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Browns radio 2023

V

vjm

The Browns have made some tweaks to their radio team for 2023

The 4-hour pregame show (airing on WKNR 850 and WNCX 98.5) now features WKRK 92.3 The Fan morning host Ken Carman and midday co-host Andy Baskin, along with Tyvis Powell, who is a Bedford High grad, played college ball at THE Ohio State University - where he was part of the 2014 National Championship team - a former NFLer (safety/special teams), and even had a cup of coffee in the CFL.

Tony Rizzo, who had been part of the pregame show since WKNR began airing the games in 2013, is no longer on network coverage

The actual game (heard on 850, 92.3 and 98.5) will be called by longtime WKYC NBC 3 sports director Jim Donovan, who is in his 25th year in the now Doug Dieken Broadcast Booth, with Nathan Zegura (Browns Daily host and main team in-house broadcaster) on commentary and WKNR afternoon host/former 3-time Super Bowl winning NFLer Je'Rod Cherry working the sideline.

The postgame show (heard on 92.3 The Fan) will be hosted by Powell and Fan midday co-host Jeff Phelps
 
So it appears one must still be outside Cleveland to hear the entire network broadcast from start to finish on one station?
 
schmave said:
So it appears one must still be outside Cleveland to hear the entire network broadcast from start to finish on one station?
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Pretty much...that's what happens when you split the flagship rights - due to the Browns insisting on being on both AM and FM, and WKNR being willing to air the 2-hour team infomercial that is Cleveland Browns Daily.
 
One of the requirements during the Art Modell years was the Browns guys be a sportscaster on a TV station. That is why you had Gib Shanley, Jim Mueller, Jim Graner, Nev Chandler, and Casey Coleman.
 
CleveRadioInsider said:
One of the requirements during the Art Modell years was the Browns guys be a sportscaster on a TV station. That is why you had Gib Shanley, Jim Mueller, Jim Graner, Nev Chandler, and Casey Coleman.
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Wow really? I guess there is that common thread, now including Jim Donovan, but what an odd requirement.
 
schmave said:
Wow really? I guess there is that common thread, now including Jim Donovan, but what an odd requirement.
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Modell was a TV producer/executive/ad salesman during the 50s, and he (and various partners) eventually bought the Browns in 1961. So coming from that background, he thought having a TV guy in the booth gave the broadcasts more panache.
 
There could be something to that. Listening from Columbus growing up, I never knew those guys also did TV in Cleveland. Gib Shanley is the only one I ever would have seen (via cable), and by the time I got into the NFL Nev Chandler was doing games. I just know they've typically had good radio voices in my time following football.
 
schmave said:
There could be something to that. Listening from Columbus growing up, I never knew those guys also did TV in Cleveland. Gib Shanley is the only one I ever would have seen (via cable), and by the time I got into the NFL Nev Chandler was doing games. I just know they've typically had good radio voices in my time following football.
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Well, Gib did start in radio, as he called Toledo Rockets football games in the 50s, and came to Cleveland in 1961 to call Browns games (he also did OSU games during a good chunk of his early Browns tenure as well). On the TV side, he was the weekend sports guy on WKYC NBC 3 in the early 60s, and then went to WEWS ABC 5 in 1967 where he became a local icon, being the lead sports guy on TV 5 AND the voice of the Browns through the 1984 season. He left Cleveland in early 1985 to seek fame and fortune in California.

When that fizzled out, he came back to Cleveland a couple of years later and was the sports director for the then brand new 10 O'Clock News on WUAB channel 43, where he stayed until 1996. In the last part of his life, Gib came back to WEWS to do weekly sports commentaries (especially during Browns season after the team came back) on their Sunday night sports show, until he died in 2008
 
schmave said:
There could be something to that. Listening from Columbus growing up, I never knew those guys also did TV in Cleveland. Gib Shanley is the only one I ever would have seen (via cable), and by the time I got into the NFL Nev Chandler was doing games. I just know they've typically had good radio voices in my time following football.
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Yeah that was the big thing with Modell he wanted to have the TV sports guys be his play by play voices. I don't think Jim Donovan was put in that for reason though I think his resume was strong with calling NFL games for NBC. I can't remember the other contenders for the job of pbp other than Casey Coleman in 1999.
 
CleveRadioInsider said:
Yeah that was the big thing with Modell he wanted to have the TV sports guys be his play by play voices. I don't think Jim Donovan was put in that for reason though I think his resume was strong with calling NFL games for NBC. I can't remember the other contenders for the job of pbp other than Casey Coleman in 1999.
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People had brought up Michael Reghi (then the Cavs TV announcer) and he eventually wound up doing the Browns preseason TV games in the early years, and Mike Snyder (longtime WTAM sports director/morning host), who then settled in as the pregame host during the team's tenure with then-Clear Channel/now-iHeart (WMJI in the beginning and WMMS on FM, WTAM on AM).

Casey Coleman of course would become the sideline reporter (a spot that didn't exist in the Modell era) until his death in the middle of the 2006 season.

Jim Donovan in the late 80s through mid 90s was part of NBC's NFL broadcasting team calling regional games, and called his fair share of Browns games during that span in this capacity (the tail end of the Schottenheimer/Kosar era through the Belichick years)

The rebooted Browns were under no obligation to honor Modell era directives, but Donovan's resume in and of itself won him the job, and 25 years later still has it, so he did something right.
 
vjm said:
People had brought up Michael Reghi (then the Cavs TV announcer) and he eventually wound up doing the Browns preseason TV games in the early years, and Mike Snyder (longtime WTAM sports director/morning host), who then settled in as the pregame host during the team's tenure with then-Clear Channel/now-iHeart (WMJI in the beginning and WMMS on FM, WTAM on AM).

Casey Coleman of course would become the sideline reporter (a spot that didn't exist in the Modell era) until his death in the middle of the 2006 season.

Jim Donovan in the late 80s through mid 90s was part of NBC's NFL broadcasting team calling regional games, and called his fair share of Browns games during that span in this capacity (the tail end of the Schottenheimer/Kosar era through the Belichick years)

The rebooted Browns were under no obligation to honor Modell era directives, but Donovan's resume in and of itself won him the job, and 25 years later still has it, so he did something right.
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Thanks I had no idea Reghi and Snyder were up for the job. I always thought Mike Snyder would be a good play by play guy for any of the major teams here. I was surprised originally when Joe Tait retired that Mike Snyder did not take over the job. I remember Mike years ago originally calling the Cleveland Force games.
 
CleveRadioInsider said:
Thanks I had no idea Reghi and Snyder were up for the job. I always thought Mike Snyder would be a good play by play guy for any of the major teams here. I was surprised originally when Joe Tait retired that Mike Snyder did not take over the job. I remember Mike years ago originally calling the Cleveland Force games.
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Remember, Snyder filled in for Tait during the bulk of the 2010-2011 season when Joe was sick. It was probably a case of Snyder spending a year in the NBA meat grinder and saying "no thank you" to having the full time gig.

From 2007-2012 or so, Jim Donovan would call the Browns preseason games on channel 3 (as they had the TV rights), Snyder would call them on radio with Doug Dieken, and Bob Frantz held down the fort on the pregame show. Once the regular season started, Donovan would then go to the radio booth, with Snyder doing pregame.
 
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