Leonard Berman (born June 14, 1947) is an American television sportscaster and journalist who is based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He is currently hosting the morning show on

WOR-AM WOR (710 AM) is a 50,000-watt class A clear-channel AM radio station owned by iHeartMedia and licensed to New York, New York. The station airs a mix of local and syndicated talk radio shows, primarily from co-owned Premiere Networks, includi ...

along with Michael Riedel. Berman is widely known for his television career with

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

, specifically his work for the network's flagship station

WNBC-TV WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo station WN ...

. Berman spent 27 years as the lead sports anchor for WNBC and also worked for

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...

covering

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

and the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

. He was employed by WNBC until 2009, and prior to that he worked for

WCBS-TV WCBS-TV (channel 2) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Riverhead, New York–licensed independent station WL ...

in New York City from April 1979 through August 1982 and

WBZ-TV WBZ-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent station WSBK-TV (channe ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, where he announced

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

games on TV with Celtics legend

Bob Cousy Robert Joseph Cousy (, born August 9, 1928) is an American former professional basketball player. Cousy played point guard for the Boston Celtics from 1950 to 1963, and briefly with the Cincinnati Royals during the 1969–70 season. A 13-time N ...

. He also worked at HBO Sports covering

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

, college basketball and a weekly baseball show ''

Race for the Pennant ''Race for the Pennant'' is a weekly sports show focused on Major League Baseball; it premiered on Home Box Office (HBO) in 1978. It is hosted by Len Berman, Tim McCarver, Barry Tompkins, Bob Gibson, Maury Wills Maurice Morning Wills (October ...

'' from 1978-1981.

Early life

Berman graduated from the

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, commonly known as Newhouse School, is the communications and journalism school of Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY. It has programs in print and broadcast journalism; music business; graphic ...

in 1968. He also earned a masters degree there in 1970. While at Syracuse, he was the sports director at

WAER-FM WAER (88.3 FM) is a radio station in Syracuse, New York. It is located on the campus of Syracuse University, and is a part of the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. The station features a jazz music and National Public Radio forma ...

calling

Syracuse Orange The Syracuse Orange are the athletic teams that represent Syracuse University. The school is a member of NCAA Division I and the Atlantic Coast Conference. Until 2013, Syracuse was a member of the Big East Conference. The school's mascot is ...

games. He was inducted into WAER Hall of Fame in 2018 along with

Steve Kroft Stephen F. Kroft (born August 22, 1945) is an American retired journalist, best known as a long-time correspondent for ''60 Minutes''. Kroft's investigative reporting garnered widespread acclaim, winning him three Peabody Awards and nine Emmy a ...

. Despite having a very neutral viewpoint when reporting sports in New York City, he grew up an avid

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...

fan. He is partial to

Big East The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

basketball. Berman's Big East connections included, other being a Syracuse alum, several years of calling the conference's basketball games for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

and in syndication for the Big East Network.

Career

On March 1, 2012, Berman hosted a segment on the 10 o'clock news evening sports report on WNYW—Fox 5—in New York City. He presented his top-5 most interesting sports stories of the week prior. In March 2015, Berman co-hosted a morning radio program from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00am on WOR-AM. The flagship news-talk station for iHeart Radio, originally named "Len and Todd in the Morning". On October 20, 2017, Berman announced during a broadcast that

Todd Schnitt Todd Andrew Schnitt (born January 24, 1966) is an American conservative talk radio host. He currently hosts ''The Schnitt Show'', the afternoon drive time show whose flagship is Tampa radio station 1010 WHFS AM and is nationally syndicated by Co ...

was no longer working at the station because he could not come to terms on a contract. The show is now called "Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning." Berman announced his last WNBC's sportscast on Wednesday April 22, 2009. Following the announcement, the station showed taped goodbye and good luck messages from

Matt Lauer Matthew Todd Lauer (; born December 30, 1957) is an American former television news personality, best known for his work with NBC News. After serving as a local news personality in New York City on WNBC, his first national exposure was as the ne ...

Al Roker Albert Lincoln Roker Jr. (born August 20, 1954) is an American weather presenter, journalist, television personality, and author. He is the current weather anchor on NBC's ''Today'', and occasionally co-hosts '' 3rd Hour Today''. He has an ina ...

, and

Brian Williams Brian Douglas Williams (born May 5, 1959) is an American retired journalist and television news anchor. He was a reporter for ''NBC Nightly News'' starting in 1993, before his promotion to anchor and managing editor of the broadcast in 2004. ...

''Spanning the World''

One popular monthly feature Berman responsible for is Spanning the World which aired on WNBC-TV's newscasts and

The Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was ...

. Spanning is a reel of odd and interesting sports highlights from the past month, with a recorded introduction and closing by

Don Pardo Dominick George "Don" Pardo (February 22, 1918 – August 18, 2014) was an American radio and television announcer whose career spanned more than seven decades. A member of the Television Hall of Fame, Pardo was noted for his 70-year tenure with ...

. When the segment begins, the world is torn in two with the sound of a rooster crowing playing. When the segment ends, the world goes back to its "pre-torn" state. With the same rooster sound, announcer Don Pardo says "Tune in next time for Spanning the World, if there is a next time. I'm Don Pardo." In his last WNBC broadcast, Berman mentioned that the segment would continue on The Today Show. Berman would occasionally do a version of the segment for

WNBC WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo station WN ...

titled "Spanning the Week". Thus, would review odd and interesting stories from the past week. A common catchphrase from the segment said by Berman "And nobody got hurt!" after a clip featuring some sort of accident that might have caused injury.

''Sports on NBC''

From

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

to part of

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

, Berman also hosted '' The NFL on NBC Pregame Show'', then known as ''NFL (insert year)'', until he was supplanted by

Bob Costas Robert Quinlan Costas (born March 22, 1952) is an American sportscaster who is known for his long tenure with NBC Sports, from 1980 through 2019. He has received 28 Emmy awards for his work and was the prime-time host of 12 Olympic Games from 19 ...

. During the early weeks of the

1988 NFL season The 1988 NFL season was the 69th regular season of the National Football League. The Cardinals relocated from St. Louis, Missouri to the Phoenix, Arizona area becoming the Phoenix Cardinals but remained in the NFC East division. The playoff ra ...

, Berman served as the host of what was, by that time, called ''

NFL Live ''NFL Live'' (stylized as ''NFL Live presented by Autotrader'' for sponsorship reasons) is an American National Football League (NFL) studio show, currently airing Monday through Friday at 3:00 p.m ET on sports cable channel ESPN. Formerly know ...

!'' while regular host Costas was hosting NBC's coverage of the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

Seoul, South Korea Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

. Berman hosted Super Bowl XVII in Pasadena. He also hosted the Baseball Game of the Week for NBC and co-hosted the 1984 World Series.

''Live at Five''

In 2005, he was one of a handful of rotating co-anchors with

Sue Simmons Sue Simmons (born May 27, 1942) is an American retired news anchor who was best known for being the lead female anchor at WNBC in New York City from 1980 to 2012. Her contract with WNBC expired in June 2012 and WNBC announced that it would not ren ...

on '' Live at Five'' after

Jim Rosenfield Jim Rosenfield is an American local television news anchor currently working for WCAU-TV, the NBC-owned television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Career Rosenfield started his television news career in 1981, after graduating from Duk ...

left for

Awards

He is the winner of eight Emmy Awards and a 6-time New York State Sportscaster of the Year. He has been inducted into the New York State Broadcasters Hall of Fame, the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and the WAER Radio Hall of Fame (Syracuse University).

Berman's blog

From 2008 until 2015, Len wrote a blog and daily newsletter, "Len Berman Sports", at LenBermanSports.com. Using the form to continue his type of humor and whimsical sports stories.Blogging Himself To Live
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Berman published books

Berman has written six books and five children's books: * ''Spanning the World.'' * ''And Nobody Got Hurt!'' (Volumes I and II). * ''The Greatest Moments in Sports'' (New York Times Bestseller). * ''The 25 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time.'' * ''Greatest Moments in Sports.'' * ''Upsets and Underdogs.''

Personal life

Berman resides in

Port Washington, New York Port Washington is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) on the Cow Neck Peninsula in the North Hempstead, New York, Town of North Hempstead, in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, on the North Shore (Long Island), No ...

References

External links

The Career Cookbook Len Berman ProfileLen Berman SportsLen Berman on Obsessed TVLen Berman on Big Apple Channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berman, Len 1947 births Living people 21st-century American Jews American television reporters and correspondents American television sports anchors Boston Celtics announcers Boxing commentators College basketball announcers in the United States Jewish American sportspeople Major League Baseball broadcasters National Football League announcers National Basketball Association broadcasters New England Patriots announcers New York (state) television reporters Olympic Games broadcasters People from Brooklyn People from Port Washington, New York Radio personalities from New York City S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications alumni Stuyvesant High School alumni Television anchors from Boston Television anchors from New York City