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Kevin Harlan: Play-by-Play Guy Most Important Thing on Radio, 4th on TV

Jordan Bondurant

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A photo of Kevin Harlan

Kevin Harlan is set to make history on Sunday, calling his 13th consecutive Super Bowl.

Harlan, who is the voice of Monday Night Football on Westwood One on the radio and calls NFL games on TV for CBS, said on Bernstein & Holmes on 670 The Score it’s not lost on him what a privilege calling games like the Super Bowl is.

“When I put on that headset wherever I am, it’s a pretty special moment,” Harlan said. “And I never take it lightly and always think of the people that preceded me.”

Since Harlan has experience in both TV and radio, he was asked about the primary differences in calling NFL games. Kevin said the play-by-play voice isn’t the main priority on TV.

“On TV the play-by-play guy is the fourth most important thing on there,” he said. “It’s the picture – what the cameras are shooting – then the analyst, cause he’s gotta tell a lot of people and helps everybody in deciding why a play worked or didn’t. Then the graphics, then the replays and the bells and whistles, and all those fun things we see that they do in the truck. And then the play-by-play guy.”

Harlan meant no offense to his colleagues who have called games on television, but Kevin said he just understands where his position on the broadcast stands on TV versus radio.

“I’m there to accentuate the picture, accentuate the graphics and the statistics they put on the screen, set up the color analyst, give some pockets of space on television – let it breathe and give people a chance to digest what they’ve seen – what they just heard the analyst say,” he said. “Maybe try to digest the statistic or the graphic that’s been thrown up on the screen. They don’t want to overload them.

“On the radio, all you have for the listener is the theater of their imagination and their thoughts and their emotions,” Harlan added. “So the play-by-play guy on the radio is number one. So it’s all about pacing, delivery, word usage, reporting skill, and using the crowd as an orchestra if there’s a big play. But making sure that they’re constantly aware of score and time.”

Harlan has always found radio to be the dream industry to work in. He said there’s nothing quite like a radio broadcast.

“It’s the purest form of broadcasting,” he said. “It’s voice, it’s diction, it’s vocabulary, it’s pacing, it’s delivery, it’s reporting skill, it’s like every touch point that somebody in our business needs. Whereas in TV it’s a whole other set of skills.”

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Ken Carman: Radio Hosts Don’t Know How to Talk About Baseball

Carman included himself in the group of radio hosts who don’t do a great job of breaking down Major League Baseball.

Jordan Bondurant

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Ken Carman

Is the art of baseball talk on sports radio lost? 92.3 The Fan host Ken Carman feels like it has.

On The Ken Carman Show with Anthony Lima on Wednesday, Carman said baseball talk even in Cleveland, had become trite.

“Because we don’t know how to talk about baseball,” Carman said. “And I put myself right in there it’s not where I am above the fray or anything like that. There’s a lost thing about talking baseball. The art of it I’m not sure.”

Ken remembered one of the most fun arguments he had with Lima was a knock down, drag out over bunting and getting callers screaming about the topic. He feels like hosts don’t dive as deep into the nuances of the game as they used to.

“You listen to old Mike and the Mad Dog from the early 2000s, and when the lineups would come out, them getting into shouting matches about who’s batting sixth,” Carman said.

Carman also thought about 2017 and 2018 when the Cleveland Browns had the number one overall picks, Carman also thought about the run in the 1990s the then-Indians had and were the top team in the city. Baseball talk dominated the radio airwaves also because there were no Browns at that time.

He felt like because of a number of factors with the Guardians, talking baseball on the show has been shuffled out of the limelight in some respects.

“I think that’s been lost over the last how many years in this city, everywhere,” Carman said. “I’m part of the problem, I’ll admit it, sorry.”

“One of the things I try to avoid, because I want to be better, and you are with me on this – I can’t turn every conversation into ‘Fix your sport’,” he added. “Well, this is the problem with baseball. That’s too easy to do, and it doesn’t help anybody’s interest. If I’m just telling you how bad baseball is, well you’re not gonna have any interest in baseball or talking about baseball. So it’s a terrible, terrible thing to do.”

Reacting to fan reaction in regards to the Guardians getting the top pick in the next MLB draft, Ken Carman said he was hoping to have a little fun on the air with it. But fan cynicism it seems has tapered expectations a little bit.

“There’s not as much generated craziness with the baseball draft that there is with the football draft or even the NBA Draft. But we can have a little fun with it,” he said.

“Are those just not baseball fans?” Lima asked in response to the cynicism in the fanbase. “Those don’t sound like big-time baseball fans.”

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Tony Kornheiser: ‘I Was Sort of Surprised at Reaction’ of Return to PTI Studio

“I was excited to go in. I’m excited to see if in three days, I get COVID because that’s my great fear. It was fun to do.”

Jordan Bondurant

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A photo of Tony Kornheiser
(Photo: Tony Kornheiser)

Tuesday’s episode of Pardon the Interruption on ESPN saw the beloved duo of Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon reunited in person in the show’s Washington, D.C. studio.

On his podcast, The Tony Kornheiser Show Wednesday, the PTI host, 75, talked about his experience.

“I went in. I was excited to go in,” Kornheiser said, per Awful Announcing. “I’m excited to see if in three days, I get COVID because that’s my great fear. It was fun to do. I have to say, it was fun to do for those people.”

The fan reaction to seeing Kornheiser and Wilbon back together in person for the first time in a long time was overwhelmingly positive. He abstains from using social media, but Kornheiser said he did hear from plenty of friends and colleagues who reached out afterwards to send well wishes.

“But friends of mine — or people I would consider at least acquaintances into friends — were basically unanimously happy that it happened. And I tried to answer each one of those things that I will do this occasionally.”

“Glad I did it,” he later added. “I was sort of surprised at the reaction…I had a very good time.”

Kornheiser did want to emphasize that anyone getting ideas that Kornheiser will be back in-studio on any sort of regular basis is sorely mistaken.

“I gotta want to do it. And I’m not gonna do it every day,” he said. “And if somebody thinks I’m gonna do it every day. I’m familiar with the phrase, ‘Give them an inch, and they’ll take a mile.’ I understand that’s going to happen, so I’m saying right now, I’m stressing occasionally, not regularly. Occasionally, I will go in there. If that’s not good enough, we know where the doors are.”

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Desmond Howard: Paul Finebaum Now a ‘Cariacture’

“You can’t take anything he says seriously. You just can’t. It’s like they march him out there, they pull the string in his back, and he just starts spewing negative things…”

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(Photo: Icon Sportswire | A Division of XML Team Solutions)

Both Desmond Howard and Paul Finebaum have been vocal on their stances about the Michigan sign-stealing allegations. However, Howard has shared his feelings about Finebaum, and they are not positive.

During an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, the ESPN college football analyst had harsh criticism for Finebaum.

“Paul Finebaum is a caricature of a caricature of Paul Finebaum,”Howard said. “That’s what he is right now. You can’t take anything he says seriously. You just can’t. It’s like they march him out there, they pull the string in his back, and he just starts spewing negative things about Michigan. When a person does that repeatedly and you just know his shtick, you can’t take him seriously.”

Howard hasn’t been shy about defending his alma mater through the scandal. During an episode of College GameDay, the former Heisman Trophy winner told colleague Pete Thamel to “put your big boy pants on” after the reporter moved his segments on the program to inside Michigan Stadium after threats from Michigan fans were deemed credible enough that he was in danger.

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