Sports Radio News
Harlan Enjoys Telling Each Game’s Story
Published
9 years agoon
“It’s first and 10. Morris to block. It’s wide open. The rumbling Kelce taking it to the house!”
Kevin Harlan, longtime national sportscaster, is shouting, his baritone voice resonating with excitement. And there’s more to come.
“It’s goal at the seven. Smith, Charles, the block by Kelce. The dive for six!”
Wearing his signature blue blazer and with a handkerchief neatly folded in the breast pocket, Harlan is calling play-by-play for the Chiefs’ season-opening game against the Houston Texans as part of the CBS Sports broadcast team. His emphatic vocal cadence is familiar to anyone who has watched NFL football during the last 31 years.
It’s something the Kansas City-area resident has been doing since 1999.
On Monday, Harlan will be behind the microphone again to call the Chiefs’ game against Green Bay at Lambeau Field, a place with which he is very familiar.
At 55, he is at the height of a career that got its start when he was a kid in Wisconsin.
“I kind of caught the bug,” Harlan said. “I would listen to games late at night on the radio that would come in from all over the country. … I didn’t have headsets, so I’d cup my hand to my ear and pretend I had a hand-held mic. I would go pretend to call games in the bathroom to perfect my voice.”
Harlan has always been surrounded by football. His father, Bob Harlan, was president and CEO of the Packers for 19 years. The oldest of three boys, Kevin took a stab at playing football and hockey, but “I knew I didn’t have talent on the field.”
Instead, Harlan turned to describing sports. His first gig was at his Catholic high school’s 10-watt radio station.
“I really wanted to be a commercial pilot,” he said with a chuckle, “and here was a way I could travel and be around sports, which I love.”
Once he got his driver’s license, Harlan traveled outside Green Bay to call high school games.
“Sports is so exciting,” Harlan said. “It’s a story that’s not been happening. You’re telling the story as it happens.”
His dad remembers those early days.
“When he was doing games in high school, I would sit at home and listen, and when he got home we’d go over the notes I took and he listened very carefully,” Bob Harlan said. “Once he made up his mind this was for him, he was driven.”
Harlan attended the University of Kansas at the suggestion of then CBS broadcaster Gary Bender, a Jayhawk alumnus whom Harlan knew through his father.
“I flew down, looked at the school and loved the school — that was it,” Harlan said.
By his freshman year at KU, Harlan was already broadcasting pre- and postgame shows for football; later came basketball games broadcast for the Jayhawks Radio Network (1983-1984). One of his KU classmates was John Holt, now an anchor at Fox 4 in Kansas City. The two worked together at KLWN-AM and FM in Lawrence.
“When you’re working for pennies as young college kids, you form a real bond,” Holt said. “It’s so fun to see that we’re both broadcast survivors and still love what we do all these years later.”
Harlan worked part-time at KCMO, then an all-news talk station that carried the Chiefs, Royals, Kings and indoor soccer teams. He became an essential member of the KCMO team, according to then-sports director Wayne Larrivee.
“We were the first station in the NFL to do a two-hour pre show, and Kevin produced it way beyond expectations,” Larrivee said. “That’s how he got started with us, and we recognized his ability, talent.”
Larrivee, who now calls the Packers games for its radio network, was impressed with the young Harlan.
“He seemed like he was far beyond a college senior in terms of his maturity,” Larrivee said. “As good as he was on the air, he was as good off the air. He had a vision of where he wanted to go.”
Mary Anne Murray worked with Harlan both in Topeka and then again at KCMO.
“Kevin was always so much fun in the newsroom,” Murray said. “He worked hard, was very resourceful. It was clear from the beginning that he was destined for greatness.”
Just a few days after getting his diploma KU, Harlan landed his first “professional” gig as the official voice of the Kansas City Kings NBA team.
Then came four years of broadcasting NFL games for Fox Sports. In 1998, Harlan joined CBS’ NFL broadcast team as a play-by-play announcer; this will mark Harlan’s 31st consecutive year. In 1999, he became part of the CBS Sports broadcast team for coverage of the NCAA Tournament, which Harlan continued through this year.
So does Harlan have a preference between the two sports?
“I like each sport in its season,” he said.
Harlan did Chiefs radio broadcasts for nine years, a stint he loved. It was during that time that he coined his signature, “Oh baby! What a play!” The expression came out during a Monday night game between the Chiefs and Buffalo Bills.
During Harlan’s extensive sportscasting career, he has called preseason games for the Chicago Bears and Packers (he still does for Green Bay). He’s also called preseason games for the Chiefs (on KCTV-5) and the Jacksonville Jaguars, plus several Super Bowls.
Earlier in his career, Harlan was the voice of the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves for nine seasons. In addition, he has called action for NBC Sports, ESPN and the Mutual Broadcasting System and provides the play-by-play voice for the NBA2K video-game series.
Harlan uses an enthusiastic, rapid-fire delivery no matter who has the ball. He gets tremendous satisfaction working in television but has a real fondness for radio.
“In TV, the picture is No. 1, the analyst is No. 2, the graphics and bells and whistles are No. 3 and play-by-play is fourth,” he said. “On the radio, the play-by-play announcer is the top dog.”
Jason Barrett is the owner and operator of Barrett Sports Media. Prior to launching BSM he served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He has also produced national shows for ESPN Radio including GameNight and the Dan Patrick Show. You can find him on Twitter @SportsRadioPD or reach him by email at [email protected].
Sports Radio News
Steak Shapiro About Pat McAfee: “Dude, Relax”
“That is the definition of cringe. You have to be authentic.”
Published
1 hour agoon
April 19, 2024By
BSM Staff
Sports radio has spent a lot of time during this football offseason talking about Bill Belichick. From his ending in New England to the search for a new head coaching position to being a free agent in the sports media world, his name has come up often. Steak Shapiro and Sandra Golden hit on the topic this week during The Steakhouse on 92.9 The Game in Atlanta.
A lengthy story from ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr., Seth Wickersham and Jeremy Fowler this week reported Belichick may not have landed the Atlanta Falcons head coaching position because of a conversation Falcons owner Arthur Blank had with New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Another part of the story says the executives around Arthur Blank didn’t have Belichick in their top 3 of candidates which had interviewed for the position.
The same report also divulged that Belichick is expected to sign a deal with Omaha Productions to provide analysis and is interested in potentially coaching either the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles or New York Giants after taking this year off.
The same day, The Pat McAfee Show had Belichick on as a guest and announced the coach would join McAfee and team for their annual Draft Spectacular.
Shapiro and Golden talked about the article as it related to Atlanta, but also about Belichick’s appearance on McAfee’s show. “[Belichick] on McAfee trying to be this lighthearted guy that loves The Pat McAfee Show, it’s a stretch dude, that is a stretch.”
“That is the definition of cringe,” Golden replied. “You have to be authentic.”
Shapiro does an impersonation of McAfee talking excitedly about hanging out with Belichick and said, “Dude, relax, relax…the whole thing…I wish we hadn’t gotten started on this…”
Back in late January, McAfee had said on his show about Belichick, “I would like to let everybody know…I will make this promise that if Bill Belichick is going to do TV, ol’ Pat McAfee will be in the running to try to get Bill Belichick to join our progrum [sic],” McAfee said. “Belichick… knows everything about the NFL. Every game that’s ever been played…every player that’s ever been great — that’s why he was so great on [NFL 100 All-Time Team]. And after what we saw on College GameDay, he’s got moxie too. He’s great on TV, I think we’ll all be incredibly lucky if that’s the case.”
Sports Radio News
Howard Simon to be Inducted into Buffalo Broadcasting Association Hall of Fame
“I was at a loss for words when I got the call.”
Published
4 hours agoon
April 19, 2024By
BSM Staff
The 2024 Hall of Fame class for the Buffalo Broadcasting Association Hall of Fame has been announced and it includes longtime WGR 550 Sports Radio morning host Howard Simon. Simon hosted radio in Buffalo for 33 years, with the last 18 being at WGR with partner Jeremy White.
“I was at a loss for words when I got the call,” Simon said.
Simon ended his run with WGR in March 2023, however, he remains a contributor and also appears on WBEN in addition to fill-in hosting duties for the Buffalo Sabres and numerous local colleges and universities.
During his career, Simon covered four straight Super Bowl appearances for the Bills, the Buffalo Sabres in the Stanley Cup Finals, several NCAA tournaments and more.
The Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be held on Thursday, Sept. 19. Actor, comedian and writer Nick Bakay, who has appeared many times on ESPN and used to write for NFL.com is also a part of the class.
Sports Radio News
670 The Score Coverage of NFL Draft Includes ‘Parkins & Spiegel’ Live from Detroit
Utilizing its deep roster of hosts and various distribution platforms, the outlet will provide live coverage of the three-day event emanating from Detroit, Mich. that is expected to help shape the future of the Bears organization and NFL football in Chicago.
Published
5 hours agoon
April 19, 2024By
BSM Staff
The Chicago Bears hold the No. 1 selection in the 2024 NFL Draft, which is set to commence next week on Thursday, April 25 at 9 p.m. CST. Leading up to the proceedings – in which the team is expected to choose 22-year-old USC quarterback Caleb Williams with the selection – Audacy-owned 670 The Score will provide fans with wall-to-wall coverage surrounding the team. Utilizing its deep roster of hosts and various distribution platforms, the outlet will provide live coverage of the three-day event emanating from Detroit, Mich. that is expected to help shape the future of the Bears organization and NFL football in Chicago.
On Monday, April 22, 670 The Score will air a live draft preview show from 6 to 9 p.m. CST hosted by Mark Grote and Anthony Herron. Grote and several guests to be announced will return on Thursday, April 25 for a live video stream that the station will present during its broadcast of the Chicago Cubs afternoon game against the Houston Astros from Wrigley Field. The draft-centered broadcast, which will take place from 2 to 3 p.m. CST, will be exclusively on Twitch and YouTube as the Cubs game airs on 670 The Score.
Danny Parkins and Matt Spiegel will host a live draft special following the conclusion of the Cubs game at approximately 5 p.m. CST. Both hosts will be on-site in Detroit, Mich. to host a special edition of Parkins & Spiegel that will run until the start of the event at 9 p.m. CST. Chicago-based studio hosts during the four-hour window will include Dave Wannstedt and Patrick Mannelly. Moreover, Mark Grote will be live at Halas Hall, the headquarters for the Bears, and available to give reports.
A video stream of the show will be available to watch on Twitch, YouTube and X. Additional coverage of Round 1 will air from 9 to 11 p.m. CST hosted by Gabe Ramirez, Ramie Makhlouf and Hub Arkush, which coincides with when the Bears are expected to make the first-overall selection. Parkins & Spiegel will also be live in Detroit on Friday, April 26 for the second day of the NFL Draft.
Draft coverage on Friday will be on the air at approximately 9:30 p.m. CST following the conclusion of the Chicago Cubs live game broadcast. Mark Grote and Hub Arkush will host the show live in studio.
Coverage of the NFL Draft on 670 The Score concludes on Saturday, April 27 for the fourth through seventh rounds of the event. Mike Mulligan, David Haugh and Patrick Mannelly will take the air at 9 a.m. CST for a live show that will last until 12 p.m. CST. Gabe Ramirez, Anthony Herron and Hub Arkush will complete the coverage from 12 to 2:30 p.m. CST coinciding with the end of the 2024 NFL Draft.
