Mike Tirico is well-known by sports fans. He is now the go-to play-by-play voice at NBC. He certainly doesn’t need the money, so why did he accept a job with SiriusXM leading the company’s radio coverage of The Masters? Well, how else would he get to broadcast the event?
“Somebody said asked me ‘You know, why are you going to do radio?’. I said, ‘Only two people get to call The Masters,’” he told The Dan Patrick Show on Monday. “Jim [Nantz] does obviously with CBS. And if you get to do radio, why not?”
Tirico described the setup. He said it wasn’t unlike leading TV coverage of a golf event. SiriusXM had broadcasters near every hole, so while he and Curtis Strange were leading the coverage, it was possible to throw to individual holes to keep an eye on Tiger Woods and on eventual winner Scottie Scheffler.
One major difference is the broadcast booth itself. Tirico told Patrick that most of the broadcast towers for television are high up and soundproofed. For radio, particularly at The Masters, things are much more intimate and much less technilogically advanced.
He said that in one instance, the radio broadcast tower was just 25 yards from the hole. That requires you to “go in full golf announcer, whisper mode” when calling the action.
It doesn’t matter how many Olympics, NBA Finals, or other major sporting events Mike Tirico has had the chance to cover. He told Patrick that any time he gets a chance to work The Masters, he will do it.
“Any time you get to be associated with The Masters, it is a great sense of pride and it is also a great experience in your career.”