see how much they care about him and his wellbeing. It shows the power of radio. We have created a WFNZ community. Yeah, we might argue about sports takes most days, but when a member of our radio family is suffering, you are there for them. It makes me proud to be a part of it.”
Bone’s smile comes from WFNZ being able to do something like this for a Mark. When he started with the station in 2005, T-Bone didn’t think any one listener could ever stand out and get the attention and support they might need. He certainly never thought he’d see the day where WFNZ’s cause was something that would get emotional investment from other media outlets in the community.
“The fact that WFNZ was on the front page of the Charlotte Observer with a caller that shows you how far relationships have come. That wouldn’t have happened years ago,” he says. “That’s not anybody’s fault. It’s just the way it was, but the fact that an FNZ caller was the front page of the Observer and, per what I heard yesterday, it’s one of the most trafficked stories of the Observer of the entire year? The whole gamut, from 2005 till now of what FNZ was to where it is, I’m just so proud that we’re not some outsider, outlaw, rebellious thing in the community, which worked at the time, don’t get me wrong. We are now a part of it all. It warms my heart to see Mark and the amount of support for him and FNZ as we’re all trying to fight this with him.”
Mark Baker is fighting stage four cancer. It’s scary for him, his friends and his family. Fighting is nothing new for Mark though. This is a guy that was born with two holes in his heart, a guy that doctors said would be lucky to make it six months.
Fighting is something Mark from Gastonia has never stopped doing and T-Bone and WFNZ are more than happy to be in his corner, doing all they can to keep the fight going.
This week, the Gannett and McClatchy newspaper chains announced that they will stop using the Associated Press, except for election polls. Both chains indicated that they would try to fill the gap by using news stories from sister papers for national coverage.
A couple of thoughts: One, it’s a negotiating ploy. Two, they’ve already reduced their use of AP coverage, so it doesn’t really matter anymore.
Let’s assume that it’s not a negotiation and the Wall Streeters who control these companies – two of the Big 3 newspaper owners, which means they are pretty much the dominant player in local news on all platforms – really do want to save the money earmarked for wire service for something else. They say they’ll reinvest in their newsrooms, but it’s just as likely that the investors will have their hands out, too.
And, again, it doesn’t matter, because the product’s been diminished already. Here in South Florida, we have daily papers owned by Gannett, McClatchy, and Alden Global Capital, and they are all a shadow of what they once were.
On some days, the home page of McClatchy’s Miami Herald is stocked full of repurposed clickbait articles from TheStreet and Life & Style, as well as opinion pieces from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and other papers. The Herald still does some excellent local reporting, but subscribing to the paper gets you a lot of clickbait you can get elsewhere.
Meanwhile, up the coast, Gannett’s Palm Beach Post has some local coverage and a whole lot of USA Today content. Much of the local content is of the “Best 15 Restaurants On The Waterfront” variety. We had a primary election on Tuesday and if you weren’t extremely attentive, you wouldn’t have noticed. (The Democrats didn’t hold a primary, but in some cities, there were local elections right alongside the Republican primaries, something I didn’t even know until I saw a candidate for Mayor of Delray Beach eating lunch at the same restaurant…he won.)
Local television news isn’t much better. They do have access to their networks and CNN for national and international news, but a lot of the content, at least in the smaller West Palm market, is from sister stations, with minimal attempts to cover that fact up. There’s a lot of Nashville news and features on the West Palm NBC affiliate. It costs money to do a similar story with a local crew, so education features from Nashville and consumer stories from Cincinnati it is.
This might have been inevitable. The vast majority of consumers don’t subscribe to newspapers, don’t look at their websites, don’t watch local news, don’t watch cable news, don’t listen to the radio for news. Social media is enough for them, never mind where social media’s news is sourced. If the Miami Herald is short on international coverage, features Texas political commentary, and runs “You’ll Never Guess What Selena Gomez Said On The Red Carpet” stories on the home page, there won’t be an outcry.
Maybe they’re right. Maybe the public can get what AP offers from other places. Maybe headlines on Facebook and quick clips and cat videos on TikTok are enough for most people, and the oldsters who still get a hard copy of the local daily won’t notice and will just skip to the comics as usual (“oh, that Dagwood!”).
And maybe we’ve already reached the point where news doesn’t move the needle, when people have already made up their minds about everything and don’t care for anything beyond “I know what I know.”
It’s strange, though. We’re in an era when there are more ways to disseminate news than at any other point in history, and at the same time, the news business is suffering, and people aren’t nearly as alarmed as they should be. Someone should do a story on that.
There are many sins that talk radio hosts commit. You are an artist. There are a million things happening at any given moment. Here is my list of the worst.
Soft Opening a Show or Segment
When you crack open that microphone, you must come out swinging. Your audience doesn’t want happy meaningless chatter, they demand to be entertained.
A talk show host asked me for some feedback a while ago. He spent the first two minutes talking about his weekend. He and his wife went out to dinner with friends and had a great time. Whoop dee doo.
No one cares unless something tragic or unique occurs. I am all about getting personal on the air, but it has to be more than I had a nice weekend. Your audience demands to be entertained. You have been given that microphone. Use it for something remarkable.
These amazing people have given you precious moments in their day. Don’t waste their time. Don’t waste the time of your employer. You are paid to perform a listener-focused experience that could make the moment, the day, or perhaps a memory of a lifetime for your audience. Don’t ruin your chance.
Hosts That Obviously Have Not Prepped a Show
Folks, prepping for a show is more than watching an hour of Fox News and checking headlines. One of the greatest problems for music jocks, when they move to news/talk, is knowing how to prep. A DJ is there to highlight the music. The DJ is not the main attraction.
When a DJ moves to news/talk, they must adapt to that reality, often they can only crush it for 20 seconds six times an hour. I know many people who have made the adjustment, but it is hours of commitment every day. I believe that this axiom is truer than ever: two hours of show prep for every hour on the air. It’s reading, writing, listening, and watching everything. Don’t fake it.
Everyone knows if you are just phoning it in. If you are playing lots of soundbites and filling the show with interview after interview, you are probably unprepared.
If you want to be the best that you can be, don’t shortchange the show prep.
Producers or Sidekicks That Don’t Add Anything
It is all about content. It is all about making listener-focused moments for your audience.
If you have a sidekick and/or producer who is an on-air character, they must add to the show. If someone has a quick ability to spout a funny or sarcastic quip, encourage that. And if they are cracking a mic, these people better interject something memorable.
I love cinnamon toothpaste. Give your sidekick or producer the right to go after you. If you allow them on the air, create some drama. If you have a sidekick just agreeing with you, that is boring as hell.
The sidekick should shut their piehole if that is all they add to the discussion.
Highlighting a Past Segment/Hour/Show is Pure Evil
Go forward. The movement needs to be there to grab your listener for another five minutes.
If you are referring to the segment earlier, it’s useless unless you are promoting your podcast. “If you missed President Trump, the entire unedited interview will be on the Wxxxradio.com podcast page.” That is the only way that you could promote something from earlier in the show.
The most important thing is to maximize the time spent listening. Your listeners are there now. Snatch their mind and create a listener-focused experience every moment.
Promote ahead. Always.
Meaningless Benchmarks
During the legislative session, you have an expert from the Capitol on the show every Tuesday morning at 6:40. It is a useless crutch. You do a stupid news segment at the same time every week. I am not saying that the stupid news segment is a bad idea. I am saying that benchmarking it for a specific time does not give you higher ratings and quite possibly could hurt listenership.
A news/talk station is built around the biggest stories in your community, state, nation, and world. Don’t ever abuse the trust between you and your audience.
Ignoring the Biggest Story
I have heard talk show hosts ignoring the biggest story of the moment. If there is a car chase zipping across your town or a cell phone outage, make sure that you are at least discussing it.
You may need to cancel your guests to pay attention to the breaking news of the moment. Don’t pass this opportunity up. If there is a huge event, your show will likely be gaining new listeners. These big events are more important than a marketing campaign. These casual or first-time listeners need to know you are that human who is there for this exact moment. Don’t drop the ball.
If you follow these tidbits, you will make huge strides at having a listener-focused radio show. It is about the listeners. It is never about you. Nor is it about the guest. Never forget that truth.
You could argue Stephanie Miller should be viewed as Republican royalty. The daughter of William E. Miller, the former New York Republican Representative, RNC Chairman, and 1964 running mate of Barry Goldwater, Miller would be a shoo-in conservative. But, that’s not the way her cookie has crumbled.
Miller is an unabashed liberal talk show host, with The Stephanie Miller Show serving as one of the largest programs on the political left. And despite a career spanning acting, stand-up comedy, and television, among others, Miller continues to be fueled by her radio show.
“It really honestly is my passion. I feel so lucky…I can’t believe I’m an adult and this is my job,” she joked. “It’s still just a lot of fun and I’m really passionate about what’s going on in our country.”
Miller has been swimming upstream, so to speak, against a rushing current of conservative counterparts in the political talk radio realm. She’s proud of the show’s staying power on the national scene.
“Well, I mean my 20th year doing this show so I guess I must be doing something right,” she said with a laugh. “It’s a much bigger accomplishment in my mind to keep a progressive show viable for years because there are a zillion right-wing stations, there are only a handful of progressive radio stations. We’ve had to stay alive by diversifying,” she added before noting the program airs on a variety of platforms like SiriusXM, TuneIn, and FreeSpeech TV, among others.
“Whatever we’ve cobbled together, people get it. They support our sponsors. So, however we’ve cobbled it together, we’re still going strong after 20 years.”
As the daughter of one of the more prominent Republicans of the 1960s, Miller shared that it would be lucrative for her to return to her conservative roots, but that’s just not something she’s willing to compromise on.
“I can’t tell you how many times and how many radio executives have said to me, ‘If you would go back to your conservative roots, you’d have 500 stations tomorrow. You’d be a multi-millionaire.’ But, you know, that is not what I believe. I’m passionate about my beliefs and I’m passionate about this country we have,” stated Miller.
“I don’t know how else to put it. I’m very lucky that I have an incredibly loyal fan base. In fact, it’s something that a lot of people have commented on in the industry are just like, ‘Wow, you have a loyal, dedicated audience,’ but I think they get it. They get what it takes to support the very few progressive voices that are out there.”
“You can be a really not great radio host and get 500 stations tomorrow if you’re right-wing,” she added.
Stephanie Miller attempts to bring levity and humor to one of the more absurd political times in our country’s history.
“If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry, you know?,” Miller wryly joked. She noted that her father would be “spinning in his grave” at the current political climate, singling out lawmakers like Marjorie Taylor Green in the process.
Despite the turmoil and oftentimes ridiculous nature of the news cycle, Miller insists she still enjoys talking about the topics every day, while still recognizing her political beliefs make that difficult at times.
“I really do have fun doing what I’m doing,” she shared. “I’m also really angry sometimes with what’s happening in the news cycle.”
Many news/talk radio hosts have seen their careers blossom under the rise of former President Donald Trump. Miller isn’t necessarily one of them, as her career spans more than a decade before the disruptor jumped into the political sphere.
Stephanie Miller isn’t shy about her criticism of the 45th President, equating him to a “stalker” that she’ll never get rid of. While admitting that covering and discussing Trump on a near-daily basis since 2015 is “exhausting,” she knows there’s a talk radio life someday, whether it’s in 2024 or not, when he exits the mainstream. And her career will still be fine without the All-You-Can-Trump-Buffet that has been featured on news/talk radio for nearly a decade.
“Everybody said, ‘Oh, what are you going to do when (George W.) Bush is gone? You’re not gonna have any material.’ And you know what? If you’re a good radio host or you’re a good comedian, of course you will. When Obama was in office, we were on defense about how ridiculous they were with their Obama Derangement Syndrome and ‘Oh my God, he’s wearing a tan suit! Oh my God, he is eating Grey Poupon mustard’ or, whatever their issue of the day was. We’ve found a lot of material before Trump and we’ll find a lot of material after that.”
Stephanie Miller will once again take her Sexy Liberal Comedy Tour on the road in 2024, this time calling it the Save the World Comedy Tour. Joining the radio host on the road are comedians Hal Sparks, Frangela, and fellow talk radio host John Fugelsang.
She joked that the name started as a joke, but said that the stage show tends to be a “little bit raunchier” than her radio show due to the unregulated nature of the performance. However, there’s a new wrinkle to the show in 2024 that she was excited to share.
“This version of the tour is actually produced by Live Nation, which is a really big deal because we’ve sold out theaters all over the country…A lot of people bring their right-wing loved one or whatever because it’s just a great comedy show. It’s just a really great comedy show,” Stephanie Miller reiterated. “We find that obviously there’s an audience for it because we’ve had the number one tour, the number one comedy album, the recording of the tour, and now Live Nation is producing it. We’re going to 15 cities, and that official tour kicks off in April in Minneapolis.”
Brackets, brackets, brackets. That’s all we’ll be hearing about over the next month or so, thanks in part to one of the greatest sporting events of the year, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Only a few have been given the chance to call the NCAA Championship Game on television. The NCAA Tournament didn’t start out as an instant smash either on television either. Consider that it’s still a fairly recent phenomenon. The first national broadcast of the tournament title game wasn’t until 1954, when La Salle beat my alma mater, Bradley. That’s only 70 years ago. The tournament itself turns 85 this year.
We know some of the best teams to ever play in the Final Four and Championship over the years. Of course, John Wooden’s UCLA teams in the late 60’s and into the 70’s. Indiana’s perfect team in 1976. Not to mention some ‘Cinderella’ victories, like Villanova in 1985. There have been many, many teams, many schools and coaches to get to the final game of the Big Dance. But there have only been a handful of folks that can say they broadcast it to the world. I’ve identified the great teams, what about the greatest broadcasters ever associated with the NCAA Tournament championships?
By my calculations and going back into the ‘way back machine’, or as its more commonly known, the internet to do some research. The very first person, on record, to call the title game on national television was Bill Flemming in 1963. The game between Loyola and Cincinnati was broadcast on “Sports Network Incorporated”. The broadcast was available to 90 percent of the country, carried on 140 stations. Not a bad game to start with.
The games switched to NBC in 1969 and stayed there through the 1981 Championship won by Indiana. Curt Gowdy took over the reigns as the broadcaster, until 1976, when Dick Enberg took the mic. The two shared the call on the 1977 and 1978 games, then Enberg was the lead through ’81.
CBS secured the rights to the tournament in 1982 and hasn’t let go since. The folks from TNT/TBS/Tru have joined the telecasts in recent years too. The first lead voice on CBS was Gary Bender, joined by Billy Packer for the game between North Carolina and Georgetown. Bender was succeeded by Brent Musburger in 1985 and carried the broadcast through the 1990 title game. Jim Nantz stepped in for the 1991 game, through last year’s UConn championship. Ian Eagle is set to call his first “Final Four” and Championship Game this season.
So, who of those gentlemen that I mentioned is the best? Which would take the traditional “1 seed” in a tournament for broadcasters? Well, I have some thoughts, so let’s travel down the Road To the, well, Top 4 and find out. First, a note on eligibility. Eagle, who as mentioned is set to take over the broadcast this year, hasn’t technically called one yet, so he’s not going to appear. I have no doubt, that he will continue doing the solid job he always does and will be great in his first shot.
If this were open to all announcers that ever called a tournament game, Eagle would certainly be near the top of the list. Others like Don Criqui, Jay Randolph, Greg Gumbel, Kevin Harlan, Dick Stockton, Marv Albert, and Verne Lundquist.
The list however isn’t open to all that have called a tourney game. Ground rules established. Ok, here we go. The seeds are in descending order from the 4th best top seed, to the best.
Curt Gowdy, #1 seed (4th overall) in the “One Shining Moment” bracket
The man called every sport under the sun in his illustrious career, including the Final Four, Super Bowl, World Series, Olympic Games and the NBA. He was once dubbed “the broadcaster of everything”, highlighting his incredible versatility.
Gowdy was around to see the unprecedented run by UCLA, winning 7 of the 8 Final Fours he called. He always brought a down home, folksy style to his broadcasts and it worked in every sport he covered. Back in his day, there was a comfort among fans, hearing him on a telecast meant it was a game to watch.
Brent Musburger, #1 seed (3rd overall) in the “March Madness” bracket
This has to be his bracket, because he is credited with bringing the phrase “March Madness” to the airwaves when describing the NCAA Tournament. For so many years his voice was associated with ‘big games’ and for 6 Final Fours, he didn’t disappoint. Musburger hosted CBS’s tournament coverage as the studio host for 3 years before taking over the broadcast.
He called Villanova’s stunning upset of Georgetown in the 1985 national final, Keith Smart’s winning jumper for Indiana to beat Syracuse in 1987 and “Danny and the Miracles'” upset victory over Oklahoma for the 1988 championship.
Musburger’s style was a little more ‘in your face’ than that of the broadcasters that came before him in the Final Four realm. His work before appearing on the NCAA Tournament telecasts made him a well-known commodity before he took the courtside seat. Musburger’s energetic and commanding presence was made for this big game assignment.
Dick Enberg, #1 seed (2nd overall) in the “Cutting Down the Nets” bracket
“Oh my” what would the #1 seed be without Dick Enberg? The tournament started becoming what it is today on his watch. The veteran of many sports, including Major League Baseball and the NFL, found a nice little niche for himself at the NCAA Tournament.
Enberg had the distinction of teaming with Billy Packer and Al McGuire to call the magical, no pun intended, Final Four of 1979. Magic Johnson and Michigan State beat Larry Bird and Indiana State for the National Title.
Enberg worked with Gowdy on NBC in the Final Four in 1976. A couple of years later he took over the lead seat until CBS took the rights from NBC. His energetic, yet not over the top style, lent itself perfectly to the Final Four and title games.
Jim Nantz, #1 seed (1st overall) in the “Road to the Final Four” bracket
It’s not just because Nantz called the Final Four for as long as he did. 32-years is a long time to do anything. Several generations of fans, only know of Nantz as the lead guy for CBS’s coverage of the NCAA Tournament. While he relinquished that chair after last year’s UConn win, he had the chance to be behind the mic for several huge games in the tournament’s history.
Nantz started his Final Four run in 1991 with Duke’s upset of undefeated UNLV. It led to back-to-back national titles for the Blue Devils and started the coaching legacy of Mike Krzyzewski. He also called Kris Jenkins’ title-winning shot for Villanova over North Carolina in 2016. It all culminated with UConn’s win as a 4 seed over 5th seeded San Diego State last year in Houston.
His strength comes in being able to set the mood, by explaining the emotion in the moment. He is able to treat each game like a story. Nantz was the perfect narrator for more than 3 decades. He had the ability to call big moments, without losing control of his voice. It’s going to be strange without Nantz on the call at the Final Four.
Last two out…
There’s always controversy when it comes to the brackets, but with only 4 spots and 6 main broadcasters to consider, two had to be left out.
Bill Flemming
The O.G. when it comes to the Final Four. He was the first to call the NCAA Tournament’s Final Four on television. After listening back to a few of the calls, he was swimming in uncharted territory. Flemming knew what he was doing and was good on the broadcast. Unfortunately, not many were witness to his great work in the tournament setting. Flemming may have been more well known as the original voice of ABC’s Wide World of Sports back in the day.
Gary Bender
After CBS took over the television rights in 1982, Bender got to call the first three Final Fours on CBS. He called North Carolina’s victory in the ’82 game, for Dean Smith’s first national title, and the craziness of the 1983 NC State thriller over Houston. Bender was excellent on both games, but unfortunately, he had a short run as the lead voice for CBS. He was a mainstay though in the NBA and the NFL, having called Phoenix Suns hoops for 18 years and did radio for the Rams, Cardinals and Bears. Bender was also seen on ABC’s Monday Night Baseball.
Bleacher Report co-founder Dave Finocchio recently sat down with Bill Simmons to discuss the way B/R revolutionized sports media. Among the many concepts Finocchio credits for the success of his former company was the idea of “personalizing sports” and short, stackable content — concepts that seem like a no-brainer today.
In the Mar. 20 edition of The Bill Simmons Podcast, Simmons and Finocchio go through Bleacher Report’s history from a college project trying to break through to one of the most impactful sports media companies ever — to a relic of a time of the Internet that has now passed. Finocchio credits B/R’s rise to many factors, like listicles, increasing coverage for events like the NFL Draft, and focusing on audience growth, but maybe most importantly was the idea of “personalizing sports” through the website, app, and newsletters.
Finocchio tells the story of how he would watch SportsCenter and get stuck watching hockey highlights before he could get to basketball or other sports he enjoyed.
“I got a little turned off of hockey after a while…and I was just tired of having to watch hockey highlights for 30 minutes on SportsCenter to get the highlights I wanted,” Finocchio said. “So there was this inefficiency to be able to personalize sports who didn’t want to sit or read through the stuff they didn’t care about. All of a sudden, we had these technologies where we could give people experiences that were all of what they wanted and cut out the stuff they didn’t want as much.”
Another concept that Finocchio credits is the inception of Bleacher Report’s newsletters. The team took top content and content from other sites about a particular topic (Finocchio mentions the Boston Celtics as his example) and combined them into one, easy-to-read message that was delivered right to his readers.
“We were the first media company to really invest in curation,” Finocchio said. “And not curation as people think of it today…we’d have newsletters with links to a couple of articles from Bleacher Report and then we’d round up the best stuff from blogs, ESPN, and newspapers, and we did a really good job providing an experience for people where they could go to one place. We tried to be Google — we’ll be a portal to get you to the places you want to go.”
The former B/R founder mentions that the initial reaction from journalists was incredibly negative. Writers and other media companies accused Finocchio and B/R of stealing their content. The reality told a different story, where B/R newsletters were sending readers to these other sites to read articles and generate traffic. Finocchio says that at B/R‘s peak, it was sending 25 million visits a month.
Finocchio says his overarching goal with Bleacher Report was to circumvent the sports landscape at the time and deliver the a la carte options sports fans are used to these days.
“How do we solve problems for fans and make that experience better in a world where there’d been too much of, ‘God I have to sit through these highlights of stuff I don’t care about,’ or ESPN, because of their TV contracts, covers a bunch of stuff that’s right up my alley. I want what I want.”
Seth Everett had WDAE host Ronnie Lane as a guest on his Sports with Friends podcast. The two are ex-teammates at SiriusXM but said they had not spoken in over a decade. A main topic of the show was Lane’s recent news that he is stepping away from The Ronnie and TKras Show after nine years with partner Tom Krasniqi.
Lane is not leaving WDAE, rather taking on a new assignment. Beginning March 28, Lane will take on the role of host of the Tampa Bay Rays pre-game show “The Inside Pitch.” Lane will also continue his seasonal hosting duties with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers radio network.
Everett asked Lane about how this all happened. “It came about when contract talks came up late last year,” Lane said. “They’re aware of my age, I’ll be 68 in July…They just, out of curiosity, wanted to know when I was planning on stepping away if that was going to be soon, later, what have you. And then they also pointed out ‘look, you’re welcome to work here as long as you want, but we want you to dictate terms as to how you want to wrap up your career here.'”
Lane said he told station management at the time, “I know I no longer want to do the daily show, but I’d still like to do radio here with iHeart…They came back to me a couple of weeks later and said…’how about you transition from your daily show with Tom and move into a role with the Rays? We’ve been looking for a full-time host for “The Inside Pitch” (which proceeds Rays games)…We think you would be perfect for that.”
Lane explained to Everett the new duties will include hosting a half hour show before the Rays’ network pregame. “And, it is only Monday through Friday, with no postgame show,” Lane stated. Lane said the show will move quickly and he estimates it will take a couple of hours of prep for each pregame show he hosts.
As for wrapping up with Krasniqi, Lane said he had kept ‘TKras’ in the know about what was happening. “I actually told him a couple of years ago that I was thinking about moving towards retirement,” Lane said. “He goes ‘Well that’s your baby, you do it however you want to.’ So, I told him first right after that initial meeting with upper management…We had all of those talks and believe it or not…we were able to keep it away from everyone at the radio station, where it’s hard to keep something like that a secret. The staff just found out, trust me, about a week or so ago. We are going to have a big party…and a final broadcast a week from Wednesday…that’ll be a blast.”
On his partnership he forged with his partner of almost a decade, Lane said, “Sometimes we vehemently disagreed with one another, that was not made up, it was natural…It was not contrived. We never tried to get personal or mean spirted with it.”
