''The NFL on Westwood One Sports'' is the branding for
Cumulus Broadcasting
Cumulus Media, Inc. is an American broadcasting company and is the third largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States behind Audacy and iHeartMedia. As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership of 428 stations in 87 ...
subsidiary
Westwood One
Westwood One is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming.
The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1978. The compan ...
's radio coverage of 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 ...
. These games are distributed throughout the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
(the latter through
TSN Radio
TSN Radio is a semi-national sports radio brand and part-time network in Canada carried on AM radio stations owned by Bell Media.CBS Radio and (for one season)
Dial Global
Westwood One is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming.
The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1978. The company ...
marques; CBS Radio was the original Westwood One's parent company and Dial Global purchased the company in 2011. Dial Global has since reverted its name to Westwood One after merging with Cumulus Media Networks.
Westwood One's package consists of every primetime regular season NFL broadcast ('' Sunday Night Football'', ''
Monday Night Football
''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, A ...
'', ''
Thursday Night Football
''Thursday Night Football'' (often abbreviated as ''TNF'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that broadcast primarily on Thursday nights. Most of the games kick off at 8:15 Eastern Time (8:20 prior to 20 ...
NFL International Series
The NFL International Series is a series of American football games during the National Football League (NFL) regular season that are played outside the United States. Since 2017, the series has two sub-series: the NFL London Games in the Uni ...
games, any NFL game airing on
Thanksgiving Day
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...
, any late season Saturday NFL broadcasts, the
Pro Bowl
The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players.
The format has changed thro ...
and all
playoff
The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...
games (including the Super Bowl). The network also carries the annual NFL Hall of Fame Game. Additionally, in some cases, the network also carries any postponed game broadcast nationally (as this was the case for the 2020 season, due to impacts from the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
).
History of NFL games on Westwood One's predecessors
While major networks such as Westwood One, CBS, NBC, and Mutual held exclusive rights to most national broadcasts of the NFL throughout the league's history, Dial Global's predecessor,
Jones Radio Networks
Jones Radio Networks & Jones Media Group were branches of Jones International before being sold to Triton Media Group. JRN and JMN provide local radio stations with satellite-delivered formats. They also offer other services to local radio such ...
, had carried several years' worth of Sunday afternoon games nationwide. Beginning in 2002, Jones carried game broadcasts from the
Sports USA Radio Network
Sports USA Media is the largest independent sports broadcasting radio network in the United States, specializing in live broadcasts of American football, specifically of the NCAA football Division I-A and National Football League. In 2018, more th ...
. After Dial Global's massive acquisition spree of other networks began in
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
, Jones came under the Dial Global banner and Sports USA ended its relationship with the network. In 2009, Dial Global instead switched to Compass Media Networks for its Sunday afternoon NFL coverage.
Relationship to CBS
Westwood One had a long-standing relationship with CBS Radio. CBS' parent company owned the network for approximately ten years (1998–2008) and, through the
CBS Radio Network
CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. ...
, maintained control of the production of certain programming, including NFL games, an arrangement that continued following Westwood One's acquisition by
Dial Global
Westwood One is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming.
The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1978. The company ...
through the end of the
2011 NFL season
The 2011 NFL season was the 92nd regular season of the National Football League and the 46th of the Super Bowl era. It began on Thursday, September 8, 2011, with the Super Bowl XLV champion Green Bay defeating the Super Bowl XLIV champion Ne ...
. CBS had likely been carrying NFL games since at least 1935, when George A. Richards, owner of WJR and the Detroit Lions, switched WJR's affiliation from
NBC Blue
The Blue Network (previously known as the NBC Blue Network) was the on-air name of a now defunct American Commercial broadcasting, radio network, which broadcast from 1927 through 1945.
Beginning as one of the two radio networks owned by the N ...
to CBS; Richards had negotiated with NBC the previous season to carry the Lions' Thanksgiving contest that year and likely carried those games over to CBS when he switched WJR's network.
As such, there was often synergy between the ''NFL on Westwood One'' and its former sister outlet, the ''
NFL on CBS
The ''NFL on CBS'' is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that are produced by CBS Sports, the sports division of the CBS television network in the United States. The network has aired NFL game telecasts sin ...
''.
The
theme music
Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...
for ''The NFL on Westwood One'' from 2003 until the end of the 2012 season was " Posthumus Zone" by E.S. Posthumus, the same theme music used for the ''NFL on CBS'' television coverage (Westwood One's sports coverage had always used the appropriate CBS television theme for their sport where applicable). For the 2013 season onwards, a new radio-specific score was commissioned by the network.
Some personnel is shared between the two units; for instance, certain CBS play-by-play announcers (e.g.
Don Criqui
Don Criqui (born October 1, 1940) is an American sportscaster.
He holds the record for longest-tenured NFL broadcaster in U.S. TV history, calling NFL football for 47 seasons (1967-2013) on NBC and CBS. Criqui's final NFL broadcast came on De ...
,
Dick Enberg
Richard Alan Enberg (January 9, 1935 – December 21, 2017) was an American sportscaster. Over the course of an approximately 60-year career, he provided play-by-play of various sports for several radio and television networks, including N ...
and
Ian Eagle
Ian Eagle ( ; born February 9, 1969) is an American sports announcer. He calls NBA, NFL, and college basketball games on CBS, TNT, and TBS, as well as Brooklyn Nets games on the YES Network and French Open tennis for Tennis Channel. Other ...
) call select Sunday afternoon games throughout the first several weeks of the season on CBS and then switch to Thursday and Saturday night games on Westwood One.
Boomer Esiason
Norman Julius "Boomer" Esiason (; born April 17, 1961) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons, primarily with the Cincinnati Bengals. He was selected in the ...
, who is an analyst for CBS' ''
The NFL Today
''The NFL Today'' is an American football television program on CBS that serves as the pre-game show for the network's National Football League (NFL) game telecasts under the ''NFL on CBS'' brand. The program features commentary on the latest ne ...
'', called color commentary on Westwood One's ''
Monday Night Football
''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, A ...
'' (and would often advertise the latter on the former, as "the Monday night game on Westwood One"); conversely, Steve Tasker, a color commentator for CBS's Sunday afternoon coverage, served as an analyst on ''The NFL on Westwood One'' shows.
The coverage carried the CBS Radio Sports tag (both with and without "Westwood One") for many years before switching to Westwood One. The
Mutual Broadcasting System
The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...
, purchased by Westwood One in 1985, also aired NFL coverage for many years beginning in 1940, while NBC Radio, purchased by Westwood One in 1987, had exclusive NFL coverage in
1985
The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1
** The Internet's Domain Name System is created.
** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...
– 86. Westwood One now acknowledges the NBC Radio broadcasts as part of the entire history of the network's football coverage.
In December 2008, it was reported that the NFL was considering leaving Westwood One for a rival service ( ESPN Radio,
Sports USA
Sports USA Media is the largest independent sports broadcasting radio network in the United States, specializing in live broadcasts of American football, specifically of the NCAA football Division I-A and National Football League. In 2018, more th ...
, and
Sporting News Radio
SportsMap is a sports radio network that is distributed by Gow Media.
The SportsMap Radio Network supplies its network affiliates with a 24-hour schedule of sports programming, including call-in shows and sports updates. Over its history, through ...
being the contenders), or possibly splitting rights for prime-time, Thanksgiving, and postseason games between two or more networks.Ourand, John NFL mulls rare shift of radio partnership ''Sports Business Journal''. 22 December 2008. However, on March 12, 2009, it was announced that Westwood One had signed a two-year extension with the NFL. The league then announced on December 22, 2010, that Westwood One's contract has been extended through 2014.
Westwood One also served as the distributor for the
Sports USA
Sports USA Media is the largest independent sports broadcasting radio network in the United States, specializing in live broadcasts of American football, specifically of the NCAA football Division I-A and National Football League. In 2018, more th ...
network's NFL games; as such, Westwood One employed Sports USA announcers for certain games covered by the former network, including Thanksgiving Day games, the opening Monday night doubleheader, and Wild Card Weekend, during the 2009 and 2010 seasons. This agreement was terminated in the 2011 offseason.
Sale of Westwood One to Dial Global and Cumulus
CBS Corporation sold off Westwood One to
The Gores Group
The Gores Group is a private equity firm specializing in acquiring and partnering with mature and growing businesses. The company was founded in 1987 by its CEO and chairman, Alec E. Gores.
Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, with an offic ...
in 2007, who in turn sold it to
Oaktree Capital Management
Oaktree Capital Management is an American global asset management firm specializing in alternative investment strategies. As of March 31, 2022, the company managed $164 billion for its clientele.
The firm was co-founded in 1995 by a group that ...
(under the Dial Global brand) in 2011. Dial Global discontinued use of the Westwood One name during its ownership.
Although Dial Global's broadcasts continued to carry CBS branding and personalities through 2012, it was initially unclear whether or not this would continue in 2013. CBS is currently working with Cumulus Media Networks in distributing its own nationwide sports radio network, while Dial Global is distributing NBC's national sports network. Several of Dial Global's announcers (Kevin Harlan, Boomer Esiason, Dan Fouts, and Ian Eagle) are employed by CBS and Esiason is a contributor to CBS Sports Radio. The situation was mooted in August 2013, just weeks before the 2013 season started, when Cumulus agreed to acquire Dial Global's network assets;
Townsquare Media
Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wi ...
, which had previously been in the same corporate structure as Dial Global, will acquire 53 of Cumulus's stations as part of the trade. Thus, CBS Sports' radio operations will once again be under the same management as the NFL package.
In 2014, Cumulus/Westwood One and the NFL agreed to an extension through the 2017 season.
Cumulus Media, Westwood One's owner, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2017 and began canceling its national broadcast contracts (beginning with that of ''
Imus in the Morning
''Imus in the Morning'' was a long-running radio show hosted by Don Imus. The show originated on June 2, 1968, on various stations in the Western United States and Cleveland, Ohio before settling on WNBC radio in New York City in 1971. In Octobe ...
'') in January 2018. Cumulus's local sports rights, including affiliations with the Seattle Seahawks outside Seattle, and a long-unpaid debt to the Buffalo Bills, are among those Cumulus seeks to terminate in bankruptcy. At the same time, CBS's local radio operations, while still under the control of CBS's shareholders, were spun off and merged into
Entercom
Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corporation, it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning 235 radio stations across 48 media ...
(which later became
Audacy
Audacy, previously known as Radio.com, is a free broadcast and Internet radio platform owned by the namesake company Audacy, Inc. (formerly known as Entercom). The Audacy platform functions as a music recommender system and is the national um ...
in 2021). No contract extension has yet been announced as of May 2018; the NFL still recognizes Westwood One as a broadcast partner (for instance,
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...
's
KWFN
KWFN (97.3 FM) – branded as 97.3 The Fan – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to serve San Diego, California. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station covers both the Greater San Diego market and the San Diego–Tijuana transborder aggl ...
proclaimed that it would carry the package in the fall when it switched to a sports radio format in April 2018), and unlike in 2010, the league has not publicly solicited bids for a radio contract. The network confirmed it would continue carrying the league in 2021, with no statement as to how long the renewal would last.
In March 2022, Westwood One confirmed an extension of the radio rights for an unspecified multi-year length, which adds radio coverage of other NFL events such as the
NFL Draft
The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...
and
NFL Honors
The NFL Honors is an annual awards presentation in the National Football League (NFL).
The television special is held the night before the Super Bowl (except 2022 when it was held on a Thursday) at the game's host city and on the network carryi ...
, as well as the expansion of rights to distribute its broadcasts via affiliates' digital platforms and the NFL's app, as well as the opportunity to develop alternative audio broadcasts (in the vein of CBS's Nickelodeon simulcasts and ESPN's '' Peyton and Eli'' and
Megacast
''ESPN Megacast'', formerly known as ''ESPN Full Circle'', is a multi-network simulcast of a single sporting event across multiple ESPN networks and serviceswith each feed providing a different version of the telecast making use of different featu ...
supplements for television) for games.
Coverage overview
''Sunday Night Football''
Pregame
Westwood One's coverage of ''Sunday Night Football'' begins with their weekly recap show, ''NFL Sunday''. The show beings at 7:30 p.m every Sunday night on most affiliates and is hosted by Scott Graham. The show consists of highlights and statistics from the previous games of the day as well as a preview of the upcoming Sunday night game live from the stadium.
For the 2006 season, ''NFL Sunday'' assumed a different format. The show was produced in conjunction with NBC Sports, used its John Williams-composed ''Sunday Night Football'' theme song, and was regarded as more of a radio version of the television network's ''
Football Night in America
''Football Night in America'' (''FNIA''), branded for sponsorship purposes as ''Football Night in America served by Applebee's'', is an American pre-game show that is broadcast on NBC, preceding its broadcasts of Sunday night and postseason Natio ...
'' pregame.
Al Trautwig
Alan Trautwig (born February 26, 1956) is a sports commentator who worked with MSG Network, ABC, NBC, NBC Sports Network, and USA Network. He most recently did pre-game and post-game shows for the New York Knicks and New York Rangers, as well a ...
was the initial host of the program, and an analyst from NBC would offer his own take on the game to come. Incidental music for game highlights came from
NFL Films
NFL Productions, LLC, doing business as NFL Films, is the film and television production company of the National Football League. It produces commercials, television programs, feature films, and documentaries for and about the NFL, as well as ...
’ library.
Trautwig left the show before the season ended for reasons unexplained; Scott Graham would eventually take his place after Chris Carlin substituted for two weeks. (He eventually became permanent host in 2009.)
Play-by-play
The play-by-play role for CBS Radio Sports' coverage of ''Sunday Night Football'' was originally filled by
Jack Buck
John Francis "Jack" Buck (August 21, 1924 – June 18, 2002) was an American sportscaster, best known for his work announcing Major League Baseball games of the St. Louis Cardinals. His play-by-play work earned him recognition from numerous hal ...
, who called the initial Sunday night games in
1987
File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...
.
Jim Nantz
James William Nantz III (born May 17, 1959) is an American sportscaster who has worked on telecasts of the National Football League (NFL), NCAA Division I men's basketball, the NBA and the PGA Tour for CBS Sports since the 1980s. He has ancho ...
took over for Buck, who was already calling ''Monday Night Football'' for the network, the following season and announced games until
1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...
when he was moved to television. Nantz was replaced by
Howard David
Howard David is an American sportscaster.
Biography
Over the years, David has been the radio play-by-play man for several pro sports teams including the NBA's New Jersey Nets, Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics and the NFL's New York Jets an ...
for
1991
File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...
and continued through
1995
File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...
, after which he replaced the retiring Buck on ''Monday Night Football''. Brad Sham was hired away from his job with the
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divi ...
to replace David for the 1996 season, and he stayed for that season and the following season before deciding to rejoin the Cowboys. Former NBC television announcer
Joel Meyers
Joel Meyers is an American sportscaster who is the play-by-play announcer of the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He also is the lead host of "Above the Rim", which airs weekdays from 10am-1pm ET on SiriusXM N ...
then took over and stayed until the 2005 season when he was replaced by Sunday doubleheader voice Dave Sims, who had been his primary substitute. Sims remained in this role until the end of the 2012 season, when he traded places with Sunday doubleheader voice
Kevin Kugler
Kevin Kugler is an American sportscaster who primarily works in radio broadcasting. Kugler is currently employed by Westwood One as its lead college basketball voice as well as one of its Sunday NFL voices, and by the Big Ten Network as a play-by- ...
.
During Week 8 of the 2018 and 2019 seasons,
Tom McCarthy Thomas McCarthy (also Tom and Tommy) may refer to:
Academia
*Thomas A. McCarthy (born 1940), American professor of philosophy
*Thomas J. McCarthy (born 1956), American professor of polymer chemistry at the University of Massachusetts
*J. Thomas Mc ...
substituted for Kugler as the latter was calling games for Fox. During week 11 of the 2019 season, McCarthy again substituted for Kugler, as he called the Monday Night game (Chiefs-Chargers) from Mexico City for the network.
For the 2020 season, after Fox Sports suspended
Thom Brennaman
Thomas Wade Brennaman (born September 12, 1963) is an American television sportscaster. He is the son of former Cincinnati Reds radio sportscaster Marty Brennaman.
Broadcasting career
After graduating in 1982 from Cincinnati's Anderson High Sc ...
for inappropriate comments he made on air in his other job as lead broadcaster for baseball's Cincinnati Reds, the network selected Kugler, who was employed by Fox already through his work on the Big Ten Network, to replace him on their Sunday NFL broadcasts (Kugler remains with the network for select games and as a substitute play-by-play announcer). Westwood One announced that due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, they would utilize different broadcasters from week-to-week depending on where the game was emanating from.
Westwood One elected to go back to having a single lead broadcaster for its Sunday night coverage for 2022; on March 30, 2022, the network announced that Ryan Radtke, who had been serving as the network’s lead college football broadcaster and was one of the announcers used in the rotation for 2021, would fill the role.
Color commentary
John Dockery
John Dockery (September 6, 1944) is an American sportscaster and former American football defensive back who played for the New York Jets and later the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1968 to 1973. He graduated from Brooklyn Preparatory a Jesuit Hi ...
was the initial color commentator for ''Sunday Night Football'', serving under Buck and Nantz. Beginning in 1990,
Pat Haden
Patrick Capper Haden (born January 23, 1953) is the former athletic director at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles from August 2010 to June 2016. He played quarterback for the USC Trojans before playing professionally in ...
joined Dockery as color commentator. At the time, the Sunday night games were divided between
Turner Sports
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (WBD Sports) is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) that is responsible for sports broadcasts on its parent company's various channels in the United States, including TBS, TNT, AT&T SportsNet, and TruTV. ...
, with games airing on
TNT
Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...
, and
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%). Th ...
. Haden was TNT's television analyst and thus unavailable to do radio broadcasts until the network's slate of games had completed, so Dockery would serve an analyst for the radio broadcasts. Once ESPN took over coverage, Haden joined the radio team in place of Dockery. The arrangement lasted until the end of the 1997 season, after which ESPN claimed exclusivity over the Sunday night broadcast. Both Haden and Dockery left the network after that season.
Other color commentators include
Bob Trumpy
Robert Theodore Trumpy Jr. (born March 6, 1945) is a former professional American football tight end who played for the Cincinnati Bengals from 1968 through 1977. He was a two-time National Football League Pro Bowler and a two-time American Footb ...
, who served as ''Sunday Night Football'' analyst from 2000 to 2004 and again from 2006 to 2007;
John Riggins
Robert John Riggins (born August 4, 1949), nicknamed "Riggo" and "Diesel", is an American former professional football player who was a fullback in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Jets and Washington Redskins. He played col ...
, who was the color man for the 2005 season;
Jim Fassel
James Edward Fassel (August 31, 1949 – June 7, 2021) was an American college and professional football player and coach. He was the head coach of the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL) from 1997 to 2003. He was offensive coor ...
, who was 2008's analyst;
James Lofton
James David Lofton (born July 5, 1956) is an American former professional football player and coach. He is a former coach for the San Diego Chargers but is best known for his years in the National Football League as a wide receiver for the G ...
, who replaced Fassel in 2009 after he left for a head coaching job in the United Football League. Jason Taylor replaced Lofton starting with the 2017 season due to Lofton moving to CBS television (Lofton remains with the network as a substitute analyst, primarily for its ''Monday Night Football'' coverage).
After not having a regular analyst for some time after Taylor left the broadcast, Westwood One decided to give the full-time position to
Mike Golic
Michael Louis Golic Sr. (; born December 12, 1962) is a former National Football League (NFL) defensive lineman and television host. Golic is well known for his 25-year association with ESPN, most notably co-hosting ESPN Radio's '' Mike & Mike'' ...
, the former ESPN analyst and radio show host who had recently joined the network, for 2022.
''Monday Night Football''
The ''Monday Night Football'' broadcast on Westwood One features its lead broadcast team, as the network has long considered Monday night to be its flagship NFL broadcast, even as the NFL now considers the Sunday night game (since 2006 when NBC launched their Sunday night television package) its marquee "game of the week". As such, the team occupying this position stays together to call important playoff games and the Super Bowl.
Buck and Stram (1978–1985; 1987–1995)
For many years (beginning in 1978), the CBS Radio/Westwood One coverage of ''Monday Night Football'' was anchored by
Jack Buck
John Francis "Jack" Buck (August 21, 1924 – June 18, 2002) was an American sportscaster, best known for his work announcing Major League Baseball games of the St. Louis Cardinals. His play-by-play work earned him recognition from numerous hal ...
on play-by-play, with former
Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division.
The ...
coach
Hank Stram
Henry Louis Stram (; January 3, 1923 – July 4, 2005) was an American football coach. He is best known for his 15-year tenure with the Dallas Texans / Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NF ...
alongside him in the color position. They stayed paired together for nearly every major game covered by the network from 1978 until Super Bowl XIX in January 1985. Since Westwood One now regards NBC Radio's coverage of ''Monday Night Football'' as part of its broadcast history Stram and Buck were regarded as temporarily replaced by
Don Criqui
Don Criqui (born October 1, 1940) is an American sportscaster.
He holds the record for longest-tenured NFL broadcaster in U.S. TV history, calling NFL football for 47 seasons (1967-2013) on NBC and CBS. Criqui's final NFL broadcast came on De ...
and
Bob Trumpy
Robert Theodore Trumpy Jr. (born March 6, 1945) is a former professional American football tight end who played for the Cincinnati Bengals from 1968 through 1977. He was a two-time National Football League Pro Bowler and a two-time American Footb ...
for the two years NBC Radio held the contract. Buck and Stram returned to the booth at the beginning of the 1987 season and stayed there until the end of the 1995 season, with Super Bowl XXX in January 1996 marking their final game as a broadcast team after sixteen total seasons on radio.
During their time as ''Monday Night Football'' lead broadcast team both Buck and Stram worked on the television side as well. Stram had served as a color commentator on ''The
NFL on CBS
The ''NFL on CBS'' is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that are produced by CBS Sports, the sports division of the CBS television network in the United States. The network has aired NFL game telecasts sin ...
'' prior to joining Buck on the radio and continued to do so from 1978 until CBS lost the rights to the NFL in
1993
File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...
. Buck rejoined the CBS television coverage as a play-by-play man in 1982 (after having called games for the network from
1964
Events January
* January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.
* January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...
1987
File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...
. The duo worked together as a television broadcast team in 1982,
1983
The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call.
Events January
* January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...
, and
1985
The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1
** The Internet's Domain Name System is created.
** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...
.
David, Millen and Esiason (1996–2001)
To replace the departing Buck and Stram for 1996, Westwood One promoted
Howard David
Howard David is an American sportscaster.
Biography
Over the years, David has been the radio play-by-play man for several pro sports teams including the NBA's New Jersey Nets, Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics and the NFL's New York Jets an ...
from the ''Sunday Night Football'' broadcast and moved
Matt Millen
Matthew George Millen (born March 12, 1958) is a former American football linebacker and executive. Millen played 12 years in the National Football League for the Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders, San Francisco 49ers, and Washington Redskins, ...
, who at the time was a color commentator for
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
and a contributor to the Westwood One Monday night pregame show, into the booth alongside him. Beginning in
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...
and continuing until 2001, David served as the play-by-play voice of the New York Jets for
WFAN
WFAN (660 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York, carrying a sports radio format known as "Sports Radio 66 AM and 101.9 FM" or "The Fan". Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves the New York metropolitan area while ...
and later WABC, and would require a substitute when the Jets played on Monday night or in the playoffs. An example of the latter came in the
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
.
Boomer Esiason
Norman Julius "Boomer" Esiason (; born April 17, 1961) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons, primarily with the Cincinnati Bengals. He was selected in the ...
joined David and Millen for the 2000 season after being fired by ABC from the ''Monday Night Football'' telecast. It was the last season in the booth for Millen as he departed to take a position as President of the Detroit Lions, a job which he received great criticism in and was eventually fired from in
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
.
In 2001, David and Esiason were joined by CBS Sports' veteran reporter
Lesley Visser
Lesley Candace Visser (born September 11, 1953) is an American sportscaster, television and radio personality, and sportswriter. Visser is the first female NFL analyst on TV, and the only sportscaster in history who has worked on Final Four, ...
, who became the first woman to be an analyst on an NFL broadcast. Visser had previously become the first female sportscaster to preside over the
Vince Lombardi Trophy
The Vince Lombardi Trophy is the trophy awarded each year to the winning team of the National Football League's championship game, the Super Bowl. The trophy is named in honor of NFL coach Vince Lombardi, who led the Green Bay Packers to vic ...
presentation, while covering Super Bowl XXVI for CBS television in 1992. The pairing only lasted the one season, as Visser decided to leave the booth to focus on her reporting for both CBS and HBO. It was also David's last season calling games for Westwood One until his 2009 return, as he became a full-time sports talk show host in Miami and the voice of the
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team p ...
For the 2002 season Westwood One chose veteran broadcaster
Marv Albert
Marv Albert (born Marvin Philip Aufrichtig; June 12, 1941) is an American retired sportscaster. Honored for his work as a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, he was commonly referred to as "the voice of basketball". From 1967 to 2004, he wa ...
, who had last called NFL games for
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
in
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
,
TNT
Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...
, and (at the time) the New York Knicks. Esiason stayed on to be his color commentator. Since Esiason also joined ''
The NFL Today
''The NFL Today'' is an American football television program on CBS that serves as the pre-game show for the network's National Football League (NFL) game telecasts under the ''NFL on CBS'' brand. The program features commentary on the latest ne ...
'' broadcast team for the 2002 season and CBS (at the time) traveled to the site of the AFC Championship Game, Albert and Esiason became the exclusive voices of the game. To accomplish this Esiason would call the end of each half with a wireless microphone so he could save time to go to the field level set CBS used for these games. Esiason has also done this in years CBS has carried the Super Bowl, but has not done this for the AFC Championship game since the 2005 game in Denver as CBS has not traveled to the AFC Championship since (until 2016).
Beginning in 2007, Westwood One has employed a series of substitute analysts for ''Monday Night Football''. This was a change necessitated by the premiere of the ''
Boomer and Carton
''Boomer and Gio'' (previously ''Boomer and Carton'' from 2007–2017 and ''The Morning Show with Boomer'' in 2017) is a morning drive sports radio program on WFAN-AM and WFAN-FM in New York City. It is hosted by former National Football League ...
'' morning show on the network's flagship station, New York's WFAN, which saw Esiason and
Craig Carton
Craig Harris Carton (born January 31, 1969) is an American radio and television personality. He is the co-host of the ''Carton and Roberts'' sports radio program on WFAN (AM) in New York City, and is seen nationally on Fox Sports 1 as host of '' ...
take over the station's morning show following
Don Imus
John Donald Imus Jr. (July 23, 1940 – December 27, 2019), also known mononymously as Imus, was an American radio personality, television show host, recording artist, and author. His radio show, '' Imus in the Morning'', was aired on various sta ...
' firing and a job which, when combined with his CBS duties, has Esiason in New York six days a week. Esiason employs a private jet service to get him to and from Monday night games outside the New York- Delaware Valley area, but for games that require significant travel (e.g. west coast games, certain games outside the Northeastern U.S. or games held outside the U.S.) he is unable to return to New York in enough time to rest and be ready for the start of ''Boomer and Carton'' at 6:00 am, thus requiring a fill-in analyst for those games.
Initially, Albert called the game with a rotating series of guest analysts on weeks that Esiason was unavailable. Beginning in 2009, Westwood One appointed
Kevin Harlan
Kevin Harlan (born June 21, 1960) is an American television and radio sports announcer. The son of former Green Bay Packers executive Bob Harlan, he broadcasts NFL and college basketball games on CBS and the NBA for TNT.
2022 will be his 38th ...
and
Warren Moon
Harold Warren Moon (born November 18, 1956) is an American former football quarterback who played professionally for 23 seasons. He spent the majority of his career with the Houston Oilers of the National Football League (NFL) and the Edmonton ...
to serve as the backup broadcast team, with Harlan substituting for Albert on games he was unable to make due to other commitments (a role formally filled by Dave Sims) and Moon substituting for Esiason.
The pairing ended following the 2009 NFL season, with Albert's last call being
Super Bowl XLIV
Super Bowl XLIV was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champions New Orleans Saints and the American Football Conference (AFC) champions Indianapolis Colts to decide the National Football League (NFL) champ ...
in Miami. On June 4, 2010, Albert announced that he was leaving Westwood One to focus on his NBA broadcasting duties for TNT and the
YES Network
The Yankee Entertainment and Sports Network (YES) is an American pay television regional sports network owned by Yankee Global Enterprises (the largest shareholder with 26%), Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios (which owns 20%), ...
. In 2011, he returned to calling NFL games for CBS television.
Harlan and Esiason (2010–2017)
On June 29, 2010, it was announced that
Kevin Harlan
Kevin Harlan (born June 21, 1960) is an American television and radio sports announcer. The son of former Green Bay Packers executive Bob Harlan, he broadcasts NFL and college basketball games on CBS and the NBA for TNT.
2022 will be his 38th ...
would be succeeding Albert as Westwood One's primary play-by-play voice for ''Monday Night Football'', with Esiason continuing as color commentator. In 2010,
Randy Cross
Randall Laureat Cross (born April 25, 1954) is an American football analyst and former player. He was a right guard and center in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the UCLA Bruins and was inducted into the Colle ...
served as Esiason's substitute for select games, while
Wayne Larrivee
Wayne Larrivee is an American sportscaster. Larrivee is currently the radio play-by-play voice of the Green Bay Packers on the Packers Radio Network alongside color commentator Larry McCarren and calls college football and basketball for the Bi ...
filled in on play-by-play when Harlan was unavailable. The following year,
Dan Fouts
Daniel Francis Fouts (born June 10, 1951) is an American former football quarterback who played for the San Diego Chargers of the National Football League (NFL) throughout his 15-season career (1973-87). After a relatively undistinguished fi ...
replaced Cross as substitute analyst and stayed until 2014 when
Kurt Warner
Kurtis Eugene Warner (born June 22, 1971) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons, primarily with the St. Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals. His career, which saw him ascend f ...
replaced him.
=2016 substitutions
=
In 2016, for the first time since being employed by the network, Esiason did not call the opening game of the season as it took place in Denver. Regular substitute Kurt Warner filled in for Esiason. During Week 7 of the same season neither Harlan or Esiason was available for the Monday Night game, Kevin Kugler filled in for Harlan as he was calling the International Series game in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, England for
NFL Network
NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League (NFL) and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and NF ...
, with Kurt Warner also filling in for Esiason (despite Kugler and Warner, the latter filling in for James Lofton, calling the Sunday Night Football game the previous night). For the Week 11 Monday Night game ( Texans- Raiders) being played in
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...
, Armando Quintero and Benny Ricardo (both
Mexican-Americans
Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican ...
) called the game instead of Harlan and Esiason/Warner. Kugler and Warner would again call the Week 16 Monday Night game (
Lions
The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus '' Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult ...
-
Cowboys
A cowboy is a professional pastoralist or mounted livestock herder, usually from the Americas or Australia.
Cowboy(s) or The Cowboy(s) may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''Cowboy'' (1958 film), starring Glenn Ford
* ''Cowboy'' (1966 film), ...
), with Kugler filling in for Harlan as the latter called the Christmas Night game (Broncos-Chiefs) in Kansas City (where Harlan resides in) with Lofton.
Harlan and Warner (2018–present)
On August 9, 2018, it was announced that
Kurt Warner
Kurtis Eugene Warner (born June 22, 1971) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons, primarily with the St. Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals. His career, which saw him ascend f ...
would be succeeding Esiason as Westwood One's primary color commentator for ''Monday Night Football'' ending Esiason's 18-year reign in the ''Monday Night Football'' booth, with Harlan continuing as play-by-play announcer. However, Esiason called the opening game of the 2018 season (
Falcons
Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Falcons are widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica, though closely related raptors did occur there in the Eocene.
Adult falcons ...
-
Eagles
Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, jus ...
) as his final game for the network.
For the opening-week Monday night doubleheader, the primary team initially split up to cover the two games. In 2014, for example, Esiason joined
Ian Eagle
Ian Eagle ( ; born February 9, 1969) is an American sports announcer. He calls NBA, NFL, and college basketball games on CBS, TNT, and TBS, as well as Brooklyn Nets games on the YES Network and French Open tennis for Tennis Channel. Other ...
to call the early game while Harlan teamed with
James Lofton
James David Lofton (born July 5, 1956) is an American former professional football player and coach. He is a former coach for the San Diego Chargers but is best known for his years in the National Football League as a wide receiver for the G ...
on the broadcast of the late game. However, this was no longer the case as of the 2018 season due to Esiason's departure, with Harlan and Warner calling the late game.
Pregame and halftime show host
The ''Monday Night Football'' pregame and halftime shows are conducted differently from usual pregames, as there is no other game action to recap. Jim Gray presided over both the pregame and halftime shows, which are more feature driven and often feature guest commentators such as
Tom Brady
Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. (born August 3, 1977) is an American football quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He spent his first 20 seasons with the New England Patriots organization, with which ...
and
Larry Fitzgerald
Larry Darnell Fitzgerald Jr. (born August 31, 1983) is a former American football wide receiver. Fitzgerald played in the National Football League for 17 seasons with the Arizona Cardinals. He played college football at University of Pittsburg ...
, who contributes to the pregame show weekly with predictions and commentary. In addition to the Monday night games, Gray also hosted the studio shows for the Thursday opening game and the Super Bowl. For the Monday Night game held in Mexico during Week 11 of the 2016 season, Scott Graham co-hosted the pregame and halftime shows with Gray. Starting with the 2021 season,
NFL Network
NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League (NFL) and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and NF ...
host
Rich Eisen
Richard Eisen (; born June 24, 1969) is an American television sportscaster and radio host. Since 2003, he has worked for NFL Network as a host of various pregame, halftime, and postgame shows. He also hosts a daily sports radio show, ''The Ric ...
succeeded Gray on this role while, in-turn, also relocating the Monday Night pregame/halftime coverage to Los Angeles from the network’s New York City studios. Gray, Fitzgerald and Brady have since started a podcast titled ''Let's Go!'', which airs on Mondays during the season on
SiriusXM NFL Radio
Since 2008, Sirius XM, Sirius XM Radio has had a similar channel lineup, with a few differences based on whether the individual has a Sirius, XM, or SiriusXM radio. For technical reasons, separate radios continue to be manufactured for the separat ...
prior to the game broadcasts.
Steve Tasker serves as the sideline reporter for ''Monday Night Football''.
John Dockery
John Dockery (September 6, 1944) is an American sportscaster and former American football defensive back who played for the New York Jets and later the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1968 to 1973. He graduated from Brooklyn Preparatory a Jesuit Hi ...
served as sideline reporter from
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...
to 2007. From 2008 to 2012, there was no official sideline reporter for ''Monday Night Football''.
Spanish language
In 2005, Westwood One carried an alternate Spanish-language feed featuring Clemson Smith-Muniz as play-by-play host and David Crommett as commentator. Those broadcasts have moved to
United Stations Radio Networks
United Stations Radio Networks (USRN) is a radio network that provides a variety of radio programs and programming services for radio stations throughout the United States and elsewhere. It is based in New York City.
History
The company was fou ...
.
''Thursday Night Football''
In addition to its Sunday and Monday night coverage, Westwood One also is the radio home for ''Thursday Night Football''. Westwood One and its predecessors have always aired Thursday games in the past, but until 2006 those games were usually limited to Thanksgiving, rarely scheduled midweek games, and the season opening game beginning in 2002.
When ''Thursday Night Football'' was added to the NFL schedule permanently, Westwood One created a specific broadcast team to cover it. From 2006 until 2008,
Dick Enberg
Richard Alan Enberg (January 9, 1935 – December 21, 2017) was an American sportscaster. Over the course of an approximately 60-year career, he provided play-by-play of various sports for several radio and television networks, including N ...
was the play-by-play man.
Sam Wyche
Samuel David Wyche (; January 5, 1945 – January 2, 2020) was an American football quarterback and coach. He was a quarterback and head coach for the Cincinnati Bengals and a quarterbacks coach for the San Francisco 49ers. As head coach, he ...
was the initial color analyst, and
Dennis Green
Dennis Earl Green (February 17, 1949 – July 21, 2016) was an American football coach. During his National Football League (NFL) career, Green coached the Minnesota Vikings for 10 seasons. He coached the Vikings to eight playoff appearances ...
replaced him after the 2006 season.
Since 2009,
Ian Eagle
Ian Eagle ( ; born February 9, 1969) is an American sports announcer. He calls NBA, NFL, and college basketball games on CBS, TNT, and TBS, as well as Brooklyn Nets games on the YES Network and French Open tennis for Tennis Channel. Other ...
has been the voice of ''Thursday Night Football'' for Westwood One and Dave Pasch, Tom McCarthy or Brandon Gaudin has worked as a backup play by play man for Thursday Night Football in 2021. After Dennis Green left to take the head coaching position with the United Football League's
California Redwoods
''Sequoia sempervirens'' ()''Sunset Western Garden Book,'' 1995:606–607 is the sole living species of the genus '' Sequoia'' in the cypress family Cupressaceae (formerly treated in Taxodiaceae). Common names include coast redwood, coastal ...
in 2008, Fox television analyst
Trent Green
Trent Jason Green (born July 9, 1970) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for fifteen seasons. He played college football for Indiana University. He was drafted by the San Diego Chargers in ...
replaced him and stayed on until the end of the 2013 season when Mike Mayock took over.
As of 2022, Eagle's analyst is
Tony Boselli
Don Bosco Anthony Boselli Jr. (born April 17, 1972) is an American former football tackle who played in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He played college football at USC, where he received th ...
. The backup announcers for 2022 will be
Kevin Kugler
Kevin Kugler is an American sportscaster who primarily works in radio broadcasting. Kugler is currently employed by Westwood One as its lead college basketball voice as well as one of its Sunday NFL voices, and by the Big Ten Network as a play-by- ...
(play by play) and
Jason McCourty
Jason McCourty (born August 13, 1987) is a former American football cornerback who played 13 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). Drafted by the Tennessee Titans in the sixth round, 203rd overall, in the 2009 NFL Draft, he also played f ...
(analyst).
Saturday games
When the NFL expanded its weekly games into Thursday nights on a regular basis, a package of Saturday night games was added as part of it and the entire broadcast package was titled ''Run to the Playoffs''. As Westwood One had already had rights to the late season Saturday afternoon tripleheaders through 2005, the network retained its rights when the Saturday action was reduced to one game.
For the first two seasons, where three ''Saturday Night Football'' games were broadcast, Westwood One carried a separate broadcast team for those games. Joel Meyers called the games the first year while
Don Criqui
Don Criqui (born October 1, 1940) is an American sportscaster.
He holds the record for longest-tenured NFL broadcaster in U.S. TV history, calling NFL football for 47 seasons (1967-2013) on NBC and CBS. Criqui's final NFL broadcast came on De ...
called them the second. When the Saturday night action became infrequent, Westwood One opted to not have a specific team to cover those matchups.
As of 2021, Westwood One carries all late season Saturday doubleheaders, with few exceptions mainly due to exclusivity (e.g the 49ers-Cardinals matchup during Week 16 of the 2020 season, as the game was exclusive to Amazon Prime Video).
Former Sunday doubleheader coverage
Prior to 2018, ''The NFL on Westwood One'' featured two games each week from the Sunday afternoon lineup, with one beginning at 1:00 pm and one at 4:25 pm. Westwood One marketed these games as "tripleheaders" when also including the ''Sunday Night Football'' broadcasts.
During the 2013 season, due to the rescheduling of the San Diego Chargers– Oakland Raiders Week 5 game to 8:25 pm PDT, the network had obtained the rights to broadcast that game nationally, forming a quadrupleheader. The "quadrupleheader" process would continue on Week 8 of the 2014 season, during Weeks 4, 7 and 8 of the 2015–16 seasons and during weeks 4 & 8 of the 2017 season, all of which are due to the network carrying the
NFL International Series
The NFL International Series is a series of American football games during the National Football League (NFL) regular season that are played outside the United States. Since 2017, the series has two sub-series: the NFL London Games in the Uni ...
games in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
on those weeks (all with 9:30 am EST (2:30 pm local time) start times).
Broadcast teams
Westwood One employed two separate broadcast teams for the Sunday doubleheader. Over the years, the lead announcers included
Harry Kalas
Harold Norbert Kalas (March 26, 1936 – April 13, 2009) was an American sportscaster, best known for his Ford C. Frick Award-winning role as lead play-by-play announcer for Major League Baseball's Philadelphia Phillies, a position he held fr ...
,
Howard David
Howard David is an American sportscaster.
Biography
Over the years, David has been the radio play-by-play man for several pro sports teams including the NBA's New Jersey Nets, Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics and the NFL's New York Jets an ...
Bill Rosinski
Bill Rosinski is an American sportscaster and talk show host, operating primarily out of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Rosinski currently works for ESPN Radio as its lead college football and college basketball commentator, as well as for ISP Sports ...
among others. Analysts included
Tony Boselli
Don Bosco Anthony Boselli Jr. (born April 17, 1972) is an American former football tackle who played in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He played college football at USC, where he received th ...
,
Jack Ham
Jack Raphael Ham Jr. (born December 23, 1948) is an American former professional football player who played as an outside linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL) from 1971 to 1982. He is considered one of ...
, and
Rod Woodson
Roderick Kevin Woodson (born March 10, 1965) is an American former professional football defensive back in the National Football League (NFL) for 17 seasons. He is currently the Head Coach of the XFL's Vegas Vipers. Woodson was drafted in the ...
.
NFL Films narrator
Scott Graham
Scott Graham (born June 10, 1965) is an American sportscaster best known for his broadcasts of the Philadelphia Phillies, his work with NFL Films, and his studio hosting of '' The NFL on Westwood One''. He has lived and worked near Philadelphia ...
hosted all studio segments for the Sunday games on Westwood One, having taken this position once previous host Tommy Tighe moved to ESPN Radio. In addition to his studio duties, Graham would also provide play-by-play on certain games. In such cases, either Jason Horowitz replaced him in the studio or Graham did the studio segments on-site. After Jim Gray’s departure just before the 2021 season, Graham hosted the pre-game/halftime for that season’s Super Bowl alongside
Willie McGinest
William Lee McGinest Jr. (born December 11, 1971) is a former American football linebacker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons, primarily with the New England Patriots. He played college football at USC and was select ...
.
Playoff coverage
For the first two rounds of the playoffs, often the regular broadcast teams are mixed, due to Boomer Esiason's unavailability. During the wild card and divisional weekends, there are four games, therefore four separate crews are needed. Some of the other established crews call the less-popular games. For instance, in 2007,
Dick Enberg
Richard Alan Enberg (January 9, 1935 – December 21, 2017) was an American sportscaster. Over the course of an approximately 60-year career, he provided play-by-play of various sports for several radio and television networks, including N ...
and
Dennis Green
Dennis Earl Green (February 17, 1949 – July 21, 2016) was an American football coach. During his National Football League (NFL) career, Green coached the Minnesota Vikings for 10 seasons. He coached the Vikings to eight playoff appearances ...
(from the Thursday night crew) called one of the wild card games, and Marv Albert called games alongside
Jim Fassel
James Edward Fassel (August 31, 1949 – June 7, 2021) was an American college and professional football player and coach. He was the head coach of the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL) from 1997 to 2003. He was offensive coor ...
from the Sunday doubleheader team. In 2009, the teams were even more mixed – for example, Marv Albert called an opening round game with Dennis Green and a divisional playoff game with
Warren Moon
Harold Warren Moon (born November 18, 1956) is an American former football quarterback who played professionally for 23 seasons. He spent the majority of his career with the Houston Oilers of the National Football League (NFL) and the Edmonton ...
.
Typically, the first time the main crews are together comes during Conference Championship weekend, since Boomer Esiason has commitments with ''The NFL Today''. When he joined the CBS studio show, the crew traveled to the site of the AFC Championship Game every year; this meant the Monday night crew would be exclusively responsible for calling the game. CBS has not chosen to travel to the sites of the AFC Championship Game from 2006 to 2015, so Esiason stays behind in New York with the ''NFL Today'' panel. In the first of those two seasons Marv Albert called the 2007 game in Indianapolis alongside
Sam Wyche
Samuel David Wyche (; January 5, 1945 – January 2, 2020) was an American football quarterback and coach. He was a quarterback and head coach for the Cincinnati Bengals and a quarterbacks coach for the San Francisco 49ers. As head coach, he ...
.
In
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
, neither Albert nor Esiason was available on championship weekend, so Dave Sims and Bob Trumpy moved to the AFC Championship Game in New England while Bill Rosinski took Albert's place alongside Jim Fassel for the NFC Championship Game in Green Bay. For 2009, Albert returned to the booth for Championship Sunday, calling the NFC Championship Game alongside Fassel with Dave Sims and Dennis Green responsible for the AFC Championship Game. The 2010 Conference Championship Games saw
Kevin Harlan
Kevin Harlan (born June 21, 1960) is an American television and radio sports announcer. The son of former Green Bay Packers executive Bob Harlan, he broadcasts NFL and college basketball games on CBS and the NBA for TNT.
2022 will be his 38th ...
and Warren Moon call the AFC Championship Game while Sims and James Lofton called the NFC championship Game.
The broadcast teams have stayed together throughout the playoffs; this was made simpler with the addition of a permanent backup analyst for ''Monday Night Football''.
For
2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...
, Harlan and Esiason called the AFC Championship Game, as CBS will be traveling to the 2016 AFC Championship Game in Denver for the first time since 2006, allowing Esiason to work both his ''NFL Today'' and radio duties on-site. While Kevin Kugler and James Lofton will be calling the NFC Championship game.
For the
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
Brian Griese
Brian David Griese ( ; born March 18, 1975) is an American football coach and former quarterback who is the quarterbacks coach for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the th ...
called the Saturday AFC wild card game, owing to the reduction of Westwood One to three announce teams for the primetime games in the regular season, who then covered the remainder of Wild Card Weekend's four games.
Due to the expanded playoffs in
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...
, which resulted in six games during Wild Card Weekend, Westwood One called in many of its backup announcers to cover the full slate of games. For the first tripleheader on Saturday, John Sadak and Ross Tucker call Colts- Bills, Ryan Radtke and Mike Holmgren call
Rams
In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)Seahawks, and Kevin Harlan and Ron Jaworski call
Buccaneers
Buccaneers were a kind of privateers or free sailors particular to the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. First established on northern Hispaniola as early as 1625, their heyday was from the Restoration in 1660 until about 1688 ...
-
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
. On Sunday, Brandon Gaudin and Rod Woodson call
Ravens
Ravens may refer to:
* Raven, a species of the genus ''Corvus''
Sports
* Anderson Ravens, the intercollegiate athletic program of Anderson University in Indiana
* Baltimore Ravens, a professional American football franchise
* Benedictine Ravens, ...
-
Titans
In Greek mythology, the Titans ( grc, οἱ Τῑτᾶνες, ''hoi Tītânes'', , ''ho Tītân'') were the pre-Olympian gods. According to the ''Theogony'' of Hesiod, they were the twelve children of the primordial parents Uranus (Sky) and Gai ...
, Kevin Kugler and James Lofton call
Bears
Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...
Westwood One, in addition to its game coverage and highlight show on Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays, offers to affiliate stations four different NFL-related programs during the season leading up to the Super Bowl. The first to premiere is ''Fantasy Football Forecast'', originally an hour-long weekly program hosted by Kevin Kugler and James Lofton regarding fantasy leagues. This program premieres in late August and runs until the final week of the season and is now a two-minute feature hosted by Jason Horowitz.
A second program, ''NFL Insider'', runs from the beginning of the season through to the Super Bowl, is a program hosted by Scott Graham, where he provided analysis of the week, present highlights of the previous week's action, and interview players and coaches.
Scott Graham and
Mike Golic
Michael Louis Golic Sr. (; born December 12, 1962) is a former National Football League (NFL) defensive lineman and television host. Golic is well known for his 25-year association with ESPN, most notably co-hosting ESPN Radio's '' Mike & Mike'' ...
host an NFL preview show every week (appropriately called ''NFL Preview''), where they analyze each game in depth and provide information about what players and other factors will play roles in the upcoming week. This program runs through Super Bowl Sunday and is thirty minutes in length, but runs for an hour leading into the Super Bowl.
A live radio version of ''
The NFL Today
''The NFL Today'' is an American football television program on CBS that serves as the pre-game show for the network's National Football League (NFL) game telecasts under the ''NFL on CBS'' brand. The program features commentary on the latest ne ...
'' runs every Sunday morning before the main CBS version during the season, hosted by Amber Theoharis alongside rotating analysts.
Warner also hosts a weekly podcast ''The Kurt Warner QB Podcast'' (named after Warner himself), where he and Kevin Harlan analyze and review quarterback plays throughout the season.
During the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the network also re-broadcast select NFL postseason games from past seasons, including
Super Bowl I
The first AFL–NFL World Championship Game (known retroactively as Super BowlI and referred to in contemporaneous reports, including the game's radio broadcast, as the Super Bowl) was an American football game played on January 15, 1967, at the ...
Super Bowl LIV
Super Bowl LIV was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2019 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion Kansas City Chiefs defeated the National Football Conferenc ...
.
Under the NFL's 2022 contract with Westwood One, it will also provide coverage of other "tentpole" events such as the NFL Draft Combine,
NFL Draft
The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...
, the schedule release, and the
NFL Honors
The NFL Honors is an annual awards presentation in the National Football League (NFL).
The television special is held the night before the Super Bowl (except 2022 when it was held on a Thursday) at the game's host city and on the network carryi ...
.
Announcers
2020 adjustments
As mentioned above, the Sunday NFL broadcasts have been affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the move of Kevin Kugler to Fox television for the season. Thus, Westwood One is employing a different arrangement that will feature different broadcasters from week to week based on geography. This arrangement was then extended to Monday and Thursday night broadcasts for select games.
*In Week 2, Westwood One's lead college football voice Ryan Radtke called the matchup between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks.
Mike Holmgren
Michael George Holmgren (born June 15, 1948) is a former American football coach and executive. He began his NFL career as a quarterbacks' coach and later as an offensive coordinator with the San Francisco 49ers, where they won Super Bowls XXI ...
, former Seahawks coach and sometimes guest analyst on Westwood One broadcasts, served as color commentator.
*In Week 3, ''
Madden NFL
''Madden NFL'' (known as ''John Madden Football'' until 1993) is an American football video game series developed by EA Tiburon for EA Sports. It is named after Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and commentator John Madden and sold more than 130 m ...
'' commentator
Brandon Gaudin
Brandon Gaudin (born December 18, 1983) is an American sportscaster who broadcasts play-by-play of NFL and college football, basketball and baseball for Fox Sports and the Big Ten Network. He is also the voice of ''Madden NFL'' for EA Sports (201 ...
is the play-by-play announcer for both the Thursday (Dolphins-Jaguars; with Derek Rackley) and Sunday night (Packers-Saints; with Rod Woodson) games. Ian Eagle and Tony Boselli, the Thursday Night Football crew, called the Monday night game (Chiefs-Ravens).
*In Week 5, Kevin Harlan and Ben Leber called the Thursday Night game (Buccaneers-Bears).
*In Week 6, Sunday/Thursday night pregame host Scott Graham called one game of an impromptu Monday night doubleheader (Chiefs-Bills, which was postponed from the originally scheduled Thursday night), alongside
Ross Tucker
Ross Finch Tucker (born March 2, 1979) is a former American football offensive lineman and current sports broadcaster. Tucker was an All-Ivy League offensive lineman at Princeton University, then played seven seasons in the National Football L ...
.
*In Week 8, Brandon Gaudin and Tony Boselli called the Thursday night game (Falcons-Panthers). Regular substitute Tom McCarthy (also a play-by-play announcer for the Philadelphia Phillies) and Ross Tucker called the Sunday night game (Cowboys-Eagles). Ian Eagle and
Ron Jaworski
Partner owner
, highlights=
* Pro Bowl (1980)
* Bert Bell Award (1980)
* Philadelphia Eagles Hall of Fame
;NFL record
* Longest touchdown pass: 99 yards (tied)
, statlabel1= TD– INT
, statvalue1=179–164
, statlabel2=Yards
, statvalue2=28,19 ...
, a former Monday Night Football analyst for ESPN, called the Monday night game (Buccaneers-Giants).
*In Week 9, Ryan Radtke and Rod Woodson called the Thursday night game (Packers-49ers). Brandon Gaudin and Derek Rackley called the Sunday night game (Saints-Buccaneers).
*In Week 12, Kevin Harlan and Ron Jaworski called the Monday night game (Seahawks-Eagles).
Kenny Albert
Kenneth Gary Albert (born February 2, 1968) is an American sportscaster, the son of NBA sportscaster Marv Albert and nephew of sportscasters Al Albert and Steve Albert. He is the only sportscaster who currently does play-by-play for all four ...
, who normally calls
NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
games for the network, and Anthony Becht called a Wednesday afternoon game (Ravens-Steelers, which was originally scheduled as the Thanksgiving night game but was postponed multiple times).
*In Week 13, Scott Graham and Ross Tucker called a Tuesday night game (Cowboys-Ravens, which was originally scheduled as a Thursday night game)
*In Week 14, CBS Sports'
Spero Dedes Spero is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Anthony Spero (1929-2008), American criminal
*David Spero (born 1951), American DJ and music manager
*Deborah Spero, American law enforcement official
*Donald Spero (born 1939), American ...
and
Terrell Davis
Terrell Lamar Davis (born October 28, 1972) is an American former professional football player who was a running back for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL) from 1995 to 2001. He is the Broncos all-time leading rusher and ...
called the Thursday night game (Patriots-Rams). Tom McCarthy and Ross Tucker called the Sunday Night game (Steelers-Bills).
*In Week 15, Ryan Radtke and Kurt Warner called the Thursday night game (Chargers-Raiders). Radtke and Rod Woodson called the first Saturday game (Bills-Broncos) while former Sunday doubleheader voice John Sadak and
Shaun O'Hara
Shaun O'Hara (born June 23, 1977) is a former American football center who played in the National Football League (NFL) for eleven seasons. He played college football for Rutgers University. He began his professional career by signing as an u ...
called the second game (Panthers-Packers). Tom McCarthy and Ross Tucker called the Sunday night game (Browns-Giants).
*In Week 16, Scott Graham and Ross Tucker called the Christmas Day game (Vikings-Saints). During the Saturday tripleheader, John Sadak and Jim Miller called the first game (Buccaneers-Lions) while Ryan Radtke and Rod Woodson called the last game (Dolphins-Raiders); Westwood One did not produce a feed of the 49ers-Cardinals matchup. Brandon Gaudin and Ben Leiber will call the Sunday night game (Titans-Packers); Tom McCarthy and Ross Tucker will call the Monday night game (Bills-Patriots).
Availability
For the Conference Championship games and the Super Bowl, most affiliate radio stations of the participating teams' networks must accept the feed from Westwood One. Only the flagship stations (in both English and other languages) can transmit the team's local radio broadcast, although the local broadcasts are also available on Sirius XM and NFL Game Pass. An exception is made for the Green Bay Packers because they technically have flagships in two separate cities, WTAQ-AM-FM and
WIXX
WIXX (101.1 FM) is a Top 40/ CHR radio station licensed to and serving Green Bay, Wisconsin, along with Appleton, Oshkosh, and much of Northeast Wisconsin. The station is owned and operated by Wausau, Wisconsin-based Midwest Communication ...
WRNW
WRNW (97.3 FM) is a sports radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin owned and operated by iHeartMedia. WRNW's studios are located with iHeartMedia's other Milwaukee operations in rural-suburban Greenfield, with their transmitter located with the ...
in
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...
. If the local Westwood One affiliate is not the same as the corresponding affiliate of the team, the Westwood One station retains broadcast rights and the team's station must switch to alternate programming (for example, KSPN in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
aired an alternate feed of ESPN Radio on January 20,
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
when the San Diego Chargers played in the AFC Championship Game, as exclusive rights belonged to
KLAC
KLAC (570 AM) is a commercial sports radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, serving Greater Los Angeles and much of surrounding Southern California. Owned by a joint venture between iHeartMedia, Inc. and the Los Angeles Dodgers b ...
, the Chargers' L.A. affiliate. The same situation occurred in 2011 with
WAPL
WAPL (105.7 FM broadcasting, FM) is a classic rock formatted radio station city of license, licensed to Appleton, Wisconsin, that serves the Green Bay, Wisconsin, Green Bay and Appleton, Wisconsin, Appleton-Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Oshkosh areas. Th ...
as part of the Packers example above; although that station is licensed to Appleton south of Green Bay, the station transmits from the same site as WIXX, but as it is an 'out-of-market' station according to NFL rules, carried the Westwood One call rather than the Packers home call during the NFC Championship Game and
Super Bowl XLV
Super Bowl XLV was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Green Bay Packers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion ...
).
For all other weeks, within 75 miles of a team's stadium, only stations the team or its flagship station contracts with can carry those games, regardless if the team is home or away. Thus, any competing station that carries Westwood One broadcasts cannot air those games- for instance, any time the New York Jets are playing on Sunday or Monday nights, their games do not air on New York City's Westwood One affiliate,
WFAN
WFAN (660 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York, carrying a sports radio format known as "Sports Radio 66 AM and 101.9 FM" or "The Fan". Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves the New York metropolitan area while ...
, as exclusive rights to the game broadcast lie with the Jets' flagship
WEPN-FM
WEPN-FM (98.7 MHz) branded as ''ESPN New York'', is an all-sports radio station licensed to New York City. The station is owned by Emmis Communications and its operations are controlled by Good Karma Brands, under a local marketing agreeme ...
(In the case of the Sunday doubleheaders, most stations can opt for an alternate national broadcast from the
Sports USA Radio Network
Sports USA Media is the largest independent sports broadcasting radio network in the United States, specializing in live broadcasts of American football, specifically of the NCAA football Division I-A and National Football League. In 2018, more th ...
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
, Canada whenever the Buffalo Bills play nationally. (However, in the case of Toronto, the same station affiliates with both the Bills radio network and Dial Global, which means the only difference is which broadcast team the station uses). For a time before the most recent moves of the
Los Angeles Chargers
The Los Angeles Chargers are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Chargers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division, and ...
and
Rams
In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)KFWB
KFWB (980 AM) is a commercial radio station in Los Angeles, California. It airs a classic Regional Mexican music format. KFWB is owned by Lotus Communications. The station has a colorful history, being the radio voice of Warner Bros. Studios i ...
(Sports USA Radio) until the Rams returned to the market on KSPN in 2016.
''The NFL on Westwood One'' was not available on the NFL Game Pass (formerly Audio Pass) subscription service, though the network's prime time and playoff broadcasts became available beginning in the
2009 NFL season
The 2009 NFL season was the 90th season in the history of the National Football League (NFL). The 50th anniversary of the original eight charter members of the American Football League was celebrated during this season.
The preseason started ...
as a result of a new broadcast contract. All prime time and playoff broadcasts are carried on
Sirius XM NFL Radio
Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Greek word , or , meaning 'glowing' or 'scorching'. The star is designated α Canis Majoris, Latinized to Alpha Canis Majoris, and abbreviated Alpha CM ...
. Officially, games could not be streamed on internet radio by affiliates per NFL rules.
In 2022, it was announced that Westwood One games will now be able to be streamed for free via their affiliates' digital platforms, as well as the NFL mobile app.
Current terrestrial affiliates
This is an incomplete list of ''NFL on Westwood One Sports'' terrestrial± affiliates across the United States. Programming is subject to local blackouts and other station programming.
Westwood One
Westwood One is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming.
The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1978. The compan ...
Westwood One
Westwood One is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming.
The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1978. The compan ...